stutter

13. - what are your intentions?

RORY

"Does he have any allergies?" mom asked as she was cooking in the kitchen. Mark and his parents were coming over that day and she looked more stressful than I did, which was honestly crazy. I already changed clothes three times to make sure I looked good. I wanted to make the best impression to his parents.

"I don't know. He didn't mention anything," I mumbled, glancing towards the closest mirror. I wasn't sure about my top, it didn't match my pants and-

"Are you okay?" she gave me an unreadable look. "You look... worried, maybe."

"Yeah, sorry. It's just," I stopped, thinking about how much could I say without outing myself. "I've never met his parents. You know how I am with new people," I gave her a weak smile. She raised an eyebrow but didn't push more. She knew that I rarely got nervous around strangers but at least didn't call me out on that lie.

"I already don't like them," she changed topics eventually.

"Excuse me?"

"His parents. You didn't tell me the full story, about why he needed a place to stay," because I didn't know it either. "But what kind of parents he might have if he wants to stay away from them for a couple of days?" she made a "tsk" sound and shook her head.

"I'm not sure," I tried to do some damage control. I didn't want mom to have a bad relationship with Mark's parents. "Although I don't think that they're that bad. I mean, if they didn't care about him, why would they want to meet you?"

"Something's up with them, I just don't know what yet."

"Paranoid much?" 

"Oh, come on," she finally turned to me with her full body. "You can't tell me that you think this is perfectly normal."

I shrugged and made another weak excuse on their behalf. I just hoped that she'd like them eventually.

. . .

About a hour later there was a knock on the door. Mom gave me a look that said here goes nothing before opened the door.

"Hi!" she welcomed them with a fake smile, voice full of sugar. "Come in!" I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "I'm Lilac, it's so nice to meet you!"

"Hi," Mark's dad stepped in, "I'm Andrew,  she's my wife Rose and this is our kid Mark, nice to meet you too!"

And that's when I saw Mark. He wasn't wearing anything unusual but his hair wasn't messy like it used to be. It looked like he made an effort to look nice and that made my heart flutter. He wanted to make a good impression to my mom.

After a brief chit-chat we went to the dining room and sat down. I was sitting next to mom, in front of Mark. Mostly our parents talked and I tried to listen to them carefully, hoping to get more information about Mark. I wanted to hear anything and everything exciting about him but he was painfully normal. No allergies, no sicknesses, no preferences related to... anything, basically. I could see mom relaxed about that.

After half an hour mom excused herself to the bathroom and I stayed there with my future in-laws. That sounded so desperate even from me.

"So," Andrew started while looking at his wife. They looked somewhat uncomfortable, at least compared to how they were with my mom.

"Don't start," Mark glared at them. That was the first time I heard him speak through the whole time. "Stop,."

"I mean it's not unreasonable to ask-"

"It is!" Mark started fidgeting with his hand, it looked like he had something to play with but I didn't see anything. "We talked about it already. Just be quiet."

"Uh," I started, not sure what to say. "Is everything alright?" I asked eventually. Mark closed his eyes, seemingly trying to calm himself down.

"Yeah we were just thinking," Rose smiled at me. "About... your intentions, i guess."

"Excuse me?" I choked on air as I asked back. 

Did they know about my crush? But how would they? I didn't say anything, I didn't do anything. I wasn't staring at Mark, was I? Only Adam know about this but he would never out me, especially not like this. 

"Oh my god," Mark groaning response pulled me out of my spiral. "Can you like not do this. You promised."

"But-"

"No buts!" I've never seen him angry before but right now he looked like he was ready to kill his entire family. "Stop talking," his face grow redder as he turned towards me. "I'm sorry Rory. Please ignore them."

"I, uh, okay," I mumbled. 

The rest of the dinner was awkward, even after mom got back. She didn't notice anything about this, thank god, because I had no idea how to explain what happened there. Mark also seemed more closed up than usually.

Eventually they went home and I tried my best not to scream into my pillow. 

"They were nicer than I expected," mom broke the silence. "Although, Mark was... really quiet."

"He doesn't talk much," I shrugged. He was more of an observer. "When he does, he gets over it quickly too."

"That's not a bad thing," with that she walked away.

I went up to my room and checked my phone for the first time in a couple of hours. I didn't want to use it during dinner. I had a bunch of texts from Adam, mostly asking about Mark and his parent, and one from Mark. With shaking hands I opened Mark's and read what he wrote.

Mark
i'm so sorry
can you just ignore everything they said 
please

Rory
yeah it's fine don't worry

Mark
it's not fine
this was the most humiliating thing ever happened to me
i promise i never said them that we're together 
i have no idea why they think that
sorry

They thought that we're together. Holly shit.

I didn't answer to Mark, just starred at my phone in complete silence. They thought that we're together. As in dating. As in two boys being together.

Without thinking I dialed Adam's number and he picked up instantly. "Dude, took you long enough-"

"I'm like ninety-nine percent sure that Mark's gay. Or bi, at least," I cut him of in a quiet voice.

"...What?" After I explained to him everything, he continued with, "What the fuck. What the fuck! That's huge dude! You have a chance with him!"

"I think I'm gonna throw up," I mumbled. "He was so casual about it, too."

"Maybe he's out and proud, whatever. But that means you can actually make a move on him."

"No, I don't think I will."

"Dude. Don't start."

a/n: well this wasn't the ending that i originally wanted to write, but it would've been too unrealistic for rory to not connect the dots. he's not that dumb.

let me know your thoughts and opinions!