Riding With Brighton(67)
“I know,” he whispers, bringing his forehead to mine. “I’m not giving up on her. I don’t want her living like this anymore.”
“I think your dad was right—eventually this is gonna be good for her. Not everything can be resolved in one day. Give her time.”
He nods and takes his forehead from mine. “I’ll give her all the time she needs. You really need to go, though.”
“Yeah, okay,” I tell him reluctantly, leaning in to give him a soft kiss before forcing myself to let go of him and head out of his room.
We stop in his dad’s office to tell him good-bye. I can tell that both of them are tense because they’re worried about me getting out in time. I’m tempted to stick around, just to see if she’s as bad as they’re both making her sound. But for their sake, I keep my good-bye and my parting kiss with Jay short before heading out the door.
I make it all the way down the long driveway and onto the street when I see a minivan approaching, the same minivan I watched back out of the driveway. I don’t look at the passengers, but when the van comes to a literal screeching halt, I know the driver’s spotted me.
I have no choice but to turn my head. The look on Jay’s mom’s face is fierce. As in fiercely angry. As in irate. Somehow I manage to smile and nod at her.
She steps out of the van and slams the door shut behind her. I glance at Tyson for a moment. He definitely looks pissed, but he also looks embarrassed. He’s running his hand through his hair, just like Jay does.
“Hello, Mrs. Hall,” I say to her.
“Were you just in my home?” she asks, seething.
“Yes, I was. Jay isn’t having the easiest day, so I came over to talk to him.”
“Talk to him?” She chortles. “Really? You wanted to talk to him?”
“Yeah. This is hard for him. Really hard. He needed a friend.”
She shakes her head and takes a step toward me. “I don’t know who you think you are,” she says under her breath, “but my son is not gay. I don’t know what you said, or did to him, but he is not like you. You need to stay the hell away from him.” She reaches out a manicured nail and stabs it into my sternum.
“You know this is hard for him, right? You know if it were possible for him to be straight, he would be. No one would choose to go through the things he’s had to go through over the last two days. No one would choose to hide themselves, to hate themselves, for their entire lives. No one would choose to have their mom hate them. No one would choose to have their family torn in half. This isn’t a choice he’s making, Mrs. Hall. It’s just who he is. There’s nothing he can do about it. You get that, don’t you?”
“What I get is that Jay was happy. He had beautiful girlfriends. He was popular. Everyone loved him. And then you came into the picture, and he threw his life away. You seduced him. You lied to him. You made him like you, but that’s not who he is. That’s not who he wants to be. It is a choice, and you made him choose perversion and shame.”
My heart clenches at her words. This is Jay’s mom. This is what he’s up against. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I know you’re scared. I know you feel like you failed him. But trust me, Mrs. Hall, when I tell you that he is happy. For the first time in his life he’s happy. And not because of me but because he’s finally free to be himself, to be honest with the people he loves and to stop lying. You can understand that, right? You can see the difference between happiness and sadness. I know you want him to be happy. I know you want all the people who you care about to be happy. But you don’t get to decide what makes anyone besides yourself happy. That’s up to them. I hope someday you can be happy with him. You both deserve that—to know each other, to love each other… to be happy.”
She stares at me intensely, with the same blue eyes Jay has. “You stay away from him. I don’t want to see you again.”
“Okay,” I say, appeasing her. I don’t need to cause more problems for Jay, but clearly I have no intention of staying away from him.
She gets back in her van, slams the door, and pulls away. Jesus. Maybe things with Jay and his mom will never be okay. God, I hope that’s not true.
Chapter Nineteen
Jay
AFTER BRIGHTON leaves I head back to my bedroom. I want to look at the pictures he sent me. Those pictures of us kissing are amazing. The look on his face… so amazing. His Instagram page is still open, so I hit the Refresh button so I can gloat about what his admirers are saying.
“Whoa,” I mutter to myself when I see how many comments are already there.
Who the hell is he? Is that your man? Sexy. Ménage à trois? Share please. Living for this. I don’t believe you. Post a pic of the two of you.
It’s all entertaining, and a little fascinating. I don’t have Instagram or Facebook and really Brighton’s is about the only page I look at. It’s weird that these strangers give a shit. That a picture of me, or Brighton’s potential man, can make strangers happy or angry or offering to hook up with us.
When I scroll back down to the bottom, there’s a new comment. I go to school with these guys. His name is Jay Hall. He’s straight. I look at the name. It’s from Kari Lawrence—Colette’s best friend. I don’t know how I feel about that—the comment that is. This is just what she does: gets in the middle of everyone’s business.