Jones 2

Chapter 13: Daniel

Somebody That I Used to Know~Gotye
October 21, 2015

DANIEL'S POV//

When you're a kid they tell you to be careful who you become friends with. But the never warn you who to watch out for. That's why when you get to high school you learn the hard way who was really your friend and who isn't. From a young age, I knew I'd fall in love with a girl. But from that same age, I knew I'd fall in lust with a boy. It wasn't until seventh grade I realized what I liked. I didn't expect to be bisexual like my ex-girlfriend and her new girlfriend. I didn't expect to still have an attraction to Angie but also have many attractions to guys. I ask myself all the time what I see in boys and the answer is always unknown. It's hard to tell what anyone sees in boys but they just like them. Some have muscle, some have really nice hair but they all have dicks unless you have otherwise but identify as male.

Tomorrows my birthday. I'm happy to see the age of 14. Chapter 13 was a wild ride. God bless it. Last night I came out to my parents. My dad wasn't happy and he's planning to have some people perform some type of back-to-straight treatment on me. It's unethical how things like that exist for people who they think are "abnormal". I figured that'd be a good birthday gift to myself. My parents deserve to know and I deserve to be free and open. I'm following Angie to Grant which is odd because I'm sure I'm the last person Paulina wants to see. I want to avoid my parents at all costs for as late as possible because I know they have some sort of lecture prepared for when I get home.

"I still don't get why you came with me. Paulina doesn't want to see you especially after school when her and I only get to see each other for like 20 minutes," Angie says as we walk down the street to the bus stop where Paulina waits. She's standing there resting her arms on the bus bench and her backpack on the seat in front of her. When we walk up to her she totally ignores my presents and greet Angie with what seems like a sweet loving hug. Some may say it's weird that the ex and the new girlfriend are together but I consider it modern.

"Aren't you cold?" Angie asks and rubs Paulina's arms. You'd think she'd be cold since she's just wearing a black knitted sweater with a bunch of holes poked in it. Her style sure has adjusted to high school. Same old Docs, different sweaters.

The fall air blows and leaves fly around. It smells like  Halloween already.

"Hi Daniel," Paulina finally says in a deep tone.

"Hi there," I say and smile at her to release some of the unwanted tension. I get she hates me but I mean, shouldn't I have the upper hand when it comes to hating? She technically persuaded my girlfriend to cheat on me and go gay...FOR HER.

They say the brain works in a way to help you. If the body didn't have the brain, it'd be doing unnecessary stupidity all the time. Think of a zombie. They're moving but they don't really have any awareness or control of their thoughts because their brain is only thinking about eating other humans. I know, it sounds very complex but your brain is your control center. What my point is, people are attracted to the cognitive smells of others. If the smell is familiar or sweet, they're attracted to them. If someone has a distinct smell that reminds you of something or just smells really good to you then obviously you're going to be attracted to that person. And that, my friends, is called pheromones. Clearly, Paulina had a smell that attracted Angie in a very rapid matter. Girls are more likely to please girls by a lot compared to boys. But aren't opposites supposed to attract? Fuck this. 

When I look back up at Angie and Paulina who are busy cooing at each other, I see a grey beat-up van turn onto Angie's street. 

"Shit," I say and start backing up while keeping my eyes glued to the van.

"What?

"Angie asks and turns around from Paulina.

"Fuck," Angie says and grows anxious.

"What the fuck is wrong with you two? What is it?" Paulina asks. 

"Daniels parents called this church program to have them basically rapture Daniel back to straight and part of the process is to take him themselves and scare him straight," Angie explains.

"Holy shit. Really? That's fucked up," She says and snickers.

"Ok it's not funny right now because they're coming for me," I say.

"Let's run to Grant," Paulina says and we start running across the street. We run and try to blend in the crowd of Grant students but it doesn't work. The van pulls into the parking lot and stops honks at the kids to get out of the way. The crowd of kids parts and the van drives through them. 

"Shit. Daniel run," Paulina screams but before I can actually get my feet to work someone hops out the van and tugs me in. 

"Drive," The man who pulled me in says to the person driving.  

From inside the van I see Paulina run infront of the van and put her hands up. 

"You either run over me and go to jail or let the queer go," She yells loud enough for them to hear with the windows closed. 

"Goddammit," The driver says and changes his gear to reverse.

"Angie stand behind the van," Paulina yells and Angie runs behind the van. She holds her hands up and counters the driver. The driver rolls down all the windows hopefully to tell Paulina he's going to let me go.

"Move out of the goddamn way," He yells.

"What the fuck is this parade?" Someone asks Angie.

"Just stand right there," Angie says and points to the side of the van where the door is. The girls walking by listen to Angie and stand there. More and more people surround the van so they have no choice but to let me go.

"Everybody, get down," Paulina yells and soon enough heads start disappearing and bodies start lining up on the ground. 

"So are you gonna run over 250 high school kids or let go of the kid?" Paulina yells from under the van. 

"Fuck. Just let the thing go," the driver says. 

The guy holding me hostage lets go of my arms and opens the door. 

"They let him go," One girl says while still laying on the floor. She gets up so I can walk out and when I look around, I see at least 100 plus kids laying on the ground to prevent the van from driving off. I walk in front of the van and see Paulina laying there.

"Thank you," I say and she gets up. She hugs me. It's weird because we haven't hugged since maybe seventh grade.

"Don't thank me yet. You still gotta go home to your parents who are expecting you to come home kidnapped,"

"I'm gay too motherfuckers," Paulina says and grabs Angie's hand as we walk by the van whose door is still open. She holds up Angie's hand in the air out of pride and waves it at them. 

It's still weird seeing Angie's perfectly nail polished fingers entangled in Paulina's long skinny fingers rather than in my large calloused hand. It's hard to normalize something that feels alien to you. It's hard to be ok with something that will rip your heart apart for eternity. 

1/4 LGBT teens attempt suicide and most of the time that attempt is successful. They are literally dying for acceptance. When someone from the LGBT community isn't given the acceptance and love they deserve, they become another tragedy and another statistic. Protect our trans, protect our queers, protect gender binaries, protect our bisexuals, protect our pansexuals, protect our boys, protect our girls. Protect and support them all. 

And because 1/3 of my audience is 40+.... Parents, if your child finally builds up the courage to come out to you as any of the identifying, please support them and love them. They are no different than who you thought they were, they are not a mistake and they are not confused and they are not trying to punish you. They are who they are and they deserve your support. 

*****************************

Because some of the other characters are minor characters, the individual chapters will be coming to an end after Kassidy's chapter which is next. By now it should be clear who the major and minor characters are.