Gender [cake au] ✔

chapter thirty - gender [final chapter]

Chapter 30

Ben heaved his way through the front door, slamming it shut before joining the rest of the family in the main living room.

"Whatever you called me back for, it better be good," he hissed, glaring at his brother who he still hated despite the amount of time that had passed since the Violet incident. Luke simply sighed and let his eyes hop between his other, nicer family members.

"Mum, dad, Jack, Ben... I think I'm gay."

He waited with anticipation as silence filled the room – his mum stopped drinking her tea, his dad stopped flipping between channels on the TV, Jack put down his phone and Ben continued to glare at Luke. "You're... what?" Ben questioned.

"There's this one guy, Calum. I love him."

Jack gasped, furrowing his eyebrows. "But you've always had girlfriends!"

"Exactly; girlfriends. Plural. I've tried falling in love with girls many times, and I thought the reason why I never fell in love with anyone was because I couldn't. Until I met Calum... he made me realise that I must not be able to feel love with girls because I'm simply not into them."

"Isn't Calum that guy who dressed up as a girl to be with you?" Jack added, scratching his head.

"How did you find out about that...?" Luke whispered, unable to believe his ears.

"News travels fast. I go to college with Mali-Koa, his sister."

Luke shook this new piece of information out of his head and looked at his parents. "Well, mum and dad, what do you think...?"

Liz pressed her lips together and smiled. "I'm happy for you, Luke. You know I'll support you whatever you choose, because that's what parents are supposed to do, right Andy?"

However, Luke's dad wasn't so keen on the idea. "Bring this Calum round to meet me," he said briskly before going back to changing the channel. It was now time to ask Ben.

"Ben. Are you okay with it?"

Ben laughed. "What do you think, you idiot? Of course not! Liking guys... that's not natural. This Calum douche must've hypnotised you or something. Honestly, first you go and steal girlfriends, then you pretend it was all a lie and now you're pretending to be gay!"

Luke's fists tightened and he said, "I'm not pretending. And besides, Violet found out I wasn't into the relationship and that was the only reason why she continued to use me; she admitted that to me recently, I promise you," he pleaded, trying to get his brother on his side.

"Whatever. It's not like I'm ever gonna forgive you or anything, go do what you want-"

He was cut off by Luke hugging him tightly, pressing his face against his chest. "Thank you Ben – it means a lot to me."

"Eww get off me you asshole!" Ben yelled as he pushed Luke away, but he was smiling. Inside, Ben was happy the whole situation had been resolved and that he could stop hating his youngest brother so much. Feeling satisfied, Luke said goodbye to his family and left the house, heading for the one place he knew Calum would be.

~

Luke's eyes met with a middle-aged woman's, whom he recognised from the photos he'd seen inside the house. "H-hi, is Calum in?"

Joy squinted as she'd left her glasses on the kitchen table. "And who might you be?"

"Luke."

"Oh, not the same Luke as the one Calum changed school and gender for, are you?" she joked, suddenly calling Calum's name. Luke felt slightly uncomfortable all of a sudden, but didn't get the chance to run away as Calum appeared almost immediately. His expression confused Luke, as it was an indistinguishable mixture of excitement, worry and fear. "Calum's grounded according to his dad, but if you two want to go somewhere to talk, it's fine with me," she added.