Anderperry Oneshots Collection

Jeffrey

"But what if they don't like me?"

Todd gave him a blank look, and grabbed Neil by the shoulders. "Neil, they're my parents. They don't even like me."

"So what you're saying is we should go home and watch a movie."

"What I'm saying is it doesn't matter. Jeff's gonna love you."

Todd had been trying to arrange a proper 'meet the parents' dinner for weeks, on the condition that Jeffrey would be there. 

His older brother had been more of a parent to Todd than his actual parents ever were; helping him with his homework, buying him birthday presents, teaching him how to ride a bike. Jeff loved his "baby brother," so he called him.

Once, when Todd was little, he woke up in the middle of the night to a fight in the kitchen. He crept down the stairs, sitting on the bottom step as he carefully eavesdropped.

"You guys are too hard on him, he's just a kid!" Jeffrey was shouting.

Mrs. Anderson yelled back. "We just want Todd to live up to your standards. He's lazy-"

"He's nine." 

"He's behind in all of his classes..."

"Because his teachers don't listen to him! Have you ever listened to what he says, or is that just me?" 

Silence. 

A minute later, Jeffrey burst out of the kitchen, fuming, and Todd scrambled back into his room, wrapping himself messily in the covers.

A while later, he heard the door open.

"Hey, kiddo," Jeffrey said, voice calm. "You wanna get some ice cream?"

It was Jeffrey who helped Todd get his first job and who attended every parent-teacher conference he could pry away from their parents.

Jeff's opinion meant the world to Todd, and he couldn't wait to introduce him to Neil.

Neil, however, very much could wait. He knew how important Jeff was to Todd, and the last thing he wanted to do was screw this up. 

"Anderson party," Neil said to the hostess. That was Neil's job, talking to people, so that Todd didn't have to. Neil liked that he was needed, and it calmed him just a little bit.

As they approached the table, and Neil saw the two conservative-looking old people, another question struck his mind. "Do they know that you're..."

"No," Todd answered through his teeth.

"What do you mean, 'no'!?"

"Smile," Todd whispered, and they were there.

The table was a rectangle, on one side sat the two older people, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, presumably, and talking to them on the other side was a handsome young man. 

The young man's eyes lit up at the sight of Todd, and he immediately sprung from his chair.

"Toddy! I haven't seen you in forever," he proclaimed.

"Good to see you too, Jeff," Todd said, patting him on the back.

This was all very strange for Neil. Todd didn't accept hugs. He did from Neil, of course, who he had accepted a great deal more from, but never from the rest of the poets, and only once from Keating. 

"Oh, um... Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend...Neil Perry," Todd presented him. 

There was a second where everyone seemed to go silent, and Todd turned red.