58 | From Treachery To Tenderness

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Trigger warning- homophobia and homophobic slurs.

I tap my foot against the wood of the floor of my kitchen as I sit at the kitchen table with Quinton and Willow

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I tap my foot against the wood of the floor of my kitchen as I sit at the kitchen table with Quinton and Willow.

"Are you okay, West? You've hardly touched your sandwich," Willow points out, a look of concern behind her eyes as her eyebrows pull down in worry.

It's true, I haven't eaten hardly any of my food but it's not because I'm not hungry, it's because I'm nervous.

My foot is tapping at an uncontrollable pace and I'm filled with dread with the thought that in less than five minutes, Daniel will be here to pick me up and take me to his place.

Since I'm not living with him anymore, it's been hard for us to see each other, other than at the studio, so we both agreed that Saturdays would be spent with each other from now on.

Of course I was pumped at the idea, I still am, I'm just nervous because he told me he would pick me up from my house, and I haven't told my mother about our deal yet.

It's been a rough week, she's barely said more than hello to me since I moved back, and the only time she does speak to me is when she's talking down to me about the fact that I'm a "pansy," as she so bluntly likes to put it.

It hurts, it really pains me to know that my mom hates me to the point that she would belittle me in front of all my siblings just to make herself feel better about the fact that I'm bi.

What's worse is that I can kind of take it, I'm strong enough to carry the fear and hurt with me until I go to bed where I can let it out and call Daniel to talk through things with him. But what if it was Lake who wasn't straight? My little brother is twelve and if he isn't attracted to girls when he grows up like my mother so badly wants to condition him into being, then how the hell is he going to be able to come out to her?

My mother is instilling these backhanded views into all of my siblings, she's trying to get them to see me as some deviant being who's been corrupted. It's ridiculously immature, and the worst part is that she is so blinded by her bigotry that she doesn't even realise the extreme amount of suffering that she's causing me.

Everyday I wake up and I'm afraid that she is going to kick me out of the house, to make sure I never see my siblings again until they believe that I'm as much of a monster as she makes me out to be.

I inhale a sharp breath, my body jolting slightly in response to Willow's hand grabbing mine, squeezing my skin until I'm snapped back to reality.

"I'm fine, just worried about mom," I tell her truthfully, squeezing her hand as I meet her woeful eyes.

There are large bruises under her eyes, probably matching the depth of mine. We've both been unable to sleep for the past week, I know she's been up all night worrying about me. She cares about me so much, I honestly don't know what I did to deserve her as a sister.

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