Chapter Text
October 15th, 2020
June’s grinning as she waits on the dock beside Bea. It was a surprise, but the second that Alex confirmed that they would be in Baltimore and going to the White House for at least one night, she called Bea to come surprise them.
The two of them have bonded even more than they’d already done when they’d met in LA over the last few months. The idea that their brothers had done a Romeo and Romeo star-crossed lovers running off into the sunset thing had definitely led them to being a lot closer than before. Frankly, they’d both figured that they would be family someday, and it was good to get a head start now – of course, June playing along with the lies had caused a bit of an argument until June had figured out that Alex wasn’t for it at all and quit.
Since then, she and Bea have been supporting each other through the chaos and hoping that one day things would be good for the boys and they could be actual friends – right now, their friendship is more focused on doing what’s best for their brothers than bonding with things they have in common.
Still, this was nice. Henry deserves support while in DC, too, and she knows he wouldn’t accept it from her or Nora (not that she blames him), so she did her best to give him the one person that had supported him.
She just hopes that they both appreciate them showing up at the dock. Especially since their presence had been noticed, but it was too late to change their minds now.
She shivers a bit worried that Alex was still angry with her over everything. Would he be upset about this surprise, too?
“You alright?”
June hums. “Just a bit nervous. Not a usual feeling when seeing my brother, but…”
Bea hums. “Makes sense, however, I am certain that he’ll be happy to see you. Even after everything, he knows you love and support him.”
“I really screwed up, Bea,” June admits.
“I am aware, but you tried to make up for it, and it’s not entirely your fault that you were convinced to go against their wishes.”
“Be truthful, if it was the other way around and they wanted you to pretend to be dating Alex would you have done it?”
“No, but only because I am already a bit of a problem for the Monarchy and haven’t the standing Henry has within that they would think the answer would be to set him up and block any mentions of Alex. They would use random people over people that are close.”
“I meant, the exact same situation though, if you were in my shoes…”
Bea shakes her head. “I wouldn’t have been able to go through with it. Not knowing how hard it’s been on Henry to be in the closet – knowing that he finally wanted out … to stand up and say ‘this is who I am’ no matter who is telling him that they want to shove him back in the closet, I’ve been wanting him to do that for years, so… I could never imagine helping to shove him back in the closet like he should be ashamed of who he is even if it comes at the cost of your mum’s re-election.”
June nods. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
She doesn’t have the opportunity to delve further because suddenly she can see Alex and Henry walking towards them. There’s a tenseness to their smiles and shoulders, but they’re holding hands and their security looks ready to tackle anyone that dare approach them.
It only takes them a minute to see her and Bea and she can see the slight look of confusion cross their faces as they share a look before grinning and both practically run to her and Bea.
She has just enough time to register that they’ve let go of each other and are aiming to hug them both before she’s swept into a hug by Alex and spun around.
She giggles as she wraps her arms around Alex’s neck.
“It’s so good to see you, Alex.”
“It’s good to see you, too, Bug.”
He lets go of her before turning to Bea and hug her tightly as well. Bea kisses him on both cheeks, but June looks uncertainly at Henry, who with a slight shake of his head, gives her a tight smile, “Good to see you, Miss Claremont-Diaz.”
Ouch.
Yeah, she supposed that she should’ve realized that Henry might be hurt on both his and Alex’s behalf and they hadn’t quite delved into how her actions impacted Henry and his journey to coming out as well. As Bea had just said, she wouldn’t have shoved him back in the closet knowing how long it had taken him to get here … and that’s exactly what June did.
His anger makes sense.
“Same, Your Highness.”
The formality is so different to Alex and Bea greeting each other, but Alex turns back to her with a smile. He returns his left hand to being laced with Henry’s right, and then links his arm at the elbow with June.
“Come on, we should get going before we get anymore attention,” Alex offers. “Plus, I don’t want my wobbly sea legs to cause me to fall, so you’re going to have to offer us some support.”
This causes Henry to burst out laughing as Bea links her arm with Henry’s just as Alex had done with her own. “Sure, dear, we could use the support. Solidary.”
