Wheels

Chapter 7: Gay

"Why is mommy yelling?", Chloe asked, she was sprawled out on my bed, her hair undone and she's still in her school clothes. I, freshly showered, was observing my blemished skin in the mirror. Acne was a close friend of mine.

"Probably has a stick up her ass," Seven-year old, can't say that about her mom. "-I mean, she's having a bad day. New job, remember?", Moms voice was seeping through the walls, she was angry, as usual. It's hard to think of a time in the last few weeks when she wasn't angry or upset. I wondered if she was yelling over the phone or at dad, though. If it was at dad, he was being awful quiet.

"Did you like your school? It looked really big.", She was unfazed by moms outburst, poor kid's probably used to it by now.  After checking out my far-from-perfect skin, I went over and sat by Chloe's head. She was looking up at me, I jokingly flicked her cheek.

"It was okay. I made some friends.", The look on her face said she wanted to know more. "A guy named Brandon," He knocked me out and sent me to the nurse. "-He's pretty cool, likes cameras and stuff."

"Any others?", Chloe sat up, her tangled hair falling over her face and shoulders.

"A girl," Disabled. "-Her name's Kara. She's really sweet."

"Will I get to meet them?"

"I just met them, so I think you'll have to wait a bit.", I laughed, ruffling her hair. Yikes, it felt like hairspray and knots. She's gonna have a hell of a time brushing that out. "Did you like your school?"

"Yeah! I made a ton of friends!", Showing me up as always, I see. I reached over to my bedside dresser and grabbed my old hair brush. I didn't use it anymore since I don't have enough hair to even brush, but I figured I'd help my little sister out.

"Mind if I brush your hair?", She signaled for me to go ahead and sat with her back facing me. Time for me to conquer the beast. I slowly began running the brush through her hair, I had to yank a bit to get it all the way through.

"Mommy took the bun out when she got home so it got really messy- ow! Sissy, that hurts!", Sissy. I didn't mind Chloe calling me that, only because she was too young to understand what was going on with me. I have no idea when or how I'll explain it to her, either.

"You have a lot of knots, I have to get them out.", I tried to brush more gently, but her hair was like a rats nest. Mom should've helped her brush it out earlier, before it got to this level.

"I wish I had short hair like you, then I wouldn't have knots.", She huffed. No, she couldn't have short hair like me. One, because she was little and she didn't really want short hair, she just wanted less knots. Two, because theres no money to take her for a haircut. And three, mom would probably kill her. Or me. Or both.

"You have pretty hair, though. You just don't know how to take care of it yet.", Chloe sighed in response, letting me yank her hair around so that she could be rid of those awful knots. Before even half of her head was brushed out, a soft knocking was heard on my door.

"Cynthia?" It was mom.

"I'll get it.", Chloe popped up off the bed, hairbrush stuck in her hair, and ran over to the door, opening it. My mother walked in, still in her work uniform and her hair done all nicely. But her mascara was running. She was crying.

"Chloe, sweetie, can I talk to Cynthia alone?", Chloe almost immediately nodded. She looked back at me and gave me a confused look, before running off to her own room. Mom stepped further into my room and closed the door behind her. Once the door shut, she broke. "Cynthia, we're screwed."

"What do you mean, mom?", Now wasn't the time to tell her to just call me 'Cy', so I simply let my birth name go and I patted the bed beside me for my mother to sit. She quickly walked over and placed herself beside me.