{Chapter Six}

"Levy, dinner is almost done. Where have you been?" Mom asks when I get home and I sigh.

"I was just at the coffee shop so I could work on my paper." I explain honestly when I enter the kitchen but I leave out the meeting of Ian so she doesn't ask any more questions. She turns around from the stove to face me with a disapproving look in her dark green hazel eyes.

"You should have told me what you were doing, or at the very least called to tell me you would be out that long." She continues in obvious irritation and my brows furrow in confusion.

"Why are you getting so mad? I forgot to tell you where I was going, I'm sorry." I add with a small, nervous laugh. She doesn't look overly thrilled, nor does she seem to accept my apology but she does turn back to the stove.

"Dinner is going to be ready in a few minutes, would you go tell your father?" she seems to ask but her voice holds demand. Her odd mood throws me off but I brush it away and leave the kitchen to tell my dad about dinner. I go into the living room where my dad's watching some sort of building show on TV, and sit down on the couch next to him. He glances at me in acknowledgment and bumps my shoulder with his own.

"Hey, kid, haven't seen you in a while." He jokes and I roll my eyes, looking at the TV without watching it. I couldn't possibly say what compelled my next train of thoughts, maybe it was the fact that my dad is admittedly one of my best friends. Whatever it was, I couldn't help but feel compelled to tell my dad that I wasn't straight.

It was a fact that didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. Of course it's a bit unsettling to find out I'm apparently attracted to men after assuming my whole life that I would just marry some bimbo, have a couple kids and get a mediocre, blue-collar job. So realizing that probably won't be happening is a bit of a surprise.

My thoughts are abruptly stopped when Dad mutes the TV though. I glance at him in question while he puts the remote back on the coffee table in front of the couch.

"I feel like you have something to tell me." He explains, turning to face me fully, giving me his full attention. I sigh heavily and meet his eyes directly.

"You can't get mad." I state and he arches a brow in question.

"Are you doing drugs? Drinking? Eh, I won't be mad, you're almost an adult so I trust you to make smart decisions." He replies with a shrug but I see worry in his eyes, no doubt worried that I've done something terrible. 

"I'm not doing anything like that, I promise." I assure quickly so he doesn't worry. "I, um..." I scratch the back of my head nervously and clear my throat. "I'm not, uh, straight." I add awkwardly, dropping my gaze to my lap.

"Oh," he says calmly, sounding almost... confused? I glance up at him to see that he does indeed look confused.

"Oh?" I echo in my own confusion.

"I'm sorry, did you expect me to be mad?"

"Well, yeah." I admit and he chuckles, a small bit of hurt in his eyes no doubt from knowing I was scared of his reaction.

"Why would I be mad? It's not like you're doing drugs or something. Besides, now I don't have to worry about you getting someone pregnant." He adds with more laughter and I can't help but sigh in relief.

"Dinner is almost ready." I state, changing the subject because there's no reason to continue talking about it. He nods and we go into the dining room just as Mom puts dinner on the table. We sit down at the table and soon Mom joins us.

The dinner is boring, Dad talks to Mom about work while I continue to eat in boredom. When I finish I excuse myself and go to my room to go to sleep, happy about how the day went. I managed to meet a new guy, a new friend, and my I came out to my dad who took it better than I expected. It was definitely a pretty good day.

~ ~ ~

"Hey, Lydia. Can you come to my locker with me? I forgot my wallet in there." I ask Lydia when we're at lunch the next day. I give her no room to object as I stand and start the walk in the direction of my locker. I hear her heels clicking on the tiled floor behind me seconds later though so I continue until I'm out of the cafeteria. I turn and sigh while Lydia stops in front of me in surprise.

"What are you doing? I thought--"

"I don't need to go to my locker. I wanted to talk to you away from Jess." I explain, interrupting her before she can try to say anything else. She tilts her head to the side in confusion, her eyes wide in curiosity.

"What did you need to talk about?" she questions curiously. I sigh and tell her about Ian, then about my idea to date him in order to get over Jer because there is no way I can be with Jer; it's impractical. She seems to think about all that I said as she bites her lip in concentration.

"You should just forget about Jer. Like you said, the relationship would be near impossible. Besides, this Ian sounds interesting, what with being in private school. So just go out with Ian and if you like him then you can just forget all about Jer." She explains and I nod in agreement. I can't deny that I still have odd feelings for Jer but it's obvious the relationship would be platonic. So why should I torture myself with thoughts of him when there's a perfectly good guy out there who obviously likes me?

I sigh and follow Lydia back to the table in the cafeteria. We both sit down and I ignore Jess's questioning glances, instead I focus on finishing the outline for the paper that I forgot to do before beginning to write it. I continue catching up on the homework I didn't do for the project for the rest of lunch, only stopping to eat some fruit Lydia offers me.

~ ~ ~

"Levy?" I blink and glance away from my phone to look at my mom.

"Yeah?" she sighs, looking irritated that I wasn't listening to whatever she was saying about her job. For some reason today she insisted that I spend the time with her to observe her job, her role in helping the company strive and all that. I agreed because I know what she does already, Jer explained it at one point so I knew I could easily just relax. Or so I thought.

"You're not paying attention. Who are you talking to anyway?" she demands and I arch a brow.

"A friend." I reply in confusion. Why in the world does she care who I'm talking to anyway.

"What friend?" she prompts. I straighten in my chair and tilt my head to the side, still completely confused.

"Why do you want to know?" I ask but immediately regret it because her brows furrow and she straightens, obviously trying to look more authoritative.

"Leviathan, I am your mother. When I ask a question, you answer it. So who are you talking to?" she nearly grounds out between clenched teeth. I shift uncomfortably, not used to my mom getting mad at me. My parents are both quite laid back so when they get mad, it usually means I did something wrong. Only, I have no idea what I did wrong this time. I've asked my parents why they've asked me questions before and they never get mad.

"It's Jessica." I lie, not wanting to explain to her about Ian. She seems to relax significantly at the response and even smiles.

"Okay, thank you." She turns back to her computer and starts typing furiously for a few minutes before stopping once more.

"I always liked Jessica, she's a nice young woman." She adds while I resist the urge to snort. Jess is nice, sure, but not in the way Mom means. She doesn't realize that Jess frequents numerous twenty-one and over bars around town, she also smokes pot with her older brother, and I'm pretty sure she's slept with most of the football players at school. She's anything but a nice young woman, but I don't bother to tell this to Mom as she would no doubt be mad about it.

"Sure," I reply in agreement instead before I get back to messaging Ian.

Ian: *So, now that we know each other a bit more. Do u wanna go out 2nite?*

*Out? As in on a date?*

Ian: *dunno, u want it 2 be a date?*

I think about it for a minute, my fingers hovering over my phone's bright screen. I know I told Lydia that I wanted to go out with Ian in order to forget about Jer, but what if I don't get over Jer? What if I just hurt Ian by basically using him? Maybe I should just be his friend.

However, even with these thoughts my fingers seem to have a mind of their own because before I know it I've sent Ian a message agreeing to go out with him. I thankfully don't have time to curse myself for that though, because he replies not a minute later with the time to be ready and where to meet. I smile to myself, already happy that I decided to go out with him. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to get over this stupid crush on Jer.