First Time | Protector 3.1 | Wattys2017

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Jerome

       "Ryder, someone's at the door!" I called, too lazy to get up from the couch. The door was just so far.

       Ryder sighed and walked out of his bedroom, leaning in the doorway. "Why don't you ever answer the door? You're closer."

       "I'm supposed to be taking it easy, remember?"

       "Yes, when it comes to dance, not walking five feet to the front door. Go answer it yourself."

       I sighed dramatically and got up from the couch. Ryder was right, anyway. I was no longer on crutches and I could walk perfectly fine. I just had to take it easy when I was dancing and not go full-out too much.

       I was just lazy and would rather not get up.

       As soon as I opened the door, I was about to close it again but my dad quickly put his foot in front of the door to prevent me from doing so. "Can you not?" I asked. "What are you even doing here in Miami?"

       "We came to see you," Dad said.

       "Yeah? Well, I'm not interested," I said. "I already know what you're going to say. Blah blah blah, you're not gay, blah blah blah, you can always fix it, blah blah blah, there's always going to be a girl out there for you, which I actually don't doubt because anyone, guy or girl, would love to doubt me because I mean, look at me."

       "Jerome...." Mom began.

       "I don't really have the time to talk, anyway," I said. "I'm about to head out to this Pride celebration at my school. You know, Pride. Because I'm gay. And I celebrate it daily."

       "Jerome, you really can fix it," Dad said.

      "No, I can't!" I said. "I can't change the fact that I'm gay and I don't want to! I'm in love with my boyfriend and why can't you accept that? He's the sweetest boy ever and I think you'll really like him if you gave him a chance."

       One part of me was fed up with my parents acting like this and not accepting me, but....the other part really hoped they would give Nolan a chance and accept us for who we were.

       Obviously, the second part was only going to be let down.

       "Look, I really think this is just a phase you're going through," Dad said.

       Unbelievable.

       "Hey, what's that?" I asked, pointing to absolutely nothing behind them. And thankfully they fell for it because I was able to close the door and lock it without them being able to stop me.

       I turned around and saw Ryder and Mae standing there. "What's your parents doing here?" Mae asked.

       "Oh, you know, just trying to convince me that I'm not gay," I said. "I don't even know why they came here. They're only wasting their time. But now, on the downside, we have to wait even longer to head out because there is no way I'm opening the door with them still there."

       "We'll just get ready and by the time we are, they should be gone," Mae said. "I doubt they're just going to wait there for you to open the door again."

       "Yeah," I said. "But they will be back, no doubt."

       They were thankfully gone by the time we left the apartment to walk to Ryder's family's house. Nolan wasn't the only one coming to the Pride celebration at the college. Alan and Orchid wanted to come too since Nolan was their brother and they were triplets after all. They wanted to support him in every way they could.