***
Time seemed to pass very quickly for Simon over the next few weeks. So many wonderful things happened. Morris and he started having "private moments" at school whenever they could find them: a quick kiss alone in the bathroom between classes, secretly holding hands under the table whenever they had lunch period together, and so forth.
Also, Simon visited Morris's house and made love to him as frequently as possible. One day, Morris decided to come out to his parents and admit that he was bisexual and in love with Simon. Simon sat by his side and held his hand while he did it, even though he was probably feeling even more queasy and uneasy than Morris was. However, Morris's parents reacted so tranquilly and understandingly, almost as if they had been expecting it. They didn't show a trace of disappointment or anger. His mom even hugged Simon. Simon knew it would be different if…no, when he came out to his family.
Eventually a few of the friends who had previously deserted Morris started speaking to him once again. He introduced them to Simon and they all actually became a fairly close circle, at least as close as friends can get when they only have the last few weeks of school to spend together.
Then Morris graduated from high school and threw a bitchin' alcohol-free party at his house afterward. Of course, it was only the close circle of friends in attendance, so it wasn't nearly as big a party as Tom and Mike's had been. But Simon liked this party a lot better, because he didn't have to drink to enjoy it.
***
In other events, Simon passed all his exams and only got one C, in physical education, while all the rest of his grades were A's and B's. He consequently flipped Mr. Shaffer a hearty bird on the last day of school, despite the fact that he had once been suspended for flipping birds back in junior high. Hey, what was old man Shaffer going to do, suspend him at the start of the next school year? Possible, but not likely.
***
Mary started work as a flight attendant with JetBlue and turned down a premature marriage proposal from her boyfriend, Ben. Simon was proud of her. She finally seemed to be taking control of her own life.
***
Matt and his fiancée graduated from college. Shortly afterward, they married. Simon was a little hurt that Matt made Robbie his best man at the wedding, but he understood Matt's reasoning. Matt didn't feel like Simon had earned the honor of being best "man", because Simon wasn't acting like a "man" yet. Typical Matt, but as usual, Simon forgave him for it.
Besides, despite the way Matt felt about him, he finally felt like he was well on his way to becoming a man, although he knew the man he was about to become was not the man his family was trying to mold him into. But it might not be so bad. After all, if his father could come to accept Matt's marriage to a Jewish woman and his possible conversion to her religion, then maybe he could even come to accept Simon's relationship with Morris.
Thinking along those lines, Simon called a family meeting one night and brought Morris over to make the big announcement. Everyone was there, except for Matt, but Simon overcame the nervousness and the sweat and the heart palpitations and just blurted it out. It went about as badly as he had expected it would, with Annie shrieking and crying and Mary and Lucy running upstairs and crying and Robbie running after them to comfort them and his father staring at Morris and him with that icy, steely glare, and Happy barking and Ruthie giggling with glee at the chaos and the twins looking as confused as hell. But at least it was finally out there.
His siblings and Robbie eventually came around to treating him the same way they always had. Simon wasn't sure exactly whether that was a good thing or not, since they hadn't exactly been treating him well to begin with, but he figured it was better than them shunning him, disowning him as a brother, or not speaking to him at all. Simon felt that Lucy put it best when she said, "I feel like I should treat you the same way I did before, because you were always gay before. Just because I know about it now doesn't mean that you've suddenly turned into a different person or should be treated differently."
It was also a great relief for Simon to finally be able to talk to Lucy again, to discuss the reasons why he had done the awful things he had done, and to assure her that it would be a long, long time before he ever considered drinking again. Lucy was so understanding and forgiving when she finally took the time to listen to him, and Simon counted himself lucky to have such a wonderful sister. Hell, maybe it wasn't so bad living in the Camden house after all.
The weirdest thing was, Eric and Annie never again mentioned Simon's homosexuality after the night of the big announcement. Simon knew they knew it existed, that it was there and was a part of him. Whether they were living in denial or just silent disapproval, Simon didn't know and didn't care. All he really cared about was that they were not forbidding him to be with Morris, and for that he silently thanked them and put in a good word to God on their behalf every night.
***
Simon decided to spend his summer doing charity work in East Glenoak. He was rewarded by being able to do so many things he enjoyed, including reading with children who were behind their grade level in reading skills, helping to paint and renovate buildings like youth centers and free clinics, and working at homeless shelters.
While Annie seemed nervous about the whole idea of Simon working in East Glenoak, Eric convinced her that Simon was capable of making his own decision about where he wanted to work. In fact, one day Eric stopped Simon in the upstairs hall and told him, with a gleam in his eye, that he had never been prouder of his son. Simon was surprised that Eric told him this – despite knowing in the back of his head that Simon was gay – and it filled him with warmth to know how proud his father was of him. Yet Simon knew he wasn't doing the work to make his father proud. He was doing it for the people of East Glenoak, and for the personal satisfaction it brought him to help them.
***
Also, Simon turned sixteen and his parents let him take his driver's test. He was overjoyed to pass the test on his very first try, much to the dismay of his family.
***
Morris decided to attend college in New York, and he left in August to try out to become a walk-on for his school's football team. Simon flew out on one of Mary's buddy passes to support him. Before Simon left New York to return home, he and Morris decided that they would try to have a long-distance relationship. They knew it would be difficult, but each of them knew how he felt about the other and did not want to throw away the relationship just because of the distance.
***
Simon was shocked to read in the newspaper one morning that the Glenoak Police Department and the FBI had cooperated to shut down McSweeney's. Apparently Jack and his buddies had been into a lot worse things than just serving alcohol to minors and bribing policemen. The article revealed that the bar had also been a front for some gambling, drug, and prostitution rings.
In fact, Simon was also shocked to see Barb and Jill's names listed among the prostitution arrests. Even though most of that lone night he had spent with them was still a hazy blur, Simon did have a vague recollection of some things that had happened after Morris had left the bar. Reading the newspaper article brought back a memory of Barb giving him a lap dance in the back room at McSweeney's and taking all the money out of his wallet while she did it. Damn, that's how he had spent all that money at the bar. Simon just knew he couldn't have possibly spent that much on alcohol.
The most jarring thing mentioned in the article was that detectives and agents had been unable to locate or capture the suspected ringleader of the operations, Harvey Bateman, a.k.a. "Jack Burrows". It gave Simon a chill to think what kind of trouble he might have gotten into had he continued to visit McSweeney's and become a buddy, or possibly even a protégé, of Jack's.
***
Surprisingly – and Simon suspected that Lucy probably had a hand in it – Ruthie never did tell the parents about Simon's trips to McSweeney's. Also Simon never found out what secret Ruthie had been hiding from the family.
She continued to spy on Simon, and to invade his privacy on a regular basis. But it was okay; Simon didn't really care anymore. After all, there were no more skeletons or dark corners in his closet.
He had nothing to hide.
THE END