The Sight (bxb)

Chapter 15 - Parents - Part 2

Maybe that's why it took him so long to accept the idea that his mate might eventually be someone other than a boy. His parents never accepted that it could be anyone other than a girl. A compromise was not something that was a tradition in his family. Likewise, a different sexual orientation. Having an opposite-sex mate was standard, something normal that wasn't ruined easily. So when he has seen a field with boys, he thought damn, he was also a boy as if a girl would never play with boys. As it was another thing that he just couldn't do right. Everything in his life always seemed black and white, and he wasn't doing anything to change that. At least until recently.

Maybe he was doing this on purpose. With homophobic parents, a lack of interest in his pack, a small group of friends that mainly consisted of humans, and this internal chaos in him that was there for a long time, maybe, just maybe, he felt like he didn't deserve anything easy. Having a female mate was definitely easy. He wouldn't have to be scared to tell his parents, and since she would be a wolf, he wouldn't have to deal with the huge secret of being a werewolf alone. They could have a happily ever after, living in a house in their neighbourhood, helping the pack with everything they could. Life would be easy. However, to him, easy was boring.

Sometimes he wished he weren't born a wolf. He loved his parents (as he said, the family was everything to wolves), but he still wished he was some anomaly – a human child of werewolf parents. Then they wouldn't expect much of him. He couldn't – he didn't want to disappoint them, even when he knew it was irreversible. Once he finally stopped dodging the talk they so desperately needed to have, they would find out that he didn't really care about things they loved deeply. They would know that for him it has always been a never-ending war between his head and his heart. His head was telling him that he should just pretend – that he was happy, that he loved his pack, and that he didn't miss Riley... As for his heart, it was telling him the exact opposite. Occasionally he thought how his life would look like if he could have it all – a chance to experiment with his sexual orientation, a chance to be his true self, a chance to tell his friends his secret, but most importantly a chance to leave the pack and see the world.

When he was younger, he once saw this show on TV. There was a family that lived in this big apartment in New York. They weren't exactly rich, but they managed. The father was the owner of the gallery, an ex-rock star. His wife left him, but he never lost his enthusiasm. He supported his kids no matter what, and it really showed. They got a scholarship to this exclusive high school and got a chance to fulfil their dreams. The boy became an author, and his sister was a young but well-known fashion designer. They all worked hard, fell in love many times, and found new friends, but mostly they did so many memorable things on their way to adulthood. He immediately fell in love with the idea. He wanted the exact same thing for himself. All of this, including a sumptuous breakfast.

When he looked back, it was really naïve. There wasn't any chance for him to live like that, but boy could hope, couldn't he? In his perfect reality, he was living in New York, possibly with Angie as a roommate, studying something like art or literature, and enjoying his free nights in some fancy club where they would serve tea in the day and cocktails at night. And whenever he would feel sad in that big city, he would call home and hear his parents assuring him that he still had a place with them and that they missed him.

But as he said, it was just a dream. And he's learned the hard way a long time ago that dreams don't come true.

---

"You're grounded?"

Currently, it was lunch period, and the group of friends was sitting on the bench outside. After weeks, it was finally nice outside, so they were enjoying the sun as much as they could. Evan sometimes felt more like a cat than a wolf with how much he adored the sun's rays.

"Yep, my parents apparently think you guys have a bad influence on me or something," he smirked. He acted as if it was a normal parental thing to do even when he knew it was far from it. At least the full version of the story was.

"That sucks, man. What did we even do?" Josh looked genuinely confused. Evan thought it wasn't what they did but who they were. Which sounded too stupid to say aloud even when it was the truth.

"You ask me," he shrugged, "I guess they think I should rather spend my time with decent kids in our neighbourhood."

"Isn't Angie a kid from your neighbourhood, though?" Aiden asked, and Evan couldn't help but laugh at that.

"If by being decent they mean acting like Angie, then we are definitely far from decent," Josh caught on quickly and even made a face that made him laugh even harder.

"I love you, guys," Evan told them affectionately. Again, he felt more at home with his friends than he did in his actual house. He couldn't even remember the last time he had said the same sentence to his parents.

"Awww. Save that for Kieran." Josh pushed me playfully with his shoulder. Evan wouldn't be surprised at all if he and Angie had a secret club where they made up puns about their non-existent relationship (well, semi-functioning relationship).

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Evan rolled his eyes, his thoughts quickly moving to the blue-eyed boy. Despite being in a bad mood because of his parents, Kieran, even only in his thoughts, could always cheer him up. And that was exactly the reason why he entered school in the morning with the biggest grin on his face. That and also the fact that Kieran was waiting for him by his locker with coffee in hand. Both his heart and his love for caffeine were fulfilled.

"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" Aiden nudged him from another side with a big smile on his face.

"Shut up!" Evan nudged him back but beamed right after. He didn't have to pretend in front of his friends, so he could at least allow himself to be truly happy for a while.

"See? Three seconds ago, he loved me, and now he wants me to shut up," Aiden complained to Josh.

"I take it back," Evan quickly chipped in. An innocent smile played on his lips.

"You shouldn't, or I tell your parents that, in fact, you are the bad influence here." Aiden threatened him with his index finger. He tried so hard not to laugh but was failing miserably. The corners of his mouth were twitching, and Evan knew it was only a matter of seconds before he would give in. It was almost impossible to anger Aiden. He was always a ball of happiness and Evan often envied his good mood and optimism. Once upon a time, he hoped that if he spent enough time with him, he would become infected with his positive outlook on the world.

"You wouldn't," Evan fake-gasped. It wasn't his common reaction but talking with those two made him somehow lively. Especially after that fight with his parents. Compared to the atmosphere at home, this one was light as a feather.

"What a bunch of a-holes." This time it wasn't a male voice talking. Evan looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun, and smiled. Despite the insult directed their way, he was pleased by her presence.

"I don't see a bunch, only you," Aiden swiftly responded to her, clearly proud of his comeback.

"They're definitely the bad influence," Josh told him in a low tone, so only he could hear him. Angie must have heard him too, but since she had no way of hearing it as a human, she didn't react.

Ironically, the ones who had the worst influence on him (according to his parents) were also the people who cared about him the most. Like he said many times before, his life was a mess.

You know, he was starting to think that maybe he was the princess who needed to be saved, he just didn't have long enough hair to run it down the tower.