The Cockney Canuck - 71. Chapter 71 Fireworks

Sue made us my favourite pancakes with maple syrup for a late lunch and I won a bet with Nathan over who could eat the most, but nearly choked on the last one. Trying to laugh with a mouthful of pancake and maple syrup running down my chin was difficult, but I somehow managed to survive with a healthy slap on the back and the occasional mouth to mouth.

Nathan was sitting next to me; too close I think for Sue’s liking as she tried to keep a watchful eye on our antics from the kitchen. My emotional tears had long since dried up and the relief that I felt from the lifting of what had become an increasingly heavy burden from my shoulders was clearly noticeable to my boyfriend. He wouldn’t leave me alone; hugging me and fussing over me at every opportunity and sharing sticky syrup coated kisses. Disgusting but strangely erotic. Sue had opened a can of worms and had her work cut out containing us, but the difference in my behaviour from that morning was palpable. It must have been a relief for her also, after what had been an extremely testing couple of weeks.

We were just out of her view, and she had to keep inventing ever more ridiculous excuses to justify her frequent incursions into the dining room, to check up on us. On her last lightning visit; she had walked in just as Nathan had scooped a dollop of syrup from my chin and began licking it from his finger in a way that could probably be described as semi-pornographic. If it had happened an hour before it would have been catastrophic, but even after he had been caught red-handed giving a blowjob to his finger, the pair of us just laughed. It was a sign of how much things had changed, but Sue saw it as a potential problem that needed to be nipped in the bud.

“Okay, boys,” she said as she clapped her hands. “It’s time for a few house rules.” We both sighed but I had been expecting it. She wiped her hands on a towel and sat at the head of the table; Don’s usual chair, it gave her some authority and we swivelled in our seats to face her. She gave us her most critical eye and studied our mischievous faces, but she wasn’t angry, and when she shook her head it was with a smile. “Nathan, dear. I know that you like Robbie, but can you please stop crawling all over him. A little bit of space between you would be good.”

He shrugged his shoulders to protest his innocence and shifted his chair a couple of inches further away. “Is this better?” he pleaded and I giggled. The difference was barely visible to the human eye and Sue rolled her eyes.

“I was thinking more like the other side of the table,” she said and I laughed. I could see that this wasn’t going to be easy for Sue and she already looked out of her depth, trying to create rules that would be difficult, if not impossible to enforce. She had a vague idea of what she thought would be acceptable behaviour indoors but refused to be drawn on specifics and I knew why. Don wasn’t in the picture yet, and I had a feeling that his input was going to be decisive. As far as I was concerned, I had done my part by owning up to Sue, but I had absolutely no desire to go through that again for his benefit. I assumed that she would tell him when the time was right. She hadn’t told me this, but she hadn’t offered to withhold the information from him either, which meant that pretty soon he would know. I would probably have to sit through some kind of one to one, man to man, or father to son type talk, with him, but at least I wouldn’t have to break the news.

That would leave only Daniel on the outside and although I would have gladly left him in the wilderness, rather than face a potentially difficult situation, Sue insisted otherwise.

“They’ve been close friends for a long time,” she said. “I want you both to remember that and take it into consideration. But he needs to know and I think that you should be the one to break the news to him.” She stared directly at me and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I was hoping for a double act or at least a little support. Nathan was better than me at handling difficult situations, but naturally, he took sides with Sue.

“He’s your brother,” he said. “You share a room with him and he looks up to you.” It was a nice thought but I doubted if it was true and my expression said as much. “Well, you’ve never had a fight.”

“No,” I said, “tonight will be the first.”

“Don’t be so negative,” said Sue. “You never know you may just….” Nathan and I watched, waiting for her to finish her sentence, but nothing followed and we turned to give each other the same questioning look. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

‘Senile dementia’.

Nathan smiled; I think that he might have been thinking the same. “I don’t know what to say to him,” I protested. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“The truth dear,” said Sue. “You need to tell him the truth, he deserves that.”

My heart jumped in my throat. The truth was the absolute last thing that he needed to know.

‘Sorry, Daniel, but I’m gay and I’ve been screwing your best friend. Twice today actually, while you were at the beach and a few times in the shower a couple of weeks back, while you were asleep’.

It was an interesting tactic, but one that I wasn’t about to deploy no matter what Sue said, although I doubt if she meant it quite that way.

“The truth is always the safest option dear, you should both know that by now.” I nodded my head reluctantly. “To be quite honest,” she said, “I really don’t know how this…special friendship of yours is going to work in the future, or even if there is any future in it.” I saw Nathan’s eyes open wide and he stood up and walked over to stand behind my chair with his arms draped around my shoulders. It was a fairly tame pose but something that only a couple would normally do and Sue looked a little uncomfortable with it.

