My Father's a Homo

Something Bad Is Happening

A/N: Hey, y'all. I know I haven't been updating as frequently, but I'm in an exam year in school and I've got piles of assessments and yada yada yada. I managed to get this written this morning, although it was emotionally tiring. That's probably stupid, but I had a really emotionally tiring conversation late last night and it seems that that exhaustion has carried over into the morning.

I could hear Mom and Mendel whispering outside my bedroom door, and I'd already heard their footsteps approach and leave a few time over the course of the evening.

As I lay in the darkness, I began to think. Everyone had been acting really weirdly for the past week, sort of tiptoeing around me. And I hadn't heard from Whizzer during that time. Was he okay? Of course he was, I was just being silly. He was Whizzer after all; he was always okay.

A knock sounded on my door, shaking me out of my reverie.

"Come in," I called out.

Mom and Mendel walked into my room slowly. Mom looked like she'd been crying, and Mendel wasn't looking too hot either. I sat up in bed as they turned my light on, wondering what on Earth could be happening.

"Jason, honey, we need to tell you something, okay?" Mom began shakily, her voice cracking towards the end. "And we don't want you to be scared, but it is quite serious."

She turned to look at Mendel, who gave her an encouraging nod, before turning back around to look at my panic-stricken face.

"Wha-What's going on?" I asked, extremely concerned about what I was about to be told. I was beginning to panic slightly. Everything was okay, right? That's what we'd said, what we'd all promised each other. Everything would be alright. We - the tight-knit family, brought together by sorrow and pain to create this beautiful, great thing - would be alright. Wouldn't we?

"Whizzer... Whizzer isn't very well, Ja-" Mom tried to tell me, but she broke off at the end, sobbing into Mendel's chest, as he held her and patted her back. He looked as though he could start crying himself at any moment. What did Mom mean Whizzer wasn't well?

"He collapsed while he and your Dad were playing racquetball last weekend," Mendel continued, just about holding himself together.

This revelation hit me like a truck. But I had to wonder-

"Is it what the people at school have been talking about?" I asked. "The gay plague? 'Cause that's, that's what Whiz and Dad are, right? Nancys?"

"Don't-Don't use that word please, Jason," Mom said, her head shooting up so fast she could potentially suffer from whiplash. The tears were still streaming down her face. "It's not a nice word. But yes, they are... gay. And... maybe that is what Whizzer has, but it's too early to say for sure."

Mom and Mendel looked at me expectantly, but I just looked down at my lap, and picked at my nails. Eventually, I broke the silence.

"Could you please leave me alone? I have school tomorrow, and it's late, I should probably get to sleep." Mom and Mendel nodded, and walked back out of my room.

This couldn't be happening. Everything would be alright. Whizzer was going to be okay. Just like he always was. We were all going to be okay.

It was only once they had left that I let the tears fall.

I rocked myself to sleep that night, calming myself by whispering like a mantra under my breath, "Everything will be alright, everything will be alright."

Except it wouldn't, would it?

A/N: I'm sorry?

540 words