Page 41 of Something Like Winter

“A fat baby?” Ben asked before laughing.

Tim smiled. “Hey, all this muscle had to come from somewhere!”

“Well, in that case I’m glad.” Then Ben added, so quietly that Tim almost didn’t hear him, “Mi Gordito.”

* * * * *

When Tim returned home that night, his parents were still awake. That wasn’t so strange, considering the hour, but normally they would be in their bedroom by now, watching TV or whatever else they got up to. He was glad that he and Ben had decided to play it safe tonight, because his parents had been waiting for him.

“Sit down.”

His mother was already seated on the living room couch, his father standing over her with arms crossed as he waited for Tim to do what he was told.

“What’s going on?” Tim asked.

Ella patted the couch. “We just want to talk to you.”

Tim took a seat at the opposite end, turned slightly so he could see her.

“We’re concerned about the kind of people you are associating with.”

Tim’s insides became a void that he tumbled into. He knew it had been too good to be true.

“He’s just a friend,” Tim said, wishing his voice had more power, but it never seemed to. Not when his parents were unhappy with him.

“He’s a homosexual,” his father said.

“Yeah. He didn’t exactly hide that fact.”

Thomas huffed. “Is that accepted at your school?”

Tim tried to meet his eyes and failed. “Not really. He has a hard time. But you saw him. He’s a nice guy.”

“He was very polite,” his mother chimed in, “but you know it’s a sin.”

“Not to mention how this reflects on our family.”

How it reflects onthem.That’s what his father truly meant to say. But Tim had to try. For Ben’s sake, he had to say something.

“Didn’t you like him? Everyone got along so well during dinner.”

“We’re not barbarians,” his father snapped. “We don’t treat our guests poorly.”

“We did like him,Gordito,but unless you think he can change his ways, he’s going to Hell. There’s no way around that. It breaks my heart to think of a sweet boy like him there, but you can’t argue with God.”

Tim looked at his mother, at the tears in her eyes. She possessed as much sympathy as his father did anger, but was so wrapped up in her religion that Tim knew he could never change what she believed. He wished he could see her, just once, without his father and without her faith, because he was certain she’d be amazing.

He thought about telling them the truth, of daring them to judge him as they did Ben. Those tears in his mother’s eyes—for a person she barely knew—would be magnified a hundredfold. Whether it was true or not, his mother would believe with complete conviction that her son was going to Hell, and it would break her heart.

“What do you expect me to do?” Tim rasped. “He’s my friend.”

“No, he isn’t,” his father announced, as if it were up to him to decide. As it turned out, he could. “I’ll pull you out of school if those are the sorts of friends you have. You can go to a military academy instead. Then you’ll regret abusing the freedom we give you. Is that what you want?”

“No,” Tim said.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have left Kansas,” his mother said.

Yeah, like there weren’t gay people there too. But what his father said next made his blood run cold.