Battle of the Brazos
College Logos – copyright unknown, but seems to have de facto entered public domain.
These logos were downloaded from a gambling site.
“Wow, I can’t believe how nervous I am.” Lucas said looking at his parents on the couch. “Is this how you guys felt every time we had a family meeting?”
His father gave his soft smile, and his mom replied, “Public speaking is always nerve-racking, even with … no let me correct that … especially with family members in the audience. You might like to try a debate class at Baylor; mine really helped me.” She then scooted a little further forward on the cushion and brought her knees firmly together. After twitching her skirt to cover her knees, his mom’s long fingers crossed as her hands met. The clasped hands settled without wrinkling her black linen A-line. She looked up, waiting expectantly for her eldest to continue.
Lucas glanced over to his sister slumped in the recliner, one leg hanging over the armrest. The game on her tablet was making plenty of bubble popping and gun blast sounds from whatever she was playing. One of the two earbuds was out which meant Cindy was paying attention as well.
“All right then. I really don’t know how to say this, so I am going just to say it.” The nineteen year old paused to take a deep breath before blurting out. “I’m gay.”
Lucas didn’t realized he closed his eyes when he took the deep breath until he wanted to see his parent’s reactions. He pried his lids open to see no appreciable change. No dropped mouths, pale faces, or red faces working towards eruption. His dad’s soft smile was still in place and his mom nodded as though waiting for something else to follow.
Expecting a bigger reaction from his two very Baptist parents, he added. “That’s it. Just thought you should know.”
“Thank you for informing us.” His mother said, starting to stand. His father reached for his crossword.
“Umm, you’re not upset?” Lucas asked timidly.
“We decided long ago to only get upset about things we can control. Things we don’t have a choice about,” standing on tiptoe, she gave him a peck on the check, “or our children don’t have a choice about, we can only accept.”
His mom went to finish getting ready for the Sunday evening service.
Somewhat shell-shocked, Lucas turned to Cindy, “You okay with this?”
Cindy put her game on pause. “I figured it out last time we went to Galveston, Bro. Anytime your head swiveled it was for a totally hot guy. After that I just watched you watch guys and then scoped them out myself. You were so much better than me picking them out of crowds.”
Lucas looked at his father who snapped the paper to tighten it for writing. “I thought you were going to announce something ghastly like plans to transfer to A&M.”
“Oh Heavens, he is not switching to A&M, is he?!?” His mother shrieked when walking back in the living room with her dress suit jacket.
“No, Mom, not changing into an Aggie.”
“Good.” Giving them all airkisses with her freshly lipsticked mouth, she made for the front door. “Oh, and sweetheart, don’t think just because you are gay, you get out of giving me grandchildren.”
“Of course not, Mom.” He responded to the closing door.
(word 541; originally published 3/20/2013; republished 11/4/2018)