Art Is Dead

I had to call Bo's bluff on his worry over his family. His parents were perfectly delightful, and they immediately welcomed me into their lives. His father, Scott, told me all about Bo's childhood, and his interaction with his siblings. The more that I heard, the more that I wished Bo and I had met sooner. Of course, he would have had a girlfriend then, and that would have been awful for me.

Despite my earlier certainty that seperate bedrooms were a good idea, I later changed my mind. I was laying in the strange bed, safe beneath the covers, and sleep evaded me like a firefly drifting just out of reach. I slipped out of bed and closed the bedroom door behind me, hoping to fool his parents when they got up in the morning. I darted across the hall and slipped into Bo's bed, trying not to wake him. Apparently, he hadn't been sleeping at all.

"Couldn't sleep?" he whispered as he shifted to put his arms around me.

"You either?" I curled up into the warmth of his side, resting my head on his chest.

"I don't know why, but I just can't. I've been wide awake ever since I came in here."

"Me, too. Do you think your mom will freak out if I just stay in here tonight?"

"Probably," I could hear the childish grin in his tone. "But that doesn't mean that I want you to leave. She'll deal with it."

I smiled as I got a little more comfortable. "Good."

When I was safely wrapped up in his embrace, sleep came easily. I didn't suffer from the insomnia that had haunted me all through final exams. There was nothing but peace in my mind that night. It was like this was exactly where I was supposed to be.

"Robert!"

The shrill cry awoke us both at nine o'clock the next morning. I rolled over and buried my face in the pillowcase. "I think your mom found out that I'm not in Samm's room," I grumbled, pulling the blanket up to my ears.

Bo groaned loudly. "Are you going to make me go deal with that alone?"

"Maybe," my voice was muffled by the pillow. "I want her to like me; getting caught sneaking into her son's bed in the middle of the night will hardly help that."

"And sending me out there by myself will?" he countered as he begrudgingly got out of the bed. "I could tell her the truth, you know. You came in here all on your own."

"You were probably going to go across the hall sooner or later if I hadn't."

"But the point is, you're the one who broke first."

Deep down, I knew that he wasn't going to rat me out. Still, the threat hung in the air in a menacing fashion. After a moment of inner debate, I let out a frustrated grunt and got to my feet. Bo smirked and passed me a light grey bathrobe. I slipped it over my tank top and cinched it around my waist. Bo opened his bedroom door and waved a hand, indicating that I was to follow him downstairs. Reluctantly, I started after him.

Patricia was standing in the kitchen, fixing a pot of coffee when we walked in. She faced us with a frown and placed her hands on her slender hips. "I thought we discussed the rules, Bo."

Bo offered up a sheepish smile. "You know how it is when you stay in a new place, Mom. Every noise keeps you up at night. I was just trying to make sure that Nat was comfortable."

"And you couldn't have accomplished that in separate beds?"

"It's my fault," I said hurriedly. "It was windy out and I couldn't sleep, so I went to see if Bo was awake. Honestly, he just talked to me until I passed out. I promise you that nothing else happened."

Bo's approving smile told me that he knew all along that I would admit to my actions. I didn't want him to take the fall. Patricia's face softened at my explanation.

"I understand that the first night in a strange house is difficult. And I appreciate your honesty," she faced Bo again and wagged her finger at him. "But not again, do you understand?"

"Crystal clear," Bo nodded. He shot a glance at me, and his eyes were alight. I bit my tongue in order to fight off a grin. We both knew that we were going to do the same thing again that very night. I'm certain that Patricia knew it, too. We were adults, but we weren't yet so mature that the idea of doing something scandalous was upsetting.

As we poured steaming hot coffee into our mugs, I heard the front door open and close. I assumed that it was Bo's father, since I hadn't yet seen him that morning. I sat down at the table and sipped carefully on my beverage, then looked up as someone entered the kitchen. There was a man who I guessed was four or five years my senior. His facial shape and his mouth were identical to Bo's, but his hair was darker and he had his father's eyes instead of his mother's. I smiled at him.

