Choni One Shots pt: 2

323: The One At Open House

TONI POV:

I look at the paper. "So I was looking at the syllabus. And it says you're going over sex ed."
Some mom says. "Yes and we'll be going over safe sex for everyone." The health teacher says. "That better not be including homosexuals." I hold back laughter. "No! We'll be talking about safe sex for our LGBT students all over the spectrum." The teacher tells us. "But it's sin." The woman says. "Is it?" I ask quietly. "Yes. The bible says so." I shake my head. "No, it only said that after they realized people in the church were sexually assaulting children and to make it look like that weren't actually doing anything wrong they made it against homosexuality." I explain. "Also you're not supposed to get tattoos and modify your body cosmetically but your breast came in here 2 minutes before you." I add. "Who's your kid?" She ask annoyed. "Rebecca." I say quietly. She looks at me pissed. "I know, I didn't pick that name out for her, I wouldn't have chosen it for my daughter. But she liked it, so we use it." I tell her. "You have the trans kid that I'm trying to get my son away from so your son doesn't turn mine gay." She says. "Daughter." I correct her. "And she isn't gonna turn your kid gay, that's a lot of work." I say before standing up. "I'll be talking to the principal." She says also standing up. "Ok! Let's go." I say smiling. "It'll be a big gay trip." I say just to piss her off. "Gay means happy."

I walk into the house. I feel a hand hit the back of my head. "Hey!" I say pissed. "Why would you do that?" Cheryl ask annoyed. "Because I don't want people to be horrible to my kid." I say quietly. "I don't want her getting hurt." I whisper. She nods. "You can be less of an asshole about it." She says quietly. I take a deep breath. "But you outing a kid in front of the entire school because you wanted Kevin to get some dick isn't the same." I say taking my jacket off and hanging it up. "I thought you got over that." She says quietly. "I did, but I didn't forget your double standards." I tell her before walking upstairs. "I didn't embarrass our kid in front off of her peers parents!" She yells up the stairs. I turn around. "We aren't fighting up and down the stairs Cher!" I say annoyed. I walk to Rebecca's room and knock on the door. "Come in." She says quietly. I slowly open the door. "What?" She ask quietly. "I just came to check on you. Tonight went well, your teachers love you." I tell her. "I know you yelled at Justin's mom." She says quietly. I look down. "Honestly someone needed to do it." She says quietly. "She's the only person who doesn't know he's gay." I hold back laughter. "You didn't say anything did you?" I shake my head. "I wasn't gonna out him like that." She nods. "Mom's mad isn't she?" I nod. "She's always mad at me." I whisper. "Why?" She ask quietly. "Because she stubborn and has this undying need to be right." I tell her. She smiles a little. I look around her room. "You put up the flag I got you." She nods. "Yeah, I almost died though." I look at her confused. "I needed to climb a little to get it where I wanted it." I sigh. "I could have done it." I tell her. "Yeah but I was bored." I smile. "Next time get me." She nods. "I'm sorry." I shake my head. "Don't be! I'm not mad! I'm not even disappointed! I just don't want you getting hurt." I tell her. "Or just find a safer way." She nods. I smile. "That all?" She ask quietly. I take a deep breath. "I might be taking a road trip up to Maine. Do you want to come?" I ask her. "Why are you going up to Maine?" She ask me. "To meet my niece. Your cousin." She smiles. "She was born?" I nod. "Yeah! I got the call on the way home." I smile. "Do you want to come?" I ask her. She nods. "Is mom going?" She ask quietly. "I think so! If she hasn't killed me by then." I say quietly. "When are we going?" She ask excitedly. "Friday, I'll pick you up early from school and we'll head up. I have some work I need to get done before we leave so I can't really get up and leave right now." She nods. "How long are we gonna be up there?" She ask quietly. "We'll leave to come home Monday morning." She nods. "Ok, now I'm gonna try to talk mom out of killing me, go to bed. Did you take a shower yet?" She shakes her head. The mood shifts. "You gotta." She nods. "I know, I also don't like showering alone." I nod. "Makes sense. But now that we're home can you?" She nods. "And don't just sit there with the water running." I tell her. I walk out and go downstairs to the kitchen where Cheryl is. "You ok?" I ask Cheryl. She looks at me. "Are we ok?" She ask me. I shrug. "You've been getting mad at me for no reason a lot lately." I say quietly. "I know you're trying to push me away." She looks down. "It's gonna take more than picking petty arguments." I tell her. "I'm just stressed. And I feel like you're doing all the work parenting wise and I feel like I'm just sitting by letting shit happen to our kid when there's nothing we can actually do besides support her." She explains. "I also haven't fully wrapped my head around her coming out. I support her, I really do! It's just hard not seeing her as my son." I nod. "I get it. Doesn't mean you need to pick fights with me." I tell her. She looks at me. "I'm sorry." I nod. "You still need time, I get that. Honestly, I'm still trying to figure this all out. But as long as we try to love and support her as much as we can, and admit when we fuck up, I think we'll be ok. Rebecca's also a very independent person so she'll call us on our shit." She smiles. "We're keeping her fed, we have a roof over her head. We support her the best we can. She's not dead! We're doing what we legally have to do plus actually caring about our kid so I think we could be doing worse." I tell her. She nods. "We're doing what we can. That's all we wanted our parents to do with us." She says quietly. I nod.

