Re: Charlie and Gavin (after Jules and Jasper)
Charlie squeezed his hand, leaning in toward Gavin a bit so he wouldn't have to raise his voice to be heard. They were alone at the table and no one seemed to be hovering. His words sparked some concern in her chest, because she knew Jasper was having a lot of issues lately, even if he didn't talk about them. "Is he all right?" Charlie asked, frowning. She glanced at the hall that Gavin had been hovering near, but she didn't see Jules or Jasper. "What's going on?"
Gavin rubbed his thumb against his bottom lip, frowning softly. "It's none of my fucking business," he repeated but even if it wasn't, it still weighed on him and it shouldn't. It shouldn't matter. "He might be- it sounded like he was, he's... bisexual. Or just curious, maybe, I don't know. I don't know." He shook his head slowly, looking at nothing in particular somewhere far away. "I don't know anything about that." He certainly wasn't the kind of dad Jasper would talk to about that - or anything. He'd been a shit dad and trying to fix it lately was just a drop in the ocean of crap. And maybe he was relieved that Jasper hadn't come to him, because what the fuck would he even say? Good for you, son. Go get them boys? It was laughable.
Oh. Oh. Charlie was silent for a moment, her thumb brushing against Gavin's hand in a comforting rhythm as she processed. It was a different sort of processing than what Gavin was clearly dealing with, because Charlie was a teacher and of course she was around teenagers all the time. A lot of young people dealt with this kind of thing, sorting out who they were, how they felt. Sexuality was just part of it. But she knew Gavin well enough to know that he was probably struggling with it. "Well... if that's true, you don't necessarily need to know anything about it," Charlie said after a moment. "If he's bisexual or... even just curious, he's still Jasper. He may tell you someday, and he may not. Does it upset you?"
It probably wasn't to his credit that Gavin had to think about it, but he really didn't know what he was feeling. On one hand, Jasper was his boy and he didn't want him to be messing with other boys for reasons he had no real interest in examining too closely. On the other hand it was none of his business, like he'd said. Jasper was an adult now, he was struggling with things that were so much more serious than bisexuality that none of this should matter. "I just want him to be happy," he mumbled after a moment that dragged on a little too long. "I just... want him and Jules to get married and have some kids when they're a little older and settled down. I don't know why we're all so damn... we keep making everything too complicated." He was talking about the Lucas men, of course. He was doing pretty good right now but that came on the heels of two decades or more of pure fuckery. Caden had gone off and married some stripper and while that seemed to be working out, Gavin didn't really trust it. Aaron was doing the best out of the three of them at the moment and that was a bit of a mindfuck. Of course Gavin had had a hand in making his life a whole lot more messed up and complicated and he had his own demons to battle. "I guess... I just want things to be simple for him."
Charlie listened quietly. She didn't have the heart to tell Gavin that relationships as young as Jasper and Jules's rarely worked out. But this was a small town and she supposed there was always a chance for them to stay together. Shared trauma could be a very deep bonding experience after all. But that didn't mean the two kids wouldn't find other people to occupy their time before the settling down part. Hell, she and Gavin had both been married before coming together. Things were funny that way. "Humans are wired to make things complicated," Charlie said with a small smile. "And to complicate things and to overthink and doubt and wonder. It's just our nature. Especially teenage boys who aren't sure of their place in the world yet. Even if he is bisexual, that doesn't mean he doesn't want to be with Jules. He'll figure it out eventually. The important thing is that you want him to be happy, no matter what that looks like."