"With you, I'm home."

~Anonymous

Alex

My father wasn't a very emotional man. Also, even though he was a pretty focused family man, he wasn't that close to his family. So, it didn't surprise anyone when he arranged to have his father's funeral less than twelve hours after he died. It would also be a lie to say that I managed to last throughout the whole thing without getting high.

My grandfather had died of a heart attack, which did add up with his habit to enjoy fatty foods all till yesterday. Alex, I'm old, I'll die soon. And I'll be damned if I go without enjoying my last meal, he used to say to me.

"So, Alexander," some wrinkly cousin of my father's said, at some point during the reception. "What do you plan on doing after high school? Will you follow your brother's footsteps or will you follow your mother to Medicine?"

My father must have seen something in my features because he decided to interfere. "Alexander is not sure what he will study. For now, he is focusing on his finishing high –"

"Actually, I have decided what I will do," I interrupted him. He gave me a dangerous glare that was dictating me to shut up, but I was already fed up today with his superior act. "The moment I graduate I'm moving to LA where I'll focus on my musical career. That's what grandpa wanted me to do".

"Oh, you're into arts?! That's awesome, I bet you are very proud of him," my aunt, or whatever she was to me, said not feeling the mood. Neither my father nor I were paying attention to her at this point, instead, we stared at each other in the eyes.

"Yes, we are very proud of him," he said through gritted teeth, faking a smile. "Excuse us for a second," he added and practically hauled me out to the balcony of the venue. "What the hell was that?" he asked, voice low but dangerous.

"She asked me what I wanted to do with my future. What was I supposed to do? Lie?" I replied, my voice mimicking his.

"Yes, in cases like this you lie. In families like ours, you don't throw your hands up and fall back into the arts. Singing. Even animals can do that," he scoffed and folded his arms before his chest.

"While Law is so hard, right? That's why you can find a Law firm in almost every fucking corner of the street, right? Because it's so hard compared to singing," I said.

"Watch your language," he warned.

"Why should I? Will it ruin your image as the perfect father? Will it make others frown upon your parenting? Let them, maybe they'll finally realize that you haven't done any parenting".

I wasn't sure what had gotten into me. It was probably my anger at him, mixed with some weed and the whole experience from yesterday. I had met Aaron for a couple of moments, but it was enough for me to feel an inkling of the love Hunter felt every day. It was nothing like this.

"Alexander Cliff-"

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare cut me off and end this conversation here. What do I have to do in order for it to get through your thick skull? I'm a musician whether you like it or not. And I will work on my musical career no matter what you want. And Clifford, he urged me to follow my dreams. He was more of a father to me than..." I stopped short because someone opened the door and came out to smoke. My father came closer to me, as angry as ever, and spoke in a calm, yet furious, tone.

"I don't know what in the name of God you're on, but I can't talk to you like this. Go home and will talk later about this".

Without further ado, he got back inside and I forced myself not to scream. This man... he didn't let his father's corpse get cold before putting him in the ground. He didn't let others make their own choices. He didn't understand the concept of change. He... he was the reason I was into this mess.

Yes, it was my choice to try weed, but I used it for the first time because he had been so angry at me. And for what? For uploading my first music cover on the internet? I rested against the railing of the balcony and looked down.

The venue was at some loft in an apartment building in the middle of town, making it pretty high up. The man, a guy who used to be my grandfather's assistant, finished his cigarette and turned to look at me.

"I'm saying this because I know your father; don't do it." I looked at him completely confused. "Don't jump," he added looking downwards.

"Hadn't even crossed my mind. If I jump, I will never have the satisfaction of seeing his face after I get famous," I told him and he cracked me a smile.

"Touché," he replied and then leaned closer to me. "I am not supposed to tell you this... but Mr. Clifford passed down to you a huge amount of money to kick start your musical career. He had it all written down in his will. He made it so your father or mother or whoever won't be able to touch the money until you turn eighteen. After that only you and whoever you want will have access to it," he went on and nudged me. "He believed in you. And I've seen you sing. I have to agree with the old geezer". I stayed silent and watched as he headed back inside.

I bit my lip to stop it from trembling but I couldn't help the tears that welled up in my eyes. Taking a deep breath, I turned around and left. I needed to get out of here. I needed to get away from my family. I needed to distract myself.

"Cliff?" Hunt called out, making my blood run cold.

"Please, don't. Clifford was my grandfather's name. I like it when you use it, but could you not for a while?" I said, my voice weak.

"Oh my god, Alex, I'm so sorry. I won't use it for as long as you want me to," he replied almost immediately.

"It's okay you didn't know".

