Boy Story: The Road Taken - 56. Happy New Year

Happy New Year

When the fabled date finally arrived, Parker and I made plans to cut down on me having to drive back and forth between homes a bunch of times. He took the commuter rail train to the station near my parents' place, and I picked him up. We parked out in front of the house to avoid having to move my car in and out of the driveway all day.

“Wow, Matt, you didn’t tell me you live in a mansion,” he said when we were parked.

“Mansion? It’s not really a mansion,” I replied.

“This is a mansion where I come from,” he countered as we walked up the driveway.

“No, no, no. There are only two floors, four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms. Mansions are much larger with many floors and wings.”

“With those columns, it looks very exclusive,” he commented.

“That’s part of the colonial style, I guess. My parents bought it before I was born. So by today’s standards, they got a good deal on it. C’mon…,” I said as I opened the front door.

“Nervous?” I asked as we stepped inside.

“Shit, yeah!” he responded.

“Don’t worry. Just be yourself and you’ll do fine,” I instructed and I quickly rubbed his shoulders. “Here, follow me.”

We walked through the foyer to the den where I knew my father would be sitting while the food was cooking.

“Hello?” I called out to alert them that we had arrived.

“Matthew? We’re in here!” I heard my dad’s voice from the den.

Parker and I turned the corner and we could hear our footsteps against the wooden floor as we entered the large den.

“Hi Dad, you remember Parker, right?”

“Yes, of course. Well, there’s a strapping young lad!”

“It’s nice to see you again, Sir,” Parker said as he walked up and shook my father’s hand.

“No need to be so formal. Just call me Jim,” my father directed. “So, did you have a good Christmas?”

“Sure, it's just nice to be away from school for a while,” Parker replied.

My mother entered the room wearing an apron and wiping her hands with a towel.

“Mom, I want you to meet, Parker.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Parker said approaching her.

“The pleasure is all mine,” my mother replied. Parker went up to her and gave her a quick hug and she literally wilted. She had this weird look in her eyes. I was thinking that maybe she was trying so hard to impress and the build-up had been so long, that she was a bit star struck because the guest of honor had arrived.

My sister walked in behind us. “Hey Missy, I want you to meet my boyfriend, Parker,” I said putting the word “boyfriend” in there so nothing was left unsaid. This is where it got weird. Parker turned toward Missy and she almost immediately became a statue. Parker tried to have a little chat with her, but she was all flustered. I figured we just caught the females of the house at a bad time or something. But they knew I was coming with Parker, so this wasn’t a surprise for them.

“C’mon over here boys, let’s have some man talk,” my father called out. “So you boys in the dorms must be keeping up with the hometown teams, right? You must have tailgating with big screens set up. You know, making a whole day of it.”

Oh no, not more football talk with Parker I hoped.

“Well, they actually discourage that, Dad. The college doesn’t want to promote underage drinking,” I tried.

“Geez, it’s on campus. It’s not like anyone’s getting behind the wheel afterward,” he replied.

“I think the administration is trying to provide an environment that doesn’t encourage professional drinking as a major,” I reasoned.

“Well, college has certainly changed since my day,” he lamented.

“Dad, the drinking age was 18 when you went to college. It’s 21 now, so that obviously has challenges associated with it that weren't even invented when you were in college.”

“Ugh, the whole world is going soft. So Parker, how do you like the Pats this year with Pete Carroll at the helm? The good thing is they managed to keep almost all of their players.”

“I’ll be keeping an eye on those tight ends for sure!” Parker enthused.

“You certainly know the value of a good tight end.”

“I just call them like I see them.”

“Dad, here why don’t we pass these appetizers around,” I said trying to redirect the conversation.

“Nah, I don’t want to spoil my appetite,” he commented.

“Yeah, but we don’t want the appetizers going to waste either,” I replied.

“Well, maybe just a couple. Missy, you don’t have to sit there by yourself. I know I said ‘man talk’ but that doesn’t mean females aren’t invited to join in. You don’t mind talking about men, do you?”

I chuckled. Missy looked at me uneasily.

My father was on the recliner, Parker and I were on the couch, and Missy had moved closer taking a position on the love seat. Parker was busily admiring the softness of the leather on the couch with his hands.

“Hey, is all this furniture real leather?” he asked.

“Yes, of course,” my father replied. “The real thing lasts much longer.”

“Yes, the real thing,” Parker parroted back shooting me a glance and a smirk. That immediately brought a past incident back to mind and made me smile.

“It’s so soft…not at all like a baseball glove,” Parker added.

“That’s because this is kid leather and comes from young goats. It’s much softer. Ball gloves are mostly made from full-grain cow or steer leather. That’s much stiffer and takes time to break in,” my father explained. Parker shot me another smirk right when my father said “stiffer.”

“I once saw a guy wearing leather chaps in a parade. What do you think those are made from?” Parker quizzed him.

I squirmed in my seat a little because the parade he was speaking of was the gay pride parade and I remembered said dude with ass-less chaps. I was afraid to guess where this conversation was going.

“I’d guess naugahyde. That’s a vinyl/leather mixture making it a lot more pliable,” my dad asserted. “Chaps? What was he, some sort of cowboy?”

“I think that’s what he was going for,” Parker replied. “You certainly know a lot about leather.”

“My father owned a leather tannery and store in downtown Boston before he retired and sold the business. I used to work there in the summers when I was in high school, so I learned a lot of specifics about leather. Sadly, the business is long gone, but I’ve pointed out the storefront to the kids when we drove by a couple of times. I think it was a convenience store last time we checked.”

“So Missy…Matt tells me that you graduate in the spring,” Parker continued trying to pull her into the conversation.

“Uh, yeah, I’m a senior.”

“Any plans for college?” Parker continued.

