David expected, considering how much is made of Jake being from Detroit, he’d be from, well, Detroit, but instead they drive to a suburb north of the city, Jake chatting the whole way, mostly telling David things about the family he’s about to meet, some things he’s already told David, some things he hasn’t. Jake’s sisters are coming for dinner that night. David hadn’t agreed to meeting Jake’s sisters, but it’s too late to balk now.

Finally they pull into a driveway of a house that’s nearly identical to the houses on either side of it. David thinks he sees a curtain flutter, like someone just looked out the window. His pulse kicks up without his permission.

“You okay?” Jake asks.

“Fine,” David says. He tries to swallow around the knot in his throat, fails, tries again.

“We can stay in the car as long as you want,” Jake says. “No hurry.”

“I’m fine,” David says, but he can’t make himself open the passenger door, and true to Jake’s word, he waits patiently as David tries to get his breathing under control, reaching out and putting a hand on the back of David’s neck after a minute. David is faintly annoyed that he finds it comforting. Jake always just — he always knows what to do. David wishes he knew what to do.

“Are you ready?” Jake asks after a long time, a too-long time, David knows, knows this isn’t normal, he’s not being normal, and Jake’s being more patient than he has to be, but eventually his patience is going to give out, and —

“Okay,” David manages, and steels his expression the best he can just so Jake will stop looking at him like that, like he knows David’s lying.

“Okay,” he says, trying to mean it, and makes himself get out of the car. Jake slings David’s bag over his shoulder without asking, and David wants to insist he can carry it himself, but — of course he can. It’s a ten pound bag. Jake’s probably trying to be polite, or hospitable or something.

It isn’t just Jake’s parents waiting for him inside — and David means waiting, because the door opens before they even knock — but Jake’s sisters as well. David wasn’t expecting them right away; he thought he’d have until dinner, at least. He feels a little nauseated, a little lost. He knows a family of five isn’t that large, but it’s a lot of people to meet all at once. A lot of people he knows Jake cares about, people whose opinions Jake values. People who matter.