by Erica Lee
Anyone
But Her
Erica Lee
Copyright © 2019 By Erica Lee
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Dedication
Dedicated to my three older brothers. If you’re actually reading this, I appreciate the support, but please don’t go any further than this page. Thank you for always accepting and supporting me. I am the person I am today because I have the three of you to look up to. I love and appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.
Chapter 1: Reagan
“Reagan Cooper. Paging Reagan Cooper,” a voice boomed over the intercom. I opened one eye, then slowly opened the other, as I continued to hear my name being called. Realizing it wasn’t going to stop, I hopped out of bed and made my way down the hallway.
Once in our living room, I glared at my roommate, Jamie. “What do you want?” I groaned. “It’s not even 8:00 yet.”
Jamie brushed me off with a shake of his hand. “I’m still on school time. I’ve been up for hours. Plus, I love using our new intercom system. It’s so cool that we live somewhere big enough to have one of these.”
I rolled my eyes at his excitement. “It’s not that big. It’s just not the sardine can we shared in the city.” A few weeks ago, Jamie and I had moved from the apartment that we’d shared in the city to a New Jersey town about 25 minutes outside of New York. It had been a tough decision to give up living in the city, but we both agreed this way we could save money, while not completely losing the city experience. It also gave us the chance to move from a small one bedroom to a significantly bigger two bedroom.
Jamie pouted. “Don’t rain on my parade. It’s still exciting.”
I picked up the box of cereal he had sitting out on the counter and poured myself a bowl. “So, is that the only reason you interrupted my precious beauty sleep?”
“You’re already beautiful, darling. No more sleep is needed,” Jamie joked. “But I also wanted to talk to you about my trip next week.”
I pushed my bottom lip out at the mention of his trip. He was going back to his hometown for five weeks, and I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do without him. He might drive me nuts most of the time, but he was still my best friend in the whole world. “I thought we agreed not to talk about that. It’s too sad to think about spending over a month apart.”
“That’s exactly why I brought it up,” Jamie said excitedly, but something about his tone told me that I should probably be worried. He hesitated a beat before adding, “I was kind of hoping you would come with me.”
I laughed at his suggestion. “To your family reunion?”
Jamie brought his hands together in a praying motion, giving me his best puppy dog eyes. “Please. You work from home so it’s perfect. And it solves the issue of us being apart.” I was confused by his suggestion. Why would he want me to come home with him so badly? He had never told me a ton about his family. I knew they were super conservative, hence the reason he had yet to come out to them. Did he want me there as some sort of buffer? Would it make him feel more comfortable to have the presence of his liberal lesbian bestie?
“I’m confused why you want me to go so badly and why you are just asking me now. You’ve been talking about this trip for a year.” I raised an eyebrow at him to show that I was questioning his motives.
Jamie smiled at me in return. “I want to spend some time away with my bestie. Is that so hard to believe? And I’m asking now, because I just thought of it. My mom suggested that I bring you actually.”
I let out a hearty laugh. “Your super conservative mother with a super conservative family suggested you bring along your lesbian roommate to the big family reunion?”
Jamie ran a hand through his short blond hair. “She did actually. Of course, she doesn’t know you’re a lesbian. That’s the funny part. I think you might laugh,” he said nervously. “She actually thinks you’re…” He turned away from me and spoke the last part of his sentence into his hands, making it impossible for me to hear.
“She thinks I’m what, Jamie?” I asked, leaning forward to hear better. His demeanor had me worried. What could he possibly say that I wouldn’t want to hear?
“She thinks…” Jamie took a deep breath before looking me in the eyes. “She sort of thinks you’re my girlfriend.”
His girlfriend? The thought that I could be the girlfriend of anyone of his gender was hilarious to me, the girl who had been out since ninth grade. I tried my best to stifle my laugh, since Jamie looked significantly bothered by this confession. “And why would she think that, Jamie?”
He looked down at the foot he was dragging in circles across the floor. “I may have told her that when we moved in together. I figured she would find it weird if I was just moving in with some girl, so I told her I was moving in with my girlfriend. Of course, I didn’t think about the fact that she would lecture me about us living in sin, but…”
I put my hand up before Jamie could continue and shook my head in confusion. “I have so many questions right now. We moved in together four years ago. Your family thinks that you have been dating someone for four years and they don’t find it strange that they have yet to meet this girl? Also… living in sin? Really? I knew your parents were religious, but sheesh. That’s a lot, man.”
Jamie cleared his throat a few times, clearly nervous. “They actually think we have been dating for six years. There was no way I could tell my mom that we were shacking up right after we started dating. Because yes, to answer your question, they are that religious. And, they do find it strange that they haven’t met you. They are pretty pissed about it, to be honest. Which is why I panicked when my mom asked if you were coming, so I told her that you were.”
“And when did you tell her this?” I asked, not even trying to hide the annoyance in my voice.
Jamie tilted his head and bit his bottom lip, which was a nervous habit of his. “Last year,” he answered softly. When my brows furrowed in response to this confession, he raised his voice a bit and added, “I was planning to just say that something came up and you couldn’t make it, but she has been all over me about it. Pretty much if you don’t come, you’re going to be banished from my family.”