“I love him,” he said and I tilted my head backwards to smile my gratitude at him, then in a show of solidarity, I held onto his hands in front of my chest and squeezed them. Sue watched every movement like a hawk and was visibly surprised by our somewhat restrained but blatant show of affection. I smiled at her as if I were the luckiest person alive. Then she completely shocked me with her next statement.

“You know; you actually look quite good together,” she said, and I exchanged a worried glance with my boyfriend. “Maybe one day, I’ll have you as a son-in-law, Nathan?”

‘She’s completely lost it’.

I wasn’t expecting Sue to shoot me down in flames, but I didn’t think that she would want to be making wedding arrangements either, even if it was only supposed to be a joke. I bit my lip and hoped that she had something a little less enthusiastic to say. She wasn’t supposed to be acting like that or to be so supportive, it made me uncomfortable.

‘Don’t tell me she’s gonna be one of those proud gay mothers, how bloody embarrassing would that be’?

I could picture her marching at the front of gay pride with a rainbow t-shirt. “Can’t we just be boyfriends for a while?” I said. “And see how it goes from there.” She got the point.

“Only if you talk to Daniel first…it wouldn’t be right if he heard it somewhere else, and Nicola too.”

“Nicola already knows,” I said and then wondered whether I should have said anything. She looked intrigued. The thought of me confiding in Nicola must have seemed odd to her, but she didn’t ask. It made me wonder though, how many others would have to know.

‘Does this mean that I’m out now; like to everyone’?

My first thoughts were to keep it within the family, but I wasn’t sure if it was possible or even necessary anymore. Sue seemed to read my mind.

“You’ll have to decide whether or not you’re going to come out at school,” she said and I was pleased to hear that I had a choice. “I’m sure that Daniel and Nicola will be prepared to keep it quiet if you ask them. But people will find out eventually; you’re gonna need to prepare yourself for when that happens. Nathan is probably the best person to guide you through that. It wasn’t easy for you at first, was it dear?” Her words were a timely reminder of what I still had to go through. I could remember hearing similar warnings from Nathan’s parents.

“No, it wasn’t,” he confirmed. “But I was lucky to have some really cool friends…like Daniel, and Ginny. Robbie will have them too…plus me.” Sue seemed pleased by his optimism and smiled. “But there are still people out there who wanna fight me just because I’m gay.”

“Oh my God,” said Sue. “The boy who pushed you down the stairs, Robbie? Was this why he did it? Did he find out?” I wasn’t sure and I no longer had any memory at all of the incident, but it had always seemed like a logical conclusion. She told me the police were still investigating the incident and that I would need to give them a statement, although that seemed pointless. “It may help if you told them that you were gay,” she said, and I reluctantly agreed to out myself to the Cobourg Police Department as well.

“At this rate, the whole world’s gonna know,” I said, but Sue seemed deep in thought again.

“I think that it’s best if you stay around the house for a while honey,” she said. “Just in case he decides to try it again. We could be dealing with some kind of psychopath here.”

Sue’s words weren’t exactly reassuring, but Nicola had taught me a valuable lesson, and after the day that I just had, suddenly having to stay at home wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“In that case, Nathan could also be a target,” I said and I reached out to hold his hands between us. “I want you to promise me that you won't ever go out alone, in the middle of the night, in the woods…naked…and listening to Michael Buble.” He laughed while Sue shook her head.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, “you know I can’t promise you that.”

“Well, at least take me with you then.”

Sue had seen enough of our nonsense and she stood up smiling. “You’re both as crazy as each other, you know that?” she said. “But I don’t mind if Nathan wants to keep you company while you’re stuck indoors. As long as you rest like the doctor told you.” She stared into my eyes. “And act responsibly.”

I could only guess at what that meant, I had never acted responsibly in my life. She hadn’t actually asked us about it, but I suppose by the way that we were acting that she could probably guess that our relationship had progressed a little further than simply holding hands.

“We will Sue, I promise,” I said, although I wasn’t really certain what I was actually agreeing to, or if she was even listening to me. She seemed to be deep in thought again as her eyes flicked between the pair of us.

“How old are you Nathan?” she said.

“Fifteen, same age as Robbie.”

“I’m sixteen in a couple of months’ time,” I added and she smiled.

