Face Offs & Cheap Shots (CU Hockey 2)

“Actually,” I say, “he’s … my boyfriend.”

Mom throws her arms around him. “Oh, I’m so happy to meet you!”

“Jessie,” Dad scolds.

“Calm down, Theodore. You met me at a Playboy mansion party, for fuck’s sake. Be a little more open-minded. Maybe the reason your son has gone out of his way to piss you off all these years is because he’s gay and needed a different way to show it.”

I run my hand over my face. “I’m not gay.”

“I don’t know any straight men who’d be doing …” Dad waves toward the hot tub. “That.”

“I’m … not straight either.” I take a deep breath. I don’t know what the hell I am other than someone falling for Jacobs.

“Having a gay future CEO will not go over well with the board of directors,” Dad says.

“Good!” I yell, skipping over the part where he ignored that I said I’m not gay.

Mom’s gaze darts between us like it always does when we fight. On the side of her husband or son, her husband has the checkbook. Guess how many times she’s taken my side?

“Maybe we should go inside, Jacob, and let these two talk.”

Jacobs. With an S. Ugh.

“It’s, uh”—Jacobs glances at me—“Topher, actually. Well, Christopher. Jacobs is my last name.”

“Let’s go inside.” Mom drags him away.

“Why do you do these things?” Dad asks. “Getting arrested, kissing a boy—”

“I love how you group those together like both are equally wrong and offensive.”

“That’s not what I mean. This isn’t you. You’re smart. You’re—”

“I’m fucking miserable! That’s what I am. When I think about what’s waiting for me next year, I have to go do stupid shit so I can forget about it.”

“That’s a little dramatic.”

“No, what’s dramatic is assuming that me kissing a guy means I’m doing it for attention, or it’s just another way of acting out because God forbid your son could be queer!” I huff a humorless laugh. “I don’t even want to be CEO of your stupid company. I’m not corporate. I’m not smart. And the saddest part of all of this is you never listen when I tell you that. You say I’m young, that I’ll grow into the role, that it’s my legacy.”

“It is.”

I shake my head. “You completely ignore that your perfect child, the one who does want to follow in your footsteps, the one who’s smart enough to rule the world if she was given the same opportunities you want to give me, is probably sitting in her room right now, listening to me yell because she knows coming out here and telling you that herself will go unheard.”

“Your sister is—”

“The smartest person I know. But you don’t give her a chance. I assume because having a woman CEO is even more unfavorable to your board of directors than having a gay CEO, and if that’s the case, your stupid company doesn’t deserve Baby.”

“Teddy.”

“What will it take to get you to listen to what we have been trying to tell you for years?”

Dad grits his teeth. “Well, fucking a guy in my hot tub might’ve done it.”

“We weren’t fucking, geez.” I eye him. “Though, I guess that’s what you’re going to tell everyone when you announce you have no son anymore? Is that how it’s going to be?”

I never, in my wildest imagination, thought disappointing my father could ever hurt me, but the silence that drags out with my question hanging in the air leaves surprising cracks in my heart.

25

Jacobs

I am really scared. Not of Beck’s dad. I could easily take him if it came to that, not that I think it would.

But this … it’s a lot. I can hear them yelling, and all that keeps looping through my head is I should have said no. If I hadn’t come here, this wouldn’t have happened, and now Beck has no choice but to come out to his family and force a label on us that we haven’t even talked about yet.

Do I want to be his boyfriend? The way I lit up inside when he said the word proves I do. Badly. But we should have had a chance to decide that ourselves.

The voices get louder, and I go to stand to go back out to him, but his mom—Jessica—quickly puts a hand on my arm.

“Don’t bother with them. This happens every break.”

“They fight?”

She nods. “Completely normal. Teddy will do something foolish to annoy his father, and his father gets loud.”

Beck’s dad barks something about responsibility, and for all Jessica says about it being normal, she jumps.

“Drinks! Yes, let’s have a little relaxer while we wait for them to finish up.”

She flits about pouring something into glasses and comes back over with a bright pink and sugary-looking concoction. She takes a quick sip and lets her eyes fall closed.

This is … concerning.

I lean forward and place my drink on the table, my gut way too unsettled to stomach anything. My entire body is tense, every muscle poised ready to go out there and give Beck’s dad a piece of my mind. We’ve come so far, the last thing I need is some shithead homophobe putting doubts in Beck’s head and making him feel like shit for being with me.