Drifts - 4. Fawn

Joel stepped into the apartment carrying a couple of bags of groceries. As he toed off his shoes, he noticed the place was quiet. Very quiet. He had expected Mason to be in the living room, playing one of his many games with the sound turned up high taking advantage of being home alone. The silence was surprising and to some extent worrying.

“Mason?”

He frowned when there was no answer. They had made plans to have an early dinner soon and then head over to the ice rink for practice. Had the boy gone out and not told them? That wasn’t like Mason. The teen might grumble about it, but he always sent texts. Sometimes, Joel got the impression Mason secretly liked them keeping close tabs on him. Maybe because it made him feel as if he truly belonged there, even if their living arrangement was rather unusual. Not many kids in high school lived with their coach and his husband.

So, this silence was something new. Walking farther into the apartment, he heard faint sounds. Mumbling voices and soft music were heard from Mason’s room. Without stopping to think, Joel opened the door.

“It’s so quiet in here, I thought you’d left without…” Joel stopped midsentence. Mason and a girl were sitting on his bed, heads close together and for a moment Joel thought they had been kissing before they turned their startled eyes on him. Then he saw the textbook lying open across Mason’s lap. Joel took in the pads, pencils and books scattered around the young pair. “Sorry, did I interrupt something?”

The girl giggled and Mason blushed. Joel cursed his own choice of words in his head.

“I meant, are you busy studying something special?”

“Physics. Test on Thursday. Brianna is helping me study.” A nonchalant jerk of the head seemed to serve as an appropriate introduction in the teen world.

“So I take it you are Brianna?” Joel held out his hand. The girl flicked an uncertain glance at Mason and then she took his hand, shaking it while smiling shyly.

“Yes. Mason and I are in the same class in math and physics.”

Joel nodded, realizing Brianna was in fact a very cute girl, in a bookwormish sort of way. Her light-brown hair was held together in a ponytail, which made her glasses appear larger than they were. He bit back a chuckle when his brain conjured up the old trope of the nerdy girl who lets out her hair and removes her glasses, revealing to the world she is model attractive. In Brianna’s case, it would be true. He wondered how long it would take for her to realize this. At the moment, she had a mousy quality about her. Joel bet it wouldn’t last.

“I need to get a good grade on this test, so I figured I’d learn from the best.” Mason gave her a playful shove on her shoulder.

“Am not!” Brianna shoved back. Joel’s heart warmed at the innocence before him.

“In our class, you are. I don’t know how you can understand this stuff. It’s so hard.” Mason sighed.

“Just don’t ask me. I have no clue about that stuff…!” By force of habit, Joel bent down and picked up some clothes strewn on the floor. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

The teenagers looked at each other, wordless conversation passing between them.

“That would be very nice.” Another smile lit up Brianna’s face.

Polite as well as smart. What a perfect tutor Mason had found.

“Okay, then I’ll get dinner started. Remember we’re heading to practice afterwards.”

Just as dinner was ready and they were sitting down at the table, Lucas stepped through the door. He rushed to their bedroom to dump his stuff and then reemerged into the kitchen. Surprised, Joel turned in his chair to greet him.

“You’re home early!”

Lucas bent over and kissed Joel firmly on the mouth.

“I have some more stuff to read up on, but figured I’d do it here tonight. Wanted to have dinner with you guys.”

As he looked across the table, he noticed Brianna. She was staring at them with a hard to read expression on her face and it dawned on Joel she might not know about their “situation”. He didn’t know how out, for lack of a better word, Mason was in school.

“Lucas, this is Brianna. This is Lucas, my other ‘stepdad’.” Mason made little quotation marks with his fingers.

“Oh, cool.” Brianna kept her gaze on them. “I know you said they were big, but they are both really big.” When it dawned on her what she had said, Brianna blushed but the rest of them laughed.

“Yeah, would be handy to have some of those genes for real. Good for hockey. Joel actually played a lot when he was younger. Almost went to the NHL. Now he coaches us.” Mason was talking more than he ever had. Joel briefly wondered if Mason was aware of this.

“Yeah, I know.” Brianna nodded while she put some salad on her plate.

Lucas reached for a piece of bread and then held out the basket across the table.

“So, what have you kids been up to?”

The squirming from both “kids” was impossible to miss. Joel tapped Lucas’ leg softly with his foot. His husband looked at him, at first not understanding what Joel was trying to say. After a conversation of raised eyebrows, Lucas focused on his food.

