Trevon Carter

I stood in front of my mirror and took a deep breath. I could do this. I could tell my family about Arthur. Except, what if they rejected me? What if my grandpa rejected me? No. Of course my grandpa would accept me. He loved me. I patted my hair even though everything was perfectly in place. My fingers trembled slightly. I quickly put my hands back by my sides. I had to do this because I liked Arthur more than I had liked anyone.

There was a knock on my bedroom door, but before I could say 'come in' the door opened and Mark and Leo entered. Leo closed the door behind them as Mark came up and massaged my shoulders in that way people do to give you encouragement. "It's going to be fine," Mark said.

I smiled at him through the mirror, but couldn't agree with him.

"You lied," Leo said. "You have pictures of him."

Leo was stretched out over my bed looking at my phone. I rushed to him and snatched my phone away.

"What?" Leo asked. "It's not like there were any nude pics of him."

"That's not the point," I said. "You're invading my privacy."

Mark snorted. "You don't have any privacy with your sisters around." He snatched the phone out of my hand before I could stop him and started flipping through Arthur's pictures.

"You're not my sisters," I pointed out, but didn't try to retrieve my phone.

"We're your sisters's other halves," Leo said easily.

My bedroom door opened and Brittany and Kylie entered without bothering to knock. "What's taking you so long?" Brittany asked. "We sent you up here to get him. Dinner's ready." They had only been in my room a few minutes. It wasn't like Leo and Mark had been there for hours.

"We're looking at the pictures of his boyfriend on his phone," Mark said.

"I want to see," Brittany said. She went and stood next to Mark and he angled the phone so she could see.

Kylie sat on my bed next to Leo. She bounced a little on it and studied the bed - and Leo - carefully. I knew that look.

"You're not seriously thinking of what it would be like to have sex on my bed are you?" I asked Kylie.

"Who says we haven't already," Leo smirked.

"Gross. I can't anymore." And I left MY bedroom with the four of them still in it laughing at me.

Leo's voice trailed after me, "I got him out of the room." And the four of them laughed even harder. My weirdo twin sisters and their weirdo fiances.

When I got to the bottom of my stairs, my mom stood there waiting for all of us. "Where are your sisters?" she asked.

My mom didn't know how weird and kinky my sisters and their fiances were. She would never believe me if I told her they had sex on my bed. And maybe they hadn't. Maybe Leo just said that because that was something they would say to tease me. But I wouldn't put it passed them to actually have sex on my bed. How was I ever going to sleep in it again?

"They're coming," I simply said.

The front door opened and my cousin Jasmine stepped in. I didn't know she would be coming too. She was an only child. My uncle and aunt lived in a different city. Unlike my dad, my uncle had wanted nothing to do with my grandpa's business - except he was fine receiving a generous allowance from my grandpa. Jasmine - unlike her dad - did want to be part of my grandpa's business. After graduating college in a different state, she moved here to complete her masters. It was clear to everyone that Brittany, Kylie and Jasmine would be part of the business, but which of them ended up with complete control was a mystery. Maybe they'd come to an agreement and the three of them could run it together. That was far down the line though. My grandpa had given a lot of his control to my dad, but he still had a lot of say in the company.

"Jazy," I greeted with a smile when I saw her. She was always nice to me unlike my sisters. She was younger than my sisters, but older than me.

"Trevy," she greeted and I frowned. I hated that nickname. She laughed when she saw my frown and rushed to hug me. "Don't pout," she said. "You know it's just because I love you."

"I know," I said as I returned her hug.

"Aunt Kerry," she said to my mom and she left me to hug my mom. My mom squeezed her tightly.

"Jazy," my sisters called excitedly from the stairs. They ran down the stairs together and wrapped their arms around her simultaneously.

She greeted Mark and Leo in a more subdued way. They had been my sisters's fiances for a full year now, but had been dating for two. Mark and Leo had always been nice to her, but she was still unsure how to act around her cousins's fiances.

"What are you all waiting for?" my dad stepped into the foyer from the dining room. "Grandpa's waiting. Hi Jazy," he said.

"Hi Uncle Chris," she hugged my dad briefly before my dad led the rest of us into the dining room. My grandpa was already seated. His tall, thin frame was bent over the food smelling the delicious aromas. It was lasagna, salad and french bread.

We all found our spots around the table. During dinner grandpa asked me and Jasmine how school was going. Then he asked Brittany and Kylie if they'd set a wedding date yet to which both pairs of twins said 'no' at the same time. They just wanted to stretch out the engagement for as long as possible. Grandpa then asked Leo and Mark how the patent attorney business was going. I tuned out a little bit then because not even Leo and Mark could make patent attorneys sound interesting.

