Page 26 of My Family

"It's two days a week. Not exactly official."

"Shut up, it's huge and you know it." He bumps his shoulder into mine, and for a second he's all light, all pride, exactly the reaction I knew he'd have.

Then something passes behind his eyes and he goes quieter. Exactly the reaction I also knew he'd have. "Wait. Two days a week. Out there. With real people. Nurses. Doctors." He picks at a thread on his sleeve. "You're gonna meet people who aren't, like, locked up."

"Liam… baby…"

"No, I'm happy for you, I am." He says it fast. "I just... you're gonna have this whole life starting up out there, and I'm still gonna be in here. And then one day you get to actually leave for good, and I'm still gonna be in here. That's not… I'm not trying to make this about me. I swear I'm not."

"I know you're not." I take his hand, right there on the bench, guard or no guard. "It doesn't change anything. I'm not going anywhere I don't come back from."

"You say that now."

"I mean it, puppy." I squeeze his fingers. "Two days out there doesn't erase five days in here with you. It doesn't erase any of it."

He nods, but I can see he's still turning it over, filing it away next to Tyler and everything else that's shifting today. Two big things arriving in the same hour.

"I told my aunt about us," I say suddenly, wanting to give him something steady to hold onto.

He turns and looks surprised. "What?"

"Over the break, when I was there. I told her. I said I was seeing someone, that he was a boy, that it was real. I thought she was going to punch me. But she didn't. She just said she loved me. She said she was proud of me."

His jaw goes slack. "You told her?!"

"Yeah."

He blinks. "Why?"

"Because I didn't want it to be a secret anymore."

He breaks into this amazing grin. "That's… actually really fucking brave, you know that?"

"I don't feel brave," I say.

He shrugs. "It's still brave. Thank you for telling her."

I look at him without smiling. I just feel so close to breaking down.

"You don't have to thank me."

"Fuck yeah, I do! Now I have to tell my dad!" he exclaims, and I chuckle softly.

"You don't have to do that either," I tell him.

"Yeah, but I want to. Besides, he knows I'm a slut."

Now I laugh, loud. He lays his head on my shoulder. I wish I could kiss him, but I don't move. I don't need the guards to come scold us for being too close.

"Whatever happens with your brother, and whatever happens with the hospital thing," he says, "I'll still be here. I'll always be waiting for you."

"You promise?" I ask quietly.

He grins, full and open. "Yeah, Daddy. I promise."

"And I'll always come back to you, baby. I promise."

Chapter 10. Ethan