Prodigal

~3.8~

Jeffery texted me that night: Do you wanna come over to my place? Practice just ended.

“Dad, I’m going to Jeffery’s place!” I shouted before I left the house.

Once I got to his house, Jeffery invited me in, and we had the usual initial small talk. We ended up in his living room, watching TV. I snuggled up next to him.

His parents weren’t around, so I decided to take the opportunity to talk about some of the things that had been on my mind.

“Jeffery…is it hard…being on the basketball team, and dating…me?” I asked.

“Maybe a little,” Jeffery confessed. “The guys sometimes give me crap about it.”

“What do they say?” I asked.

“They call me gay, a lot.” Jeffery confessed. “They tease me about being gay. The thing is I don’t think they’re homophobic, necessarily. That’s what’s weird. If I actually was gay, they probably wouldn’t care. But I’m not, and it’s frustrating because they don’t realize that you’re a girl.”

“I tried explaining that to Ethan today.”

“You talked to Ethan today?”

“Unfortunately.” I said. “He wanted to ask me why I called him a dick. It’s because he kept calling me a dude and calling you gay.”

“There’s obviously nothing wrong with being gay,” Jeffery said, “It’s just that I’m not, and it’s really insulting to you for them to say that I am. They’re basically saying you’re not a girl.”

“Yeah…”

“But I know you’re a girl.” Jeffery said. “No matter what body you were assigned.”

“Not to generalize, but how is a cis gender, straight guy so educated about this?” I asked.

“I didn’t want to be ignorant, like most of the guys on the basketball team.” Jeffery answered.

“I’m sorry you have to go through that.” I said. “Go through that, because of me.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.” Jeffery said as he leaned over and gave me a kiss.

There was a blissful silent moment, and then I broke the silence. “By the way, my dad wants to meet you.” I said. “He wants you to come over for dinner sometime this week.”

“Oh God.” Jeffery said. “Want to hear something funny? Back in the 2010s, my mom was obsessed with 5 Seconds of Summer!”

Notes

sorry for being so irregular I will try so hard to get back on track!