On My Own Time

Chapter 21

Max and Hector left around mid movie. I was surprised by how long Max's parents stayed and by the end of the night, even Max's mother had the smallest, tiniest, faintest smile. To anyone else that didn't know her it was a big deal. To us, however, wow. My mother was practically glowing with happiness and that happiness shoved onto Daniel because he seemed really relaxed and happy. He even ruffled my hair on his way to their bedroom when it was time to sleep. I was surprised that Caden and I didn't kill each other during the movie but we were content on just ignoring each other. When everyone was going their own ways Caden had even mumbled a quiet goodnight to me. Victor had winked at me before walking out with Caden to go back to his room to sleep. I was in the middle of cleaning my room when Victor came back. It was not even ten minutes ago that he left but here he was again.

"I forgot my phone here," he said with a grin and pulled me into his arms.

I chuckled and shook my head. Sneaky bastard. Though I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. His strong arms held me for a second longer before his lips descended upon my forehead. I was a little bummed that he didn't kiss my lips but I shrugged it off.

"Goodnight, sunshine," he whispered in my ear and placed a kiss on my cheek before he left.

I fell asleep feeling happy yet, worried. Something didn't feel right but I didn't want to dwell too much on it. I know I've ready plenty of books about characters not dwelling too much about a bad feeling but I just wanted to feel happy for a moment.

The next morning I woke up before my alarm clock or even before my mom woke up and that said a lot because my mom was awake and in action by 6:30. I unfortunately woke up around 6 and couldn't go back to bed. I decided to take a shower since I had more than enough time. It was a quick shower and by the time I was out and changed my mom had woken up. Now fully dressed in a black t-shirt and dark blue jeans with my converse, I felt presentable enough to greet my mother who was in the kitchen cooking away.

"Good morning."

"Oh, Diego! I didn't know you were awake! What do you want to eat?"

"Cereal is fine," I said and smiled at her when she passed me a bowl, spoon, milk, and the cereal box.

"It was nice to have Max's family over, wasn't it? And how exciting that Hector is here now! That boy is very handsome and smart! So respectful too. I bet he'd get a girlfriend soon."

"Mom, you know why he's here right?" She shook her head and I laughed. "Mom he came out as bisexual to his family so they shipped him off to Max's mother to talk some sense into him."

She frowned and said, "That's rude. So what if he likes a man?"

Just then Daniel come down the stairs and smiled at my mother.

"I sure love mine," she mumbled and greeted him with a kiss that I gladly looked away from.

"What's going on?" Daniel asked.

"We were talking about why Hector moved down here."

"That was the cousin, right?"

I nodded and my mom made an 'mhm' noise. She served him eggs with bacon and began making two more plates. As soon as she placed them down Caden and Victor showed up and took a seat. Caden looked like hell but gosh, Victor looked amazing.

"So why did he move down?" Daniel asked and then took a bite of his food.

Caden secretly moved the plate away from himself and asked, "Who?"

"Cause he came out to his parents as bisexual. He's very open about it now," I said, discreetly ignoring Caden.

"I can't believe parents do that," my mother said and shook her head.

"Eh, I agree with his parents," Caden stated, shocking my mother to silence.

"Surely, you don't mean that," my mother laughed nervously.

"Mm, no I mean it. It was Adam and Eve."

"Caden, you aren't religious so you can't use that," Daniel said and pushed his plate back towards him and gave him a look as if to say he better eat it.

Caden rolled his eyes but slowly began to eat. I couldn't help but realize that Victor was quite all this time. He was eating but he was awfully quiet. My mother must've also noticed because she kept glancing at him.

"And what do you think, Victor?"

He cleared his throat and sat up, saying, "It doesn't bother me. I mean as long as they don't flirt with me then I say they should be able to date who they want to date."

"That's valid," Daniel stated with a nod of his head.

The sound of the doorbell played throughout the house and my mother looked at me. I got off my seat and went to open the door. There stood my best friend Max. I let him in and he immediately wrapped his arm around me, telling me about how much he didn't want to wake up today. I led him to the kitchen and as soon as my mother saw him her smile widened and she pulled him in for a hug.

"Max! Did you already eat, hon? There's eggs and bacon if you want some."

"That sounds delicious, yes please!"

My mother quickly served him and passed him the plate. It was then that I realized I was the only one eating cereal and the bacon looked good. So, I did what any best friend would do, I took a piece off of Max's plate.

"Hey! That's my precious bacon. I will literally tackle you for that back."

"I already ate it! Plus, you have more than enough."

Max opened his mouth to further argue but we stopped when Victor gave me his left over bacon. Max raised an eyebrow and I had to stop the grin that wanted to spread across my face. With a quick scan around the room no one seemed to think anything weird of it and instead my mother was keeping herself busy with some muffins and everyone else was busy with their food.

"Thank you," I said to Victor who smiled and gave a quick wink.

"Its 7:40 people. Get moving before you're late!"

I chuckled at my mother but actually gave out a laugh when I saw Max shove the rest of his food down his throat. We put our plates away and then grabbed our backpacks, saying goodbye to my mother and Daniel before leaving. We got in Max's father's car and started our drive to the terrible school building.

"I have so much to tell you," Max suddenly said.