- Friday, November 17th -

"Why is the table set for six?" Finnley's mom Eva sounds confused. They all made their way into the dining room, Finnley and I waiting for our cue; Charlie informing them about our presence.

"Well, this is a family dinner, after all." Charlie casually explains. "So, I made sure we were all here."

I sort of have to drag Finnley into the dining room, but once he's in, he regains his posture, standing up straight, grinning daringly.

Eva's eyes widen in surprise, James' mouth opens a bit and Sydney slightly chokes on the sip of water he just took.

"You remember Cris?" Charlie gestures towards me. "He's part of our family now, since he's dating Finn."

Eva clears her throat, sending me a disgusted look. "You will never be part of this family."

"Is that supposed to bother me?" I smirk, Charlie takes in a deep breath, but seems happy with the outcome so far.

"They're joining us for dinner. Finn even brought a present."

We already sat down, Finnley crushing my hand by squeezing it pretty hard. He's biting his lip nervously, but at least he didn't run off yet.

Charlie strategically decided to sit across from him next to Sydney, who's nervously glancing around. He's obviously not happy to see us.

"Good evening lady and gentleman." Oliver enters the dining room with a wide smile and a lot of made up happiness. "My name is Oliver, but you can call me Mr. Mackenzie, since we're not acquainted on a personal level. I'm honoured to be your host for the evening. We'll be serving the first course in a minute." Half of his words are soaked in sarcasm.

I kind of have to hold back my laugh, Charlie biting his lip to keep his in, Finnley visibly relaxing beside me.

"But first, we'll start with the first present. We can't let the birthday-girl wait all evening to open her presents, right?" He winks towards us, before he offers Eva the gift that holds the key. Oliver makes a lot of grand gestures, obviously confusing Eva, James and Sydney a bit, before he heads back into the kitchen to get the first course.

"I'm not eating with them in my house." Eva speaks calmly, while she's eyeing the gift curiously.

"Eva." James clears his throat. "Charlie put a lot of effort in all of this. He even got someone to host the evening. I think we can see how things go." James looks in our direction warningly. "As long as nobody is here to fight, we could enjoy a real family dinner."

"But..." Eva starts her protest.

James shakes his head, silencing his wife. "No but. He brought a gift and it would be pretty rude to send him away after he put in effort to get you a gift. We're having dinner with them."

"It's my birthday..."

"...and he is still our son."

Both Finnley and I frown a bit, because honestly, he hasn't treated Finnley as a son in months.

Eva eventually gives up, starting to unwrap the key, staring at it confused. "And what am I supposed to open with this?" She stares around the table.

"My gift." Charlie smiles calmly. "You can open my gift with it."

"So, which is yours?"

"Aah, no." Oliver appears again, starting to put plates in front of us. "No gifts during dinner. After each course we'll return to opening one present." He smiles devilish towards Eva, who seems less comfortable each second.

"So, Finn," James grabs his cutlery as soon as everybody has a plate, Oliver smiling towards Finn shortly, before he leaves the room. "how are things in school."

"The usual." Finnley shrugs. "Mostly acing my tests."

"Good." James nods happily. "And ehm..." He clears his throat. "You and Cris..."

"Can we not talk about that?" Eva cuts his question short, before she looks towards me. "How are you doing in school? Are you able to keep up with Finnley a bit?" The tone she uses is implying that she thinks I'm not good enough for him, not just because I'm a boy, but also because I might not be as intelligent.

"I'm doing fine, "mam." I try to show as less emotions as possible. "I'm mostly getting B's, but I missed a couple of tests so I'm a bit behind."

"What is it you do?" James takes over, Finnley nervously shuffling in his seat a bit. I know he never liked it when his parents started hearing me out about school. Nothing was ever good enough for them.

"Building engineering, sir. I want to be an architect."

"So, you get B's for drawing?" Eva sounds mocking, causing me to nearly roll my eyes. I really have to make sure I'm not showing any irritations, because she can't kick us out until after dinner.

"And maths, architectural history, planning, building..." I sum up things that I've done so far, it's not much, since I'm only in this school for little over 10 weeks.

"What is it you do, Finn?" Charlie jumps in, changing the subject towards Finn's school.

"Medical." Finnley mutters, surprising me a bit. Call it stupid, but up until now, I had no idea what Finnley did in school.

"Medical? You want to be a doctor?" Eva sounds... surprised, and maybe, very faintly, even a bit proud. "What particular medical specialization?"

"Eh..." Finnley takes in a deep breath. "I don't really know yet."

"I'm sure something made you choose this study?" James presses for him to give a clear answer.

"Yes." Finnley nods. "The fact I'd like to help people. Maybe psychiatry or something like that."

"And you're going to a good university?" Eva sounds happy with his answers so far. Bet she's already regretting the decision to shun him from the family now that she knows he's planning on becoming a doctor.

"Eh, just college. I kind of graduated without that much AP classes..."

That got Eva to frown displeased. "Why didn't you graduate with the classes you took from the beginning? You did good until..." She swallows her words, causing an awkward silence to settle among us.

