TJ Ch. 03

"Like I told TJ the other night, I don't kiss and tell."

"Hey, can we get back to the fact Josh asked to kiss my boyfriend? So not cool."

"You're no fun either." Josh was sitting there with his lower lip jutted out and his arms crossed over his chest. He was doing a damn good job of pouting.

And that's when Jarrod and Mike walked in the room. Jarrod looked at Josh and laughed. "What did you do now TJ?"

"Me? I didn't do sh...anything. He's upset because I won't let him make out with my boyfriend." Then Jarrod and Mike did something the shocked the hell out of Josh. They got on either side of him and kissed him on the cheeks.

Robert busted out laughing. "Am I the only straight person around here?"

Mike chuckled. "No, Mr. Kennedy. Jarrod and I are straight. But Josh is so much cuter when he smiles. See those adorable dimples." He pinched Josh's cheeks forcing Josh to grace us with said dimples. I hoped Josh realizes he has two amazing friends that will always have his back.

I glanced at the clock and noticed it was only 11:15 am. I had left Sean's a little over an hour ago and I already missed the hell out of him. I found myself checking my phone about every five minutes, looking to see if I missed a call or text from him. If somebody else had been acting like this in front of me, I would've given them hell about it.

Around noon, my phone vibrated and I heard a text alert. I hurried to check it, but it wasn't Sean. It was Verizon letting me know my current bill is available online. Who gives a rat's ass? I started to wonder if everything was alright. I didn't want to call him because I didn't want to interrupt him if he was still talking to Alex. I thought about texting him, but talked myself out it. I didn't want to look clingy.

Honesty time.

If I haven't made it obvious yet, I have trust issues. Major trust issues. Given the events of the past seventeen years, is it really a surprise? That's why I'm going to therapy. My therapist has told me multiple times I need to start trusting someone. I decided to start with Sean. He told me that when he finished talking to Alex, he would come pick me up. I had to trust he was telling me the truth. That doesn't mean it wasn't driving me crazy.

I was about to give in and call him when my phone finally started ringing at a quarter after one. "I was picking up my phone to call you. Where are you?"

"I'm pulling in your driveway."

I ran to the front door and opened it. I noticed a Hispanic guy in the passenger seat, who I assumed was Alex. Sean barely had his truck in park before he opened his door and ran over to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his forehead on mine. I looked up at him and said, "Hey, I missed you. What took so long?"

Before Sean could answer me, I hear the guy behind me start talking. "After he told me, he insisted on telling my mom, my sisters and my Nana. They asked him a million questions about you. Then they got mad at him for not bringing you over to meet them. Good luck when that happens. My mom thinks of Sean as her gringo son. My two older sisters think of him as their brother. My grandmother made him call her Nana since we were five years old."

He slapped me on the back and laughed. "The one you're going to have problems with is my fourteen-year-old sister, Arianna. She's wanted Sean to be her boyfriend since she was seven. She isn't going to be happy to hear he has a boyfriend now. And she's going to be a freshman this year."

I turned around in Sean's arms while Alex spoke to me. "Okay, that was a shitload of information. I'm TJ."

"You can call me Alex or Castro. I'll answer to either. So, how are you related to Mr. Kennedy and Josh?"

I groaned. "You didn't explain it to him before y'all got here?"

Sean laughed. "Nope, that's all on you. I want to see his face when you introduce Josh to him as your brother and then introduce Mr. Kennedy as your brother."

Alex looked like a confused dog, tilting his head sideways, before he finally said, "Huh? How?"

"It's a long story. I guess I need to come up with a shorter version before tomorrow. Okay, short version." I told him the Cliff's Notes version of my story.

Alex still looked confused for a few moments. "Wow that sucks. Sorry about your parents."

We heard the front door open and Josh walked outside followed by Jarrod and Mike. "Hey, you finally made it. Hey Alex." He looked around at everyone and continued, "Damn, there's not enough room in Teej's car for everyone. How are we going to get to the mall?"

He turned to Jarrod and Mike and looked at them. Jarrod spoke up. "You know, we can just head home, that's cool. We'll see y'all tomorrow. Come on Mike, let's go."

I couldn't let them walk away. I was finally out of the funk I had been in all summer and making friends;. People who were willing to stand by and support Josh, Sean, and me. "Hold on a second. Josh can drive the four of y'all in my car and I'll ride with Sean."

Josh looked at me with a broad smile. "Alright, let's go."

"Josh run and tell Robert we're leaving, we're not sure when we'll be home but it won't be late, and grab my keys from the kitchen counter."

Fifteen minutes later, the six of us were walking into the mall. There weren't many people out surprisingly. We went to the major anchor stores, where I tried on designer jeans that made my ass look amazing. The only problem was they cost two hundred and seventy-five dollars. I reluctantly took them off and went over the Levi section.

The best thing was the fact we were all hanging out together, nobody was excluded, and everyone talked to everyone else. After a couple of hours of going from store to store, we were hungry. We decided to grab some food from the food court.

I'm not a big fan of PDA, there's no reason the whole world needs to see me kiss my boyfriend. However, if I want to walk through the mall holding my boyfriend's hand or with his arm draped over my shoulders, I'll do it. Sean didn't object when I grabbed his hand as we were walking towards the food court. He looked at our hands, then back to me and smiled. As we walked into the food court, he moved from holding my hand to draping his arm behind my neck, laying it across my shoulders.

Josh, Alex, Jarrod, and Mike went to use the restroom while Sean and I went to Sbarro to order a pizza. While we were waiting to pay, we heard a voice behind us. "Hey Sean, where's Alex? His mom said he went to the mall with you. And who are you?"

