The New Yorker -By Vincent-
Chapter 9: Hold your breath

" Ok, let me get this straight..." Brian said to me as he paced himself in the front of his house.
It was the saturday of the dinner, and Brian was just getting the news.
" You went to your mother...and told her that I'm coming over...for dinner..."
" Yeah," I said.
" So that you can come out...to your father...and your mother."
" Yeah."
" Today."
" Yeah."
" ...No."
" Yes," I said, running up to him as he was about to head in the house.
" Nooo, and you know why, Darien? Because I've already had one dramatizing scar-me-for-life situation, and I really don't need another one, ok?"
" Look," I told him, pulling a letter out of my pocket. " Do you know what this is?"
Handing him the letter, Brian immediately recognized it and said, " It's an application form for NYU."
" Two," I noted, handing him the other one. " One for you, and one for me."
Brian stopped for a second and then said, " So you've seriously decided on going?"
" I don't know. Have you?"
After another second, Brian came up to me and hugged me.
" Yes. You go, I follow..." he said in my ear.
" Does that mean you'll come with me tonight?"
After I asked him that, he let go and looked at me, holding my hands.
" Look, you know I support you, Darien, but this--" he sighed in frustration and continued, " This is serious. You have to realize that if you go through with this, it's gonna effect the way you see your parents, the way your parents see you--"
" I know that," I interrupted. " That's why I need you to be there with me."
Brian sighed again and said, " Look, I want you to reconsider this. After all, if we go to college together, we can always break the news to them there, right?"
Brian walked him to me and kissed me on the cheek. We had gotten to be more open about ourselves to the point where we were able to kiss in public and not have a problem. After all, no one was usually here on the weekends.
As I kissed him, I caught a glare in my eyes and pulled back.
" What's wrong?" Brian asked me in a concerned tone.
" Nothing, just got the sun in my eye, that's all."
" Oh, ok. Well, I have to go now."
" Alright. Bye."
I started to walk home to try to rethink the dinner, like Brian said. It was understandable for him to be a little bit upset about it. But I felt that if I was going to be myself, I would have to be myself in every aspect. Hopefully, Brian would be able to understand, and not only that, my parents as well...

It was around 7 p.m, and I called over Brian's house to tell him to come over.
"Hello?"
"Darien?"
" Hey Brian. You ready?"
" Unfortunately, yes. Are you sure don't want to back out now?"
" Positively."
"-sigh-...ok then, I'll be over in a second."
" Ok."
-Click-

I went in the dining room to help my mother set the table. Seeing that she was in a good mood, I came in to see what see was cooking.
" Lasagna. Homemade, since I know you like it so much!" she giggled. " Tell me, does that Brian boy--"
" He'll eat anything you put out for him," I said to her. Then I realized what I had said.
" Oh...well, that's nice," my mother replied with a nervous chuckle.
Shit...why the hell did I say that?
" Um, Mom?"
" Yes?"
" Could you do me a favor, and...let dad go easy on him?"
" Oh, Darien...you know how your father can get at the dinner table. Sometimes he goes a bit...overboard..."
" He made one of my football teammates think he was a transvestite."
" Well, you ask a stupid question..."
" Look, could you just--"
-Ring Ring-
The doorbell! I dashed to the door to see--
" Good afternoon, son."
My dad.
" Oh!...Hey dad."
" Hey son," he replied, hanging his jacket up in the front closet, " when's that friend of yours supposed to be coming over?"
" He should be coming over soon, honey," my mom said. " Now come on and wait at the table."
I was really nervous. Besides the fact that Brian had never met my parents before, and that he already had to deal with his parents when he came out, it would be no picnic for him...
-Ring Ring-
Again I dashed to the door to see--
"Hello, Outbrook Jock."
Unmistakebly Brian.

