Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Leo

 

I turned down the music as our car, August’s simple black prius that just clocked past fifty thousand miles, slid into the gravel driveway of Dr. Lucca Viviek's old cottage an hour and a half outside of the city limits.

 

“How can she possibly take this drive every single day?” I asked, trying to lighten the dark mood that seemed only to get worse with every minute that passed as we came here.

 

“She probably doesn’t even notice it anymore. The home’s been in our family for generations. My… great uncle, I think it was, bought it with his ‘roommate’ back in the forties.” I laughed at her air quotes and implication.

 

“How long were they ‘roommates’?”

 

“They met in med-school, my aunt said they became best friends after working nights together so closely for years. They lived here for almost… 40 years before Uncle James got sick in the 80’s. Everyone said it was just the flu but…” 

 

I nodded in understanding, “what happened to his boyfriend?”

 

She just shrugged. “He had to leave. Grandma and Grandpa weren’t about to let him have the home and it wasn’t like the court was going to side with him over our good catholic family of doctors. My aunt had said she tried looking him up at one point but so much time had passed and nobody would help. They wouldn't even give us his name.”

 

I shook my head in disgust. “Bastards. Part of the family for almost half a century but cut out at the loss of his love without a thought.”

 

August just nodded as we turned the car off and just sat there staring at the house with the lights on. I frowned, regretting going along with this even if I understood why seeing my sister, the woman who was always strong and proud without a second's hesitation with such a pained expression hurt my heart in ways I couldn’t express. “We don’t have to be here. We can just turn around and go…” I offered, wanting to reach out but unable to tell if it's the right thing to do or not.

 

I thought for a second as August reached for the keys still in the ignition that she’d turn it on and we would go ahead and leave but she pulled the keys out instead and bowed her head for a moment wiping at the edges of her eyes.

 

“Hey Leo…” Her voice,shaky and scared, made me reach across and wrap my arms around her without thinking. “Will you just… I know- I-” She took a breath and forced the words out. “Will you just pray with me for a moment? Just yea know… Sit there with me. You don’t have-” 

 

“Yea. Of course.” I interrupted her and hugged her tighter. 

 

In the past, we’d argued about faith and churches and the entire mess of religion. I’d never made it a secret how I felt about it and how hard it was for me to understand. I thought back to Em in the hospital, with the priest who inscribed a stone for Em’s ex-girlfriend  Esme there, memorializing her. We didn’t pray with him or offer anything, he just did it because he thought it would help and… even if I didn’t understand it, it did help them.

 

If prayer, or a rock, or a church can help someone I care about, does it even matter then why, it helps them?

 

Maybe the gods can give them something I can’t.

 

I held August’s hands in mine as she bowed her head again and began to pray, asking the Holy Father and Mother to help her reach out to her family. Praying for forgiveness not for her queerness but for failing to go to church. For hurting Leo and wanting to do worse. For being angry at Em because of her own weakness. For being unable to protect me like she’d promised.

 

I started to move my lips and protest that what happened to me wasn’t her responsibility but I stopped myself. Forcing myself to think of this as a private conversation. I’m not here to eavesdrop, just to reassure her that she has someone to support her.

 

Another few minutes passed as August finished her prayer, I saw someone poking their heads through the drapes. After a few seconds they opened the door and looked out at us. I hesitated for a moment before waving my hand. I didn’t recognize them but wanted someone to know that we were there, hopefully they’d just go and get Viviek instead of panicking and thinking we were criminals or something.

 

Sensing my movement August looked up at where I was waving to and whispered. “Salena…” 

 

I squeezed August’s hand and quietly asked if she was ready to go in.

 

August didn’t reply aloud, just nodding and letting go of me to step out of the car and stand there as if frozen in place. 

 

I walked over and took a breath of my own, my thoughts drifting to my own family. My sister who took her own life in guilt. My dad who couldn’t even look me in the eyes when cursing me. My mother who just ignored that I existed from the moment I left their name behind. I mourned them for so long. 

 

I remember there was this boy at work, eighteen straight out of highschool. When he asked me what I was doing for Christmas that year, I just calmly said I wasn’t doing anything because my family had died. Car accident when I was just twelve. No memories really to grieve. 

 

There wasn’t a plan to it or a motive really it just seemed easier.

 

Why should I care about them if they didn’t care about me? 

 

Besides. I have a family now, one I’ve made all my own. My sister and my partner.