“Exactly. Let’s go.”
She imagines that they make quite the image and that’s part of the reason that she goes along with it. It’s important to be supportive after everything.
“Lead the way.”
***
Siblings Reunited: Spat in First Family apparently mended, at least within the siblings. Will rumors that the First Son’s return is to address the lies from the White House hold true?
***
It’s a relief to finally be back in his room at the White House. Sure, this place isn’t exactly home, but it’s still been the place he’s lived for the better part of four years.
Plus, they’d been treated to one of the most awkward lunches that he’s ever experienced.
Although Henry’s never mentioned his own anger at the situation with the White House, focused on calming Alex down because he was angry enough for the both of them, it’s clear that he is quite angry with the lot of them.
It’s in the way that he’s been so tense in his interactions with anyone at the White House (minus Alex), and his over-politeness in his addresses with everyone. If Alex didn’t know any better, he would claim that it was Henry’s training when it comes to representing the crown, but he did know better. He’d seen the way he was with June and Nora before in LA and at the Lake House. He’d seen the way he'd relaxed at the Lake House after his dad told them both that he knew about them dating.
None of that was here during the lunch with his parents, Zahra, Luna, and the girls (including Bea).
He was only really relaxed when he addressed Alex or Bea, and it was clear that there was more going on that they hadn’t addressed (too focused on Alex’s devastation).
So, he’s relieved to be in the solace of his bedroom – just the two of them – so he can say, “Let it all out, Baby.”
“Let what out?” Henry deflects.
“Come on, you’re angry with everyone – even my dad and Luna, who as far as we know advocated support for us. Luna even gave them Richards on a silver platter.”
Henry huffs, throwing himself on his side of the bed.
“Perhaps I should not be as hostile towards your father or Luna, but Luna did hurt you by not explaining why he’d done what he’d done – he still hasn’t explained. Though he did give your mum the chance to fix things by proving that it was Richards. Your father, on the other hand, never spoke up in articles or conferences against your mother. He toed the party line just like the others despite knowing that it would cause you pain.”
Alex nods. He gets it.
His father may not have been actively forcing them in the closet the way that his mother was, but he hadn’t done anything either. It was a passive acceptance to fight with her behind closed doors and then not do anything else to show his support.
“Yeah, you’re right. I’d been so focused on my mom that I … and what about June and Nora? Because you know that I’ve forgiven them.”
That isn’t 100% true, but he’s working on it, and doesn’t want to hold a grudge against them, he loves them too much.
“I understand that due to the closeness of your relationships with them that you’d be more willing to forgive and forget. However, I can’t just forgive them. Not just because of the hurt that they caused the love of my life, but because … they shoved me back in the closet. They made a choice not just for you, but for me, too.”
Henry shifts so he’s facing Alex on his side.
“I – I have been stuck in the closet since I was eighteen … maybe even before that, I just didn’t realize because I wasn’t forced while at boarding school, the way I was at university. I finally found the courage to come out – which you know wasn’t easy for me – and your family wants to shove me in the closet again – I just… I was angry on your behalf, but I’m allowed to be angry on my behalf, too.”
“Of course you are,” Alex assures him, running a hand through his hair. “You can be as angry as you’d like to be. You have a right to be angry about that, and I’m sorry that I didn’t realize how hurt you’ve been by my family, too. Probably even worse than the Monarchy.”
Henry nods. “At least for this situation, yes. Only due to the fact that your family made the choices that inevitably shoved us both deeply in the closet – the Monarchy, for once, did not have to be the bad leaders in this because the White House took the lead, and they just accepted it. Personally, it feels like the White House just beat the Monarchy to the punch, they probably would’ve come up with a similar plan, yet, it was the White House that led the mess of our lives. Lying in interviews and articles. Everything they did hurt you, but it hurt me, too. It was so difficult for me to get to this place of acceptance and wanting to come out, and they nearly ruined it. If I had been alone at the Kensington when all this happened, I might’ve opted to stay in the closet forever due to their actions, it was only being with you that kept me on the path to freedom from the closet.”
Alex understands. Henry had ghosted him after the Lake House for a reason… it wasn’t easy for him to decide to come out.
