Flare (28 page)

“You’re telling me.”

“Not to mention the legal stuff. Parental rights and all that. We’ll need to talk to Mark.”

“Yeah,” Hugo agreed.

“I think Mark’s twins will now have their braces paid for,” Kevin said with a huge yawn as he turned on his side. Hugo watched Kevin close his eyes and easily fall asleep, somehow able to be oblivious to the earth-shattering choice they’d just made. Having the kids back home sure did relax him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Not So Pure

T
HE
FIRST
week back at school for Brooke was hell, so Hugo never got a chance to talk to Summer. Felicity Banks brought several celebrity magazines to school that had photos of Brooke, her family, and Hugo on the red carpet. Felicity teased Brooke relentlessly about having gay dads. Soon, more kids were whispering about Brooke, not even behind her back, but blatantly talking about her when she was right there looking directly at them.

Brooke did her best to ignore the taunts and the gossip, coming home each afternoon and talking to Hugo about it, tears finally streaming down her face as she recounted the harsh words. She insisted that he not tell her dad, or for Hugo to go to the school to report the incidents on her behalf.

“That’s not possible, sweetie,” he told her, much to her dismay.

On the first day, Hugo encouraged her to tell Kevin.

“He’s here to help you, Olive. Don’t keep secrets from him.”

Brooke talked to Kevin that night.

Later in their own bed, Hugo and Kevin debated how to handle the situation and talked to Brooke the next morning over breakfast about ways to either deflect the attention or to address it head-on. She tried to deflect it that day, ignoring the taunts and walking away from the whispers and stares, but it didn’t help. On the third day back, she confronted Felicity, telling her to mind her own business and to stop spreading rumors.

That’s when Felicity changed her tactic, and it got a lot more personal. Brooke had turned on her heel and marched to the school nurse, and told her she had a stomachache. As soon as the nurse’s door was shut, Brooke broke down, tears streaming down her cheeks, which was where Hugo found her after a phone call from the nurse asking him to please come.

“What’s wrong, Olive?” Hugo asked, fighting the urge to immediately text Kevin to get to the school right away. Maybe she really did have a stomachache, but Hugo had a sneaking suspicion her stomach wasn’t involved at all but Felicity Banks was.

“She said all these horrible things about you and Dad.”

“Like what?” he asked and was grateful when the nurse left them alone in the room.

“She said you and Dad were filthy and disgusting and so am I because I live in the same house as you guys and use the same washer and dryer and eat at the same table as you and Dad.”

“Why would she say that? I don’t understand.”

“She told me about how you guys have sex.”

“What do you mean?” Hugo leaned back, sighing wearily.

“She talked about
where
you have sex.” She pointed toward her butt and flushed with embarrassment. “Like, there.”

Hugo pulled out his phone and finally sent a text.

Brooke’s bully struck again. I’m at the school. Anal sex revealed. Help me. How do I talk about this? I need you here.

Be right there
was sent back within seconds.

“What did you do or say?” Hugo asked.

“I told her to leave me alone and worry about her own life instead of mine.”

“Does your stomach really hurt?” Hugo asked, knowing the answer but wanting to stall as long as he could so he wouldn’t have to do this without Kevin’s help.

“No. I just didn’t want to cry in front of all the kids in the hallway. They’re already talking about me. I didn’t need them to laugh at me ’cause I’m crying too.”

“We’ll talk about this at home, I promise. You’re not in trouble or anything, but can you give me a few minutes? I want to see if I can talk to the principal, plus, your dad is on his way. Why don’t you lie down and rest?”

“Do you have to talk to the principal?” She looked terrified.

Hugo gave her a solemn nod. “I do. This isn’t right. No one should be treated like you were. No one.”

“I’m scared.”

“Of retaliation? Of her doing even worse things?” Hugo guessed correctly, Brooke nodding. “I know. That’s why I need to tell the principal, sweetie. He needs to know this happened in his school so he can keep it from happening again.”

Hugo stood, watching as Brooke rested on the cotton-covered plastic pillow, wiping her eyes with the wad of tissues still in her hand. Hugo pushed her dark hair off her forehead and allowed just a few seconds to let the terror he felt wash through him. Maybe now he could handle this with the maturity he knew he’d need.

