As lightening flashed across the sky, Leah smiled happily and snuggled further into her favorite chair, flipping the page of the latest thriller she picked up at the bookstore today. Even though she loved being out with her friends, exploring the city she had begun to think of as home, on stormy nights like this there was nothing she loved more than staying home, lighting some candles and getting lost in a good book. Ever since childhood she had been a voracious reader, a habit that seemed to have gotten worse since she started college. Which was probably to be suspected since Lima had one bookstore and one library. Now she had her choice of libraries to study in on campus and favorite bookstores for different types of books.
The knocking on her door was so soft and hesitant, she almost missed it. Puzzled, she made her way towards the door. Her friends all knew on nights like this, she wasn't going out and for the most part they respected that. And most of them knew enough to call her before showing up on her doorstep. They may have nicknamed her Fearless Warrior but she was still a single girl living in what passed for the big city in Ohio. Leah could admit she was many things, but an idiot she wasn't.
Peering through her peephole, she drew in a breath as she blinked in puzzlement. Throwing open the door, she took in the soaking wet form of her brother before her, a bag at his feet. "Matty? "
"Hey Lee." Matt offered her a shaky smile. "I was just in the neighborhood?"
"Get in here." Pulling him through the door, she kicked his bag further into the apartment before shutting the door behind them both. The fact Matt had arrived unannounced, in the middle of a thunderstorm was enough to worry her but the glazed over look in his eyes truly had her scared. What the hell was he doing here? But first things were first. She had to get him dried off before he caught a cold.
Pointing to the small hallway that led to her bathroom and bedroom, she used her best stern older sister voice on him. "Go. Grab some towels and dry off. Change into whatever crap you have in that disgusting excuse of fabric you call a gym bag. Then we'll talk. No. Take a shower and then change. We can talk after that."
Wordlessly, Matt trudged off to follow her directions. Any other day, he'd be full of jokes about how she was sounding more and more like their mother every day. But he didn't even give her an eye roll or even a barely concealed mutter about her not actually being his mother but his sister. She bit her lower lip as she watched him disappear behind the bathroom door.
Grabbing her phone, she pressed the familiar numbers to her parents' home. First they had to know what had Matt so spooked and secondly, she had to let them know he was here and he was safe. Glancing at the clock, she figured on a normal night her father would be watching the news and her mother would be making the lunches for tomorrow. Tonight, they were probably out of their mind with worry about where Matt had disappeared to.
One ring. Two. Three. When the answering machine kicked in after the fourth ring, Leah almost dropped the phone on the kitchen floor. What the hell was going on here, she wondered as she heard Steven run through the standard leave a message spiel.
"Hey. It's me. I just wanted to let you know Matt's here. With me. I don't know what's going on but call me ok? "she said hesitantly after the beep sounded.
Hearing the shower turn off, she flew across the kitchen grabbing supplies as she went. Clearly whatever this was, it required comfort foods and thankfully she had gone grocery shopping the other day. Grabbing the unopened bag of chocolate chip cookies, two glasses and the new gallon of milk, she placed them on her coffee table. Seeing Matt wander out, patting head with a towel, she offered a supportive smile as she patted the cushion next to her. Tucking her feet under her, she waited until he had sat down and grabbed at a cookie before releasing a small sigh.
"Tell me what's going on. Why are you here Matty?"
She could have told him the exact moment he lost the internal war to not tell her a thing. It was the second he pulled on the corner of his McKinley Football t-shirt and his shoulders sagged. Her brother closed his eyes and pushed out a breath. "It started when Kurt came over today."
"Ok. Sounds like a normal day in Torture Land for you."
"Yeah. We performed our piece and it went great. Well better than great. Everyone really seemed to like it, although Puck did call me out in front of the entire club for singing to Kurt."
Leah covered her mouth to keep him from seeing her smile. "Oh Matty. You didn't ."
"I was nervous. " Matt protested. "I didn't even really know I was doing it. Anyway, Kurt came over to celebrate like we planned. But he was just down, so I asked him what was going on. And it turns out he and Sam had some kind of fight about Sam thinking Kurt didn't want to be with him. And Kurt indicated he was interested in someone else and for some reason I thought he meant me."
"You finally told him? You finally told him the truth?" Leah leaned forward in her excitement, clapping her hands together. "Oh I'm so happy for you!"
"Hold that thought." Matt smirked. "It would have been better if I just told him. Instead…."
"Instead what?"
"I kissed him." He held up his hand to keep her from tackling him to the ground. "And we ended up making out until the gruesome twosome and Mom came into my mom."
"Wait. Wait. The gruesome twosome and Mom saw you two?" Leah closed her eyes and groaned. "Dude what do you have against talking?"
"I didn't plan this Lee! Trust me this was not the way I ever pictured this happening. Although making out with Kurt was better than I thought it would be."
Leah did smile at that admission. "So he was interested in you? I guess that means I was right about the whole has feelings for you but wasn't going to say anything because he thought you were straight thing wasn't I?"
Nudging his shoulder, she waited to see a small grin come to his face. When nothing happened, Leah felt her heart start to sink. "Did something happen with Mom?"
Matt nodded, as his voice suddenly started to shake. "She kicked Kurt out and then she refused to talk to me until Dad got home. Steven and Gabriel snuck out since, well they aren't stupid. They knew what they saw and they knew a fight was coming. And then when Dad got home…"
Instinctively Leah moved closer to him, putting her arm over his shoulder. "When Dad got home…."
"They talked in his den. I listened through the vent. Which is good because at least I had some time to kill the illusion they would be supportive." Tears started to fall down Matt's face and Leah felt helpless to stop them. "I knew they wouldn't like this but I thought they might at least try, you know?"
"They might. You shocked the hell out of them Matty. You need to give them time."
"Leah they called Father Cozart to come over to lead a discussion with me. And bottom line was they say they still love me, I need to make a different choice."
"A different choice?" Leah echoed blankly. "But….you didn't choose this. It's just who you are."
"I know that. You know that. Mom and Dad apparently don't believe that." Matt sniffed. "And they told me things were going to have to change. I was going to go to church more and have private counseling sessions with Father Cozart. And I was quitting the glee club because none of this came up before I joined. Oh and since Kurt is clearly a bad influence on me, I'm not allowed to see him anymore. And when I pointed out that I had classes with Kurt, the idea of home schooling or going to St. Xavier in Piqua was discussed as a possibility."
"They do realize St. X is an all boys school right?"
"That's when home schooling was discussed as a serious option." Matt sighed. "I can't stay there Leah. I can't."
"They kicked you out?" Leah screeched. "They threw you out?"
"No." Matt said softly. "But they might as well have. What they want me to do isn't going to solve the problem. I'll still be gay. And then what? They send me to one of those camps? They throw me out? I'm staying for that."
"So you ran away? Matty, that's not going to help matters."
"Maybe not. But I can't stay there. Not right now. Just let me stay Lee? Just tonight? I can't sleep there tonight."
One look at his face and her heart broke. He sounded exactly like he had when they were little and a monster lived in his closet. Matt would sneak into her room in the middle of the night and beg to sleep in her bed. And even though he would end up kicking her in his sleep or stealing most of the covers, she always let him since she couldn't stand to see him so upset. Right now, her quietly confident jock king of a brother was gone and a frightened 4 year old who was scared of monsters sat in his place. Pulling him close to her, she wrapped her arms around him.
"Shh. Of course you can stay. We'll figure this out." She whispered to him as she felt his tears start to wet her shoulder. "I promise you Matty. We'll figure this out. I'm not going anywhere. You got me. You got me. We'll figure this out."