"What your mother means..." Finnley cringes a bit while James called Eva his mother, which I totally get. "You got straight A's when you took all AP classes. How come you graduated on a regular level?"

"I decided I wanted to live a little, instead of study all the time."

"But that's throwing away a bright future just for a year of fun." Eva sounds disagreeing and even annoyed by his decision.

Finnley settles in silence, not responding and Charlie seems to feel the same as I do; this isn't working out for Finnley right now.

"Why would you do that?"

Finnley sends me a look, asking me for help with his eyes, pushing the food on his plate back and forth. He hasn't eaten much, even though the food is delicious.

"Finnley?"

"I'm not answering that..." He mutters, staring down.

"Why not?"

"I'm not supposed to start a fight."

Both Charlie and I hold back a laugh, while Eva again looks annoyed and James seems pleased with the fact Finnley choose to not start a fight.

"Because your answer would start a fight?" Eva pushes him. "We just like to know why you're throwing away your future..."

"I don't think you have a right to be concerned about his future." I jump in, grabbing Finnley's hand to support him a bit. "Let's drop the subject and keep conversation... casual."

At first, I believe she's going to protest, but after a short silence, James starts another casual conversation, this time asking Sydney and Charlie about their day, leaving Finnley and me out of it as much as possible. I don't mind and I think Finnley doesn't mind either, since he really doesn't care about Sydney's day and what he's doing for a living.

* * * * *

Oliver made sure the gift holding the box wasn't opened in between courses, handing Eva another gift every time, with a lot of backstabbing words, hidden in sarcasm and made up happiness. After the third gift, Eva started sending Oliver deadly looks; not hiding the fact she doesn't like him at all. But, she keeps quiet since James keeps trying to make it a nice family dinner, with a good mood and no fights.

Finnley's growing more restless every course, closing in on the moment Oliver will hand her the gift with the box – which he will do as soon as dessert is done.

The fact Eva keeps praising Sydney for everything he tells isn't helping him to keep calm either.

Charlie has been pretty silent during dinner, mostly when the conversation revolves around Sydney.

It's Oliver that breaks a tense silence as soon as we're all done eating desserts. He nearly skips inside the room, causing Finnley to chuckle a bit. A small part of me would have liked to be the one that made Finnley smile every so often, but I simply don't know how too and Oliver's careless attitude and his ability to insult Eva without actually insulting her directly comes natural to him.

He's holding the gift with the box in his hands, shortly looking at Finnley, before he hands an envelope to Eva.

Finnley and I share a confused look, not knowing what the envelope holds. Oliver winks at us, while Eva opens the envelope.

""If you have me, you want to share me. Once you share me, you won't have me. What am I?"." Eva reads out loud, frowning right afterwards.

"The gift holds the answer to the riddle, "mam." Oliver happily tells her, handing her the gift with a daring smile. He walks over to our side of the table, Charlie nervously biting his nails, me holding Finnley's hand, who's staring towards Eva with a natural face.

"This is the gift she needs the key for?" James asks curiously, addressing Charlie, who share a look with Finnley, deciding not to answer.

In the meantime, Eva ripped away the gift paper, surprised to find the box, looking back and forth between Charlie and Finnley.

"What in here?" She sounds a bit cautious.

"The answer to the riddle." Charlie repeats Oliver's words. "I think you won't expect it." He smiles a fake smile, gesturing for her to go on and open the box.

She pushes the key into its lock, turning it, shortly sending Finnley a look, before she opens it.

Her eyes widen, her face drains from all colour. She slams the box shut, snapping her head towards Finnley again. She doesn't say anything, she just stares at him while he stares back. Slowly, his eyes start to water and eventually, the first tear rolls down his cheek.

"Why'd you lie about it?" Charlie is the first to speak up, getting up from his seat, walking over to our side, placing a reassuring hand on Finnley's shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me it was true? You let me break contact with Finn because I thought he was lying while he needed me more than ever."

Eva is still staring at Finnley, Sydney clearing his throat. "What I did to you was wrong, Finn." He mutters ashamed. "I can't explain why I did it. All I can do is tell you I'm really sorry, although that won't make it better; I know that."

"Then don't." Finnley snaps at him, more tears rolling down his cheeks. "You got out of it without being punished and what pisses me off most is the fact you're living here, with them, like nothing ever happened. Like I never existed."

"You're the one that left..." He mom starts. "You didn't want to give us a chance to better ourselves..."

"I did." He stares at her with as much disbelieve as I feel. "You wouldn't accept the fact I'm gay. You wanted to kick Jason out because he slept with men, because he was forced, while he isn't even gay. Your mind is that tainted."

"But honey..." She swallows as soon as both Oliver and I send her a displeased look for calling him honey. "Finn. You can't possibly accept it willingly. You know it's..."