“They owe you an apology, too.”
“They do, and don’t worry, I will work passed my anger because I love you and I know you love them, but it will probably take some time. I imagine it’s much like your anger with Philip and the Queen.”
“OH, then we’re due for some really awkward meals for a while – a long while,” Alex semi-jokes. “And your polite anger is actually a bit of a delight to witness, so I’m in no hurry to rush your forgiveness of my family.”
Henry laughs. “A bit of a delight? Clearly, we’ve been spending far too much time together.”
Alex laughs, too. “No complaining, you wanted this, now you’re stuck with it.”
Henry moves forward to kiss him as he says, “No place I’d rather be stuck.”
“Good,” Alex says just before their lips connect and they let the anger slip away to passion instead.
***
October 16th, 2020
Alex isn’t too sure that he actually wants to do this stupid interview and had been annoyed to all hell when his and Henry’s basking in their afterglow had been interrupted by Zahra knocking on the door. She would’ve burst in the way she’d done at the DNC, but Hector and Schmitty were watching the door (and Alex locked it) so no entrance without both Alex and Henry’s explicit permission.
They refuse to have a repeat of the DNC.
She spent the entire afternoon prepping them on the interview – what to say what not say – while Shaan and the girls watched by the sidelines. Multiple times Henry had interrupted to counter what they agreed to say – none of which included changing anything that they said during their Coming Out Live. It was obvious that Zahra was trying to get them to basically retract anything that made his mom look bad, which included the fake friendship in the first place.
It was a painful afternoon and Alex had eventually just whispered to Henry that they could agree now, but it was a free country and if the interview went a little differently… well, he’s got the right to free speech.
It just meant that this interview was extremely important and he’s more than a little nervous about the outcome.
He just hopes that it’s enough (and that they don’t have to keep dealing with this after the election). He’d been too nervous to eat much of his breakfast, especially with the awkwardness present with their sisters, Zahra and Shaan.
Henry hadn’t said anything about Shaan, but Alex can tell he’s still angry about the Zahra-Shaan situation. In trying to appease his girlfriend, he’s been going against his boss and that’s a problem.
He feels Henry squeeze his hand.
“Whatever happens, we’re in this together,” Henry assures him.
Alex smiles. “I know, thank you.”
He leans forward to give him a slight kiss, but they’re interrupted before their lips can meet.
“Ready, boys?” Zahra asks and Alex resists the urge to groan.
He misses the freedom of the boat already. At least they had planned to take off tomorrow. They would be going to Texas (where Alex will vote for his mom to be re-elected) and in the meantime, they’ll be at the Lake House. Oscar had a private moment with Alex just this morning asking if he wanted to go to the general safety of the Lake House (and he would let him and Henry go on their own, or stay there, too, if that’s what they wanted) until the election was over.
Alex had immediately jumped on it with the caveat that he could have Liam and Pez (as their greatest supporters through this) come to visit, too. Oscar promised him that he could have whatever he wanted and needed.
So, they’d sail to Texas (which would take a couple of days due to having to travel around Florida) and spend the last couple of weeks before the election in the one place that probably started them on this journey (since Alex’s realization happened at the Lake House) with people who have been nothing, but supportive of them.
It's a relief.
“Yes, we are ready, Miss Bankston,” Henry says, that over-polite anger still simmering underneath his words.
If Zahra can hear it, she doesn’t acknowledge it, and before anything else can happen, there’s the announcement from the interviewer – announcing his guests for this morning show, him and Henry (although with official titles) and they enter the stage as a spotlight appears, together and holding hands.
Both of them wave to the audience as they walk on stage and sit together on the love seat.
There are pleasantries that always fill the first few minutes of any interview before the interviewer says, “Despite everything you’ve been through, it’s good to see the two of you happy and together.”
“Not going to lie, Simon, it’s nice to be here – happy and together. We didn’t always think it would be possible,” Alex admits. “The idea of coming out and being public wasn’t always … something that we thought we’d ever be able to do...”
He glances at Henry, who picks up where Alex leaves off.
