Chapter Fifteen: Simon's Evening with the Isaksens

Simon sighed anxiously, messing with his shirt uncomfortably. He buttoned the top button and then unbuttoned it, tried to comb his hair for the fifteenth time, trying a different style. Tonight was his night meeting Gil's family. He liked Gil, but he was worried that Gil's family wouldn't like him. He was getting dressed up in a shirt and tie. He looked good. His hair, perpetually messy as it was, worked for him. He wondered if he was getting overdressed. He buttoned up his shirt and went downstairs. He was happy to walk to Gil's house. But Amanda was getting ready to drive him there.

"Do I look alright?" Simon asked nervously. Sam smiled, hugging him.

"You look great. Your boyfriend is gonna love it." She teased. Simon chuckled slightly.

"He's not my boyfriend. I'm not gay." He laughed. He knew Sam was just teasing him, so he didn't really mind that much. They were family after all.

Sam undid Simon's top button.

"You look like that collar is choking you. There. Perfect." She said, straightening his tie a bit and sending him out to the car with Amanda. Simon could tell that Sam was sad that her friends had to go. And he was sad that his friends had to go too. But he was excited that he was making a new friend. He could tell that although Sam had friends in the music club, she wasn't feeling like she fit in as well. He could see the listless look on her face, the fidgeting she was doing, the sighing and looking at the clock.

He looked back at her.

"You know, I don't have to go to Gil's tonight. I could call and tell him that something sudden came up. We could reschedule and I could just hang out with you tonight." Simon said, hugging Sam tightly, not wanting her to feel alone. Sam smiled wistfully, hugging him back. He smiled, leaning into her hug. He had always been comforted by the way she smelled. He knew that sounded weird, but something about her scent set him immediately at ease. Sam let him go though.

"No. I can't be your only friend. Whether here or back in Columbus, you need other friends besides me. Go and have fun with Gil. Have fun with his family and charm his parents just like you're able to charm everyone you meet. You're one of the most charismatic people I've ever known. And I know that Gil's parents will love you just like all your Columbus friends' families love you." Sam said, kissing him on the forehead, her eyes still darting, looking wistfully at him.

Simon smiled back at her, going with Amanda to the car and getting in, taking the flowers with him to give to Gil's mother. Amanda turned on the car, heading towards the address Simon had given her for Gil. The blonde boy wasn't sure what to say to Amanda. She had tried him into betraying Sam. He didn't really want to talk to her. But she was talking to him.

"So, make sure that you behave well at his house. I know you will. Is this a sleepover?" Amanda asked.

"No. Just dinner and hanging out. He wants me to meet his family. I'm still nervous though. What if Sammy needs me tonight while I'm gone and I'm not there?" Simon asked. Amanda smiled. She loved how caring Simon was. She put a hand on his shoulder as they pulled up to Gil's house.

"Well, Erik and I are there for tonight. And I'm sure she'll miss you. But Erik and I will figure out how to help her if it comes to it. Simon nodded and headed up to the house, knocking uncertainly on the door.

It took a few minutes, but the door opened and Gil hugged Simon tightly. He was incredibly strong, almost unnervingly so. But he clearly was a gentle soul. He was strong and tall for his age. But he had not fought back against those bullies. Gil pulled Simon inside.

"Mama! Papa! Merish! This is Simon!" Gil said excitedly. He had trouble pronouncing Meredith's name, so he called her Merish. He was still working on pronouncing it right. But it was hard for him to get the mouth movements down. Gil's mother was a slightly overweight woman. She smiled at him.

As she came into the room, he saw that she was tall as well.

"Mama is tall! 5 feet 8.2 inches!" Gil said, seeing that Simon had noticed that.

"My name is Sylvia, Simon. It's a pleasure to meet you." She said, shaking his hand. She had a soft voice. She sounded a little tired, but it wasn't overly obvious. Gilbert's father and sister came in next. Gilbert's father was tall as well. Gilbert seemed to be proud of himself. He was showing off a bit.

"Papa is 5'11.65"." Gilbert said bluntly. Simon smiled at him, shaking his hand as well.

