Gentle, Please! [boyxboy]

Chapter 24

_Chapter 24_

Elliot Warren

"No why must we always go to your place, let me get home for once, too." I can't believe that I was seriously forced to complain just to convince Ricky to come over to my house. "Didn't you just say that you owe me one?"

"And what do you want me to do?" He asked when he finally decided to get in the house and close the front door behind him.

"I was thinking about relaxing a bit. Because I just feel sluggish and tense, and somewhat sore," I shrugged.

"Then," he grinned like he was scheming something evil. "What about me massaging you?"

"Huh?" I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion. We all now that his certain understanding of 'massaging' was not the same as mine. I bet it was not even PG13. Therefore, I wanted to release some fitting remark that suited his cunning expression enough when suddenly my Mom's voice grabbed my attention.

"Elliot? Is that you?" I just heard the steps at first before she actually showed her face. But her expression dropped all the way from the sky to the ground when her eyes met Ricky. "Oh hello Rick. I didn't expect you here, you rarely come over nowadays," she smiled nonetheless as he greeted her back.

Her eyes switched to mine instantly, obviously demanding something from me, doing it obvious enough that even Ricky noticed. "Uh I should probably go ahead first," he excused himself and left to head to my room, leaving Mom and me alone.

"C'mon Mom, are you still all against him?" I sighed. Since the day I confessed she kept acting a little distant which was so unlike the mother I knew that was 24/7 on my heels.

"I'm not against Rick, he's a really nice guy after all. And I'm glad that it's at least him and not some random kid." I slowly approached her so I wouldn't be staying at the front door anyway. "But it's just not what I expected. Do you really like him that much? You're not confusing anything are you?"

"Mom how would I confuse something like that?"

"I don't know, maybe because you were never around people that much and having someone so unusually close may have triggered similar illusion of liking someone or-" I didn't even let her finish, knowing where she was going for in her theory.

"It's not. It's not even that hard to comprehend, I just happen to fall for Ricky. There's no complicated explanation behind it." That is when she remained silent for some time.

"It's hard to wrap my mind around it, though," she sighed in disappointment and exhaustion. And as an effect, it made me feel really bad. That I wasn't able to live up to her standards. When all she probably wanted was to lead a normal life with a normal kid. Instead I turned out to be a disabled gay introvert.

"I'm sorry, Mom." My gaze landed on the ground. "I'm really sorry."

"What are you saying? Sweetie, you don't have to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong." She instantly pulled me close and comforted me, even though it felt more like she partly did it for herself. "I will always love you. No matter what!"

"That's corny," I pointed out.

"Oh shut up!" She jokingly punched me and laughed, triggering a little chuckle out of me and yet, still brushed the tear that had threatened to fall.

"I think I have to go, Ricky is probably tired of waiting by now," I slowly let go of her.

"Yeah do that," she waved me off.

"We'll be closing the door, though." I teased her a little by pointing that out just to loosen the remaining tension in the air at least a little bit.