Quinn and his mother were both in the kitchen. He was standing by the counter as he watched her cook. It was early in the afternoon on a weekend, and the fan above didn't really do much to counter how hot the place had become due to the steam coming out from the pot. Quinn's dad had work to do. He was a mechanic, and he fixed cars regardless of what day it was. Janet also had a meetup with some of her friends, which left Quinn and his mother alone by themselves.

It was the perfect time to tell her about Cody—to come out.

"Mum." Quinn's voice was small, but his mother heard him.

"Hmm?" she hummed, looking at him for a moment, before turning back to the pot in front of her. The stew was bubbling, and the blue-red flames on the cooking gas danced.

Quinn felt his voice get stuck in his throat. You need to tell her. He scolded himself in his head as his heart pounded against his ribcage. He wasn't sure why he was panicking. At worst his mother would be disappointed, but she wouldn't throw him out or ban him from seeing Cody. He knew that. His mother was a 'mind your business' Catholic. She didn't pull him or his father by the ear to follow her to church, and she stayed away from Janet's love life. Quinn had just expected her to be a little more reactive.

"Remember Cody?" he asked, hoping that she caught on to the fact that the boy had been coming over a lot lately. Quinn even helped him keep some clothes in his room.

"He's little. My age, but small looking. He's also kind of pale," Quinn rambled, running his fingers through his hair.

"The boy you keep bringing over?" she asked, turning to look at her son. The mother's brown eyes held her son's darker ones. They stared at each other for a bit, before Quinn looked away from her and nodded.

"Okay, what about him?" The sound of a bubbling liquid filled the air the same time warm mist rose. Quinn looked up, smelling the soup. His mother had turned away from him to stir the stuff in the pot.

"I—" Quinn's words paused at the bridge of his mouth. They were too scared to pass through. Too scared of getting that sad disappointed look his mother gave him when she wasn't pleased with whatever he had done. Most of them were for causing trouble with Kyle about the neighborhood, being rude to some annoying adults, or fighting with his sister. Quin wondered if liking a boy was high or low on the seriousness scale. He wasn't sure. All the times he heard about gay people it was done in whispers. Sometimes it was straight out disproving, and sometimes mixed or neutral.

Quinn wondered how his mum felt.

He needed to tell her.

"I like him," Quinn said, watching as his mother closed the pot and put away the spoon to turn and look at him. "I really like him," he emphasized when he had her full attention.

"Quinn?"

The boy blinked, realizing that tears had started to form in his eyes. He looked down at his hands and squeezed them into fists when he noticed they were shaking.

"Mum I like him," he said again. "I really like him," he repeated. He couldn't say more. Those were the extent of his explanation. What else could he say?

"Did you two fight?" Quinn heard his mother ask, and soon he was pulled into a hug that made him lean onto her chest. She smelled like spices and cheese. Quinn sneezed, feeling his eyes water again.

"No," Quinn mumbled into his mum's chest as wrapped his hands around his mum's back. They rocked from side to side. "Mum?" he called, and his mutter hummed, making her chest vibrate with the sound. "Did you understand what I mean?"

"You like him. That you probably kiss him a lot when he comes here. I understand," she said, and Quinn felt his chest ache. He pulled away from her chest, looking for that disappointed look he knew so well. It wasn't there.

Liking a boy was low on his mother's serious offenses list, confirmed.

"Yeah..." he trailed, rubbing the back of his neck before looking down at the worn-out tiles. He had just told his mother that he liked a boy. and all she'd done was hug him tight and ask him if they'd had a fight. He hadn't expected the worst, but this was more than he had hoped for.

"What do you like about him?" His mum asked, reaching out to pinch his cheek. "What about him has you acting like a puppy?" she asked, referring to how Quinn babied Cody when he came over.

"He's so small..." Quinn said the first words that popped out of his head. Of course, there were other reasons, but Cody being so cute was high up on his list.

"Then I'm not very sure he ate well as a kid," Quinn's mum said in response to his description of Cody. She had seen him from afar a couple of times when she walked in late, and sometimes she gave him food. The boy was quiet, and he didn't talk much, so she wondered how he got involved with her son who was all over the place and noisy.

