Reggie Peters And Brittany Mercer

1994 Sunday 8pm

A few hours have passed since Reggie has told his friends the truth about his parents. Now they are relaxing on the beach, enjoying the night and the bonfire in front of them that someone else started. Reggie and Brittany were sitting alone with no one around them. Brittany starts to shiver. "Are you cold?" Reggie asks her.
"Yeah," She replies. "Just a little."
"Here, take my jacket." He takes his jacket and wraps it around Brittany. She smiles and puts her forehead in the crook of his neck. He puts his hand on the back of her neck and then moves it down to her shoulder. Then he moves it down to her arm, then her hand. Brittany starts to get butterflies in her stomach. She can feel her palms start to sweat. She lifts her head and looks at Reggie. Her eyes go from his eyes to his lips. Her inner thoughts start, 'His lips are so beautiful. They are so tempting. They look super duper soft and I just want to kiss him!'
"That doesn't bother you?" Bobby asks Alex while sitting at the bonfire. "I mean, she is with your sister. That doesn't make you mad. You are really overprotective of her, which is really weird."
"You wouldn't know," Alex says. "You aren't as close with your siblings as me and her are. And don't forget. We are twins, so we are super close. I'm just gonna go take a walk on the beach. Wanna come with?"
"Nope, I'm gonna stay right here." Alex gets up and walks off. Brittany is still looking at Reggie's lips.
"Hey Reggie?"
"Yeah?" She grabs his face and kisses him. He didn't see that coming. He grabs her waist and pulls her on his lap. He then pulls her off her lap and pushes her away from him. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, sure. Anything."
"Um…. Will you…. Be…. My…."
"Girlfriend?"
"Yeah, that!"
She grabs his face and pecks his lips with a kiss. "I'd love to! Anyways, we should get going. We are going to need as much sleep as possible tomorrow for school." They stand up and dust the sand off of their rears. "Hey Bobby. We are ready to go."
"Uh," Bobby says. "Yeah. Okay. Let me get Alex and Luke. Then we'll leave." As he said that, Alex and Luke run up to the bonfire. "Mr. and Mrs. Peters are ready to leave," Bobby tells Luke and Alex. Alex gives his sister a look and shrugs off Bobby's comment. They walk across the street and walk towards the nearest payphone.
"Reggie, can you call your dad to give Alex and I a ride home and-" Before she could finish, her brother cut her off.
"No," Alex says. "I am not going back to those homophobic people."
"It's fine. You aren't really going in. I am and I will get you a change of clothes for school tomorrow and bring it out to you. That's it. You won't have to go in or anything." Her brother nods as he wipes away a tear that was on his cheek. "And Bobby and Luke can call their own parents. So, we all agree?"
"Yes." They all say.
"Good." Reggie steps into the payphone, and pulls a quarter out of his pockets. He puts the quarter into the slot and dials his dad's number.
The voice on the other end says,"Hello. Who is this?"
"Hey dad. It's Reggie!"
"Where are you?"
"At the beach. I was wondering if you could come and pick me up? And drop my friends off at their house?"
"Which friends?"
"The Mercer twins."
"Yeah, okay. I'm on my way." And his dad hangs up. He walks out of the payphone and towards Brittany.
"Hey," Brittany says. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. It's just him and I rarely talk about anything. I just wish that one day, we can talk about anything random."
"Wanna stay the night at my house? It would probably make you feel better."
"It probably would make me feel better. I just need to find a way to get him to talk to me." She stands on her toes and kisses his cheek. Then puts her left hand on his face and rubs his cheek with her thumb. They hear a car pull up behind them. When they turn around, Reggie's dad is waiting for them to get in the car. The three of them walk towards the car and Brittany bends down to talk to him.
"Hi Mr. Peters," Brittany says to him.
