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Lacey Evans was the spitting image of her mother and had been since the day she was born. She had the same eyes, the same smile, and the same attitude. Dana loved her fiercely but wished she could have inherited her dads temperament.
That being said, Lacey was a good kid. She did well in school, she came home on time for curfew, she cleaned up after herself, and her friends weren’t assholes. Dana liked most of them.
Lacey also adored her uncles, who weren’t actually related by blood but they might as well have been. Robby and Jack had been there since she was around three years old, she never remembered a time when they weren’t part of her life.
They were always taking her to the zoo, or the park, or the carnival. They bought her every toy she ever looked at twice. They helped her with homework. And they were the ones she took the questions she was too embarrassed to ask her parents to. They never made fun of her, only made sure that she had all the information she needed. And when she got her first cellphone, their numbers were programmed in along with her parents.
Uncle Robby had told her once that if she ever needed anything, she should call them. He told her if she was in trouble and she didn’t know what to do, to call him or Jack, and they would make sure she was taken care of.
This year she had joined the softball team, just for something different to do, but she didn’t really like it. Most of the girls had been playing their whole lives for teams and she’d only played casually. The girls were a lot rowdier than she was used to being around, but she did her best to fit in. So when she was invited to a party, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to go.
Both her parents and her uncles had always stressed that she should follow her gut, but she wanted these girls to like her. So, after her parents had gone to bed, she changed clothes and quietly snuck out her window.
One of the girls had told her she’d pick her up at the corner, so she walked, shivering slightly in the cold air of early March. Soon enough the car pulled up and she jumped in.
The party wasn’t like any of the other parties she had gone to. There were a LOT of people, way more than just the softball team. The music was loud, people were everywhere—dancing, grinding, drinking, talking…she wished she hadn’t come.
Elise Valdez, the captain of the softball team, came over to where she was standing alone. “Lacey! You made it!” She squealed, hugging her and sloshing whatever was in her drink on Lacey’s back. “Are you having fun?”
“Yeah.” She lied, with a smile she’d perfected over the years. “It's a lot of fun!”
“Oh, you don’t have a drink! C’mon! Let’s get you something!” Elise began steering Lacey to the kitchen.
“I’ll just take a coke.” She said, trying not to fidget uncomfortably.
“Sure! No problem.” Elise cracked open a can, then called a greeting to someone else and Lacey turned around to greet them. She didn’t see Elise pour a large helping of vodka in her drink. “Here you go! It might taste a little off, we use well water and the ice gets funky sometimes.” She said.
It did taste a little off, but Lacey was a pleasant guest. “Thank you.” Elise steered her around the party and Lacey began to relax. She liked Elise, Elise never made fun of her like some of the others, and often stuck up for her.
She was on her third coke of the night and found that she was in a dark corner with Elise. “Are you having fun, Lace?” She asked, her face much closer than Lacey had realized.
“Yeah, I am.” She agreed. “Thank you for inviting—” She was cut off as Elise pressed her lips to Lacey’s. At first, she reacted in shock, freezing, but then realized it felt nice and leaned into it.
“You know, I’ve been so into you for two years now.” Elise said, her voice low.
“You are? I mean, you have?” Lacey’s thoughts were a little fuzzy.
“You are so pretty,” She stroked Lacey’s blond hair behind her ear. “You’re so smart, and you’re so kind. Do you…do you like me?” It was the first time Lacey had ever heard her vulnerable. Lacey felt hot all over, then in a sudden rush, realized she was drunk.
“Did you put alcohol in this?” She asked, holding up the third cup she had just finished emptying.
“Just a little vodka, you’re always wound up so tight. I thought it might help you relax and admit that you like me, too.”
Lacey was angry to realize her eyes were burning from tears. “I trusted you, I asked for coke. You knew that I meant I didn’t want to drink.”
“Lace!” Elise protested.
“No, I need to go. I can’t…I can’t be here.” She said, turning and trying to run out of there. She got outside and down the block before the tears took over. She didn’t know what to do. She had snuck out, she was drunk, and she’d had her first kiss. She couldn’t call her parents, they would kill her. She let out a sob of desperation and looked around.
She pulled out her phone and the last text had been a silly meme from Uncle Jack, who loved to send them to her to make her laugh. Without thinking she pressed call on his contact. It rang twice and Uncle Jack’s voice answered, sounding wide awake. She forgot he worked nights. “Lacey? Are you okay?” He asked.
“No.” She sobbed. “Can you come get me, please?” She begged, teeth chattering in the cold.
