Lawn Boy

As our SUV made its way down the California coast, I looked out of the tinted window. I wanted to take in as much as possible. It would most likely be a while before I would get to see the jagged cliffs and the white waves crashing upon the rocks and the seagulls and the hot surfers and everything that I loved about living in California.
We coasted through San Francisco, a town I’ve only been to a couple of times. The mound of tall buildings and the near perfect weather never disappointed me. It was easily one of my favorite places that I’ve ever been.
Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge was sort of like a religious experience. I looked up at the tall red cables swaying in the ever present San Francisco wind. My head began to throb, so I stopped looking out of the window. I think my mom decided to take Pacific Coast Highway for one reason – to distract us from the fact that we were actually moving from the best place on Earth.
Bend, Oregon is apparently where mom grew up and where she was taking us. This was phase two of her plan of divorcing dad. The first part of her plan was getting sole custody of me, my brother, and my sister. This part was no problem since dad had a terrible alcohol problem and refused to get help. Now she was moving us to her home; where she grew up.
I actually have two sisters; Ashley and Rebecca. Rebecca’s nineteen so she wasn’t a part of the custody debacle, but she decided to come with us to Oregon anyway. Why? I have no idea. Ashley is sixteen. We’re only ten months apart, so there’s a two month period that we’re the same age. I also have a little brother; Jack. He’s fourteen. He’s the only one that’s excited about moving. He likes to meet new people and he makes friends really quickly.
As for me, I’m Max. I’m seventeen years old and I’m gay. My family has no idea — except for Rebecca, but that wasn’t intentional. She walked in on me and Steven Taylor making out one summer when I was fifteen. Steven was one of those I’m-scared-to-death-about-being-gay types. So, needless to say, he ran out of my house and never spoke to me again. I guess you can say that I’m not really afraid of being gay; I’m just not really ready to shout it from the rooftops. Rebecca understood that and has been good at keeping my secret.
I don’t really make friends as fast as the rest of my siblings do. I’m sort of socially awkward. I never know what to do or say around people and I usually say the wrong thing at the wrong time. That’s when things usually turn awkward and people start to avoid me like the plague. Back home I only had two friends; Gabby and Mike. They were like family to me. I could be myself around them. Though, I didn’t tell them that I’m gay until I was saying goodbye to them. To my surprise, both of them said that they already knew. That was comforting and discomforting at the same time. On one hand, they were still my friends. On the other hand—Was I obvious?