Present

5.1

Audrey

As we walked out to the car, Gwen kept her eyes on the ground. "Is it okay if I drive?" She asked. "I'm just feeling a little jittery."

"Yeah, Go ahead." I veered to the passenger side and tossed her the keys. She caught them deftly with one hand.

"Thank you," she said as she climbed into the car. Gwen waited until I buckled my seatbelt before she drove off. I waited until we were a safe distance away before saying anything, almost as if I were worried her parents could still hear me.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Will you talk about it?"

Gwen didn't take her eyes off the road as she spoke. "The summer before my senior year of high school my parents caught me cuddled up with a girl when she stayed the night at me house. They thought we were just best friends, or whatever. I spent the rest of the summer at this Christian 'camp.' Basically they lectured me a lot about my 'sins' and spent a lot of time in this so-called psychologists office where the entire time he told me this story about myself. About what my life had to be like to make me this way, whether it was true or not. And then summer ended and I came home and I was magically cured in my parents eyes."

"They sent you to pray the gay away," my voice was flat and monotone. In any other situation this would be a joke. We would be joking about her parents delusions and inability to accept things different from the life they made for themselves. But it was different, seeing their intolerance and disregard for their daughter first hand.

"Something like that. I'm sorry you had to see all of that. They aren't always that way. I just think its because I haven't been home in a while."

When we got back to my apartment, I grabbed gwens hand and pulled her to my room. I dug through the pile of clothes from the last couple of days to find her favorite oversized t-shirt and worn out pajama pants. She stood in the middle of my room and looked at me as if to say 'What in the world are you doing?' I carried her favorite pajama to her and kissed her forehead. I tugged off her dress and pulled her t-shirt over her head.

Once she was dressed in her favorite comfy clothes, I threw on a tank top and pajama shorts and crawled into my bed. I patted my hand on the space beside me and a smile spread across her beautiful face.

"Lets go to bed early," I murmured.

Gwen hopped into the bed and I pulled her close to me. She nuzzled her head into the crevice my neck created and I wrapped my arms around her slim body. Our legs intertwined. I breathed in the smell of her floral shampoo. It was then that I decided; when her parents weren't being the family she needed, I would be there to pick up the slack.