“Studying. Test on Thursday. Physics.” Mason was back to speaking in minimalist sentences.

“Brianna here is tutoring Mason.” It was only fair to fill Lucas in on what was going on in Mason’s life.

“So, you’re one of the smart kids, huh?” Lucas grinned, looking as if he thought his observation was particularly astute.

The comment had Joel rolling his eyes. Way to make Brianna feel like a nerd. Perhaps she was and perhaps she had no problem with that. Some things had changed since they were kids. But still.

“Lucas…” He attempted to rein in his husband.

“Hey, nothing wrong with that. I was a smart kid too!” To emphasize his statement, Lucas pointed to his own chest.

“’Was’ being the operative word here…” Joel poured some water for them all.

Mason snickered and Brianna was biting her lip, probably feeling it would be rude to laugh at Joel’s joke. Lucas patted Joel on the head, as if he was a little boy and not a giant ex cop.

“You’ll have to forgive my husband. Polar bears aren’t very big on good manners.”

“Shut up…!” Twisting away from Lucas’ hand, Joel sent him a look. A quick kiss on the cheek from Lucas diffused any pretend anger.

The rest of dinner went more along expected lines. Joel and Lucas asked Brianna about her other interests, which turned out to be the debate team and math club. Since Lucas had of course been on the debate team, Joel and Mason were treated to all sorts of fascinating facts about debate strategy and rhetoric. As Brianna got into it, Joel was once again struck by how pretty she was. With slightly flushed cheeks and alert eyes, he could picture her mid speech and was convinced she was a formidable opponent in a contest. Mason sat mostly quiet. He wasn’t very comfortable with public speaking, but he seemed content with listening to Brianna. Joel glanced between the two and smiled to himself.

During the coming days, Brianna came over after school to study. On Friday, she came over to celebrate the B+ Mason managed to score on his test. After Joel asked her repeatedly, she bashfully admitted to getting an A+. They all had homemade pizza and then the kids went to Mason’s room to watch a movie. Lucas and Joel cleaned up in the kitchen.

“They are very cute together.” Joel handed Lucas a plate to put in the dishwasher.

“What do you mean, together?” Lucas frowned, as if he didn’t understand what Joel meant.

“Come on, how blind are you?” Pointing to Mason’s room, Joel chuckled. “Mason is so obviously crushing on her and I would bet almost anything the feeling is mutual. They just haven’t realized it yet.”

“I just expected him to meet another kind of girl and not a…” Lucas swallowed the rest of his sentence.

“Nerd? Is that what you wanted to say?” To his surprise, Joel got more than a little dismayed by Lucas’ words.

“No! Or well, yes. But I don’t mean there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just surprised. I sort of expected Mason to come out of his shell eventually and socialize more. Hang out with more people.” Lucas rambled and he knew it, if his sudden rearranging of the plates in the cupboard was anything to go by.

“The cool kids…?” The pinprick remark slipped out before Joel could stop himself.

“That’s not what I was going to say.” The helpless look on Lucas’ face made Joel forgive him.

“Maybe, but that’s what it sounded like. If Mason is able to look beyond the superficial, so should you.” He squeezed Lucas’ hand gently to let him know he wasn’t upset. “Brianna is a great girl. We should be happy if they start dating.”

“You’re right.” Lucas glanced towards Mason’s door.” Do you think we should ask them to open the door…?”

It took Joel a few moments to get what Lucas was hinting at. When he did, he blushed.

“No, that would be so embarrassing for them. I doubt they would do anything…” Uncertainty crept into Joel’s voice. What did he really know about teenagers these days?

“We haven’t really talked to Derek about this sort of stuff.” Lucas rinsed the dishrag and started wiping down the counter. “What do you think he would say?”

“I can’t imagine him being against Mason dating and such, but sex…?” The idea seemed preposterous. Their Mason? Having sex? “He’s just a kid!”

“Well…” Lucas hesitated. “When I was his age, I wasn’t exactly abstinent…”

“Mason is not like you. Not that there is anything wrong with that.” Joel sighed and scratched his head. “I guess we should talk to Derek.”

“Maybe we should wait until we actually know if they are… You know, dating?”

So, they waited and watched, while Mason and Brianna spent more and more time together to study. Apparently, Brianna needed help in English. Although Mason was in fact quite good, both Joel and Lucas suspected the girl needed no help. Mason was however happy to assist her. It was unclear if he realized he was the victim of female cunning. Or girl cunning. Not very subtle. Then again, most teenagers tended to miss anything that wasn’t obvious, so she might just get away with it.

