Freeing (26 page)

When Mark turns into the parking garage and parks, I turn to look at him as he shuts off the car. He’s staring at me, still holding my hand.

“Tell me what you’re so scared of,” he demands softly.

“What do you mean?”

Shaking his head, he sounds irritated when he says, “You don’t think I know you well enough by now to read you? Just be honest. What are you scared of?”

I lean my head back on the seat and exhale before admitting, “Everything. Everything but you.”

“Then trust me enough to know that I would never put you in a situation with my family if it weren’t anything but safe. So whatever has been consuming you since you got into this car, let it go.”

Eight and a half hours later, we land in Cleveland, Ohio. I know that Mark’s mom will be the only one meeting us here at the airport. He called her to tell her a bit about my family, and that it would be best if everyone wasn’t here to meet us.

We make our way down to baggage claim, and my heart is racing with nerves. I don’t know what to expect, and I shove my hands in my pockets to keep myself from fidgeting too much. When a woman with shoulder-length, dark brown hair walks towards us, he quickly pulls her into his arms.

“Hey, Mom.”

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she says as they hug. “I’ve missed you so much, sweetheart.”

“I’ve missed you too,” he says as he steps back to introduce us. “Mom, this is Jase.”

“Please, call me Andrea.” She walks straight to me and gives me big hug.

I laugh lightly at her affectionate demeanor when I say, “It’s great to meet you.”

Loosening her grip, she looks at me with a big smile. “Well, I am so glad that you came. Mark has told me a lot about you. How was the flight?”

“Long,” I say as she hooks her arm through mine, and we head to the carousel to get our bags. I instantly feel my nerves calm with Andrea’s relaxed nature. Mark walks ahead of us, as she continues, “Have you ever been to Ohio before?”

“No, I’ve always stuck to the west coast. I grew up in California,” I tell her.

“Are you boys hungry? We had lasagna for dinner, and there are plenty of leftovers. Or we can stop and pick something up.”

Mark grabs the last piece of luggage off of the tether and says to his mom, “We can eat leftovers.”

I take my bag from him as we walk out into the dark, snowy night. The chill hits me hard, and Mark turns and laughs at me.

“It’s freakin’ cold,” I chatter out.

Andrea shoots me a smile, and we load our things into her SUV. Mark hops in the back, and I sit up front with his mom. I look at her in surprise when she turns the car on and ‘Neon Lights’ by Demi Lovato blasts through the speakers.

“Good Lord, Mom!” Mark shouts over the music from the back seat.

She quickly turns it down, and I start laughing as she claims, “Your sisters were using the car earlier.”

Calling her out, Mark says, “That explains earlier, but
you
drove here—alone.”

“So what?” she teases and turns it back up, but not nearly as loud as what it was. “Jase, Mark tells me you like to cook.”

“Yeah, I’ve tried teaching him a couple times, but all he seems to be good at is setting off my smoke detector.”

“All my kids are worthless in the kitchen, so I hope you don’t mind, but you are stuck with me cooking on Thursday.”

“Not at all,” I say with a smile. I only hope that the rest of his family is as laidback as she is.

It’s a little before eleven o’clock when we pull into the driveway of a large two-story home. Everything is covered in snow, but you can see the lights are on through the big windows. Suddenly those nerves that Andrea had so easily erased are back.

Walking in, the house is quiet. I follow Mark as he leaves his bag at the foot of the stairs, and I toss mine next to his. Rounding the corner, his father walks up. My chest tightens but only for a second before he says, “Son, come here,” and gives Mark a quick hug.

“It’s good to see you, Dad.”

“Same here. Your mother and I have missed you,” he says, and then turns to me. “And you must be Jase?” He reaches out and shakes my hand, “I’m Ben. Glad to have you.”

He catches me off guard. My father is a stern, quiet man, so to see Mark’s dad come across so opposite, takes me a second before saying, “It’s good to meet you, Ben.”

“I’m going to go heat you boys up some dinner,” Andrea tells us as she walks down the hall.

“Well, come in. You want anything to drink?” Ben asks as we follow him and Andrea back to the kitchen.

“Just some water,” I reply.

Closing the fridge, Mark’s mother says, “The cups are in that cabinet over there,” as she nods her head towards the sink.

Mark takes a seat at the table as I get my drink. I like that his mom didn’t get it for me, that she would treat me as if I’ve been in this house a hundred times before. She turns and smiles at me as I walk over to the table and sit with Mark and his father.

“The weather is supposed to turn bad this weekend, so your mom is insisting that the Christmas lights go up tomorrow.”

“Great, I’m back for all of five minutes, and you’re telling me I have to freeze my ass off all day tomorrow?” Mark says as he laughs.

“Blame that woman over there,” he says as he points to his wife, who is taking a plate of food out of the microwave. “I have to freeze my ass off too.”

“Oh, please. You men are pathetic.” She sets down a plate of lasagna and salad in front of me as she adds, “There are three of you; there is no way it will take you all day.”

She hands me a fork, and I thank her when Mark looks at her and says, “Then I demand steaks for dinner.”

I laugh and shake my head when Ben slaps his shoulder in approval, and clarifies, “Ribeyes.”

“Fine. No more complaining,” she tells the two of them and hands Mark his plate.

