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“Lily. Lily, wake up!”

Lily felt a hand on her shoulder nudging her awake. She slowly opened her eyes and rubbed her face only to see her daddy sitting on her bed holding a camera. He was so strange sometimes.

“Daddy, what?”

“I think someone broke into the apartment.”

“Huh?”

“When I went to bed last night, everything looked normal. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, the tree was lit, the presents Papa and I got you, your brother, and JR were under it too. But NOW there are presents everywhere and I just don’t know who left them. We should call the police so they can investigate and take the presents to the station.”

“No no no no no! Daddy, no! Santa came, it was Santa! Santa came here and left the presents for us! And we DON’T have a chimney, silly!”

Wide awake now at her daddy’s horrible detective skills, she got up and jumped on the bed a few times to get out some of her excitement, then jumped down to the floor and ran for the living room with her dad on her heels. She saw her papa coming out of the kitchen with two cups of coffee, but she couldn’t waste time saying more than a quick “Hi, Papa!” to him right now. She had to get to the living room. When she finally did get there, she squealed and danced around when she saw everything.

“Now, Lily! Make sure you read the names on the tags. Some of those are probably for JR and Gus. Remember when I taught you how to spell and write your name?” her papa asked her as she ran over to the Anna and Elsa dolls.

“Yes, yes L-I-L-Y Lily.” She recited, then looked over at daddy. “Daddy, can you open Elsa?”

Daddy sighed as he turned off the camera and said, “I’ll try. Those twist ties are a real bi-…pain though.”

“Okay, daddy. You try your best and ask Papa if you need help, okay?”

“Yes, dear, be sure to help poor little me with this god awful packaging.”

Her papa laughed at that and went over to sit next to Daddy on the couch. He put Daddy’s mug of coffee on the coffee table, then turned to her.

“Lily, why don’t we see what’s in your stocking?”

“Okay!”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eric turned to Brian and smirked then shook his head.

“You really had to get her up at 6:45 in the morning?”

“Someone broke into the house, Eric. She had to know. Besides, I was bored.”

“Just admit it. You are a little bit into the Christmas spirit this year and you know it.”

Brian leaned closer and said in a low sensual voice, “Bah…humbug” then pulled mistletoe out of the couch and held it over their heads.

“Did you seriously stash mistletoe in the couch like you used to with condoms? Brian, you are so weird.” Eric gasped out as he laughed but was shut up by Brian’s lips against his.

“Daddy, Papa, stop.” Lily told them as she colored in her new coloring book. She had been pouting a little since they told her she had to wait until the rest of her family came before they opened the wrapped presents. If Brian had let her sleep as long as possible, this wouldn’t be happening.

“Who all is coming this morning?”

Brian started adding them up in his head.

“Gus, JR, Lindsay, Mel, Michael, Ben, Hunter, and Cynthia.”

“Jesus, will they all fit in here?”

“We shall see. It will be like a game.”

Eric smiled at that. “Well, you are in a playful mood this morning.”

Brian shrugged and went over to Lily. “Hey Lily, how about I make you hot chocolate and then the three of us will play one of your new board games?”

“Can we play Candyland?”

“Absolutely.”

“Okay!” Lily exclaimed as she ran over to the tree to get the game.

Eric came up behind Brian and held him around the waist.

“I love you like this, Brian. You are so good to our kid,” he whispered in Brian’s ear.

Brian looked down and gave a humble smile. He secretly enjoyed being like this too.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After Lily kicked their asses at Candyland three times in a row and they put on Elf for her to watch, they heard a knock at the door. Lily, who had been immersed in Buddy the Elf’s antics, turned around really quickly and said,

“Gus, JR, and Aunt Cynthia?”

“It just might be. I’ll go check.”

Eric got up to look through the peephole then opened the door. Michael was in front of the crowd and exclaimed, “Merry Christmas!”

Lily ran over to greet them all. Daddy and Papa took Lily to Toronto for holidays and usually for at least a weekend every other month, sometimes more, and they would go to Pittsburgh to see Aunt Cynthia almost just as much. They came to see her too, especially Aunt Cynthia and Gus, but she missed them so much in between visits. She loved them all, but she REALLY loved Gus, JR, and Aunt Cynthia.

