The New American Dream

Part Five: The End Of All Things | Chapter Forty-Three

I had gone straight to bed after the conversation with my parents. The travel had exhausted me so much that I had been asleep by the time my head had hit the pillow. My sleep hadn't been too restful though, as dreams about my dad plagued me.

When I woke up the next morning it was with a start. With a groan I turned around and looked at my alarm clock next to my bed. Six in the morning. For a while I lay in bed debating my options. The thought of having to sit at the breakfast table with my dad filled me with so much dread and anxiety that I immediately deemed this as one of the options that wouldn't actually be executed. The other option was to sleep in, or at least to pretend to as I was wide awake, and wait until my dad left the house for work. Hiding seemed like an awful option though, I couldn't do it forever.

Tears built up. My mom had accepted me and that was the best thing that could have ever happened. But my dad had left me. And that was too much to handle alone at the moment.

Defiantly I stood up and threw on some clothes. I braided my hair, that would have needed a wash, down my neck and quickly tip-toed to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. Then I grabbed my bag and left a note on the kitchen table that I would go out and that I would be back sometime today.

By the time I left the house I was still crying, but as it was barely six-thirty I didn't encounter a single person until I walked onto a busier road. My head hung low as I passed a group of pedestrians and whenever a car drove past I turned my head, eventually I reached my destination.

Without really thinking about it I walked up to Dan's front door and rang the doorbell a few times. I surely wasn't in my right mind to do so, it was way too early in the morning for that. But Victoria answered the door rather quickly.

It mus have been a sight alright, seeing me standing on front of her door so early in the morning while looking like a hot mess and crying.

"Oh dear," she said softly as though it was a normal sight. "Didn't the conversation with your parents go well?" So Dan had told her.

"Yes and no, I guess," I said miserably. "I'm sorry for ringing your doorbell so early in the morning."

"Don't worry, Zoey and I are already up, you might have woken Dan, he wanted to sleep in. Come on in dear," she said and stepped aside so I could walk into her house. "Come on, I'll make you a tea and you can tell me why or why not the conversation went wrong," she said encouragingly and guided me towards the kitchen.

Zoey was already sitting at the breakfast table, eating her breakfast before school started.

Dan and I were allowed to stay home today just like the rest of senior year. They allowed us one day to get used to being here, tomorrow we'd have to go back to school.

"Hi Allie," Zoey said with a smile that fell when she saw my tears. "Oh no, how did your parents take it?"

"So Dan told you," I only stated and sat across from Zoey at the table.

She nodded. "I hope that's okay."

I shrugged. "Sure, why not..." I trailed off and looked into nothingness for a moment. "Either way, it went into two different directions. I wouldn't have really expected either... well maybe one of them. My mom was surprisingly supportive. She even apologized to me for the way she treated me, I think we kind of made up," I said thoughtfully.

Victoria put a mug with Peppermint tea down in front of me and I thanked her, then she sat down next to Zoey. "That sounds like your dad didn't react so well," she said. I noticed how Zoey shot her a weird look.

"He didn't. He didn't even react to me telling them I was bisexual and had a boyfriend. I poured out my heart and he just stood up and walked out of the room," I said and heard bitterness in my voice. Fresh hot tears spilled out of my eyes and I impatiently wiped them away.