The both of us eat as Ben starts talking and asking Mark and I about school. My father and I haven’t spoken since I told him I was gay, and I can only imagine how skittish he would be around me, now that he knows. Although I’m feeling comfortable hanging out here with Mark and his parents, the idea of Mark touching me in front of them makes me anxious. It’s almost like I’m a college buddy of his spending the holiday with his family, not his boyfriend. I guess I’m waiting for the
look
. The freak-out. The ‘oh my God, he’s gay’ reaction.

We finish eating and clean up our mess before saying good night to Mark’s parents. Grabbing our bags, we head upstairs to Mark’s room.

“Come on,” he says. “I’ll introduce you to my sisters. Fair warning, they have no filter.”

We walk down the hall, and when Mark opens the door, the first thing I hear is a high-pitched, “God, Mark! Knock much?”

I can’t help the burst of laughter that comes out of me as I step into the room. The two girls are lying on the bed, huddled over a laptop, looking at us.

“Whatever. Jase, this is Emily and Erin.”

I knew that Mark’s sisters were twins, but they seriously look just alike. Both with long, straight brown hair and the same bright, green eyes that Mark has.

They clamber out of bed and not only give Mark hugs, but me as well. Mark has told me that he’s really close with his sisters, but seeing them now, I can’t help the twinge of jealousy that creeps in, only wishing it was my own sister I was hugging. He’s lucky to have them.

“When did you get here?” he asks them.

“After finals last week. The dorms emptied out, so we went ahead and came home a couple days early.”

“So . . . Jase . . .” Erin says as she shoots me a flirty wink.

When I cock my head at her, slightly amused, her eyes begin to pan down the length of me in a dramatic fashion. I laugh at her blatant nature as Mark says with annoyance to Erin, “You’re seriously messed up.”

“This is almost too much,” I chuckle out when Emily breaks out into a fit of laughter as well.

“Yeah, I agree. We’ll see you two in the morning,” Mark tells them, and when we walk out, the two of them burst out laughing. I can’t help but do the same as Mark looks at me with an apologetic look on his face.

We head back to his room, unpack, and get ready for bed. It’s a bit odd to be sleeping in the same room as him in his parents’ home, but I try to shake off my insecure feelings for the sake of Mark. Sliding into bed, it feels so good to finally be lying down. It’s been a long day, and I huddle down under the blankets, wrapping myself around Mark.

I close my eyes, and I’m about to fall asleep when we hear squealing from the next room where his sisters are. Mark sits up and looks down at me for a second before shifting to his knees and placing his ear on the wall.

“What the hell are you doing?” I ask.

“Shhh.” He stays there, eavesdropping for a moment, when he whispers, “I can’t make out what they’re saying.”

“Oh my God, you are just as crazy as they are.”

We hear another squeal, and Mark jumps out of bed.

“What are you doing?”

As he slips on a pair of pajama pants, he says, “I’m gonna see what they’re up to.”

As tired as I am, I am getting a major kick out of seeing this new side of Mark. He quietly walks across the room and slowly opens the door, trying hard to not make any noise. He looks back at me, and nods his head for me to follow. Sighing, I get out of bed and follow him to his sisters’ door. With his hand on the handle, he quickly opens the door, barging in. One of the girls is sitting at the desk, on the computer and the other one is standing on top of the bed.

“What’s going on in here?” Mark asks, and Erin jumps off the bed, runs over to us, and drags us in, shutting the door quietly behind us.

“Jesus, you’re loud. You’re gonna wake up Mom and Dad,” she snaps at him before glancing at me, or rather, my bare chest. “God, you’re hot.”

“What?” I say at the same time Marks asks, “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

“Geez, nothing!”

“Em, dish it. What has the two of you acting so secretive?” Mark asks as I walk over and sit on the edge of the bed.

“You have to promise to not say anything to Mom and Dad.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, so there’s this guy, Travis, that is totally hot and all. I mean, seriously. This guy is like—”

“Get to the point,” Mark interrupts.

“Anyway. Erin is like madly in love with this guy—”

“No, I’m not!”

“Okay, I’m out,” Mark tells them as he starts heading for the door.

“Fine. Jase will help us,” Emily says.

“I don’t even know what’s going on here,” I say in complete confusion.

When Erin finally stops molesting my chest with her eyes, she looks up at me and pleads, “You have to take us to this party tomorrow night.”

“What?” Mark asks.

“Umm, excuse me. I’m talking to Jase.”

“Why do you need us to take you to a party? Just go,” he tells her.

Getting up from the computer, Emily walks over and sits down on the bed with Erin and me. “Because, there is no way that Mom will let us go to a party the night before Thanksgiving. But if we say that the four of us are going out together, you know, like a brother-sister type thing, then I know they won’t question it.”

Laughing at their scheming, I say, “I’m in.”

Erin wraps her arms around me when Mark glares at me with a look of complete betrayal, and I laugh at him. “It sounds completely harmless,” I tell him.

“I already love you,” Emily tells me as I hear Mark let out a deep breath. “Oh, come on, Mark. Even Jase is cool with it.”

“How old is this guy?” he asks.

“I don’t know. He’s in his third year,” Erin says when she finally lets go of me. “What does it matter?”

“Because you’re nineteen and my sister. It matters.”

Suddenly thinking about Candace, I stand up, taking Mark’s side, and tell them, “We’ll go, but we’re staying with you.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Mark says, probably understanding my change of tone.

“Are you serious?” Emily questions, clearly not liking that her older brother is, in a sense, chaperoning them.