"Not wrong." Finnley shakes his head, grabbing my hand, shortly looking at me with a small smile. "If I wouldn't love Cris as much as I do, I wouldn't have made it through the past year." He looks back to his mom, who still doesn't seem pleased about it. "My love for him is the reason I'm still alive today. It's the reason I got out of that abduction alive..." He shrugs. "It's what gets me up and going each and every day. Isn't that what you told me love is all about? That it gives you purpose in life, that you want to do everything to make the other happy, no matter what?"

"But I was talking about a girl, a woman, Finn..." She takes in a deep breath. "But yes, that is what I told you."

"That if you truly love someone, they'll be a reason to get up every day and be the best you that you can be... That's what Cris is for me."

They all remain silent for a while, Finnley nervously shuffling in his seat. "But that's not what got me to come over today." He takes in a deep breath, squeezing my hand again. "You deliberately told Charlie lies. You pretended I was imagining things and you even talked about sending me to a psychiatrist for it. All the while you knew I was telling the truth, yet you still made me look bad and took Sydney back in your house like he never did anything wrong."

"And now I know the truth and I've decided I'm not gonna stay and live here with you." Charlie speaks up, leaning on the back of Finnley's chair. "Finn already called Aunt Cady and for now, I'll move over there, not only to get away from this fucked up family, but also to be around Finn a little more and support him."

Finnley's face breaks open in a sincere smile, while Charlie straightens himself out. "I'm going to grab some of my stuff and we'll leave. Happy birthday, mom. You lost yet another son."

Oliver snorts, causing Finnley and me to chuckle.

"You know, "mam..." Oliver jumps in as soon as Charlie left the kitchen to go and get the bag he packed earlier. "You might believe, for real, that homosexuality is wrong. But if you look at Finn and Cris, you won't be able to find more love anywhere else. Your marriage with your husband is a fake façade, based upon what religion tells you is right, not based upon love. I'd rather have what those two have, then ever having to think about having a broken family like yours. And I amreligious, just so you know."

"Finn, I'm so sorry." James gets up from his seat. "I really believed it would mark you for life if it would come out. But I never wanted you to think we didn't believe you. We just wanted to keep things between us, rebuild a life, a family... Not sweet it under the carpet..."

"Which is exactly what you did." I snap in anger. "Don't even try to come up with an excuse for what you both did. You denied and you made people question his sanity, while in reality, it is your sanity that needs to be questioned."

"Don't you have anything to say?" Finnley looks at his mom, who's playing with the key in the lock.

"I don't think I can make things right..."

"It would help if you'd at least try." Finnley, out of the blue, gets up from his seat. "I'm still the same person I always have been. "I'm still intelligent, I still like running tracks. I have the same humour and I look the same. And I was pretty much living a decent life despite what happened to me when I was seven. The reason I'm so broken right now, why every thought is a battle, is because of you. Not because of Sydney, not because there's people in the world that hate me simply because I love Cris, but because you failed to support me. You let me down when I needed any of you most." He yanks my hand, forcing me to get up from my seat. "We're leaving. We'll wait for Charlie in the car."

"I think you were getting through to her." I protest while he pulls me outside, Oliver following with a proud smile. It's still pouring outside and I hope Charlie will hurry a bit because I'd like to go home, get rid of these wet clothes and go back to bed.

"I don't care, Cris." Finnley grabs my sweater. "I want to go. Charlie knows the truth, you know it, Oliver knows it. That's all I wanted. I don't ever want to live with them, ever again. Even if they'd accept me being gay, they still would pressure me to get straight A's, to go to university, to be their perfect little puppet they can push around. I can't do that anymore."

"Nobody said you'd have to go and live with them." I pull him in for a quick kiss. "Sydney needs to be punished and this was the opportunity to."

"Cris, listen to me." Finnley shakes me by pushing and pulling my soaked sweater. "The biggest punishment he could get, is live with her, trying to live up to her expectations. What would he learn in prison? That it's wrong? Like he doesn't know that already. It's not like he ever did it again after me. He really knowsit was wrong and he was 14 when he did it. I can forgive him, but I'd like to see him suffer for a while first."

"But still..."

"All I wanted was for my mom to stop denying what happened, and now she has to admit it." He buries his face in the croak of my neck, taking in a deep breath. "I wanted to see how she'd react and now I know. I wanted to know if she'd still deny things, call me a liar. Come up with an excuse for those pictures. And it surprised me a bit that it was Sydney who came forward with admitting it first."

"She's heartless for snot even trying to apologize to you." Oliver sounds sad. He already sat down in the car, sheltering from the rain. "She doesn't deserve you as her son. Although I'm happy they got you, else you wouldn't be you."

Finnley rolls his eyes, but he can't help but smile at him. "Can we just go home as soon as Charlie is ready?"

"Yes." I kiss him on his lips a little longer. "We're going home."

"Good evening, gentlemen." Oliver greets us once we both take place in the backseat, Finnley instantly leaning against me, pulling my arms around him. "My name is Oliver and I'll be your chauffeur for the night..."

"Shut up." Finnley laughs, snuggling closer to me contently. "I love you guys. Thanks for helping me through tonight."