“Are you sure it’s ok for me to stay for dinner?” Paris asked nervously as he and Nathan sat on stools at the island in Nathan’s kitchen and drank some kind of herbal tea that Paris was certain had some sort of hallucinogenic toxin in it. Nathan rolled his eyes.
“It’s ok for you to just show up at my house and accost me but when I invite you to stay for dinner you freak out?”
Paris shrugged, “Just you didn’t ask your parents or anything.”
“My parents do whatever I want because they owe me big for watching my brother and sister all of the time and doing 95% of the housework. They will do whatever I ask. Trust me. And it doesn’t matter because I’m making dinner anyway so it’s not like there isn’t enough food.” He stood and started getting out plates to set the table.
“I guess.” Paris still sounded very unsure about the whole situation. He watched as Nathan made his way around the kitchen table, setting down the plates on placemats.
They had spent the past forty-five minutes talking about pointless crap; music, TV, movies, vacations, books, and everything else they could think of. Paris tactfully avoided the subject of his family, but Nate was curious. He planned on weaseling it out of him later.
“So what are we having anyway?” Paris asked.
“Lasagna with pesto bread and a vegetable spread,” said Nate as he started getting out forks and knives.
Paris frowned, “Veggie spread?”
“That’s what I was making earlier with the blender. It’s full of fiber and other nutrients. My dad loves it.”
“Yeah, you said you were raised vegetarian. What’s up with that?”
Nathan grinned as he positioned the cutlery around the plates, “My parents have both been vegetarians for decades, so when I was born they didn’t see a point in buying meat just so I could eat it and I was raised vegetarian. Ben and Sam are the same way. None of us have ever eaten meat in our entire lives so if we ate it now, we’d be sick for days. Its kind weird, but it’s not like I’m missing out on something if I don’t know what I’m missing, right?”
“You’ve never had a hamburger??” Paris was dumbstruck.
“I’ve had veggie burgers.” Nathan replied. He went back to the cupboard and started pulling out glasses.
“What about Hamburger Helper? T-Bone steaks? Lamb chops? Meat balls? You’ve never had any of that stuff?”
“Nope.” He filled the glasses with ice from the dispenser on the front of their refrigerator.
“Oh my god,” Paris mumbled, “I couldn’t live without meatballs.”
“Like I said, you’re not missing anything if you don’t know what you’re missing.”
Paris smiled, “You are so out there.”
“What do you want to drink?” Nathan asked, staring into the fridge, “We have iced tea, Arizona tea, some different juices, water or milk.”
“No soda?” pouted Paris.
“Soda is bad for you,” Nathan said like he was talking to Sammie, “We have orange juice, apple juice, white grape juice or that V8 berry blend stuff. What’ll it be?”
“The V8 stuff sounds ok.”
Paris stood up and started helping Nathan fill the glasses; iced tea for his parents, milk for Ben, white grape juice for Samantha, and V8 Splash for Nathan and himself.
After they finished putting the glasses around, Paris turned to Nathan, “So I know a lot more about you now. And you know a lot more about me.”
“Yes,” Nathan replied, not sure where Paris was going with this.
Paris nodded, “So you admit that we have taken a positive step forward today?”
Again, Nathan agreed.
“Good,” Paris sighed with a grin, “Now I’m going to take another,” and with that he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Nathan’s.
Nathan protested for a second before relaxing into the kiss. It was smooth and warm and soft and Paris was being so gentle and almost even romantic. Nathan was in sensory overload as Paris’ hand came behind his head and ran through his hair. Slowly, Paris pulled away, his hand still in Nate’s hair.
“Was that ok?” Paris whispered and nervously licked his lips. Nathan just nodded before launching himself at Paris, their mouths melding together.
Nathan was new to the concept of physical affection, but if everyone felt the way he did when he kissed Paris, he understood why everyone was always all over each other because this feeling was insane. It was beautiful, invigorating, and intoxicating. Slowly, he understood the catchy Britney Spears song. Someday, he might also understand the Milkshake Song because that one was just so far beyond him-
“GROSS!” Nathan jumped away from Paris and turned to see Ben staring at them.
“Ben,” sighed Nathan as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, “We were just, um…”
“Kissing, yeah, I saw,” Ben said, rolling his eyes, “Kids don’t need to see that kind of stuff, man. You guys are worse than Mom and Dad.” With that he rolled his eyes and walked away.
“Is he going to be ok?” Paris asked Nathan softly.
Nathan nodded, “He was grossed out because it was kissing, not because we’re both boys.” Nathan let out a long, relieved breath.
“What about your parents?” Paris asked, “Would they care that it was a boy and not a girl?”
Nathan shook his head and laughed, “My dad decided I was gay when I was nine. When I turned 13, I got the boy talk and not the girl talk. ‘Men will try and take advantage of you’ and stuff like that. He’s given me pamphlets on safe gay-sex before. I tried to convince him that I liked girls for years, but he wasn’t persuaded. Now I think he’ll just be relieved that I’ve ‘accepted my true self’ or some crap like that.”
Paris laughed, “At least your Dad talks to you. I haven’t even seen mine in 3 years.” Then he quickly closed his mouth, “I didn’t mean to tell you that.”
“Tell me,” Nathan said quietly.
Nervously, Paris licked his lips, “My Dad owns this big company and he runs it in New York. When I was younger he’d fly me up to visit him or come see me every so often, but now he doesn’t even call or anything, just puts money in a bank account for my Mom. They’re still married and everything, but she sleeps around a lot and he doesn’t even care, just tells her to not get pregnant. He doesn’t care about anything but his money; not me, not my mom, not his wedding vows. Nothing.”
Nathan leaned over and hugged Paris tightly around his neck.
“They both forget my birthday and everything. The only person who remembered last year was my agent.”
“When is your birthday?” Nathan asked softly.
Paris swallowed thickly, “A month from next Tuesday.”
“We’ll do something fun, ok?” We’ll play putt-putt or go ice-skating, ok?”
“This is so stupid,” Paris muttered, pulling away from him, “I’m getting upset over something as dumb as this.”
“Paris, it’s not dumb,” said Nathan, “I get upset over smaller things than that. I started crying because you called me pretty remember?”
Shaking his head, Paris mumbled, “You’re not pretty, you’re beautiful.”
Nathan leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to Paris’ lips right as his parents walked in.
“I knew it!” Kevin Faller exclaimed, “That’s twenty bucks, Erica! I win!”