↔IMPULSE↔

↔Road Trip↔

Gabe was sitting on the couch, his suitcase was by the door. 

Archie would be there to pick him up soon. Sandy and Gabe were watching TV, their mom, a rare night she was home at a reasonable hour, was pulling a tray of brownies out of the oven.

She came back to the living room with bowls of vanilla ice cream and cut up brownies. Mom was young, she was a teen mom, only thirty-two. Her red hair was curly and pulled back in a sloppy ponytail, her green eyes were shining. Despite having kids in high school she still graduated and went to college for psychiatry. 

"Gabe, why is your suitcase by the door? Are you moving out already?"

Smiling, "Archie and I are going to a music festival. I'll be staying with him for a couple days." Gabe happily took the bowl of deliciousness and snagged a  brownie to crumble over his ice cream.

"Who's Archie? I've met Doria, Blake, Reese, but no Archie."

Sandy licked her spoon, "Archie's super hot. Tiffany says she went to one of his concerts, she saw you there Gabe."

Stiffening, "Oh?" Archie liked to remind the audience that Gabe was his. Sandy smirked at him knowingly and waggled her eyebrows. Gabe looked at her nervously but she winked and gave a thumbs up.

Mom laughed, "what are you two doing?"

"Gabe gets it."

Gabe smiled a little, "Archie is Reese's brother. I'm a groupie."

His mom pulled her legs up on the couch in her Mickey Mouse pyjama pants and tank top. She took a bite of her dessert and smiled at Gabe, "I got a call from your dad."

At this, both Sandy and Gabe stiffened. Their dad was an archaeologist who came home a month or two every year. Currently, he was at a dig cite in Egypt, the same place he'd been for the last six months. Despite hardly ever seeing him, Sandy and Gabe had a good relationship with him, but it was hard to be close with someone you rarely saw.

Sandy spoke first, "Oh, and how is Egypt?" A little acid creeped in her voice.

"He'll be home next week."

"How long is he staying this time?" Sandy said snippily.

Mom gave her a chiding look, "don't be like that, Sandy. He said he might be able to stay for a while this time."

Gabe finished off his ice cream, "what's a while?"

"Six months! Isn't that great?" Mom said happily. Normally he stayed a month or two, Gabe was kind of surprised, this would be the most he'd ever seen his father.

Knocking at the door, Gabe got up and answered the door. Archie was smiling at him, "ready to go?"

Mom called out, "is this the fabled 'Archie'? Let me meet him!"

Shit! Gabe thought in alarm. Why did his mom want to meet his boyfriend? She didn't even know he was his boyfriend. Her slippers shuffled on the floor, she appeared with a smile, "Oh wow, Sandy was right, you're a looker!"

"Mom!"

Archie laughed, "it's nice to finally meet you, Mrs Escott."

Gabe laughed and put his hands on Archie, pushing him with a laugh, "Okay, we should be leaving now! Bye, Mom! See you in a couple days!"

Mom stopped him, "wait, you're not going to be back for your birthday?"

"Ah, um, we can celebrate when Dad gets back, 'kay? Let's got, Arch." Gabe gave Mom a quick kiss on the cheek and grabbed her bag before heading to Archie's truck, dumping his bag in the bed of the truck.

In the car, Archie was laughing, "why are you in such a hurry?"

"So my mom can't embarrass me, do you want me hanging around your mom? I spent ten minutes with her in seventh grade and she had Reese trying to shut her up." A warm hand gripped Gabe's nape and pulled him across the centre console for a kiss. Smiling against Archie's lips, Gabe kissed him back.

"Let's get going, we should be there by morning. You should get some sleep, it's late."

Gabe stuck out his tongue and smiled, "no way, if you're gonna be up then so am I."

Archie laughed and held his hand as they drove off, Gabe's hand was tiny compared to Archie's. He pulled up their joined hands and kissed Archie's knuckles, Archie squeezed his hand and smiled, glancing over at him. 

"You didn't tell me your birthday is coming up," Archie said.

Gabe looked at him and tried for a cute smile, "oops?"

"Gabriel, what day?"

"Saturday, the twenty-second," Gabe piped up obediently.

Archie smiled, "looks like we'll just have to celebrate."

Gabe grinned and played with Archie's long fingers. He was enjoying himself, Archie would ask him random questions, said he wanted to know more about Gabe and Gabe was more than happy to answer his questions. Birthday, middle name, favourites.

"I feel like you're interrogating me."

"More like gathering information for future reference. After all, we are dating." He let go of Gabe's hand and stroked his hair, "I want to know everything about my cute, little boyfriend." Gabe's face flushed and he looked away from Archie, how could he be so cheesy?

Gabe looked out the window at the passing street lights, "how do you think Dory would react if I told him I was gay?"

A jolt passed through Archie, "are you thinking about coming out?"

"Well, he is my best friend. Reese and Blake know, Sandy knows. I'm pretty sure Nikki knows, she was the first to find out about Reese and Blake too. So it feels like he's the only one left out of the loop."

Archie glanced over at him and sighed, "would you tell him about your crush on him?"

"No, but I'd tell him about my relationship with you." Gabe saw a smile tugging at Archie's lips, Gabe turned in his seat to face Archie and poked his cheek with a smile. "So, what do you think? Think he'd forsake his best friend?"

His knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel, "he'd probably blame me for 'turning you gay'."

Laughing, "but that's not true."

"I know," Archie said. 

Gabe sighed and deflated a little, "you know what? Never mind. I'll tell him senior year, he's always wanted to go to a foreign school so he won't stick around after graduating."

Archie took his hand and gave it a comforting squeeze, "you mentioned your dad was coming back."

"Um, yeah. He's been in Egypt for a while, he's an archaeologist."

"Will I get to meet him?"

Blushing, "y-you want to?"

"Oh yeah," Archie grinned.

"You can come over for my birthday dinner when he gets back... Can I properly introduce you to them?"

"I thought I'd just show up as your nameless sidekick—"

"That's not what I meant, Archie. I meant introducing you as my boyfriend."

Archie laughed, "of course, almost everyone knows I'm bisexual. My parents didn't make a big deal of it, your mom seems cool so I don't think she'll mind having such a handsome son-in-law."

Gabe jumped and stammered out, "s-s-son-in-law? Jesus, Archer." 

Archie just laughed even more, "you never know what the future holds, Gabriel."

This was a long drive.