Gus, because he was her brother. He was always nice to her and would sometimes even play with her. But he hadn’t been playing with her as much the last few times she saw him. He never liked playing dolls or dress up, but he had been ignoring her more. Daddy said it was because he was a teenager now and had a girlfriend. If she ever got friend like that, she wouldn’t ignore people, but that was just her.

JR was almost 11 years old and not a teenager so she would play with her more, even though she wasn’t her sister. She didn’t understand that, because she was Gus’s sister, so wouldn’t that make JR her sister too? She felt like JR was her big sister though and she loved it when she got to come with Gus and stay with them. She liked Disney movies okay, but she liked sports a lot more than dolls, dress up, and playing pretend. That was okay though because JR had taught her how to throw a ball sort of right this past fall and it was sort of fun.

But she missed Aunt Cynthia the most. She loved Aunt Cynthia so much and wished that she lived a lot closer. She came to visit a lot though. She would take Lily out for ice cream and to the park. They would have what Aunt Cynthia would call girl’s day out and they would go do things like go to kids’ museums and go out to dinner. She would play with her and read her bedtime stories when she was in. She had even heard people say that she had Aunt Cynthia’s eyes and she loved that people thought that because Aunt Cynthia was really pretty. She was so nice to her and told Lily that she was the most important person in her life.

“Hi, Uncle Michael!” Lily called out as she ran over to give him and Uncle Ben a hug.

“Hey, baby girl!” Uncle Ben told her.

“Uncle Ben! I’m not a baby girl anymore!”

“That’s right, I’m sorry. I keep forgetting you are a big girl now.”

“Yep! Where’s Aunt Cynthia?”

“Hi, sweetie.”

Lily turned and found her. She was carrying a suitcase and had a happy smile on her face. She kneeled down and Lily ran into her arms and held on as tight as she could. Aunt Cynthia picked her up and held on tight. Lily didn’t want to be let down, so Aunt Cynthia just talked to her while holding her.

“I see that Santa came to visit.”

“Uh huh. He must have known Gus and JR would be coming ‘cause he left them stuff too. Daddy came in and woke me up telling me someone broke into the house and left a bunch of stuff here. He was going to call the police and have them come get it! It’s like he forgot it was Christmas!”

“Brian!” everyone said as they looked over towards the kitchen where Brian was making pancakes and more coffee.

“What? Everything I said was completely true.”

Aunt Cynthia rolled her eyes and looked back at Lily.

“Well, I brought you some presents too. I even brought a present for Gus and JR.”

“Did you fill up that suitcase up with presents?” Lily asked, eyes wide.

“You bet, you spoiled girl.”

“I’m not spoiled! It’s not my fault you bought me presents,” Lily giggled.

“I suppose you’re right. I just have to learn to ignore your cuteness.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cynthia put Lily down and opened the suitcase so she could put the presents she brought under the tree. She put the suitcase in the corner of the room then turned around to watch Lily interact with JR while Gus went in to hug his dad and talk to him. She knows that she spent too much on Lily. She knows she spoils that little girl, but she can’t help it. She really missed Lily after their visits ended. Even though she had told Brian and Eric that they didn’t need to tell Lily her biological role in Lily’s life until she was older, Lily was her daughter. No, she hadn’t carried her for nine months, but she felt such a strong bond with her that she hadn’t expected. She wanted her to have the things she never could have even hoped to have when she was a child. She knew Brian and Eric were more than capable when it came to loving her and making sure she wanted for nothing, but she wanted to contribute in any way she could.

Cynthia had grown up poor. Her father had left the family while her mother was pregnant with her so it had just been Cynthia, her mother, and her sister, who had been five years older. Her mother had worked her ass off to provide for them. She had worked as a maid at a motel in the mornings and worked as a bartender at night. Her sister often had to watch her and put her to bed once their mother went to work if they didn’t get a babysitter. But they had made it work. Cynthia didn’t remember feeling like she was lacking anything until she was six years old and her sister had been diagnosed with leukemia. Despite getting financial assistance for treatments and her sister going through chemotherapy, they had lost her a year after the diagnosis. Losing her oldest daughter had driven her mother into a downward spiral. She never got over it. She drank almost non-stop and had emotionally distanced herself from Cynthia. She was never abusive. She never hit her or was mean to her. She had just ignored her. Sometimes she would tell Cynthia how sorry she was and that she loved her as she tried to pick herself up off the floor.

