The Time Taken to Understand (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Fifteen~ Adam

Alec hung up on him, and Adam pulled his phone back from his ear and looked at it. Shrugging, he looked at himself in the mirror, making eye contact with the man who had just cut his hair. He thanked him, leaving a Twenty on the counter for a tip and leaving the barbershop. It wasn't a date, he had to continue reminding himself, but it really felt like one, just as all the others had.

Him and Penny had been spending a lot of time together, going out to dinner and to get drinks and even just going for walks in the park, and Adam found himself loving her presence. She wasn't like most girls, or most girls that Adam knew. She was genuine and honest and smart and he couldn't help but think about how when he was with her, he felt oddly complete.

It was a nice difference from Sam treating him like a dog.

They had gone on six dates, but not really dates, since the beginning of school, and during each one they learned something new about each other. So far, Adam had discovered Penny to be an eighteen year old with a gay brother, no mother, and a father who came up with a new illness for himself every day. Her boyfriend and her had been together for as long as Adam and Sam had, and what she had liked best about Josh was his smile. When Adam asked Penny what she liked best about himself, she had answered, "your personality," without a pause, and then looked him up and down and added, "but you're all around pretty great".   

Adam wanted to ask her on an actual date one of these times, but it had only been a month since her and her long term boyfriend had broken up, and Penny still had been complaining about how he would come to her apartment often and Adam feared that one of these times they would get back together.

He had to move fast.

As he was walking towards home, his phone buzzed in his pocket once again and he looked at the screen, blinking before answering. "What do you want Julie, I'm getting ready for something".

"That thing you're getting ready for sure as hell be coming home," She demanded, and Adam's feet stopped. "You are coming home, aren't you?" Adam could imagine Alec's soft voice on the other end of the phone asking him if he was ready to go.

"Fuck".

"Adam Leon James Reynolds," She said sternly in his ear and he grimaced, picking up his pace again. "I had someone I wanted you to meet!"

This had Adam rolling his eyes. "I'll just meet the next one," He claimed, but that seemed to make her angrier.

"There will not be a next one!" She sounded so upset with him that he almost actually felt bad.

"There never is," He muttered to himself and then cleared his throat. "I'm going out with a girl, Jules, one who isn't Sam. I'm really sorry. It just slipped my mind".

The other end of the line was quiet for a moment. "Nicholas moved in," She said, and Adam closed his eyes and shook his head. "Dad said he needed him since you left. I was hoping if you came home then..."

"Mom can't kick him out again, Julie. Eventually we're going to have to acknowledge that fact that he's alive". His sister sighed in his ear. "I'm also pretty sure that he's not there because of dad. Less than a year ago he hated the kid".

Nicholas was Adam's biggest secret, mostly because it wasn't his to tell. As he had mentioned to Penny, Adam's father wasn't exactly faithful, and Nicholas was living, and walking proof of it.

"I'll drive home soon Jules. Just not this weekend, okay?" The other end was quiet. "Okay?"

She sighed loudly. "Have fun on your date, ass hole," and Adam thought for a moment that he should correct her that it wasn't a date, but he didn't.