the only heaven i'll be sent to

7.0

The next morning, Luis was a little confused as to where he was. Waking up in a new place was always a little disorienting, but Luis's eyes glanced over to his various baby pictures hanging on the wall and he instantly remembered where he was.

He quickly took a shower and got dressed for the day. He could already hear his parents in the kitchen talking and making breakfast. He could smell the delicious scent of pan dulce floating down the hallway as he walked towards the kitchen.

Vanessa was also already awake and sitting at the table. Luis sat across from her, still trying to wake himself up by rubbing his eyes. The dining room and kitchen were open plan, so the family could continue to have an unobstructed conversation.

"You only have four more months until you graduate," Vanessa said in a sing-song voice to Luis.

"Thank God," Luis sighed happily.

His mother tutted at his use of "the Lord's name in vain." She always hated when he did that. Luis just rolled his eyes playfully which earned a light slap on his shoulder from Nina as she placed a plate of pan dulce in front of him. He thanked her and dug in.

Luis himself was never super religious, even though his parents had taken him and Vanessa to church most Sundays. His parents weren't crazy about it either, but they were definitely believers. Luis was a little afraid to come out to them as gay because of that, not completely sure if he'd receive their approval. But they had supported him instantly, and so had his sister. He knew he was lucky; a lot of kids didn't get support like that. Of course, he'd gotten some shit for it in high school, and it was rough for a while, but most of his friends still stood by him. He'd turned out pretty okay, given the circumstances.

Luis and his family spent the day hanging around the house, playing some games, sometimes going off for a while to do their own things. Luis took to coding a random passion project. He liked to have something unimportant he could work on in-between the things he was actually required to do. He found it helped him maintain the love he had for coding and not turn it into a chore.

Adrian was still nowhere to be seen. Luis found himself feeling lonelier than usual when he was up in his bedroom coding by himself. He hated to admit it, but he'd gotten kind of used to Adrian's presence and him just always being around, no matter how annoying he was.

It wasn't until Monday the 23rd that Adrian showed up again. It was midday and Luis was up in his old bedroom coding again, after spending the entire morning going shopping with his family. Why they waited until two days before Christmas to go shopping, he had no idea.

Luis was sitting on his bed in his favorite warm sweater and sweatpants, absentmindedly coding a program that automatically closed all of the windows on the screen one by one whenever you pressed a certain key. He realized that that sounded like something Adrian would find funny. Then he wondered why he cared what Adrian would find funny.

And like he heard his name in Luis's mind, Adrian appeared in the middle of the bedroom, making Luis jump. It was déjà vu.

"What's up?" Adrian said casually, like he hadn't just scared Luis out of his mind.

"You have seriously got to stop doing that," Luis said quietly through gritted teeth. He's glad he didn't yelp or anything, lest his family hear him.

"You're fine," Adrian said reassuringly, chuckling, but Luis's heart was still racing.

"Where have you even been?" Luis asked against his better judgment.

"I was giving you some alone time with your family," Adrian said off-handedly, strolling around the room and looking at the various knick knacks, just like he had in Luis's room back in New York. He picked up some old photographs and things that laid on the desk in the corner. Luis wanted to yell at him to stop, but he was stunned by what Adrian had said. Since when did Adrian care about Luis's "alone time"?