Written All Over My Face (5/?)

[alienanalysis]

Written All Over My Face

Author: alienanalysis

Title: Written All Over My Face (5/?)

Pairing: Kradam

Rating: NC-17, warning - contains homophobic comments towards the guys

Summary: Kris is relieved when his family accept his relationship with Adam, but he soon learns that not everybody back home is as open-minded

Length: 2,300

Disclaimer: Thisisaworkoffictionidontowneitheroftheguysmaycontainstronglanguageandcontentofasexualnatureblahblahblah.

Notes: Apologies in advance to anyone from Arkansas reading this, as I know not everybody there is as narrow-minded as the characters in this instalment. Writing this was tough, as homophobia is something I absolutely detest. It makes me so glad that I live in the gay capital of Europe, where it’s totally normal to see two guys holding hands in the street, if only the rest of the world would catch up. Anyway, rant over... this chapter is kinda angsty yet again, but there’s a bit of humor coming next to make up for all the doom and gloom :)

Previous chapters:

Chapter 1: A conversation with a chat-show shrink makes Kris finally realize the feelings he’d been hiding in the deepest, darkest part of his mind for months

Chapter 2: Kris searches for the right words to tell Adam his feelings, but it isn’t an easy task. How exactly can he tell Adam he wants to stick his tongue down his throat when he can’t even get his tongue to function enough to speak..?

Chapter 3: Still unable to find the right words to tell Adam, Kris decides to let their bodies do the talking during a seemingly innocent cuddle in Adam’s bed.

Chapter 4: While a blissful Kris dreams of a Disney-style happily ever after, in contrast Adam can’t help worrying that his perfect life is about to come crumbling down



‘Mom, dad... you know I said I had something to tell you..?’

Kris felt Adam reach across to grab his trembling hand as the four of them sat in the Allen’s longue the following weekend. He knew his parent’s were open-minded people and had always been so warm and friendly with Adam in the past, but announcing he was dating the flamboyant nail varnish-wearing rock star was a different matter....

With his heart in his mouth, Kris watched silently as his parents glanced at one another with raised eyebrows.

‘Well, it’s about me and Adam,’ Kris gulped, trying to look them in the eye, but quickly looking back down at the carpet. ‘We’re kind of... well...’

‘It’s OK, honey,’ Mrs Allen responded, reaching out to hug her trembling son. ‘We know what you’re trying to tell us. We pretty much figured it out when you told us you had ‘someone’ coming along for the visit and you turned up with Adam...’

Kris felt a huge weight suddenly drop from his shoulders as he embraced his mother. Tears of relief pricked at his eyes as he fell into her arms, overjoyed that it had been so easy.

‘Welcome to the family,’ Mr Allen said to Adam with a smile, shaking Adam’s hand. ‘You’ll always be welcome in our home.’

Kris let out the longest sigh of relief ever as he watched his parents accept Adam as easily as they’d accepted him. He’d been nervous about making the Big Announcement all week, although Adam had insisted his parents would be cool with it.

‘See, nothing to be worried about,’ Adam whispered.

Kris nodded with a huge grin. ‘You were right... as usual,’ he replied, shifting closer and putting an arm around Adam.

Just being able to do simple things like hug in front of other people without getting raised eyebrows meant so much. In the week that had passed since getting together, they’d been careful not to get too close whenever out in public together, wanting to keep their relationship under wraps for the time being, although at times he’d felt so happy to finally have Adam that he wanted to scream it from the rooftops.

‘Other folk around town might not be as accepting,’ Adam spoke up, his face serious.

Kris’s grin faded as he realized the reality of the matter. Maybe screaming it from the rooftops wasn’t such a good idea, at least not in Arkansas. He knew from living there for over twenty years that not everybody in town was going to be as friendly to Adam as his parents.

But he tried to remain optimistic and give the local folk the benefit of the doubt. After all, Adam had gotten a lot of cheers on the local tour stop.

Later on that afternoon as they drove back to the airport to leave for LA, Kris tried to re-assure Adam that the locals wouldn’t be as bad as he first feared.