“It was something that I never thought I would be able to do,” Henry states. “For Alex, if he didn’t want to be … public about it, he could simply wait a few more months or a few more years depending on what happens in November when he’s no longer a public figure, but for me, I’ll always be a public figure so my choice to come out was always going to be a bit … difficult.”
“It’s quite unfortunate that the two of you didn’t get the opportunity to come out on your terms,” Simon says, sympathetically. “As I understand it, that was why things were so confusing over the last few months?”
Alex nods. “Yes, you see, for a long time after we were committed to each other, I didn’t realize that I was … in the closet or that I had to come out. Not like, officially, I just knew that I wanted to be with Henry, and as long as I tried to deny that I was in love was with him, I could be okay with not telling anyone that didn’t pretty much figure it out on their own because we were so obvious…”
“… once he couldn’t deny it anymore, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to shout it from the rooftops,” Henry finishes with a grin.
“That would’ve been around the time of your yacht trip?”
Alex laughs, “Actually, no. It was around the time that we were getting a little… careless about hiding it. Henry showed up at the DNC and we were caught, and I had to tell my mom… and we know how that went… due the concerns about an ethical conflict that I don’t believe exists since I am just the President’s Son and he’s the Queen’s youngest grandchild, I was let go. Henry, despite being in love and not denying it, offered to end our relationship so I could remain on the campaign… and I didn’t hesitate to think about it. I wanted Henry and I didn’t care if I was stuck in my room forever if I got to be with him. It’s why I invited him to my dad’s lake house for the weekend where I suddenly I couldn’t deny it anymore…”
“… yet, I was too afraid to come out. I never thought I would be brave enough to see if the world would be accepting of a gay prince. As mentioned before, I will always be a public figure, which means that since I realized that I am gay, I always knew that it would be more difficult to come out. So, when Alex tried to tell me how he felt… I ran away…”
Alex squeezes his hand. He knows how hard that was for Henry now. To hear that Alex loved him, too, and yet, walk away from it all.
“Yet, here you are … together and out?”
At that, Henry smiles. “Only because I happened to fall in love with a man that is as courageous as he is dashing, and as understanding as he is determined to be exactly who he is.”
Alex flushes. “I may or may not have almost caused another international incident if things hadn’t gone the way they did when I flew across the ocean to yell at Henry’s window in the pouring rain to make him talk to me.”
The interviewer doesn’t quite know what to say to that, but that’s okay because Henry speaks, again.
“Alex was… as I said… a courageous, determined, dashing man that was very understanding about the closet I was in and uncertainty that I would ever be comfortable coming out knowing that it might never happened. We ended that weekend with confirmation that I wanted to – someday. And it’s when I gave him this,” here he pulls at the chain under Alex’s shirt to reveal his signet ring. “I told him that I would one day be able to come out if he was patient, and so we started thinking about it.”
Simon hides his surprise at the ring well, while the crowd goes wild at the implications. “And how did that translate to what happened? The trip on the yacht, the beard situation, the leaks, your announcement…”
“Well, see, that weekend when we said goodbye, I joked that we could just escape on Henry’s boat and disappear for a while. It wasn’t something I realized was actually possible, but speaking for myself, I was frustrated that I couldn’t help out on the campaign and there was no reason not to go. So, when Henry asked, I went.”
He looks at Henry, who admits. “I needed a bit of a break from everything – it’s difficult having centuries of history bearing down on your shoulders and hiding who you truly want to be with out of fear – and I wanted nothing more than to relax with my love. Thus, we left on a romantic getaway.”
“Although you were … in the closet as you say, the pictures of your romantic getaway didn’t seem like you were… hiding?”
They share another look before Alex says, “Well, see, we decided that speculation would be better than denying ourselves that opportunity to be free with our love just because someone might see and speculate. We, honestly, didn’t really want to think about how things looked or what people might say. We just wanted to be together.”
“We, honestly, never expected the response to our romantic getaway or the response to the photo from the DNC.”
“Let’s talk about that for a moment. The photo from the DNC came out approximately how long after you started being more open in public?”
