Caged Mentality

POV: Khristos Larkin

“Would you pay attention!”

It was worded as a question, but the way he said it definitely was not a question. It was a command. It was funny how he thought raising his voice a bit was going to get me to listen.

“Jeez, take this serious for once.” Riel rolled his eyes at me. I always annoyed him on Wednesdays from 10 to 11 AM.

“I don’t see the point…” I stated, catching the book that Riel threw at me and examining the cover. It was something about social disorders. How boring. I tossed it aside.

“You’re here to learn how to deal with your anger. Not daydream or anything else!” He scolded, but I wasn’t listening to him. My mind was elsewhere. I just stared at him, then the wall, silent. After a moment, I looked at Riel again, my expression blank.

“When do I get to meet your whole family?”

As soon as I finished the sentence, his expression became dull. I guess I was just pissing him off more. Oh well. “They aren’t worth it. Now focus on the session.” He ordered, throwing a pen at me. He sure liked chucking things at me today. “Not your personal life with Riel.”

“Can we go today?” I asked hopefully, clicking the pen repeatedly. “I don’t have to work tonight.”

“You don’t want to. My family… Isn’t supportive.”

Of what? Me? They don’t like him being with a guy? They probably didn’t even know Riel was dating me yet. I don’t see why he’d tell them… I guess I’ll have to do it myself.

“I want to.” I insisted. “You met my dad and I’m sure you’ll meet Roman eventually, so I should get to meet your family.”

“You won’t let this go?” Did I ever let things go when I wanted them? “Will you take sessions more seriously if I let you?”

I considered my answer, and nodded, although it probably wasn’t gonna happen. I just couldn’t take these things seriously, really… “I guess. When are you done working?”

“One more appointment left today.” He replied. “I gotta call up my mom anyway to tell her. Come back in an hour I guess.” He let out a sigh as he pulled out that clipboard he always had here and wrote something down. What he wrote, I’ll probably never know.

“Okay.” I stood and took the pen back to Riel’s desk, then pecked his lips. “See you later then.”

“I told you no kissing me!” He reminded, eyes slit into a glare. He knew full well I would never follow that rule, and to prove it, I smirked and kissed him once more.

-x-

“Ready to go now?” Riel questioned, standing in the doorway and taking out his keys. “I told them I was bringing a friend over with me.”

“Yeah,” I stood, “Let’s go.” I headed out the door, Riel following me.

“So don’t be kissing me around them.” He set another rule I’m sure he knew I wouldn’t follow. How funny. We got in his car and headed out.

“You know I’m not going to follow that rule. I’m not pretending to be just your friend.”

“You never listen…” Great observation. “Just don’t kiss me. I told you my family isn’t supportive.”

“I’m not making any promises.” I smirked. He knew that.

“Of course not…”

We soon arrived at the white, two-story house. I noticed Eli was standing on the porch, waiting for us, I’d guess. I unbuckled my seatbelt, as did Riel.

“Welcome to hell.” He said as we got out of the car, heading up to the house. Eli immediately hugged Riel tightly.

“Riel!” He exclaimed, then grinned at me. “Hello, Kris.”

“Hey.” I greeted with my hands in my pockets. I stared at him blankly, still not sure what to think about Riel having a twin. What if I somehow mixed them up, or they played some kind of prank on me?

Oh well.

“What the hell are you wearing, Riel?” Eli laughed as he pulled us both inside.

“Clothes. What else?” Riel replied. He sounded annoyed or something.

“Someone’s touchy.”

We got into the living room and the man I assumed to be the father stood.

“And who’s this?” He questioned, motioning to me. He couldn’t just ask me himself? I was standing right there.

“Kris.” Riel replied, his gaze fixed on the floor. Yeah, he wasn’t gonna tell him any more than that. So I did it myself.

“I’m his boyfriend.” I added, staring at the guy. I didn’t understand why Riel didn’t want them to know. What could they possibly do?

“Boyfriend?” He repeated in a questioning, maybe somewhat skeptical tone. There was a brief pause before he spoke again. “I’m William Carlin.” He just stared at me for a second before glaring at Riel. “What the hell, kid!”

Riel didn’t respond, just stood there biting his lip. Why couldn’t he stand up for himself?

“I swear… You’re just going through a stage… Grow out of it already. You can’t be gay. Eli isn’t.” Bill Bastard pointed at Eli. He sure was spewing nonsensical shit.

“It’s not a stage…” Riel stated quietly. That was the best he could do?

“Yes it is! Shit… I didn’t raise a gay son!”

I guess he didn’t raise Riel.

“Dad, just leave him be.” Eli interjected, but Daddy Douchebag didn’t like that.

“Shut it, Eli.” The man glared daggers at Eli, then shifted his gaze to Riel. “Stop this shit now.”

