Jeremiah and Angel waited for spring break to go home together. He had given Venus and Mars the date prize since he and Angel weren't the types to go to restaurants or amusement parks.
Ever since they came together, everyday spent with each other felt like a date anyway. Kisses in the locker room after practice, dapping that lasted a bit too long to not be hand holding, hard smiles at competitions, gazes in the hallways, sweaty make outs behind the bleachers, and more sunset entanglements at the bike trail. Candy messages that lasted hours, so sickeningly sweet their texts were love letters all on their own.
Jeremiah drove them, the only one with a car. It was a ten and a half hour car ride. They'd slept all day prior to leaving late at night to be able to come home midday. Angel offered to take turns on the way, but the other didn't mind. It made Jeremiah feel like an adult. It wasn't that long of a drive, but Angel did force him to at least accept gas money.
Bad Bunny bumped in the car to ward off any of Jeremiah's creeping drowsiness. "How long until we get there?"
Angel looked at his phone, "Not long, we're in our county"
"I thought the exits looked familiar"
"...Jeremiah, tell me if Im crossing boundaries, or I'm overthinking by asking you but" Angel was meditating on the question since they planned to go home together. "...do you wanna meet my mom?"
"Sure, amor (love), pero (but) I've met your mom. She knows me. Your dad doesn't" He pointed out. "Can I meet your dad, too?"
"She kind of knows you. Informally. And yeah, I mean, do you wanna...stay over? For a lil bit? A few days?" Jeremiah's parents were busy people. Invested in their work and with the lenience of having only one child to take care of, they tended to neglect him without meaning to.
Jeremiah changed the position of his hands on the steering wheel, "Ángel, are we coming out to your mom?"
The other became worried, "...does that bother you? We don't have to"
Jeremiah gripped the wheel at 10 o'clock and with his free one reached over for Angel's hand, "I'm okay with it. I didn't say this 'cause didn't wanna freak you out, but my momma and my dad know I'm not straight. I told her a few days ago"
"How'd she take it?"
"She said 'baby, I ain't got time to stress over who you wanna love. I got work to do, I'll call you tomorrow' and then hung up. It was better than my dad. He just kind of went okay and then skipped over to talk about track"
"Did you want to talk about it with them? More?"
Jeremiah hummed thinking, "Mm, no. I didn't wanna make it a big thing. Just a heads up so they're not surprised. Lil' glad they're too busy to be homophobic"
"Why didn't you tell 'em about me?"
Jeremiah's thumb petted the top of his hand, "I should ask you before telling them. They're my parents but you're still my other half in this relationship. I ain't gonna say shit if you don't want me to. Not until you're ready. Are you ready?"
"Oh" Angel was still learning the ropes on what to do in a relationship, but Jeremiah was always asking questions and talking through it with him. He was learning by example and by reacting. "Yeah. I am"
"I think my dad will like it more once he knows I wooed the number one star on the team"
They reached their small city. Their whole upbringing was here. They'd passed Angel's community college, their high school, their old track field, their middle school, their elementary school, their city park, and their preschool.
"The last time I came home, when I went to see you, I had this thought that...my entire life is here. Coming here is like passing through a photo album or a museum of myself. And you've always been in it"
"Like time traveling" Angel stared through the window at the familiar houses, the supermercado, the street vendors, the laundromats and taco trucks. "They still haven't fixed the potholes though"
"Ive adapted to likin 'em a little bit" Jeremiah shrugged.
"Ive only been at school for half a semester. I don't miss 'em. I don't think my life is here, just my entire childhood. My life right now is at school. Somewhere else. With you" Angel saw his house in the distance, his mom waving on the side walk, "A piece of my heart is here though"
Jeremiah smiled at that. Angel was becoming more comfortable with the truth.
They'd pulled into the drive way. Angel's mother hadn't allowed them to take out their things from the trunk until she'd pulled each of them into a hug and an exchange of cheek kisses.
"You remember Jeremías, Amá?"
"Si, claro, I remember your friend. Nice to see you again, mijo. Tienen hambre (Are you hungry)?"
"Si no es un molestia, si por favor, señora. (If it isn't a bother, yes please, ma'am) Your son made me drive the entire time. He starved me. Wouldn't let me take a break for food" He jokingly feigned.
