Felix stood nervously in his bedroom, clutching a stack of handwritten notes. He – he, he, he, it still made him happy to even think it – had called a family meeting, and his parents and siblings were waiting for him in the living room. He was about to give them some big news. He was pretty sure they wouldn’t kick him out of the house or anything, but would they think that twelve was too early to make this decision? Would they write this off as just a phase? What if they ignored that he said anything and pretend like it didn’t happen? He clutched his notes so hard he crinkled the edges of the paper.
Taking a deep breath, he marched out of his room and into the living room. He strode in confidently, then balked as he was greeted by the sight of his audience. His mom sat expectantly, his dad was blank-faced, Frankie looked bored, and Finn was messing with a pillow he had on his lap. Feeling his face flush, he cleared his throat and shuffled through his notes. “Okay. So. I’ve called this meeting today…” He ran a hand through the hair he’d convinced his parents to let him cut short. “…to, to make an announcement.” He closed his eyes; he couldn’t bring himself to watch his family’s faces. Time to just drop it. “I’m not a girl. I’m a boy.”
He cracked open one of his eyes nervously. He was met mostly with blank or confused stares. He squeezed his eyes back shut, and almost considered backtracking and saying it was a joke, when his mom finally broke the silence. She still looked a bit confused, but she was smiling. “Alright, sweetie. Do you want us to call you anything different from now on?”
He didn’t need the notes for this one. He puffed out his chest and declared, just like he practiced so many times to himself in his room, “Felix Jackson Fix, Jr.”
There was a painful moment where no one said anything. Frankie barely held back an awkward snicker.
His mom gave him a gentle smile, but glanced at her husband’s face, as if trying to gauge his reaction. His dad’s face remained stoic as ever, for one second, two seconds. Felix started feeling nauseous when a grin slowly split across the impenetrable wall of his dad’s facial hair. “I think that’s a great name, son.”
Felix blinked a few times in disbelief, before blinking a few more times as his eyes got blurry with tears. “D-do you really –“
Finn had been fidgeting in his seat for the whole meeting, and he finally blurted out, “Does this mean I have an older brother now?!” He threw his pillow aside, jumped out of his seat, ran over and nearly toppled Felix over with a hug. “That’s so cool! We can play video games and baseball and and –“
“Finn, we already do all of that stuff,” Felix laughed.
“I know, but now I get to do it with my brother!” Finn hugged Felix even tighter.
Frankie got up and ruffled Felix’s hair. “I guess having two little brothers won’t be so bad. Just don’t team up on me for water balloon fights.” She cracked a crooked grin.
His mom wrapped all three of them in a big group hug. “You know we’ll love you no matter what, sweetheart.” She pulled Felix back to arm’s length, looking him over. “I’ll need to take you clothes shopping, then.”
His dad grunted as he arose from his armchair, and all attention shifted to him. “Let’s all go together! Family trip to go get Felix some new duds.” He clapped and rubbed his hands together. “Everyone to the car!”
Finn ran excitedly to the back door, and Frankie and his mom followed suit. His dad motioned for Felix to hang back with him. “I’m proud of you, son. It took some real courage to tell us about this.” He patted him on the back. “What are you going to want, polos? I could set you up with some real spiffy button-ups.”
As they walked away, the sheets of notes Felix had so carefully prepared were scattered forgotten on the living room floor. He had done so much research, and written out so many different reasons his family should accept him. As it turned out, though, the only reason they needed was their unconditional love for him.