I dramatically placed my hand over my chest. “Oh dear. How will I ever survive?” Jamie didn’t even crack a smile at my dramatics and it made me feel a bit bad for teasing him.
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said softly. “Your family is nothing like mine. You grew up right outside of Philadelphia. Your parents come up to New York City every year for Pride, and your brother makes huge donations to LGBTQ organizations in your honor. I don’t think anyone in my family has ever even met a gay person. They were appalled when gay marriage became legal a few years ago. I love my family, but they have a ton of expectations that I’ll never be able to live up to.”
I squeezed his shoulder. His family was the one part of his life that Jamie hadn’t really shared with me, and I never realized how bad it was. “You can’t keep it a secret forever, you know.” I tried to keep my voice soft, so it didn’t sound like I was chastising him.
His shoulders dropped just a little. “I know I can’t, but I just need to find the right time and this family reunion isn’t it. Trust me.”
I sighed loudly. “You really want me to pretend to be your girlfriend? I’m like, super gay, dude.”
Jamie looked up at me and his eyes lit up, clearly aware that I was close to giving in. “Y
eah, but you don’t look gay,” he pointed out.
I looked down at the shirt I was wearing that was tie-dyed rainbow with a big chicken nugget in the middle and had the words Chicken Nuggets turned me gay written on it, then looked back at Jamie with a raised eyebrow.
He shrugged in response. “I mean, your hair is long and you don’t always pull it into a ponytail. Just leave your flannels and rainbow prints at home and we can easily pull this off.”
“That’s like half of my wardrobe,” I whined. “I don’t know, Jamie. This seems like a bad idea. I’m really sorry, but I’m not sure if I can do it.”
***
One week later, I stood in my room staring at the suitcase I had packed with the most “straight” clothes I could find. I wasn’t sure why I had agreed to this. Actually, I knew exactly why. Since becoming friends, Jamie had been there for me through everything. Long nights of studying for exams. Even longer nights of partying, some of which ended with me in tears over some girl. He had even driven me back and forth to my hometown when my mom had a cancer scare a few years earlier. I closed my suitcase and lugged it down to the car, where Jamie was waiting for me.
“Just for the record, I still think this is a bad idea,” I groaned as Jamie started his car, and we began our three and a half hour drive to his small Maryland hometown. “But I refuse to mess this up, so give me a rundown of your family.”
Jamie grinned over at me. “Ready for this? You will be attending the Miller Family Reunion. It’s my dad’s side of the family. The oldest person there will be my great gran, Olivia. We call her Nana. Her son is my grandpa, Oliver. He is married to my grandma, Pam. They had four kids and I’m honestly not sure who is coming in terms of great aunts and cousins twice removed and shit like that. They don’t really matter. I barely know their names, so you certainly don’t have to.
“The most important part is my dad’s immediate family. He is the middle child and has two brothers. Uncle Shane is the oldest. He is married to Aunt Dina. They have three boys. John is married to Susan. Jacob is married to Naomi. Jeremiah is married to Kathy. God knows how many children they all have at this point. I swear they just keep popping them out. They’re pretty close in age to us, but they all have sticks up their butts just like their parents.
“My uncle Mike is the youngest of the three siblings. He and my aunt Sarah are kind of the black sheep of the family. They have two kids—David and Kim. They seem pretty cool, but I don’t see them much. Plus, they’re younger than us. Kim just graduated from high school and David is like a junior in college or something. Then, of course, there’s Charlie, my twin…”
“Whoa. Hold up,” I interrupted, shaking my head vigorously in shock. “You have a twin brother and you never told me? I assumed you didn’t have any siblings. Now I find out that there’s a Jamie clone out there.”
Jamie chuckled. “We’re hardly clones.”
“Okay. So you’re fraternal. Whatever. Tell me more about this mysterious twin. What does he do?”
Jamie smirked, like this was some sort of joke. “Charlie just graduated from optometry school. That’s kind of the reason for this family reunion. Charlie was in California, so now that the whole family is back on the east coast, it seemed like a good time for a reunion.”
“And the whole family is able to take over a month off of work to hang out in Maryland?”
Jamie laughed again. “Oh, no one really has to take off of work. We just have family fun planned out for most weekends and some nights. The term ‘reunion’ is used very loosely in this case, since almost my entire family lives in the same town. You know how I said Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah are the black sheep? That’s because they chose to move to Florida. Gasp. They also waited until they were twenty-eight to birth any children, and that’s unheard of in my family. They’re only coming for the last two weeks.”
I exhaled loudly, as I took in everything he was telling me. I was starting to think that maybe Jamie’s family was much more than I had bargained for. “So, what about you? Are you in trouble for staying in New York after college?”
Jamie gave me a guilty smile. “Not exactly. But that’s only because my parents think that we will be moving back to town before we have kids.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I feel like you’re living a double life.”