“Yes honey, I know that, but at the moment it’s important that you understand that you’re both still underage as far as….” We both stared at her making it clear that we weren’t going to help her out. “As far as sex is concerned,” she finished. I wasn’t expecting Sue to be that comfortable discussing sex with me, particularly gay sex, but she obviously considered it her duty as a parent to at least brush over the subject at the first opportunity. I looked at Nathan hoping that he might have something to add to her statement, but there wasn’t a lot that either of us could offer.

“I know that,” I said. It was an acknowledgement that fell short of an outright admission but she nodded her acceptance.

“You know that there are certain house rules which we expect all of our kids to follow when they start dating and those rules would apply to both of you as well. You know what I’m talking about?” I had a pretty good idea. “We can’t watch you all of the time and we wouldn’t want to either, so we’re gonna have to trust you to act in a respectable manner.” I shifted in my seat, not entirely comfortable with the conversation. She might have guessed that we probably hadn’t just spent the afternoon alone in the house watching episodes of ‘Heartland’.

“You can trust us,” I said. It was a blatant lie and she probably knew it, but it was the best that she was going to get and I was relieved to see her stand up.

“As long as we’re reading from the same page,” she said and I smiled before my heart jumped in my mouth as I suddenly remembered something important.

‘Shit, my bedsheets are still in the dryer’!

I decided that it would be a good idea to put the sheets back on my bed before Daniel got home, so I left Nathan talking to his future mother-in-law, while I went downstairs and recruited Amy to help. I knew that she wouldn’t ask me why I needed to change my sheets in the middle of the day and besides, she was more concerned about my personal welfare.

“Why was you crying earlier, was you sick again?”

“No, Amy. I wasn’t sick, I was happy.” I didn’t expect her to understand and she screwed her face up at me. “Sometimes people get very emotional when they’re happy or I guess relieved would be a better word.”

“I think I get it,” she said and then held out her hand. “Nathan told me that you would give me five dollars if I went downstairs and left you alone.” I was wondering how he had managed to persuade her and had put it down to his personal charm.

‘So that’s how he does it, cheeky little fuck’.

* * * * *

The later it got the more nervous I was getting about having to talk to Daniel and it was beginning to show. Sue had called him earlier to tell him that he didn’t have to come back to look after me, and had extended his usual ten o’clock curfew because of the fireworks, so I wasn’t expecting him to home until after the display, but I wanted to get it over with.

Amy had gone to bed and Sue was upstairs talking to a friend who had stopped by, so Nathan and I went to the basement to watch a movie. I was upright on the couch and he was lying on his back with his legs across the top of my thighs, and I guess that we must have worn ourselves out earlier because we both fell asleep quite early on in the film.

I was woken by Nicola laughing at us as she switched on the light. “Oh my God, look at this.” She pushed Nathans feet off my lap and sat down next to me as I struggled to focus in the bright light. “How was your day?” she said staring at me. She smiled annoyingly into my face so I put my hand up to block her and turned away to look at Nathan.

“It was okay, I suppose,” I said and I yawned.

“Did you get plenty of rest?” Her tone suggested otherwise and I narrowed my eyes at her. “I didn’t think so,” she said, “but you look a lot better than when I left. Nice work Nathan.” He looked as surprised as I was, but Nicola found it all very amusing.

“Is Daniel home?” I asked.

“Not yet sweetie,” she said. “But I know why you asked. Mom told me that you talked to her earlier. I hope that she didn’t catch the pair of you at it.”

“Of course not,” I said shaking my head at the thought.

“Well, I wouldn’t have been surprised,” she said and laughed. “And I hope that you made the most of your time alone today because mom’s gonna be watching you two like a hawk from now on.”

I wasn’t comfortable with the implied topic of our one-sided chat, but I was spared any further embarrassment by the sudden appearance of a tall thin guy walking from the stairs. Nicola stood up to greet him with a quick kiss on the lips.

‘So this is Jimmy’.

He looked at me and smiled before waving at Nathan, who seemed pleased to see him. He was a lot different from how I had imagined him. I had him down as a leather-clad grease ball similar to Jake, but Jimmy was actually quite handsome and smartly dressed. He had a goatee beard that looked really good on him and a nice smile, which woke me up quicker than a bucket of ice water.

Nicola introduced us and he reached over to shake my hand. “The last time I saw you, you were in a deep sleep,” he said. “You look much better now.”

“Thanks, I probably wasn’t much fun at the time.”

“You weren’t much of a conversationalist,” he said and laughed. “But you certainly had us all worried there for a while.” I smiled, wondering why he would be so worried about somebody that he didn’t know. “Too bad you missed out on Canada Day, huh?”