“Well, I’m going to try Salem State College, so I can commute to school and continue to work at the restaurant a couple times a week,” she cautiously explained. Her response was news to me.

My mother walked in and sat down to join in the conversation.

“Hey, anybody want a drink?” I asked

“No, I’m good with this one,” my father replied.

“I’ll have a ginger ale, sweetie,” my mother responded.

“Sure, I’ll take a Coke,” Parker said.

“I want to see the choices first,” Missy decided.

I went to the refrigerator to get the soft drinks and Missy followed. “He’s gorgeous!” she whispered when we were out of earshot.

“Who? Parker?”

“Who else do you think? You apparently have good taste. I shouldn’t have doubted you,” Missy conceded.

“That’s quite a compliment coming from a future lesbian,” I teased.

“I’m not a lesbian! I’ve only had some experiences,” she clarified. “I certainly know a hot guy when I see one. And he’s hot!”

“Yes, and he’s very gay and very taken,” I joked.

“Well, I’m certainly not going to try to steal him from you!” she proclaimed.

"Yeah, lots of luck trying!"

We both had a good laugh.

“Can you keep secret? I asked.

“Sure.”

“Swear it.”

“Fine, we’ll pinkie swear. There…I swear to keep this to myself,” she declared as we locked pinkies.

“OK, good enough. Parker and I are pre-engaged! I gave him a promise ring for Christmas.”

She gasped, “Oh my God! Really? Oh my God! Congratulations.”

“But that’s only for you. I don’t want to tell the whole family. I need to let the same sex thing sink in first. It’s still very new to me,” I reasoned. “And everyone else.”

“Wow, I don’t know what else to say,” she said taking another peek in Parker’s direction. “He’s beautiful, but how do you know for sure that he's like...the one?”

“Well, Missy, it's like this...I can’t stand being away from him for long. You know that song You’re The Wind Beneath My Wings? It’s kind of like that with Parker. He makes me a better person. And as you can see, he's...uh, gorgeous I think you said. So if he's not the right person for me, then there will never be a right one.”

At that point, my brother Greg and his fiancée Julie arrived. I quickly made it back to the couch with the drinks so I could help with the introductions.

“Parker this is my brother Greg. Greg, this is my boyfriend Parker,” I tried simple and direct.

They shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

“And Parker this is Greg’s fiancée, Julie.”

They shook hands. “Parker, I’ve heard so much about you from Matt,” Julie said.

“You have?” he said turning toward me with a puzzled look. I placed my hands on his shoulders.

“Don’t worry, it was all good,” she assured him.

We eventually sat down at the dining room table for dinner. I was feeling good because Parker fit right in like he belonged there…part of the family. But he was always good at fitting right in with any crowd. My mother had cooked a turkey and a ham. It was too much food for seven people, but it was all really tasty. Parker didn’t pig out like I would expect him to, but there was a method to his madness. We would almost certainly be having sex later on that night, so I knew right then who would be doing what to whom.

Julie and I helped to clean the dishes from the table and get them into the dishwasher. Meanwhile, I could hear Parker telling one of his stories about our exploits in Orlando…of course, it was a cleaned-up version of the actual events. Fortunately, my parents didn’t think to question me about the timing of the Orlando trip relative to the start of my summer job.

While we were loading the dishwasher, Julie said, “Parker’s quite a character. I bet you have your hands full.”

“He is a bit of a challenge at times,” I confessed. “But it’s all in good fun.”

And then she added after a few seconds, “He’s quite a looker, too.”

“A looker? Yeah, I’d say that’s an apt description. I've spent hours looking at him and admiring the visual,” I confessed.

“The visual?”

“Yeah, the whole…package,” I clarified.

“He is certainly easy on the eyes,” she admitted. “Good for you. I’m happy for you.”

“Yeah, me too. This is possibly the happiest I’ve ever been.”

After dessert, Missy had us set up to play Pictionary. She would be the game host and the rest of us would work in teams with our associated partners. After the first five rounds, Parker and I were in the lead. I figured we were able to leverage the fact that we were two college boys. Then the wheels came off.

The answer was Pearl Harbor and I was drawing the clues. I was attempting to draw an open oyster shell with a pearl in it. Parker kept saying “clam” and apparently thought the pearl was the clam’s tongue. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get him away from “clam” or “shell” or “tongue.” Yes, it was a difficult answer and we didn’t get that one.

After the turn, I said “Come on Parker, clams don’t have tongues. It’s a pearl in a shell…as in an oyster…it couldn’t be any more obvious.” I kept up the teasing for a bit and he suddenly launched himself at me. I swear he took to the air and I wasn’t expecting it. We started wrestling on the floor and I started laughing as Parker was defending his honor and trying to pin me. The rest of my family didn’t know what to make of it. They looked on in stunned silence. Someone probably would have separated us if I hadn’t been laughing so hard. I finally took control and pinned Parker and waited for him to calm down.

“Get off!” he ordered.

“OK, I’m going to let you up now. Are you going to behave?”

“Yes. Now get off.”

"Say PLEASE."

"Now get off, please!”

“Parker, you have to realize that I am bigger and stronger than you, so I will always win,” I said as we were getting up. “That’s why I’ll always be the top.” It was a throwaway line I said as a joke.

Missy gasped and then began giggling. Julie also had a hand over her mouth. Greg, my mother, and my father were all saying, “What? What did he say?” and looked around at each other. Finally, Julie leaned over and whispered something into Greg’s ear.

“Oh, I see,” Greg replied and gave a half chuckle.

“What is it, Greg?” my mother asked.

“It was nothing…just an off-color joke,” he tried.

“Matthew, I’m surprised at you!” my mother said still a little unsure what she was scolding me for.

After the chatter died down, my father declared, “Well, that was a spirited round!”

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