Is forever for R.E.A.L?

Chapter 18- Those unsaid words

“In which room is Ashish Desai admitted?” we asked the receptionist.
“Room no. 401.” The receptionist said looking at the register.
We reached to the room and Ashish lay there with his leg in a cast. He had a fracture in his leg and it was a miracle nothing serious happened to him. His mother’s prayers worked for him, I guess.
“Ashish, are you okay?” his mother cried as she hugged him. Though some patients nearby were disturbed, they didn’t dare to interrupt the constant hugging for they were afraid of facing the wrath of an Indian mother.
“I am okay.” Ashish said with an expressionless face.
“Have you told him?” Ashish whispered to his mother then referring his father who was standing at a distance filling the hospital forms.
“Yes. He has a right to know.” His mother said with a sad expression. The happiness of her son surviving was short term. The disappointment on her son being gay was again evident on her face. But even though she didn’t like that, she refrained herself from showing it, afraid that Ashish would run away again. Though it would seem sadistic, but the imagination of Ashish running away with a leg in cast was worth a suppressed chuckle.
“What’s going on here?” Ashish’s dad asked us while handing as a donut and coffee each. It didn’t take much time for me to gobble the donut. It was a surprise that I was so skinny because to me food was life.
“You know what happened yesterday?” Ashish asked his father.
“Yes.” He said.
“And?”
“I am disappointed in you.”
“I know.”
“Okay.”
“But I won’t change.”
“You would have to.”
“I won’t.”
“I will make you.”
“You can’t.”
“I will.”
I could sense an uproar by Ashish anytime soon. He was getting frustrated by each word and he would soon blast.
“Why do you want to? Why can’t you accept me as I am? Yeah, I am gay and however it’s insulting for you, you can’t change it.”  Ashish said at the verge of tears. I was surprised that the tears didn’t drop. I would have cried my eyes out saying all those.
“What about being gay? Where did that come from?” his dad said to all if our astonishment.
“That you are ashamed of me being gay. That you want to change me.” Ashish said with a confused expression.
“No. I was talking about going out carelessly and getting into an accident. What the hell were you thinking? What if you had died? Do you know how much it would have hurt me? Your death would have broken us apart.”
“And what about me being gay.”
“I knew that since a long time.”
“How?”
“I saw you sneaking around with the phone once or twice. I was worried that you had fallen into bad company but I saw what you were reading once. And if you remember, I bought you that diary so that you could write down your feelings.”
“You don’t have a problem with it?” Ashish asked in utter astonishment.
“To be honest, I did. I was shocked by reading that but I met a doctor and talked about it. He encouraged me in supporting you and though I wanted to do it, I didn’t know what to say. I kept convincing myself from time to time that you would tell me whenever you are comfortable with it.” He said slightly embarrassed at the fact that he didn’t talk to his son about something this important.
Ashish didn’t say anything, but he just got up and hugged his father. His unsaid words expressed so many things. His affection with his mother made me miss my mom. Everything was going good. My eyes once again held tears.
But the tears of sadness turned into tears of terror when I heard a familiar voice.
“ESHA! What are you doing here.” Esha’s father’ sound rang through the hospital room.