Angel's mother put her hands on both her hips, "Es cierto eso, Ángel? (Is this true, Angel?) Why didn't you drive? You don't have a car, at least dust the cobwebs off your license and use it. Pobre mijo, (poor boy) are your parents expecting you?"
Angel disapproved lightheartedly of Jeremiah's cocky expression. Of course Jeremiah would get in good with his mother.
"No, perdón, they work. Would it be okay if I stay here, señora? Hasta que regresen (Until they return)?"
"Of course, of course. Come on, I made ceviche, is that okay?"
"I love ceviche" Jeremiah walked in with his mother and Angel watched behind them at how easily he was liked. How easily talkative he was.
They went up to Angel's room as his mother set the table and their plates. Jeremiah didn't open his clothes, hygiene products, nothing. He just put down his luggage at the corner of the room and threw his sluggish body on his bed like a starfish. The boy rolled to one side and then the other. Stuffed his face into Angel's pillow and then clutched it up against his chest like it were a cloud.
Angel was unpacking his clothes, anxiety medication, toothbrush, shoes, all of it to put into his drawers and closet, when a notebook with some papers between the pages scattered out across the floor.
"What's that? Class work?" Jeremiah reached for one by the bed.
"Wait—no, dámelo (Give it to me)!"
He read the first few lines of the page. They were all flowery short paragraphs describing feelings for someone, poems, some things that happened in his day...very romantic things. He suppressed a tinge of jealousy not believing they were really for someone else, "What're these?"
"They're..." He huffed, pouting sheepishly, "Drafts. Of stuff I was going to give you"
"Oh" Jeremiah laughed, bashful of his conspicuous relief.
Angel cocked his eyebrow, smirking. He understood that jealousy when he learned about Valeria. The brazen relief of knowing she was only a friend helping out another friend get with his crush. "Your letters are in there, too" He picked one up and showed him. "See?"
"You kept them?"
"Yeah...um, they're sweet. Why wouldn't I keep them?"
"My parents wouldn't even keep my cards I'd give them when I was a five" He reread his own letters, thinking about how desperate and hopeful he came off in them. "I can't believe these worked. I sound so pathetic–I mean I was, but still"
"I like them. They worked only when I found out it was you"
Jeremiah patted the bed space in front of him. Pathetic, hopeful, desperate, whatever they were, he had Angel. "Come 'ere"
Angel did so without saying a word. Being in the car alone with conversation was nice but nothing beat touching each other, feeling each other's presence, having their chests together, knowing their skin, and being unstopped by a centre console between them.
"Your bed smells like you"
Angel smelled the sheets, not getting anything, "...like fabric softener?"
"Like you" His nose grazed the skin of Angel's cheeks while his hand stroked his shoulder blade. One thing out of many things that he adored about Angel was how often it was Angel that kissed him first. Jeremiah teased him, caressed him, seduced him with more poetry and reminders of last nights love letters and Angel was the first one to lose patience.
It made Jeremiah wish his mother wasn't down stairs. He made to move away but Angel's arms went up his shirt and hugged his bare torso. He couldn't, not yet. Ten and a half hours of no kissing? Unbearable. Jeremiah migrated on top of him, making himself at home between his legs. They had a spot at the bike trail but Jeremiah's spot was embracing him like this with Angel's thighs pressing both sides of his hips.
His palms maundered down into dark territory, not quite in its residence, but under the waist band of Angel's shorts. Angel's own were at the small of Jeremiah's back, incentivizing him to go on.
"Muchachos! No que tienen hambre? (Boys! Didn't you say you two were hungry?)" His mother called from downstairs.
Startled their mouths came undone with a wet 'smooch' sound of their lips to end it.
Angel sharply stood up, not really wanting to, but too easily enticed by the other. Any longer, he would've saved the meal for later, pretended he was tired and said he was going to 'lay down for awhile'. "Let's go before we show my mom instead of telling her"
His father was standing by the short end of the table, providing the tostadas and fresh avocados at the center. Angel greeted him with a hug and introduced him to Jeremiah, "Apá, this is Jeremiah. ¿Lo recuerdas? Del equipo? (Do you remember? From the team?)"
"Ah, si. Era uno de los buenos. (He was one of the good ones.) Nice to meet you, Jeremiah" His father stuck out his hand.
