Tear in My Heart (gxg)

Dani

I smoothed back my shoulder-length black hair and took a deep breath, staring at my dark grayish eyes in the mirror.  Dinah, my mother, walked up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder tenderly.  I rested a hand on hers as my eyes burned with tears and a lump grew in my throat.
"Thank you, Dinah," I croaked, "For everything."
She wordlessly stroked my hand with her thumb, the need for words between us had vanished long ago.
My brother, DeAndre, stormed into the room.
I dried my tears quickly and turned my head to him, a playful smile on my face.
"My last day in this room and you still had to barge in without knocking, D."
"Aw common, Bear," he teased, "You know you're not gonna get rid of me that easily.
"I'm gonna go check on the cake," Dinah said, shaking her head at our childish antics, "Be down for the party soon or I'll have your heads."
When she'd shut the door, I turned to my big brother and wordlessly fell into his strong arms.  He tightened them around me, not bothering to tease me for once in his life, sensing my conflicted feelings surrounding leaving my family.
"How can I leave mom after all she's done for me.." I whispered into his chest.
"Because you have to, Bear.  You're meant for bigger things than Brockton and playing street ball and being in a garage band."
"I don't know anything else, D." I choked out.
"Well I know one thing, Ms Harvard," he said in a joking voice, "You've been handed this opportunity and I'm not going to let you shit on it because you're a little nervous.  Don't be a dumbass.  Eat Ma's cake and shut your damn mouth about leaving us.  You aren't leaving us.  You're leaving this neighborhood.  You're leaving this shit town for fucking Cambridge.  And when you get rich-"
"I'm taking you with me." I interrupted.
He grabbed my hand in his.  "But stay humble, Bear.  You know I can still dribble circles around you."
I punched his shoulder.  "Asshole."
Dinah yelled at us from the kitchen to come down for the party and we raced each other down the stairs.

When we got down, I saw our other band members, Michael Martinez our guitarist, Cameron Quong our keyboard player/back up guitarist, and Amir Hammad our drummer.  Also there were DeAndre and my sisters; Lauren, Ashley, and Janice, and our younger brother Thomas Jr. or JJ. 

They all looked at me for a second, not knowing what to say, when suddenly I burst out "Why are y'all sitting there with your mouths catching flies when they should be stuffed with cake?!"  The room filled with laughter and DeAndre sat down quickly, grabbing our forks.
"Ahem," Dinah said, "Did y'all forget something?"
"Oh yeah," DeAndre said, "the ice cream!"
Dinah reached over and smacked his head.
"No, you fool," she said with fake annoyance "the Lord!"
"Aw, Ma," DeAndre whined, grabbing his stomach, "can't He wait?!"
"I've got Grace, mama," I said.  Even though my heart wasn't exactly filled with love for
The Might Queer Hating Lord, it was filled with love for my Dinah.
"Thank you Lord for blessing me with this amazing opportunity.  When I was little, my mom was taken from me by cancer.  I don't remember much about her," I said, my voice thick with sorrow as I thought about my young, beautiful mother's smile and loving eyes, "But I do remember my father, his days spent in bed crying his eyes out over his high school sweetheart.  And I remember the next-door neighbor, another young mother with a son my age and three baby girls."  At this point, Dinah's eyes grew wet and her hang reached out to grab mine.  "My father slowly fell in love with her and two families became one.  And sadly we got this nut." I said looking at my little brother, sticking my tongue out, everyone laughing.  "But really, I couldn't be more thankful for my huge, crazy family."
"Sadly, my dad's overseas," I said, glancing at the framed picture of a man in camo with the same gray eyes as me, "but I know if he were here, he'd be so proud of me-"
Suddenly, I was interrupted by the door swinging open and a tall, tan man in a Marine's uniform walking in.
"Dad.." I croaked, tears in my eyes, as I ran into his arms.
"Hey, Tiger.  How's my not so little girl?" He said, looking at my new tattoos and my short hair with a huge smile on his face.

The rest of the day was spent with my best friends and family, laughing and reminiscing.  And in the morning, we all packed into Dinah's soccer (or rather, basketball) mom van and drove down to Cambridge.

And that's where my story really starts.