I finally updated. Sorry it took so long
Somehow Will was able to make it out of his house and to work on time without dying. He felt like shit, not only from his hangover but from his dumb actions the night before. Why did he let some asshole get to him. He definitely was not going to let Principal Thompson get away with it, he was going to bring the way that man handled the situation up to the school board the first chance he got. He shouldn't have to to face bigotry from his daughters school, they should be teaching acceptance not being run by someone filled with ignorance. Asshole. he mumbled out loud, and just shook his head at his fellow co workers who looked to see who he was talking about. He couldn't let Principal Thompson effect anything else in his life, he didn't need everyone thinking he was some weirdo who now talked to himself. He turned his focus back onto himself, because as much as he wanted too he couldn't blame the jerk for everything, he had to take responsibility for the way he handled the situation. The principal made Will doubt himself as a father, and it got under his skin, but he chose to drink, he chose to do what he did with Dante. He wasn't even sure what happened with Dante last night, he hated that man, maybe even more then the principal, so why would he flirt with him? Why did he chose to get drunk and hang out with a lying asshat when he had Sonny. Sonny the amazing man who considered Will to be his boyfriend, well at least he did. Will wasn't so sure about that now. Sure Sonny took him home last night and helped him to bed, and Will faintly remember a goodnight kiss, or was it a goodbye kiss? Could all of his insecurities have scared Sonny away. Of course the cause of all this stress and freaking out was none other then those insecurities. Why couldn't he just accept the fact that Sonny liked him, flaws and all? He decided he was going to try to trust Sonny wouldn't run the first chance he got, he was going to do something to show Sonny he cared, and finally have the boyfriend he desperately wanted. Will had a lot to do, write a letter to the school board, work on fixing his relationship and possibly actually doing some work. Thankfully being a single father helped with multi tasking, so he should be able to get this all day before tee ball practice was over that night and he would have to face Sonny.
Sonny struggled all day not to call or text Will. He figured he needed his space and thankfully today was a tee ball day so he would get a chance to see and talk to Will later, plus they had a date planned tonight. At least Sonny hoped the date was still happening, he knew Will was going through something, but not really sure what it was. Will was pretty drunk last night, and all he really knew was for some reason he thought he was a horrible father, and that Sonny wouldn't want to be with him. He knew he hadn't known Will that long even though it felt like forever, he could already tell he was an amazing father. Whenever Sonny seen the father and daughter together, he could tell Will loved that little girl and would do anything for her. In fact in all the times he seen Will he was only without his daughter twice. Hopefully Will was able to work whatever was bothering him out and he would allow Sonny in. He was still pretty hurt that Will chose to ignore him when he was feeling bad, and instead chose alcohol and an ex. And then when Sonny was there and trying to help he was being told to leave, that they were a mistake. Sonny couldn't help but wonder if maybe he jumped too quickly they had only known each other for a week and he was already thinking of the blonde as his boyfriend. He didn't know what Will was thinking or what was going to happen but what he did know was he wasn't going to give up without trying. Around lunch time he needed something to distract him, so he called Luke up and invited him out.
"So you left the bar pretty quickly last night." Luke commented with a smirk on his face.
"Yea well what your thinking happened didn't" Sonny said
"Why not?"
"Will was acting weird, that guy he was with at the bar, that was his ex."
"No shit, didn't you say you were trying but couldn't get in touch with him?" Luke asked and continued when Sonny nodded "So he ignored you to get drunk with an ex."
"He said it wasn't like that. He was already drunk when he ran into Dante. He was really upset about something."
"So why would he ignore you if he was upset, wouldn't he want to talk to someone?" Luke asked suspiciously.
"I know what your thinking, but I believe Will just wanted to be alone and then he bumped into Dante. I don't think he purposely ignored me for him."
"I just want you to be sure, I don't want you to get hurt."
"I know, and I don't think Will would intentionally hurt me. I think he has a lot of things bothering him though, he's afraid to let people in, he said something last night about people always leaving, and that I deserve more then him."
"That sounds like he was pushing you away, how did the end night?"
"He was too drunk for the things he was saying to actually make sense or mean anything, he was just kept going around in circles. I think it had something to do with Ari's mother. I don't know the story there but it seems like she just left, and Will blames himself for that."
"I think you two should sit down and talk about these things before you get serious. Dating someone with a kid comes with complications and you need to know what they are."
