Jericho Candelario's Gay Debut by R. Cooper

Author:R. Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: coming out, gay love, family life, handyman, queer romance, first time gay, cake baking, queer poc, baking romance
Publisher: R. Cooper

Susanna cornered Jerry the following Tuesday, stopping him before he could escape to his room after dinner. She had a sweatshirt on and jerked her head toward the backyard porch. She poured hot water into a cup of some kind of tea while he grabbed a hoodie, and then she made sure to close the sliding glass door behind them before sitting next to him on one of the plastic deck chairs.

She slipped him one of the pills her doctor had prescribed after Susanna’s last visit with their mother. Jerry crushed the bitter thing between his teeth and washed the taste away with some of her tea.

Susanna, the secret rebel, who had always seemed fearless when she’d sat with him in the woods and shared her weed with him. But she wasn’t, of course.

She rested her head on his shoulder and said nothing for a while, waiting for the pill to work. Then she murmured, “Sof is worried about you. Angsting teenagers who worry too much seems to be a thing in our family.”

“Genetic, probably.” Jerry wasn’t chill yet.

“Environmental,” Susanna argued. “Definitely.”

Their mother was mentally ill, in Jerry’s opinion. Dad might have had anxiety before he had PTSD that led to a drinking problem. Genetics or environment hardly mattered in the long run. But Susanna wasn’t here to talk about that. “She doesn’t need to worry about me.”

“I’m worried about you.” She was in her thirties, but Susanna still slurped her tea like a kid. “You’ve been happier having a friend outside of the house. Especially one who is, well, as gay as they come.” She must have felt Jerry tense up but didn’t acknowledge it. “If you don’t want to make more friends, then okay. But a hobby that isn’t dropping what you’re doing to help the people you care about might be good for you. And whatever you and Lincoln are fighting about has you miserable.”

“We’re not.” The words stuck to Jerry’s tongue. The pill was starting to work. He closed his eyes and focused on speaking clearly. “We’re not fighting. I get off work and I come home. Is that a problem?”

“Jer, you’re not reading. You don’t write. You don’t watch TV with Dad or Sofia. You’ve been wandering around the house and fixing things that didn’t really need to be fixed.” Susanna offered him more tea. “I noticed. Sof noticed. Dad might even have noticed. Sof—” Susanna paused. Her words were a little slow now too. She must have also taken one of her calming pills. “She’s like you, you know. She thinks things are her fault, or she wants to take care of them.”

Jerry wasn’t relaxed enough to hear that. “There’s nothing to— Sofia thinks I’m going to die alone if she goes off to college. So I’ll do something about it. Go out more, if that will make her happy.”

“Oh my God.” Susanna sat up to give Jerry a hard stare. “You’re her sainted Uncle Jerry who can do no wrong. Whoever Sofia finally settles down with someday is going to have to live up to you.

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