Do You See Me Now? ✔

Chapter 30 - The Peaceful

Saturday, November 24th

     Jesse's entire life was flipped upside down, and in the past few weeks every single lie he ever told came out.

Yet none of his friends had abandoned him. On the contrary, Calix and his family had offered him a place to stay, Axel was there for him whenever he wanted to rant, and nobody had given him trouble for his sexuality.

Well, nobody, except his mother and Felipe.

On Tuesday, he had seen both of them when he went to pick up a few more things from home, accompanied by Loek and Calix.

Jesse hadn't expected anyone to be home, so he was surprised to find Felipe there, picking up stuff too, while his mother kept telling him they were done whenever Felipe begged her to change her mind and let him back in.

What he hadn't thought of, was the fact he was walking hand in hand with Loek when they walked through the back garden, towards the backdoor.

And as soon as he had opened it, both Felipe and his mother were staring at him in shock. Well, in Felipe's case it had been disgust instead of shock.

And the first think he said was "so you're not only useless, but you're a fag too."

And instead of feeling afraid, Jesse felt brave enough with Loek and Calix right by his side to answer. "Yeah, I'm gay, deal with it." And they had walked past them towards his room to grab the last few things.

Jesse had been a bit shaky after that, but he hadn't showed any fear towards Felipe. Now that child protection was investigating everything, and people knowing about Felipe's treatment towards Jesse, he felt safe enough.

He had friends, he had the Milonas family taking him in as if he was one of their own, and he had Loek who had promised to be right beside him throughout everything that was going to come. A trial, graduation, college; everything.

And Jesse believed him, even if it had been only a few days since they apologized.

And on Saturday, a week after Jesse had visited Loek for the first time in his hometown, he had gone back, and was introduced to Loek's parents. Not because Loek expected his mother to accept it, but to see how she would react now that she was ill.

"You're a friend of Loek?" she asked, shaking Jesse's hand with a warm smile on his face. "Have you known each other for long? I don't remember meeting you before."

"That's because you haven't met him before, mom," Loek told her, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and back. "And he's not just a friend either."

Jesse's eyes darted back and forth between Mrs. Lindenberg, and Mr. Lindenberg. The latter was now staring at Loek with big eyes, panic visible in his eyes, while he shook his head to tell Loek not to continue.

Loek continued anyway.

"We're dating."

Jesse awkwardly cleared his throat while Mr. Lindenberg let out an exhausted sigh and Mrs. Lindenberg was now staring back and forth between the two of them.

"Dating?" She asked with a squeaky voice. "What do you mean, Loek?"

"I mean that I'm gay, and in love with Jesse," Loek calmly told her, while he was still unable to stand still. Jesse felt him shake beside him, and as if it was his second nature, he slid his hand into Loek's and squeezed reassuringly.

"Are you... are you..." Mrs. Lindenberg stammered. "Gay?"

"Yeah, and you knew that, but then you got sick and you wondered why I was never home anymore. So now you know why I wasn't. You kicked me out before."