All Great Plans

Potatoes au Gratin, that's the name of the dish, I'd never heard of it, but then I have the cultural awareness of a drunken monkey. I have my own name for it though, fucking delicious. Camille's cooking skills are on display again, and I am definitely not complaining.

"That was amazing." Jasper says what we're all thinking as we finish off what little remains. "Minnie'll be jealous that she missed out." He smirks.

"Yes, but her not being here means I may keep this down." Rouge rolls her eyes. Camille stands and begins collecting the various crockery and cutlery around the table.

"This is your wife?" William asks, apparently confused by my sister's revulsion.

"Yeah, don't worry, Rouge just does that." I laugh before turning to Camille. "I'll give you a hand." I offer, standing and taking some of the plates to the sink. The others head back through to the living room, leaving me along with Elise's mother. My girlfriend does look to me to make sure I'm okay, to which I nod with a smile, before she makes her exit. I feel a lot more relaxed at this point. Maybe it's the gin from earlier finally kicking in, or the wine, or both. Whatever the case, I feel soothed.

Camille directs me in French showing a rotating motion, then pointing to the drying rack. Got it, you wash, I dry. I take to my new role well, I even manage to intuit where the plates go in the cupboards. Look at me, domestic goddess, I bet Camille has never seen such organisation.

I may be too pleased with how this is going.

To be fair, I was expecting some kind of murder, maybe a natural disaster, and a plague of locusts, anything's going well by those standards. Camille picks our glasses up off the table and hands me the rest of my wine, proposing a toast in her native language. I agree to whatever she said and clink my glass to hers. I'm actually getting along with my girlfriend's parents, that's crazy to me, I'd always hear parents were the hard part, like you'd meet someone nice, get to know them, it all looks great, then boom. In-laws from Hell.

I've watched too many movies, sometimes, all's well that ends-

"Stop it! All of you!" I hear screamed from the other room. Elise's voice. I leave my glass and rush through to the living room. No. Not now. Not after all this. I enter to find my mother horrified at the scenes in front of her, even Rouge looks taken aback on the other side of the room.

"I get it, big shot, perfect job, perfect house, perfect wife, but some of us don't get to just smarm our way through life, we have to make compromises, welcome to the real work, dickhead!" Jaspers voice echoes, his finger pointing straight into William's chest, both of their faces filled with a righteous fury.

Elise is a few paces away, tears in her eyes. "Compromise is getting a pizza when you want a curry, not ending up with a wife my sister hates, a child you cannot support, and no respect. I took my opportunities. You think you luck your way into a fancy job and that puts you on my level? I worked, boy!" William roars. He resembles the persona I met after being caught with Elise far more than his normal, suave, self.

"And in turn you neglected your daughter so much that you didn't even know she was gay until after it'd been proven beyond a doubt. Sounds to me like you're not too far off being an absentee father yourself, maybe you made more compromises than I thought!" Jasper snarls. It's a side of Jasper I've rarely seen, he looks truly furious at Elise's father for whatever started this.

William growls before shouting louder than ever. "My daughter is not gay, she's had these little phases a thousand times, we entertain her, she gets bored, she forgets about it, and as soon as she does, the better!" His words cut into my chest. I thought... I thought we got along. I thought things were going well. Is that why? He doesn't have to bother to chase me off because he thinks Elise doesn't really care about me?

I look to her face as silence fills the room. I haven't seen tears in her eyes for a while, I guess she didn't know that was what William really thought either. More than that, she looks betrayed, she's... She's scared. And it's his fault. I know what comes next.

Crack.

I know everyone was expecting the sound of a fist hitting his cheek. I just don't think they expected it to be me. William stumbles from the blow and I grab Elise's hand. "Let's go!" I repeat her words to her. She looks me in the eyes and we begin running out of the house and into the night. I don't know where I'm leading her... Wait... Yes I do.

We keep running until we arrive at the spot. The spot where I told her how I felt. The spot where we kissed in the rain. Elise sits down in the bus stop, still in shock. I put my arm around her and she rests her head on my shoulder.

"Papa... He was always... I never thought..." She tries, before breaking down in sobs. It's okay, you can cry. I'm here when you're ready.

*

"You're not a phase to me." Elise finally speaks. We've sat here for a while now, maybe an hour? Not that I mind, I'd wait here for days if it made her feel better. "I can't believe that's what he thinks it is."

William doesn't strike me as homophobic or anything, I think he just thinks he knows better, so he doesn't need to respect our relationship since he knows Elise is straight. it was hard enough for her to come to terms with it, suppose it's not surprising that he looks at it like a fad. "He was angry, he wanted to lash out, I don't think he meant to hurt you." I try to reassure her.

To my surprise Elise laughs at this. "Could have fooled me." She smiles. Yeah, I suppose I did smack him one, but he deserved at least that, didn't he? "It doesn't matter what he meant, he lied to me, told me he accepted you... That should've been the hint... He never said he accepted me being gay." She realises in a melancholy tone. That's the first time I've heard her say it outright, I thought she might be Bi or something, but I guess... I guess she's sure now.

"He'll come around, he's just... A man. Him and Jasper were acting so macho one of them were gonna say something stupid." I think out loud. I'll need to figure out what caused that argument when I get home. I'm guessing everyone will have gone home at this point. "What do you want to do now?" I ask Elise.

"I... I can't go home, not yet, I just... Can we go to yours?" She begs me, desperation in her voice so palpable it sounds like she's going to cry again.

I pull her into a hug as reassurance. "Sure, of course, we'll get a taxi..." I trail off... Shit. No purse, no wallet, no cash. I'm guessing Elise is the same. Our escape from school was easier, all that needed was a short walk. Well, time to call for a favour. "On second thought, I know exactly who to call."

Trish's car pulls up a little while later, Elise and I pile into the back and I thank her for coming.

"I was in the area, you doing okay El?" She inquires with a worried look on her face. Elise's worry smile tries to form but she doesn't have the strength. Trish takes this as an answer and begins the drive home. I keep my arm around Elise the entire time. the journey is silent, but peacefully so, I barely blink before we're pulling up outside my house. "You look after her okay?" She orders me.

"Wait!" Elise yelps. "Would you come in too? Just for a bit?" She asks timidly. Trish looks to me for confirmation, I give her the nod and she turns the engine off. The three of us make our way to the door.

I need to make sense of this situation.