Status *Re-written*

Chapter 29

Princeton adjusted his shirt, picked his hair, and all the other grooming habits he picked up from living with parents who loved being the center of attention. Today he was doing something him and his brothers never got to do before, he was coming clean, about everything. It would have been nice to come clean on a blog or all those other media outlets but it was time that people saw what his life was like in all actuality. There were things that went on behind the scenes in his life that should have been brought to light way before. Maybe if it were brought to light sooner than just maybe Roc wouldn't have slit his wrist. There was a knock on the door, "Yes?" Princeton replied.

"Mr. Smith, we're ready for you,"

Princeton fluffed his hair one more time and left out of the room ready to tell it all. The backstage man lead him to an open doorway and put him out of view of the audience. "When he says your name just go out there, okay?" Princeton nodded and thanked him. His heart was beating, his palms were sweaty, his knees almost gave out from under him. He was about to go on television and tell the world what the Smith family was really about. "I wanna bring Princeton out here. Princeton, come join us," that was his cue.

He walked out and felt all eyes on him. No one clapped, they were all waiting patiently for him to sit in the chair and tell it all. Dr. Phil was waiting for him on the stage. Was this the right thing to do? Was it time to tell everyone everything? He took a deep breath and sat in the chair.

"Welcome Princeton," said Dr. Phil, "Thank you for coming to the show. Now when you wrote to us I was pretty in shock but not in shock at the same time," Princeton chuckled, "What I mean by that is that I wasn't shocked by you writing to us since the recent events, you being outed, Prodigy in the drug bust, and Roc. I mean that could make anyone be kind of confused and lost, but I was in shocked by the content within the letter. You stated that '...people don't know what our life is really like, and people don't know what kind of people our parents are...'. I, along with pretty much everyone at home and in the audience, would like to know what you mean by that,"

He took another deep breath, no point in turning back now, "What I mean by that is that I saw first hand what Prodigy has done and it's much more than what you see in the magazines. My parents seem like hard working people, which they are, but they haven't really been parents. We've pretty much took care of ourselves. Nobody really knows about us as much as they think they know and I think it's time to let it be known,"

Dr. Phil nods, "What made you want to finally come forward about these secrets? Would you call them secrets?"

"They're definitely secrets."

"So what made you want to talk about it now?"

"I knew it was time when I saw Roc, the broken mirror, and blood on the floor. That was the last straw for me. That's when I knew it was time to come clean,"

"Well what do you want us to know at this moment? What do you want us to know first?"

"I want it to be clear that I am in fact gay. Me and Jacob are dating, we have been dating since 2010. We've been keeping this between us until now. My own brothers and close friends didn't even know until recently,"

"You came out to them?"

"Technically no. I had to go to the hospital because my body shut down due to lack of nutrition. I was very stressed out trying to keep up this appearance for the sake of my parents that I forgot to eat at times so my body shut down. Jacob was frantic and he forgot to keep us a secret and just kissed me in front of my brothers,"

"So they had no idea, no one had any idea,"

"Absolutely no one. The first person I told was my friend, Zoe. After that people started finding out by accident,"

"So why did you feel that this would ruin your parents?"

"My parents have been really strict on us since birth. They always told us what to do not because it was for our own good, but because they wanted to stay 'the perfect family'. So I felt that if they knew, or anyone knew, word would get out and they'd be pissed at me. See, our parents were overly joyed by the attention they got for giving birth to us. If anybody remembers we were 'The Queer Quintuplets'. We were scheduled to be born at the same time but we were born far apart and somehow survived, so that was a huge story. After that they started taking up hobbies to get paid and to get recognition,"

"Well that's understandable, but your brother Prodigy has been in enough trouble for all of you,"

Princeton nods, the crowd chuckles. "I mean he's the one who obviously didn't listen at all to your parents. He's always in the tabloids,"

"Now with him, I don't know, I have no idea why he acts the way he does. I have no clue why any of them have done what they have done, I only know about myself, like why I was in the closet for so long,"

"Okay. So now that we've got it out in the open that you are gay and you're in a relationship that has lasted for a long time, what else is there to let be known in your perspective? Because like you've said you can only speak for you,"

"Right. Um, well I think it should be known that my parents kicked my brother, Raquan, out because he has a child which is why you haven't seen him with us in a while. They not only kicked him out but they also cut him off from his account, so he has no money. Our parents left him and his daughter stranded,"

"How did they kick him out since your parents are still in Michigan filming?"

"They called. I don't know what was said between them, all I know is that he packed his things and left,"

"Mhmm. So he's been on his own for a while?"

"For three months so far,"

"Okay. Phew! That already sounds like a lot and that's just from one brother ladies and gentlemen. When we come back we're going to bring out Rayquan Smith and he's gonna tell us all he knows,"