Denial.

It wasn’t like I didn’t expect this to happen…I was just kind of hoping it wouldn’t. The moment school ended, Jordan ran home. He didn’t bother saying good-bye. I knew before I “talked” to Danny that Jordan was going to be pissed once he found out…I just kind of hoped that he would at least talk to me.

Sighing, I make my way into my house. My mother is in the kitchen and I try my best to avoid her but it’s no use. Within moments she has her hands on me, pinching my cheeks and shouting. “Dillon, what happened!”

“N-Nothing,” I reply with hopefully a reassuring grin. “I was skating and you know…this happened.”

Mom narrows her eyes at me. She knows I’m lying, I know she does. Grumbling, she pulls away and says, “Tell me the truth, Dillon.”

I bite my lip but quickly stop because my busted lip. “I just…there was a jerk that I needed to talk to…and talking turned into punching.”

Mom growls, “If I get a call-”

“You won’t,” I laugh. “We weren’t caught.”

After I manage to get away from my mother, I head upstairs. I’m not sure how long I sit there, grumbling to myself before I finally get up the nerve to call Jordan. It doesn’t take long for him to answer, which I’m grateful about.

“Hey.”

“Hey um…” I’m not really sure what to say. I could apologize but I’m not really sorry about fighting with Danny, I’m just sorry that I made Jordan angry. “Are you…busy?”

“No…do you want to go do something?” Jordan asks, which I am surprised about but I can’t help but smile. Maybe he isn’t as angry as I thought he was…or he just wants to hang out so he can yell at me.

“Yeah!” I sound a little too excited and Jordan laughs. A blush forms on my cheeks while I mumble to myself. I’m such an idiot.

“All right, I’ll see you in a little bit.” Jordan hangs up and I run downstairs to talk my mother into letting me go out. She was defiant at first but eventually gave in. Just as she did, Jordan arrived.

“Where are we going?” I ask Jordan the moment I see him standing on the porch. I kick on my shoes and shut the door behind me.

Jordan shrugs. “Duh know…I guess we’ll find out.”

Jordan and I hop into his car and for a moment it’s silent. I wrap my hands around each other and begin twiddling my thumbs nervously as I glance towards Jordan. “Listen Jordan…I…I’m really sorry a-about Danny and e-everything…I didn’t mean to m-make you mad.”

Jordan grips and un-grips the steering wheel before sighing. From the corner of my eye I see him smile. “I’m not mad…at least not anymore. You were just trying to help, I get that but…don’t try to resolve things through fighting, all right Dillon?”

“Yes, sorry mother,” I tease.

“Telling you that wasn’t really the point of this ride though…I wanted to tell you about the talk I had with my Uncle Mikey.”

“Oh?” I reach over for Jordan’s hand and take his in my own. Our fingers intertwine and I feel my skin begin to tingle. I smile. “What did you two talk about?”

“Us,” Jordan replies and I notice a slight pink tint on his cheeks that he tries to hide. “He said that we’re always welcomed with him, the both of us. I don’t know…it just made me feel a lot better to know we have someone on our side.”

I nod in agreement. Although I don’t know his uncle, it does feel nice to know that if anything goes wrong we’ll have somewhere to go where we’re accepted. Just as I was about to say something, Jordan starts to hop in his seat and continues to say, “And guess what? Him and his boyfriend are engaged! Their wedding is in June so I might be able to make it.”

“That’s great, Jordan,” I laugh at how happy and excited he is for his uncle. It makes me happy too just to see that there is a couple like us out there living just fine. Maybe Jordan and I really do have a chance for our “happily ever after.”

“Anyways…I think I’m going to talk to Danny myself.”

“What!” I shout and squeeze Jordan’s hand. I go to bite my lip but remember the pain it caused earlier and stop myself. Instead I just frown to show how unhappy I am about his decision. “Why? He…he’s just going to throw you off.”

“There’s a chance he will…but I need to talk to him myself, Dillon. I just want it to be the two of us so please don’t worry about it and just trust me,” Jordan says and finally pulls up to a family owned diner. My stomach growls rather loudly at the sight of the place. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until now!

Jordan laughs while I grumble, “Fine…just be careful.”

“I should be telling you that.” Jordan leans over and presses a delicate kiss to my cheek. I sigh contently before moving my head so that our lips can meet for just a second. It was still long enough though for my heart to start beating wildly in my chest.

Jordan and I walk into the diner and sit down. It feels really nice to be sitting in here although we can’t kiss or hold hands…it’s still nice. It just feels great to be around Jordan…and I think that’ll be enough for me. As long as I can be around him, I’m happy.

But kissing, holding hands, cuddling and all that is always appreciated and a definite bonus.