Chapter Text
Alex hasn’t been home to Texas in 4 years. He really didn’t mean for it to be so long but after graduating with his undergrad, he immediately moved to New York to start law school, and then immediately after graduating law school, he started at Luna & Westbrook. He worked hard to get to where he is but that means his family hasn’t seen him for the holidays in 4 years. Sure, his parents, Leo, and June have come to visit him in New York over the years, but holidays (like all year) are a busy time at the firm and he’s not going to move up to senior partner if he’s in Texas.
This year though, Raf all but forces him out the door on the 21st. “Go home kid, I do not want to see you until after the new year.” Raf takes his badge to get into the building for good measure.
Now, he’s settled into his plane seat, his AirPods in listening to one of his new audiobooks. Flying still makes him a bit nervous, so he knows his leg bouncing is driving the person next to him crazy and he keeps having to rewind his book when his mind wonders too far.
June, like she promised, is waiting for him at baggage claim. She pulls him into a tight hug, standing up on her tiptoes.
Alex laughs, already feeling some of his stress seeping out of him. “Bug, I literally saw you like a month ago.”
June finally lets him go, “One, don’t call me that and two, is it a crime for me to miss my itty bitty baby brother?” She ruffles his hair and Alex makes a noise of protest, “Now hurry up and grab your bags, Nora’s waiting in the car.”
Once they set off the road, Alex could immediately tell they were waiting to drop some type of bomb on him. He can tell by the glances they are giving each other and how Nora keeps meeting his eye through the rearview.
“Ok, y’all are freaking me out, just tell me what you want to tell me, I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” Alex does fidget nervously with the PopSocket on his phone, it can’t be anything bad right? They already dropped the Hey-I’m-Dating-Your-Sister/I’m-Dating-Your-Ex bomb on him earlier this year so it couldn’t be anything worse right?
June worries her bottom lip, “Ok so, when we first got here, we went to the store right? Just to pick up a few things for Mom. So, we’re walking to the checkout and we see a familiar face and I wasn’t a 100% so Nora casually shouts their name and lo and behold, it was them!”
Alex raises an eyebrow, “Why are you being so weird and gender neutral-y about this. Who did you see?”
Nora and June share another glance and Alex wishes they’d stop doing that, like they’re pitying him.
“It was uh, Henry.” Alex stares at June as the words come out of her mouth. He stills, hands frozen on his phone.
“I’m sorry what? I thought he was-“
“In London? Yeah I thought so too but he said he just moved back here. He bought his childhood home when he saw it go up for sale, said he needed to ‘get out of England.’” The last part June emphasizes with a bad British accent. Alex doesn’t know what to say, so June continues, she was always good at filling the silence when Alex’s brain stopped working.
“But Alex, he was so kind. He even congratulated me on my upcoming book!”
Nora nods, “Yeah and he’s fucking hot. Not that he wasn’t always hot, but now he’s grown up and super hot.”
Alex suddenly feels like opening his car door and flinging himself onto the highway. That would be less painful than seeing Henry again. He wasn’t too keen on seeing his bisexual awakening/first kinda boyfriend/first love again, especially after how everything ended with the two of them.
Alex takes a deep breath, it’s fine they were 17 and 18 back then, now they are adults, 25 and 26, he probably won’t even see Henry, like at all.
The universe has played some cruel jokes on Alex before but this has to be in the top 5. As they walk into the house, who is sitting at the dining table with his fucking mom? Henry. Because of course he is. Alex is pretty sure he’d turn around and stomp out of the house if Nora wasn’t behind him shoving him inside.
And Alex is pissed at how good Henry does look. They follow each other on social media but Henry rarely posts so seeing him in person? All soft hair and what looks like an even softer blue sweater that hugs his arms in such a nice way. He really did grow up really nicely and Alex hates it.
He guesses he was staring for too long because his mom clears her throat.
“Hi sugar, glad to see you made it safely. You remember Henry right?”
Alex almost wants to laugh bitterly at that. Of course he remembers Henry, remembers the stolen kisses in either of their rooms, after one of them snuck in through the window. Falling asleep together and basking in the early morning light before they’d have to separate, sneaking back into their own beds.
Henry’s eyes are still on Alex, eyes filled with what he thinks is hurt? And that pisses Alex off even more, how dare he be the one to look so hurt just at the sight of seeing Alex. Still, his eyes bore into Alex and he’s suddenly self conscious of the ratty sweatpants and hoodie he put on this morning. His hair is a mess and he’s even wearing his glasses.
Alex’s eyes shift from his mom back to Henry. “Yeah.” Is all Alex is able to say, quickly brushing past them to go upstairs to his room and possibly never come out.
He shuts his door, probably harder than he should at 25 years old and flops face down on his bed. His mom has kept his room pretty much the same, except changing the sheets. Which makes everything worse, he can remember how it felt to have Henry there with him all those years back, long fingers carding through his hair, the way Henry’s face looked in the dim light of his room. Alex wanted to scream, this trip was supposed to be relaxing for him, not stressful and making him confront the guy who broke his heart.