I lie down next to Rebecca and hand her some ice cream. Cheryl sits at the edge of the bed."You know, you're right." She says quietly. "What do you mean?" I ask her. "One of my friends told me what you said about my name." My eyes widen. "It's your choice. I wouldn't have picked it out but it's not my choice." I whisper. "I kinda like Rey." She says ignoring what I said. "Rey?" I ask quietly. "Like from Star Wars." She smiles. I look at Cheryl and she just shrugs. "It's your choice." I say quietly. "I think it's better." She whispers. "Rey Top-." She stops herself. "No! Ew. Nevermind." We call laugh quietly. "I just want to warn you, if you keep coming up with different names people might not know what to do." She nods. "I know." She whispers. "But we'll support you no matter what. Even if one day you wake up and realize this isn't how you want to live. Not saying you're in the wrong and what you're doing is bad, I'm just saying. There was a time where I thought I was straight and my type was a copy and paste version of my brother! Found out a bit later my type was your mom." Cheryl explains. I look at her disgusted. "Archie?! Ew!" I say quietly. "I think I'll keep going by Rebecca for now. Maybe I'll go to Starbucks and see what works when they call my name." Rebecca says quietly. "Or Pop's, you know, so you don't look like a basic white girl." I whisper. "Really?" I shrug. "Also Pop's has better coffee because Veronica and Tabitha don't burn it!" She smiles. "You do have a point but they know me there." I nod. "Do you have any suggestions?" She ask quietly. I shrug. "I don't know what would fit you, last time we tried you turned around and changed everything about yourself." Cheryl says slightly annoyed. We look at her. "I'm sorry." She whispers. "We named you after my brother, it hurts a lot more than I thought it would." She tells us. "It's not your fault at all!" She adds. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything, I think we all are! You coming out was kinda shocking, again, not mad! I'm happy that you felt comfortable telling us and that you know how you feel inside. I just wasn't expecting to be sat down and get told that you were no longer my son and I think I just need time." Cheryl explains. We all sit there quietly. "I mean, I did kinda throw this on you. But you guys seemed to take it well." Rebecca says quietly. "I mean, it would be weird if you didn't! You're both gay!" She says quietly. "I'm Bi." I correct her. "Whatever! You know what I mean." I smile.

"What was grandma's name?" Rebecca ask quietly. "Antoinette." I say quietly. "Why?" She groans. "Yes my name runs in the family. Do you want it?" I ask quietly. She shrugs. "There's different things you can do with the name." I tell her. "You could go by Toni like me." I say quietly. "No, that's to close." I nod. "My mom went by Anne!" I say tell her. "Annie!" I look at Cheryl. "No!" I say pissed. She smiles. "Sorry." I look at Rebecca. "Lily?" She says quietly. "Lily Topaz?" I ask quietly. She nods. "I like that." She smiles. I look at her. "I do too." I smile.