Chapter Text
I blushed and grinned, setting my phone down. I loved it when he called me that.
Unable to keep my excitement to myself, I hurried into Ian’s room.
“Ian!” I collapsed on his bed, grinning up at him.
Ian paused his anime, glaring down at me. “This better be good.”
“I’m gonna meet Phil’s mum tomorrow!”
Ian raised his eyebrows. “Damn, already? It took six months for me to introduce you to my parents…”
“I know it’s kinda soon, but apparently she’s been pestering Phil about it for a while now!”
“No pressure…” Ian muttered. I chose to ignore him.
“What do you think she’s like?”
“I don’t fucking know! She’s your boyfriend’s mom.”
I thought for a moment. “It’s hard to imagine someone like Phil being close to their parents. He seems like the kind of guy who rebelled a lot as a teen.” Ian shook his head, turning back to his laptop. “I mean, do you think she’ll look like him? Like, she’ll have a lot of tattoos and stuff?”
“I dunno.”
“I wonder what happened to his dad? He’s never mentioned him… To be fair, I haven’t told him about my parents either. Do you think it’s alright to ask? Maybe I will if the topic doesn’t get brought up tomorrow…”
“Dan, you’re doing that thing again where you just use me as a way for you to talk to yourself. Can I get back to my anime now?”
I scowled, pushing myself off the bed. “Fine. Be that way.”
Ian just shook his head at my bitterness, pressing the space bar with a click.
I returned to my room, the noise of high-pitched Japanese voices fading behind me.
…
I was jolted around in my seat as Phil pulled into the lawn in front of his childhood home. It was weird to look at. How many memories did Phil have here that I didn’t know about? That I never would?
“Right,” Phil put the car in park and turned off the engine, “you ready?”
I bit my lip, glancing over at him, “What if she doesn’t like me? She seems really excited to meet me and I don’t want to let her down…”
“Dan, sweetheart,” Phil reached over and cupped my face, pulling me into a kiss, “all my exes are pieces of shit, she’ll love you.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
Phil grinned, giving my thigh a gentle squeeze. “Seriously, you have nothing to worry about.”
By the time I had clambered out of the car, a middle-aged woman was standing outside the door, a wide smile on her face.
“Hey, Mum.” Phil waved, putting a hand on my lower back as he escorted me to the house.
“Hello, Phil!” Phil’s mum hurried forward, embracing him tightly. “Oh, and you must be Dan!” She quickly turned to me, pulling me into a tight hug as well. “It’s so lovely to finally meet you!” She grinned, taking my hands in hers.
She was a pretty woman. She was short and had a thin frame, but I could tell by the way she held herself that she wasn’t to be reckoned with. Her eyes were a bright blue, darker than Phil’s, and her hair was a gingery brown color. I glanced quickly at Phil. Was he ginger?
“Oh, I’m so happy you could make it! Come inside, I made cookies.”
phil’s pov
I had to admit to my mum that I had, in fact, eaten all the cookies she gave me the other week, and Dan had never gotten any. After fussing at me for a moment, she hurried off to the kitchen and returned with a platter.
“Here you go, Dan. It’s original recipe Phil and I made when he was younger.”
Dan smiled politely, taking a cookie off the plate and biting into it. I watched with amusement as his eyes widened. “Holy shit… Ah!” His eyes widened. “I, um, I-I mean—”
Mum laughed, waving a hand dismissively. “You’re fine dear. I’ve been putting up with Phil’s bad language since he was twelve. Besides, we’re all adults.”
Dan laughed nervously, glancing down at his cookie. “They’re very good! What’s in them?”
“Five different types of chocolate chips,” Mum grinned “because ‘just one is for weak bitches.’”
I laughed, taking a cookie for myself. “Those were the exact words, as a six-year-old, I said when baking the first batch of these cookies. Mum laughed too hard to really punish me.”
Dan snickered, reaching for another cookie. “Well, you’re not wrong.”
The three of us made our way to the couch, chatting about whatever topic came up. It was mostly small-talk, Mum asking Dan about his job or hobbies. One thing led to another and suddenly Mum was delving into some of my most embarrassing childhood stories.
