Chapter 2
After Reggie was hurt, he started staying with Bobby and Carrie more often, and if he wasn’t there, he was at Flynn’s. Bobby still hadn’t fully processed that Reggie was bisexual, which is what led to him laying on his sister’s bed one night while she painted his nails.
“I don’t see what the problem is.” Carrie said finally, after listening to Bobby rant for over half an hour. “You’ve liked Reggie for like a solid year, and now you know that you can actually do something about it.”
Bobby just groaned, burying his face into her bedspread. “Because I can’t do that to him. It would be too much pressure for him, you know how bad he feel the need to keep people happy. He would be afraid that rejecting me would cause the band to break up, so he would do it just to make me happy. And I don’t want that. I want him to be happy.” Carrie nodded along as she finished the hand she was painting, setting it under the fan she had.
“Okay. But I think you’re being silly.” Carrie started painting her own nails, “Did he know that you were bisexual?”
Bobby’s head shot up to look at her. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t think they ever talked about it. “I’ve never hidden it, but I don’t think I ever told him either. Why?”
Carrie shrugged, “Don’t you think he might wonder why you never told him?”
Bobby sighed. “I never told him because he is who triggered my bi crisis.” Carrie raised an eyebrow, silently prompting him to continue, “He came into practice one day last summer, and it was so hot that he didn’t have his flannel on like he usually did. Just in his black tank top. I’ve seen him in it a thousand times, but something went off in my head and I realized that I was just noticing he was an attractive dude. But that I was actually attracted to him.” Carrie just smiled softly and patted him on the shoulder.
The next day, the band had practice, but Reggie was quieter than usual. The other members kept sharing worried glances, but none of them knew how to broach the subject of whatever was on the bassist’s mind. Finally, Bobby couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted the Reggie they knew. “Reg...” Bobby called softly, sitting next to the dark haired boy on the couch, “You okay?”
With alarming clarity, Bobby registered the tears in Reggie’s eyes, so he brought his arms around the other boy without a second thought, relieved when the bassist reciprocated the action. Reggie was quietly sobbing into his shirt, but Bobby didn’t care. He just squeezed his best friend tighter. Alex and Luke were hovering nearby, looking pained that they didn’t know what to do. After what felt like an eternity, Bobby heard Reggie mutter into his shoulder, “They’re finally getting the divorce.” Bobby pulled Reggie into his lap, letting him cling to him as he choked out the words, “Bu-but neither of them want me. I-I’m gonna be m-moving in with F-Flynn.”
“What do you mean they don’t want you?” Alex asked, his own voice cracking.
Reggie pulled back from Bobby, but didn’t move out of his lap as he started to fiddle with the guitarist fingers, not meeting any of their eyes. Luke crouched down next to him, “Reg?”
“They both said they didn’t want to take me with them. Flynn’s mom is my aunt, so when she heard what happened, she started filing the paperwork to adopt me, too.” The band members looked at each other, sadness and concern in their eyes, but also anger. They knew Reggie’s aunt adopted Flynn when she married her dad when they were kids, but that Reggie’s own parents didn’t want him so she needed to adopt him, too? It hurt their hearts while simultaneously making their blood boil. “I’ll be okay.”
“We know you will be, Reg.” Bobby said, rubbing Reggie’s back with the hand his wasn’t playing with, “Because we’re gonna be with you the entire time.”
The next day, Alex and Luke saw Reggie’s dad leaving town, and they glared at him, noticing with satisfaction that he had a busted nose. When Bobby came to practice with a couple of busted knuckles that night, they grabbed him an ice pack and exchanged fist bumps with his good hand, silently agreeing not to tell Reggie how he hurt his hand. When he asked, Luke said Bobby was trying to help him move his bookshelf and his hand got hit when the shelf shifted too far toward the wall. Reggie was upset with Luke for all of ten minutes, blaming him for Bobby’s injury, but Luke could handle that. It was better than Reggie knowing Bobby hurt himself fighting his dad. Bobby calmed him down, bribing him with pizza not to hold it against their best friend.