Quinn chuckled, rolling his eyes before taking his mum's hand away from his face. "Don't say that about him, mum, that's rude."

"What? It's probably true. Malnutrition is a thing," she said, walking back to the kitchen counter beside the stove. She started dicing onions on the chopping board again.

Quinn sighed, walking a bit closer to his mum so that he was peering over her shoulder. "I guess you're right."

"Is something the matter?" she asked, turning to touch her boy's forehead. "Is there something on your mind?"

"No," Quinn said, frowning. "Yes." He ended up confessing.

"What is it then?" his mother asked,

Quinn nibbled on his lower lip. "Cody doesn't really like staying at home—"

"Family issues?" his mother said, cutting him off.

Quinn took a deep breath before sighing, "Yeah."

The two of them stopped talking, and the sound of the water boiling in the pot on the stove, as well as the sound of Quinn's mother chopping up foodstuff for the stew, she wanted to prepare replaced the sound of their voices in the void.

"Issues like that are common, but, well, at least now he has you," Quinn's mother said as she peeled the purple skin of another onion.

Quinn smiled a bit. "I guess." The two stopped talking for a bit, and the only sound that filled the room was that of the knife hitting a chopping board, and the occasional sound of a passing vehicle through the living room window.

"Do you want me to dice some carrots for you?" Quinn's mother asked. Quinn's lips broke out into a grin as he nodded, making his dark hair bounce with the action. His mother did as she promised and handed him a bowl freshly of diced carrots.

"Here."

Quinn takes the bowl from her, before dipping his hand into it to grab a handful to shove in his mouth. He walked back a bit before he was leaning on the counter adjacent to the stove. Quinn's mouth was full as he chewed. He watched as his mum poured the diced ingredients into the pot from time to time before stirring.

"Does Cody eat well at school? Does he bring in lunch?" Quinn's mother asked out of the blue.

Quinn frowned, trying to think. "Now that I think about it, not really. He mostly eats just snacks." Snacks that he bought himself. Quinn doubted he had an allowance of any sort.

Quinn's mum nodded. She had expected that. "Will he mind if I make some food for him from time to time?"

"I don't think he'll mind. He'll probably be grateful, he seems to like your cooking," Quinn said.

His mum turned to smile at him. "I'll start doing that then," she said as she rubbed her hands dry on the apron she was wearing. Quinn smiled back at his mum and tried his best to keep his food in his mouth when his mother tickled his neck as she made to get something from the cupboard by the counter.

"Have you been to his place?" she asked him, returning to the kitchen counter by the stove with the can of sweet corn in her hands.

Quinn shakes his head "No, not exactly." He shrugs. "I've walked him home, but I've never been inside his house. I haven't seen his mum or brother either."

Quinn's mother's smile falls a bit. "Ah, that's too bad. I wanted to see if I knew his family. What about his surname?"

"Bell," Quinn said, remembering the boy's full name from what he had scribbled on his notebook.

Quinn's mother sucked in her cheeks, and in an almost sing-song voice repeated, "Bell. Bell. Bell." She sighed. I haven't heard of it. They're new here though, so that's expected. "I would have asked you where his mum works, but I'm sure you don't know that."

"Yeah, I don't," Quinn confirmed.

There was silence.

"You're going to play basketball today, aren't you?" Quinn's mother asked.

"Yeah," he said, dropping the now-empty bowl of carrots in the sink. His face was growing warm. It was a Sunday, but Cody had said that he would maybe drop by. Since their first kiss, they had started kissing a lot, and with every additional kiss, one of them would be bold enough to do something new. It had been embarrassing to touch under each other's shirt, and it had also been embarrassing to grind their lower halves—but the feeling had been temporary and had given way to new waves of excitement.

Quinn's mother smiled. "If Cody's out there you can invite him for dinner, or just ask him what he likes to eat since I want to make something for him."

Quinn smiled at his mother before resting his hands on the counter. "Yeah, I'll do that," he muttered, making his mom smile. The two of them continued to talk, and their conversation distracted them until Quinn had to leave.