For Keeps

7. Toy Tree party.

{Kurt}

When Jon came down for supper, showered and changed into a comfortable flannel shirt, it felt to Kurt like his boyfriend had set aside the weight of his responsibilities for the evening. Jon laughed easily at Kurt's stories over supper.  Cary served up a more elaborate meal than usual: lemony herbed chicken and roasted vegetables, plus trays of finger pastries, fruit, cheese and fresh veggies.

"Almost forgot," Cary said. "Kadee called to wish you a happy birthday, Jon."

Jon raised an eyebrow. "Kadee Yoshenko has my number. Why'd she call you to wish me a happy birthday?"

"Uh...I guess we were talking and you came up," Cary said.

Kurt was very intrigued by the bright pink color of Cary's ears. "Kadee Yoshenko from high school?" Kurt asked. "You two still in touch?"

"Yeah, we talk," Cary said gruffly. "She's an old friend."

An old girlfriend more like. Kurt exchanged a look with Jon, who raised his eyebrows expressively back. Cary was only saved from a barrage of follow up questions by the sound of the doorbell.

"Cue the Christmas carols, Visser," Cary said, getting up quickly from the table. "That's the girls."

There was a happy clamour of hellos and boots stomping off the snow in the front entryway. "Sorry we're late," Bea said breathlessly. "Tab took forever fixing her hair."

Curious, Kurt went into the living room to meet Jon's middle sister for the first time.

Tabitha White was smoothing her thick blond hair over her shoulder, a pale honey colour Kurt envied. She was wearing a cropped, soft pink sweater and the black leggings with mesh windows that seemed to be all the rage with a certain set of females these days. He could exactly picture the group she fit in with in high-school, the same straight-edged athletic crowd he'd blended into when he was there.

Jon put his hand on Kurt's arm, drawing him closer. "Kurt, this is my sister Tabitha May. Tab, this is my boyfriend, Kurt Visser."

She made a small face like Jon had waved a carton of milk past its best before date under her nose. "Kurtis," she said. "You can call me Tabitha May. I would really like my family to call me May." She looked pointedly around the room.

Bea shrank a little, pulling her mustard-yellow slouchy hat down over her hair. "I just forget, sorry."

"If you can remember your friends' arbitrary pronoun choices you can remember to call me by my middle name instead of 'Tab' like I'm the section of a binder," Tabitha May shot back.

Kurt tried to deflect her negative energy, waving his cup of cider around the room. "Well good to meet you, Tabitha May. Welcome to our party."

She made a gesture with her hand, like she was smearing something over his body. "Just so we're clear? I know who you are. No one asked me if I approved of adding you to the guest list of our family party. And I'm never putting a rainbow on my social media for you."

Kurt slurped a drink of his cider to cover his dismay. He would not normally have been hurt by someone's shitty opinion about his life, but Jon's sister had caught him with his guard down, expecting kindness.

Jon put his body between her and Kurt, glaring at her. "This is my house. Kurt is my person. I don't need your approval."

She made her back ramrod straight to look Jon in the eye, in spite of being half a head shorter than him. "Your 'boyfriend' shouldn't assume I'm just going along with your life choices like the rest of you. Dad says in our family we make space to disagree."