I Have Friends Who Understand Me

16 - Cutting Some Slack

CONTENT WARNING: LYING, NONBINARY PHOBIC OR WHATEVER THW WORD IS SORRY, STUPID FUCKING PARENTS

Oh shit.

Dying my hair blue seemed like a great idea at the time, but as my mother's smile faded, I was absolutely terrified about how she would react to it. It wasn't that I regretting dying really, more I regretted not regretting it.

My mother stood in shock for a second, even if it felt more like an eternity, before she gently reached her hand out and held my check gently with it.

"Oh, honey..." She said as she lightly stroked my face with her thumb, voice walking a fine line in between disappointment and pity. "We've been gone too long, haven't we? Well, give your father a minute to bring our bangs up while I make him a nice cup of coffee, and we can have a nice little chat in the family room, alright?"

"I- um, yea. That sounds great, mom." I knew I was worrying over nothing. So she clearly didn't like my hair, so what? Her and dad will probably say something about being shocked and probably hurt or something dumb like that, then say they're sorry for how they reached and we can all move on. Well, move on after I agree to dye my hair back to it's natural shade most likely.

It would be annoying and a sucky way for them to rationalize their response, but it's something that I could deal with. I may think it's idiotic but I would understand where they're coming from, sadly they are from a different time, what they do can still be shitty but I can also cut them some slack.

I walked to the back of the house, and down these two little steps that I'll never really understand the need for, to sit on one of two couches in the family room, listening to the sounds of the coffee maker in the kitchen, my mother's sweet humming, and my father banging their suitcases on what seemed to be every wall in the house on his way to my parent's bedroom.

It wasn't long before they joined me, sitting on the other couch, my mother on the edge and closer to the corner of the L shape the couches made while my father sat next to her sipping from his favorite mug.

"Well, first off, dear, how are you? It feels as if I haven't seen you in years! How was staying on your own? Did you get into any trouble? I hope not, haha. Did you need to call Maxine for anything? Did you miss us?" She said everything with this odd smile... One that told me something was up in my gut, but that I couldn't see anything wrong with. It was weird, and extremely worrying, but everything was okay.

Right?

"Well, I didn't have to call Max for anything, so that's good. Every thing went pretty smoothly as far as I could tell. House is still standing, so that's good, right? But of course I missed you guys, it was pretty weird being on my own for the first time."

"So everything went well? That's good to here. Just wait till you go to college, although that's still a ways off, no need to worry about that yet..." The end of her sentence seemed to drift off a bit. She clearly had something else on her mind...

*in agressivly monotone voice* I wonder what it could be.

Although, I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to bring it up or wait for one of them too, they were the ones who needed to apollogise, but sometimes for my parents that ment pretending nothing even happened, and I couldn't have that right now, I simply wouldn't.

"So, Mom, Dad, about what I told you two right before you left..." I let my sentence trail off, but my mom was quick to pick the conversation back up herself, clapping her hands together before placing them back into her lap as she stated to speak again.

"Oh, yes, honey, I wasn't quite sure how to bring it up but I'm so glad you did." She leaned forward in her seat and grabbed my hands in hers, pulling me ever so slightly closer to her. "First off I want you to know that your father and I love you very much, and there is nothing in this world that could ever change that. I know when you told us we both had some... Strong reactions" ah yes, that is exactly how I would describe your reactions 'strong' "but, baby, we were just surprised, we had no idea where it came from, and of course we were both stressed with Leo's trip, and well, we simply didn't handle it well."

She took a breath before continuing, "Honey, we are so sorry for the things we said, all we ever want to do is support you and in that moment we did a horrible job of it." Wow. She actually apologized, that's... New, this is going to be okay. "After having some time to think, or more, process what you said, we both realized that you need our support more then ever right now." Okay, that kinda... weird, but still okay, everything is okay. "We're here now. Too support and love you, and I promise we will figure this out."

...Huh?

"You aren't in this alone, you're gonna be okay."

Um, this is strange, right?

"Don't worry, sweetie, your father and I are here to help you through this now. You'll be better in no time."

Oh god.

AN:
fun fact, I've actually already written the next part of this scene, but I cut it off here cause ✨ d r a m a ✨
I'll probably post it tomorrow or sm if I don't forget, but this is the first time I've actually written ahead... Normally it's just all in my head... It's kinda... weird.
Anyway, peace out, y'all.
:)