"Still... How are you holding up?" he asked, his voice gentle and heartwarming.

"No idea. I can't. I can't deal with my family. I... I'm now leaving the reception after the funeral," I told him.

"You already had the funeral? Didn't he die last night?"

"Tell that to my father. He had been practically pushing my grandpa to the grave for the past decade". He didn't answer to that, but he didn't have to. "Anyway, what are you doing?" I asked, changing the subject.

"I'm actually getting ready to go out with Calla," he answered, sounding almost happy.

"Yeah, I was supposed to do something with my friends too, but I don't know now if that would be okay," I replied.

"Maybe going out will help. I mean, when my mother passed away, spending time with Calla and Noah got me through a lot of hard times," he said.

"Yeah, I'll see... anyway, I'm about to drive so let's talk later," I told him and started the engine of my car.

I reached my place in less than five minutes and texted Don, to check if he was still coming by so we could leave together. I took off that ridiculous tie I had to wear, as soon as I got home, and changed into something more comfortable. That being a pair of ripped, gray jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt. My hair was beginning to look rather awful. The green, which normally had a dark green hew, had turned grayish and light green. It looked like someone had mixed ashes and grass.

When I heard a knock I had just finished putting on my ear studs. I wasn't one to fill up with piercing, but I did have my ear studs and recently I had started thinking of piercing my lip. I wasn't so sure about that though. I opened the door and headed off with Donovan.

"...so now, I'm stuck with you and Matt and Vicky. You realize that this is your fault, right?" I started listening to him somewhere in the middle of his sentence so I wasn't sure what he was going on about.

"My fault? What's my fault?"

"The fact that Beth didn't come along," Don explained. I gave him an empty look and he sighed. "She's pissed at you. For not sleeping with Libby last week". I almost fell down hearing him.

"She's pissed at me for not taking advantage of her friend? What an awful human that I am," I replied looking heavenward.

"Come on, she wanted it".

"Can we change the subject?" I immediately said. I didn't feel like talking about this, not after the day I've had.

"Yeah, sure... how are you feeling, with your grandfather and everything?"

"Can we change the subject again?" I repeated running my hand through my hair.

"You're coming to my match, right? Next Saturday?" he tried, then.

"Yeah, sure. It's at five, right?" He nodded as we reached Matt and Vicky outside the cinema.

"We already bought tickets. The movie starts just about now, so let's go in." Vicky told us and pushed her straight, honey-brown hair behind her ear.

The room was packed, only our four seats empty. Matt went to sit down first and we all immediately regretted it. Right next to where he was going to sit, sat someone else. And that someone was Hunter.

"Alex?" he said surprised in my mind.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Like hell, I'm not sitting next to you!" Matt yelled at him, making a lot of people turn to us.

"If it makes you feel better, I don't want to sit next to you either," Hunter replied, gripping his seat's handles.

"Come on, we're leaving," Matt said and turned around ready to leave. But I was in his way.

"Is there a problem here?" asked a worker coming towards us.

"Yes, there is-" Matt started, but I cut him off.

"There's no problem. Move," I told Matt through gritted teeth. He shifted a little to the side and I fell to the seat next to Hunter. "Now sit and watch the goddamn movie," I went on to tell him and then I looked straight ahead. Matt didn't dare say another word, realizing how much pissed off I was.

The movie we were watching was some action-packed military movie. It was about this guy who had joined the army to stay away from his family, due to a secret he was keeping. Normally I would never have picked a movie like this. The movies I watched were always filled with jump scares and blood and every kind of horror. And from what Hunter had been telling me, we had a pretty similar taste in cinematography.

Somewhere in the middle of the movie I started mentally talking with Hunter. It started when Hunt told me that the protagonist was definitely hiding the fact that he was gay. At first, I didn't believe him, thinking Matt wouldn't choose a movie with a gay protagonist. But after some minutes I didn't have a choice other than to agree. It wasn't that the protagonist was depicted as gay in a bad way. It was more of the fact that he was caught making out with his army buddy.

I could feel Matt next to me vibrate with anger when that scene happened. When I told this to Hunter, he actually laughed out loud, which earned him some glares.

After he calmed down I felt a slight tap on my right outer thigh. I moved my hand under our shared handle and our fingers met. Almost hesitantly Hunter took my hand in his.

"No one can see us," he assured me. He was right, the theater was way too dark to even make out faces. No one could see us holding hands from under the seat handle. I relaxed and gripped his hand better. With the corner of my eyes, I could see him smile.

And somehow, just by holding his hand I felt the tension and the anger, I had been keeping inside me, disappear.