When They See Us (Book 1.0)

Chapter Sixteen

I shower, brush my teeth, and head down to breakfast. Camden and Rayden are back from uncle Roger's house because we have school tomorrow. When I get to the kitchen, I notice Macy hasn't joined them yet.

"How'd you sleep?" Mom starts, and I feel as if she's about to give me a lecture.

I let out a breath. "I'm sorry, but she had a really bad nightmare, and she didn't want to sleep alone. Nothing happened though."

She nods her head. "I know. Just keep it PG while we're home please."

"It's not even like that." I roll my eyes.

"Oh, but it will be." Dad walks in, smirking, and winks at me.

Mom slaps her arm. "Alex!"

She rubs the sting away. "What? It's a miracle she's waited this long to have..." another smack is administered to her arm.

"Leave my daughter alone! She waits as long as she wants to. Right, Sweet Pea?" I look at both of them, irritated that they want to bring my sex life up at the breakfast table.

They both start laughing, and Camden joins them. I kick his chair for joining in on their teasing. "Shut up Cam, before I beat your ass, you little twerp."

"Language young lady," Dad yells across the table, "And leave my son alone!"

"He started it!" I tell my dad, and she just ignores me.

"Dad, it's because she's homophobic!" Camden says, sticking his tongue at me.

"Cam, you know that's not true, why would you even suggest something like that?" I asked, confused.

"I don't know, maybe because you didn't stand up for your own friend when people were bullying her for being gay."

"Camden, I know I've made some questionable decisions in the past couple of years, but you have to know I'm not homophobic... right? I mean look at the people who raised us, they taught us how important it is to accept and respect everyone, regardless of who they love. I couldn't care less if you liked a female, male, gender-fluid or non-binary person. Hell you could like a tree and I wouldn't care, because it doesn't change who you are."

I try to be encouraging about the topic because I know my brother feels something more for his friend Miguel. The fucking blind can see the way he feels, but I think he just wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

"So you guys would still love me, even if I didn't like girls?" He questions softly, looking down at his plate as if he's deep in thought.

My parents both look at each other smiling. "Camden, we'll always love you. You not liking girls could never change our love for you. If you choose to have a label, be unlabeled, no matter what, we'd still love you. I'm sorry if our actions made you feel otherwise, but our love for you in this family is never-ending. You're our little baby boy, the only one in the house." My dad says.

"Besides, we'd be hypocrites if we disowned our own children for being who they are and who they want to be." Mom chips in, leaning over to hug and kiss Camden's forehead.

"Just don't come to me for sex advice, I don't like penises," I say laughing, making a face of disgust. He shoves me, and I ruffle his hair showing him some extra sisterly love.

Rayden randomly starts laughing from her side of the table and picks up some eggs and throws them at Cam, dissipating the thick air after that deep conversion, but it misses him and hits mom instead.

"What the heck little girl! That's it!" Mom picks up a piece of toast with jam on it and smashes it all over Rayden's face. Dad starts laughing at her, and Mom turns to her, slamming the same piece of bread into the side of Dad's cheek. "You think this is funny?"

"Oh, you'll regret this later, Momma bea..." Dad is cut off by a handful of eggs in her mouth, stopping her from saying the nickname she gave Mom so many years ago.

The whole table is in a fit of laughter when I see Macy in the hallway leaning against the wall and smiling at our silliness. She's used to the queen bitch side of me at school, but not this family-oriented side. I wave her over to take a seat next to me. The table's laughter dies down, and everyone screams good morning to Macy, wanting her to feel just as at home as we do. She says her good mornings and sits next to me, grabbing food from the center of the table to eat.

The family continues with breakfast, chatting about their weekend as my mother wipes the jam off Rayden's and Dad's faces.

Once she was done, my dad pulled Mom down onto her lap, and they sat like that, eating for the rest of breakfast. Macy and I exchanged looks while eating and smiling at each other. I look to my parents and back at her, wondering if someday Macy and I could possibly share the same passion they have for each other. I just need to get past my fear of what others at school think of me, like Dad said.