Simon's POV

That night, the night of the day I kissed Blue and became his boyfriend, I sat my whole family down after dinner, including Alice, who was home for Christmas. I was only a little bit nervous. I was mostly excited to be able to be public with Bram.

"I want to talk to you guys about something," I say, trying to sound casual, but my voice shakes a little bit anyway.

"What's up?" My mom asks, sitting up straighter.

"I know what it is," my dad jokes. "Let me guess. You're gay. You got someone pregnant. You're pregnant."

"Dad, stop it." Alice frowns at him.

"Really, though." I look my dad right in the eye. "I'm gay." Two words, and everything gets quiet.

"Honey. That's… God, that's… thank you for telling us."

"Wow, bub. Good for you."

"Gay, huh?"

"And…" I wait for them to finish their expected reactions. Might as well get this over with in one go. "I have a boyfriend." That generates a little more excitement.

"Oh my God, who?" Alice asks, grinning.

"When can we meet him?" My mom asks.

Suddenly I'm blushing, and Alice is beside herself with glee. "Aw, he's blushing!" She gives me a hug, and even Nora is grinning a little.

I push Alice off me. "His name is Bram, and it happened today, and those are all the details you're getting tonight." I leave them all to discuss my love life in the living room and head upstairs to my room, grinning.

Then I call Bram. He picks up right away. "Hi," he says, and I can tell that he's smiling.

"Hi." I'm smiling too. "So I told my family. They took it pretty much as expected. My mom asked me about my feelings, my dad turned it into a joke, my older sister got political, and my younger sister kept her mouth shut."

"Well, that's good," Bram answers. "My dad doesn't know yet, but I guess I'll have to tell him at Hotel Hanukkah. Our friends can find out either when we post millions of kissing selfies on FaceBook every day or when we act all boyfriendy in front of them."

I laugh. "Is boyfriendy even a word?"

"Who decides who gets to make up words and who doesn't?"

"Fair point."

And then we're just talking. About Hotel Hanukkah, about how Bram's stepmother is pregnant, about how Frank Ocean is gay and about how we wish we were together right now. And, God, I really do miss him. I'm talking to him, and we're in the same town, but I miss seeing him and holding his hand and kissing him.

And I'm actually happy that stupid Martin made that stupid joke at our lunch table that day, because who knows how long we would have kept not meeting in person if I hadn't found out who Blue is. For the first time in a very long time, I'm completely happy. I have no secrets. I can be totally myself. I can exhale now.