The Sweetest Thing (gxg)

Part 13

"So. Where do you think you're going to go to college, Char? The clock is ticking."

It was the Saturday in March, and my dad asked me this question as I was fixing a cup of coffee with the Keurig in the kitchen.

If this was my mom, I would tell her it's way too early to be talking about college.

But I couldn't say that to my dad.

"I have a few places in mind." I said, "I don't want to go very far."

"That's fine." my dad said, "You don't even have to live on campus if you don't want to. But we need to decide where you're going."

"Alright. I want to be within an hour of home. I'm still probably going to major in nursing, so a program for that. I was thinking maybe Gwynedd Mercy or West Chester."

"Good. Glad to at least hear the wheels are turning." my dad said, "We should set up some tours."

"Fine by me." I said, "I'll look into it."

"I'll take care of it." my dad said, "Just make sure you don't make too many plans during the weekends in April."

Damn. What if I want to see Vivienne?

This will be tough with my dad.

"Sounds good." I said, "Thanks, dad."

"See what weekends work well for your mother too. Maybe she can take you to one of the tours." my dad said.

My mom and dad try to not talk to each other as much as possible. My mom is not the biggest fan of my dad- and my dad believes that for a while, she tried to turn my siblings and I against him. So- he doesn't like her much either.

Even though my mom really has the reason to not like him.

And I had a reason to not talk to him.

They really don't have a reason to talk to each other very much, considering Michelle is now in high school. So, pretty much anything that my parents relay to each other goes through us kids.

Vivienne was out of town this weekend- which bummed me out a bit- as I wanted to see her. She was up in New York with her parents, visiting her grandmother.

She was texting me quite a bit though- which made me very glad.

I made plans with Olivia, Amanda, and Valentina.

The four of us were going to go out to dinner together, to a local Italian restaurant called Brio.

I almost felt bad in a way, knowing that Olivia was the only one who had any idea about my sexuality. It's not that I thought Amanda and Valentina wouldn't accept me- I just didn't want more people to know.

I was getting closer to accepting myself. But I wasn't quite there yet- even with Vivienne in the picture.

Olivia knows me well. The best out of the three. Last year, a little over a year ago, she seemed to notice that I was going through a tough time. I was constantly distracted by my sexuality- which was getting harder and harder to hide from myself. Olivia seemed to notice something was off- so one night, when it was just me and her at her home- our moms were downstairs drinking wine and talking.

Olivia and I were sitting on her bed. I wanted to tell her what I was going through. But every time I tried to build myself up to do so, I was at a loss for words. I couldn't speak.

"Char, are you okay?" Olivia asked me, "You seem...not present. Not just today. I've noticed lately you've seemed down. Quiet."

I looked at Olivia's blush colored wall, avoiding her gaze.