Cabin Nine [[Revised Edition] Under FURTHER Revision]

Sixteen

sixteen years old

It's awkward at first, to say the least. There are some significant changes to the rules, but only for me. Louisa and Susie are mostly unaffected.

Movies and posters with men who are not fully clothed are forbidden. I'm not even allowed to watch Aladdin. Dad changed the Netflix password so I can't watch Supernatural because of my Castiel phase from two years ago. It's both infuriating and probably the right move. I'm pretty sure my first crush was Dean. Maybe I've got a thing for short guys.

I'm no longer allowed to be alone with Jack. I hate this one the most. It's not like we're going to do anything. They think he's straight and I'm really not ready for anything more than making out. Jack understands and respects that, but I can tell he wants it. He's not the best at hiding it. I love him for trying and I love him for respecting me but it's starting to eat away at me, too. Even if we're already technically sinning by being together, shouldn't we wait until marriage like everyone else? Maybe it would mean less punishment when we die if we obey more rules.

Mom asked the church to pray for me to overcome my illness and they said no. She was horrified with them, so she came back a few weeks later and asked them to pray that I overcome my physical illness. Like she's comparing homosexuality to the flu. But that just gave everyone the impression that I'm a gay person who's contracted some form of cancer. Which makes for a whole new genre of bullying. Pastor Travis does his best to keep doing supportive sermons and he goes as far as talking to me alone about everything. I try not to let him know what my parents have done since they found out but he somehow gets it out of me. When he tries to confront my parents about it, my Dad threatens to leave the church and he backs off. I don't know how much my parents do for this place, but it must be a lot. Travis is a genuinely good person. He wouldn't leave me under the bus unless helping me out would put him in my place.

Despite the fact that this is the hottest summer I've ever experienced, I'm not allowed to go to the swimming pool. That one was David's idea. I really hate it. He's right, though. After they made it a rule, David took me aside to explain. I guess there are a lot of sports guys there that would probably drown me. It's a suffocatingly hot summer. When it's over 100 degrees for four days in a row, Jack asks me to spray him off with a hose. He refuses to go to the pool without me and I love that he wants to support me, but he's friends with a lot of people. They constantly ask him to go and they're starting to get annoyed with him saying no. I like that I'm his top priority but I don't want him to stop having fun with his friends because of me. Only my parents and Pastor Travis know about me. They haven't spread the word like I expected them to.

And another thing. I'm never alone outside of the house. It's not a rule. More like a buddy system after the park incident. David tacked on an extra two weeks of visiting to keep an eye on me. He keeps calling his girlfriend to check on his plants, always saying that she's going to end up killing them. Apparently, she's terrible at gardening. I didn't know that he even had a thing for gardening or a girlfriend. I don't talk to David enough. He made such an effort when I was thirteen. I never appreciated him enough for it.

It's nice, though. I go on daily walks with Louisa and we meet up with Jack halfway through. She makes a point to leave us alone for at least twenty minutes every day. I'm glad she's such a good sister. I don't know what I would do without my siblings. We usually spend that twenty minutes tangled together like overexcited kittens.

My mother is especially bad. At least Dad ignores me, but she keeps trying to act like nothing happened. Like they didn't decide on throwing me out before David talked some sense into them. Like I'm still her favorite child.

David told me they were going to kick me out. He threatened to take me back to college with him and they were alright with that until he threatened to call the police on them.