‘Not all people from the South are homophobic jerks who voted on speed dial for the more ‘godly’ contestant on May 19,’ Kris insisted. ‘Yeah, you’ll always get some, but we’ve come a long way in the past few decades.’

Adam just raised eyebrow.

‘People are more open-minded these days,’ Kris went on, desperately hoping he was right. ‘And once we end up going public, I’m sure we’ll be accepted!’

Going public. As proud as Kris was to be dating Adam, he couldn’t help feeling nauseous at the thought of the headlines and the comments...

Neither of them had made any announcements yet, other than to close family and friends. They’d agreed to delay telling their management and record label for a while, as they were both fully aware how badly it would go down. Both had agreed that they wanted to enjoy the first few weeks of their relationship without that added pressure.

‘I’m kinda hungry, have we got time to grab food before the flight?’

Kris spotted a Sonic just off the freeway and pulled into the drive-thru. ‘We sure have! I’ve missed Sonic so much since moving to LA. I know you love your In N Out, but you’ve gotta try the SuperSonic cheeseburger!’

‘OK then, but I doubt it’ll taste as awesome as an In N Out Double-Double!’

They drove up to the counter and Kris placed the order.

‘You’ll love it,’ he grinned as they drove up to the next window to pick up the food.

His grin faded as he turned to face the assistant in the window, who was staring at him with a look of utter disgust.

‘Um, it was two cheeseburgers with fries...’ Kris trailed off as the young, spotty male glared at him through the window, making no attempt to pass him the order.

‘Come on, it’ll be getting cold,’ Adam joked.

‘We don’t serve fags here,’ the man spat, folding his arms and continuing to stare back at them through narrowed eyes.

Kris’s jaw dropped open and he felt his hands trembling against the steering wheel. ‘Well, I, erm...’

‘Ignore this dumb fuck here, we’re going somewhere else,’ Adam growled, putting a comforting arm around Kris as they sped off as fast as possible.

Kris was in a numb state of shock as they got back onto the freeway. ‘What the hell was that?’ he muttered, hot angry tears building up behind his eyes. ‘I feel so embarrassed, Adam. I was going on about how the people around here are open-minded and accepting...’

‘It’s OK, they won’t all be as rude as that,’ Adam said softly, stroking Kris’s arm. ‘We still need food, why don’t we just stop at this Target and grab some sandwiches?’

Kris pulled into the parking lot of the Target they were passing and they made their way inside. ‘I still can’t believe it,’ he mumbled to himself.

Kris suddenly felt so stupid and naive. He should have known things wouldn’t be plain sailing, after all he’d heard more than his fair share of ignorant digs about Adam from his own so-called ‘friends’ back home.

He wondered if those same people would even be his friend after the relationship became public.

‘BLT OK with you?’ Adam asked as they browsed what was left of the sandwich selection.

Kris nodded, not that he was in the mood to eat any more. He’d quickly lost his appetite...

As they walked towards the checkout, Kris felt his stomach lurching more and more, and it wasn’t from the slightly stale-looking sandwich in his basket.

The store fell into an eerie silence and every pair of eyes fixed upon the pair of them as they walked toward the check-out.

‘What, what..?’ Kris muttered to Adam, a look of fear washing over his face. ‘Do I have something stuck in my teeth or something? Why are they all staring?’

Adam shrugged as they got into the line. ‘Just ignore them,’ he whispered quietly.

Kris was used to getting stared at while doing his grocery shopping, it was nothing new. But usually, he was bombarded with over-excited women and got asked to pose for photos with little old grandmas.

But this time, nobody spoke to him. It seemed like every person in the store had stopped in their tracks and was staring, eyes wide, whispering to one another with looks of disgust. Kris felt like he was in a surreal dream, but he knew he wasn’t about to wake up.

Something was up, big time.

‘You’re going to hell, both of you!’

Kris gasped and jumped back as an angry middle-aged woman yelled in his face before storming off with her equally scornful-looking husband. ‘What the...?’

‘Shit...’ Adam mumbled, quickly reaching in his pocket for his iPhone that had been turned off all weekend, both of them wanting some quiet time away together without any calls getting in the way.

