Close Your Eyes

seventeen; ❝her acceptance❞

Rosa's POV

After a few weeks, my relationship with Aurora is somehow even stronger. We've spent more time with each other and are so caught up in each other, like a couple of lovesick teenagers. Nothing else seems to matter, except for us. 

At home, my father is distant. He only directs his words to Adrianna and at times, my mom. Their relationship seems to be going through a rough patch because I came out and she accepted me. 

I don't mind it though. I'm relieved that my mom accepts me, and always sticks up for me. 

I'm not that worried about chasing my father's nonexistent acceptance. I've come to an important point in my life where if my sister and father don't accept me, then that will be their problem. I won't dedicate time to worrying about it. I just can't spend my life going down a rabbit hole of confusion and despair because of them. Especially when they'll never even give their treatment toward me a second thought. 

Ever since I met Aurora, I've grown up more and I've become proud of my sexuality. I think that if I spend more time on that topic of acceptance, I'll head back into a state of destruction where nothing good follows. I can't afford to reverse any of my hard work because of my family. Not anymore. 

As I'm texting Aurora, I hear someone knock on the door. Before I even get up from my bed, I hear another loud knock on my door. I don't have time to think about who it is, because another sound interrupts that process. I open the door and coincidentally, it's my sister. She greets me with a peculiar smile, and a small, "hey."

"What do you want?" I bluntly ask her.

Throughout the past few weeks, she's made it her mission to be mean to me at every passing second, so I figure that returning the favor would be fair. 

"Rosa, I know I haven't been very supportive of you," she starts.

"Oh, really? I thought calling me a dyke and slamming the door in my face was being supportive."

"Rosa, I love you even if you love a girl or a whale. I realize now that I can't change you and I should be happy for who you are," she says.

I've known her my entire life, and when I attempt to study her familiar face, there are no lies present. It could be that I'm just being hopeful, or she's being genuine. I seem like to like the latter option better. 

"You're actually being serious?" I ask her.

She slowly nods her head as if she's coming to terms with it too. She provides me with a huge hug, and even offers a small kiss on my cheek. I would be lying if I said that I didn't miss our old interactions and inside jokes. We're a sister duo with a love that's lasted for decades, and a large part of me is relieved to see that it won't be roken up now. 

"I love you," she steadily tells me. 

"I love you too, Adrianna," I say.

"So, I was thinking, it would be cool if I could meet Aurora. Can I?"

 I can tell she's trying to be extra nice, and I don't mind it. The high of being accepted is like no other, and it'll take time for me to come back to my old reality.

"Of course you can, Adrianna. You'll love her, er, at least I hope you will," I respond.

Will she? Or will she find a reason to hate her? The thoughts begin to evolve into huge grey clouds in my mind, and it already feels like the joyful feelings that I had merely a second ago are going away. I've always been the kind of person that worries about everything, so of course my brain has to eagerly latch onto this topic. It doesn't help that she takes longer than a tiny moment to speak up, and it only fuels my concerns. 

She clears her throat before saying, "Anyone that cares about you is someone that I will definitely love. You're a different person now, you're stronger and I think you're stronger in part because of her, so I have to thank her."

She bites her lip, and waits for my dearest confirmation regarding a future interaction between her and Aurora.

"I bet she'd also love to meet you," I say.

Truthfully, I have no idea, but Aurora has been reminding me that she'll welcome in whoever I feel comfortable with. So, I hope that includes my sister and all of her messy past words. Aurora and I both believe in change, and with time, we should be able to move past those events. 

Time, like always, is the solution to everything. Time is what allowed my sister to finally accept me, and it's what allowed me to accept myself. Time is so complicated, but it's everything. 

She finally exhales, and then embraces me into another hug. She seems to relax when I hug her back. As strange as it seems, I realize that the past few weeks have been hard on her too. The awkward silence and bitter insults created a horrible atmosphere between us. Selfishly, I feel an ounce of joy at the fact that she didn't have it so easy either. 

Nothing is easy, but I believe that our relationship will heal. 

With time. 

"You're the best sister in the world," I tell her.

"You too," she says.

Her acceptance has finally come, and it seems so unreal but makes me so cheerful and happy and joyful and every positive emotion in the world.