As the weeks went by and the pair never seemed to make any plans to take it to the next level, Joel found himself watching them a little more closely. What was going on? Had he and Lucas misread the two so completely? Were they simply friends?

At dinner, he decided to put his people reading skills to the test. He noted the smiles, the quick sideways glances, the deceptively unintentional brushes of a hand against an arm. All from Brianna. Joel wanted to smack the boy over the head for being so completely clueless. Brianna was working overtime to let the boy know how she was feeling and he had no idea. After seeing the disappointment in her eyes as the youngsters said goodbye, Joel felt he had to act. Question was how.

When they were walking home after practice that night, Mason was talking his ear off about his “friend”.

“You know, then Brianna told our teacher he was wrong and that recent research proves him wrong. I thought Mr. Jenkins would get all angry and stuff, but he just talked to her. Like she was his equal or something.” Mason’s eye betrayed what he felt for his amazing friend.

“She’s one smart girl…” Joel nodded slowly.

“I know. She already knows where she wants to go to college. She has everything figured out and I haven’t even started thinking about it.” Mason fell silent for a moment. “She’s just so smart. I don’t know why she hangs out with me so much. It’s not like I can really help her with anything. I think she just asks me to be nice…”

Joel saw his chance and, without allowing himself to chicken out, he grabbed it.

“You know, there could be another reason for her to hang out with you. Other than studying, that is…”

Mason looked at him, confusion written all over his face.

“What do you mean?”

“Perhaps she’s waiting for you to do something?” When Mason still didn’t catch on, Joel stopped and faced the boy. “I think Brianna would be very happy if you asked her out.”

“What? No, I don’t think so.” Mason shook his head, but then he thought about what Joel had said. “Really? She’d say yes?”

“I’m almost certain. You should try. If you want to, that is.”

“Yes!” Mason blushed. “I’ve wanted to for so long, but I figured she liked me as a friend.”

“Many couples start out that way.”

“Did you and Lucas?” Curious eyes peered up at him.

“Ehum… No, not really.” Joel was not telling Mason any specifics about how he and Lucas had started dating. “But being friends first is a good thing.”

“I’ll think about it.” Mason bit his lip. “Could you not say anything to Lucas? He’d only ask me a million questions or say something to Brianna before I get the chance…”

Joel chuckled, as that was probably true. He didn’t like to keep things from Lucas, but this was Mason’s secret to tell, not his.

A couple of days passed and Joel could feel the tension mounting in Mason, making him irritable and absentminded. It was clear the teen could think of not much else, especially as Brianna continued to come over. Mason’s weird behavior annoyed Lucas, who had no idea what was going on.

“Mason, I asked you five times already to get your gym bag unpacked! Can you just do it now? Please?” It wasn’t a request this time, but an order. Lucas didn’t like to do the dad thing, but he hated smelly gym clothes and molding towels even more.

“Okay, okay… It’s not like it’s going anywhere…” Mason huffed as he came out of his room, obviously reluctant.

“My point exactly!”

Joel didn’t want to betray Mason’s trust, but he felt he needed to diffuse the mood in the apartment. He snuck up behind Lucas and pressed his body against his back. Lucas glanced at him, surprised at Joel making a move when they had guests.

“Tonight, maybe we could…” Even though he whispered the words in Lucas’ ear, Joel couldn’t spell out what he wanted. Thankfully, Lucas knew without having to be told and he grinned. Just like that, Mason was off the hook. Joel hoped the kid would make his move soon.

When it was time for Brianna to go home, Joel knocked softly on the door. When there was no answer, he entered. This time, the teens sitting on the bed flew apart and both were decidedly red faced. Joel did his best to pretend he didn’t see anything.

“Time to head home, Brianna.”

“Can I walk her home, Joel?” Mason tried to sound casual, but his eyes couldn’t hide how much he wanted Joel to say yes.

“Okay, just don’t take forever coming back home.”

“Sure.” Mason shrugged, but Joel knew the boy was happier than that. “We just need to figure out what movie we’re going to see on Friday.” There was no missing the sheer joy in Mason’s eyes as he looked at Brianna.

Joel nodded, not trusting his voice as he saw the two teens beam at each other, so ridiculously happy as only two teenagers in love could be.