This Is Me

A Grand Thing (Part Two)

A Grand Thing (Part Two)

Surprisingly, my voice was strong and firm, even if my legs weren't. The words didn't waver and flowed across the room clearly. As they did, Brad managed to raise his eyebrows even higher before he bursts into laughter.

"Brad!" Mum yelled, and she reached across to slap his leg, but he moved it out of the way.

"No, I'm not—" Brad started, trying to stop his laughter but couldn't. "I'm just—"

"Very classy, Pete," Blaire said, a smirk plastered on her face, and I shrugged, trying to smile back at her, but couldn't bring myself to.

All that was on my mind was what my parents were currently thinking. How were they going to react?

I kept my eyes on my parents, waiting for them to say something. To move. To do anything, all while my heart thumped heavily in my chest and my lungs forgot they could hold much more air in them than they currently were.

Mum was the first to speak.

"Peter," she started as she slowly pushed herself off the lounge, muting the television as she did. "We love you—"

"And we're happy you feel comfortable enough to tell us this," Dad chimed in, following mum's suit, and standing up.

"We know this couldn't have been easy for you," Mum continued, and I started to get the feeling that this was rehearsed.

The way they were both speaking. The jumping between each of them as they spoke to me. It all seemed like they had done it before. As if they had planned it.

"You knew?" I asked quietly, feeling my breath fumble in my throat.

"We love you. That's all that matters," Mum said with a small smile, quickly walking over to me and wrapping her arms around me.

In a matter of seconds, I felt dad's arms around me too, though something felt off. It didn't feel right. Over my mum's shoulder, I caught sight of Brad who glanced at Blaire. Both of them had looks on their faces I couldn't read, but from where I was standing they didn't seem as thrilled as I thought they would be. At least from all the hype they had been giving me, I expected more.

Maybe I was reading into the situation too much and should be happy that everything hadn't gone downhill. I kept running that train of thought over and over in my mind, but I couldn't quite shake the thought that something was wrong.

The harder I tried to shake the thought, the more I felt my breathing pick up and felt my heart thump harder. I could sense a panic attacked breaching the surface and I knew I had to get out of the situation I was in.

Nodding my head and clearing my throat, I wiggled out of my parent's arms, doing my best to keep upright and not let my legs give. Smiling briefly at them both, I mustered up the courage to speak; silently praying that my voice wouldn't give out.

"Thank you," I said with a pause, moving my eyes to rest on Blaire. "Uh, I'm going to go and grab my stuff."

"Oh, okay, honey," Mum said, still smiling at me and it had me wondering if this was normal.

Was this how parents usually reacted? How long had they known? Or was all of this in my head?

"We're always here if you need us," Dad assured me and patted me on the shoulder as I nodded.

"Okay, thanks," I said quickly, turning around and making my way back out of the lounge room, making sure nobody could see that my legs were shaking as I went.

I was pretty sure I was failing.

"I should go and help him pack," I heard Blaire's voice behind me. "Thanks for having me."