If Only

Chapter 48

Austin's POV

"The truth is that I'm gay,and I have been struggling with dealing with it on my own because have this idea in my head that if anyone found out then my world would change forever." I say out loud for the first time as tears start running down my face and Katie quickly gets up and wraps her arms around me. "Hey it's okay Boo." Katie says in a soothing voice as my body starts shaking due to my crying. After a few minutes of crying I calm down and slowly pull out of the hug. "You being gay doesn't change anything between us, you are still my best friend in the whole world,and someone that I would trust with my life." Katie laughs which gets me to laugh. I turn my attention away from Katie and turn it towards Jonathan who hasn't said a word since I told him the truth.

"Jon? You have been really quiet which isn't a good thing." Katie turns around to face her boyfriend that has a complex look on his face. "You're gay?" Jonathan asks and I let out a deep breath nodding my head. "Yeah, I only came to terms with it not too long ago." Jonathan just nods his head and I suddenly get nervous about his reaction. "That is why you have been acting weird as of late?" Once again I nod my head as a look of angry flashes across his face. "We have been worried about you. We thought you fell back into your dark habits or worse got addicted to drugs or something horrible like that!" Jonathan yells as he stands up from where he was sitting and towers over me. 

"You had us worried over something that I knew a month after meeting you." I do a double take as a look comes over not just my face but also the face of Katie. "You knew?" I asked as Jonathan as a huge smile comes onto his lips and he starts laughing."Well yeah, I mean it was kind of obvious to me at least." Jonathan slaps me on my back as a wave of relief comes over me. "I could care less that you are gay Black. Live in your truth and be who you are, and if anyone has a problem with that then will answer to me and your Alpha Delta Fraternity brothers." Jonathan sits back on the couch as Katie kisses his lips passionately before turning her attention back to me. "We need to get you ready for dinner with your parents."Katie takes my hands and helps me to my feet before leading upstairs to my room to help me get ready for tonight.

After about an hour Katie manages to finish helping me get ready, I am dressed in a dark red dress shirt, long black tie, black belt around my waist, light shade of black dress pants, and a pair of black dress shoes. "You know that I would have picked out this outfit by myself." Katie gives me a look as she rolls her eyes. "Please,you would have gone with the basic and boring outfit." I smile at her as I walks away from the mirror and put on my watch around my wrist. "You seem nervous and I don't mean just because you are having dinner with your parents." I turnaround facing Katie and shrug my shoulders. "You are thinking that my extra anxiety is due to Garrett coming with me tonight." Katie nods her head running hand through my hair.

"You two have been interacting with each other as of late, and I think you know that Garrett isn't exactly the kind of guy that you bring around the Black family it has you worried that their judgement of him will reflect on you." I look at Katie who is sounding more like a therapist. The sound of someone knocking breaks up the conversation between us as Jonathan yells from downstairs, "AUSTIN YOUR DATE IS HERE!" I feel the embarrassment come over me as I walk to the edge and look down at him. "Behave yourself." I snap at him as he opens the door for Garrett. "I wish you luck and remember if things to bad then just text me our code word and I will get you out of there." I smile at her as I give her one last hug before heading downstairs. 

Once I reach the bottom step I look towards the door to see Garrett dressed in what he calls a monkey suit, he has on a black dress shirt that is tucked in, a long black tie that is perfectly tied, a sliver vest over the dress shirt and tie, a pair of medium dark washed jeans, and his normal shoes on his feet. "Will this pass your parents inspection?" Garrett jokes but only if he knew the truth. "It will do." I grab my dark navy-blue dress jacket and put it on as Jonathan steps up behind me. "Don't you two crazy kids stay out too long." I elbow him in his stomach as he starts laughing and I can see the unamused look on Garrett's face."Let's just get going." I say trying to defuse a situation before it starts. I rush into the hallway pushing Garrett with me and close my door. 

"Jonathan is a jokester, it his way of lighting the mood." Garrett just huffs and places his hand in his pockets. "You sure that you are okay with me coming with you tonight?" I look into Garrett's eyes and I have to stop myself from getting lost in them too much which would give me away. "Yeah, plus if you don't show up now then I will never hear the end of it from my parents about how my friend cancelled on them last minute." Garrett laughs as he takes his hands out of his pockets and the two of head to his car and off to my parents house.

It is about a 2-hour drive but Garrett and I finally arrive to the house that I grew up in, to me this house always reminded me of the kind of house that you would see in action movies where the big boss would live. "This is a very fancy house."Garrett says pulling his car into the driveway and putting it in park. "You have no idea just how hard this house is to describe to people, the only thing I told people growing up was that I lived in a house that you has to see to believe."I get out of the car with Garret only seconds behind me.

I look around and standing on the highest balcony of the three balconies that overlook the front of the house is a woman with her intense blue eyes locked on Garret and me as she takes a sip of from her wine glass, or as I would call her mom.