rich man's world; charlie dalton

[twenty-one] how to unsuck a d

Todd Anderson paced around the theatre as his boyfriend tried to explain something he otherwise thought was idiotic. Neil was at the stage in his relationship where he felt it was necessary for his significant other to meet his parents. Todd, being the gay ball of anxious disaster he was, quickly said no and paced as he thought of logical rebuttals.

Maybe a few 'my mom wouldn't want me missing dinner's and 'I wouldn't want to keep you away from your family' s would do the trick. Truth was, Mrs. Anderson didn't like the hassle of making food for twenty plus people so she always let the family go to her sister's and Neil wasn't too fond of his own family.

"Todd," Neil frowned as he watched him walk around even faster, almost resembling a hyperactive chihuahua. "My love, I'm trying to talk here. I don't think you could hear me with the air swishing in and out your ears."

"Keep talking, I'm fine," Todd stumbled on his words. After passing a few times Neil decided to stop him. Todd sighed uneasily before making eye contact with Neil. "Neil, I don't think taking me to meet your family is a good idea."

"Why?"

"Why? Because if I remember correctly your dad has this whole future planned out for you and I don't fit into the picture. I...I just don't want to be reminded of that, alright?" Todd bit his bottom lip as he looked away, almost gnawing it to the point of drawing blood. "Excuses aside you wouldn't take as bait...I mean what I say this time. I care about you too much to have your dad tell you I'm not the type of friend you should have if you want to be a doctor. And then, if they can't take the awkward silence, they'll ask about any girls that have caught your interest. And you'll have to lie, I'll have to listen."

Neil nodded slowly, fully understanding Todd's concerns. "What...what if they didn't ask? You would come then?"

"Neil, you can't guarantee anything," his eyebrows raised as he spoke, indicating he was ready to start getting passionate with his message, no matter the tone and volume for everyone else in the theatre to hear.

"I could talk to them."

"When have you ever faced your parents?"

He hadn't intended the words to come out sharper than they did but the diction tore through Neil's chest in a way both gruesome and insensitive. Todd pursed his lips as Neil blinked back in disbelief. "You don't need to get aggressive, just say you don't want to go and leave it at that."

"That's all I've been saying!"

"Fine," Neil looked away with a smile on his face, one that had no trace of content and made fire dance inside his brown eyes. "I have to go run lines with Ginny, I'll talk to you later."

"Wait!" Todd hesitantly reached out. "What if we go to thanksgiving dinner...with other people?"

Neil put his Puck crown on and started walking away, jittery, Todd followed. "Listen, alright? I have a friend who's family loves thanksgiving dinner but she can't bring her girlfriend cuz her family doesn't know she's gay. So we got to talking the other day and at first I wasn't going to suggest it but now you're getting mad and I think this will fix it. How about you go to the dinner with Maeve? You told your parents you'd take someone so that's done for, and I could take Layla. Like a relationship swap, me and Layla, you and Maeve. And we can pretend...we're normal, for your parents."

"I'm perfectly normal, Todd. The internalized homophobia is still pretty integrated in you, I see," Neil walked up the stairs to go to the back. Todd spluttered in shock:

"Says you! And internalized homophobia? I meant what's normal for your parents. Obviously they're not going to like us going around making out on their couch, they wouldn't like it equally if I was a girl too! I'm just saying...wouldn't it be nice? Wouldn't it be nice to finally feel accepted by your parents? It might just be my desperate need for validation talking but a few hours and food would hurt the way I feel about you."