Too Late

A Father-Son Talk

Arata knew his parents loved him and his siblings, in some sort of twisted way.

Some days were better than others. When they were less stiff and more welcoming.

When they allowed there children to be a bit vulnerable around them. They were allowed to voice their concerns and cry, and laugh, and play around.

It was those days when he believed that his parents weren't bad people. They were just stressed more so than most.

But as fast as those days came, they were gone like so.

The light that peaked through the dark cloud that was his life, dimmed into nothing.

He knew, as he woke up, that today wasn't going to be one of those good days.

The month was creeping up to a close, in which his birthday will be coming quite soon after.

His parents knew this, and were constantly getting more and more irritated and fidgety with the knowledge that he may or may not try something once Arata turns 18.

He crept down the stairs, making sure to make no noise as he got closer to the first floor of the house.

His mother was sitting on the couch, knitting quite aggressively as his sister and brother sat beside her, not making any noise.

His eyes left them to scan the rest of the room. He took note of his father's absence.

"Good morning." Arata spoke, breaking the silence that infected the room like a disease.

"...." No response was given in return besides the slight nod from Rin.

"Your father wishes to speak to you. He's downstairs." Not even bothering to look at him, his mother stated before grabbing the string of yarn and wrapping it around the knitting needle to start a new row of the scarf she was making.

Arata hated the basement. It only held terrible memories such as the ones where he'd be locked in it with no light, no toys, no food, no drinks, and no water closet.

He'd sob, shake, and pound on the wooden door until his father would open it to tell him to 'shut up'.

The room was like any normal old basement. Only used for storage. Though in the far back of the room was a handmade workshop for his father to work on whatever project he indulged himself in.

It was there where Arata found the older male. He was hunched over, looking at whatever was so important.

"Your birthday is coming up." His father stated matter-of-factly.

"Yes..."

"Promise this, boy. Don't go and run your fucking mouth just because you think you can. I know you're thinking of doing that like a fucking pansy. Are you a gay fuck, son?" Truth is, he had no idea what he liked. Men, women, he never really thought about it.

I guess you could say he wasn't really attracted to anyone. Not sexually or romantically. But, of course, he wasn't going to explain his sexuality to his asshole of a father.

"No, of course I'm not. That's disgusting." That was a lie. He didn't believe that. Truthfully, he believed that anyone could be attracted to whatever gender but he's learned from an early age, that if he spoke his true thoughts, bad things would happen.

"Good. I would hate if you were to tell me you were one of those fairies. Now back to the point. Promise me you won't tell shit to anyone."

"I promise, father." That was the truth. Of course he believed, at the time the promise was made, he told a lie, but the future had something else in store.

Something that would occur in 2 weeks to be exact.