𝙸 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴 𝚈𝙾𝚄 [𝚁𝙰𝙽𝙳𝚈&𝙹𝙰𝙲𝙺𝙻𝚈𝙽]

●12●

RYAN'S POV

It's my mom's birthday. I am nervous as I've never been. I've been struggling to sleep for days because of all this confusion that assails me for Andy and the imminent coming out with my family. Anyway, I still have to wait more than ten hours before tomorrow morning arrives.

Yesterday afternoon when I got home, my mom came to hug me and being in her arms again made me feel good, I don't want that because of all this it could be our last hug. I'm scared.

My thoughts are interrupted by my younger brother Sammie.

"Rye are you okay? I see you lost in your thoughts" he says coming towards me and wrapping his arms around my waist. I love my brother, I love my whole family; even if he is much smaller than me, I consider him very mature.

He is much shorter than me and I personally love all people shorter than me, because I can hug them from above and treat them as if they were my children, clearly only if they are people I know very well, like Andy...

"Ryeee? What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing Sam" I say smiling and hugging him

"Oh don't lie to me, I know there is something going on in that head of yours" he says, pointing to my head with a finger

I honestly don't know whether to tell him first. I don't think it's the case... but I could ask him a few questions, just to understand what he thinks about it.

"Sammie, do you like someone?"

"No," he replies with a surprised air by my question

"Okay and if you were together, with someone, you would choose to be with a girl or a boy" he looks at me confusedly, rolls his eyes thinking about the answer

"I would choose to be with someone I like, girl or boy" he says smiling.

This answer is so sincere that I can see it in his eyes. I look at him quite surprised and he immediately changes expression, almost worried.

"Rye, did I say something wrong?" his eyes are shiny and he looks really scared

"No you said exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you" I hug him tightly to me and feel my eyes fill with tears.

He detaches himself from the embrace, smiles at me and goes upstairs. This conversation definitely gave me hope. I go to bed to rest for a while, trying to forget everything for a while.

I wake up after two hours and it's already time to celebrate my mum's birthday.

I go down to the kitchen and help with the final preparations. We toast and sit down at the table. The food is all delicious. We talk, laugh, eat like in the old days.

The time for gifts has come, my brothers and I approach mum with the gift together, we place it on the table and hug her, we position ourselves at the other end of the table and watch her while she unwraps our gift: she has a huge smile on her lips, she is so happy that the fear of ruining everything is even higher.

She opens the gift and starts crying with joy. All four of us hug her and kiss her on the cheek. The other gift is from our dad, a red gold necklace, very simple but at the same time wonderful. They are so beautiful together. I don't want to let them down, I don't want them to be upset that I won't share my life with a woman.

Shortly after I feel arms around me, all five are hugging me and holding back the tears is impossible.

"I see you sad, what happens? It's since you arrived that I see you upset "

"No I'm just happy to be with you"

"So why don't you smile?"

I get up and start walking around the room. Their eyes are on me and I don't know what to say and do. A thousand thoughts reign in my mind, I can't understand anything from so much confusion. Tears begin to streak my face and I collapse on the ground.

Shaun to Sammie rush up to me and hug me.

"Don't worry Rye, you can tell us, we are your family" says Sammie

"Say what?" I ask incredulously. His statement leaves me stunned. Did he understand it?

"You know Ryan" I look into his eyes and he does the same. His eyes speak much more than I thought. He understood it, but how? We both know what we mean.

I get up, Sammie and Shaun go close to mom and dad. They all look at me and this shakes me and I immediately begin to tremble.

Sammie walks up to me and intertwines our hands. I look at him with a smile and he says:

"You can do it"

"You see it's not my intention to steal the show from mum, I do not want to disappoint you. You have always been there for me and it will be forever, I just want to be 100% honest with you. I'm gay"

They all look into each other's eyes, I don't understand what's going on. They get up and come towards me and hug me.

"We always knew it, we were just waiting for you to tell us. We are proud of you. And please don't ever think again that we don't accept you and don't love you" says my dad and with these words I start crying happily. I no longer feel that weight on my stomach. I feel good.

"Is there any boy in your life?" my mom asks with a mischievous smile

"Well yes, actually there is a boy in my life, but I don't know if he reciprocates my feelings. I have to find out" I reply smiling

"Do you have a picture?" my brother Robbie asks

"Yesss we want to see a pic of him!!" Shaun and Sammie exclaim

"Okay okay I'll show you now. Ah anyway his name is Andy"

I show him a photo we took together on the day we went to the lake. I took the photo from above and he was slightly behind me with his head resting on my arm, he wanted to lean on my shoulder but I'm too tall.

"So cute!" exclaims my mom

"Wow Rye you are really cute together" adds Sammie

"I hope there is something more for him too" intervenes my dad

"Thank you very much! I love you" I hug them all with a huge smile on my lips.