Hugo closed the door to the nurse’s office quietly behind him and approached the front desk in the main office where he asked if he could please speak to the principal. “And Kevin Magnus will be arriving soon. He needs to be included.” The school secretary nodded in understanding but putzed around for a few minutes before walking Hugo to an office nearby where she introduced him to the principal.

His butt had just hit the chair when Kevin approached. He was winded and pink-cheeked from the bitter cold. He shut the door behind him. “I got here as fast as I could,” he said, sitting next to Hugo and slipping out of his wool coat, then setting his leather gloves on his knee. He was gorgeous in his rushed professionalism.

“How can I help you?” Dr. Edwards asked as he picked up his black-and-platinum Montblanc pen and wrote Hugo and Kevin’s names on a sheet of paper right under Brooke’s name.

“For several days now, Brooke Magnus, my daughter, has been getting harassed by a fellow student. Fel—” Kevin broke off. “I’m sorry. I just got a text from Hugo while I was at work, and I’m still a little flustered from my speedy trip over here.”

“Felicity Banks,” Hugo provided.

“Yes, Felicity,” Kevin said. “Hugo was in a movie, and over the winter break, we were at a red-carpet event with him. Photos were taken and published in various magazines. Felicity brought the magazines to school and was passing them around, which is what started the problems.”

“Passing a magazine around? I’m not following,” Dr. Edwards said.

Kevin looked over at Hugo, silently asking for help.

“I’m not sure if you know that Kevin and I are partners,” Hugo started but got no visible reaction from the man, so he continued, “We’re raising Brooke and her brother together. It’s not the photos that started this. But they didn’t help. In fact, the first time any bullying happened,” and Hugo had said the operative word because the man perked up a bit more, “was in gym class late last fall. Felicity teased Brooke about the bra she was wearing, saying something about how it was no wonder she didn’t have a bra that fit, considering her mom was dead and she was being raised by two faggots.”

“That’s concerning. I’m surprised by the language used, especially coming from Felicity,” Dr. Edwards shared with a grim look to his mouth.

Hugo gave him a tight smile. “Well, it stopped not long after, or at least Brooke wasn’t bothered enough by what was said after that to share. She’s a pretty private girl who keeps a lot inside.”

“The red-carpet photos started things up again, it seems,” Kevin added. “More talk went on, and soon other kids were talking behind her back this week due to Felicity’s involvement. What happened today?” Kevin directed toward Hugo.

“Apparently Felicity went into the mechanics of anal sex with Brooke. She’s twelve. We’re not prudes. Brooke knows about the birds and the bees, but that’s not exactly a subject we’ve broached with her yet.”

“No, we haven’t,” Kevin said with a scowl on his face. “We were waiting a little longer, at least until she came to us with some sort of questions or curiosity before we spilled everything, but now that opportunity’s been taken away.”

The principal looked not only concerned but at an utter loss for words, lips even parting slightly in the only way his schooled face seemed to show shock. And he was pale.

“The worst part about it is that Felicity shamed her, called Brooke filthy because of what Felicity perceives we do in our bedroom. According to Felicity, Brooke is filthy simply because of her proximity to us. Because she lives in the same house.”

“Okay,” Dr. Edwards said, steepling his fingers and leaning forward on his elbows. “I’ll be talking to Felicity about this, but first, would you mind if I talked to Brooke to make sure I get the entire story straight? Exact phrases and such?”

“That’s fine,” Kevin said.

It turned out Dr. Edwards wanted to talk to Brooke alone after she told her story with Hugo and Kevin in the room, just in case she was too embarrassed to talk about anything with them there. Kevin shook his head in disgust at the situation Felicity had put them in.

“What the hell do we say to her?” Kevin whispered to Hugo while they waited on uncomfortable chairs in the noisy school office.

“I don’t know. The truth?” Hugo shrugged.

“Can we?”