"Good to meet you, Simon. Gil has told us a lot about you. He said that you protected him from Oswald and his gang of bullies." His father said. Simon blushed, worried that Gil had told them about the violence he had perpetrated against the bullies. The father seemed to notice Simon's worries.

"Gil did tell us that you fought them. He said you were extremely creative in fighting them." The father said. The man smiled.

"I admire that. I don't approve of violence. But I can tell that you're not normally a violent person, and it seems like you merely wanted to protect Gil. My name is Victor. And I'm glad that Gil has made a friend as noble as yourself." Victor said.
"This is our daughter, Meredith. Gil, would you like to show Simon the piano piece you've been working on?" Victor asked. Gil nodded eagerly, hurrying over to the piano and sitting down, taking a deep breath and beginning to play, seeming to not have any music in front of him.

He seemed to play piano as easily as he breathed, his fingers breezing over the keys, letting out an almost intoxicating melody. Simon gasped. Gil was a genius. He may not have known much about the states, and he may not have been great in school, but he was a genius. Simon sat down on the couch and listened to Gil transition well between one song and the next. Simon thought that his work was flawless. Though he knew very little about piano playing. So he may have been missing something. Gil finally finished. Simon saw the flowers on the entryway table. He rushed over and handed them to Sylvia.

"H-here. For you, Mrs. Isaksen." Simon said. The blonde woman smiled widely.

"Well, thank you. These are beautiful." She said. Her eyes seemed to sparkle when she smiled. Gil pulled Simon down to the basement to show him the weight set that he had. Gil often used things other than actual weights, but he liked his weight set and used it. Simon watched as Gil showed him how he used them. The blonde boy could tell that Gil really wanted to show off a bit. Simon wondered if he was Gil's first friend outside of his own family. Soon though, Sylvia called down, saying dinner was ready.

"Come on! Mama made meatloaf." Gil said, hurrying upstairs and sitting down at the table as Simon walked up a bit slower. He remembered a little bit when he wasn't really able to walk because of his weak lungs and heart. He went upstairs and sat down at the table, sitting down in the free seat, thanking Sylvia for the meal. They sat down together and said grace. They weren't extremely religious, but they said grace before dinner. Simon took some of what looked like meatloaf muffins. He put some gravy on them and took some potatoes and beans. He took a bite of the muffin, his eyes widening.

He smiled widely at the taste, savoring it for a moment.

"This is delicious." He said. Sylvia smiled as well.

"I'm glad you like it. I'll give you some for when you go home." She said.

"So… How did Gil learn to play the piano?" Simon asked curiously. They looked at Gilbert.

"Well… I was listening to mom play the piano and I said I wanted to play.

"So she let me and I… Recated what she did." He said.

"He means replicated." Meredith said bluntly. She loved Gil and she protected him when she could. But she was still fairly blunt sometimes. Gil blushed shyly. He knew he wasn't very good with big words.

"Y-yeah… Re… Plica… Ted." He said, sounding it out as Meredith had said it. Simon was shocked.

"So you hadn't had a lesson before you played for the first time?" Simon asked. Gil shook his head, raising an eyebrow, not sure whether to be embarrassed or proud. So he went for a little of both.

"That's amazing!"
"Yeah! And I've been working on turning other instruments' music into piano music. I'm able to do guitar music into piano music. They're not really that different. They both have strings." Gilbert said. Simon didn't see much that piano and guitar had in common except that they both made music. But Gil seemed to have a special ability for music. So the blonde boy wouldn't question it.

"Do you play any instruments, Simon?" Gil asked. Simon smiled sheepishly.

"Well, not quite as well as you play piano. But Sammy taught me how to play guitar a bit. I'm okay at it, I guess. But Sammy is in a band, so she's really good." Simon said.

"Oh! Sam is my sister." Simon said, realizing that they obviously didn't know who Sam was.

"Ah. You and your sister must be very close." Sylvia said. Victor hadn't said much this evening. He seemed like a fairly quiet person. They ate dinner and chatted and then went to the living room.

"So, on Saturday, we usually play a game as a family. Do you have any games that you like?" Sylvia asked. Simon thought for a moment.

