Hurricane Jones [boyxboy]

hurricane jones [15]

[Help! by The Beatles]
word count: 1383

-

My family had two settings: love and complete and utter chaos.

Aaron could hold onto a secret for maybe three hours, that was after Dalton had hastily rushed out, grabbing his bags and running down the stairs as of an ax murderer lived here. He didn't give me a chance to speak, was gone before Sam had apologized. He'd slid by her as she stood at the gaping door before directing Aaron away and to the living room.

She made sure to poke her head back in ten minutes later as I sat frozen on the edge of my bed. Offering a weak smile, she promised to keep Aaron busy for the rest of the day.

Which, in 13-year old, really meant: this is extremely awkward and I'm sorry but we're all gonna know you're gay very soon.

For the next three hours, I tried to keep calm, wondering who would know next as if it were breaking news. I'd lasted unscathed until seven p.m. that night, everyone stationed at the dinner table like routine sans Claire.

I picked over my broccoli, eyes drifting over my siblings. They were mid-conversation about an upcoming soccer game for Sam, her sat beside me, only glancing at me briefly before smiling and engaging. It was only seconds after Aaron was asked how school had been that day when he redirected attention with a simple question.

"Mommy, do boys kiss?"

Sam had paused, her mouth still gaping open. My parents sat there, frozen in space as Aaron kicked his little feet, chewing on the chicken on his fork. It was silent, all eyes on Aaron as he looked up at our mother -Helena- his bright eyes were wide with curiosity. "What, honey?"

"Can two boys kiss?"

I bit my tongue, trying not to draw too much attention to me but Sam was looking at me with big eyes and everyone else was staring down at the seven year old, waiting for a bit of elaboration. Vince laughed, a short one at the silence, picking up a biscuit and biting into it.

His eyes had flickered over to me now and I knew he heard it before.

Dad -Terry- coughed, seconds later, trying to ease some tension and the table was set back into motion. Rhett was grabbing for the potatoes that sat in the center, raising his brows over at the woman under scrutiny, probably wondering how she'd give a short answer a not-so-simple question.

She just nodded, picking back up her discarded fork and shifting her food around. "If they like each other, I believe so." As if it was normal conversation, she raised her brows, "why do you ask, honey?"

God, no.

"Gabe was kissing a boy."

The only thing you could hear next was Aaron whining out a small notion of pain. "Ow."

Sammy had flicked her hand over to the boy, smacking his arm, her teeth gritted and whispered out a "Shut up." But the damage was already done and all eyes were on me.

"...Gabriel?"

Shutting my eyes along with my mouth, I waited for the embarrassment to settle, for them to realize where this was going. Maybe saying nothing was enough.

"Oh." Terry replied and when I peaked through squinted lids, I watched him nod. It was silent then, no one in my family responding, just all with unreadable looks on their faces... as if they were digesting the information. "Oh, well, okay."

"Pass the potatoes?" Vince questioned when no one took lead on the conversation then, he was looking over at Rhett who sat right beside him, hands held out for the bowl of mashed potatoes that was closer to him.

Helena's eyes blew wide and Rhett let out a girlish giggle, passing the potatoes. "Vincent."

"What?" He'd asked, a shrug along with his words. He spooned out some potatoes on his already-full plate, brows raised. "Sorry, we're pretending like we didn't know?" What?

"Claire didn't."

Vince snorted then, offering Aaron more potatoes. "Claire's never here. You think I'm stupid-"

"That's not so much a thought as it as a fact..."

"Shut up." He threw at Rhett, scooping a full spoon into his mouth, a clear contrast from Sammy who wouldn't let her food touch. The boy across from me shrugged his shoulders in a band tee before scratching the back of his wavy-haired head with a confused look. "G, are you forgetting that I caught you kissing that Freddy kid a few years ago?"

"Gay." Rhett chimed in.

Vince raised a brow. "Or the Jones' boy that's always next to you and always in your room?"

"Gay."

"Or that photographer kid you hang around with."

A loud snort was followed by a, "Suuuuper gay." That was Rhett laughing now, voice dipping into confusion and now he was spreading mashed potatoes on his bread and sliding it around in the gravy pooling off his steak.

It looked like he was having a competition with himself to see how much food he could messily fit in his mouth. He always ate obnoxiously and normally, if the focus wasn't on me, Helena would have made a comment.

Instead, Vince shoved him sideways slightly and a brief fight ensued.

Rhett was my age but he was easily twice my size, almost like he was in college not a sophomore in high school. But he was a child and he was into normal boy things and maybe that was why he was closer to our older brother than I was. Maybe it wasn't as normal for me to be more connected with the girls in our family and maybe that was what made it so obvious.

Rhett was taller than me but not too tall, he had a surfer boy look and played baseball. Vince was tall and lanky with olive skin and he wore dark clothing, he never seemed to really grow out of his emo phase, black hair tucked behind his ears and he had a nose ring that he somehow managed to make look masculine.

And still I was the one who didn't fit in. They hung out together, they talked about girls and attended parties and it would be kind of awkward if I didn't prefer it this way.

I had a life... kinda, Dalton took up most of my time now and I was shy anyways, and Rhett and Vince always had my back regardless.

Unless of course, they were the ones throwing shots.

Rhett went to smack the back of Vince's head, him dodging, only halting when Terry groaned loudly, this was a daily occurrence that would result in Rhett getting a face full of potatoes if not contained quickly. 

And honestly, I'd rather see Vince smash the latter's face into his plate, at least then he wouldn't have been able to look back at me with an evil grin. He went to tack on another example of me being so overtly homosexual, "oh and I borrowed your laptop-"

NO. "Okay, I get it, it was obvious!"

The sound of my voice shocked my entire family, it coming out shrill and suddenly the only noise was clinking forks.

And then Rhett and Vince were wheezing out laughter, it escalating into another fight when Rhett leaned into Vince as if he just couldn't sit still and it was just that funny. And then Vince was punching the younger one in his arm, shoving him down to a face full of plate.

Aaron was laughing, his little body torpedoing back into his chair, Sammy lurching forward to make sure he didn't fall. It was in vain though because at that moment, Rhett decided it was completely okay to slingshot a dinner roll at Aaron and Aaron, thinking it was Sam slathered potatoes across her face.

Terry had excused himself when the house phone started ringing off the hook, leaving Helena and me the only sane ones. And when she cleared her throat, the mini food-fight had halted, everyone sitting up in their seats with sheepish smiles.

Vince smirked as Rhett excused himself to clean the food off his face.

"How was school?" 

They were really annoying at times and this huge family was filled with chaos, complete chaos and somehow, I loved them more than ever.