The Meeting

You Support the Ones You Love

"The meetings are on the third Thursday of every month. The first one is tonight. You're still coming with me, right?" Angela asked her father nervously. He had said he fully supported her but she kept waiting for the rug to get pulled out from under her. Her mother had been less than supportive when Angela had come out to her and then later explained that she was transgender. In fact her mother had taken it so badly that she had accused Angela's father Castiel of deliberately corrupting her.  It had been a hellish last two years for both of them, and they were just now starting to come out on top.  Attending this meeting would be a step toward finding people like herself, people that she could make friends with, and if her dad made a few new friends too, what would be the harm in it?  Hell, he might even meet someone worth getting involved with, though she wasn’t holding her breath on that one.

Angela's dad was what she liked to think of as a late bloomer. He had realized early in life that he had some less than heterosexual feelings, though he had repressed them due to a disapproving family and a need to attain his father’s approval, and so it wasn’t until he was twelve years into a miserable marriage and two kids later that he came to terms with the fact that he was not just interested in other men, but that other men were the only thing he actually wanted. Still, he'd tried to hang on another two years for the kids.  By that point Michael was 17, almost eighteen, and Angela was thirteen, almost fourteen.   Castiel waited until Michael had graduated high school to drop the bombshell.  It was about a month after Angela had sprung her own news on the family.  It had caused World War Three in their house, but it had been worth it to get it off of his chest, though being only thirteen poor Angela was still stuck in the middle between her parents and the unintentional war she had started when she'd first come out. Her dad had immediately become her rock, the person she could always lean on, but her mother was still convinced that this was just a phase. Angela had moved in with her dad after her mother threatened to have her committed the year before. Now here she was sitting at the kitchen table on a Saturday morning with her laptop, researching support groups for gay teens. Her dad was standing by the coffee pot nursing his first cup. "Of course I'm coming with you." He said. She felt a rush of relief at his words. "Thank you daddy." She stood up and walked over to him. He smiled warmly as she kissed his cheek. "You're the best dad ever." He watched his daughter practically skip away to her room and wondered if they'd be able to convince Susan, Angela's mother to attend. He thought they might have a better chance of resurrecting the dead than they would of getting her to come. All he could do was hope that one day Susan would understand and accept Angela as the wonderful and amazing girl she was. Until then he intended to be everything his daughter needed by way of guidance and support.

Seven pm rolled around faster than even Castiel had expected and soon Angela was fretting over her hair and her clothes. "Do I look ok?" She asked probably a dozen times. She had changed her outfit so many times it was making him dizzy. When she settled on a tank top, knee length skirt and a crop top sweater he was relieved to not have to comment on clothes anymore. She has chosen a pair of heels that made her almost as tall as her dad. Both of his kids had taken after Susan in height. He wasn't huge at 5'10 but Susan was only 5'3. Michael topped out at 5'7 and Angela was 5'6, though she was still growing. She hoped she wasn't though. "You look beautiful. Now can we go? The meeting starts in a half hour." He sighed. He could see the fear in her eyes. Up until now he'd been her main supporter. She had a few teachers at school and some extended family, but that was it really. No other kids her age that she knew really understood. She'd lost all her friends the year before and all she wanted was to find other kids like her, and those that were more accepting. He understood that.