Love Is Always Write Volume 4
your partner home to meet the family. Last year he'd gone home solo for the holidays and Chad had missed his lover so much over the three days that he'd spent more time talking to him on the phone than with his parents or brother.
But apparently, his brother Steve didn't agree that bringing home a partner was the right thing to do at all. Well, maybe a partner… but not Zeb. Not someone Steve saw as inappropriate.
Really not wanting to think about his asshole brother at all, Chad grimaced as he tried to find a space in the crowd around him where he could be out of the way. But then the opening act was introduced and most of the people started to move closer to the stage like ants to the picnic food. Good, he thought. Space. Either memories or the crowds were making him claustrophobic and he needed some room to breathe. He scanned the area and spotted a nice slightly shadowed little niche over by the bar. Perfect.
But as he made his way to it slowly, going against the crowd, he bumped into a short blonde girl. She looked up and smiled broadly.
"Well hi there, handsome!" The girls around her giggled as she introduced herself and tried to make conversation with Chad. Idle chat about the band and asking if he was a fan. He tried to be friendly and still inch away, but she'd either already had too much to drink or just didn't take a hint. Finally, feeling trapped, he blurted, "I'm gay."
"Okaaaaayyyy." She said, giving him a strange cocked head expression. "Still, did you want to join me and my friends?" She indicated the group behind her and he felt bad. The blonde had obviously just been trying to be nice and he came off as an ass.
He gave her a sheepish smile. "I'm, uh…" He nodded towards the bar. "I'm just getting a drink and then I have to find my friends." He just wanted to be by himself; was that too much to ask? The first song started, making talk impossible now anyway. She nodded and smiled before walking away with her friends and joining the crowd.
Chad got his new drink from the bar and settled in the niche he'd seen earlier. The opening act, he hadn't caught their name, was decent but didn't hold his attention. No, it seemed the only thing that could hold his attention tonight was the memory of everything Zeb. But of course, what else had he expected? Opening old wounds did that. And hopefully, after tonight, some of those wounds would heal.
Not really wanting it to, his mind went back to his brother. Chad hadn't seen him in over two years now; not since Thanksgiving, the last holiday he bothered to make an appearance at his parents' home. When he'd arrived without Zeb – he hadn't bothered to tell his family of Zeb's move to California since they obviously hadn't cared – Steve had asked him where his 'little musician boyfriend' was. Chad could only see the condescending smirk on his face as downright evil and hated telling his brother the truth. By this time he hadn't heard from Zeb since May and knew things were over, but admitting it to his brother was like eating glass. Instead of any sympathy or even one word of understanding, the 'I told you so' looks continued from his family throughout the day and he decided that that was it. He was done with these fools that obviously cared more about appearances and what they considered their own superiority than their flesh and blood.
But still, any time something reminded him of his family all he remembered was that smirk on his brother's face and how he wished Steve hadn't been right. It always brought him back to that fight; how Steve had ambushed him outside the apartment on a Friday after work, wanting a 'conversation' that was really more of a lecture on why bringing Zeb home for the holidays would be a mistake. And the part that argument played to the beginning of the end of his relationship with Zeb.
It wasn't anything Steve had said or done, although everything that had come out of his mouth was wrong. No, it had been when Chad had gotten fed up with Steve's attitude that the only reason Chad was involved with 'someone like Zeb' was to rebel against the family, and he'd wanted to scream at his brother that the reason he was with Zeb was because he loved him.
He'd stopped himself short then, astonished that he'd been about to tell his brother something so personal that he hadn't even told Zeb yet, and that had seemed just… wrong. For a few moments he hadn't listened to a word his brother said as he thought about it and knew it was time. He
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