I smiled at him, I wouldn’t have swapped my day for a million beach parties and funfair rides. “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Don’t they do it every year?”

“Oh, yeah. For sure, when you’ve seen one you’ve pretty much seen them all.” He turned to look at Nicola and smile. “I like his accent,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. I bet the girls like it too.” It was a simple mistake and I noticed Nicola poking him in the side. I thought it was quite funny as he covered his mouth and apologised to me, which was hardly necessary.

“Well, Nathan quite likes it,” said Nicola and I couldn’t have agreed more. “His accent I mean.”

“I’ve heard so much about you,” said Jimmy and he sat down next to me. “Nicola’s always talking about you.”

I raised my eyebrows and glared at her. I wasn’t expecting to hear that. Our relationship had certainly improved lately, but up until my accident we were sworn enemies, or that was how it seemed to me. Maybe she saw it differently.

I decided that I liked Jimmy; he was a cool character and nice-looking to boot, although I didn’t say that to Nicola. Jimmy’s dad was English and he had visited London on a few occasions to see family, so we had some common ground. There were a lot of British descendants in Cobourg, but Jimmy seemed to know London quite well, and I really enjoyed talking to him. The area where his family lived wasn’t far from where I went to school. Nicola and Nathan must have got bored of a conversation which they couldn’t relate to and they left us chatting to join Sue and her guests upstairs, but at ten o’clock, we were interrupted by the start of the fireworks.

“Come on,” said Jimmy. “You gotta see this, Cobourg has the best display on Canada Day.” I liked his enthusiasm and the way that he walked with me up the stairs, obviously still concerned about my injury. “Are you okay buddy?”

I smiled and nodded as we joined the others outside the front of the house to watch the spectacular show, which more than lived up to its billing. Amy was awake and she sat on Nathan’s shoulders for the duration. He looked comfortable with the family, even after such a long absence and I was proud of the way that he always made time for Amy, without exception. It was easy to see why she thought so much of him.

“It’s better watching at home, anyway,” said Sue. “It’s too crowded at the beach.” She stood next to me on the front lawn and put her arm around my shoulders. Once again, I allowed her to do it and even rested my head against her as I shivered a little in the cool night air. I had been in Canada for a few days short of six months and it had taken all that time for me to finally allow her to get close to me. My real mom was still there and I thought about her almost every day in some way or another, but Sue, without me even noticing, had gradually stepped in to fill her shoes. I didn’t think that I needed another mother and for ages, I had fought against it, but recently I had been proved wrong and Sue fit the role perfectly. I was sure my mom would have approved.

“I’m sorry for shouting at you this morning,” I said as the display ended. “And for all of the swearing.” She squeezed me tight. “And for breaking the mirror.”

“It’s okay honey….”

“And for being grumpy and rude.”

“It doesn’t matter; the main thing is….”

“And for fighting with Nicola.” She laughed and looked into my face. “And for being different and stealing Daniel’s best friend.”

“Okay,” she said letting me go. “I’ve heard enough. I’m guessing you mean gay.” I nodded. “Robbie dear, you should never feel that you have to apologise to anyone for being different, understand. That’s ridiculous, why would you need to apologise for the way you are, for something that you cannot change. It doesn’t make any sense. You haven’t done anything wrong honey; you don’t need to be sorry. I only wish that I had said something to you earlier, I should have. It’s me who should be saying sorry to you, honey.” She hugged me again as we walked inside before Nicola handed her the phone.

“It’s Daniel,” she said and my eyes shot to Nathan. He smiled at me as he slipped off his shoes and then handed a very tired looking Amy over to Nicola her took her back to bed.

“Daniel’s staying over at Doug’s house tonight,” said Sue. “So you can relax.”

It was a relief, but I was anxious to get it over and done with and I really wanted Nathan to be around when I talked to him, even if he was in another room. I had the feeling that Daniel would want to question Nathan as well afterwards and I mentioned this to Sue.

“Will you be able to come over here tomorrow evening Nathan?” she asked, and he agreed. I had the feeling that he didn’t really want to leave at all and it was almost eleven o’clock when Jimmy offered to drop him off home again.

“Cool, I get to ride in the convertible again,” he said and I walked him to his carriage, thanking him for saving my day, my week, my whole life even. He really had made all the difference.

Jimmy’s Corvette was probably the coolest car that I had ever seen. “When you’re feeling better, I’ll take you a ride,” he said to me. Nathan found it funny but I resisted the temptation to make a joke out of it, even though I was sure that Jimmy wouldn’t have cared. He certainly didn’t come across as someone who was even remotely homophobic and I was kind of pleased that Nicola had found herself such a nice guy. He was the complete opposite to the last incumbent.