As we all sat down at the table together, my father immediately made the first blow.
" Hold hands, please."
The shot was fired. Brian was seriously non-religous, and he never really thought highly of religion at all. However, for the blessing of the table, he fell to my father's wishes --this time, anyway.
"Amen."
"Amen," we all said in unison. And that's when the dinner began.
" So Brian, you're from New York City, right?" My mother asked him.
" Yes, yes I am," Brian responded.
" How is up there? I've always wanted to go the big city!" My mother giggled.
At this point, I would like to say how grateful I am for my mothers presence, because my father wasn't that lighthearted. Ever.
" How is it up there in the land of sin and lustfullness?" My father said with his deep authoritarian voice.
Someone somwhere dropped a pin...
"...Um, it's ok, sir," Brian nervously replied.
" You know, Darien has a game coming up soon," My mother quickly interrupted, also seeing the prominent volcano that could mounting for explosion.
" Oh yeah! Dad, it's the division game, would you be able to make it?"
" Sure son, we can do that. When is it, Saturday?" My father said, coming off of his high horse.
" Yeah Dad," I said. And we all went back to eating.
" So Brian," My father said again, " how did you and Darien meet?"
Sweatdrop. I wasn't sure how he would answer. I had told him that my father didn't know that I was in the orchestra, so hopefully he would be able to make something up.
" Um, Darien and I met at lunch one day at school. Don't you remember, Darien?" Brian answered, looking at me with a "don't-screw-up" look on his face.
"...Uh, yeah, me and Brian met by accident. I had been sitting at my table--" I started to say.
"And you went to take your tray back and ran into me by accident!" Brian followed up.
" Yeah, and you had spilled all of your things on the floor..."
" And you offered to buy me another lunch.."
" And then we started talking and got to know each other!"
It was too perfect. It was a textbook run-in situation.Ok...well then, answer me this," my father said, standing up and facing Brian,
" When was the first time you two had sex?"
Brian dropped his fork.
I almost choked on my food.
My mother, however, went on eating as if nothing happened. Something was up here....
Brian, acting as shocked as I was, started to say,
" Um...I'm sorry... could you repeat that?"
" Ok, now," my mother interrupted. " Darien, I'm sorry, but the reason we had this dinner was because we felt that you wanted to say something to us..."
" Darien," My father said in a somewhat non-threatning voice.
" Are you gay?"
At that moment I was totally stunned. It wasn't the fact that he had asked me if I was gay. It was the fact that he was asking me now, that my mother seemed not to have a problem with it. What was going on?
" Yes," I said. I said it. I told them I was gay. I had finally relieved myself of the constant stress that had been following me the entire time that I had been going out with Brian. It had all but gone away in that instant.
My father sort of stood there, wiped his hand with his chin, then opened his mouth and said,
" Ok."
Then he sat back down and continued eating.
At that point Brian had stopped eating. Then slowly, he began to eat as well.
" Am I missing something.?" I yelled out load, causing all three of them to stare at me. Now I feel out of place...
" No son, not at all," My father replied. " You see, I know you've been talking with Brian for quite some time now."
" Oh yeah!" Brian suddenly figured out the mystery. " My mom! She probably called you guys, didn't she?"
" Yes she did," my mother answered. " She said that Darien had been coming over a coming over a couple of times, and after that one time we had that 'talk'..."

" Say you like this...person, and you like them so much that you don't want to leave them. What do you do?"
" Well, You should just keep yourself occupied. Keep doing what you were doing, but you have to realize that this 'other person' has a life of..their own."

..It didn't take much to put two and two together, sweetie."
I couldn't believe it. All this time I had been wondering what would happen when my parents found out...and they had known for a while now.
" So what was the point of the dinner then?"
" The point," my father began to say, " was whether or not your were planning on telling us."
" Oh, I see," I replied.
My Dad then continued, " I see that since you are okay with having a boy for a lover..."
Me and Brian both blushed.
"...we can be okay with it as well. Darien..."
" Yes Dad?"
" You should know that as long as your are a moral person who does whatever they can to make themselves better and help others, I will always be proud of you. I have always tried to set a moral example for you, you know that. However, I never wanted to overpower you, to force my beliefs on you at all. I just wanted to have a good son, and you know that I will always accept you."
"...Thanks Dad." I was really touched by him. Every thing that I thought would happen didn't. I was accepted as who I was...
" And with that said, I'm going to finish eating," My father added.

