For the Rest of My Life

Chapter 1: A Party

Authors Note: This Does talk about toxic parents a little bit, so if that bothers you skip to the 4th paragraph. If you do skip to paragraph 4 here is the basic info it gives: Mom takes kid to party, they don't want to go, explains they are going to a new school the next day because parents want them to be more social. are more c It also has some mild homophobia, but the next chapters have some more extreme examples. I will put TW's at the start for the rest of the chapters.

ALSO: This part is written from mostly Arrow's perspective

My mom urged me forward, pushing me towards the door away from the car that could've been my escape home. I shouldn't have agreed to this, but what choice did I have? I wanted to lock myself back in the car, refuse to go in, but mother would've gotten me out eventually.

"I promise it'll be fun!" My mother exclaimed, clearly excited to push me into such a social place. Her eyes glittered and sparkled clearly she was excited.

"I'm sure I'll have fun mother." I tried to sound excited and convinced. I think I did a good enough job because she didn't comment on it. I never really talked to people at my school. So parties were her idea of socializing me. Like I had to make and have friends. I was perfectly fine on my own, at least in person, I had plenty of great friends online. That's why she's making me go to a new school tomorrow. I hate the idea of moving schools, I wouldn't know where I would end up, or where anything was. I hated it, but I didn't really have a choice in whether or not I went. I walked as slow as I could up to the front door, and slowly twisted the handle. I took a small breath, bracing myself for what was behind that door. I twisted the handle and pushed my way in.

"Katie!" the first voice caught my attention, he said it kind of reluctantly but also excited. It was my favorite cousin, Leo. He's always been my favorite even before we knew we we're gay both of our parents have always been pretty openly against it. So we've never told them.

"Kate, how are you?" I think that was an aunt of mine, maybe an old second cousin or something.

"Katie! it's been so long!" I think that was Ted? He was my mothers older brother.

"Hello Katie! How have you been!" My grandpa on my mothers side asked me as soon as I opened that door. I think my mother told them I would be here, like, timed it down to the second.

"Kate!" one of my uncles yelled, in sort of a bored way.

"Hello Kate!" I think one of my younger cousins shouted that from the back. I think that cousin knew I hated the name Katie too.

"Katie! I haven't seen you since you were a baby!" I looked around when I heard that comment. I vaguely remembered her face as one of my aunts. We hadn't talked to that part of the family in years.

"Katie! What's up?" I didn't even recognize that voice, either it was an uncle/cousin I had never met. Or he was a family friend.

The constant questions, all of the coming at me at once. Random people I barely even knew (except Leo of course), were all at once. I nodded and gave a couple waves. Trying to acknowledge all of them at once. My mother had disappeared the second we walked through the door, making small talk and probably finding her way to the kitchen to grab drinks. I weaved through the crowd and found a quieter corner where I waited for a couple of minutes. I had gotten used to this schedule at parties; get through the crowd, wait until some time had passed, maybe 15 minutes. Enough for people to forget I had been there. Then find the kitchen to grab food and go find an empty room to hide in until the end of the night. It has worked since I started trying it, which was probably for about 30 parties.

 I grabbed my phone out of the little backpack I had brought with me. I logged onto discord and started messaging my friend. We chatted for maybe 20 minutes? I glanced up at the corner of my screen realizing enough time had passed that I could leave to eat. I quickly messaged them goodbye before I powered off my phone quietly slipping it into the back pocket of the backpack. I leaned off the wall where I had been standing, and found my way to the kitchen and stopped dead.