Alex barely refrains from frowning. It sounded like he believed they were the reason for the leak of the photo and emails.
“About a week and a half, but prior to – we had only been in a couple of articles, none of which suggested anything romantic between us until after someone decided to look at security cams to make us look bad,” Alex states, firmly. “The photo leak is what started the attention that really wasn’t necessary.”
“Exactly. Two men being in love and on a vacation together or even having a drink and spending the night together should not be worth the attention that we received, but after the photo came out that was all we received,” Henry adds.
“If you wanted to come out, why the situation with the beards in the First Daughter and VP Granddaughter?”
This is the first time that they have to lie to follow the White Houses’ lines since the beginning of this mess.
Alex feels Henry squeeze his hand before he speaks.
“Henry and I discovered the photo after June called me. Although we wanted to come out, there was still the question of if we were ready because letting people speculate is quite different to announcing it. We both considered coming out after the election when there might have been less attention on the situation. So, there were three options when the photo appeared – come out, ignore it, or go in the complete denial with the beards situation. We were too upset to make a rational decision at that moment – we weren’t ready to come out – so I told my mom to make the best decision and to let us be alone in our vacation bubble.”
It hurts to let his mother off the hook like this, but it was also the best way for her to gain support from the voters since they’d been boycotting her over the situation.
“Did you not consider the effect of the two of you out together while lying about being with the First Daughter and VP Granddaughter on your reputation?”
Well of course he did, it’s why he said no in the first place.
He’s not sure he can answer this without getting angry, so he squeezes Henry’s hand and Henry speaks.
“We wanted to ignore the photo and let speculations happen, but we understood that the President may have had a better idea of the outcome of ignoring it versus lying about our relationships. We trusted that she would make the right choice for everyone.”
“It just sucks that it didn’t really work,” Alex nearly mutters.
“Yes, unfortunately, it was not the correct choice, particularly for Alex. As the older one in this relationship and knowing that I pursued him not the other way around, I was deeply appalled when we discovered that the speculation on our relationship with lies about other relationships resulted in Alex’s reputation being in tarnished.”
“What happened when you discovered that?”
“We didn’t discover that until far too late because we’d been on a cell phone and internet blackout,” Alex admits. “At that point, there was a disagreement over the decision. We wanted to come out some day and the things people were saying about me seemed to indicate that we wouldn’t get the support unless we told the truth.”
“The argument was largely because I could not stand the thought of the things that everyone was saying about the love of my life. I was finally ready to come out and I felt a bit guilty that my not being ready meant that people were tearing into my love accusing him of terrible things despite the fact that he’s the youngest of all of us,” Henry lies. “So, we attempted to deal with the situation in our own way – aiming to get the truth revealed.”
“Unfortunately, the email leak happened before we could convince everyone to tell the truth,” Alex states. “We were out at sea, and we had no idea about the leak. Since there were lies are out there, the decision to continue lying seemed… logical to my mom.”
“You say ‘logical to your mom – the President’, you don’t think it was logical to keep lying?”
“No, I don’t. It might’ve been logical at first, but once it was decided that our privacy should be invaded just to try and win an election, it didn’t make any sense to lie. All that did was guarantee the attention stayed on Henry and I instead of the more important issues at hand. The election shouldn’t be about the who the President’s son is dating.”
He takes a breath and explains how he looks at it.
“If I were the President and he was the King then it would be a concern for the election, but my position as First Son isn’t something that is forever and Henry is unlikely to ever be King with the Queen, his mom, his brother (who is likely to have heirs soon), and his sister all before him in line. So, really, it shouldn’t matter that we’re dating. Especially not to the point of spending the valuable weeks leading up to the election focused on something that would never affect anyone other than us. There’s no ethical issue here, and there’s no reason that anyone should be held back from who they love.”
“Which is why we made the decision to come out, officially,” Henry adds. “That way the focus of the news can return to focusing on the election.”
The interviewer nods. “What do you say to the voters who have questions about the President’s support of the LGBTQ+ community?”
