shook my head.

After Wes and I had left them at my Grandparent's house to finish the cleaning, my mother said it was too hard for her. Grandma had been like another mother to her. Mom had gotten pregnant with Wes at sixteen, and when her father found out he kicked her right onto the street. Her mother, all the while, was calling her a dirty slut. Grandma took Mom in, making her and Dad sleep in separate rooms until they got married three weeks later.

"It wasn’t a shotgun wedding or anything," Grandma always said when telling me the story. "I asked your father what he wanted to do, and he told me, ‘I want to marry her.’ so I let them do it. They lived with us till he finished college, got a job, and could deal with having to pay for everything. Wes was such a good boy back then."

After I quit working with Seth, Dad and I got Mom to come back to finish the job. The load we were taking to the junk yard would be the last. The only things left in the house were the furniture and the boxes of stuff Mom wanted to bring home with her; which contained pretty much everything my grandparents owned.

"You aren't going to sell the house, right?"

It had been in our family for three generations now; it would break my heart to see it go to someone else.

"Mom doesn't want to, but I don't really feel like commuting three hours a day for work. Maybe we should rent it out while we decide what to do."

This was the perfect time to ask. I knew that it was risky but I had to try.

"Dad, do you think I can have it?" I said, after gathering all my courage.

"Have what?"

He was driving. He and Wes are alike in that sense; when you try talking to them while driving they mumble, ignore you, or are really slow on the uptake.

"The house, Dad; can I have it?"

He looked over at me before returning his eyes to the road.

"Reed, it's a really big house. There was still too much room when your grandparent's, your mom and I and Wes were there with all our crap."

"I know, but I love that house so much, and I don't have anything but you guys and Wes keeping me in the City. It's not like I'm going to get lonely; I already know people in this town. Plus, you know Wes; he'll be out here every other day to check on me. I think it would be a good change for me." That sounded believable. It was all true, mostly.

"Is this because of Seth?"

Dad had never been too comfortable with my homosexuality, but I knew that he loved me no matter what. Mom had been kicked out of her family's life; she knew the pain that came along with it, so she made it clear from day one that I would always be her son no matter what I did. Dad hadn't gone through it, but he'd been there when she would cry about missing her parents and siblings and he promised her he wouldn't ever do something like that to their children. I don't think they ever expected me to turn out gay, but that rule was still in