 

People who I know will never abandon me when I need them, and who I wouldn’t dream of ever abandoning. 

 

I started to walk towards August and nudged her forward when the door opened and a young girl  no older than ten with dark tanned skin and black hair tied into pigtails that seemed to move on their own, came sprinting out and jumped at August fast enough to tackle her to the ground. “Auggy!” She was crying aloud with tears dripping out of her eyes and snot dangling and flapping in the wind.

 

August was frozen in place for just a moment more after reflectively catching the little girl before she wrapped her in her arms. “Lea…” August wrapped her arms tightly around the girl for a moment letting herself relax before sliding into a chiding kinda tone I recognized from our time together. “What are you doing running out here without your coat? It's chilly and you're gonna get sick.” 

 

Despite her words I noticed she didn’t loosen her grip at all and instead let herself finally start to move forwards. 

 

“Lea, this is my… friend. Leo.” I raised a playful eyebrow at how hard it was for August to describe me as a friend instead of family but if I am honest I was a little bothered by it even If I knew it was just because of how the kid wouldn’t understand it. August pointed at me as we walked and introduced Lea, “Leo, this is my baby sister Salena.”

 

“My name is Lea!” The kid protested vehemently being called Lea and stuck her tongue out at August making me laugh. 

 

“Apparently her name is Lea, Auggy.” I raised my hand and formed a fist for Lea who gleefully bumped it behind August back.

 

 August sighed deeply and looked longingly at the darkening sky as she grumbled. “I don’t know if I’ll make it through the night with the two of you teaming up. You’ve barely exchanged ten words with her. How can you already be so familiar?” 

 

I just laughed, hoping if, by seeming comfortable despite my raging nerves, she’d be more comfortable as well. “Call it little sibling intuition I guess.”

 

She shook her head trying to hide her expression but I noticed the slight grin that was peeking through. At least she wasn’t shaking anymore.

 

We stepped into the home with Lea helpfully instructing us to take off our shoes before going any further inside, and to wait there as she ran to grab her mom. 

 

As we stepped inside I started to notice something I hadn’t put together despite the clues that had been there before. “Uhmm… Aug… Is your family indian?” I stumbled out of the question before realizing how that might sound and clarified myself. “I mean I don’t really care. Obviously. It’s just… You never really… You know…”

 

August just stared at me with an amused stare as I dug myself deeper and deeper into a hole with no escape before finally offering me a lifeline as my words got quieter and quieter. “You have someone actually interested and wanting to go out with you now. You need to get better at thinking before talking. Also to answer your question, yes and no.”

 

Seemingly not interested in waiting for  Viviek to come and greet us from wherever Lea ran off to, August led me into a parlor with an altar of some sort and a picture of an older woman resting on it. The woman looked a lot like August but with bright green eyes and a much shorter stature. She was wearing a conservative black dress that covered her arms and had a multicolored silk shawl overtop it. She was smiling along with a tall man in much more casual wear of a simple white dress shirt and black dress pants. 

 

August knelt down in front of the altar and made a gesture like a cross before muttering something, and looking towards me to explain.

 

“This is my grandmother and grandfather. Grandma’s parents were second generation Indian-Americans and adopted a lot more of the american habits of their families than their parents did but grandma went the other way. She traveled to India and met grandpa there. They lived there for most of her life but came home when her parents started to get sick.” She nodded with something of a bitter smile at the picture, I couldn’t help but wonder how much they got to know each other when August was growing up. August did add as if as a second thought that should explain questions I didn’t even know to ask, “Grandpa was the Catholic.”

 

After a moment as we heard some footsteps stomping through the second floor I asked something that was ticking around in my head from how I knew her family reacted after her coming out but seemed to conflict with what I thought of a lot of Eastern cultures. “I thought India was a lot further along with… people like us.”

 

August sighed looking at the picture before shrugging while wearing a sad smile I only saw a few times before in the years we’d been together. “Grandma was really selective about what bits of our heritage she adopted so easily.” 

 

I smiled for her as my own tears and frustrations bubbled to the surface, I knew it was irrational. Selfish even, it was her family's problems not mine but I couldn’t help but be angry at these people who hurt my sister so much. 

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I just couldn’t stand my sister who was so strong, all the time, looking so pained now.

