A GIBBOUS MOON

Chapter 8

I was cuddling with Kilo on the couch. It was a lot to process finding out I am not straight like I thought I was. However, I feel so comfortable with Kilo in my arms that it felt like it was always meant to be this way. I went from flirting with November to dating Kilo, a complete 180. Whiskey came walking into the common room.

"Hate to disturb your honeymoon phase but I want to steal X-ray of you Kilo, just for today."

"Well, you can't have him. I have just gotten him and can't let him go already."

I smile at Kilo and whisper something in his ear so that Whiskey can't hear it.

"If you let me go right now you can have the whole of me tonight. I'll let you do anything you want."

I gave him a quick kiss and he let me go in an instant. I got up and went away with Whiskey, presumably it was my turn to join him on a mission. We were driving away, and I asked him what the mission was. Apparently, we were on our way to finalise a major weapon deal. He had been working on this deal for months and the negotiations finally seemed to be settled. It was going to be a 2-hour drive, so I decided to get to know Whiskey better in that time. I definitely knew him already a lot better than when I had my mission with Kilo, and I had to start from scratch. Although I came to know Kilo pretty quickly and in ways, I didn't imagine but that is beside the point. At this point I was quite interested in knowing everyone's backstories since it was clearly something they were allowed to share about their private lives, so I decided to ask about Whiskey's as well.

"Hey Whiskey, how did you end up in the mafia?"

"Straight to the point, I see. It is a long story."

"Well, we got the time."

"Alright, fine. It started when I was born, God awful thing that happened. My parents were alcoholics, and I was an unplanned child. Of course, being pregnant didn't mean my mom stopped drinking. The only reason she didn't get an abortion is because she wanted the money from the government for having a child. With that money she could buy more alcohol. Anyways I was born with, surprise surprise, foetal alcohol syndrome. I wasn't affected physically as much as I was mentally. Physically I had the distinctive facial features and vision difficulties but those were the only things I had. Besides those two things I was perfectly healthy in that sense. However, the mental problems only came to light as I was growing up. I had poor balance and coordination, so it took me way too long to learn how to walk and once I knew how to walk, I stumbled and fell a lot leaving me with broken bones sometimes. Furthermore, I had problems like a learning disorder, poor memory, and trouble with attention and with processing information. I had difficulty with reasoning and problem-solving, with identifying consequences of choices. Poor judgement skills, hyperactivity, and rapidly changing moods. As you can tell I was affected a lot on the mental side of this syndrome. I needed a lot of special care but for my parents I was just simply too much of a nuisance, so I didn't receive the care that I needed. I was neglected a lot. Those broken bones? They never took me to the doctor for them. I am lucky that they healed correctly on their own or otherwise I would have some serious deformities. When I got to the age of going to school my mental problems turned into behavioural issues. With my learning disabilities it made it more difficult for me at school. I didn't learn as fast as the other kids and was seriously lacking behind. My poor social skills also gave me trouble getting along with people. I couldn't do simple exercises. I didn't have the concentration to stay on task or switch to another and I had difficulty planning or working towards a certain goal. To put it simply I didn't do well in school. It also didn't help that I had problems with impulse control and rapidly changing moods. Because of those things I got in fights often even when I was only 6 years old. This made the school contact my parents and they were mad. Not only did they neglect me and didn't provide me with the care I needed, now they also started to abuse me. If I got in trouble at school and they heard that at home, I knew I was going to get beat up the moment I set foot in that house. This continued for the whole of my childhood. In high school I figured out I wasn't straight. I also figured out I was non-binary. However, I stayed in the closet and never told anyone about that. I knew my parents were very much homophobic and transphobic even more. They already beat me up over getting in trouble and I feared what they would do if they found out I'm gay and non-binary. To this day I still don't know how but eventually my parents found out. My father threatened me with a gun, but he didn't stop there. He actually shot me. I am lucky he was drunk and couldn't aim correctly or else I would have been dead. I took this as a sign that I was no longer welcome and so I left. I patched up the gun wound myself, a skill I learned from a young age. Now mind you I was 17 at this point. I didn't know how to cope with my problems and just like my parents I turned to alcohol. It was in a pub where I met Alfa and I instantly fell for him. We started dating and eventually he introduced me to the mafia. The weapon dealer in the inner circle at the time had recently died and so I got offered that position immediately. I turned my life around and with the money I earned I went to medical school and got my doctor's degree. It was difficult but I wanted to prove my parents or just everyone that I could do it and that I wasn't just stupid."