Life is unfair.
It favours some people and laughs in the face of others. But I guess life never promised to be fair, just kind of offhandedly mentioned that it was a possibility. Still, if life decides to laugh in your face while giving out natural...
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It's almost one in the morning when there's a knock at my bedroom door. I haven't gotten any sleep since my parents confronted me and very clearly informed me that they know about my relationship with Nash. I get up to answer it, finding my brother on the other side. He looks like he's gotten about as much sleep as I have.
"Axel," he breathes, reaching out to pull me into a tight hug. I hug him back, wanting to just break down but forcing myself to stay together. "I'm so sorry. I tried to call you when they got here, but you weren't picking up your phone. And then I had to wait for them to go to bed before I could come check on you."
I pull away, tugging him inside and closing and locking the door behind him. "My phone was off. I was with Nash."
"I figured that much." He slumps onto my couch, sighing deeply. "It was a trap. Their business trip. They wanted you to bring Nash here- they put a camera in the library. And the basement. And your room. As soon as they came home, I could tell they knew just by the way they asked me where you were, so I looked around and found the cameras. I removed them, obviously, but it's too late now."
"What am I supposed to do?" I whisper, falling onto the couch beside him. "Run away? They're going to kick me out anyways. It's just a matter of time, and how much they can hurt me beforehand."
Jason grabs me by the shoulders, giving me an intense look. "Hey, no. Don't go anywhere. I'm going to talk to them, okay? I'll figure something out. And I'm not going to let them talk to you alone again. Even if they do try to kick you out, they're going to have to go through me first."
I relax a little, blinking back tears. "Okay. Thank you, Jase."
"Of course, you're my baby brother." He puts an arm around my shoulders, giving me a comforting squeeze. "Now. Tell me everything about your boyfriend. I need the facts if I'm going to defend you."
I could make a joke or say that he doesn't need to know everything, but knowing my parents, he probably does. So I tell him everything- when I first started liking Nash, when we got together, how Kiera and Daily found out, the resulting month-long break, and then after that. With extra detail for everything our parents will definitely know about- yesterday in the library especially. I'm not really embarrassed telling all of this to Jason, for a few reasons. One- Nash and I haven't really done anything that embarrassing or private. We haven't honestly had the chance to. Two- Jase is my brother and I trust him more than I trust anyone else on the face of this planet. And three- because this is a really terrifying situation and I'm not feeling a whole lot of emotions aside from sheer terror and dread.
"Okay," Jason says once I've finished. "Okay. That's... not terrible. Only two people knew, other than me? For sure?"
"I'm pretty sure. I mean, we tried to keep it under wraps as best we could, because of this exact thing. But. You know me. I've been ready to come out for years. It's tiring to sneak around, so some of my other friends might have picked up on the flirty smiles and stuff."