Kris reached into his pocket to do the same, a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach as he turned his phone on.

Both their phones beeped, flashed and vibrated like crazy as a flood of messages and voicemails showed up. Kris scanned the list frantically trying to figure out what was going on, but Adam beat him to it.

‘A photo has gotten out already.’

*

‘Damn TMZ,’ Adam muttered as he eyed the grainy image of him and Kris sitting together in his car a few days ago, lips locked in what they thought had been a discreet kiss in the dark parking lot before they’d headed off for a low-key dinner in Beverly Hills.

‘I’ve got like, a hundred missed calls from 19,’ Kris hissed in Adam’s ear, glancing around at the staring shoppers lining up behind them.

‘Let’s get the food and run, we can deal with it when they get back to LA,’ Adam insisted, ignoring the dirty look he was getting from a young man staring at him from a few yards away.

‘This is like being in one of those weird dreams where you feel paranoid everyone is looking at you,’ Kris whispered. ‘Only... they really are.’

Adam nodded, hoping the line would go down quickly so they could get out of there as fast as possible. Kris didn’t need shit like this.

What had Kris done to deserve this kind of treatment anyway? He was the sweetest, kindest, most loving person he’d ever met, why couldn’t the people in his local community see him as that?

‘I bet you the Allen family must be so devastated right now,’ the woman behind them in the queue said loudly. ‘Oh gosh, I can’t imagine how horrified they must be that their son has been corrupted by the gays.’

Adam’s mouth dropped open and it took all his restraint not to grab the woman’s shoulders and give her a piece of his mind.

‘Oh, totally,’ the woman’s daughter replied, completely blanking Adam and Kris and turning her back on them. ‘I’m going to pray for them tonight. They need all our prayers at such an awful time.’

Adam slowly turned to face Kris, his heart breaking as he saw the pain in his eyes. He wanted so badly to cradle him in his arms and tell him everything was going to be OK, but he knew even the slightest display of affections would just make the comments worse.

‘Those fags have a nerve to show their faces in a family store like this!’ the mother went on, catching Adam’s eye for a split-second before huffing and turning away.

‘That’s it,’ Kris exclaimed, turned to face the mother and daughter.

‘Wait, Kris...’ Adam protested.

Kris stood directly facing the pair and forced them to look directly at him. ‘You know, Christians are supposed to be loving and accepting,’ he said in a calm manner, although Adam could see the metaphorical steam coming out of his ears.

‘Your... type are not welcome in this town,’ the daughter responded, rolling her eyes at her mother.

‘They should take their sins back to Hollywood, where everybody is going to hell anyway,’ the mother laughed, completely blanking Kris.

Kris gave them a look of complete pity and marched towards the exit, Adam following closely behind.

‘ I wonder if the Westboro Baptist Church are waiting for us outside with their ‘God hates fags’ banners,’ Adam joked, hoping his dark attempt at humor would lighten the mood.

Kris was in no mood for laughing. ‘Let’s just go to the airport,’ he sighed as he unlocked the car, his shoulders slumped and eyes downturned.

Adam waited until they were back on the freeway before he leant in to kiss Kris softly on the cheek. ‘I’m so, so sorry for putting you through that crap.’

‘It’s not your fault!’ Kris exclaimed.

Adam sighed sadly, head in hands. ‘I’m afraid to say, you’re going to get that a lot.’

Kris nodded silently.

‘Not just around here. I’ve gotten my fair share of abuse in California, even from other gay guys. This is the harsh reality of it all, Kris. I’m sorry you had to get such a rough start to it. But it’s gonna happen again.’

‘I know...’ Kris replied quietly.

‘Look, I’d more than understand if you want to forget the whole thing and pretend the photo is a fake and...’

‘Hell, no,’ Kris cut him off firmly. ‘We can’t let moronic people like that win.’

As they pulled up to a red light, Adam noticed yet more prying eyes pointed in their direction from the vehicle next to them. ‘Just ignore it,’ Adam insisted.

Kris shot them a glance of annoyance, before leaning across to kiss Adam’s cheek in full view of their captive audience.

Next chapter >>>