Chapter 14

I cleared up, and went upstairs. Expecting Laurence to be dressed, I walked into the bathroom, about to ask him if I could get ready.

"Oh shit, sorry." I blushed, "I thought you'd be done."
"Don't look!" Laurence yelled, his towel loosely hung around his waist.
"Hey," I laughed, "You had much less than that on last night."
"But it was dark." He murmured, turning his back to me, almost pleading: "I don't want you to see how fat I-"
"No!" I blurted, perhaps a little too harshly. "You're perfect, and I love you. Okay?" He began to snivel. Shit. "Shhh... shhhh." I tried to comfort him, my hand resting on his back, from which he pulled away almost immediately.

"Laur. Laur?" He wouldn't turn to face me. I tailed up after him wrapping my arms around his damp waist, cuddling him from behind. He squirmed as my hands skimmed over his tummy, wrapping his arms across his front.
"I'm sorry." Laurence whimpered.
"For what?" I asked, totally bewildered.
"I didn't want you to have to see me like this." He sniffed, "I knew you wouldn't want to be with someone who looks like I do."
"Laurence, please listen to me." I begged him, "I fucking love you, and you need to believe it." He nodded, his eyes still teary. "You couldn't imagine how much I relished that first morning we walked into school together. When you asked me to, I skipped the whole way home. Or when I had to sneakily tuck the boner you gave me into my pants, because you sat on my lap, and-."
"I wasn't too heavy was I?" He asked meekly, his tears slowly disappearing.
"Not at all." I said, turning him to face me so I could wipe his eyes. "You're adorable"

Laurence smiled, relief surging through me. "I love you," he whispered in my ear, "I'm so lucky to have you". I pulled him as close as I possible, kissing his lips, his face, his neck - just everywhere I could. "Stop it." He giggled, "Stop! You're tickling me!"
"C'mon, go put some clothes on and I'll quickly get in the shower." Laurence shuffled off to my room as I stood under the cascading water, rubbing my face in frustration.

"I was kind of thinking," Laurence hesitated, as I walked into my bedroom, "that I should probably tell my parents about us."
"They aren't... you know, touchy about you being gay? I mean you said about them being supportive, but-
"Nah they're fine with it. I was hoping you could come round this afternoon and meet them."
"Well, you've met mine," I reasoned, "so it's only fair. Anyway, what's the worst that could happen?"

We strolled round to Laurence's pretty damn huge house, where we found his parents cooking in the kitchen. I fluffed around with my hair, and straightened out my shirt in an attempt to make the best possible impression.

"Hey," he sang, "this is Kier, my um... friend." Playing safe, I thought, he must be waiting to see their initial reaction.
"Hello, sweetheart." She chirped, hugging him. "I've heard a lot about you.", she said, turning to face me.
"Good things, I hope"
"Nothing but!" She told me, "You seem like a very pleasant young man."
"Aww thank you." I blushed.
"That's really good..." Laur began, "that you like Kier, because he's um... my boyfriend."
"That's wonderful." His mother beamed,
"Welcome to the family" his father followed.
"Please, join us for dinner, we're making chilli"
"I can't say no to that!" I grinned.

The four of us gathered around his family's ample-sized dining table.
"How's that song you were working on for music class going?" His father asked, tilting his wire framed glasses onto the tip of his nose. 'Shit,' I thought, 'I'd totally forgotten about that.'
"Erm, good." Laurence lied, "I think it's our last week of practice, starting from tomorrow's class. Kier's really good, so we shouldn't have any problems." I smiled at him, praying that he was right.