Cynthia thinks her mother understood her behavior enough to encourage Cynthia to go out of state and away from her for college. She had even signed a loan form for a parent plus loan but Cynthia knew she could never afford it so she sent the payments in herself. She would send the money to her mother, but she was afraid of what her mother might spend it on. When she started working for Brian full-time and was doing well for herself, she got her mother into a better place and made sure her bills were paid for, but never sent her more than grocery money. Her mother couldn’t go to more than a couple of AA meetings without falling off the wagon and still had problems dealing with her daughter’s death, even after thirty years. Cynthia obviously handled it better, but she still missed her sister and wondered what it would have been like to grow up with her. Right before Lily was born and Brian and Eric asked her what her first name should be, she immediately said the first name of the sister she had lost as a child.

Cynthia never regretted her decision to not carry Lily and give her parental rights to Brian. She had always respected Brian. He was only six years older than her, but he had been a mentor and a heroic figure in her life ever since she had met him. He had taken her on part-time at Ryder when she was a junior at La Roche College, even though he had been told to look for a full-time assistant. Cynthia remembers asking him if he was sure if that was okay and he had said that he didn’t need a full-time assistant after all and it was for the best to keep himself working more. He had said he wanted to start her at $12 an hour since he remembered how a low-paying part time job really fucked his finances when he was in school. He didn’t want her to have to work her ass off at two jobs when she had classes to focus on. She remembers almost bursting into tears at his surprising kindness and making him incredibly uncomfortable as she tried to keep her eyes from leaking. He had taken her on full-time the day after she graduated. She has been so grateful for what he had done for her and has even loved Brian for all the time she has known him. The fact that he was with Eric who had strangely and coincidentally been her first boyfriend made her even more keen to say yes to being the mother of their child. Even though it turned out that Eric came out as gay years later, he had been incredibly kind to her and non-judgmental when it came to her financial class and mother, despite coming from an upper-middle class, two parent home. But she probably would have agreed to do it if Brian had been with Justin still and he wanted him to have a biological child with her.

She had never planned to be a mother. After watching her mother suffer the way she did and seeing how it had devastated her to lose a child, she told herself she would never have kids. She had never been around young children for long periods of time, so she didn’t feel much for them anyway. She wanted to be a career woman. She would go to school, make decent money, and maybe get a cat. All that had happened. She graduated with honors, she now ran the Pittsburgh branch of Kinnetik with Ted and was making more money than she ever dreamed of, and she came home to her Maine Coon, Jasper. She hadn’t expected Lily to come into her life but, like she never regretted giving Brian her rights, she never regretted forming a bond with her. She loved her so much and she was so glad she was being raised by two people who loved her dearly as well. The only thing she kind of regretted was that she had been the one to insist that Lily call her aunt instead of mom.

“Come on, Aunt Cynthia. I wanna show you what I got so far.” Lily commanded as she pulled on Cynthia’s hand. Cynthia followed her daughter. She pulled her skirt down and sat on her knees to look at what Lily had to show her. Brian and Eric had done pretty well when it came to indulging Lily’s girly girl tastes. From what she could see, Santa had brought Lily some new dolls, a few costume dresses, and a little purse. They had also gotten gender neutral gifts, like a small bike with training wheels, a couple of board games, and several coloring books. She is pretty sure Brian had secretly wanted her to be at least a little bit of a tomboy. He had tried to get her to broaden her horizons a little. However, the most he could get her to do was to get her to wear a helmet when she rode her tricycle instead of a tiara. But the helmet Lily had picked was purple and had glittery stars on it, so Cynthia didn’t think that was a huge win on the tomboy front.

“Look at what I colored for you, Aunt Cynthia! I colored it just for you!” Lily proclaimed proudly as she handed her a sheet out of her coloring book. She was getting coordinated enough to color somewhat in the lines now.

“Lily, it’s beautiful. I will put it on my refrigerator. How does that sound?”

“Good. Then when you go into the kitchen and get something to eat, you can think of me and how much I love you.”