"I have practice today, so I should see him when he picks Ari up. The three of us are suppose to be having dinner but I'm not sure if that's happening. I don't really know where things stand right now."
"How are you going to have a serious conversation with his daughter around?"
"Well make it work."
Later that afternoon they were just getting done with practice and parents were starting to arrive. As more and more parents came and practice drew closer to ending Sonny couldn't help himself from being distracted. Instead of really coaching the kids now he found himself constantly staring over to the gathering parents looking for Will. He decided to end practice five minutes early because he couldn't keep his mind clear, it was buzzing with things he wanted to say to Will, and questions he wanted to ask. Only about three kids remained and Ari was one of them.
"Where is my daddy? He promised he wouldn't be late again." Ari asked walking over to Sonny.
"He isn't late, we just ended a little early. He'll be here." Sonny said his voice filled with nervousness, maybe Will was going to show up at the last minute, grab Ari and go. Maybe he didn't want to talk to Sonny at all.
"Grammi!" Ari yelled running over to a blonde haired women who looked a little to young to be a grandma.
"Hey princess." The lady said bending down and scooping Ari into her arms.
"I want you to meet coach Sonny! He is my best friend!" Ari said excited and they walked over to him.
"Hi, I'm Ari's grandmother Sami." She introduced arm out.
"Oh..uh..hi." Sonny said shaking her hand. "Where is Will?"
"He said he had something he needed to take care of. It's all right that I take her right. I mean I'm not a stranger kidnapping her or anything." Sami said
"Yea no, it's fine. I was just hoping to talk to Will."
"Is everything ok, did something happen with Ari?" Sami asked.
"No..I just.. Will and I are friends it was about something else."
"Daddy and Sonny kissed" Ari informed "Daddy asked me to keep it a secret though so you cant tell anyone."
"Is that so?" Sami asked looking at Sonny.
"I-"Sonny began not knowing what to say.
"Don't worry Grammi, Sonny is a nice man." Ari said "Am I coming to sleep at your house again?"
"I don't know sweetheart. Your daddy just asked that I pick you up and bring you to my house for dinner." Sami said turning her gaze from Sonny to Ari.
"Let's go then, because I am so hungry I could eat everything!" Ari yelled
"Bye Ari. It was nice meeting you Sami" Sonny said quickly walking away from them he did not want to face questioning from Sami she seemed scary, plus he was feeling pretty bad. Why would Will not come to pick up Ari was he avoiding him. He walked over the equipment noticing the other kids had left already and started packing up. After he had everything packed away in the shed off the field he headed over to his car.
"I thought we could use some time alone to talk." A familiar voice behind him called, Sonny turned around to see Will, alone in the parking lot.
"Will." Sonny said startled
"I know we planned to have dinner the three of us, but I figured it might be better if it was just the two of us." Will said walking towards Sonny.
"I was scared that you were avoiding me." Sonny whispered when Will was close enough to hear.
"I just thought it would be better to have my mom pick Ari up so she didn't make a fuss about going with her again." Will said
They agreed to go to Will's house to talk, wanting privacy and it was close. They settled in his backyard, Sonny in the chair they shared last time they were both here. When Will felt like everything in his life was finally working out. He hoped he could get that feeling back.
"I'm sorry about last night." Will started looking down at his hands he had folded in his lap. "I let something someone said get to me, and I'm not trying to make excuses how I acted was my doing. It just sent me to a place where I haven't been in a while and I didn't know how to come back from that, so I tried escape everything completely."
"You don't have to apologize for how you felt Will. I just wished you trusted me enough to come to me." Sonny said causing Will to look up into his eyes.
"I didn't want you to see me like that. I didn't want to risk scaring you away."
"I don't think that's possible." Sonny said scooting to the edge of his chair to be closed to Will.
"I wouldn't be so sure. I come with baggage Sonny, and a lot of it."
"You don't have to tell me anything you aren't comfortable with Will. We all have pasts."
"I want you to know what your getting into. I care about you a lot, too much to just bring you into my life without knowing how messed up I am." Sonny reached over to grab Will's hand letting him know he was listening, but didn't want to say anything, he wanted Will to speak when he was ready. "My life has always been unconventional. My parents had me when they were sixteen, and didn't really know how to raise a child. Most of my childhood, I felt more like a prize between them then a kid, like whoever had me had the upper hand. As a consequence I never really felt like I belonged, I guess that's where my insecurities really come from. Most of my life I felt like I wasn't good enough being me, they only loved me to get back at each other."