“Where are you? Robby and I are on our way.” He said, as the two of them launched themselves out of bed. She read off the nearest address and they told her to stay right there.
She stood on the corner, shivering and sobbing for seven minutes when their familiar car came pulling up. Robby was out of the car before Jack had even stopped, wrapping his arms around her. She cried harder, feeling safe in his embrace. “Sweetheart, what happened, are you hurt?” He asked.
She shook her head. “No.”
Robby had already taken off his sweatshirt and wrapped it around her. It was soft and warm and smelled like him. “Do we need to take you to the hospital?” Jack asked, coming around her other side. She shook her head. “Okay, let’s get in the car and reassess, it's freezing out here.”
Jack got back in the driver's seat and Robby got in the back with Lacey, still keeping one arm around her. “Kiddo, we’ve got to know what happened.” Robby told her.
The tears which had eased slightly started again. “I got i-invited to this p-party with the softball girls.” She sobbed. “I’ve been h-having a hard t-time making f-friends with them. I knew m-mom and dad would s-say no, but I s-snuck out and went anyway.” Jack and Robby exchanged a look but didn’t say anything. “The, the captain, E-Elise, she, like, t-took me under her w-wing. I told her I w-wanted a coke and she said, she said…” She let out a heaving sob.
“It's okay, jellybean.” Robby comforted her.
“She s-said it might t-taste funny because…because…well water…” She was starting to cry harder.
“Deep breath, darlin.” Jack said, from the front. She took a few deep breaths.
“I thought I was…I thought I was just f-feeling like I was fitting in. Then…” She paused as her face reddened. “Elise kissed me.” She said, her voice quiet. “It…I…she k-kissed me and I realized…I realized I was drunk. She had been sneaking vodka into my drinks. So I left and I didn’t know where to go, so I called you.”
Robby pulled her close, letting her cry and rubbing her back. Jack quietly started the car and headed for home. “I’m so sorry, jellybean. It wasn’t fair that she did that to you.” He said, hugging her as she shook. “How many drinks did you have?”
“T-three.”
“Okay.” Robby’s voice was calm and steady. He was always calm and steady. “Just to make sure, no one went any further than a kiss and no one did anything you didn’t want them to do, right?” She shook her head, wiping away some of her tears. They pulled up in front of their home and she looked surprised.
“You brought me to your house?” She asked.
“Well, you called us and not your parents, we kind of assumed you didn’t want to go home.” Jack said as they helped her out of the car. The alcohol was really hitting her now and she wobbled. They kept her steady between them.
“We’ll call your mom in the morning, a 2am phone call always makes things seem worse than they are.”
She moaned suddenly, swaying, and Robby tightened his grip on her. “I think I’m really drunk.” She blinked slowly.
“Yeah, you are pretty drunk, kiddo.” Robby agreed.
“I didn’t mean to be, I swear.” She promised, blinking her blue eyes up at him.
“We know, darlin.” Jack assured her.
“Let’s put her in our bed so we can keep an eye on her.” Jack said and Robby nodded his agreement. “I’ll go get some supplies, you get her settled?”
Robby ended up lifting her and carrying her to their bedroom. He roused her slightly, just enough for her to take off her shoes and change from the skirt she was in into a pair of pajama pants. She was barely awake, so he decided to leave the rest alone.
He placed her gently in the bed, tucking her in as he had done a million times before. She groaned, as the alcohol coursed through her system and Robby took the lone piece of paper out of the garbage can next to the bed. “If you need to be sick, that’s okay. We’ve got you.” He promised, stroking her hair back.
Jack came up with water, tylenol, and a damp washcloth. They forced her to take some of the tylenol and drink some of the water. Jack was just about to set the washcloth on her forehead when she made a face and Robby grabbed the trashcan. She vomited and heaved into the bin as Robby and Jack braced her.
She was crying again and Jack wiped her eyes, wiped her face when she was done, then settled down next to her, keeping her propped up as much as he could. Robby emptied the garbage can and rinsed it out, ready for the next round. They had her drink a little more water and soon she was either asleep or passed out.
“We’ll call Dana first thing in the morning, so she doesn’t panic.” Robby said.
“Agreed, she’ll lose her mind if we call her now. Lacey is safe and taken care of. We’ll deal with the rest of it when she’s more coherent.”
“Oh, Dana is going to be so pissed.” Robby groaned.
“Yeah, she really is.”
Pissed was an understatement. She might not have been AS angry if Robby and Jack hadn’t fallen asleep and Dana had woken up to her daughter’s empty room. They managed to get her semi-calm and explain that she had called them last night.