I walked across to the passenger door as Jimmy started the engine, but I was conscious of Nicola’s presence and held back from kissing him. She didn’t hold back though as she planted a huge kiss on Jimmy’s lips which had me looking away.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” said Nathan.

“Yeah, err laters mate,” I patted him on the shoulder as Nicola and Jimmy watched from the other side, but Nathan wasn’t having any of it and he grabbed my arm and almost pulled me into the car, to give me a proper kiss goodbye. It was embarrassing knowing that my sister and her boyfriend were both watching us, but the reward was worth it and I kissed him back with plenty of passion while cupping his cheek with my hand. We were able to provide some credible competition for the straight couple opposite but I found it difficult to look Nicola in the eye as we walked back to the house.

“You are such a dork,” she said but she had been telling me that since the day that I arrived. “I’ve never seen two guys kiss before though. Not in real life.”

“Oh, so that’s why you were staring at us.”

“No, I don’t mean anything bad by it,” she said. “I actually thought it was quite cool, but you know, you are my brother. It was funny how you got so embarrassed though.”

“Yeah, well, whatever.” It didn’t make much sense to me. My mind was still a few hours behind everyone else replaying everything that had happened in a day which would surely go down as one of the most important days of my life.

I said goodnight to Sue and gave her a hug before heading downstairs but when I walked into my room, I was surprised to see Nicola waiting for me. She was sitting on my bed leafing through one of Daniel’s old hockey magazines.

I sat down at the desk and turned to face her waiting for her to say something.

‘I’m pretty sure that I’m in the right room here’.

“Err, you’re not thinking of sleeping in Daniel’s bed again are you,” I said and she laughed.

“No, I’m still trying to get over the last time,” she said referring to the morning when I had accidentally paraded naked in front of her.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that.”

“I’m only joking,” she said.

“So, umm…why are you in my room?”

“I wanted to say something.”

I sat and waited as she put the magazine down and looked me in the eye. “And?”

“Oh, well, it’s not important but I just wanted you to know that I’m really proud of you for coming out to mom today. It was the best thing that you could have done.” I didn’t know what to say; Nicola had never talked to me like that before and I could never imagine her being proud of me for anything.

“Thanks,” I said, “but I didn’t really come out as such…I mean she kinda guessed.”

“Well, I guess it’s the same thing. You didn’t deny it.”

“No…I err….”

“I never knew that you were gay,” she said. “I mean when you first got here.”

“Neither did I.”

“Oh, but you must have known…at least a little.”

“What’s your point, Nicola?”

I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but I’m sorry if I made your life more difficult than it needed to be. It probably didn’t help.”

“You don’t have to apologise,” I said. “I’m pretty sure that I gave as good as I got. And I knew what I was doing, I mean when I got you in trouble and that. And I did play on it a bit and got them to feel sorry for me so that I could get away with stuff that you couldn’t.”

“I know, you were a real shit at times,” she said and she scowled at me.

“Still am,” I reassured her and she laughed. Then she stood up, walked over to where I was sitting and gently ruffled my hair.

“I’ve always liked your hair; you should let me style it for you.”

“NO!” I pulled my head back. “Thank you, but I like it the way it is.”

“Maybe Nathan will talk you into it.”

“What?”

“I think the two of you look good together,” she said. “It was strange at first. I found it difficult to imagine you guys together, but now that I’ve seen it, I think that you really suit each other.” I smiled, Sue had said the same thing.

“Now, you’re embarrassing me,” I said.

“I know that you’re worried about Daniel.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“I can be here as well if you want. I can talk to Daniel afterwards and dad too.”

“That would be cool,” I said. “I have a feeling that the men will be the hardest.”

“And if you’re gonna start acting like boyfriends in the house, you might want to think about Amy. She’s gonna be asking questions if she sees you guys holding hands.”

“Point taken,” I said. “I need to get Daniel over with first.”

Nicola nodded and smiled. “Amy was worried about you earlier you know?”

“She was?”

“Yeah, she thought that you might be sick again.”

“But I already told her that I was fine.”

“I know,” said Nicola. “When she was helping you to change your sheets earlier.”

“What?”

She winked at me before walking out with a smile plastered across her face. “Never underestimate a female,” she said. Then she turned to blow me a kiss. “Goodnight lover boy.”

“I spilt my drink!”

“You spilt something! But I’m not mom, you don’t have to explain to me.”

“Whatever…goodnight Nicola.”