A Boy and A Girl

Chapter 10 ゜ ✭ ・.

Point of View: Bailey

Bailey had arrived back at his house a while ago and walked directly past his parents in the kitchen. They were caring for his sister, and he didn't want to bother them. As he walked back down the hallway, he almost went back to check on them... but decided against it. He didn't feel like answering incessant questions from his father on how the date went.

He looked around at the pale blue walls of his room. Baseball posters, Bible verses, pictures of himself standing next to his father, playing catch... or being trained for baseball. In Bailey's opinion, it could never be more obvious that he didn't choose a single thing that was on his walls. His dad picked it all.

Bailey's relationship with his father was interesting, to say the least. Every day that his father was home, it was the same routine. Bailey got up to eat breakfast and then washed up. Cleaned the dishes, and by the time his dad was awake he was headed up the stairs or already there. He locked himself up in his room, avoiding his father. Today was no different. Avoiding his dad.

The man hadn't done anything yet today... but that's what made Bailey the most anxious. He hadn't done anything. Yet.

Bailey's father wasn't physically abusive. No, he was better than most kids' crappy fathers. He cared. He loved his family. He loved Bailey. And he wanted what was best for all of them, even if it sometimes meant that they weren't necessarily happy.

Bailey easily ignored the many definitions that were shouted by his friends of mental abuse that sounded all too familiar for his liking. Mentally abusive? No, that was absurd. He put it off as his ADHD causing him to overthink again. Overthink, over-evaluate, and exaggerate. The three things Bailey did best, and the three things that caused him to doubt whatever conclusion he ever came to about his relationships.

But even though he was a good man who cared for his family, Evan Kain had very... strong opinions. Especially revolving around mental disorders. Bailey hated all of it, from his father's obvious ADHD he always denied and refused to go to any medical facility to even see if it was a possibility, to the fact that he intentionally made loud noises to scare Bailey, saying that there was no such thing as an anxiety disorder and that Bailey was just too skittish, and needed someone to get him used to the sudden loud noises that terrified him.

And then there was the homophobia.

Bailey's mom was always silent about her opinions. In turn, Bailey had no idea how she felt about gay people and doubted that he ever would. His father, on the other hand, didn't care who was around; he was going to tell them what he thought of those nasty gay sinners.

Oh, they were all going to hell, and that was a fact. The way Evan Kain was raised, those kinds of people used to be societally unacceptable, and he hated how everyone just accepted them now rather than trying to fix them as any reasonable person would.

And now, Bailey might be one of them.

His anxiety spiked more at the single thought, and he lay face-down on his pillow. What if he was bisexual? No. Bailey still wasn't ready to think about that possibility. Finally, he lifted his head and stared at his phone. A distraction, that's what Bailey needed. A distraction from the possibility that he could ever be something that his father hated so much.

As he opened his phone, he noticed the Facebook icon on his Home Screen. Bailey's mom posted a lot on her Facebook page, so he decided to scroll through that. After a minute, his racing heart had calmed slightly.