They sent her home with Dana, wincing at the scolding they knew she was going to get. They had at least gotten some breakfast, some more water, and some painkillers into her system before they sent her on her way.
It was a full twenty-four hours before they heard from Dana again. “What on earth were you thinking not calling me?!” She asked, frustrated.
“We were thinking that she was in a bad situation, she was upset, and that she called us for a reason.” Jack explained, keeping his own frustrations under control. “She could have gotten in a car with another drunk teen, she could have tried to walk home, but she called me. She trusted that Robby and I would get her and take care of her, which we did.”
“You still should have called me!”
“You’re right. We meant to call you around 6, before you really got up for the day, but Robby and I fell asleep. That one is on us. We thought that a 2am phone call would scare you out of your wits.”
“What do you think waking up to find my kid’s room empty did?”
“I know.” Jack placated again. “Again, that’s on us. We should have made sure that we didn’t fall asleep. Dana, have you talked to her, gotten the full story yet?”
Dana scoffed. “What full story? My 16-year-old daughter snuck out, went to a party, and got drunk.”
“She didn’t know she was drinking.” Robby finally chimed in.
“Bullshit.”
“Seriously, she thought she was drinking coke. When she found out someone had put alcohol in it, she left and then she called us. Can you think of someone better for her to have called? She trusts us enough to come get her in the middle of the night, knowing that she was drunk.” Jack said again, his voice soft.
“Sit down and talk to her, Dana. She needs her mom.” Robby added.
A few weeks later, the doorbell rang and Robby answered it, finding Lacey standing there. He saw Dana’s car behind her, so at least she knew Lacey was here. Lacey’s face was red and she kicked at nothing on the porch. “Hey jellybean, you want to come in?”
“Who is it?” Jack called from the other room.
“It’s Lacey.” He called back and soon Jack appeared in his wheelchair for the day.
“Hey darlin.” He greeted her, moving in to hug her.
“Hi Uncle Robby, Uncle Jack.” She said, her voice soft.
“Come on in and sit down. You want some water?” Robby offered but she shook her head no.
“I wanted to say thank you for coming to get me that night. I was really scared and I didn’t know who to call.” She said, picking at the skin around her fingernails.
“We will always come if you call us.” Jack promised her.
“I know.” She said, with a small smile. “I…I have a question.” She said and they both looked at each other, then her. “How did you know…I mean, how did you…uh…figure out…um…” She stuttered but they let her get through it. “How did you know you were gay?” She asked.
Jack took a deep breath. “Well, I’m not gay, I’m bisexual. I like women and I like men. It was just something I always knew, I think. I’d look at women and think they were pretty and I’d look at men and think they were handsome. And I wanted to kiss both of them. But I was in the army and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a thing. It's not that it really stops it from happening, but it's much more discreet. I didn’t have a problem being out, but the army did. The truth is, I met Robby and nothing else and no one else mattered. We were both kind of asses for a long time, pretending that we didn’t love each other, but we got over ourselves.”
“I knew from around the time I was eleven or twelve, I think.” Robby said. “All the boys in my class would talk about the girls and who they wanted to kiss and I didn’t want to kiss any of them. But understand that around that time was the beginning of the AIDS crisis. They called it the ‘homosexual disease’. I didn’t dare even think about it, but I hated dating women. I fell in love with Jack the minute I met him, even though I wasn’t out to anyone, probably including myself. And Jack…he just has this presence, but like he said, DADT was a thing and I was so far in the closet at that time…” He let out a breathy chuckle. “When they called me from Germany I knew that I had to tell him I loved him. So, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I'm gay or just Jack-sexual.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Uncle Robby!” She said, sounding fake scandalized. Jack laughed loudly and leaned over to kiss his husband.
“Is this about the girl from the party?” Jack asked and she nodded. They waited for her to continue but she didn’t say anything. “She kissed you, right?” Lacey nodded again. “Did you like it?”
A tear escaped and fell down her cheek, but she nodded again. “There’s nothing wrong with that, jellybean.” Robby said. “If you are or if you aren’t gay, sometimes a kiss just feels good.” She shrugged. “It was more than that, though, wasn’t it?” She nodded again, more tears falling. “We’re both here for you, always.” He promised her again.
“Uncle Robby, Uncle Jack…I think I’m gay.” She finally said and they embraced her tightly as she let go.
“We’re so proud of you, Lacey.” Robby told her, wiping away her tears.
“And we will take you to your first Pride. But no drinking.” Jack teased.