Chapter Nineteen

Over the span of the next forty-eight hours Jeff became a gay icon without really meaning to. People were selling all kinds of “Let Him Teach” merchandise and driving around with rainbow stickers of his silhouette on their cars. Rita, the annoying neighbor had been over three times to check on him and to sneak pictures of him on her phone. He was continuing to grow a massive social media following, despite his silence, and he was being contacted by all kinds of news outlets and talk show hosts.

In the end, he was grateful that his sister was coming down south to visit him. He needed help dealing with everything, and she was the most efficient person he had ever met. When he was a kid they used to joke that if he ever became a super famous author, she was going to be his manager. Now it seemed like at least part of that dream was finally coming to fruition. Damn that monkey’s paw effect.

Jeff picked Katherine up at the airport on Wednesday morning. He was wearing sunglasses, a hoodie, and a backwards baseball cap to keep from being recognized. A few hours ago, he would have found the getup to be absolutely ridiculous, but he couldn’t even get groceries anymore without somebody spotting him and calling him the “gay picture guy.” Jeff wondered briefly if it was the same for Luke. He hoped for Cam’s sake that it wasn’t.

Katherine came strolling down toward baggage claim with her phone held to her ear. She had on a full face of makeup, a pantsuit, and incredibly high heels. Her hair was done up in a bun. You never would have known by looking at her that she’d just gotten off a flight.

Jeff watched her as she scanned the crowd, looking for him. He sheepishly lifted up a hand and waved. Katherine frowned as she clip-clopped over to him. He still didn’t understand how she managed to wear those kinds of shoes day in and day out. Maybe her feet were just naturally bent like that now.

“What the hell are you wearing?” she asked, hanging up her phone and stuffing it into her designer purse. “You look like a menace.”

Jeff rolled his eyes.

“It’s good to see you too,” he said, pulling her into a side hug.

They went to the carousel together where Kat pointed out her luggage so that Jeff could grab it for her. It only weighed about five hundred pounds. Still, he somehow managed to carry it all the way to his truck where Katherine insisted on squeezing it into the cab with her because it was expensive and she didn’t want it exposed to the “elements.” Jeff put up with it because he knew that Kat wasn’t nearly as high maintenance as she appeared to be. Case in point, the second they were on their way back to Jeff’s apartment she was begging him to stop at her favorite fast food chain for their five dollar breakfast special.

Jeff sat across from her at the dingy booth and watched her stuff an entire gravy drenched biscuit in her mouth.

“God, I miss the south,” she said when she had finished chewing.

Jeff quirked a brow and finished up his breakfast burrito.

“You know you can get biscuits and gravy in other places, right?”

“It’s not the same,” Katherine insisted, shaking her head.

Jeff just smiled at her and they continued their roadside meals in peace.

After breakfast, they made a speedy journey back to Jeff’s place where Lady Katherine immediately set up shop in his living room. She pulled out her laptop, glasses, a legal pad, half a dozen pens, and a copy of Apollo High’s official code of conduct. Lord only knew where she’d managed to find an actual copy of that, but she started combing over it with a fervent passion, looking for any loophole or ambiguous wording that she could exploit in order to get him his job back faster.

Meanwhile, Jeff, who was mildly embarrassed by the thought of his slightly bougie sister inhabiting his unkempt apartment, got to work cleaning. It was actually pretty therapeutic in a way, or at the very least it was a good distraction. After everything had been dusted, vacuumed, laundered, and sanitized to the best of Jeff’s ability, he and Kat sat down for a quick instant noodle lunch at the kitchen table.

“So, when do I get to meet the boyfriend?” Katherine asked.

Jeff slurped his noodles and avoided the question for as long as possible.

“We uh, we might not even be a thing anymore?”

Katherine slammed her spoon down so hard that the table shook.

“What?! After all this? What did that man do to you? Does he have any skeletons in the closet? If I try really hard I can probably get him thrown in jail for a few years if he’s ever smoked pot.”

Jeff waved off the offer.

“No, no. It’s nothing like that. We just, uh, we haven’t really talked since the whole picture thing.”

Katherine blinked.

“But that was five days ago.”

“Yeah,” Jeff sighed.

“Well why don’t you just call him?”

Jeff shook his head.

“I told him not to worry about me. His son was really upset when he found out about us and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want us to be together. I don’t want to come between them, so I figured I’d just wait it out and see what happens, if anything.”

Katherine picked up her spoon and pointed at him with it.

“Jefferson Martin, that is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Jeff shook his head.

“You say that about every dumb thing I say.”

“I’m serious this time. This man was your boyfriend right?”

“Yeah.”

“You were mutually exclusive, yeah?”

“I mean, I think so…”

“Have you said I love you to each other?”

“Yes.”

“Then why on God’s green earth would you let some bratty teenage boy get in the way of that?”

Jeff pushed his noodle cup aside and pressed his hands onto the table. The feeling of the familiar notches and grooves helped ground him, but only a little.

“Cam’s not a brat,” he said. “This is hard on him. He’s been through a lot.”

Katherine crossed her arms over her chest.

“Yeah? Well so have you. You deserve to be happy, Jeff. You’re a good man who keeps getting the short end of the stick. Why don’t you try being selfish for a change?”

Jeff wanted to argue that this whole mess had stemmed from him being selfish, but he knew his sister wouldn’t see it that way.

“He’s got my number,” he said instead. “He can call me any time he wants.”

“Yeah, but he hasn’t. I mean, you two love each other, right? Why wouldn’t he want to talk to his boyfriend at a time like this?”

Jeff shrugged, trying not to look like a deflated balloon. He’d been asking himself the same question all week.

“Because that little shit son of his probably said something about you. Something vicious and horrible to make you look bad.”

Jeff shook his head and scowled at his sister.

“Okay. New rule. In my house there will be no profanities used against children. In fact, how about no bad mouthing children at all.”

“Seventeen is hardly a child,” she grumbled.

“Katherine,” Jeff said in full on teacher voice.

Kat let out an exasperated sigh and relented.

“Fine, but don’t come crawling to me for comfort when it turns out that I’m right.”

Jeff ignored the comment and asked if she’d found anything that could help him get back to work.

She shook her head.

“Not yet, but I’m just getting started. As thoroughly as I’m looking it could take me a few more days to build a proper case. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to work.”

Jeff nodded and cleaned off the table. Katherine returned to her couch office and he retreated into his bedroom. As much as he didn’t want to dwell on his sister’s words, they had struck a chord in him. He spent his entire night torn between staring at the other side of the bed, remembering what it had felt like having Luke occupy that empty space and imagining all the cruel things Cam could have said to Luke that would have made him never want to see him again.

Needless to say, he didn’t get much sleep that night.