To Be Human by Pearl Love

Author:Pearl Love [Love, Pearl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2015-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

“HELLO, DAVY. How are you?”

David winced involuntarily at the nickname, as he’d done ever since first hearing it as a teenager. But the knee-jerk reaction didn’t stop the grin that spread across his face at the sound of his mother’s voice.

“I’m good, Ma. How about you?”

He hadn’t spoken to Suzanna in over two months, since before he’d met Tim. He felt a twinge of guilt at not calling her sooner despite his good intentions to do so. She always sounded so happy to hear from him, as if she was trying to compensate for her husband’s distinct lack of enthusiasm when it came to anything that concerned their gay son. Other things had simply gotten in the way. But now he settled back in his office chair, balancing on the back legs in a way he knew she hated, and prepared to rectify his oversight with a nice, long conversation.

“Oh, I’m fine. But I’d be doing even better if you could come and pick me up from the bus station before it gets dark.”

“Arrgghh!”

“Davy? Are you all right?”

Only the panicked speed with which he’d caught the edge of his desk with the hand not holding his phone saved him from toppling backward to the floor. “What do you mean, pick you up from the bus station?”

“You know, the Greyhound station over on Crickets. The same place I always wait for you when I come to visit.”

David sputtered at her matter-of-fact response. “Yeah, except, usually, I know ahead of time that you’re coming!”

A slew of disjointed thoughts chased themselves through his head. Where was she going to sleep since Tim was using the spare bedroom? How would the three of them manage to make do with his one small bathroom? How would his mother, who wasn’t overly fond of meat, deal with the fact that he and Tim ate almost nothing but? And of course the big one, what in the world would she think of his living with a kid more than ten years his junior? The deep sigh that poured out from the speaker put the brakes on his wayward brain.

“Hank has been, well, a difficult man to live with lately. All the news about those states allowing gays to marry… let’s just say it’s got him all in a tizzy.”

Only Suzanna could put a soft edge on what was likely a full-fledged homophobic meltdown. David hadn’t spoken to his father more than to wish him a happy birthday and a Merry Christmas since the day he’d left home at the age of eighteen. Even so, he was under no illusions as to how his father must have reacted to all of the positive—from his viewpoint, at least—news on the equality front in the past couple of years. Suzanna had called him in exasperated tears after the Supreme Court’s decision to kill the Defense of Marriage Act.

“Okay. If I leave now, I can be there in—” He quickly calculated the early rush-hour traffic. “Give me about twenty minutes. We can stop at Orlando’s on the way back to the house.

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