"Well, do you have Apples to Apples?" Simon asked. Victor looked in the game closet. He wasn't usually the one who looked. But he found a cardboard box and pulled it out, looking at the rules for the game. He passed out cards to everyone. Gil and Simon were put on a team together. Gil wasn't very good at reading sometimes. He was eight years old, but he had some learning difficulties.

Reading was one problem he had. He was given extra time when taking tests so that he could take his time reading the instructions and the questions. Gil and Simon made a good team. The group had a great time together. Gilbert wanted to teach Simon to play piano. They found that he was great at playing piano, but because he was such an intuitive player, he wasn't that good at teaching. He growled lightly and his voice got more pressured as he seemed unable to help Simon get the right notes. Simon felt a little confused at why Gil was getting so angry. He could practically hear him grinding his teeth.

Gil's parents noticed this too though and had them stop. After a while, Sylvia took Simon home. It was around 8 pm and they needed to start getting ready for bed. Gil had a very low tolerance for late nights.

"Thank you so much, Simon. I can tell that Gil really likes you." Sylvia said, smiling gratefully at him.

"If it's not too much to ask, how did you come to be friends with Gilbert?" She asked. Simon sighed. He wasn't sure how much he could tell her. He didn't want to betray Sam a second time and tell Sylvia about their problems back in Columbus. But he decided he could tell her something.

"Well, I saw Sammy… I-I mean Gil… I saw Gil being bullied. They were putting their hands up his shirt and he seemed really scared and I just… I wouldn't have felt right just ignoring him." Simon said, hoping she didn't catch his slip up. She smiled knowingly. She could tell from his slip up that his sister must have been bullied as well at some point and that Simon felt somehow responsible. Sylvia was intuitive like Gilbert was, but about different things. She was very good at reading people. She saw the look on Simon's face when he accidentally slipped and said Sammy rather than Gil.

Soon, she pulled up to his house and let him off, thanking him again for being a good friend to Gil.

"You're welcome back at our house anytime." She said.

"I look forward to it." Simon said.

"Here. Take this." She said, giving him a large container of meat loaf muffins, potatoes and beans. She hoped that it was enough for his whole family. She always made a lot of food, so it should have been… Unless he had a large family or they ate a lot or there were teenagers in the family.

"Thank you. I'm sure me, my sister, my mother and father will love it." He said. He went back into the house. He sighed in relief. He liked Gil, but Gil's intensity, especially when it became obvious that he wasn't really learning how to play the piano from the prodigy was a little overbearing. Simon sighed, collapsing on the couch and just taking deep breaths, his eyes dilated from the high energy of the night. He thought he was pretty good with instruments. He quickly went to put the leftovers in the refrigerator and then sat back down on the couch.

But clearly he had a lot to learn if Gil had so much trouble teaching him. Or maybe Gil was someone who could play like that, but couldn't really teach. Either way, he'd enjoyed going over to his place. Sam sat down next to him.

"Hey, Simon. How'd your evening with Gil go?" She asked. Simon smiled, leaning in to be closer to Sam.

"It… Went okay. He's really great at piano. But not a very good teacher of piano. He played some really hard songs for all of us. But then he tried to teach me to play and just ended up getting angry at me when I couldn't understand his gobbledegook on how to play." Simon sighed, getting a bit annoyed. Sam chuckled.

"Well… Sometimes, people are really good at something, but are what's known as intuitive, so they don't necessarily have the ability to teach others how to do it. Take Luna for instance. She's brilliant in music. She plays five times as many instruments as I do and she's only been playing for four years at the most. I've never met anyone who plays like her. But maybe her natural abilities are her abilities, not abilities that she can really pass on to other people. I'm not really sure. Don't quote me on that." Sam said. Simon and Sam laughed about that. He smiled. He was having fun just talking like this with Sam again.

"So… You… You did a really amazing job on that painting of me. Did you base it on a photo you'd taken?" Sam asked. Simon shook his head.

"No. That probably would've been easier though." Simon chuckled shyly.

