Trevon Carter

I tried to sneak away to my room after dinner was through - I wanted to talk to Arthur - but Jasmine grabbed my arm before I could head up the stairs. Everyone else was still in the dining room.

"I just want you to know I thought you were very brave tonight," she said. "It can't be easy to come out like that."

"Thank you," I said. "I wish I had been braver earlier. I've known for a long time that I was bisexual. My best friend, Alex, never hid that he was gay. I admire him a lot for that. Actually, I'm not sure I would have found the bravery to come out if I didn't have his example."

She smiled. "He sounds inspiring."

"He is. So," I said, "Aiden Kinsington huh? His little brother is my other best friend. Have you met him yet? Vincent?"

"Not yet," Jasmine said. "Aiden talks about him sometimes. He really cares about him but doesn't know how to express it. He hasn't told me everything, but from what he's told me his family sounds weird. I haven't figured out why he feels he needs to put some distance between him and his brother."

That was a new perspective I hadn't heard about before. But Jasmine had a tendency to see only the good in people so maybe she was reading too much into it. From what Vincent told me, I wasn't sure his brother really cared about him that much.

"You know their mom is racist, right?" I asked.

She sighed. "Aiden warned me. The way he describes her, I'm not sure she realizes she is racist. I'm not worried though. If I come to really like Aiden, I can handle her."

"Do you like him? I admit I've only seen him from the perspective of Vincent, but I haven't seen much to like."

She smiled. "He's sweet to me. He says he can be himself with me."

My mom and dad came into the foyer.

"I'm going home now," Jasmine said to them. "Thank you for having me."

She gave them each a hug as I started up the stairs.

"Wait a minute," my dad said to me when the front door closed. I was almost at the top of the stairs. I paused and looked at them. My father waved me to come back down.

I came slowly back down the stairs. I just wanted to speak with Arthur. My dad wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me tight into his side. "I'm proud of you, son," he said. My mom smiled widely at the two of us.

"Thank you," I said.

"Be true to who you are," my mom said. She took my hand while my dad still had his arm around my shoulders.

"We love you," my dad said.

"I love you too," I said and then the three of us were standing there in a group hug.

"Okay," I said when we pulled away. "I'm going to go call Arthur."

They nodded and indicated for me to be on my way as they stood there side by side with their arms still wrapped around each others waists.

I bounded up the stairs. Standing in front of my bedroom door were my sisters and their fiances. I briefly wondered how they could get up there so fast and then remembered there was a back set of stairs that I never used. It was closer to their rooms, but the front stairs was closer to mine.

"See," Brittany said, "it all went according to plan."

My sisters hugged me at the same time. Their fiances wrapped their arms around them encasing me in some strange hug. "Thanks," I said. I tried to push their arms off me, but all four of them just squeezed tighter because they were weirdos.

I gave up. My arms went limp by my side and I just let them hug me.

"We're proud of you, kiddo," Mark said as they finally broke away. He took Brittany's hand and headed down the hallway towards their bedrooms.

"Don't worry," Leo said. He placed a hand on my shoulder. "We didn't have sex on your bed." He started to follow the others.

Kylie took a step towards them, but whispered to me, "Yes we did," with that awful smirk on her face.

"I hate you all!" I called after them. The four of them laughed.

I went into my room and closed the door behind me.

I stretched out on my bed. Wait...did they have sex on my bed or not? I had no idea. I sat up and stared at my blankets as if they had betrayed me. Well, unless it happened that day - which wasn't likely since I had been home all day - then the blankets and sheets had been washed so it should be fine.

I relaxed again, but still didn't feel at ease. I called Arthur.

"Hello," Arthur said carefully.

"It's me," I said.

"Oh thank goodness," he said. "I thought it might be your grandpa again. Or your parents. Or your sisters."

"I had no idea he was calling you," I said. "I gave him my phone to look at your pictures."

"It's okay, sweetie. It was a little scary at first, but your grandpa seems nice and it sounded like he was accepting."

"Yes," I said. "My parents helped my sisters convince him so I think it's safe to say that everyone in my immediate family accepts us."

"Good," he said.

"So how was your day?" I asked.

"I spent it with my niece. So it was fun and exhausting all in one."

"She sounds cute."

"She is cute. She thinks you're handsome."

I smiled as I remembered her little conversation with my grandpa. "So I heard."

