It all started with a hickey...
Paige PoV
It all started with a hickey.
I didn't have a hickey. Well I did, but that's a different story. The point is that Little Henry had a hickey. Even though he was seventeen at the time, so he wasn't exactly little, but everybody still knows him as that.
So, naturally being his mother, I asked him where he got it.
"What? Tha- that's- that is NOT a hickey!"
"Henry, I most certainly know what a hickey is, and that IS SO a hickey."
He still denied it was a hickey, but I decided to drop that and find out where he got it, because it was definitely a hickey. So, I started to list the names of his female friends, to see if I could get anything out of him.
"Laura?"
"No."
"Kate?"
"No."
"Becky?"
"No."
"Lexi?"
"No."
"Lisa?"
"Mom, she's a lesbian."
"Oh. Right. Ummm… was it….." At this point I couldn't think of any more names of his friends that were female, so, as a joke I said "Jake?"
His eyes widened and he looked at me in shock. "Wh – what? What did you mean? Ja – Jake?"
"Henry, calm down, it was just a joke."
His faced softened. "Oh, right. A joke." He laughed, somewhat nervously. "A joke, right, funny. I'm going to do homework." And he ran upstairs into his bedroom, leaving me stood downstairs, a little disorientated.
A few days later, I was just leaving to drop the girls off at the movie theatre to go see their boyfriends, who were also twins. I said goodbye to the girls and looked at the time. It was 5:22pm. Little Henry needed picking up at half past, so I decided to go and pick him up from the park.
I drove there and waited in the parking lot near it. I saw Henry walking with one of his friends; I couldn't see who it was. The other guy had blonde hair and was quite tall.
Henry said something to him and grinned. Then, he went to – it looked like to kiss him. He stood up on his tiptoes and pursed his lips, and the other guy bent down a bit. Then, Henry saw me in the parking lot and once again, his eyes widened. He stopped dead and then backed away from the guy he was with. He held up his hand for a high five. The guy slowly gave him a high five. Henry started to walk towards the car.
When he got to the car, he got in the passenger and seat and didn't look me in the eye.
"Who was that?" I asked, tentatively.
"Jake."
"And he's…"
"A friend." His tone told me that there was to be no more talk on the subject.
Over the next few days, I noticed lots of things about Henry. He started dressing differently. He started wearing brighter and… tighter clothes. I didn't know he had so many pairs of skinny jeans.
Also, one day, Kat called to me from her room.
"MOM! I CAN'T FIND MY EYELINER!"
I went to her to talk to her in our inside voices. "Well, it's gotta be somewhere. Does Tamora have it?"
"Does Tamora have what?" asked Tamora, walking behind us.
"My eyeliner." replied Kat.
"No, I don't have it. I have my own, and I'm going to put it on, because I have a date. We have a date." she said, eyeing Kat.
"I know. That's why I want it. Can I borrow yours?"
"Yeah, sure." They walked into the bathroom, but I needed to ask them a question so I followed them in. They started to put their makeup on in the mirror and I stood behind them.
"Girls…. Do you think that Henry could be…. Uh… well, gay?"
They seemed unfazed by the question.
"I think you should ask Henry." said Kat.
"Only he knows for sure." added Tamora.
"Right. Thanks, girls."
I decided to take the twins' advice and talk to Henry. Not directly, yet, but I would definitely let him know that I was there if he needed to talk to me. So, I left him a note on his desk telling him that I was there if he needed to talk about any issues that he may have.
To be honest, I expected him to come to talk to me, but he didn't. In fact, it was quite the opposite. He started to avoid me, his dad and his sisters even more. He was barely in the house at all; he was always out with his 'friends'. I use the quotations marks because I don't know who's a friend or who's… more. I have to say, I was quite offended at first, but then I realized how hard it must be for him, so I was less offended.
About a week later, I found Kat's eyeliner. In Henry's room.
A few days after that, I found a Gay Pride sock in his drawer. I decided that I needed to talk to him about this now.
It's harder than you think to pin down a seventeen year old, especially when he was avoiding you. But one day, I caught him coming back into the house.
"Henry. We need to talk."
He ignored me and carried on walking towards the stairs.
"Henry!"
He turned to face me. "What?"
"Just who is Jake?"
He rolled his eyes and started to walk up the stairs.
"Henry! Do not ignore me!" I followed him up the stairs.
"Well what do you want me to say? I've told you who he is."
"And who is he?"
"A friend." He said through gritted teeth.
"Henry." I said through equally gritted teeth, "You and I both know he is more than that."
"Then why did you ask me?" he said, trying to slam his bedroom door in my face.
"I wanted you to tell me the truth!" I said, following him into his room.
"I've told you the truth!" he shouted at me.
I decided that shouting back would get me nowhere, so I stayed calm. "Is Jake more than a friend?"
"You need to stop!" he begged me.
"Because if he is, we need to talk."
"Just stop!"
"I'm not stopping. We need to talk about this, because I want to protect you because I love you. Is. Jake. More. Than. A friend?"
"MOM! STOP IT!" he practically screamed at me.
"Why do you want me to stop?" I asked him, keeping my voice as calm as I could, which is hard because teenage boys are so very frustrating.
He said down on his bed and looked down at his feet. "Because it's embarrassing."
My heart just about broke right there. I realized just how hard for him this must be, and how humiliating – he had just been outed by his own mother. He obviously wasn't ready to come out of the closet, but I had just threw open the door and dragged him out by his hair.
I sat down next to him on his bed. He sniffled and looked away from me. I put my arm around him.
"Henry, I am sorry that I did this to you. But the only way that I can know what you're going through is if you tell me. So then, I can help you. Okay?"
He wiped his eyes and sniffled again. "Yeah."
"So… who is Jake?"
"I'm not completely sure. Well, I'm not completely sure who he is to me. But I know stuff about him."
"Stuff like…" I prompted.
"He's a junior… in….. college."
"College?" I asked, my eyebrows shooting up. "So that would make him how old?"
"Twenty… … … one."
"21? Henry, you're seventeen."
"I know how old I am, mom." he said, kind of irritated.
"Henry, I'm just worried about you're safety here, I mean he's 21."
"I know, mom and I know I shouldn't, but I just couldn't think about well – anything when he came onto me."
"He came onto you?"
"Yeah."
"And you guys… uh… well…"
"No! No, we have not done anything of…. that nature." His face was now a deep red.
"Have you ever done… or had…"
"What?"
"Well, I was just curious to know… or should I really be asking that… or should I? I don't know! It's not my business, or is it my business… I don't –"
"Mom! I'm a virgin!"
"Aah!" I felt blood rush to my own face. "I – uh – am glad to hear it…?"
"I'm not." He said, quietly. We looked at each other and burst out laughing. When we had finally managed to stop, our faces were even redder with laughing.
"Well - Mom, I'm glad we talked. I'm glad that somebody else knows."
"Somebody else?"
"Oh, yeah. Wyatt and Chris read my phone messages, and uh – saw some stuff."
"I see."
He stood up. "Thanks, Mom." He looked…. calmer, more relieved, as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. I stood up as well. He hugged me, which shocked me. Who ever heard of a seventeen year old boy hugging his mother out of choice? I would have to tell Piper later. Right after I told her about Henry. Providing I could tell Piper. And Phoebe.
"Henry –"
"You can tell who want, Mom. Just let me tell Dad, okay?"
"Yes, of course. I'll be there with you, when you do as well."
"Thanks, again, Mom."
He smiled at me, and I knew then that everything was going to be alright with my Little Henry.