After school, Nick and Lewis stopped by the Lima Bean for some coffee together. They ordered their coffee—an iced espresso for Lewis and a latte macchiato for Nick—and took their places at a table.

"So, Nick," Lewis ventured. "I was wondering if you might be able to come over for dinner at my house tonight? I want you to meet my parents," he offered.

Nick sipped at his coffee for a long moment before setting the cup down on the table. "Already?" he asked. "We've only been dating for a week. They know we're together?"

"Yeah, I told them the other day," Lewis answered.

"And they're okay with it?" A week ago, not even Nick had known that Lewis was gay, so he doubted his parents had. Coming out of the closet wasn't usually that easy and quick of a process.

"They didn't seem to care, actually…They were a little surprised, but they didn't really ask me any questions," Lewis mumbled. "I'm not even sure if they believed me."

Nick raised his eyebrows. "Why wouldn't they believe you?" he queried.

Lewis shrugged. "They never take me seriously." He took a long, thoughtful sip at his espresso. "Or, more like it, they never even notice me."

In other words, his parents just simply didn't care? Well, that could be better than coming out to parents who hated the idea of 'gay….'

"Then why do they want to meet me?" Nick asked with confusion.

"No, I want themto meet you," Lewis corrected. "They don't really care. But I do."

Nick hesitated, biting his lip. Sure, he cared about Lewis, but he wasn't really sure about 'meeting the parents' just yet. Nick was out and proud, yes, but he wasn't very good at dealing with homophobia. What if Lewis's parents turned out to be not-so-accepting after all?

Lewis reached across the table to take Nick's hand. "Please? It would mean a lot to me," he pleaded with big, brown, puppy-doglike eyes.

Nick hesitated a moment longer before sighing in defeat. He smiled vaguely. "Alright, fine. I'll come to dinner tonight," he agreed.

A grin broke across Lewis's face and he squeezed Nick's hand. "You won't regret it," he promised.

…

Nick arrived at Lewis's house at 6pm. He rang the doorbell and Lewis thus answered the door, smiling a greeting. "Hey, Nick," he said as Nick stepped inside. "And welcome to the Mitchell residence. May I take your jacket?" Lewis shut the front door and helped Nick with his jacket.

"Well, aren't we quite the gentleman today?" Nick teased as he handed his boyfriend his jacket.

Lewis chuckled as he hung Nick's jacket up in the closet across from the front door. "I live in a manners-first household," he explained. He shut the closet door and took Nick's hand. "Come on. My mom is in the kitchen."

He led Nick down a corridor, through a dining room, and finally into the kitchen. This house was larger than Nick had expected it to be. At the stove stood a dark-haired woman, hair tied back neatly and clad in a sleek black blazer with a matching skirt. She had her head cocked sideways to hold her cell phone to her ear as she stirred whatever was on the stove.

"Mom?" Lewis greeted warily.

She glanced at him, faltering a moment when she saw Nick, but seemed to dismiss whatever thought she'd had. She beckoned for Lewis to take her place at the stove, which he did immediately. "What is it?" she questioned, moving across the kitchen to glance out the window. "I'm on hold for the moment, so hurry it up."

Lewis sent a funny look at what she had cooking in the pot—Nick guessed it might be squash—before turning to face his mother. "Um, I want you to meet Nick. He's my boyfriend." He motioned to Nick who in turn offered up a shy smile in greeting.

"Your boyfriend?" she echoed with a start, narrowing her eyes slightly at her son.

"Yeah. I told you about him the other day, remember?" Lewis reminded her. "You said I could invite him for dinner today."

She didn't appear to recall that at all but still nodded slowly. "So, he's your…boyfriend?" she verified.

Lewis nodded with a frank, "Yep."

She looked like she was going to respond when there was a faint voice from the other line of the cell phone. She straightened up abruptly. "Yes? That's right. Uh-huh. I just needed to confirm my reservation…" she started out of the room, calling over her shoulder to them, "You boys go ahead and set the table!"

Nick sighed with relief. Glad that was over…Although she hadn't seemed angry or upset in the least. Just a little confused. He glanced sideways at Lewis, who had turned back to the cooking squash with a distinct frown on his lips.

"What the matter?" Nick questioned with confusion, tilting his head questioningly.

"Nothing," Lewis mumbled. "She always acts like that. I should just get used to it."

"Acts like…what, exactly?" Nick asked softly.

Lewis shrugged, keeping his eyes fixed in front of him. "Distracted. Too busy to bother with me. Same old, same old, I guess…"

Nick smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know how you feel. Both of my parents are always busy, too, seeing how they own an Italian restaurant. It's almost as if they work 24/7."

"Yeah, sometimes I feel like they don't even see me here…" Lewis muttered. He suddenly stood straight and moved over to a cabinet. "Help me set the table?" he asked, pulling out a stack of glass plates.

The two of them set the table, and about a half hour later, everyone was sitting down to eat. Mrs. Mitchell had made squash and grilled chicken for dinner, and despite his distaste for it, Nick forced himself to eat his helping out of courtesy.

All in all, dinner time was awkwardly quiet. Both of Lewis's parents formally greeted Nick, but both of them seemed confused at the concept of 'boyfriend.' Neither of them asked questions, though, and the subject never seemed to come back up. In any case, Nick supposed that was a better reaction than others could be.

The night dragged on uncomfortably slow. Lewis seemed to fall silent as well, and Nick guessed he was upset about his parents' lack of caring. This kind of response wasn't necessarily negative, but it wasn't accepting either. It was almost as if they were just flat out ignoring the news.

But at least his parents seemed to somewhat like Nick. They greeted him with smiles and asked the basic clichéd questions of, "How are you?" and "How is school going?" and so on. When he was leaving at around 8, they saw him off with smiles, saying, "It was nice to meet you," and "Feel free to visit anytime."

At least they were trying to be accepting. Nick and Lewis hugged goodbye for the night, and with that, Nick headed for home.

…

As soon as Nick left, Lewis's parents went back to planning for their business trip, packing their things and going over reservations. They didn't ask him a single question about the fact that they just had dinner with their son's new 'boyfriend.'

It was infuriating. Nothing he ever did seemed to make them care in the very least. He felt invisible in his own home, and no matter what he did, he couldn't seem to get his parents' attention.

Now what was he supposed to do? He hadn't planned ahead at all for what he would do if this backfired. And, boy, had it backfired! He knew he wasn't gay. He wasn't even bisexual. Lewis Mitchell was completely 100% straight. Being with Nick only confirmed that to him. So now what was he supposed to do?

Being with Nick didn't even pique the interest of his mom or dad. They just simply didn't give a damn. There was no reason for him to continue with this charade. But Nick was his friend. He cared about him, and he didn't want to hurt him with the truth. He had a few options, none of which appealed to him in the very least.

1. Dump Nick and come clean. Now, there were several problems with that plan. It could potentially ruin his friendship with Nick, and none of the Warblers would look at Lewis the same way when they find out that he was using a friend.

2. Continue to fake it. But he wasn't gay, and he felt awkward pretending to be. Still, it was a more appealing approach than coming clean. He wouldn't hurt anyone of his friends this way. And maybe he could get Nick to dump him?

3. Dump Nick and stay known as bisexual. Being in Dalton, he wasn't judged for his sexuality. Claiming he was bi would be a favorable choice to avoid coming clean about using Nick. But then there was still the issue of hurting him in the breakup.

For now, Lewis settled with option 2. Maybe with time, he'll get some sort of parental reaction. And if not, then maybe Nick will get tired of him and end up dumping him. It was worth hoping for, at least…