Birch and Lawrence **OLD**

Rough Patches With Loved Ones...

"Lawrence!" screamed Virginia Addams. She had been passed out, and woke up to find Lawrence missing. "Where you at, Lawrence!?" She spun into a rage, throwing and breaking a glass mason jar against a wall. Broken glass clattered onto the floor. Meanwhile, Lawrence happily skipped up the sidewalk, happy that he had met someone so nice and interesting. He froze in fear as his mother angrily burst out of the house, an infuriated, hungover mess. "Where've you been?" she screeched.

"I was just in the town, mama," Lawrence stammered.

That was when she stormed over, broke of a branch from a nearby tree and started beating Lawrence with it. His cries were heard by the neighbors, but they didn't know how to handle the situation. When she became bored of hitting him with the tree branch, Mrs Addams grabbed Lawrence by the shoulders and pulled him up. She then unceremoniously dragged him into the house and to his room, where she shoved him to the floor. "Stupid little dog," she growled as she locked him in. Lawrence got up and pounded on the door, crying for his mother to let him out, but she only yelled for him to shut up or else he'd get whipped. He had to figure out a way to get out soon, or else he wouldn't be able to spend the night with Birch. He paced and pondered. He thought about breaking the window, but he could get hurt. Besides, he had nothing to breaking the window with. An idea hit him.

"Mama," he called. "I need to go to the bathroom!"

"I don't care!" his mother screeched drunkenly.

"Please just let me out, mama! I'll be good, I promise!"

"Oh, alright!" Lawrence heard his mother stomp over to the door and click the lock open. "Get out," she snarled.

"Thank you, mama," Lawrence said quietly as he left the room. He thought about Birch and the night that was ahead of him, and a warm pink blush appeared over his dark cheeks.

"Birch! Stop daydreamin'!" Mr Kelton's voice cut into his son's thoughts. He was in the middle of teaching him how to add glass eyes to a taxidermed bird, and he was not going to be ignored. Humiliated, Birch hung his head low. "I'm sorry, pa," he muttered.

"Birch, what 'chu got on yer mind?"

"Huh?"

"What's makin' you zone out so damned much?"

Birch dared not tell his father the entire truth. But he did tell him that he still wanted a husband, to which Mr Kelton gave the same reply he had previously given; "It's just a phase, son. You'll grow out of it."

"I don't think so, Pa," Birch told him.

Mr Kelton suddenly became suspicious. "What's makin' you say that?" he asked. "Is there somethin' you ain't tellin' me?"

Birch's palms got sweaty. He knew he had said too much. "I-I don't, I, no," he said. "It might be a phase. I dunno."

Mr Kelton glared accusingly at his son for a moment. "You ain't no homosexual, Birch," he said flatly. "You're just havin' trouble findin' a wife. Believe me, you ain't no homo. Not my son. No way."

He continued on with his tutorial, and Birch's heart grew heavy. Maybe tonight would make him feel better....