The next four months or so went by quickly. Every morning at school, John would meet up with Alexander, greeting him with a kiss. And, every weekend, they would go out together, with one of them usually spending the night at the other's home.
Philip got used to the routine pretty fast. He didn't mind his father's relationship; he thought it was kind of cute, in fact. Unless it was the end of the school day, when it took him twenty minutes to pry his father away from Mr. Hamilton.
"Dad, come on," Philip would groan. "I want to go home."
"In a minute, Philip," John would say, waving him off. "We're talking." Philip would have no choice but to leave the adults alone, because they looked so happy together.
Philip didn't even mind having Mr. Hamilton in his house so often. Even though he was a teacher, Philip never felt awkward about it. Mr. Hamilton turned out to be pretty cool. History class suddenly became much easier.
There was one day in class where George Eacker kept throwing things at Philip-mostly papers that said nasty things-so Mr. Hamilton talked to the English teacher, and then Eacker had to write an essay about how gay marriage was a good thing. Philip had never laughed harder than when Mr. Hamilton told him about that during dinner one night.
When school let out for winter break, Philip was told some interesting news.
"So, it's winter break," John said on their way home.
"I know, Dad," Philip replied. "I've been counting down the days since school started." His father chuckled a bit.
"I, uh, I need to ask you something kind of important." Philip looked at his father. The man looked extremely anxious.
"Um...okay..."
"Do you, uh..." John cleared his throat. "Do you like having Alexander around?"
"Oh. Well, not as much as you do, obviously." Philip's attempt at a joke fell flat. "Um...why do you ask, Dad?"
"I just...I want to know, is all."
"Okay. Well, he's pretty cool. He's nice and helps with stuff."
"Okay."
"Uh...was there a reason you wanted to know?"
"I, uh...yeah."
"What is it?" John was quiet for a little while, and in that time, a realization hit Philip. "Oh, my God, are you going to propose?" John choked on air, his face turning red.
"No, no, no. No. No, I'm not. It hasn't even been half a year. I'm not...no."
"Then, what is it?"
"I just...I invited him to stay with us over break, and I wanted to make sure you'd be okay with that."
"Wait, you invited him over and then asked me if I'd be fine with it?"
"I know. I'm sorry. I just...we were talking about what we're doing over winter break, and he said he wasn't really going to do anything, so I asked. It just kinda slipped out and it wasn't like I could just back out of it, because he agreed, and-"
"Dad, Dad, chill. It's fine. I know you like him a lot, and I'm pretty sure he likes you a lot, too. He's been good to you so far, so he's fine. As long as he stays good to you, I won't have any problems with him. Besides, my history grade went up, like, two letters already because of his help. I can't really give that up, now can I?" John chuckled softly.
"Okay, Pip."
"When is he coming over?"
"Tonight, I think. He had to pack some things."
"Okay."
"Why?"
"I have to know when to set up my prank."
"Philip, you can't prank him."
"I'm pretty sure I can."
"You shouldn't. It's incredibly rude to do that to someone when they're going to be staying with you for three weeks."
"You just don't want me to because he's your boyfriend."
"That too." Philip looked at his father for a while. His eyes were so bright and cheerful whenever he talked about his boyfriend, Philip realized.
"I won't prank him, then."
"Thank you." Philip smiled at his father, who smiled in return.
"Well, I probably won't."