“She didn’t hesitate to support my being bi, it was only a question about the misguided notion of ethical conflicts. She’s done a lot for our community, and I firmly believe that she wasn’t acting in a false acceptance way, but in a way that came across incorrectly in an effort to protect our right to come out when we were ready. She’s an ally – she always has been, and she always will be.”
“Any final thoughts?”
Henry nods at him, so Alex speaks first.
“We’d like to thank everyone that has supported us while we were out at sea, particularly those that didn’t believe the nasty things written about me online and later showed support when we came out. It’s important to us both that you don’t let this impact your decision next month, my mom may have been misguided, but this situation should’ve never been used to impact the election and the only person to blame for this is Richards and his staff that aimed to cause question when there shouldn’t be.”
“We’d also like to thank our best friends, who happily created blogs to help us get the truth out there while we were at sea, and our fans whose boycott of any publication that continued to dissect our emails led to not only stopping any more articles from being created, but also managed to get them taken off of Wiki-links. Our private words are once again, ours, and we truly appreciate the power that our fans and supporters have wielded, and we hope that everyone remembers that we wouldn’t want to be reminded of this or have anyone read our emails more than they already have as, again, those words were only meant for the two of us,” Henry finishes.
“Thank you, gentlemen. We appreciate your time today.”
They wave as the lights dim, the camera shuts off and the crowd claps and cheers.
It was over. Hopefully it makes a difference.
***
FSOTUS & Prince Henry on White House Lies: The interview that tells the world that the White House did the ‘right’ thing. 10 tweets that disagree.
***
“The election shouldn’t be about the who the President’s son is dating,” the First Son says – Alex Claremont-Diaz on the outing of his relationship with Prince Henry and how it shouldn’t affect the upcoming election.
***
From Love Lives to Campaign Issues – in light of FSOTUS and Prince Henry’s interview, the change in focus in the final weeks of the election cycle will potentially affect the outcome of the election.
***
“We survived,” Alex states when they get back to the safety of his bedroom.
Despite Zahra not looking entirely happy with them, the impact of the interview was clearly affecting the election already as online articles following the interview had polls about the situation and the election. His mom was already up in points by the time they’d finished lunch with the girls (Zahra having left them to deal with ‘important election business’ as if they cared).
Thank God. He didn’t want to go through the attention, again in four years otherwise.
“At least we didn’t have to lie too much,” Henry states, plopping down on the bed.
Alex grins, laying beside him. “Exactly. I hated letting her off the hook with why the lies but if she wins then at least in four years, we won’t have to do this, again.”
“We’ll still get attention even after you’re no longer ‘First Son’.”
Alex hums. “I know, but it’s worse when you’re running for something. Though that focus should’ve been on my ma not on me, but politics are a dirty game. I was deeply misguided to think otherwise.”
Before Henry can response there’s knock on the door. It’s Cash.
“I have a request for Alex from the President.”
Alex groans and gets off the bed, feeling disgruntled. Was she going to complain? Did she think they hadn’t done enough?
“What is it?”
“She wants to see you alone in her office as soon as you can for a meeting just the two of you.”
Even more annoyed at being requested alone, he gives a disappointed look to Henry, who says, “Tomorrow we’ll be back on our own. Better to talk to her now.”
“Fair.”
He gives him a kiss and then makes his way towards his mom and her office.
***
“Come on in, sugar,” his mother says, as she invites him into the Oval Office the second that he knocks.
He’s a bit uncertain about why she’s asking him for a private meeting so… officially. He kind of figured official should be out the window at this point. After all, you’d think she care more about him as his mother than the president given everything.
Yet, here he is. Entering the Oval Office to talk with his mother…
He immediately sees Zahra in the room and frowns.
“I thought this was just a meeting between the two of us.”
“Zahra was just leaving – she was just telling me about the campaign numbers in light of everything. Your interview was wonderful, sugar.”
He hums. He can’t say that he was all that bothered with the campaign at the moment, least of all how the interview with he and Henry went to boost his mother’s campaign and assure the lies that she was protecting him rather than her campaign.
“We were actually just discussing the best possible places for you to go to on the campaign trail to make the best impact –”
He closes his eyes to stop himself from groaning, of course, his mother is still all about the campaign. There’s a little over two weeks before the election and that’s all she cares about, naturally.