"Well, I was shocked," Brian told me after we had left the house. " That went WAY different than planned."
" Yeah," I told him, still pondering what had happened. It was around 8 or so when we got to his house.
" My mom's here today, so..."
" I can't come in?"
" Well, let's just say that you can't 'come' at all today," Brian joked.
" Well, how about tomorrow?"
" Nope, I've gotta head on out somewhere. I'll see you at school then."
" Okay," I said as Brian kissed me on the cheek.
" Hey," I called out to Brian, before he went in.
" How about I drive you to school Monday?"
Brian smiled and said,
" Sure, okay."
" Ok, it's a date then."
" See you later."
Brian then went in the house and closed the door.
It was just too perfect. Me and Brian were actually in a relationship that was actually allowed by our parents. And nothing had went wrong. It was all so perfect....

~~~~~~~~~

And as time passed, it stayed that way. By May, it was almost the end of the school year. I was preparing for my final symphony concent, and Brian and I were getting ready to go to NYU in the fall. Our parents had agreed to let off of the supervison most of the time, so we were able to sleep over each other's house...
In each other's bed...
" You know," Brian told me one night when we were in bed together,
" Things are just so... smooth right now."
" Yeah, I know how you feel," I agreed.
" It's so peaceful... you know, if we really wanted to, we could make love right here--"
"--No we couldn't!" Brian said to me.
" Why not?"
" Because..." Brian started to chuckle.
" What?"
" Because...when you cum....you always scream!" Brian burst out laughing, and then started to carry on,
"OH YEAH! YEAH BABY, YEAH!"
" Shut up!" I jokingly yelled at Brian, picking up my pillow up and putting it on his face.
" Hey! You jerk!" Brian yelled back, picking up his pillow and slamming me in the face.
That immediately turned into a pillow fight, with my mother soon after coming in and saying,
" Alright you two...oh!" my mother exclaimed, once seeing that we wern't having sex.
" Sorry Mom," I apologized.
" Yeah, sorry Ms. Richardson," Brian also apologized.
" Yes, well, you boys make sure you go to bed after...um, you're done.," She said with a confused look, and went back to bed.
" Now, where were we?" Brian said and hit me with a pillow.
This continued for about two minutes until I had pinned him down on his back on the bed, still giggling.
" Darien...." Brian said.
That's when we realized we had nothing but our underwear on.
And all was silent again...
" So now what?" I asked him.
" Do you think that you can keep quiet?" Brian replied.

I woke up the next day with Brian laying naked in my arms, his black, ravenous hair on my chest.
As he slowly arose, his eyes looked like they were golden with the sunlight piercing through the windows.
You know, there are some days when I'm with you, that I don't realize that I am a very lucky person, Brian. I have you in my life with no trials or anything. The love of my life that I was never supposed to have...
How lucky I am...
" D-Darien?" He muttered, sleep still wrapped in his eyes.
" I love you," I whispered in his ear, slowly kissing his lips with such delicacy, his hands intertwined with mine.
" Darien...look, we... we can't do this...." Brian said, silently moaning with each breath.
" Give me one good reason why we can't," I demanded , putting the tip of my tongue on Brian's nipple. As his sat up on the bed, he put his hands on my shoulders and said,
" I'm sorry, but it's Monday."
I sat there, then getting the shock from my nervous system. It really was Monday, wasn't it?
" Oh...ok, I'll get my shower first," I said, heading towards the room door.
" Darien!" He called to me before he left.
" Yes?"
I turned around to hear him say,
" I love you too."
His smile was all that I needed as I left the to go wash up in the bathroom.

Once we were dressed and ready, we were off to school in my car for the daily grind. Brian had asked me if I was ready for my final concert, which was next week, and I had told him,
" Yep, sure am. I'm pretty happy that my parents can come too," I told Brian.
" Well, after you told them you were gay..."
" I know, I know," I replied. " It was alot easier."
" Yeah, well, now that everything's order, all we have to do is ride the rest of the year out..."
As we headed into parking lot, I thought I saw a figure of someone that I had seen before....nah, maybe it's too early in the morning.
" What's the matter?" Brian asked me, probably feeling the vibe as well.
" ...Nothing, I guess," I answered.
We walked up to the front hallway, about to head in our seperate directions, when we were stopped in our tracks.
It was Sean.
" Well well...." Brian sarcastically muttered. "If it isn't yesterday's trash. What are you doing here?"
But Sean just smirked. His right hand pulled something out of his pocket, and he immediately started to wave it above his head, as he screamed at the top of his lungs,
" HEY, GUESS WHAT? BRIAN AND DARIEN ARE HOMO!!!"

Hello everyone. You are about to witness the end of the Brian and Darien saga! Aren't you ever so lucky....

Yes, peoples (no typo there ^_^) The next chapter will definitely be the last of the "New Yorker" story. I can hear the sobs now...<sob sob>

However, this isn't the end for my writing in the land of, shall we say, gaydom...

I am trying to decide what my next type of story will be. So far I have two ideas...

The first story is more of the regular type of story, like the New Yorker, with all-new characters and a new story. The story will be mostly bi-weekly (on that note, you're gonna have to wait for a while for the last chapter--after all, it is the LAST chapter-- and it'll give you guys sometime to speculate on what's gonna happen!)

The second type is more serious, realistic writing, which I don't think that Nifty would let me post because it's doesn't have all that much to deal with sex. Still, it has that type of Eyes Wide Shut type of feel put in a high school

And the best part is--you will be able to decide. I'm relying on you guys to tell me what to write next.

Also, even if you have a totally different opinion, I'd love to hear it! Email me at Neo_Vincent@hotmail.com for comments on the story, and advice for the new story! If you want to be on the mailing list for some exclusive info on the new story, Well, email me again! ^_^

Hope you guys are excited! C-ya! ^_^