“Phil thought it’d be a good idea to download some horror game I had specifically told him not to get.” I groaned, burying my face in my hands as she continued, “Well, later that night he learned his lesson when we ran into each other in the hall and he got so startled he pissed himself!”
Dan burst into laughter, casting me a glance. “How old were you?!”
“…Seven.”
Mum gave me a warning look. “Phil…”
I groaned, my face growing even darker. “Fourteen…”
Dan began to laugh even harder.
“Fucking hell, I knew this was a bad idea...” I groaned.
“Language!” Mum chided me through her laughter. “Gosh, I’ve been scolding you for that since you were a kid and you never did clean up your vocabulary. Ah, well, I guess it is my own fault. It’s not like I can credit your father for your bad language,” She chuckled.
Dan shifted in his seat, glancing at Mum hesitantly. “So, um, if you don’t mind me asking, where’s Mr. Lester? I’ve never heard Phil talk about him.”
“Mr. Blakes, actually. Lester is my last name,” Mum stated rather proudly. “Phil’s father has never been in the picture.” She paused, taking a deep breath. My father wasn’t her favorite person to talk about. “We dated a bit in college, it wasn’t for very long. I didn’t find out I was pregnant until after we had split. When I told him, he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me or Phil.”
“Wow…” Dan looked impressed, “So, you raised Phil all on your own? That must have been hard.”
Mum chuckled, glancing over at me. “He’s certainly a handful,” I glared, “but it was worth it.”
“You did well. He’s… he’s a really good person.”
Mum beamed. I glanced away sheepishly. “Yeah, whatever…”
“So, what is your family like, Dan?” Mum asked.
“Oh yeah, you’ve never really mentioned your parents.”
“Well,” Dan sighed, setting his cup down, “they’re not nearly as awesome as you…”
I frowned. “If you don’t want to talk about it—”
“No, no, It’s fine.” Dan bit his lip, thinking for a moment. “My parents divorced when I was little—my dad had been seeing someone else. After that, he remarried and moved to America. He’s never been a big part of my life, and I don’t really keep up with him. I guess he has children now, but I’ve never met any of them.”
“My mum married my step-father when I was about six, I think. He’s not really a mean guy, he just isn’t very good with maintaining relationships; I never felt like he was my father, but rather, a stranger in my house I had to impress and please. With our drastically different personalities, that ended up being pretty hard. Besides that, my relationship with my parents had always been alright. As I got older, things started to get rough.
“When I was in high school, I started dressing more feminine. It wasn’t like it is now—I would never wear makeup or jewelry, but I still started wearing lighter colors and stuff. My parents were clearly against it. They’d make jokes sometimes, especially my step-dad, but they never actually told me I couldn’t dress like that. I guess they hoped it was just a phase or something. When I was seventeen, I came out as gay.” Dan paused, breathing deeply. “They told me that the minute I turned eighteen they wanted me out of the house. My… My stepdad said some pretty awful things. It was just, overall a really bad year for me. They made it to the point where I was looking forward to leaving.” I could see Dan’s eyes shining and quickly pulled him into my side. “After I moved, I tried to break contact with them, but it’s hard, you know? I’ve lived with them my whole life, I love them, and they—” Dan paused, swallowing. “They don’t want me. I’ve tried reaching out to them since then, but they never answer.” Dan sniffed, wiping his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think I was going to get this emotional.” He laughed uncomfortably.
“Don’t be sorry, dear.” Mum got up from her chair, taking a seat next to Dan and taking his hand in hers. “I just don’t understand how parents can do things like that to their children…It’s just awful.” Dan nodded, sniffing again. “I want you to listen to me, okay? If you ever need a mother to talk to, I’m here. Alright?”
Dan smiled gratefully, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you…”
“We’re always here for you.” I smiled, rubbing gentle circles on his back.
As I watched my mum reassure Dan, smiling kindly at him, I wondered why I had ever worried about them meeting. Of course, they would get along, how couldn’t they? There was no way that the two most loving and kind people in my life wouldn’t adore each other.