Thicker Than Paper

Proud

Happy and free. Light and floating. Temporary, but good enough. At the moment, I'll make it last. I run my hand through the water. Feeling it glide between my fingers. The paper crane already rests, bobbing slightly from my movements. I slide my hand near the crane, and it drifts forward.

~~~
I knock on the fake wood door, switching my weight between my feet. It feels weird having to knock on my sister's door. But, as soon as she pulled up at the beginning of the week she strictly enforced the knocking rule. So no one walks in on her on top of her boyfriend, Aiden.

Aiden's an alright dude. My sister started dating him early last year. He's nice and pretty cute if I'm being honest. Although he's more brains than brawns. I suppose that's best for anything other than talking to my strictly athletic family. They spent Thanksgiving with his family, and we get them Christmas and new years. My mom was devastated when she found out Sarah wasn't coming to Thanksgiving. I think the mash potatoes had a major cup of tears.

"Come in!" Its muffled and I hope that's only because of the door in the way.

I suck in a deep breath and turn the cold doorknob. When I step into her room is unsurprisingly a mess. I snicker, swiping my eyes around the room. I almost ask her how Oz is, seeing how the tornado ripped through her room. Sarah's laying in her bed, Aiden is too. Sarah's on her phone, though, Aiden has an arm over his eyes. 

"What?" Sarah flickers her eyes up. Aiden briefly lifts his arm to see who it is before putting it back and mumbling a 'hello'.

"One, don't snap at me," I retort, just as rudely as she did. She rolls her eyes before looking down at her phone. I sigh, and roll my eyes too, "Ok, fine. I'll make it quick and skip the fun stuff. How do I come out to Mom?"

Sarah's jaw goes slack, and she quickly drops her phone into her lap. Aiden's arm is gone from his face, his eye's as wide as Sarah's. Sarah pushes herself up on the bed, everything still wide with shock. 

"So? I preferably want to do it tonight. I guess that's mean of me because it's Christmas tomorrow. Maybe she'll pray the gay away at church," I shrug, rolling my head on my shoulders. I shouldn't feel so tight about this but I'm scared.

"You're gay?" I bet she doesn't mean for her voice to be so rough. I nod it off.

"Bi, technically, but gay nonetheless. Right?" I smile, proud to be out to two more people. It's a relief to know Travis isn't the only one who knows now. 

Sarah jumps off her bed, and over piles of clothes to hug me, "Phoenix! Oh my god, this is amazing! I'm so proud of you!" When she pulls back, I see her eyes glitter with tears, "Wow, this is kind of a shock, but I love you! Now we can talk about cute boys together!"

I bit my lip, and give Aiden a concerned look from over her shoulder. Aiden grins, also looking kind of scared, but shrugs. I clench my jaw, looking down as Sarah who's hugging me, muttering about cute boy watching and look back at him. Shouldn't he say something about his girlfriend talking about other boys? Isn't that normal? 

"Yeah," I peel Sarah off me, taking a step back, "I think I'm doing fine without those...talks. I just need to know how I should tell mom about this."

"Shouldn't you be more concerned about Dad?" She has a point. Dad is more traditional. I'm still not sure how he'll react to having a gay son. 

I cringe, "I'm hoping I can get mom to talk to him for me." 

Sarah snorts, and sits on the edge of her bed, "Yeah, that's probably the best option. I think you should just do it. Just go up to her when she's getting ready for bed and say 'hey. I'm bisexual. I like girls and boys'."