Lily got up and ran into the kitchen to see Gus. Cynthia took Lily’s artwork and carefully put it into the pocket of the suitcase she brought with her.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Brian sat down with everyone and they did their gift exchange. They had each gotten the other adults in the room something and had all gotten probably way too much on the kids. They had fun watching the kids get excited over their gifts. Gus and JR didn’t believe in Santa anymore, but they still got presents from him since they were both kids and to keep the illusion up for Lily as well. They also got the kids presents that were from them too. They had gotten JR a new softball mitt, a camera, some money, and some new clothes. Brian sort of went all out on Gus. He and Eric had gotten him a new gaming system, the new iPhone, some books, a leather jacket, a few movies he had been wanting, and a gift card for the mall up in Toronto so he could buy some things for himself.

He had also bought Gus condoms, although he wasn’t that much of a jerk to put those under the tree. Lindsay had called him up a few days ago asking him to have “the talk” with Gus. They thought it would be better that he get it from his father, rather than either of his mothers. Both Mel and Linds had been a little worried that he might be an early bloomer like his father. The thing was, despite Gus being a dead ringer for him and having a bit of his sarcastic aloofness going on, he wasn’t all that much like him. For one, he was pretty sure the kid was as straight as an arrow. Sure they say no one is completely one way or another, but Gus had always had crushes on girls and practically had hearts in his eyes when he talked about Penelope, his girlfriend. He was also a lot more innocent than Brian ever was. He didn’t jump right into things like sex, but even if he did, he would much rather hear that Gus had slept with Penelope than hear he got taken advantage of by his gym teacher in the locker room. Brian had tried to make that story into something hot, but he would be devastated and enraged if that happened to either one of his kids. So he said he would talk with him before they left after the New Year. If Gus did end up having sex, he wanted him to be safe and not be afraid to talk about it with him if something happened.

The kids had opened all their presents, at least until they got to Emmett and Drew’s house in Hoboken. In the past, Emmett tended to splurge on Lily when it came to birthdays and Christmas. Even if Emmett didn’t make it to Toronto where they usually gathered for a special occasion, Lily always had a package waiting for her when they got back to Chicago. Brian and Emmett always had a strange friendship. They never had much in common and pushed each other’s buttons in the past, but he did appreciate Emmett accepting Eric into the group immediately with open arms and without questions or skepticism. He appreciated Emmett’s neutral feelings when it came to him ending his relationship with Justin and not taking one side or the other. When Brian learned to open up a little more, he even told Emmett how much he had appreciated his actions back then, which of course led Emmett to become a touchy and teary mess. After Lily was born and she became old enough to make it known what her tastes were when it came to toys and clothes, Brian had sort of been lost when it came to buying stuff for her. Emmett was probably too ecstatic to help him out when it came to mentoring Brian when it came to buying clothes and gifts for her and showing him what stores and activities they could do that would indulge that side of her as well. So he knew that they would be lugging home at least a few things for Lily and probably sending some stuff up from Emmett back to Toronto for Gus and JR too.

Everyone was pretty tired after the Christmas morning high. Lily had passed out on top of the torn up wrapping paper, Gus was lounging next to her texting on his new phone, JR was sitting next to Hunter with her head on his shoulder, and the adults were sitting there quietly. Since there were eleven of them and the apartment was a temporary place that Brian and Eric had only really prepared for three people, not all of them got chairs. But they made it work and enjoyed each other’s company. However, they all avoided the topic of Justin. Everyone, including Brian and Eric, knew he and Nathan were going to Emmett’s today and no one really knew how to bring up the subject. It had been so long since they had witnessed Brian and Justin in the same room and, even though they heard Justin went to lunch with Brian, Eric, and Lily and it went well, they couldn’t really anticipate how this was going to go. In all honesty, Brian couldn't either. He didn't think the problem would be spending an evening with Justin, he just didn't know how he would feel spending an evening with Justin with Nathan along. Brian would like to think he grew up and could deal with seeing his ex with someone else. Justin seemed to do fine when he met Eric and Lily. However, Brian knows Justin has always been a bit more emotionally mature than him. Brian knows he can be a petty asshole when he gets upset by something. As much as he tried to work on that in the past several years, it still happened. But he was going to try his best not to be.

“It’s a little after 11 now. We are probably going to head back to the hotel to get the gifts back to the room and maybe see some of the city. What time should we meet you to catch the train?” Michael asked as he started picking up some wrapping paper around the tree.

Eric got on his phone to look at the holiday schedule.

