I WAS in the kitchen with Mom and Lizzy when Matt and his parents arrived on Christmas day. Matt came in immediately and said quietly, “He’s drunk. Lizzy, I hope you don’t end up regretting this.”

Before she could say anything, Lucy came in. She obviously felt awkward after the debacle of their last visit, but she thanked Lizzy for inviting them, and then Brian brought James in, and the three women were immediately talking about sleeping patterns and nursing habits. Matt, Brian, and I cleared out in a hurry.

We made it most of the way through dinner before the shit hit the proverbial fan.

“I’m surprised that there’s no snow,” Lucy was saying. “I figured we would have a white Christmas in Colorado.”

Brian laughed. “We rarely get snow for Christmas. Any that we do get before this generally melts in a day or two. Our heaviest snowfall is usually February or March.”

Suddenly, Joseph looked around the table and said, “Don’t you have anything to drink?”

Lizzy’s smile was all innocence. “What would you like? I have iced tea, Sprite, Dr Pepper, milk—”

“No! I’m talking about a drink.”

“Oh!” She looked genuinely dismayed. “I meant to get some wine to have with dinner, but I got so busy yesterday, and I forgot to go to the liquor store. And of course, they’re closed today.” She looked around guiltily and giggled a little and shrugged, and she really did come across as somebody who just couldn’t quite keep too much in her head at once. “I’m such an airhead, sometimes. Brian’s always teasing me about it.”

Of course, that wasn’t true at all. Nobody would ever accuse Lizzy of being an airhead, least of all Brian. I also knew that there was plenty of alcohol in the house.

“You mean you don’t even have any beer?”

“We finished it off on Sunday watching the game,” I told him. Also a lie.

“Well, with the way those Cowboys are playing this season, I can understand that.” Of course, the Cowboys game hadn’t even been shown that week in Colorado, but we didn’t say anything.

I was actually glad football had come up—such a nice, safe topic—and I said, “Can you believe Al Davis fired his head coach again already?”

I could tell Matt was wound up too tight to respond, but this was the one topic I could count on Brian for. “Hey,” he said, “as long as he keeps being an idiot, the Raiders keep sucking. He’s actually my hero.”

But Joseph ignored us and moved on to his favorite subject.

“Matt, I still can’t figure out why you’re not dating anyone. When we were here last summer, we couldn’t go anywhere without some young girl giving you her number. You should be playing the field.”

“Dad, can we please not discuss this again?”

“Why not? You’re never going to find the right girl if you don’t date a few.”

“Joseph, I’m sure you heard that Matt’s girlfriend, Cherie, was killed a few weeks ago,” Lizzy said, smooth as ever, and Matt looked at her gratefully. “It was very traumatic. I know her death was very hard on him.”

“Horse shit! We never even heard about the girl.” As if they talked every day. As if Matt would have shared it with his dad even if he had cared for her. “What about that looker we saw yesterday at the pizza place?”

Matt’s jaw was clenched tight, his hands gripping each other tight on the table in front of him. “Dad! Enough.”

“What? It’s a simple question?”

“It’s a simple question which you have already asked me a dozen times. The answer is the same. I’m not interested.” His voice had that low, controlled tone, which I knew meant he was furious. Joseph either didn’t notice or didn’t care. I suspected the latter.

“How can you not be interested? If not her, what about that redhead? Your mother wants grandkids, and you’re not getting any younger. Are you ever going to stop being so damn selfish and do your duty?”

“Lucy,” Mom jumped in suddenly, “didn’t you tell me last time you were here that you were planning a trip to Florida?”

“Uh.” Lucy was looking very flustered, fidgeting with the scarf around her neck. I think she could sense disaster in the air but couldn’t quite figure out which way to dodge. “Yes, that’s right. We went to Orlando—”

“I want to know!” Joseph’s voice was much louder now. “I want to know how can you go around with this, this—” He was gesturing at me and obviously couldn’t think of a word bad enough. “This pansy, like it doesn’t matter! It’s no wonder none of the girls want to date you.”

“Joseph, that’s enough,” Lucy said quietly, but he didn’t listen.

“Have you thought about that? Have you thought about what people are going to say about you?”

Lizzy stood up now. “Mr. Richards, I think I’m going to have to ask you to leave now.”

