Gravity

Chapter 14: The Parents

Chapter 14: The Parents

Aly woke to a start at the sharp beep of her watch. 5.45 AM. She groaned. She had dreamt the sweetest dream the previous night; one filled of laughter and smiles, not from her, but from someone who gives her the reason to – Aliya Mustafina. She groaned again at the fact that it was a mere dream.

As her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, she realised that she wasn’t laying in her white bed, nor was she in room 132. She tried to sit up, but realised that there was something pressing her back to the bed. She drew her face closer to her neck and looked down. Holy hell.

On her chest lay a head of soft, brown hair that was rising and falling in rhythm with her breath. Across her belly stretched a fair, firm arm. Aly held her breath to listen to the girl’s. Deciding she was alive and very real, Aly sank further into her pillow with a daft smile. Stupid girl, only you can me look like a damned fool and smile this smile. 

She remembered the first time her mother had caught her with another girl in the exact same position as she was in now.

“Hello gi- Oh. Hello, Alexandra, Cora.” She then retreated as quietly as she approached. Aly knew her mother still wished to pursue the topic the moment she used ‘Alexandra’ instead of just ‘Aly’. Ushering her ‘friend’ out of the house, she paced her room and thought about how to deal with the situation. She never anticipated for something like this to ever happen to her. She always locked the door and made sure her mum was out before having any girls over. That time, she’d miscalculated. It wasn’t a very smart move to say the least. 

She thought of ways she could defend herself. She couldn’t say ‘Mum, she’s just a friend’, because honestly, who lies in bed with a friend like that and in nothing more than their underwear? ‘Mum, this is a social experiment’ sounded stupid even in her head. After a while, the facts hit her. She couldn’t say anything at all. She just had to accept whatever came.

A thought had come to Aly. Her mother could never bear to kick her star athlete daughter out over something as trivial as that. How could her mother walk out and face her neighbours, friends, and relatives? Besides, Aly lived the life that her mother wished she did. She was a world-class gymnast with plenty of guys and girls falling at her feet. She didn’t have stellar grades, but she definitely had a number of other achievements to make up for it. Having been nudged out from the national gymnastics team by a hair, Mrs Raisman had a bitter seed in her that she tried to get rid of through her daughter.

Armed with that knowledge, Aly walked into the den with a conviction that had surprised even her.

“Mum, before you say anything, I-” 

“No, before you say anything, I have something to say.”

Her mother had always been pushy and demanding, but Aly had never heard that much concern in her voice. Since that day, she never has again.

“I know what’s happening, don’t make excuses,” she had said, “I want you to know that I have no issue with who you choose to be, because no matter what, you’re still my precious Rose. I still love you. Also, you made a good choice with that Cora, she’s a nice girl. Sweetheart, if you need anything, anything at all, I want you to tell me, and I’ll try to get it done within the best of my ability, okay?”

Then, Aly had done the stupid thing of asking what ‘anything’ meant.

“Oh, I know how you… Girls do it with each other, and I also know you’re not old enough to go into one of those shops, so I th-”

Aly had cut her off there with a flip of her hand and an embarrassed ‘Mum!’. She gave her mother a hug and a ‘thanks, mum, I love you’ and that was that. Neither of them brought it up again, and her mother returned to pushing her.