“Like I said, it’s a little bit of everything,” I repeated, hoping he’d drop it for now so we could both get some sleep.

“Okay, so pick one thing and we’ll start there.”  He ran his hand up and down the length of my arm, grounding me, reminding me that I didn’t have to go through life alone. For whatever reason, Bryce wanted to be here to help me work through my issues.

“I’m worried about tomorrow,” I admitted to him. “We’ve been living in our little bubble here, where it’s just us and the people we can trust to not judge us. Tomorrow, my mom and dad will be here and I don’t want to have to hide from them.”

“So don’t,” Bryce responded. “From what I’ve seen, your parents truly grasp the concept of unconditional love. They don’t judge you for who you are or who you’re with; they love you because you’re their son. Nothing beyond that matters as long as you’re happy and healthy.”

“Yeah, but how long will that last? I feel like I keep testing them, trying to find that invisible line where they’ll decide it’s too much.”

“They won’t,” he stated firmly. He had only met them once, yet he was more certain of my parents’ love for me than I was. “It might take a while for them to see just how good we all are for each other, but they will in time.”

“Yeah, but they’ve already ignored what our pastor tells them about relationships being a man and a woman, what are they going to say when they realize that I’m with two men?” Realistically, I’d known since the night we got together that this was one of the biggest hurdles I’d need to face when it came to being with them. None of us were the one-night stand type, so I think we’d all realized before we admitted it that we wanted more. But more meant eventually facing our families and later the rest of the world.

“When they see how well you’re doing, they’ll come around,” Bryce promised me. “Now, do you feel better?”

I shrugged and Bryce tightened his arms around my body. He did that sometimes, hugging me tightly when I felt adrift. It was just another way he steadied me, and I always wondered how he knew when I needed that firm embrace.

“What’s next?” he questioned. I buried my face into his chest, running my fingers through the dark, coarse hair that thinned out across his stomach.

The truth was, I’d done exactly what Bryce warned me not to do when I started volunteering at Pot of Gold. He’d told me that it was going to be difficult to keep from becoming attached to the kids I met there, but I’d blown him off, telling him that wouldn’t happen. It had, in a big way.

“I can’t fucking stand the fact that Cody is going to be stuck at the center tomorrow,” I admitted to him. “I hate the fact that none of those kids have anywhere else to go, because it’s a fucking holiday and holidays are supposed to be family time.”

Bryce took a few deep breaths and I steeled myself for the lecture I felt coming. He’d told me it was best to not get attached because a lot of the kids were there for a very short time. They’d wind up either running away when they started to get too comfortable or they’d reconcile with their parents and go home until the next time. But Cody was different. He’d been at the center since the beginning of summer, when one of the street advocates found him curled up under the bleachers at a local park. His parents had made no effort to welcome him back home and he seemed to be as stable and happy as could be expected for someone living in a homeless shelter.

“I was beginning to wonder when you’d admit how much you care about him,” Bryce said. He actually sounded relieved I’d said the words out loud. “Anyone who sees you working with him knows you two have formed a bond. Honestly, I think some of the other kids wish they could find someone they could talk to the way Cody can to you.”

“So you’re not pissed?” I asked.

“Haven’t you learned yet? That’s not my style, especially when I half expected it.”

“You did?” If he saw this coming, then why did he warn me against it? Why did he even ask me to mentor Cody if he knew I’d get attached?

“Yeah, I did. I gave you the same speech we give all the mentors, but I had a feeling it’d be impossible for you to not get close to Cody.” Bryce released me while I struggled to get comfortable. I was still trying to get used to not having the cast on my arm and it hurt when I laid on the still healing bones. “You both need one another. He needs you to show him a glimpse of that unconditional love I was talking about, and you need him to serve as a constant reminder that even though something shitty happened to you, it doesn’t define you.”

Fucking Bryce and his life lessons. It made sense. I’d been sitting here moping around the house, terrified to walk out the door until a couple of weeks ago. On the flip side, Cody had gotten the shit knocked out of him by his father and still got out of bed every day with a smile on his face. That may not have been the case in the early days, but now, he was grateful for everything he had, even if that wasn’t much. He was busting his ass to catch up in school because he was determined to prove everyone wrong about him. He wanted to show the world that he could be who he was without having to sacrifice a damn thing.

Cody was still a kid, but I had the feeling there were a lot of grown men who could learn a lot from him. He didn’t let anyone give him a hard time when he walked into his new school wearing clothes which didn’t fit his tall, athletic frame properly. He didn’t listen when other kids his age gave him shit for not being interested in girls or going to parties. The only thing he worried about was that someone would eventually realize that he was homeless, but even that didn’t stop him from living his life.

“We seem to have gotten off track a bit,” Bryce said. “You were talking about the holidays.”

Oh yeah, that. I wondered if Bryce would think my idea was stupid. I also had to make sure it’d be okay with Eric, because even though I’d been here over a year and a half as his roommate, it was still his house.

“Well, there are two things, really,” I began. I sat up and reached over Bryce’s body to turn on the lamp sitting on the nightstand. While it was easier to talk about difficult topics in the dark, I needed to see his reaction. “First, I don’t want Cody at the shelter tomorrow. I fucking hate the idea that we’re all going to be sitting here gorging and having fun while he’s sitting there eating processed crap and staring at the walls.”

Bryce smiled. No, he fucking beamed as I grew more upset about the idea of Cody sitting there alone. “I’d have to make a call to make sure it’s okay, but would you like me to run downtown tomorrow and bring him back here?”

“Would you do that?” That’s exactly what I wanted, but I wasn’t sure it’d be possible. These kids were all stuck in some sort of limbo and I wasn’t sure it was legal for an employee to bring them home, even if it was a holiday. “I mean, we need to make sure it’s okay with Eric, but yeah, I’d like that.”

“Consider it done.” Bryce picked up his phone off the nightstand and checked the time. “It’s only ten on the west coast, so Mr. Borgwardt might still be awake.”

I watched as Bryce tapped out a quick message to his boss and then set his phone on the nightstand. He scooted up so he was sitting against the padded headboard and held out his arm so I could curl up next to him. “Now, what else?”

I was beginning to feel more confident. Bryce hadn’t told me I was being unrealistic when I’d told him about my wish for tomorrow. Maybe he’d love this idea. “I want to get some of the guys together to sponsor Christmas for the kids. Instead of everyone doing their own thing for the holidays, I want whoever we can get to agree to it to go down to the center and make sure it’s a day they’ll never forget. We could ask Cam if he’d be willing to take care of making a huge Christmas dinner, each of us could pick out a few kids to buy gifts for, and then maybe we could load up in the cars and take them all to a movie in the afternoon.”