34 The Carter House

As we passed by the living room, I could see Nathan's parents on the sofa binging some TV show. His dad, whom I call Mr. Carter, saw me and waved. His mom, whom I call Aunt Lizzy, had a more enthusiastic wave. They were both really nice people who've, like Tegan, treated me really nice whenever I came over.

I had to admit, when they first moved here, I thought Nathan's dad was really hot. Like Nathan, his dad Bernard had deep brown complexion and really handsome features. I bet he looked exactly like his son when he was young. But I couldn't tell Nathan that, could I?

His room was on the far end of the corridor, past the bathroom and Tegan's old room. Once we got in, Nathan closed the door behind him and locked the door.

"What do you want to do?" I asked, sitting on the bed.

"Hmm," Nathan was thinking. "How about we watch a movie on my laptop?"

"Oh, sure." It wasn't what I expected.

"What do you want to watch?" He grabbed his MacBook and sat on the bed, next to me.

"I've been wanting to watch this one on Netflix," I put my hands on his shoulders. "It's a cool new movie about some bird in a box, I think."

"The one with Sandra Bullock? I don't think it's about birds, silly."

The movie began to play, but we weren't all that focused in it anyway. The both of us certainly already had something else in mind; the movie was just to make things more comfortable.

-----

"Hey, can you pause?" I yawned during one of the scenes.

"What is it?" Nathan pressed pause on his laptop.

"I just wanna piss. Wait for me."

I stepped out of the room and along the hallway towards the bathroom, also bumping into Nathan's mom Aunt Lizzy.

"Hi, Aunt Lizzy," I politely waved.

"Luca," She called. "Come 'ere."

I followed her to the other side of the hallway. She turned around and spoke quietly.

"How are things between you and Nate?"

"Oh, we're good."

"Hehe, don't give me that answer," She gave me a smile. "I know about you two."

"Huh?" I tilted my head in confusion, then upon realizing what she'd meant I lowered my head in embarrassment.

She knew.

"Tegan actually told me about it." She chuckled. "And just so you know. I'm completely fine with it. Bernard's fine with it too."

I was silent in embarrassment.

"Haha, you're a good kid." She continued. "I'm glad he chose you. Go make a move on him, Luca. You know how shy he is."

I politely nodded and grinned, my face flushed red.

"I won't bother you two then," She was smiling ear to ear when she turned and left for the stairs.

What the fuck just happened? Now Nathan's family knew that we were both gay, I screamed internally.

-----

While we were continuing watching the movie, a text popped up on my screen. I grabbed the phone to see the notification.

It read, "Message from TRAVIS ;)".

This wasn't my phone.

"Who's Travis?" I asked Nathan who was concentrating on the movie.

"Oh!" He took the phone. "That's just an old pal, haha."

"How come you've never mentioned him?" I was genuinely curious.

"Cause we weren't like close or whatever."

"Then why the winky face in his name?"

Nathan sighed and put his hands up.

"Okay, okay," He said. "If you really wanna know, I met him at a club like two years ago and we hooked up. But that was it, we haven't been texting in forever."

"Why didn't you tell me about him? I'm your best friend." I said.

"I was embarrassed about it, okay?" He looked down. "I was not in a good… place then and he just came into my life all of a sudden."

I vaguely recalled a period of time when Nathan had been strangely not returning my calls at night, but I didn't think much of it then.

"I'm just kind of surprised you didn't tell me about it," I continued. "But I mean, you can go date him, right?"

Nathan bit his lip. "I think I only like him as a sex partner."

"What does he look like then?" I questioned.

He unlocked his phone and tapped onto his Instagram.

"Travis Samuels," his Instagram read. "20 and gay, pole artist and backup dancer for @NikosDrake"

Travis was a fit male with a buzz cut and very thick lips. His Instagram had a lot of mirror selfies, as well as photos of him posing with friends, who were mainly guys.

"He is hot," I commented. "Seems like I'm not the only one getting dick after all!"

We both laughed as he put away his phone.

"Why's he texting you then?" I gave him a nudge. "Is he trying to hook up again?"

"He just said 'hey'." Nathan read the message. "And he sent a heart emoji."

"Go meet him!" I encouraged.

"Fine, I guess I'll reply to him later."

He clicked play on his laptop as we kept on watching the movie.

-----

"Oh yeah," I turned to Nathan when he paused the movie to get a drink.

"What's up?" He asked.

"When I went to piss earlier, your mom literally just told me the whole family knew we were gay."

"Yea," He rolled his eyes. "I know about that already."

"You do?"

"My sister told my mom some time ago and she was all, 'is that why you never bring any girls home?'"

I chuckled.

"Well, I'm glad they accept me for who I am and hopefully they won't make a big deal out of it either." He spoke.

"You know what else your mom said?" I smirked. "She literally told me to make a move on you first cause you were shy!" I emphasized the word 'shy' as a tease.

"Well, she ain't wrong," Nathan inched in closer to me.

I felt his hand now placed on my lap.

"You gonna listen to her advice or what?" He sniggered.

I pulled his face close to mine and we kissed, our hands now all over each other.