“When does Emmett want us there? Around 4, right? The PATH for Hoboken leaves every 20-30 minutes from 33rd Street. There is a train that is supposed to leave at 3:15. Let’s meet above ground at the entrance by 3 so we can go together. If we get there early, we can just walk around the park in front of Emmett’s place for a little bit so you guys can enjoy the view.

“That sounds good to us,” Ben said as he stood up.

“Hey JR, do you want to come with us or stay with your moms and we’ll just see you there?”

JR shrugged and said she supposed she would go with them then put on her coat and boots. Michael and Ben asked Gus if he wanted to tag along too but he wanted to stay with his dad for the day. Mel and Lindsay decided to head back to the hotel and rest a little before going to Emmett’s. Cynthia headed out the door soon after, but not before she carried Lily to her bed. Soon, it was just Eric, Brian, and Gus in the room. Gus put on one of his movies and they all sat down and watched it together.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Are you sure we don’t need to bring anything? Like a casserole or something?”

As Justin straightened Nathan’s tie, he shook his head.

“We are bringing an expensive bottle of wine and that should be enough. Believe me, Emmett has it covered. He bought all this food that he is dying to make and bringing over any more would just be downright gluttonous. We will all go in and help him, of course. Dinner won’t be ready until at least 6. It’ll be a good time to visit with everyone else too.”

“Like Brian?”

Justin grimaced. “And everyone else. I’m looking forward to seeing Gus. I got to keep in touch with him even after Brian and I ended things because I stayed in touch with Lindsay and Mel. But I haven’t seen him since August when Lindsay took him to Philadelphia for my show. I have only gotten a couple of emails from him since then.

Nathan sighed. “I’m glad you kept in touch with him. I know you told me you knew him since the night he was born. I would never hold that against you. I’m happy he is still in your life. Don’t mind me, I’m just a little jealous I guess. And curious. How did you keep in contact with Gus and your friends but not run into Brian until now?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. I spent the holidays with my mother and sister, so I didn’t really run into him then. I’m pretty sure he straight up avoided me when he was still in Pittsburgh and I would go back to visit everyone. I guess we never were in Toronto at the same time. Or maybe Debbie gave him a heads up. Running into each other strangely never happened until we were both in the most crowded and anonymous city in the world.”

“Are you comfortable having dinner with him being there?”

“I guess it will be okay. I don’t think he hates me or anything. He’s moved on. I will be cordial with him. There will be a lot of people there anyway so if it gets too uncomfortable, we can always talk to someone else.”

“I guess. You inviting him to the art show?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Well you called pretty much everyone coming, besides Drew’s grandparents, to invite them since they will be in town. Someone might bring up how they are all looking forward to it. It might be awkward if you leave just Brian and Eric off the guest list.”

Justin is absolutely flabbergasted at what comes out of Nathan’s mouth sometimes. For the last three days, he would act completely okay with meeting Brian one minute and interrogate Justin on Kinney 101 the next. Nathan seemed to be both threatened and drawn to Brian. He did give Brian props on going to prom to sweep Justin off his feet and the whole Stockwell saga. He also admired Brian for paying for Justin’s education and encouraging his art career. But at the same time it seemed as though Nathan felt that he couldn’t compete with someone like that, even though Brian wasn’t in the competition when it came to Justin anymore. So Justin did find it surprising that Nathan would suggest inviting him to the show.

“I-I don’t know, Nathan. It is probably the polite thing to do. I could maybe do that?”

Luckily, Molly walked out of the bathroom at that point and raised her eyebrow at the tension.

“So, what are we talking about?”

“Nothing, Mol-”

“Justin and I were just talking about how it would be polite to invite Brian and his partner to his art show.”

“Oh. Well, that would be an interesting idea.”

“I thought so too.”

“Nathan, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Nothing is wrong, Justin. I just made a suggestion.”

“You are acting ridiculous!”

“Because I suggested you invite someone to your gallery? You are being so defensive and delusional.”

“I’m going to take a walk around the block,” Molly muttered as she put her coat on and walked out the door.

After the door closed behind her, Nathan and Justin just stared at each other.

“I was seriously just making a suggestion, Justin. I am trying to be supportive. I am not trying to fuck with you by giving you some test to pass.”

“Okay. I’m sorry. I really am. I will admit that this is weird for me. I know I am being too defensive about it.”

Nathan walked over to Justin and gently grabbed him by the tie.

