Externalizing [mxm]

Chapter 19

Brendan and Whitney stared each other down in silence for a few seconds—inspecting and taking in each other. Marc stiffly supervised, glancing between the two and waiting for the bomb to go off.

"Nice to meet you," Brendan finally spoke up, putting his hand out.

"Same. He's been telling me a lot about you," Whitney said, giving his hand a quick shake. "Thanks for finally pulling this one out of the closet."

"He'd never met a gay person before, actually," Brendan informed with a playful wink.

Marc groaned and stepped in then. "Yeah, make fun of me."

"Of course. I have to give you a little shit for it," Whitney said. "But I can see, going for the bad boy, huh?" She gave Brendan an appreciative once over.

Brendan blushed and started getting awkward with his arms and exposed tattoos—there wasn't really a good way for him to hide them unless he changed shirts. "I'm an art teacher, thank you very much," Brendan grumbled defensively.

Ariel came running up then, grabbing Whitney by the hand. "Mom, you have to meet Eric," she insisted.

There had been a fair turn out for her party—about ten kids in all, which was a little less than half of her class. Marc, Scott, and Alice were the only parents that had stuck around. The rest had taken it as an opportunity to be without their kids for a few hours.

Whitney let herself be dragged off to meet Eric, and then Alice and Scott. "Not too bad, I guess," Marc muttered thankfully.

"She's pretty," Brendan commented. "Sucks that you're gay, then," he added with a snickering laugh.

Marc rolled his eyes and leaned back against the wall with Brendan at his side. "I'm thinking of letting Ariel go out to Ireland with her for a few weeks this summer. I'd fly out and back with Ariel or something so she's not alone, though."

Brendan nodded quietly, watching as Ariel took Whitney around and showed her off like a new toy. "Is she going to move back stateside?"

"Maybe. She might, but it would be in like a year for her to get everything in place. I guess she's kind of got a life over in Ireland," Marc explained. "All I can imagine are a bunch of gingers, pubs, and soccer fans over there."

"Football," Brendan corrected him with an accented drawl. "Only American's call it soccer."

"Yeah, yeah. Same difference." Marc gave him a flick on the arm. "You're okay with her though?"

"It'll take more time to get to know her, but yeah," Brendan said. "It'll be good for Ariel too I think, though the distance part would be hard. It would be better if Whitney moved back here."

They started a round of watching Lilo and Stitch with all of the adults lingering in the kitchen while the kids got absorbed into the movie. Marc could tell Alice wasn't really fond of Whitney, but probably because she still was stuck on the idea that Whitney had left. Marc hoped she would get over it soon enough.

Scott was able to get Whitney with a few fake spiders, as she was the only fresh blood there for his entertainment. Eventually she started smacking him with her purse in good humor until he agreed to stop. They had the cake and presents after the movie then, before letting the kids play around as their parents all came back at the designated time.

Marc grudgingly let Whitney take Ariel home to her parents for the night as well, giving him and Brendan a proper chance to clean up afterwards. Marc sorted all of the presents into a pile and threw away the wrappings, while Brendan cleaned up paper plates and plastic forks. He stopped a few times to check his phone, but seemed content on ignoring it.