Finding Home || bxb

23

"Hey," Roman said softly when he opened the door for me. He reached out and ran his thumb over the eyeliner on my left eye. He didn't say anything about it, but I knew he liked it. "Sorry about this. I tried telling my parents that it was too soon to meet you, but actually it was my dad that refused to do this another time so..."

Great. Roman's dad was already kind of intimidating as it was and now, he was very adamant to meet me properly? What was I in for?

"That's okay. I guess I would have had to meet them at some point so..." I mean I slightly hoped that Roman would just sneak me into his house for a while so I wouldn't have to meet his parents until it had been a little while longer, but here we are.

"Alright, c'mon." He grabbed my hand, interlocking our fingers, and brought me inside where his mum had just finished laying the table. His dad was helping her, and Genie was nowhere to be seen. "Genie's gone to spend the night at our Gran's house," Roman explained without me having to ask. Dammit. She was the one family member I knew for sure liked me.

"Hi Alden," Sofia said coming over to greet me. I made sure to return the greeting before I briefly glanced at Roman's dad, whose name I still didn't know. He'd already taken a seat at the head of the table. "Come sit."

Roman, with our hands still interlocked, guided me into a seat beside him while his mum sat opposite us both. His father was sat in between Roman and his mum and was staring quite intently at me.

"H...hi Mr Kingsley," I said hoping he wouldn't think me to be impolite for having not greeted him yet.

"Oh honey, just call him Romeo," Sofia said. At least now I knew his name.

"Oh, is Roman named after you Romeo?" I asked trying to seem as cordial as possible.

"Yes, he is, but if you don't mind, I'd actually prefer Mr Kingsley for now," he said rather bluntly. "We are still strangers after all."

"Dad!" Roman said at the same time that Sofia called her husband by his name.

"It...it's okay, I understand," I said completely not understanding at all. Romeo definitely hated me, that was clear, but why?

I'd asked Roman before coming over when he'd told his parents about being bi. He told me he let them know the day after coming out to his friends at that party and that they'd been accepting of his sexualty despite the shock. Apparently, they didn't even have a clue, but I don't think even Roman did for a long time, so that's understandable.

But maybe, his dad wasn't as accepting as Roman thought he was? Or maybe Romeo accepted his son being bi but still expected him to bring home girls so he wouldn't have to deal with his son's sexuality. Boyfriend or not, bringing me home probably wasn't doing much in terms of keeping the old image of his son at the forefront of his mind. Not that Roman's even changed much. At least I didn't think he had but I guess I didn't really know him before so I can't be certain.

"It's nice though, Roman...Romeo," I said starting my nervous mumbling. "It suits you both... umm yeah it's nice. How come you didn't name your first born after you? Wait maybe that's rude... sorry." I am so fucked.

Sofia just laughed it off as she started plating up our food for us all encouraging us to sit and let her do it for us.

"It's because Lorenzo's birth was a piece of cake, but when it came to this one," Sofia said pointing at Roman as she sat back down. "25 hours of labour and a lot of health complications later, the doctor told us he was healthy and perfect but that I might never be able to give birth again. We thought he would be our last child, so I thought to name him after his dad."