Grating Grandparents
Alex hadn't even known he had grandparents. Their names were George and Delilah. Pretty boring names but whatever. Ian had never mentioned them for some odd reason or another. Well, maybe they would be nice to him. He raised a hand to knock at the door. Three soft knocks and he waited. Maybe. Maybe. The anticipation thrummed through him. Alex felt a soft grin appear on his face. He had family left.
The door opened to reveal an elderly man. Alex could smell the alcohol on him. It was a bit early to be drinking. Then again, his grandparents had to be around retirement age. Maybe they just enjoyed that sort of thing. Ian liked his whiskey sometimes. Rarely, but it still existed in a decanter in the house.
"You must be John's."
It was odd to hear someone mention his dad so casually. Normally, there were all sorts of dramatics. "You're my grandfather?"
The man nodded gruffly. Alex found him slightly off-putting. "I guess Ian finally caved, then? I knew he'd see reason."
Alex felt a lump rise in his throat. They didn't know?! "Ian's dead."
The grandfather let out a sigh. Alex was increasingly confused. "Was it AIDs? I always told him nothing good would come out of being a homosexual. He should have let us pick out a nice girl for him."
Alex was doing his best not to stare in horror. Perhaps this had been a mistake. "No. He died in a car crash."
The old man grunted but didn't even acknowledge his previous remarks. Alex walked in to find a rather plain-looking woman. "You must be Alex. We heard about your birth in the news, you know."
Alex blinked. Well, there was probably a reason for that. Maybe there had been some sort of family feud about Ian being gay (if he even was) and his dad took Ian's side? "Not really. Ian never mentioned you."
The woman rolled her eyes. Alex was fairly sure Ian had his reasons. "All this over one little dinner tiff. The boys were always such drama queens. A wonder they both didn't turn out to be gay. Then again, with your father marrying that ridiculous gold-digger, maybe it would have been better if he had gone for men."
Alex folded his arms. By all other accounts, his mother had been a lovely woman. "She was a nurse?"
The old lady waved him off with a triumphant look. Alex was starting to not like either of them. "Exactly! What kind of woman has to work? Certainly not one from a good family. Plus, who knows what she got up to all day sponge-bathing all those rich customers at a private hospital. Tea, dear?"
Alex was feeling mildly nauseous. This was not what he was expecting. What would they even say about Tom? His best friend. Fucking hell. He could never take Tom here. "I'm feeling a bit under the weather."
The old lady patted his arm. It took everything Alex had not to flinch violently back. "There, there, I get ill thinking about the rabble pawing at my sons, too. I'll break out my special tea. The Pakis may be taking all the jobs, but they do know their tea."
Alex had heard the slur used before but never from someone he was related to or knew personally. Holy fuck. Now he knew why Ian never showed up here. Probably wanted to keep him from bad influences. Alex was handed a cup of tea and a ginger snap.
"We did try to get custody of you, but our son's will was very clear. The judge sided with Ian, of course. Personally, I think he used his fancy banking job to bribe the man but there's no proof. Not to mention, we had the boys quite late. Married couples should have their fun before the children, you know."
Alex thought that she sounded like she didn't much enjoy having children. Then again, it was a pretty big responsibility. "I see. Well, I've been attending the local school, Brooklands, and one of my teachers found you in the directory."
This time, it was his grandfather who interrupted. "BROOKLANDS?! You'd think that my fucking idiot of a son would've used his fancy banker money to send you somewhere suitable like Eton. He could certainly afford it."
Alex had wondered about that sometimes. Then again, he'd met some great friends at Brooklands and had no complaints. The grumbling continued for a bit. Alex was cringing internally. He watched the clock tick as the hour drew closer to the evening. Alex had been planning to ask them to adopt him or at least foster him if this had gone well. This was not going well.
His grandparents addressing him snapped him back to the present. "You should stay for dinner, boy. We'll need to ask you a few questions before we start hunting up some respectable people for you to keep company with. I suppose we'll also need to set up some dinner appointments with some suitable young women. We won't be making the same mistake we did with the boys. You can be married at eighteen here and that's what it'll be."
Alex felt the last of his patience leave him. He exhaled. "I'm afraid I have other plans."
The grandfather opened his mouth and was promptly elbowed by his wife. "Don't worry, dearie, we can always do a different night."
She turned toward her husband. "You need to let the poor boy have some fun."
The man sounded furious when he replied. "You spoiling our boys is why it ended up this way! If you hadn't-"
Alex slunk out as soon as he realized that the two were occupied. He shut the door behind him. That had been a disappointment. There was a bitter taste in his mouth. He had a lot of hopes when he heard that he still had some living family after all. That. That wasn't his family. Alex knew that he was never going back to that house. At that moment, he knew why Ian had never gone back and never taken him there either. Who in the fuck started picking out marriage candidates for a teenager? They were ghastly and vile and he never wanted to see them again.
Alex got a text from Tom. His mouth was dry.
How did it go?
Alex sighed before texting back. They're worse than your mum and dad. I think I'd rather be homeless than in that house, mate.
Tom sent him back a sad face emoji. Drinks?
Alex grinned. Tom was the best. Oh, yeah.
Fin