Take Courage, My Heart

Bonus Chapter - The Day Jesse Parker came out

A/N: As the title of this part reveals- this is a bonus chapter to the main story. It is not necessary to read this part if you feel done with "Take Courage, My Heart" but if you love the characters and want to learn more about them or see new scenes with them, these bonus chapters will be for you. Yes, I will be writing more of these, though I am about to start my master's thesis and am working on another story as well as the next bonus chapter, so the uploads will be rare. That being said, every "bonus chapter" will be an independent story meaning each one of them will be complete and larger in word count that a regular Wattpad story part. Also, each will have its own content warning. Even though, this chapter's is tame -for this story's standards-, others' will not be so I do ask of you to read them before getting to the story. As always, I appreciate every vote and comment and I am looking forward to seeing if (and how much) you will like this chapter. 

Content warning: homophobia, internalized homophobia, explicit sexual content.

Word count: ~8k words

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My back was starting to hurt from the strange angle that I was sitting in. I kept scrolling through my phone, despite the ache, a dull boredom settling on my body. It was Friday night, and Ben and Caleb had gotten back from lacrosse practice a few minutes ago. Jess was done with her piano lesson, and Fiona was also done with her Girl Scouts meeting. We were all piled in the living room; our parents sharing the sectional with Adam and the twins, while Jessica and Fiona were on the loveseat. I had taken the armchair and was sitting the furthest away from everyone. Commercials were on the TV, but I was blocking them out as well as the conversation Adam was having with my family. It was something about his college. He had only come back for Spring Break yesterday, so they were still not tired of asking him about it.

"Oh, this again," my mother huffed out and I looked over the screen of my phone to see what she was moaning about.

She had stopped Adam mid-sentence, his mouth still open from whatever he had been saying. Her attention was not even on him; she was looking at the TV while a commercial was playing.

"Honey..." my dad started, and I shifted in the armchair I was draped over.

"What? It's just– it's ridiculous," my mom responded, turning to my father with a pointed look. "They are trying to push this narrative– they are trying to normalize it!"

I didn't even have to look at the commercial to know what she was talking about. I clicked my tongue loud enough to be heard, because I was so tired of this stupid homophobic rhetoric. A gay couple on a single commercial was not about to change the sexuality of the entire human population.

Adam had been looking at me because he was the only person who knew about me, but at the click of my tongue, both of our parents turned to me as well.

"What?" my mother asked with that holier-than-thou tone of hers that made me want to get up and out of the room. I kept looking at her from over my phone screen and forced a half smile all but daring her to keep talking. "People nowadays are acting as if everyone is..." she cut herself off with a heavy exhale, and when my narrowed gaze didn't soften at her words she waved her hands around. "Look at our family. There's so many of us and we are all normal!"

Fuck it.

I shut my phone off and let it drop to my chest, not bothering to sit up. Adam looked like he was constipated, cringing at what my mother was saying to me. I guessed I would be cringing too, if I weren't growing angrier with each words that fell from her lips.

"I'm gay."

Another commercial started, this one less sweet and more energetic. I recognized the tune immediately, but couldn't remember what it was about for the life of me. Time froze up. Adam was staring straight ahead with wide eyes, most likely screaming internally. The twins looked equal amounts amused and shocked. Jess had stilled with her hands tangled in Fiona's hair as she had been braiding it. Our parents had frozen up, our father looking off into nothing, while our mother was looking at me with her mouth hanging open.