Sean looked at her and smiled. "I swear sometimes, you have a GPS chip somewhere on Alex. He's in the restroom. This is my boyfriend, TJ Kennedy. TJ this is Jenny Landrum, Alex's girlfriend."

She glared at Sean and growled, "He's your what?"

Sean repeated, very slowly, "Boyfriend."

"You're shitting me. You're gay and you never told anyone? So, that's why you broke up with Amber? Does she know?"

Sean shook his head. "No, not yet. I'm sure she suspects, but she's never asked and I've never had a reason to tell. Until now. But, please, let her hear it from me. I need to tell her myself and I want her to meet TJ. Let her see how happy he makes me."

"I won't say anything to her tonight. But you better tell her before tomorrow morning." She then turned and examined me. Robert and I look enough like our dad that you can tell we're related. "Kennedy? As in assistant principal Kennedy and his son Josh? How are you related to them?" There was venom in her voice. Her arms were crossed and she stood there glaring at me.

I couldn't hide the anger in my voice when I answered. "First off, who Sean tells and when he does it is our business, not yours. So, you don't get to dictate when anything happens. I don't even see how it would concern you at all. Second, how I am related to Robert and Josh is, once again, none of your business. So, do me a favor and get out of mine." I turned and grabbed the pizza. Before I walked away, I turned back and said, "Oh, and just an FYI, they're my brothers. Figure that one out, bitch."

I didn't wait for Sean. I walked towards the nearest empty table I could find that was big enough for all of us. I didn't expect to see a smiling Jenny following me. "You know, nobody's called me a bitch to my face and gotten away with it. I think I'm going to like you." I realized she was trying to apologize.

"Yeah, and if that was an apology, it sucked."

She looked around and saw that nobody was there yet. "If you ever tell Sean I said this I'll deny it and say that you're lying. I'm sorry."

I smiled. "Now, was that hard? Sit down and claim a slice before the savages get here and destroy everything." She sat down next to me and we started eating.

"Are you going to tell me how Mr. Kennedy and Josh are both your brothers?"

"It's a long story, but Robert is my biological father," I started, and the told her the same condensed version I told earlier.

Just as I finished, everyone walked up to the table. Sean looked at Jenny and me and smiled. "I knew y'all were going to hit it off." He looked at Alex and continued, "You owe me twenty dollars."

I had a feeling I didn't want to know, but I asked, "Why does Alex now owe you twenty?"

Jenny picked up on my feeling I think, because she crossed her arms and glared at Alex. "Yeah, Alex. Why would you now owe Sean twenty?"

Our boyfriends had the decency to look sheepish at least. Sean mumbled, "We had a bet."

I suppressed my grin. "And what was that bet?"

"We bet on who would tell the other off first and who would be the first to apologize."

I looked at Jenny and smirked before looking at Sean. "If you bet that I would tell her off first and Jenny would apologize first you were only half right. So, Alex only owes you ten." I winked at Jenny and continued, "That bitch didn't apologize for shit."

Jenny smiled. "And I won't. So, you only won half the bet."

"Why don't y'all just give us twenty dollars each and keep your significant others happy."

"And when we're happy, life will be so much easier for you two," Jenny finished.

We both held out our hands and waited. Alex and Sean looked at each other and pulled out their wallets. They handed us twenty dollars each. By that time, the others had already sat down and started devouring the pizza. Josh was snickering, while Jarrod and Mike were outright laughing. I looked at Jenny and asked, "Are you still hungry? I'm starving. You're buying. Let's go."

As we walked away, arm in arm, I heard Alex say, "Fuck bro, we're dating the same fucking person, aren't we?"

Jenny and I laughed. When we were finally away from everyone, I asked, "So, you're Amber's best friend?"

"Don't worry, she's going to love you. She's Sean's friend and wants to him to be happy."

"Okay, good. But, just for the record, I wasn't worried about that at all."

"Of course you weren't. I know."

We picked up a slice of pizza each and went back to the table. We didn't leave the mall until six, and then only because it was closing. Jenny and I gave each other a hug and she agreed to meet me in the morning before school. She and Alex left together, Josh drove Jarrod and Mike home, and Sean drove me home.

We sat in his truck when we got back to the house and talked about nothing important. I didn't want to get out because I knew that meant I wouldn't see him again till the morning. About fifteen minutes after we arrived, the headlights of my car pulled in and Josh parked next to the truck. He smiled and waved at us as he passed.

I smiled and said, "I'm really happy he's okay now. He's a strong person. He is genuinely happy. He doesn't let anything keep him down." I paused for a few moments. "So, how are we going to handle tomorrow? I know if I see you in the halls I won't be able to just wave and say hi. I would like to be able to give you a hug, but if you're not ready for that, it's fine. Part of me is scared shitless to start my senior year and immediately come out of the closet. But if the past three days have been an indication, we have to be touching each other if we're in the same room. I think we'll be pretty conspicuous sitting in the cafeteria holding hands."

Sean chuckled. "I've noticed that too. I'm not afraid to walk through the front doors tomorrow morning holding your hand. But before we do, I need to talk to Amber. I'll call her on my way home and see if she'll meet me before school. I want you to be there. Will you meet me in the parking lot about 7:15 tomorrow morning? That will give us forty-five minutes to talk to Amber before school starts."

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning at 7:15. Call me before you go to bed."

"I was already planning on it. Bye babe." He leaned over and kissed me. The only thought in my head was- This is going to be a great year. Nothing's going to change that.

Stupid me for me for thinking. I walked into the house to find Josh red-faced, crying and screaming at Robert. "This is such fucking bullshit, Dad. Why would Mom do this to me?"