Geeks - 17. Changes

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: CHANGES

Mikeal woke up to the insistent beep of his cell phone and grabbed it. There was a text from his mom, asking if she could come up. He texted her back and extracted himself from the tangled limbs of his boyfriend. Wishing he had thought of getting up early to take a shower, he settled for rubbing a wet washcloth over his skin and pulling on fresh clothes. When he reached the living room suite, he saw Marigold sitting on the sofa with two large Styrofoam cups and a carton of donuts.

“Lily let me in,” Marigold explained, but his older sister had obviously retreated back to her room. “I brought some coffee.”

Mikeal sat down with her and picked up one of the cups, sipping at the warm bitter brew inside. He sighed in appreciation.

“You’re as bad as your father and his brandy,” Marigold said, taking a sip of her own coffee.

Mikeal smiled as he took a donut, but felt a bitter pang at the same time. At one time, a comment like that would have elicited a deep flush of pride, being compared to his father. Now, though, with the knowledge that they lacked a familial tie, without blood or genes to bind them, it just didn’t feel the same. He wanted it to, but it didn’t. He wasn’t one of the Hamilton men anymore, didn’t have the fire that flowed through those veins. He was an outsider.

“How are you feeling?” Marigold asked, taking another sip of coffee.

“About-“ Mikeal gestured aimlessly and Marigold nodded. Mikeal shrugged, reluctant to leave the comfortable ground of nonverbal communication.

“I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “I guess I’m still working it out inside my head.”

Marigold nodded. “Understandable. It will take some time. I am glad that you are willing to talk to me.”

“Being angry isn’t going to fix anything. I’m not okay with any of this, but I’ve got to learn to live with it, get over it, and get on with my life. I have a boyfriend that I’m in love with and I would like to enjoy that.”

“We want the same thing,” Marigold said earnestly. “The last thing we wanted was for you to end up hurt or confused, and your father and I hate the way this happened, and we want to help. We can’t make it right, because we can’t change the past, but we do know we made a mistake in not telling you earlier.” She lifted up a slim portfolio into her lap and pulled out a large brown envelope, held shut by a small metal clip. She held it out to Mikeal, who took it.

“It’s all the information we have on your adoption records,” she said. “It’s not a lot, but it’s a start.“

Mikeal glanced down at the envelope, turning it in his hands. It looked so innocuous, so meaningless.

“There is also the information on a lawyer that we have on retainer, if you decide you want your records unsealed,” Marigold continued,

“Do you know why…why they—“

“Put you up for adoption?”

“Yes.”

Marigold shook her head. “No darling, I don’t.”

Mikeal put the packet aside. “I don’t know.”

“That's okay,” Marigold said. “I want you to have it, so you can look at it when you are ready, if you ever are. But you can do whatever you want. Destroy them if you want, or try to track your parents down, if you want. I’ll help you anyway I can, but it is your decision. You’re my son and I’ll do anything for you.”

Mikeal glanced up. Marigold was still as composed as ever, but her eyes shone with tears. Mikeal leaned forward and hugged her tightly.

“Thanks, Mom.”

He was still hugging her when he heard footsteps in the adjoining room, then the sound of a shower being started. A few minutes later, Mikeal felt himself blush hotly as the sound of Adam’s smooth tenor floated out from under the gentle hum of running water. He was singing.

Marigold smiled. “Sounds like you are being summoned.” She tilted her head. “Is that Italian? Tosca?”

Mikeal shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Marigold stood. “Tell your boyfriend he has good taste.” She kissed Mikeal on both cheeks. “I’m glad we got to talk.”

“Me too, Mom.”

He walked her to the door, then headed for the bathroom, detouring by the bedroom to drop off the folder. He could see the foggy image of Adam, still singing, and stripped to join him. As soon as he stepped into the steamy heat, Adam turned to kiss him. When he drew back, Mikeal saw with amusement that his boyfriend’s hair was shaped into a shampoo mohawk.

“What’s gotten into you this morning?”

“My boyfriend,” Adam said, tilting his head back to rinse the suds out. “Early this morning, in fact. It was awesome. I’m hoping he gets into me very often.”

Mikeal smiled as Adam finished rinsing his hair, shaking the water out, and leaned up to kiss him. He wrapped his arms around his neck, pressing in deep to get the taste of him.

“By the way…” Mikeal said as he pulled away. “Mom appreciates your taste in opera. Tosca, right?”

Adam grinned, a little sheepishly, and gave Mikeal another apologetic kiss. “Sorry baby.”

After a quick shower, Adam pulled his boyfriend back into the bedroom and tackled him onto the bed. Mikeal eagerly wrapped himself around his boyfriend, kissing him deeply and feeling his cock stiffening up, when the forgotten folder crinkled underneath his shoulder. Adam reached back to pull it free and was about to toss it aside, when he caught sight of what it was.

“What is this?” he asked, drawing back slightly.

Mikeal glanced at it and retrieved it. “Just some documents that my Mom dropped off,” he said nonchalantly, tossing it aside.

Adam caught it. “What kind of documents?”

“For my adoption.”