Of course she’s thinking about how she can use him and this … event to boost her chances.
“Zahra, I think it’s best you leave. I need to talk to my mother alone.”
Zahra opens her mouth to retort that she doesn’t listen to orders from him, but Ellen gives her a sharp look.
“You’re dismissed, Zahra. We’ll continue this later.”
Zahra doesn’t say a word as she leaves the room, finally making this a private meeting.
“Would you like something to drink, sugar?”
“No, I’m good.”
He clears his throat, not even bothering to sit, as he says, “Obviously, you were hoping that I would come back here and just rejoin the campaign as if I was the Alex from a year ago begging to be put on the campaign despite still being in school, but I’m not him, ma. He disappeared somewhere between getting fired for dating the love of his life and having his private thoughts broadcast to the world because you decided to deny that we were together. You had a chance to let us control the narrative, but didn’t take it, and instead because you are running for President, again, we were targeted, exposed, and amongst all of that, heartbroken because the people that we should be able to trust the most betrayed us. You cared more about your campaign than you did my feelings, my reputation, and my life. Why on earth would I go back and support the campaign I no longer believe in?”
Ellen looks like she’s been slapped. “You don’t mean that?”
“Mean what? The last bit?”
She nods.
“I do,” Alex states, sincerely. “I’m never going to vote republican, and I’ll always vote for you, but I can’t endorse you like I did before. You showed me that while you are an ally, you still acted in a homophobic way by thinking like the homophobes out there instead of the ally you’re supposed to be. You said it yourself – if it had really been June and Henry or me and Bea that you wouldn’t have reacted the way you did. You would’ve supported them, wholeheartedly. Selling the star-crossed lovers instead of treating us like a scandal.”
“You’re still angry…”
“Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You – you … did the interview…”
“Because I HAD to! I didn’t want to deal with this or the bullshit I’d get from Zahra in another four years or for another four years, ma. We know that we have to play along with the White House and Monarchy to be together and we’re okay with that, but unlike Henry, you can’t force me to do anything. As Zahra said way back when the cake thing happened, I don’t have a role spelled out in the Constitution, which means I don’t have to run all over doing ‘First Son duties’ or even be a face of the campaign, and I don’t want to be. Not anymore. Not after being fired for falling in love – no matter how you try to blame ethical issues, we both know those are lies or they would’ve existed with June and Henry, too.”
“And that’s the thing, you know?” Alex asks. “I’m not even angry on my behalf, anymore, I’m angry on behalf of Henry – do you have any idea how long he’s been in the closet? Do you have any idea that the reason he ran from the Lake House was due to the fact that he never believed he’d be able to come out?”
His heart aches that he never realized the effect of his family’s choices for Henry when it comes to the beard situation. They should’ve never felt comfortable lying on Henry when they didn’t know him or his struggle to stay hidden versus coming out.
“I changed that for him, mom. I gave him the courage to come out because I thought I had the support of my family and – and we worried about the Monarchy shoving him back in the closet and telling him that he’s wrong and he can’t come out and instead, it was MY family that did that – the family I thought would support us. You made a choice for him and shoved him back in the closet like he was wrong to love me – to want to be with me…”
“He once told me about how the Queen sat him down on his eighteenth birthday and told him that he couldn’t let any deviant desires that he might be harboring reflect poorly upon the Crown…”
“That’s terrible,” Ellen interjects.
“Yeah, it is – and you know wanna know what I said? I said that I’ve had to fake some shit for my mom, but she’d never ask me to be something I’m not – turns out I was wrong because the moment you asked us to pretend to date June and Nora, that’s exactly what you did – you’re no better than the queen.”
“Alex, I –”
His mother looks confused and heartbroken, and that hurts him, too. He doesn’t want to cause her pain, but… he’s not interested in excuses right now.
“I just – I can’t do it right now. I need to heal from everything, and I can’t do that when I’m in the spotlight, so Henry and I are headed to Texas… we’ll see you on Election Night.”
He doesn’t wait to be dismissed because he said his piece, he’s done.