"Mum, Dad... I'm gay."
A veil of silence draped over them all, absolute to the point of being suffocating. Beads of sweat trickled down Nik's brow as he watched eagerly for a reaction, any reaction, to what he'd just said. Instead his parents looked back at him, Andrei struggling to feign surprise as Eva gaped at her son.
"This is what tonight is about?" She asked, leaning back in her chair and laying her clasped hands on her lap. "You're gay?"
"Yes."
For a moment, Eva's expression was blank. It grew warm as she watched her son, the boy she had a close and wonderful relationship with, but she frowned.
"You know you never had to announce it to us," she said.
"Did you already know?" Nik asked quietly, averting his gaze to the tablecloth.
"I think it's safe to say we had no idea," Eva
