My Only Exception (gxg)

Part 15

I hadn't hooked up with someone continuously for as long as I had been with Poppy in forever. Not since my 4 year relationship.

It has now been a little over three weeks since Poppy and I started...whatever we had going on.

I was currently seeing no end in sight.

What got me the most, was that after Poppy and I would finish hooking up, we would talk. About serious things, with humor mixed in. That was something I was sure as hell not used to doing.

I learned more about Poppy's family. Her parents are divorced, and she has a stepmother and stepfather. She gets along with her mother the best out of all her parents, and her stepmother the least. She did say that at least, her stepmother has been very supportive to her father during his cancer diagnosis.

I also discovered that Poppy is ¼ Vietnamese. Her mother is half Vietnamese, and her grandmother was born in Vietnam.

Poppy told me about her younger siblings. There was Chris, who was 21 and then Danny, who was 18. The youngest, her sister Kendall, was 15.

I wound up telling Poppy that I have bipolar disorder.

"I can guess that your medication is for something related to mental health," she said to me one night as she lay with my arm around her, "What exactly?"

"Normally I wouldn't share this, but I have bipolar disorder," I said to Poppy, "I got diagnosed a couple of years ago."

"I know there are two types of bipolar disorder," Poppy said gently, "What type do you have?"

"Bipolar 2," I replied, "I have more depression than mania. When I got diagnosed, I was trying out college for the second time. I started out at a University nearby but dropped out. Then I tried a community college. I was staying in bed all day, not going to class. I got fired from the job I had at the time for not showing up. My mom was the one who made me see a Psychiatrist. I'm glad she did, I'm much better now."

Poppy looked up at me, "Thank you for sharing that, Delilah. That couldn't have been easy, and probably isn't easy still."

"Medication helps me manage it. But...it gets in the way of a lot."

"Like what?" Poppy asked me.

Feeling like I'm worthy of someone to love me.

"Just...a lot of things," I said back, "Don't concern yourself too much with it, Poptart."

Poppy laughed, "I've told you multiple times to not call me that!"

"And I simply don't care."

"You're the worst, Delilah."

"So are you...Poptart," I said, not being able to help my smile.

However, it was the moments when I wasn't with Poppy, and especially when I was speaking to Emily, that the guilt set in. She never asked me about Poppy anymore, she seemed really caught up in her relationship with Evan, but that didn't lessen my guilt.

But I wasn't about to stop seeing Poppy.

I had told Emily that I wasn't interested in Morgan, who she tried to set me up with, and she was understanding.

"I just hope you find your person, Delilah," she said to me, "I think I might've found mine."

One night toward mid-February, I was about to go to Poppy's apartment. We both had a rough shift at work, and even though I was physically exhausted, I wanted to see Poppy.

My mom stopped me as I was about to leave. She was dressed like she was about to go out as well.

"Where are you going?" she asked me.