It was nearly time for us to leave to meet Riley's dad. He was in the shower now. I had gotten in first because, believe it or not, this hairstyle I had was a bitch to maintain. I was doing my routine morning exercises. I did a frontwards split, bending forwards until my chest touched the ground, and then bent backwards until my head touched my calf. I grimaced in discomfort. Stretching backwards like that was always a bit painful, but effective.

I straightened out on the ground and allowed my muscles to settle for a few seconds. I heard Riley coming up behind me, so I did a Starfish Kip-Up so that I was facing towards him. Anya, Daniel and Zane had finally taught Riley and I how to dress properly, so he was in reasonably nice looking clothes. The look on his face worried me; though most wouldn't be able to tell, I could see that he was nervous. "You ready to go?" he asked me?

I was going to try to cheer him up with either of two methods. "Yeah I just finished my morning stretches…" I began. I smiled and wrapped my arms around him and pressed up close to him. "Unless you want to practice stretching my mouth out before we go…" I trailed off suggestively.

He didn't blink, and he didn't smile. "Naww Jake, not right now," he answered.

Damn; that didn't work. It worse than I thought; normally that would've earned at least a faint flicker of a smile.

Still smiling I replied. "Well alright. Whatever you want Riley," and I finished this off with a hug. In tow of his arms, I followed him out to his car and got ready to drive over to his parents' house.

I tried to talk to him as he drove us there, but like usual when he was upset, he felt like being left alone with his thoughts. I understood perfectly. I was nervous too, mostly for Riley's sake. I'd met his parents before. Both sets of Riley's grandparents immigrated from Greece back when they were young and his mom and dad had been raised in strict traditional homes. Riley's father was the owner of a rather successful lawyer firm in this fair city of Toronto, and was rather intimidating yet charismatic on the few occasions I'd met him. His mother was a stay-at-home mom. Both of them were homophobic based on what Riley had told me and a comment I'd heard them make. Both of them were driving forces behind his successful athleticism and grades, and were constantly annoying him about finding a girlfriend. And while his mother was away visiting relatives in Greece at the time, I was needless to say nervous about meeting the father of the man I loved.

I practiced going over all my pro-gay arguments I knew and even went over some anti-gay arguments just to be extra-prepared to see from his viewpoint, even going over some pro-gay theological arguments my grandma used to argue, though I highly doubted that it would prepare me for the real thing. We reached his house soon and parked a little ways down the street so that we couldn't be seen from a window. We got out and stood against the vehicle, I remembered my dream.

"Hey Riley," I said. He looked over at me. "I had a dream about you last night. I dreamt I was the Dark Phoenix from the crappy movie that came out last year."

"The one that never happened?"

"Yeah that one. I was ruler of the planet and I had unstoppable godlike powers. It was horrible. But then, you showed up." At this time I chose to lean against him. "You were an angel, like a beautiful human angel with two wings. All you had to do was wrap your arms and your wings around me and I turned back into normal. That's one of the few dreams that really means something. You're my angel, Riley." Smiling, I gazed up into his icy blue eyes and held him tight.

I was so relieved when he smiled back at me. "Oh Jake," he began, hugging me back. "You have no idea how much our places should've been switched out. I had been in the most terrible place of my entire life, and you pulled me out of there just by showing up."

"I'm sorry I wasn't as good as you deserved," I said, thinking back on how I had cheated on him for no reason.

"Jake, don't worry about that, please," instantly knowing what was on my mind. He began to run his fingers through my hair, which always made him feel more comfortable. "You're my angel, Jake. There's nothing you can do to make yourself even more unbelievably good than you already are."

"You know you're the best thing about my existence?" I said. "And you know I'll do anything for you? No matter what it is, I'll do anything."

"I know Jake, and there's no way I would be able to do this without you."

We hugged each other tightly and walked to the front door.

Riley opened the door and led me into his living room. His house was spacious, smelled nice and was tastefully decorated with some traditional Greek artwork, courtesy of his mother. "Dad!" He called out. "Dad I'm here with my boyf- with Jake."

