Girl Who Cried Wolf

Homophobia is Gay

In heinsight, it was stupid. It was really fucking stupid.

It was really fucking stupid to decide to make out in the middle of the fucking hallway with or without homophobic parents. But it was even more fucking stupid to make out in the middle of the hallway with homophobic ones.

So that brings Tyla, Tillie, Tracey, and Kassandra to their current location. And at the moment their home: A bench.

Tillie's been crying for hours. Tyla wanted to scream her head off at Tillie's parents, tell them off for kicking out their daughter for something as little as what gender their daughter is attracted to. But she knew that would make it worse, and currently, she was too busy reliving the memory over and over and over again.

"Would you stop that?" Tillie laughed when Tyla teasingly traced her fingers over the curve of Tillie's back for about the millionth time that night.

"Or what?"

"Or I'd have to kiss you," so Tillie did, their mouths melted together so perfectly, they didn't give a shit about the footsteps approaching them. They figured it would be Tracey or Kassandra who were used to the sight anyway and would probably just tell them to get a room before continuing on their way.

"Clotilde Cyra Newton. What do you think you're doing?" Mrs. Newton screamed and Tyla and Tillie broke apart. Tyla looked at the anger radiating off Mrs. Newton and instinctively stepped in front of Tillie.

"And you! Influencing my daughter with things like that, you fag! I trusted you, I let you into my home!" Mrs. Newton screamed. Tyla didn't yell back she didn't do anything. She wasn't sure if she should or not.

"Get out!" She finally yelled.

"...Me?" Tillie hesitantly asked, pocking her head out of the wall of safety Tyla made for her.

"Yes you! All of you! Get out of my house!"

"I'm sorry Tillie," Tyla whispered, her voice was raspy from the effort not to cry. No one's ever yelled at her for her sexuality. Sure, she's been yelled at for many, many other reasons. But not for her sexuality. Probably because the people who yelled at her the most didn't know. But she didn't know what it must be like for your own mother to yell at you like that. To kick you out.

"Don't be, she would've found out eventually," Tillie slumped onto Tyla's shoulder.

"What are we going to do?" Tracey asked, bringing up the most important question. It turns out it was a life saver that Tillie had the Burtons stay at her house because the day after Tyla left the hospital, the cops arrested Jordan with the help of the drug dogs, which smelled the weed Tyla had been storing to give to Jordan later, and almost every other druggie or drug dealer in the complex. A lot of people were arrested that night, as far as Tyla knows, only four people weren't caught. Three of which were the Burtons. The forth being Reggie, who knew it was coming so he moved his drugs to a friends house and warned Tyla about the cops.

But the point was, if they returned to Tyla's apartment, they would be brought in for questioning, and Tyla would likely be arrested. With the right argument, and just a little bit of bending the truth, you could say that Tyla was a drug dealing prostitute who kidnapped Tracey and Kassandra from their mother. Or that she kept them hostage from CPS and a better life.

"I don't know about you, but this bench is pretty comfy," Tyla pretended to get comfy on the damp bench and got a few weak chuckles out of the other three. They seemed to take Tyla's joke as an answer because just a half hour later, they were all slumped over, dozing off.

It was better for Tyla anyway, she didn't want to have to tell them that they were homeless now and they had to sleep on wet benches in the cold. Who would? That was awful news to break. Although she was pretty sure they all knew, but it made it much more real to say it out loud. Tyla didn't want to risk saying it out loud.

But she could say it in her head all she wanted. They were homeless, foodless, moneyless, their only hope for a job was Tyla's prostitution and she was just about due for a fucking baby. No one wants to fuck a teenager moments away from popping a human out of her vagina.

Tyla felt bad for thinking it, but if the Newton's were going to kick them out, she was glad it was so close to her due date, as they helped her through the pregnancy and they paid for a lot of the doctor bills. They asked about her parents and where they were of course. Tyla told them that her father was dead, and her mother had to work twice as hard and was in Europe at the moment and they were under strict instructions not to call her and waste the small amout of money they had on telephone bills.

They bought it. And it was better than the truth. In that story, they had a mother who cared about their well-being. But now Tyla was questioning if it would be better if her mother stuck around anyway. For years it was her dream that her mom and her boyfriend, Flint, would just move in with them. Then she and her siblings will have something short of a family.

But she wondered now if it would be worse. They would likely have neglectful parents, and nothing about that would be healthy. After she witnessed Mrs. Newton and her homophobia. Tyla realized that just because you have two parents, doesn't necessarily mean that you have a nice and healthy family. No matter how it looks to people on the outside, peering in on the family in the photograph.

"Tyla?" A woman's voice called for her, Tyla looked up and was met with the worried brown eyes of Mrs. Reed. "What are you four doing out, sleeping on a bench?"

"Tillie's parents kicked us out, and I can't go back to my apartment," Tyla said, looking at the three people sleeping, the three people that meant the world to her.

"Oh my, I heard about that. I heard about a man named Jordan being arrested, he was charged for attempted murder, did you know?" Mrs. Reed asked, placing a hand over her heart as she breathed heavily. "It probably is best that you don't go back to that apartment complex. I noticed some sketchy people walking around those parts the other day. But I will not allow four young children to be homeless and freezing, come live with me and Al. I insist. Al will love having Tracey over anyway."

"Really?" Tyla's jaw dropped when she nodded, "Oh my god, thank you. But you should know, Tillie's mom kicked us out because Tillie and I are in a relationship, if that's going to be a problem then we can't stay, I can't put Tillie through that all over again."

"Don't worry darling, I think you two look cute together. Wake them up, we ought to head inside now, it's getting late."

Tyla rushed to wake them all up and explain the situation, they repeatedly thanked Mrs. Reed and offered to take up some jobs around the house, but she just wouldn't accept their proposals.

"Don't do anything of the sort, I have all the chores ordered out and I quite like to keep myself busy. You just worry about your school work and that baby coming along. Don't ask me how I know, I could tell you were pregnant from a mile away with that belly."

Mrs. Reed gave Kassandra her own room, Tracey and Al shared, and Tyla and Tillie shared. Mrs. Reed whispered in their ear that she had another bedroom in the basement but she figured Tyla and Tillie would like to share a bed the winked at them and wiggled her eyebrows.

Tyla's never seen Tillie blush that hard.

"See I told you everything would work out," Tillie commented, tucking her head under Tyla's chin.

"You said that about the baby, not about being kicked out."

"Well, then subconsciously I meant that everything would work out. I like Mrs. Reed. Maybe i can fix things with my parents later?"

"Oh no..."

"What?" Tillie pushed herself off of Tyla, glaring at her.

"No, no, no. Not that. You can totally fix things with your parents, but oh no, I think my water just broke."

"I think 'oh fuck' would have been the better reaction," Tillie beamed. Tillie only ever cursed when she was feeling strong emotions and by the wavy smile. Tyla guessed it was either nervousness or excitement. Or maybe both.