Page 95 of Inevitable
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Drew shook his head.
“It’s something I need to do on my own.
Bas just nodded and held on to him.
“You know, you might have been right,” Drew said after a little while.
“Stating the obvious, but okay. I’ll play along. About what?”
Drew guffawed and squeezed him.
“Hugs are underrated,” he said. “I feel better.”
“Mmm. We should keep hugging, though,” Bas muttered. “As a preventative measure.”
“What are we preventing?”
“I don’t know. Sadness?”
“Ah. That should definitely be prevented.”
“What do you know? I’m right once again,” Bas said and felt Drew’s smile on his skin.
“You know, it’s much easier to be in a relationship where you don’t really care if it ends or not. With you and Ezra there’s everything at stake, and it’s scary, and I’m messing this up.”
“You’re not messing it up.”
“I already did mess it up,” Bas said.
“No, you didn’t.” Drew pulled away a bit, looking at Bas with all the intensity in the world. “We will be okay.”
Bass nodded mutely. He pressed their foreheads together. For the moment, everything was calm.
31
The end was quick and anticlimactic. Nobody yelled. Nobody cried.
His parents didn’t look surprised. They were remarkably subdued. Serious faces. No hugs or kisses. Drew figured Ellie had warned them in advance after he hadn’t shown up to the anniversary party.
He was thankful for that. It made everything quicker and easier. His mother’s resigned sigh when he’d told them he needed to talk to them spoke for itself.
He’d laid the facts in front of his mom and dad. They’d both nodded once.
An ultimatum was given and rejected.
We’ll pray for you.
I don’t need you to.
We’ll be here when you change your mind.
I won’t.
The door fell shut behind him. He took a step back. Checked the windows. Nobody was there. It was dumb to expect they would be. It wasn’t as if he was being sent off to war or something.
This was just your regular falling-out. His parents hadn’t come after him the first time. They weren’t going to change that habit.