“No! I’m not going anywhere! I want to know why my son is still hanging around with a fucking faggot. Don’t you care what people will say?”

“Joseph.” My mother stood up, and her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. “That is my son you are talking about, and—”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass!”

Mom turned around and slammed her way through the swinging door into the living room hard enough to rattle the pictures hanging on the wall. Joseph was standing up now, swaying a little on his feet. Matt hadn’t moved an inch. His hands were clenched in front of him, and he was staring straight ahead, which put his gaze somewhere over his mother’s head. Lucy had her hands over her face. Brian had the classic deer-in-the-headlights look. Lizzy was still standing with her hands on her hips, glaring at Joseph with murder in her eyes.

Joseph still wasn’t done. “You should be ashamed to be seen with him! Don’t you know what that could do to your career? Are you so fucking stupid that you can’t figure out what people will say?”

“I know what people say, Dad.” His voice wasn’t as quiet now. He didn’t sound angry anymore at all. Just resigned.

“So you know that they’re going to assume you’re a faggot too?”

“Yes, Dad, I know that.”

“They’re going to assume you’re his boyfriend.”

“I know that too.”

“They’re going to assume that the two of you are fucking each other.”

His voice was stronger this time. “I don’t care.”

“How can you not care?”

And I saw him make the decision. I saw his hands unclench, his shoulders relax. I reached out to grab him, to tell him to stop, I even started to say, “Don’t,” but he shook me off. He sat up straight, squared his shoulder, looked right at his dad and said, “Because it’s true.”

“Oh no.” Lucy’s voice was a whisper behind her hands, and she put her head down on the table.

Nobody else moved. Nobody else spoke. The silence seemed to go on forever.

Joseph finally said, his voice low and deadly, “Are you telling me—”

“Yes.” Matt stood up now, back straight and head up. I couldn’t believe how calm and sure he looked, as if, having now set his feet on the path, he had no reason to look back. “I’m telling you that I’m gay. That apartment you saw? The day I took you there was the first time I had been there in weeks. I live with Jared.” I would like to say that I was holding my head up, as proud as he seemed to be, but the truth is, I was doing my best to stare straight through the dining room table in case there was a hole underneath it I could climb into.

Another deathly silence, and then Joseph said, “You are not my son.”

And Matt actually smiled at that, just a bit. “I don’t remember the last time I agreed with you more.” Lucy was really crying now. Nobody moved to comfort her. “Here.” Matt tossed a set of car keys on the table. “Take your rental car and go home. I’ll be going home—to my home—with Jared.”

Joseph looked like he was about to say something, but he never got the chance.

Suddenly, Mom burst back into the room. “Matt, you need to come. There’s something going on.”

Matt, Mom, and Brian went first. Joseph and Lucy followed. Lizzy was still standing in the same position, hands on hips, staring at the empty place where Joseph had been standing. I was in shock. I felt like the whole world had been turned upside down. I was waiting for somebody to jump out and yell, “Surprise, you’re on candid camera!” But instead, Lizzy turned to me and said, “Well, that went better than I expected.”

And just like that, I was laughing. She came and pulled me out of my chair. “Come on. Let’s go see what’s going on.”

When we got into the living room, nobody was there. The front door was open, and there were people all over the front lawn. At the curb were several police cars with lights flashing. It was dark outside, and the only light came from the red and blue strobes on top of the cars. Matt was talking to Grant, Tyson, and one other cop I didn’t know.

“What’s going on?” I asked Matt.

“We need to talk.”

“Do you have your weapon?” Grant asked him.

“No.”

“There must be a spare in one of the trunks.” Grant headed off to the cars.

Matt led me over to where Brian, Lizzy, and Mom were standing. Mom had James in her arms. “Somebody broke into my apartment earlier. They broke all the windows and trashed the place. The neighbors noticed the broken window and called the police.” He was speaking quickly and quietly. “When they got there and realized it was my place and that I wasn’t there, they went to our house.” He looked at me as he said this. “And they found the same thing there.”

“What?”

“Our neighbor heard a commotion and watched out the window and saw Dan Snyder leaving.”

“Holy shit.”

“When they didn’t find either of us at either place, they got worried and called in everybody.”