Do You See Me Now? ✔

Epilogue - The Question

Friday, January 25th

     "Jesse!" Mrs. Milonas called out from the bottom of the stairs. "You're going to be late!"

"I'm almost ready!" Jesse called back, rummaging through his belongings to find a decent shirt to wear. "It's just a date," he muttered while throwing dirty laundry in the laundry basket. He really needed to clean up is room.

If he took a look at the current state of his room, one would think he'd been living there his whole life. He got accustomed to living with the Milonas family, and it was showing in his ways.

Though his room was a mess, he did help the family out by cleaning other rooms in the house whenever he had time.

But between soccer, spray painting graffiti—in places where it was allowed—skating, school and dates with Loek, there was hardly any room for more cleaning. Not to mention the fact he had friends that wanted to hang out all the time.

Jesse stood up straight with a groan and trudged towards the door to open it. "Mrs. Milonas, I can't find my green flannel anywhere."

"Stop calling me that. It's Romy," she told him while she walked up to him, tapping his nose. "And in a pig stall like this it's no wonder you can't find anything."

Jesse felt his cheeks burn as he watched how Mrs. Milonas—well, Romy—walked into his room, picking up clothes that scattered the floor.

"I reckon this is all meant for laundry?"

"Eh, yeah, I was going to clean that up,"

"When?" Romy chuckled while she faced him again. "Tomorrow, before the match? Or afterwards, while you've had a few drinks and you're probably too lazy?"

"I have no idea, honestly," Jesse answered with a smirk. "Maybe tonight, after my date."

"Why do I feel like I'll get a call later tonight, asking me if it's okay to stay over at Loek's place?"

"Because I usually call..." Jesse shrugged, still smirking. "I'll clean my room up this weekend, I promise."

Downstairs, the doorbell rang, and Jesse jumped into action, searching his closet for the one thing he wanted to wear. It wasn't that important, although Loek really liked it when Jesse wore the green flannel he was looking for. "Did you see the flannel anywhere?"

"I washed it for you, you should be able to find it in the laundry basket in the bathroom."

"Thanks, Mrs—Romy," Jesse replied, pecking a kiss on her cheek before he ran towards the bathroom. He quickly put on the flannel, hurrying down the stairs as he did so.

Calix had already opened the door for Loek, who looked handsome as ever, smiling widely as his eyes found Jesse.

"Hey," he greeted Loek, for some reason still feeling shy whenever Loek picked him up for a date. "You look great."

"Thank you, you're quite the looker yourself too," Loek answered with a smirk, pulling Jesse in his arms for a quick kiss. "Ready to go?"

"Eh, yeah," Jesse mumbled while he felt his cheeks flush. He still needed to get used to kissing Loek in front of others. Even if said others were Calix and his sister Iris. The latter sat on the couch, but as soon as Loek had pulled Jesse in his arms, she had jumped up with a red face, hurrying out of the room.

Calix had informed Jesse that she had a small crush on Jesse, and didn't want to see him kiss someone else.

Which flattered Jesse, but that wasn't the reason he was as shy as he was in front of others. No, that had to do with the fact he still felt a bit weird to be out as homosexual.