"Hi Brittany," he replies. "Would you three please get in the car?" They all nod and hop in the car. The car is completely quiet on the entire car ride. Brittany reaches in front of her and puts her hand on Reggie's shoulder. He reaches back and puts his hand on hers. Just as Reggie was about to talk, the car came to a complete stop. "Here you go. Have a nice night." Brittany unbuckles her seatbelt and gestures her brother to get out of the car.
"Thank you Mr. Peters for giving us a ride home," Brittany says. "Reggie, I'll see you tomorrow." She bends down and sticks her head in the window. She kisses him on the cheek and walks towards her house. She looks back and sees that he is gone.
"I am not going in," Alex says. "I already told you that l."
"You just have to get some clothes right? So, if you do go in, you aren't going to be in there for long." Her brother nods. Brittany pulls her keys out of her jacket pocket and opens the door. She puts her finger to her lips and points upstairs to tell her brother to go up there quietly.
"Brittany?" A voice from the kitchen says. "Is that you?" She shoves her brother towards the stairs and walks into the kitchen.
"Yes mom," Brittany replied. "It's me, and only me!" She had to emphasize the last few words just to be on the safe side. "Can I have the keys to my car ?"
"What do you need your car for tomorrow?"
"Not tomorrow, tonight. I just want to stop by at Reggie's and see Alex. See how he is doing."
"That's where he is staying? Why would his parents let someone like that into their house?" Brittany wanted to smack her mom right then and there, but she didn't. She digs her fingernails into the palm of her hands.
"Why do you talk about him like that? Alex is your son!" She knew she made a mistake with yelling at her mom.
"No he isn't! My son would not make poor life choices or make wrong decisions. He is just confused. He is too young to know what he wants." Brittany starts to feel tears roll down her eyes. She turns around and walks away from her mom. "Don't you walk away from me Brittany Anne Mercer!"
"I am going to go stay with Reggie tonight because I can't handle you right now." She runs up stairs, into her rooms and slams her door. She grabs a bag out of her closet, and grabs clothes out of her dresser. She zips the bag, grabs her backpack off the floor, opens her door, and hears yelling downstairs. 'Alex!' she thought to herself. She runs downstairs and sees her mom and Alex arguing.
"I thought I told you to never step foot in this house again!" She hears her mom yell at Alex.
"I didn't want to come hear, but Brittany thought I should get some clothes because I didn't have any at the studio!"
'Dang it Alex' she thought. 'You had to rat me out!'
"Brittany! Get down here!" Brittany walks from where she was hiding and towards her mom and brother. "I thought you said he was staying at Reggie's."
"Does it matter where he is staying? It's not like you love him anymore. You probably think he is a disgrace to the family." She sees her mom look down and back up at them. "You do, don't you?"
Brittany rolls her eyes at her mom, grabs Alex by the arm and walks out. She stops at the front door, grabs the car keys that are in the bowl, and walks out. She walks over to the driver side, unlocks the car and gets in. She then starts the car and drives off.
"Are you okay?" Her brother asks her as she drives to the studio.
"I'm okay," Brittany replies. Obviously she was lying.
"No, you're not. You are in tears and your voice is high. So, why don't you tell me what's bothering you."
"Everything. I mean, mom and dad not loving you for who you are is not okay. They think that you are different and not their son just because you like boys! They belong in hell. They need to go to hell and burn there, forever!" She starts to cry even harder. "They should not be getting away treating you like this. Not one bit!"
"Yeah, they do deserve to burn in hell. And they aren't going to get away with this. We'll make sure of it too." Brittany smiles at her brother and looks back at the road. The next few minutes of the car ride were quiet. They just wanted to drive the rest of the way to the studio in peace and quiet. When they pull up to the studio, Alex gets out of the car. Before he could get out of the car, Brittany grabs his arm and pulls him in for a hug.
"I love you Alex. I am proud of who you are and no one could ever change that. Not even mom and dad." Their hug gets tighter and more emotional.
"I love you too sis." He pushes out of the hug, grabs his bag, and gets out of the car. She stayed there to make sure her brother got inside safely.