"No, I just… Based it off of memory… It probably isn't the best… picture of you… But I wanted to show you how much I love you. I hoped that would make you not mad at me anymore." Simon said. Sam smiled, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"Thanks, Simon. I was never really mad at you. The stuff that's been happening the last few months has just really screwed me up. I won't promise that it will all end soon. I won't even promise that it will end before I graduate from high school. But it will get better. Little by little, I'm improving and Doctor Lopez says I'm doing better than I was when I first got here. It's only been about a month, but she's helping me learn techniques to calm down and the exercise I do and the support network I have… Both my family and my friends… Doctor Lopez says those are really important for me." Sam said.

"Have you told her that you're gay yet?" Simon asked, wanting Sam to feel comfortable telling someone other than him. He knew he'd betrayed her. Whether she was still angry at him or not, he had betrayed her. Sam watched for a moment. He was squirming uncomfortably, seeming to avoid eye contact with her. She could tell that he was still nervous around her.

"Si… I haven't told her yet. Me being gay isn't really the biggest issue I'm working on her with right now. Way I see it, my family accepts me. Mom tricked the info out of you. I'm not mad anymore.

"I'll tell her soon. But right now, I'm working with her on some more important things." Sam said. Simon could tell that she was only being partially truthful. He wasn't going to push her on the matter though. He wanted her to continue to like him, and people didn't like people who pressured them on things.

"But tell me about Gil. You said he's really good at piano." Sam said. Simon smiled uncertainly.

"Well, he's incredible at piano. His mom says he converts songs from other instruments into piano music." Simon said excitedly. He was practically bouncing in his seat telling Sam about this.

"His mom told me about how one day, he was watching her play and he went to the piano and replicated it from memory." Simon said excitedly. Sam smiled. She was happy to see Simon so excited. Even if he had been a bit overwhelmed from Gil's intensity, he seemed to really have a good time.

"Does Gil have any siblings?" Sam asked.

"Yeah! He has an older sister, Meredith. She's eleven I think she said. She's pretty cool. Seems like she and Gil are pretty close. I guess she takes care of Gil a lot." Simon said.

Sam nodded along with him as he spoke, making sure he knew she was listening to him. She realized she hadn't been the best sister over the past few weeks. She was dealing with issues, and she was exhausted right now. She'd been talking to her father, trying to help him understand that no, she wasn't going through a phase. No, there wasn't a chance that she would end up with a man someday. She was a lesbian and that was what she was. Sam rubbed her arm nervously. She could tell that her father loved her, but that somewhere inside him, he was still hoping his baby girl would get married and have children.

"I could still have children, Dad." She told him.

"They just wouldn't be my partner's." She'd said. Amanda had later explained that Erik still had some misconceptions and that he wasn't dim or anything. He just didn't quite put together that you didn't have to be married in a church to be happy together.

"One day, you'll find someone who makes you happier than anyone else. And maybe by then, gay marriage will be legal in the mediocre state of Michigan." Amanda had said.

Sam laughed at that comment. She'd heard people say 'in the great state of Ohio'. And people probably said that of Michigan as well. But to hear her mother call Michigan 'mediocre' was kind of funny. That had put Sam at ease.

"And you know… I know that whatever you and your future partner choose, it will be right for you. And if you never get married or get a civil union… That's fine. We'll still love you just as much. And your father will too… Even if he's being a little dense right now." Amanda chuckled.

Erik smiled and nodded. He knew that he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box. He wasn't dumb. He just didn't focus on his brains and he'd taken a real hit from his years of alcoholism. The booze hadn't killed his brain, but sometimes he was a bit slow to connect.

"Sammy, I want you to promise me two things." Erik had said. Sam nodded.
"One, I want you to promise me that you'll do what makes you happy and that whatever anyone else says, you won't let them make your decisions for you." Erik had said.

Sam nodded eagerly. That was good advice.

"And two… Ideally, don't start drinking. But if you do wait until you're twenty-one and… Don't get drunk like I've been doing for the past eight years of your life. You're a smart girl and I know that you can do a lot with your life. I don't want to see you ruin it with booze." Erik said. Sam nodded, hugging both her parents. It had been exhausting trying to explain her sexuality to Erik. But she knew it had come from a well-intentioned place. He wasn't just being a jerk. At least not intentionally.

She sat and talked with Simon for a while longer and then went up to bed. Tomorrow was Sunday, but she still had to get up early to go for a run and do her other exercises. So she figured she ought to get to bed.