Chapter 6

Zeke looked up and fixed his gaze to Mr. Abraham then to his wife. “I want to tell you something. You both might be mad at me after that, but it’s not going to change a thing. And for your information, Nate doesn’t know about it because I haven’t told him. I don’t know how he’s going to react about it but again, it won’t change anything.”

Mr. Abraham stared at him blankly. Then he said slowly, “Okay.”

Zeke nodded and after taking a deep breath, he said, “I’m gay. And I like Nate, a lot.”

Only sounds of their breathing broke the silence in that living room and Zeke thought it stayed like that almost for a minute. He felt like climbing out his skin. Jesus. Why was it so much harder to come out to other people he had no family relationship than to his own mother? As if they mattered more to him than she did. But a small voice inside Zeke’s head whispered. Maybe they did.