“What’s the alternative? Lie? Make up some euphemism about a special sleep like straight people do when they explain how babies are made?” It felt ridiculous to be talking under their breaths while sitting as if waiting for punishment from the principal, but the office was bustling with people, busy people who weren’t paying attention to them, thank God. “I don’t know,” Hugo sighed. “It’s not like we’re talking about sex that’s procreative. There are kids’ books written to help explain that. We’re talking about sex for pleasure alone. I doubt even that awesome kid’s librarian is going to be able to hunt down a book to help us cover this one. I’ve never dealt with anything like this. I feel completely unprepared.”

“You’re not alone. Let me think. Let me put on my Erin hat for a minute,” Kevin joked, his genuine smile helping Hugo relax dramatically.

They signed Brooke out of school early and drove home in separate cars. Brooke wanted to ride with Hugo. He wondered if she’d open up and talk more, but she was silent the entire way home as if she were deep in thought. As soon as they were all inside the house, she grabbed a glass of ice water and sat at the dining room table. She apparently wanted answers right then. There was no more time to consider what to say.

Joining her, Hugo and Kevin both felt unprepared. It was obvious by her body language alone that she wasn’t going to drop this.

“Is it true?” Brooke asked.

Hugo and Kevin looked at each other, and Hugo decided he’d start. He took a deep breath and started to explain. He was honest, explaining that when men were together there were many things they did related to sex that men and women did too. “Even straight couples do the things gay men do,” he said, hoping his hints would be enough.

They weren’t.

“But is what Felicity said true? Do you put your penis
there
?”

Kevin gave her a shallow nod with his brows drawn tight.

“It’s not nearly as awful as she described it, though,” Hugo said, his voice coming out so softly he wondered what was happening. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Do you know your mouth is the dirtiest part of your body?”
Lovely! Great diversion.

Brooke looked confused, but then understanding filled her face. “Kissing,” she said.

“Yeah. Just imagine all those germs exchanged.”

“So all the stuff she said about diseases and stuff, is that true? Are you going to die because of the way you have sex?”

“She said that?” Kevin asked, and his voice was angry. Brooke nodded, looking back and forth at the men in her life for an answer.

“It can happen, but it can happen with men and women having sex too,” Hugo tried to soothe. “We take precautions. We’re safe. There are tests we both take at the doctor’s office every year to make sure we’re healthy, and the real risk is if we have sex with other people and then come back together. But we don’t. Your dad and I are only having sex with each other.”

“Yeah, Olive. We’re not going to get sick. We’re not going to die like your mom did.”

At least not from this
, Hugo thought. A plane crash or some other disease like cancer, but even if either of them got HIV, it wasn’t the death sentence it used to be. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen because they were faithful.

“Do you have any other questions?” Kevin asked Brooke, bringing Hugo out of his panic.

“How can that feel good?” she asked.

“Oh my God.” Hugo couldn’t help the exclamation that left his mouth, and then he started to laugh uncontrollably, grabbing at his hair in frustration. “I never in my life thought I’d be having a conversation like this with a preteen girl. I feel so unprepared,” he admitted to Brooke, looking at her with what he knew were desperate eyes.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to answer,” she said as a blush crept down her neck.

“No, I’ll answer it,” Hugo said. “It just does. I know sex overall is a scary thing at your age. The thought of how any of it could feel good is a bit overwhelming, but adults don’t do it because it feels bad. And they don’t only have sex to make babies.”

“What I don’t understand,” Kevin said, “is how this Felicity girl knows so much about anal sex in the first place. Second, why is she picking on you? Because you have two dads? I don’t get it.”

“I think Felicity knows about all this sex stuff because of her Purity Club,” Brooke said. “I heard one of her friends saying something one day in the bathroom about sex
there
not counting. You’d still be a virgin.”

“What? They just get together and talk about anal sex? That’s crazy,” Kevin said in a tone that told Hugo the beginning of a rant was coming on.

“I think we need to just let the school do their job and deal with Felicity’s punishment,” Hugo said. “That’s not our job. Right?”

“Yeah,” Kevin conceded and then looked to Brooke. “What do you need from us?”

“I don’t know. I’m glad you guys came today, but I need to find a way to not let her bug me so much.”