"You must be Pete."

The stranger flickered his gaze between Bo and I rapidly, then he returned my friendly facial expression. "And there is no question that you're Nat. I've seen pictures."

I shot Bo a dark look. Had he shown me off to everyone he knew? Inside, however, the thought gave me butterflies. Bo was clearly excited about our relationship if he was telling so many people about me.

Pete crossed the room and shook my hand politely. Then, he turned to face his mother. "I'm just going to go and take my stuff upstairs, then I'll be back." He disappeared through the same doorway he had entered, and I looked over at Bo.

"Is there anyone who hasn't seen pictures of me?"

"Absolutely," he replied in a sure tone. "They just don't belong to this family."

I shook my head at him as Patricia placed a bowl of fresh, homemade muffins in front of us. "Bo, why don't you show her around the town today? She must be dying to see the place that you come from."

"Actually, yeah, I would love that," I told him.

He looked me up and down quickly. "Maybe you should put some clothes on first."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, because you're one to talk."

Patricia swatted Bo playfully with the morning newspaper as she sat down across from me at the table. "Maybe you should take your guest upstairs and show her where the towels are so that she can shower or whatever else she would like to do."

Bo pushed his chair back from the table and nodded for me to follow him upstairs. He showed me where to find everything that I needed, then left me to my business. About an hour later, we were sitting in the same car from the day before. Bo pulled out of the driveway and began driving around, pointing out certain landmarks as we passed them.

"There's the Catholic school I went to for four years. Fun fact: I tripped on that sidewalk once and bit through my lip. It wasn't a good day."

I laughed. "It can't be any worse than the time I fell off the monkey bars and got a concussion in the fourth grade."

He looked over at me. "Did that really happen, or are you just saying that to make me feel better about myself?"

"If I was going to make something up, it would probably be something slightly less pathetic than falling from monkey bars and hitting my head, resulting in possible brain damage. Actually, let's face it, there was probably permanent brain damage from it. That's my new excuse when dumb things come out of my mouth. It's not my fault, I suffered brain trauma before I was ten years old."

Bo nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that definitely explains a lot."

"Fuck off!" I said, though I couldn't stop the laughter from leaking into my voice. I really should have seen that one coming. "You wouldn't like me half as much if I was normal and sane."

"You're right about that. Oh, that was where my babysitter lived. She had a trampoline. She was the coolest babysitter ever."

"We had a trampoline when I was younger. We broke it when we jumped off the roof of the garden shed. Although we all jumped at the same time, and the thing was about twenty years old by then, so I don't know what we expected to happen."

Bo laughed hysterically. "I can't wait to meet your family, Nat. Something tells me that they have tons of great stories about you. Your childhood sounds more eventful than mine by far."

"I've just decided that you will never meet them," I said, trying my best to sound resolute. "They know far too much, and there are some things that you should never find out about. I was a complete idiot as a kid. It's not even funny."

"I think it is," he argued. "And you've met my family, so it's only fair."

"You are the only guy who actually wants to meet my brothers. I thought a boyfriend was supposed to freak out at the mention of overprotective brothers."

"Boyfriends are also supposed to live a little bit closer, so clearly I don't fit the mold."

"True enough."

Bo's cell phone rang, and he picked it up from the cup holder that he had tossed it into earlier. After glancing at the caller ID, he answered it. "Hey Mom, what's up?" There was a lengthy pause before he replied. "Yeah sure, no problem. We'll be home in a bit." He hung up the phone and put it back where he had found it. "We need to run to the grocery store and get a couple of things for dinner. Mom forgot to go shopping."

We wandered around the store soon after, trying to find the ingredients that Bo's mother had asked him to purchase. Bo carried the shopping basket while I browsed through the shelves.

"Sage," I murmured, scanning the spices in front of me. "I don't think I have ever used sage. What do you cook with it?"

"You're asking the wrong person," Bo said. "Talk to Mom when we get back, okay? I'm sure that she would be more than happy to discuss it."