"Will, you have to know that's not true." Sonny said rubbing his thumb in slow circles along Will's palm.
"I do now, but sometimes I forget. It wasn't only my parent though. When I was sixteen, my first girlfriend Mia went behind my back and was dating Chad. Another time where I wasn't good enough." Will said looking back down to his hands that were now being held by Sonny's "Then Gabi came along and she was so beautiful and sweet, and she liked me, I felt like maybe finally I was good enough. We were together for 2 years, before she broke up with me. I couldn't give her what she wanted, again I wasn't good enough. I knew deep down that wasn't the case, I would never been able to make her happy and it wasn't because I wasn't enough for her. It was because she would never be what I wanted. I couldn't admit it though, I felt like if I told my family I was gay it was another thing to add to the list of what was wrong with me. Reasons why I would never be what my family wanted me to be."
"Will-" Sonny began his voice filled with sadness, he hurt for Will's teenage self.
"Just let me finish." Will asked looking back up into Sonny's eyes, and Sonny nodded for him to continue "Things got bad after Gabi dumped me, I started drinking a lot, experiment with some drugs. One night I got so wasted I made out with a guy at a party. It was the first kiss where I actually felt something, my body screaming at me that I was gay, I was meant to kiss men not women. When my mind finally caught up with me I pushed the guy away and ran to Gabi. That was the night we conceived Ari. The next day we knew it was a mistake, we acted like nothing happened for the next few weeks when we would see each other. Then one day she told me she was pregnant. I was going to be a father. I couldn't believe what she was saying, talking about being together, getting married. That day was the first time I admitted out loud that I was gay. I blurted it out in the middle of her talking about getting a house. Gabi was amazing though, we talked for hours about my struggles, accepting who I was, and about the baby. We decided an abortion would be the best thing. While we were at the clinic though they made her get an ultra sound. I saw an image of my child, and it hit me. This was my fresh start, this was my chance to be good enough, I owed it to my child. I turned my life around, came out to my family, it was tough at first but we got through it. Ari came into my life and everything was finally perfect." Will said holding back the tears that threatened to fall.
"Can I...if you don't want to tell me you don't have to, but what happened to Gabi?"
"I got over my insecurities but Gabi's had just started. She asked me one night if there was something wrong with her, why she kept turning men gay. At first I laughed but then she explained how another guy she liked before me was gay. I told her she couldn't turn anyone gay, we were both gay before she liked us. I guess she still felt like something was wrong with her, so when a guy finally showed interest she jumped at it. The guy happened to be my cousin Nick, who had just gotten out of jail for murder. We all thought he changed, but he didn't. Gabi started neglecting Ari to spend time with Nick, I would come home to find her passed out from alcohol or drugs while Ari was screaming in her crib. Eventually I told Gabi she couldn't see Ari again until she turned her life around. Then one day I got court papers giving me full custody, I haven't seen or heard from Gabi since shortly after Ari turned 1."
"I'm so sorry you had it hard baby." Sonny said getting onto Will's chair and holding him.
"I guess every once in a while things happen and I get insecure again." Will said leaning back into Sonny's embrace. "Mother's day is coming up, and some brat in Ari's class upset her telling her, that her mother doesn't love her. It really upset her, and I couldn't help but feel like it was my fault. If I was straight, my daughter wouldn't have to wonder weather or not her parents love her."
"Even if you were straight Will that would guarantee Gabi would still be around. It is not your fault, she chose to leave." Sonny said leaning up and forcing Will to look at him. "I meant what I said on our first date. You are an amazing father Will, Ari will never have to wonder if you love her."
"I hope so." Will said wiping away the few tears that managed to escape. "So.. have I scared you away?"
"Not even close" Sonny said pulling Will into him until their lips met in a passionate kiss.
Thanks for all the well wishes. Thankfully I am a lot better, and didn't have to get surgery YAY!. Hopefully I stay this way hospitals suck.
Anyway thank you to everyone who reads, reviews, favorites, and follows this, it honestly means a lot to me. :) I'm going to try to update quicker then last time, maybe within the week.
p.s. if anyone has any ideas of something they want in this story PM me.
p.p.s. If the next update goes the way Im thinking it is going to, it will most likely be moved to M rating.