Jasmine told us she started dating someone. She said it was new and wasn't sure it was going to last, but that she really liked him. I was surprised when she said his name was Aiden, but surely that couldn't be the same as Vincent's brother. Except then she said his last name was Kinsington. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I didn't know Aiden all that well except from what Vincent told me he sounded like a jerk. I'd have to warn Jasmine anyway that their mother was racist.

"What about you?" my grandpa asked me. "Are you still seeing that girl?"

My chest constricted. I froze with the fork in my hand. I swallowed and put the fork back down. "No," I said. "I broke up with her." My throat closed off as I opened my mouth to tell him I was dating someone new. Nothing came out. Brittany beside me nudged me while Kylie across the table kicked my leg.

My grandpa must have noticed because he said, "Is there something else you want to tell me?"

I sat up straight and took in a deep breath. I let it out slowly. "I'm dating someone new," I said. "Someone I really like. Someone that I like more than I've ever liked anyone."

My grandpa and parents smiled at this. "That's great, son," my grandpa said. "Tell us about her."

I looked down at my plate and bit my lip. That got me another nudge from Brittany and kick from Kylie. "It's actually a man."

"What?" grandpa asked as if he didn't hear.

I looked up at my parents first. Their shocked expressions told me they heard me. They looked at each other and then at my grandpa.

I turned to my grandpa. "I'm bisexual, grandpa, and I'm dating a man."

Silence. Grandpa looked down at his plate.

"It's not a big deal anymore," Kylie said. "Being gay or bisexual is more acceptable these days."

My grandpa looked at her, but didn't say anything.

"And if things get really serious between them in the future," Brittany offered, "and they get married and want kids, they can always adopt. You can still have plenty of great grandkids and mom and dad can still have plenty of grandkids."

That was something I hadn't thought of before, but my parents always did say they wanted a lot of grandkids.

Jasmine's head swiveled from my sisters, to me and then grandpa. I was sure my sisters hadn't spoken to her about this. I was sure she spoke up for me just because she was a good person. "I think it's really great that you feel safe enough with us to come out and share this with us. I'm sure it was very frightening for you." She smiled at me. "I'm proud of you."

I managed a brief smile back before my focus - all of our focus - was turned back to my grandpa.

"Do you have a picture of him?" my grandpa asked.

I took out my phone, selected a picture of him and handed the phone to my grandpa. He was expressionless as he looked at the picture.

"He's a ballet dancer," I said.

My dad smiled at this and said, "Do you have a thing for dancers?"

I assumed that meant my dad accepted it and I breathed slightly easier. "I think I might," I said.

"He might still meet bigotry," my mom said to my grandpa, "but he'd run into that just from the fact that he's black. He can't be kicked out of his apartment now just because he is bisexual. And we've taught him how to withstand bigotry."

Everyone was sticking up for me. I loved my family. I almost offered the fact that Arthur was rich, but realized my grandpa wouldn't care about that so I didn't say anything. My family wasn't like Vincent's. Thank goodness.

My grandpa flipped through my phone. I assumed my grandpa was looking at my pictures of Arthur until he put the phone on speaker and the phone was ringing. I froze.

"Hiiii," Arthur's cheerful voice greeted everyone through the phone.

How did he know which number in my contacts to call? Probably because I had added a picture next to his contact name - Beautiful Art.

"Hello," my grandpa said. "I'm Trevon's grandfather."

"Hello, Mr. Carter," Arthur's voice was suddenly polite.

"My grandson tells me you are his boyfriend," my grandpa said as I could only sit there frozen.

"Your boyfriend is handsome," a little girl's voice said from the other end.

"Who is that?" my grandpa asked.

"My niece, Jade. Say hi, Jade."

"Hiiii," his little niece said in almost the exact same way Arthur had said it.

"Hello," my grandpa said cheerfully back. He loved children. He even smiled. "Your name is Jade? That is a beautiful name. What is your uncle's name?"

"Uncle Arty," she said.

"Arthur," I said, because it would be weird to have my grandpa call him Arty.

"Well, Arthur," my grandpa said, "my grandson tells me he likes you more than he has ever liked anyone."

"I just told someone today that he treats me better than anyone else ever has," Arthur said into the phone. I smiled at this. So did my grandpa.

"You sound like a nice young man," my grandpa said.

"He's a nice uncle," Jade said.

"Thank you," Arthur said to my grandpa.

"Then I trust you to take care of him," my grandpa said.

Relief flooded through me.

"I will," Arthur said eagerly.

"Then I'm going to get back to our family dinner," my grandpa said. "Goodbye, Arthur."

"Goodbye, Mr. Carter."

"Goodbye," Jade's sweet voice rang out and then my grandpa hung up. He handed the phone back to me.

I stood up and hugged him. "I love you, grandpa."

He patted my back as I bent over him. "Love you too, son," he said.

A/N: If this is by chance the first story of mine you've read and you are wondering who Vincent and Alex are, you can read their stories in From My Enemy to My Love.