“You have no idea,” Jamie groaned. He chewed on his bottom lip and added, “Like seriously, no idea. I feel like I can’t fully prepare you for how my family, heck, even my town, sees me. I was kind of the golden boy star QB back in high school, and that’s how they still see me.”
I scrunched my face up, wondering where he was going with this. It’s not like I didn’t know about Jamie’s athletic side. We both played on a kickball team with other faculty members from the school he worked at, and we went to the gym together a few times a week. “I’m not sure why you think I would be surprised by that. I knew you played football. We’re literally such good friends because of how much we love watching sports together. As far as gay stereotypes go, I’m much more gay than you.”
“But I’m more fashionable,” Jamie pointed out with a laugh. “Seriously though, you know those guys we always make fun of at the gym? The ones who hit on you and try to impress you by talking about their days playing high school or college sports? That’s how I am around my family.”
“I have a hard time believing that you’re actually a secret douchebag,” I argued.
“Okay. Maybe not. But I do act like I’m a lot more caught up in high school than I actually am.”
“Fair enough.” I studied Jamie’s face and noticed how overwhelmed he looked. I had never seen him like this, and I felt for him. I patted his knee. “Don’t worry, bro. I got you. You’re my best friend. Nothing about this trip is going to change that. We’ll get through it together.”
He gave me an appreciative smile, and the rest of the trip was spent in a comfortable silence.
As we pulled into his parent’s driveway, a small red car pulled in at the same time. “Awesome! There’s Charlie!” The same smirk from earlier returned to his face. Instead of questioning it, I looked over toward the car that had just parked beside us. As I watched the person emerge from the car, my mouth went dry. Charlie did look a lot like Jamie, with the blonde hair, blue eyes, and perfectly olive skin. But Charlie had long slender legs and a very petite build—a very feminine build; which made sense, since Charlie was, indeed, a woman. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as I watched her reach up toward her hair, which was currently pulled into a ponytail, and let it out, shaking her head as it came to rest on her back. For a moment, I forgot where I was and felt like I was watching a movie play out in front of me. It almost seemed like the scene was happening in slow motion. I was entranced, as those big blue eyes focused on mine and the most gorgeous smile spread across her face. Then, all at once, it hit me. This wasn’t a movie. Charlie was Jamie’s sister, and I was currently staring at her as if I wanted to devour her, which, in all honesty, I kind of did.
I forced myself to look away from Charlie and over toward Jamie, and suddenly his shit eating grin made perfect sense to me. I not-so-playfully punched him in the leg. “Jerk! You told me you had a brother.”
Jamie laughed. “Actually, I didn’t. You just assumed that.”
“Well, you certainly didn’t correct me,” I argued.
Jamie was now laughing so hard that a few tears ran down his cheeks. “First of all, I was teaching you a lesson. I’ve told you multiple times that you shouldn’t interrupt people and you totally interrupted me when I was about to say twin sister. Also, you shouldn’t assume. You know what happens when you assume.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “You’re such a teacher,” I groaned.
“And you’re ridiculously predictable. I knew you would be drooling over my straight, blonde sister.”
I wiped my mouth, hoping there wasn’t actually drool there.
Jamie realized what I was doing and laughed even harder. “Emphasis on t
he straight, Reagan. You can erase all of those thoughts from your head right now.”
I scoffed at his words. “Whatever, Jamie. I don’t go for straight girls.”
He lifted one eyebrow at me. “Since when?”
I squirmed a bit in response to his stare. “Since the last time I went for one and said I was done with it. What was that? Like three months ago? Plus, I totally don’t go for straight sisters of my fake boyfriend.”
Jamie simply shook his head and pat me on the knee. “I know you don’t.”
The moment was interrupted when we heard a knock on Jamie’s car door, which Charlie proceeded to tear open. “Well, aren’t you two just adorable?” She tilted her head in a way that was actually adorable. Ugh. I needed to stop. Jamie was right. Pining over his sister, no matter how hot she might be, was a bad idea for so many reasons.
“Sis!” He jumped out of the car to wrap her in a hug. “Sorry I couldn’t make it to your graduation. I couldn’t get enough days off to fly out to Cali. It’s hard to get any time at the end of the school year.”
Charlie gave her brother one more squeeze before pulling back. “No worries. It’s completely understandable. Plus, it was ridiculously boring. I would’ve skipped it if I could have.” She then looked past her brother and right at me. “We’re being super rude right now. You must be Reagan. I’m Jamie’s sister, Charlie. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
Before I could respond, she skipped over to my side and opened the car door for me. My face must have turned red from her gesture, because she immediately looked down at her feet as though she was embarrassed. Real smooth, Reagan. “Sorry if I seem a bit overzealous. We’ve just been hearing about you for years, and I guess I’m a bit excited to finally meet you.” She looked back up at me with a wide smile, as if I hadn’t just made her feel awkward.
“Don’t even worry about it. I guess I’m just not used to a Miller being so chivalrous.” I winked. Shoot. Was I flirting now? I needed to pull myself together, before I completely blew this for Jamie.
