Prettyboy, MD (ManXMan)

Chapter 29

"Adam sweetheart, could you check if the butter tarts are done?" Dylan's mom, Marie said asked with a  warm motherly smile that Adam was starting to get all too comfortable with.

    It was a Tremblay family tradition for the whole family to converge together at the family summer home on Vancouver Island for the Canada Day long weekend. It had been just over a month since Adam's suicide attempt, and Dylan wouldn't let Adam out of his sight. He made him move in with him, not that he was complaining. He practically spent most nights there anyway. 

Dylan constantly monitored Adam's mood and prompted to talk about his feelings more rather than internalizing them. He even gently coerced him into going to weekly therapy sessions to address his insecurities and anxieties, which had thus far been to his benefit. Statistically it is common for LGBT youth to see higher rates of mental illness and even suicide rates compared to their heterosexual counterparts due to many factors that shaped their lives; and Adam was no different. Growing up hiding a part of himself only to be cast out by his family when he was honest with them, feeling lonely and isolated in a new city where he didn't have anyone to rely on, and facing the crippling beauty standards in the gay community; it all took it's toll on his emotional health. Years of emotional stress and psychological trauma later he finally cracked, ultimately attempting to take his own life; and Dylan was never going to let it happen again.

    Adam and Dylan were going strong, stronger than ever. It seemed like their lives were changed for the better now that they had no secrets between them. Dylan felt as though a dark rain cloud had lifted, revealing the warm sun.

"Just a little longer on the Butter tarts." Adam said with a smile as he took the oven mitts off and stared out the window towards the boys outside.

    Adam, Alex, and Ava were helping Dylan's mom Marie, and Hayden's mom, Eleni in the kitchen while Dylan was outside grilling in the back patio with Hayden, his dad, Giuseppe, Ava's husband Chris, and Grandpapa. Adam never thought he'd ever have a family again, let alone such a large and loving one. But now he was unofficially a member of the Tremblay family.

    When Dylan's parents told him he could call them mom and dad, they didn't mean it as a suggestion, it was more of a command. At first Adam found it all a bit strange, but soon he understood just how much he meant to them all. Growing up they thought Dylan was a lost cause, with the partying, the drugs, the fighting, the lack of emotional stability. He was sharp as a tack and the most intelligent person they had encountered, so they didn't worry that he'd do well in life. They worried that he'd never find the person who would complete him.

    They had heard of a boy, a stranger whom Dylan had never met, a pretty boy whom he would just stare at from afar in the library. They saw how much he changed just to make himself worthy of this boy he  had never even spoken to. When after twenty-eight years he came forward with a long term boyfriend for the first time, they were ecstatic. They thought their lost little boy had finally found someone to melt his icy exterior, someone who would show him that he too was capable of being loved.

    Finding out that Adam was the same library boy only served to be even more of a pleasant surprise for them. Their Dylan had finally found happiness, and for the first time the were able to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that he wouldn't live out his days alone, and miserable.

"Why don't we all go out and help out. Aleko mou, (My Alex) will you take the Nanaimo bars out of the fridge and Adam sweetie, you can take the butter tarts. We'll be out with the poutine." Eleni said as she ruffled Alex' dark hair and sent both boys on their way.

    Alex and Hayden were the couple that surprised everyone; they had their own twists of fate, not unlike Dylan and Adam. It seemed like at the same time, both these cold and unfeeling Tremblay boys managed to find the loves of their lives. Both Alex and Adam were now treated like members of the family, though neither of them had a ring to show for it. It was as though they were already Tremblays even though it wasn't official on paper. They had parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, ' brothers-in-law' and a loving grandpapa.