"Bo?" A soft, timid voice asked. Both of our heads snapped to the side to see who had spoken. A slim, dainty-looking girl with heavy makeup around her brown eyes was staring at Bo as if she had seen a ghost. She tucked her charcoal-black hair behind her ear, which exposed a large blue feathered earring.

"Elise?" Bo used the same questioning tone as she had. I looked over at him in confusion, but he didn't even glance my way. My stomach twisted into an uncomfortable knot as I saw the expression on his face. He looked tortured. "What are you doing here?"

She gestured to the shopping cart beside her. "I'm guessing the same thing that you are. There isn't a decent grocery store closer to home than this one."

I glanced between the two of them. The movement seemed to catch Bo's attention, and his chalky face turned my way. "Oh, Nat, this is Elise. She's... we used to date."

And then it all made sense. This was the girl that had broken up with him so recently when I had met him. He hadn't brought her up since, so it had been easy for me to forget about her. I looked back at the girl, who was still standing there looking at Bo in an awkward way. I forced a smile and extended my hand to her.

"I'm Nathalie. It's nice to meet you."

She shook my hand, but she appeared puzzled by the gesture. "Yeah, you too."

Bo seemed to trip over his words. "Nat is my-"

"Cousin," I finished quickly, continuing to smile brightly. "I'm visiting from Canada. I haven't seen Bo here since we were ten. We just had to pick up some things for Aunt Patricia for dinner."

"From Canada?" Elise gave Bo a skeptical, pointed stare.

I nodded. "Yeah. Alberta, actually. We got the chance to catch up when he was on tour up there, and long story short, here I am."

She reached out and grabbed a plastic bottle of powdered garlic, then tossed it into her cart. "How nice. How have you been, Bo?"

I turned back to him, only to find that he was giving me a dumbstruck look. "Nat, you don't have to-"

I narrowed my eyes, and he caught on to my intentions. "Yes I do," I said genuinely. I wanted to protect him. And something told me that if this girl knew that he had already moved on to the next girl, nothing good would come of it. "I really do need to find that sage," I continued, as if that would cover up the message that Bo and I were relaying. "But I see that the spot for it is empty, so I'm going to go and find someone who works here. Maybe they've got some in the back."

I hurried away, feeling tense. For the first time since I met him, I felt doubt about Bo. I knew that it was hard seeing an ex, but his reaction had been a little extreme. It seemed like they had broken up a week before, not a few months. It certainly hadn't seemed like he had moved on.

I gathered the rest of the items that Patricia had requested, then I waited around the corner from where I had left Bo and Elise. My guts churned and lurched, and I kind of felt like an idiot. I had let myself get serious with Bo too quickly, and I was about to pay for it. Was he still in love with her?

"So... you're happy with her?" Elise's pained voice was just loud enough that I could hear her.

"Yes," Bo stated. "I know that it's soon, and I'm sorry if this bothers you. You and I haven't really been together in a long time. We used the titles and went through the motions, but we weren't in it. And yeah, I was a mess when we split, but then Nat came along. And I really like her. We haven't really made a big deal out of it yet, but I thought it would be best to just tell you. One day you were bound to find out she isn't my cousin."

"Well, good. I want you to be happy, Bo."

"Thanks. I hope everything works out for you, Elise. It was nice to see you."

I stayed where I was for a few moments, waiting to ensure that the coast was clear. When I finally rounded the corner, I gave Bo an uncertain look. He gave me a small grin as I dumped the food items into the basket he was still carrying.

"I found the sage," he said softly.

I took the basket from his grip and set it on the floor. Slowly, I wrapped my arms around his waist. It took a noticeable few seconds for him to react, but when he did, he held me tightly. His chin rested atop my head, and his arms pulled me closer to his chest.

"She knows you aren't my cousin."

"I know," I murmured.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For trying," he said simply, his tone lightening considerably. "You knew what you were getting into with me, and you stuck with my anyways."

I smirked. "To be fair, you still haven't figured out what you were getting into with me. Don't thank me too prematurely."