Okay, my turn.

“Jeez, what the fuck’s your problem? Riel’s 24, he doesn’t even live with you anymore. You can’t tell him what to do.” I informed, annoyed with this asshole. “What’s the big deal anyway? There’s nothing wrong with being gay.”

“I didn’t raise a pansy gay son.” Mr. Fucker reinforced the fact he did not raise Riel. “I’ll treat my kid how I want. So drop it.”

“We’re gonna go…” Eli stated, then pulled Riel and me out of the room. Eli went up the stairs first, Riel dragging himself up behind him. I just stood at the base of the stairs.

“I can’t stand him…” Riel said, his eyes locked on the floor. It pissed me off that Riel’s dad was making him like that.

“Hey, what the hell? I wasn’t done talking to that bastard! If neither of you are going to stand up to him, I will!” I turned, heading back to the living room, fuming with anger.

“Need something?” Bill Bastard asked, glaring at me. “I have nothing against you, just my son.”

“If you have something against him for being gay, then you must have something against me, I’m gay too. Or is it just because you can’t stand having a son that isn’t ‘normal?’” I demanded, crossing my arms. I wasn’t letting this guy think he could be so cruel to Riel and get away with it.

“It doesn’t matter. Eli is straight, Riel should be too. Even Timmy is straight!” He stated. I guess he was saying that since they were triplets, they had to have the same sexual orientation. I had no idea whether that was true or not. “Nothing says Riel is gay. He’s straight, wishing he was gay.”

“Nothing says Riel is gay? So what says Eli is straight?” I questioned.

“Eli sleeps around with chicks. He’s only ever been around women. Riel wasn’t into guys until Greg… He was seventeen…”

“How would you know? Riel’s with me now anyway, so by your logic, that should be proof he’s gay. And, Eli could be bi for all you know.”

“Eli isn’t bi and Riel isn’t gay.” He stated. Of course he’s going to be hard headed…

“So Riel’s been pretending to be gay since he was seventeen? You can’t exactly pretend. Would you be able to fake being attracted to someone you aren’t really attracted to? For seven years?”

“He’s been with girls too. He’s just in a phase, Kris. Of course you’d be defensive… And he doesn’t date, nor does Eli.”

This guy was being so unreasonable…

“Yeah? Then what’s he doing with me? You should just accept the fact your kid is gay and stop being such a prick.”

“You don’t really know my son.” He glared at me. Oh, I’m the one that doesn’t know Riel? Wow… This guy was way off. “Just go upstairs or something.”

And now he thought he could tell me what to do. Holy shit he was pissing me off. “Obviously I know him better than you do. And don’t fucking tell me what to do, I’m not your kid.” I ordered through gritted teeth.

“This is my house, Riel is my kid.” After saying that, he left the room. Yeah, you walk away, asshole…

I rolled my eyes before heading upstairs, finding the room Riel and Eli were in.

“Wasted your time, huh?” They spoke in unison from the bed.

“That guy is such-“ I stopped dead when I looked at them. They had made themselves look completely identical. I looked back and forth between the two, looking for a way to figure out which one was which. Dammit, you’d think I would know! “That’s… Fucking great.” I muttered and turned to leave again. I didn’t want to play this game right now.

“Don’t be like that…” One of them pulled me back into the room. I think maybe Riel…?

“We were just messing around.” The other one said. It was even hard to discern between their voices… Stupid triplets!

“Yeah… How often do I get to have fun?” The one standing asked. The one sitting glared at him.

“Find some other way to have fun instead of messing with me.” I muttered, getting extremely frustrated and attempting to leave again.

“Oh come on…” The standing one stopped me again, pulling me around and holding my wrists. “Don’t get pissed, please.”

This was so annoying… And I was too pissed to see what should have been obvious, such as the fact that Eli had a stronger build than Riel. And they had different piercings. And different tattoos. Hell, this should have been easy!

“Your dad already saw to that. It doesn’t need to be made any worse.”

“Sorry…” The one closest to me said, his gaze fixed on the floor.

“We just wanted to have fun…” The other one said.

“So you… Decided to mess with a kid with anger issues?” I laughed dryly. It was half funny. “What, do you want me to guess which one of you is which?”

The two of them nodded.

“But I didn’t mean to upset you.” The standing one noted, stepping away from me, gaze still fixed on the floor.

“Sorry, Kris…” The other one said as the standing one sat beside the other. I was so fucking confused! I just wanted to get the damn thing over with…

“Fine, I’ll play your game.” I said with a sigh. I crossed my arms. “Well, since one of you is straight, this should be pretty easy, right?” I walked over to one of them, lifting their chin so I could lean down and kiss them. He kissed back, taking my face in his hands. This… Wasn’t Riel…