Adam stared down at him. “Have you looked at them?”

Mikeal looked at him somewhat incredulously. “I’m lying here, naked and with a hard on, and you’re asking if I’ve looked at legal papers?”

It was too late though, Adam’s attention was already caught. He levered himself up off of Mikeal’s body and sat up near the headboard. “Are they from your Mom?”

Mikeal sighed in irritation and rolled over. “Yes, she brought them in this morning.”

Adam gave him a curious look. “And you don’t want to see them?”

Mikeal shrugged. “I don’t know. She just said that it had all the information she had about the adoption. She also talked about getting a lawyer if I wanted to pursue my full records.”

Adam looked down at the envelope. “So, are you going to open it?”

Mikeal looked at it too. “Eventually, probably. Not now. Right now I’d rather focus on you.”

Adam smiled and sat the folder carefully aside, then draped himself over Mikeal, kissing him deeply. Mikeal kissed him back, skating his fingers over Adam’s back and down to his buttocks. He drew away slightly. “How are you?”

“Hmm?”

Mikeal squirmed as Adam’s lips attempted to explore his neck. “I want to make sure you are okay. You know, not sore or anything.”

Adam propped his head up on his hand, the other tracing light patterns over Mikeal’s chest and collarbone. “I’m a little sore, but in a nice way. Are you worried about last night?”

Mikeal shrugged.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” Adam asked, still skating his light touch over Mikeal’s skin.

“Yeah.”

“Good.” Adam pressed a light kiss against Mikeal’s chest. “You enjoyed yourself and I enjoyed myself and we had some fantastic orgasms. Nothing to worry about.”

“I just wanted to make sure I didn’t hurt you,” Mikeal said.

“You didn’t,” Adam said. “Last night felt wonderful. I loved seeing that side of you, all passionate and unrestrained. It was sexy as hell. I liked seeing you take control.” He rolled onto his back and pulled Mikeal on top of him, kissing him again, sliding his hands up the back of his thighs to cup his buttocks.

Mikeal kissed him back, shivering a little at the touch of his hands on his body, as they slid to more intimate areas. “What else do you like?” he asked, his breath fanning over Adam’s lips, his eyes dark mysterious pools.

Adam pulled him down again. “I’ll show you.”

* * *

“So your mom was just going to keep on letting you think that you were their biological child?” Julie asked.

“Seems like it.” Mikeal said.

Julie whistled. She had her feet hooked around the bottom of her bed frame and was leaning her chair back on two feet, keeping Mikeal in a constant state of apprehension. “That’s crazy. So you go home to tell your folks that you were gay, end up finding you were adopted, and spent the majority of your break at Adam’s house.”

Mikeal nodded. “That pretty much sums it up.”

“So what are you going to do now?”

Mikeal shrugged. “Go to classes. Study. Hang out with my friends and boyfriend. Visit my parents. Try to get back to normal.”

“Are you going to try and find your birth parents?”

“Probably not.” Mikeal looped his arms loosely around his knees. “I haven’t talked to the lawyer yet, but from what I’ve read, getting records unsealed can be really difficult if the other party did not consent, which is usually the case in closed adoption. Also, what my Mom said about revealing this while I’m in school has some merit, even though I’m not buying it as an excuse. I don’t want it to distract me from my studying or trying to fix my relationship with my parents.”

“How is that going?” Julie asked.

“Things between me and my dad are almost normal again. Almost. Mom—“ Mikeal sighed and rolled his eyes. “It’s better than what it was, but it’s still Mom.”

Julie nodded. “Wow Mikeal. Sounds like this really sucked.”

“It wasn’t the best time I’ve ever had,” Mikeal admitted. “But it helped, having Adam there. If he hadn’t…I don’t know. I think I would have just fallen apart.”

“Can’t blame you there. But I’m glad he was there for you. I like him Mikeal. He’s good for you.” Julie smiled softly. Mikeal leaned forward and hugged her, almost toppling her chair before she managed to right it and hug him back.

Mikeal went back to his room to shower and change. Tonight was the night he had planned to take Adam to the Phantom of the Opera, but he desperately needed to reconnect with Julie for a few hours after all the holiday turbulence. He called Adam to come and pick him up, and then sat down at his desk as he waited. He saw the folder his mom had given him, sitting with some of the other piles of paper and paraphernalia that had gotten shuffled around in his preparation for a new semester. He picked it up, hearing the tantalizing slide of papers inside. He thought about what lay inside. Just information. He wasn’t going to open up the envelope and have his biological parents suddenly slide out into his lap. Just papers, information, on the parents that didn’t want him.

He thought about the talk with his Mom on New Year’s Day. The shine of tears in her eyes and her promise to help him find his biological parents if that was what he wanted.

“You’re my son and I’ll do anything for you.”

You're my son...

He opened the bottom drawer of his desk, where his important, but largely ignored documents lay. Insurance papers, records and transcripts, his immunizations. He sat the folder down on top of all of those, then closed the drawer firmly. He heard the knock on his door, signaling that Adam was here, and went to go meet him with an excited smile.

The drawer stayed closed.

~END~