Blessed (a larry stylinson fanfiction)

chapter 25

Friday, October 26th

Gemma’s POV

I stared gape-mouthed at my brother after the words poured so confidently from his mouth.

“This is Louis. My boyfriend.”

What the hell are you thinking? I wanted to yell at him.

My eyes flashed to Louis, who looked a little shocked as well, but there was also a hint of self-assuredness on his features, like he was accepting who he was and knew everyone else in the room would, too.

I finally glanced around the room at my aunts, uncles, and cousins and ended on Nan and Pop, sitting in their matching chairs, unreadable expressions on their faces.

Pop stood up and slowly moved to stand in front of Louis. No one in the room dared make a sound.

“Louis, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Welcome to the family.” Pop said, resting a wrinkled hand on Louis shoulder.

Everyone in the room let out a collective sigh at that point and I watched the color return to Harry’s cheeks as he could start breathing again.

Harry pulled Pop into a hug and I could almost hear him mutter the words ‘Thank you’ and ‘I love you’.

“If he’s special to you, Harry, he’s special to all of us.” Pop said as he pulled away and sat back down next to Nan. “Now that that’s settled, how about we get some of that delicious roast I know Jan’s been working on all evening.”

Aunt Jan smiled and brushed off the comment as he walked to the kitchen. “Should be just about ready now if you all would like to take a seat at the table!”

I watched as everyone stood and made their way to the kitchen, everyone except mum’s oldest sister, Susan. Susan slipped out the front door and stood on the porch, holding her face in her hands.

Aunt Susan and I had never been particularly close, but she was my aunt, so I figured I should go see if she was okay.

“Aunt Susan?” I said slowly as I closed the door quietly behind me. “Is everything okay?”

Her eyes flickered up to mine and I could see they were red-rimmed and wet.

“Everything is fine, sweetie.” Aunt Susan said, forcing a fake smile on her lips.

“This isn’t about Harry, is it?” I asked carefully.

She looked at me for a minute, clearly analyzing if she should be honest with me or not.

“Your brother is an abomination, Gemma. Aren’t you at all concerned about that? He needs to be fixed. You’re mother should be ashamed of herself for letting him live his life this way and to bring that other boy with him into our parents house! It’s absolutely appalling. We weren’t raised like this.”

“You’re right. You were raised to love everyone, not to judge people like you are right now.” I snapped back.

The look in Aunt Susan’s eyes made me realize that I had crossed a line. She was my elder, and I shouldn’t be telling her off like she was younger than I am.

“How dare you talk back to me like that? You’re mother clearly doesn’t know how to properly raise her children.”

With that, Aunt Susan stormed back into the house, leaving me fuming on the porch in the crisp night air.

Harry’s POV

I let out a huge sigh of relief when Pop accepted Louis as part of our family and hugged me tightly, whispering that he loved me and I thanked him.