Three's Company

64

Cam: So now you're telling me you want a girlfriend?
Me: I mean...why you have to say it like that?
Cam: Okay.
Me: Okay what?
Cam: Okay. You can have a girlfriend.
Me: Just like that?
Cam: What's there to discuss?
Me: I don't know. I just thought you'd put up a fight.
Cam: To be honest, I saw this coming. And I'd told myself after our first counseling session that if it came to this, I'd be cool with it.
Me: How come you never said anything?
Cam: I didn't think I needed to unless it came to that. And we're here now, so.
Me: Would you let me know if you weren't comfortable with it?
Cam: Of course I would.
Me: And you also know that this isn't because we're lacking anything.
Cam: I hope that if we were you'd tell me.
Me: Have you ever desired to be with someone else?
Cam: Not really, no. I love what we have. Before and after all this came about.
Me: And what about Justice? How do you feel about her?
Cam: I mean...she's cool. And we have fun. But I've always seen the connection you had with her. That's also how I knew I'd be okay with. I thought I'd get jealous. But I'm chillin'.
Me: She said the same thing about you. Well, she and I. The connection part.
Cam: I want you to be happy and I felt like this past year and half, I've seen that in you. Even before Justice came along. I feel like we're back to where we were. Maybe even better.
Me: I love you.
Cam: I love you too, baby.
Me: Oh...so in addition to this. Daija knows about Justice...kinda.
Cam: What? How?
Me: I think it's time we had a talk with the kids about sexuality and stuff. She told me she likes girls. She has a crush on the Kensley girl. And she told me that she heard, me, you and Micah talking about me liking Justice and that I kissed her. But I realized she doesn't know Justice and Coach Young are the same person.
Cam: Oh damn!
Me: Yeah...
Cam: So she's like gay?
Me: I mean...I think she's still figuring it out but I think she's pretty certain she only likes girls and we talked about the labels for sexual orientation and she told me kids at her old school made fun of a kid with two moms and that Kensley's brother told her that girls aren't supposed to like girls.
Cam: What does she think?
Me: She just thinks girls are pretty and she says she doesn't like boys like that. We talked about it. It was a good talk. I was mostly taken aback by the whole Justice comment. Cuz she associated herself like Kensley with me liking Justice and I was scared she heard more than just the kiss. But she says that's all she heard.
Cam: I mean did she and Kensley kiss? That's hella young for that.
Me: She said no. They've just told each other they think they're pretty and they've held hands.
Cam: Man...I wasn't expecting crushes and shit so soon. We already got Nuri & this Devin boy.
Me: I know right...but I think we're handling it well.
Cam: I'm not even gon lie. When I was eight, I had this homeboy, Kev. Me and Kev would hang out every after school at his house. Cuz big Kev's brother was in high school and he would be at practice. He was in a sport year round. Basketball, football, track, baseball, you name it. But while he was gone, we'd mess with his porn collection. Kev would listen to his brother talk to his friends about all the girls they liked and how they would hide in the shower and finger girls in the locker room before practice. Girls would give them head. All that. So Kev would listen and come back and tell me. So I knew about all that shit way before I should have. And that's my fear for our kids. We can only shield them so much, you know? Like I never heard anybody talk about that stuff in my house. Whatever my mama and daddy did, that was between them when we weren't around. The most did around us was kiss or my daddy would smack moms on the butt. But that's it. No explicit language. Nothing. I learned everything I knew from Kev.
Me: When'd you have your first girlfriend?
Cam: Fourth grade. Lucinda Wilson. I asked her to the sock hop.
Me: Did you ever talk to her about all the stuff you knew?
Cam: Nah man. She was goody two shoes. I ain't wanna scare her off. But we kissed and shit. It used to be awkward cuz I'd try to tongue kiss but we didn't know what the hell we were doing.
Me: So it sounds like now is not too early to talk to ALL the kids.
Cam: I don't think it's ever too early. You already said Kensley's big brother has been talking about sexuality to her. Enough for Daija to think that whatever she's feeling isn't okay. What if our other kids have certain feelings. I want them to know it's cool...like you should've known it's cool.
Me: Ahh babe...
Cam: You think if someone had those talks with you that you'd would've figured yourself out this late in the game? You probably would've already known.
Me: We might not be together.
Cam: You right. But we are. But I do wish you had that knowledge.
Me: That means a lot to me.
Cam: I feel like you were sorta on the good end of the spectrum. You weren't shamed. You just didn't know. But think about all the kids who were shamed and suppressed it because they'd get beat or bullied. If our kids are queer, I want them to know it's okay.
Me: You know...I really lucked up with you.
Cam: You did...