Special

Adam

Daniel felt stressed. He hadn't really done anything for school since the last week before the break but every time he looked at his homework it seemed like something he had never seen before. Still his mind seemed to be somewhere else entirely. Seeing Emily and Allie kiss had shaken something inside of him. Yes, he had known that gay people existed. His father's hatred for them made sure that he was mentioning them often enough. But at the same time it had felt like the entire concept of homosexuality was nothing more than a distant concept. Yes, they existed but not here, not in this town, not anywhere he was going. So, suddenly being confronted with it felt like he had been catapulted into a different reality. It gave him something new to consider when thinking about his own feelings, about the situation with Matt. But he didn't want to. He didn't want to consider it so he kept pushing the thought of it to the back of his head where he was just as successful at keeping them there as wet noodles were at tying down a raging dragon. He had tried to distract himself from the topic but even books weren't able to captivate his attention. If anything they added fuel to the fire. Just like now, as he was sitting on his bed again trying to concentrate on the plot his thoughts were preoccupied with the possibility that he didn't just like the main character because he was cool but that –

No!

He flung the book onto the ground and buried his face in his hands. A knock on the door interrupted his mid-day crisis and he uttered a faint "yeah?"

"Hey, Dan," his brother Adam said and without waiting for an invitation came into the room.

"Adam," Daniel exclaimed and almost jumped off the bed to greet him. He had been excited for his brother to visit for the holidays and especially now with everything going on it could be an opportunity for him to finally distract himself. "I didn't know you were already here."

"Well, I can leave again and come back later if that suits you better," Adam joked.

Daniel pouted. "No," he mumbled and went to hug his brother who promptly ruffled through his hair messing it up which was something Daniel used to hate as a child and still pretended to feel very strongly about for the sake of tradition.

"Stop that," he huffed and halfheartedly tried to swat Adam's hand away. Their banter only lasted for a short while before their mother called them down for lunch.

Lunch felt awkward. There was an almost tangible strain between their father and Adam. They never said anything to each other and Daniel actually couldn't recall the last time the two had even just looked at each other. And whenever their father said something their mother immediately shot him a warning glance to try and prevent a fight. It rarely worked out. Daniel could already feel himself get infuriated just by seeing their mother pretend to be loving and caring towards Adam after always agreeing to their father talking badly about him. Maybe she also noticed how weird it was for her to change from talking like that behind Adam's back to a loving mother and Daniel kind of hoped that she felt bad for it.

"I'm glad you are here, Adam," Daniel said putting an end to the meaningless small talk. Adam seemed relieved by that just as much as their mother.

"I'm glad, too. It's actually, uh, I won't be coming to visit any more for a while," Adam mumbled and watched his fingers play with the tablecloth.

"What do you mean?" Daniel exclaimed but before Adam could explain he got interrupted.

"It's about time for that," their father said.

Daniel stared at him in dismay. Couldn't he at least pretend to like Adam? Why were parents allowed to be so heartless? He looked at Adam and smiled encouragingly.