Curveball

Chapter 2

When I got home that night, Mom gave me her nightly interrogation about my sexuality.

"So," she said icily, "have you finally came to your senses about your...condition?"

My mother Lucille Brittany Copeland was a devout Christian, and, boy, do I mean DEVOUT! She had a Bible and a cross or a picture of Jesus in every room in our house.

"You know you are an abomination to society if you continue to live in this sin. It's okay that you wanna find love, honey but you need to look to females for that type of love. If you don't ask God for forgiveness and turn away from that sin, you are going to burn in Hell for all eternity."

"Mom, shut up with all this religious stuff, okay?!" I sternly replied. "I don't care about any of that! I tried it before, and because Christians wouldn't accept me for who I am, I quit going to church! If God teaches to love everyone, shouldn't his "children" do the same thing?"

Her jaw hit the floor, and I thought she was going to kill me where I stood.

"I will NOT have you disrespect The Lord in my house! Do you understand me? You will regret your sins when you are burning in Hell!"

"Well, it looks like I won't be alone then, will I, Miss I-have-slept-with-twenty-men-and-never-been-married?!"

Well, everybody has their flaws. Now we see my mother's. She has no idea who my father is. No man in town ever wants to date her so they "hit it and quit it," as the song says. This has turned her into a heavy drinker, and she has become Catholic so that she can do it and just go to confessional and be forgiven. This past month alone, she has had ten men come into this house for a night and leave before she wakes up the next morning.

"Mary has already forgiven me for that this week! Besides this isn't about me!" she yelled at me.

"Whatever, mom," I sighed as I walked upstairs to my room.

As soon as I got to my room, I threw the fifth Bible she has put in my room ever since I came out into the hallway. I just looked up at my 5 Seconds of Summer poster on my ceiling. Although I saw the poster, all the guys in it were replaced by Angel. I heard the violins yet again, but a piano was playing underneath them. The feelings I had were getting stronger. I could tell they weren't going away anytime soon. I had too many questions about him running through my head. What I didn't know is that some of my questions would be answered tomorrow at school.

I walk into school like it's any other day. Down to the music department I go, as usual. When I get to my locker, though, there is something different about it. I open the squeaky, typical high-school music locker and there is a note in my locker. I pick it up and examine it closely. It is written on staff paper and folded into an origami heart, my favorite origami shape to fold. I start open, then I see a pair of brown loafers in my peripheral vision. I follow them up until I see Angel's face looking at me, shyly smiling and blushing.

"Hey," he finally said. His voice was so angelic, I almost melted into the floor right there.

"Hi," I said, trying to hide the fact that my face was turning beet red.

"I'm Angel."

"I'm Joseph."

"I saw you in show choir yesterday."

I started blushing even more. "You did?" I said as I was attempting to hide my blushing from him.

He turned around to see who it was. My gaze followed his to see the face of the jackass's next victim. To our surprise, Angel was standing in the hallway facing us, his books thrown down to the side and his fists clenched. This just made my feelings for him that much stronger.