Jeremiah took it firmly, "Buenas tardes, señor. Me da mucho gusto en conocerte (It's a pleasure to meet you)"
"¡Oye, el morenito sabe español! ¿Donde aprendiste? (this is hard to translate but basically Jeremiah is dark skinned so Angel's dad is surprised he speaks spanish but...afro-latinx ppl exist. He then asks where he learned)" Angel knew why his dad said that so casually. Some people found it hard to tell if Jeremiah was brown from the red tones of his bronze skin or black from the curls of his hair. As if the possibility of him being both didn't exist. Jeremiah, however which way they justified either, was still both. It was a rude comment nevertheless.
"De mi papá" (From my dad)
His dad looked confused, but Angel's mother filled in the blank, "Cielo, es Latino. Fue a la high school con Ángel" (Cielo is a pet name. 'He's Latino. He went to high school with Angel')
"Oh, perdón. Sorry, I'm ignorant. Come sit. ¿Estás en la misma universidad que Ángel? (Are you in the same university as Angel?)"
The more Angel's family learned about him, covering the general things, his interests, his hobbies, studies and his own parents the more Angel fell into visible apprehension. Jeremiah noticed his boyfriend's worries and held his hand for as long as they could before continuing their eating.
"You sound busy. And we'll-prepared. Do you have time for la novia? (girlfriend)"
Jeremiah looked at Angel for a discreet, sliver of a second to see if he wanted to intervene. Maybe explain themselves now.
Angel straightened his posture in his chair, "Er, Apá, actually I was going to wait to say this privately. But estoy saliendo con alguien (Im with someone)"
"Ah, pues, que bien. (Ah, well, how good) Why didn't you bring her too? Does she live far?"
"Pa, esque, (Dad, the thing is) I did"
Jeremiah helped iron out the creases. He grasped Angel's hand from under the shield of the table and held it out before all of them.
His parents froze for a moment. Looked at each other and then at them. A quiet paradigm shift in atmosphere wrapping around the room.
"...for how long?"
"Co–como lo de un mes...(like a month)"
"Pero lo he querido desde la secundaria (But Ive liked him since HS)" Jeremiah explained to both of the older adults. He wanted to make sure Angel wasn't alone in this confrontation.
His parents were at a stalemate. Usually Angel could see one help the other out when they were uninformed, confused, unsure what to say but nothing clear was coming out of either of them.
"Um, mijo, we're not good at this. I don't know what you want me to say, but como tu padre—I don't care. Ya eres un adulto. Me vale verga (Ur an adult. IDGAF)" He finished off the small piece of his tostado crunching it, instantly getting over the initial shock.
"So, we're okay with it, right, amor?" His mother looked to her chewing husband for confirmation.
He quickly swallowed to speak, "We're okay with it. Are you happy?"
Angel nodded without a doubt.
"Then we're happy" His father stood upright from his chair, "Anyone want más aguacate (more avocado)?"
"No manches, that was fuckin' awkward" Angel complained in bed after they both finished washing the dishes together.
"That was wayy better than what my parents did. 'Least they tried to give you a proper reaction" Jeremiah chuckled massaging Angel's temples, thankful it was smooth sailing from now on. "And–they didn't forbid us from sleeping in the same room. Imagine how shitty that would be after I already asked to stay here, to have to go home?"
"Tienes razón. (Ur right) Now I know there's nothing stopping this"
"Were you anxious?"" Jeremiah mumbled, touching his hair in his habitual way of showing Angel affection.
"I'm always anxious. But your pride is contagious. You're rubbing off on me. We're you nervous?"
"A little bit. But I'm their only kid, what're they goin' to do? And I have you. We're not alone. Not anymore"
The other boy hugged Jeremiah's whole body, laying his forehead on his collarbone, "I'm so happy"
"I am too" Jeremiah stacked his chin over his boyfriend's head, "Let's go on a date tomorrow. Eat street food like garnacheros (means people who like street food). I've been missing the gorditas from here. And the raspados. We could break into our old school afterwards. Check out our old trophies in the display case. Write love letters to each other but not give them to each other until the end of spring break back to school. Go to Garrett's house and kiss in front of him. Carve our initials into his car, 'AR' plus 'JP' with a heart"
Angel laughed imagining how that would go if they did. He yawned, snuggling up against him, "Sure but I don't wanna do the last one. He'll be too satisfied he was right"
"Im satisfied that he was right" Jeremiah whispered into his hair. A completeness over both their bodies from being tightly enveloped in one another.
"I am too"
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