He came out of a door that I knew led into the kitchen. Mr. Stavros, like his son was somewhat imposing if you judged him based solely on size. He was large and tall, though just a little bit shorter and less bulky than his son, and his middle was a little bit softer. He had a clean shaven face and black hair which was graying in some areas. He had strong Greek facial features and he was by far one of the most handsome men I'd ever laid eyes on and it was extremely clear to see where Riley gets it from. I had to admit if that's what Riley is going to look like when he gets to be in his early forties, then there's a good chance I'm not going to hate us getting older.

But this time there was something off about him, something creepy. I could tell that he was mad, furious even. In a weird way I could feel the anger emanating off from him like heat waves, despite his tight yet calm facial expression, and not just in the normal way. Now I could feel his anger on a much more intimate level. He gestured for Riley to sit on the couch. He didn't even glance at me. Riley and I did so, sitting next to each other, my boyfriend not looking his father in the eyes. He sat down across from us. "Hey dad," Riley began. "So um, what did the school tell you…?"

"They called and told me that someone had videotaped my son having sex with a boy," he began, slightly shaky as he spoke and his tone dripping with acid. "I told them they better watch their shit before I tore the whole school apart with a lawsuit." He left his sentence hanging there, seeming to want Riley to say something. Even though we weren't sitting close enough to touch, I could feel Riley getting tenser and tenser with each passing second. I wanted to move in towards him though I felt it would be a better idea not to.

He continued when Riley remained silent. "So when I told them to stop lying, they showed me a little bit of the tape."

Riley just gazed down at the floor. It was killing me that he felt he so bad about what was happening. I wanted to get him out of there, and I was getting pissed off at Mr. Stavros for making Riley feel this way.

"Do you have anything you wanna say?" He asked in an accusatory tone, as if daring Riley to speak up.

"I was gonna tell you, sir," Riley mumbled, still gazing at the floor, body as tense as ever. "Jake's a good guy, dad."

"Yeah, Jake, your friend. The little whore who turned you gay?" He spat.

Riley looked up at his dad now and said in a louder, shaky voice, "He didn't turn me gay, dad. I've always been this way."

"Did I raise this way son? Did me and your mother raise you to kiss boys? What the hell were all those sports for? What are those trophies for? Do you think I really worked so fucking hard to raise you right for you and be a queer behind my back?" His voice was quavering slightly and was getting louder as he kept talking.

"Dad please don't talk about Jake like that," Riley mumbled.

"Riley it's okay," I said. I didn't like it but I'd rather have Mr. Stavros talk about me than have him talk to Riley that way.

"What?" Mr. Stavros asked, ignoring me.

Riley looked at his father in the eyes and said with more strength than he had before, "Don't talk about Jake like that dad. He cares about me and is good to me."

"Don't you back talk me!" Mr. Stavros threatened and stood up.

Riley stood up to meet him and I stood up with him. "Dad you don't need to talk about people I care about like that; you're being unreasonable." Now I could tell he was getting a little bit mad, too and was getting braver. That's when it really got ugly.

"I shouldn't be talking like that?" Mr. Stavros practically screamed at Riley. "You're a lying faggot who went behind mine and your mother's back. You let yourself get fucked like some common whore, but at least a normal whore gets paid for it, you sick perverted freak!"

Riley's mouth quickly dropped open and changed to an expression of horror. His father continued to hurl insults at him with an insane rage I'd rarely ever seen in my life. I couldn't explain but I knew how he was feeling, and the thing that stuck out was that it was all about what Riley had supposedly done to make him feel. And to my sadness, Riley finally began to cry.

"SHUT UP!" I roared as loudly as I could possibly. I focused my gaze upon Riley's so-called father who still looked like he was mad enough to be able to kill someone.

"How can you stand there and insult your son like that? Your son, a man who's been trying to please you his entire life? Who has been trying to live up to the ideal standards of some miserable old bastard who doesn't deserve his love? You're sad, pathetic, twisted, perverted evil bastard who's fucked his son's mind up for years and now when he's finally happy you're trying to take that away from him just because it doesn't fit your very specific ideals! You're fucking disgusting," I finally finished.

I had gotten the feeling that he wasn't used to having people talk to him in that way, and I was right as he seemed to be stunned into silence.

I turned to Riley, who wasn't crying but he looked like he might start doing it any time again. "Come on Riley," I said softly and took his hand. "Let's get out of here."

I led him out of the house and away from his abusive dad.