“You may be the first person I ever loved in my life, but I understand the situation enough. Brian was your first. He had a huge part of your life, things ended badly and abruptly, and suddenly he is back in your life after several years. Part of you will always love him. I get it. I have interrogated you enough the last few days to try to understand the guy. I have been a bit petulant with the way I have been acting, and I’m sorry for that. I really do want to be supportive and I was trying to show that by suggesting you invite him to your show.”

Nathan bent down a little to kiss him on the mouth, then turned around to look in the full-length mirror.

“So Taylor, how do I look? Dashing? Ridiculous?”

Justin turned him back around and looked at Nathan from head to toe.

“Beautiful.”

“Really?”

The exchange started to give Justin severe déjà vu so he kissed Nathan with all the passion he could muster. Things started to heat up and Justin was just about to undo Nathan’s tie again but Nathan stopped him by giving him a gentle push on the shoulder.

“Molly left because we were arguing. I don’t want her walking in on our hot makeup sex. Besides, your mom will be here in about twenty minutes.” Nathan looked down at their crotches and saw they were already both a little hard. “Damn. Help me think of something disgusting.”

“A woman getting pieces of skin out of her teeth?”

“Please, that is so four days ago.”

“An elderly woman mastur-”

“Stop. I don’t want you to finish that sentence.”

They hear a knock on the door and both turn their heads towards the sound. Molly raises her voice with a, “I’m coming in now because it is fucking cold outside and you both better be dressed!” and used her key to get in.

She looked at both of them to inspect how much she had cock blocked. Not being able to truly tell but having an instinctual feeling that she did in fact cock block her older brother, she felt satisfied and went to lounge on the couch.

“I wish mom and Tucker would get here already. You both are making things so awkward.”

Justin just looked at her. Molly was never one to bite her tongue.

“So, brother of mine, have they texted saying they were on their way yet?”

“Yeah. They texted while you were in the bathroom.”

“Good. Because I am starving. All I had was cereal.”

“We are still exchanging gifts here with mom. Dinner probably won’t be ready until 6 at least. You might want to snack on something else.”

As Molly became quite content with the package of cinnamon Pop-Tarts she was holding, they heard the buzzer ring. Justin saw from the camera that it was his mother and Tucker so he let them up. Nathan instantly became straight laced and stiff as his mother walked through the door and Justin rolled his eyes. Nathan wasn’t the type to become easily nervous around just one person, but Jennifer Taylor was an exception to that rule. He wanted her to like him. The thing was, his mother did like Nathan. She felt protective of him since he lost his parents so young and didn’t have any family to speak of. Justin hadn’t told her all of the details, but she had witnessed him have a minor flashback one of the few times she had met him and her heart had ached for him. She just had made it known to Justin that she thought they were an odd match for each other. He never would tell Nathan that though. He didn’t want to put that on him.

“Hi, sweetie! Merry Christmas.” His mother told him as she walked through the door and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She walked over to Molly and Nathan to do the same.

They sat down to exchange gifts. Along with painting them artwork and having it sent back to their respective homes, he had also written Molly a check as well as his mother and Tucker an even larger one. They didn’t want to accept it but he refused to take it back. He had also gotten Molly a New York Pass with tickets for museums and free meals at restaurants that were good for a year. He got his mother a membership at a spa up in Connecticut and Tucker sweater that he had bought on Madison Ave because in all honesty he didn’t know what else to get Tucker. Nathan had bought Molly a book by Stephen Hawking and his mother a nice bracelet. Nathan had asked Justin what Tucker would even want and Justin had been almost as clueless as he was but told Nathan he didn’t have to worry about it. Nathan decided to get him a gift card from Amazon, so Tucker could just get himself something he wanted.

His mother and Tucker had gotten him a gift card to his favorite art supplies store plus some clothes his mother thought he would like. They gave Nathan Just Kids by Patti Smith and a new jacket. Molly had given Nathan original records she found at an independent music store and Justin two tickets to one of the shows Off-Broadway he kept saying he wanted to see but hadn’t yet. And of course, his mother showered her youngest with necklaces, new dresses, and a new petticoat. They killed time with conversation and before they knew it, it was 3 pm. Justin started to feel nervous as he got ready to go. He kept telling himself it would be alright, but he felt as though he were in for a long and eventful night.