Once Upon A Time (BoyxBoy)

The Ugly Duckling

Joel was just waiting for the moment when his parents would tell him that he was adopted. He had to be. All of his brothers and sisters were either blonde or had red hair and baby blue eyes. However Joel looked nothing like his siblings or his parents. Although he had been regularly dying his hair silver since he was thirteen, Joel had always had dull black hair and yellow-green eyes. Not shining raven hair like the heroes and heroines he’d read about in books; just dull, empty black. Yet, for some reason, his parents acted completely indifferent to the fact that he was different.

Joel was constantly teased by his perfect brothers and sisters for looking different. In fact, it was their taunts that led the boy to believe that he wasn’t related to his family. As Joel sat in between his two sisters, he let out a shaky breath and stared down, prodding his mashed potatoes with his fork.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his left leg. Looking up, Joel caught one of his brothers smirking at him. His brother’s smile grew wider as he kicked the younger boy’s shin again; trying to hold in his laughter when Joel pulled his legs up as discreetly as possible and crossed them where his brothers couldn’t reach them.

“Honey, could you please sit properly at the table?” Joel’s mother asked politely, watching him until he dropped his legs back down again.

Joel didn’t know how much more of the bullying he could take. He looked across the table at his three older brothers, who had managed to spell the word ‘ugly’ with their peas, and had their plates lifted slightly so that their parents couldn’t see it.

How creative, Joel thought, looking back down at his plate and no longer feeling hungry. “Hey, mum?” he asked, getting everyone at the table’s attention. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.” He waited for his mother’s patient nod before continuing. “Is there a reason why I don’t look like anyone in the family? Am I even related to anyone in the family?”

Everyone froze, including Joel’s siblings. His mother was momentarily at a loss for words before she looked down at her plate and swallowed. “Joel, just because you look different, it doesn’t mean you’re not part of our family.” Her voice was shaky as she purposefully tried to think of a way to avoid his question.

But Joel wasn’t buying her crap. He politely placed his knife and fork together and stood up loudly, his chair making a loud screeching sound as it scraped across the floor. He looked at her once again, frowning at the fact that his mother refused to look up at him. “Please?” he asked, sighing when he received no answer. Joel nodded and stormed out of the room, heading upstairs and grabbing a backpack on his way.

When he reached his room, Joel started cramming a change of clothes into the bag and money into his wallet. He grabbed and old yet comfortable and warm sweater and turned back towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Joel’s oldest brother asked, leaning against the doorframe and blocking the exit.

“I’m leaving,” Joel replied quietly as he waited for his brother to move.

“Where are you going?” His brother repeated in a sterner tone.

Joel shrugged, attempting to push past his brother, but the taller boy wouldn’t let him. “I’ll find somewhere to stay in the city.”

His brother let out an unamused snort. “Who will you stay with?” he asked, a smirk spreading onto his face. “If I remember correctly, you don’t have any friends.” He pretended to have a sudden epiphany. “You could stay in a brothel! I hear you don’t have to be attractive to be a prostitute!”

“I might just do that,” Joel snapped as he finally managed to push past his brother and stormed down the hallway..

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