I Don't Mind

Chapter 7

Derek's POV 

"Derek!" my father says, seeing me for the first time in a hot minute.

"Hi," I say awkwardly. I don't really know what to say, I haven't seen him in forever.

"Come here," he smiles, opening his arms and inviting me into a hug. 

He pulls me into the hug, patting me on the back while I kind of just stand there. I don't really know what to do with my hands right now. That's a normal occurrence by the way, if I have no hoodie pockets, I don't know what to do with my hands.

"I missed you," he says.

"I missed you too."

"How have you been?" he asks me and I shrug.

"I've been alright."

"You grew so much," he notices, looking at my height. "You're not 4'1 anymore."

"Yeah."

"How has football been going? I saw you got a full ride scholarship to UCLA, so I assume you've been doing well."

"It's been going well. All of my super close friends came with me, so it's gonna be fun."

"I'm glad you know a lot of people going. How has your mother been doing?" he asks, grimacing. I know he doesn't like her at all anymore.

"The same. She met some guy in church, they aren't dating, but they were flirting all the time when I was still living with her," I state. That guy, I forgot his name, but he has voiced his opinions on gay people before, and they are not respectful.

"She still a bitch?" he grins before being scolded by his wife.

"Language, please don't talk like that in front of Isabelle," she says, pointing at who I assume is my half sister. If she truly does listen to Eminem, she's heard worse.

"Sorry," he says. 

"So, you're Derek?" my stepmother asks. "I've heard a lot about you. Are you truly a football phenom?"

"I don't know if I would call myself a phenom, but I'm pretty good," I reply.

"Either way, it's great to meet you. I'm Clara, your stepmother. You can just call me Clara, I know you don't know me at all, basically."

"Nice to meet you," I smile at her.

"So, is your mother still a b word?" my dad asks, making sure not to swear in front of his daughter.

"Yes. Very much. I talked to her today."

"What'd she say?"

"Well, as you may know, I have three teammates who are gay or like guys. Two of them are dating, I think the other one is definitely on the way to getting in a relationship, he's been flirting with a baseball player for a week," I kind of ramble.

"Yeah, I'm aware of them."

"Well, you might also recall that she is a massive homophobe, and she is totally against them. She told me to distance myself from them. Three of my closest friends, she told me to distance myself from them. I couldn't really believe it. I can't believe someone can just be that much of a horrible person. She called them the f slur."

"Well, I disagree with her a lot. Talk to Damian about this," he nods at his stepson who smiles at him. "He knows how to deal with things like this."

I look over at Damian and he takes a deep breath. "I don't love telling people straight up, I don't like being super open and in people's faces with this, but yeah, I'm gay. I came out in junior year and have gotten a good amount of grief for it from asshole teenage boys and conservative people of all ages. I had a boyfriend, we were completely secret, and I came out on my own. The day after I came out, he said he was proud of me and I was happy. After a few days, people in school started learning this, and they sent some crazy ass shit to my social media, and I decided that, for my boyfriend's safety, we should break up. I didn't want him to have to deal with the shit I had to face. I haven't had a boyfriend since then, I'm still getting over him."