 

Seeming to pick up on what I was thinking August reached over and nonchalantly poked my side making me jump and yelp yanking me out of my thoughts. “Don’t overthink it, Leo. If my family was still like that I wouldn’t have ever even tried coming home. Grandma acted like that and Grandpa made it worse but… Mom’s gotten better. She helped Em right? If Dad was still here…” She cringed for a moment and tightened her fists before taking a breath and summoning a smile. “Anyways he’s not. Tonight is just about talking to Mom… I’m not expecting a miracle just… a bridge maybe. An olive branch.”

 

I nodded and started to say something when I stopped and smelled the intense scent of spicy curry drifting into the kitchen. I looked over at August and raised an eyebrow whispering, “Were we having food here?”

 

August looked like she wanted to insist that was never the plan when her stomach audibly groaned. “Sorry, I was so stressed I couldn’t eat earlier. Great grandma’s curry is really good too!” 

 

“She’d be happy to know you still think so.” We both nearly jumped out of our skin when an older woman with black hair and bright green eyes emerged from the parlor doorway. She was wearing a short sleeved floral patterned dress with bright colors spread across it. The entire thing seemed to shimmer in the light because of the thin silk cloth that was woven into sections of darker color.

 

In spite of myself I really wanted to compliment her dress but stopped myself, falling back on my time serving the public. If I start inquiring about dresses and effeminate things people notice some of feminine qualities that I still haven’t been able to shake. Most guys wouldn’t notice it, and they certainly wouldn’t ask about it if they weren't flirting. Of course this lady looks to be the same age as the doctor and much older than me but none-the-less I kept my mouth shut. 

 

“Hey, Auntie.” August greeted her coldly with a very subtle shake of her head. I could see the good mood that had momentarily been there when the scent of curry first appeared was quickly dissolving. “I guess this became a family event at some point.” August threw out a verbal dagger, casting aside any subtlety.

 

Her Aunt smiled and raised her hands in surrender. “Please don’t blame your Mom. We were talking and she mentioned you were gonna come and visit, I invited myself. Salena was spending the night with your cousins and I had to bring her home anyways. I wanted to see my little niece too! I didn’t expect you to bring a boyfriend along though, that’s brave of you.”

 

At the mention of a boyfriend I looked at August in confusion, as she did the same to me. Both of us tried to decipher the inquiry as it slowly came together and we jumped back away from each other in repulsion.

 

“Oh God!”

 

“No- Noo- Absolutely”

 

“Why would you even- Blah”

 

“He’s my little brother, how can you-”

 

“Grosss-”

 

We threw our disgusted remarks simultaneously  at the room shaking our heads and writhing at the thought trying to cleanse it from our minds respectfully as her Aunt cackled in the corner at her prank.

 

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting it to be that bad.” she claimed as much but was clearly aware of how we would react. 

 

She reached out a hand to me smiling. “I’m Auntie Tia but you can just call me Auntie, I hope my little niece has been treating you well. Please don’t hold my little joke against me.”

 

I shook my head forcing myself back into focusing on what we were here for as it clicked into my head why she pulled the prank on us. Breaking us out of our suspicions and creating a more lively mood. I accepted her handshake as I stood up smiling albeit a bit tighter than was probably appropriate. “I always like a good joke even if that one was a bit on the gross side. Auggy is family to me, without her I wouldn’t be here today.”

 

August blushed a little at my genuine remark towards our history together and looked away before scratching at her hair and standing up. “Come on, the food will get cold at this rate.” She slid past her Aunt and walked through a pair of sliding doors to an old little kitchen with an actual fireplace, lit and burning with a small fire to warm the space up. The entire dining room and kitchen space was clearly built with an almost fanaitical love of wood design. The walls had oak paneling, the cabinetry was made with actual oak and not cheap plywood paneling. Even the table and chairs were all made with oak containing the slightly organic and misaligned minute features that speak to the furniture being hand-made instead of being produced in a factory.

 

“Grandpa was a carpenter. When he inherited the house he replaced a lot of the house's original installations with stuff of his own making.” I nodded as Auntie explained while August seemed a bit tormented by her own thoughts as she sat down next to her mom and little sister.

 

“Thanks for the food.” I muttered in gratitude as we passed around bowls filling them to the brim with steaming hot curry and rice. 

 

“You’re wel-”  Viviek started to thank us when the, now very familiar, beeping of a pager echoed out. Viviek didn’t even look at it though, just continuing on with her sentence. “You're welcome. I know you weren’t planning on eating but it’s always easier to talk over food right?”

