Our LGBTQ+ Home

One More Plate For Dinner

Everyone looks up at the sound of the door knocking, wondering who it could possibly be at this late hour.

Alex is the first to get up from the dinner table as he walks towards the front door to reveal who is behind it.

He turns the knob slowly and opens the door in one swift motion. There a person standing there with short choppy hair. The sides of their hair are a dark brown and the long part on the top is bright turquoise. They're quite short, shorter than Alex, if that were even possible.

By now, all of us have gotten up from the dinner table, except Xander, who's still reading his book. We're all standing in silence, waiting for Alex to say something.

"Hi, can we help you?" he says at last, after about 15 seconds of pure silence.

"Um, yeah actually. I saw flyers around the city saying to come to this address if you are LGBT and in need of a home?" they say, scratching the back of their neck in awkwardness.

I can see Alex's shoulders perk up when they said that, as well as everyone standing around me.

"Oh! Of course, come in," Alex says, gesturing his hand to let them in.

They step in quickly, it must be very cold outside.

"What's your name?" Rose says while stepping forward. All of us seem to follow her motion.

"Charlie," they say quietly.

"Nice to meet you, Charlie!" Rose goes up to them and shakes their hand.

They seem to be quite nervous, and I don't blame them, they're in a small room with 5 new people they've never met.

"If you don't mind me asking, in what way are you part of the LGBT community?" asks Riku, hands clasped together tightly.

"Um, I'm non-binary, they/them pronouns please, and I'm panromantic, and demisexual."

"Hey, me too! Well, the pansexual part at least," I say while smiling big.

Charlie smiles back. It felt nice.

"Well, Charlie, we have a few extra rooms, so let me show you to one where you can stay," says Alex, guiding them down the hallway and squeezing past all of us that were bunched up in the middle of it. He takes them to the last room on the right.

After a few minutes, they both come back out and Charlie looks a bit more relaxed with all of us.

"Why don't you join us for dinner?" says Xander from inside the kitchen.

We all return to our places in the kitchen and Rose grabs and extra chair and pulls it up for Charlie while Riku gets another plate.

Once we're all settled and sitting, we begin to introduce ourselves to them.

"I'm Dylan, I'm a transboy, and I'm pansexual. He/him pronouns, obviously," I say, smiling.

"I'm Rose, and I'm a butch lesbian. She/her."

"Riku. Graygender, demiromatic, she/her."

"Well, there's actually something I wanted to tell all of you guys, and since we have someone new with us, I felt it would be good to share it now. Okay, so I decided I'm a transboy like Dylan. I mainly feel like a boy 85% of the time, but the other 15% I feel agender. So, I don't know. I'm a boy, but sometimes I feel agender? I'm bisexual, and I use he/him or he/they pronouns, doesn't matter!" says Alex, looking a bit awkward, but smiling nonetheless.

We all nod in acceptance.

"I'm Xander, and I'm asexual. He/him," he says quietly.

Charlie nods, and smiles at us.

"I'll be sure to decorate your room tomorrow morning, you said you're panromantic?" says Alex, smiling at Charlie sweetly.

"Um, yeah, I'm pan. But what do you mean decorate?" they replied, tilting their head in confusion.

"Oh, um, it's a surprise."

Charlie nods and continues eating their slice of pizza.

After about 20 minutes of talking and getting to know our new guest, it's already 9:34pm. Xander excuses himself as well as Riku, saying they have things to work on. Rose and Alex excuse themselves too, saying they're both dead tired from today. Then it's just me and Charlie. I can see they're nervous from being in such an unfamiliar place.

"Don't be anxious. Everyone here is real nice. Soon enough, we'll be able to rent out a bigger place so we can help more people, and it won't seem so crowded," I tell them, trying to make my voice as reassuring as I can.

They nod, looking down. They take in a deep breath, and let it out again.

"I was actually diagnosed with anxiety when I was little, and I've had it ever since. So if I seem a bit on-edge, that why," they laugh, but I can tell there's no humor in it.

I nod understandingly. "Don't worry Charlie, we'll help you through it."

They smile gratefully and excuse themselves off to bed.

I stay in the kitchen for a few minutes, staring off into space. I can hear faint classical music coming from the hallway, most likely from Xander's room. I clean up my dish and put it in the sink quietly, grab myself a drink of water, and head to my room.

I take off my binder, not without trouble, but eventually get it off regardless. I slip into bed with my future on my mind.

authors potato: hmm an update so quickly after the last chapter? ;) go me
what do you guys think of charlie? do ya like them so far? i most certainly do ^-^