"I ran into an old friend from high school today," Arthur said. "It seems like he is going through some stuff so I told him he could call me to talk if he needed to."

"That was nice of you."

"Actually, he was my boyfriend from high school, but he's not out so no one knows."

"Okay," I said. That did bother me a little more, but as long as they were just friends now it didn't matter. There had been a very brief time when I had a crush on Alex, but I hadn't told anyone. It had only lasted a week our sophomore year in high school and then I realized he was handsome, but I really didn't want him as more than anything but a friend.

"It doesn't bother you?" he tested.

"Do you want it to?"

"Our relationship didn't end badly, but it did end and now he has no one to talk with. I just want to be his friend. He is the one who I told you treat me better than anyone else and I meant that. I'm not going to mess that up."

I smiled. "I'm glad you can be a good friend to someone, beautiful. And I hope I always treat you well. If there is ever a time I don't, or I take you for granted let me know."

"See," Arthur said, "you don't even realize how unique you are just for thinking that way. You're going back to your apartment tomorrow right?"

"Yes. You too?"

"Me too. Want to come over to my apartment when you get back or I could go to yours?"

"Yes," I said.

Arthur laughed. I missed his laugh. He had such a bright personality.

"You can come to my place this time," I said.

"Sounds good," he said.

There was a soft knock on my door.

"I've got to go Art, someone is knocking on my bedroom door."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, sweetie."

"Goodnight, beautiful."

I hung up. Whoever was at my door couldn't have been my sisters or their fiances because even if they had knocked, they would have barged right in without waiting for an answer.

"Come in," I said.

My grandpa opened the door and stepped inside. He closed the door quietly behind him. I sat up on the bed to give him my full attention. He took the chair from my desk, brought it so it was beside the bed and sat down.

"Son," he said to me, "I know times are different than when I was growing up and I know it's more accepted, but it's not completely accepted. You are going to have some hard times."

"I know," I said, "but there will always be hard times. At least this way there is someone supportive beside me."

My grandpa nodded. "When I was a young man," he said, "I had a close friend. He was like a brother to me. I trusted him and he trusted me. It turns out, he shouldn't have trusted me.

"He told me a secret that he had never told anyone. He thought I would help him get through and understand all the conflicted feelings he had inside. He told me he was attracted to our other friend. A man. I'm ashamed to say I didn't react well.

"I told him he was a sinner. I told him he was disgusting." Grandpa's voice choked up and tears sprang to his eyes. "I told him we weren't friends anymore." A large tear spilled onto his mocha skin. "I told him not to come around me, not to talk to me, not even to look at me. And then I went and did something even worse. I went and told our friend that he was attracted to him.

"That friend gathered other friends and they went and beat him up. It was so bad he ended up in the hospital. I regretted it then, but I still couldn't bring myself to go see him or apologize. I regretted it, but couldn't admit that I was wrong." He sniffed loudly and roughly wiped away the tears from his cheeks. He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. I reached over and took his hand. It was obviously difficult for him to admit all this to me and I knew he was a different man than he had been then. He already accepted me.

"He was the best friend I ever had, Trevon, and I messed up bad. When he got out of the hospital, he went up into the mountains and shot himself." More tears spilled onto his cheeks. Tears were on my cheeks too. I had never seen my grandpa cry. "If I only had taken the time to truly listen to him and try to understand him instead of just reacting the way I thought I was supposed to react," he said. "That was a wake up call for me. A terrible, terrible show of what I had done wrong. That was when I started going up to the mountains as often as I could and look at the stars. I begged for his forgiveness imaging he was one of those stars looking down at me. I called out into the night for us to be friends again. Eventually, after years and years of doing this, I felt he forgave me. Maybe it's all in my head, but maybe he heard me and really did forgive me.

"I don't know why I always took you up into the mountains to look at the stars and only you. It felt right somehow. Maybe he was trying to prepare me for this moment so I wouldn't react the same way with you as I did with him."

He squeezed my hand that held his. "I love you, Trevon. I always will no matter what. Don't let what happened to him happen to you. Please," he shook my hand with emphasis, "never kill yourself, Trevon. Never. You have a family who loves you, who need you. You have a wonderful life ahead of you even if it has hardships, even if it seems impossible sometimes. Promise me that you will never do it. Please. Promise me."

"I promise, grandpa," I said. He took me in his arms and held me tightly.