 

I nodded watching August quietly sipping at the bowl as Auntie and Salena kept looking at the two of them back and forth, with no subtlety at all. Lea ended up taking a bite of her curry before nearly jumping out of her seat in excitement. “Oh Auggy! Did you hear about my school?! We’re going on a trip to Chicago! We're gonna see how they make video-games!” Before August had a chance to even start to reply Lea had jumped out of her chair and ran all the way up stairs, earning her mom yelling to stop running, and then all the way back down with a flyer of some sort.

 

As August read over the flyer I muttered my honest dumbfoundedness. “Aren’t you still in elementary? Why not… a zoo or something?”

 

Viviek smiled and explained that Lea’s school works to build on passions at an early age by helping them get exposed to things now that they’d normally have to wait until high-school and college for. Apparently Viviek herself helped set this trip up. “A… patient of mine knew some people in the area who were excited to help.”

 

I saw the company on the flyer that August was sliding over to me. “Aren’t these the guys who make Tactical-Respawn?” I asked even though I knew the answer and could easily imagine what ‘patient’ helped Viviek out.

 

“That’s that big E-Sports thing right?” Auntie asked as she skimmed over the flyer not very interested in it. “Don’t you wanna be a doctor like your mom, Salena?”

 

Lea just stuck out her tongue at her Aunt earning a jab to the side by August that made her squeal as August seemed to quietly chastise her. “Sorry.” She murmured before recovering at lighting speed and declaring, “I wanna be a pro-gamer like Auggy.”

 

I thought I saw all the energy and life drain out of August at lightning speed from her little sister's words and her aunt's deathly glare that seemed to say “Do whatever you want with your life but at least take responsibility for your sister.” 

 

August looked like she wanted to say something but didn’t know what, so I attempted to throw out a lifeline. “Shouldn’t she do whatever she wants to? Did you go into medicine like your parents Auntie?” 

 

I saw Auntie and Viviek both start to say something but Lea interrupted them helpfully explaining, “Auntie said she didn’t like med-school so she got a business degree.”

 

Auntie looked at the ground and mumbled something about ‘business administration.’ while Viviek stepped in to try and support her. “Med-school is really hard, grandpa and grandma would say the same thing. All I want is for you to do something that makes you happy.” She stood up and walked over to Lea giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. “Don’t bully your auntie though. It’s not her fault she got distracted by Lyla Jennings and kept skipping class…” 

 

“Lucca! You promised you’d never mention that!” She chased her older sister into the kitchen as they argued.

 

“I feel like we just heard something we weren’t supposed to.” I muttered as Lea looked at the two adults acting like children with a confused look.

 

“Was I bullying auntie?” 

 

August just sighed and hugged her little sister, before telling her to finish eating. 

 

As we finished eating, August led her sister up to her room and we walked back down to Auntie and Viviek sitting in the kitchen writing a message down on a piece of paper and talking into a cell-phone. 

 

“Damnit, if we’d known earlier I would- No. No, it’s fine. Just stay with them for now. We’ll head over as soon as possible. Next time just… Yea. I’ll see you soon, stay safe Natalie.”

 

I felt my heart freeze over as I stepped in and saw the crystal clear look of worry on Viviek’s face.

 

“What happened?” I forced the words out as I heard August walking down the steps behind me.

 

“They're fine. Trust me. They’ll be OK. That was Natalie. The police came by some time after you left Em’s home. Apparently that man, James, demanded to talk to Em before signing a confession. Em rushed out along with the officers and Natalie to deal with him. Em and an Agent just went in to deal with him. Em’s strong they can handle this much they’ll just need people there to help them afterwards.”

 

“Let’s go help then.” August interrupted Viviek as she stood behind me, one hand resting on my shoulder. “I’m sorry mom… I know we wanted to talk tonight but-”

Viviek shook her head. “No, it’s alright. If you're willing I’d like to follow you all as well. Em is still technically my patient, and I’m not comfortable with how any of this is wrapping up. I don’t doubt you’ll do what you can to protect your friend but if you're willing to let me… I’d like to help.” Viviek walked towards August hesitantly as I stepped aside.

 

August looked conflicted before taking a deep breath and walking forward meeting Vivek halfway as they wrapped each-other in a deep hug as if they were trying to squeeze understanding into each other that they couldn’t easily express with words.

 

“Let’s go, then.” August choked out that simple command after a moment of barely contained tears.

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