She/He/They

C V T

A/N- My birthday is this Saturday (Oct 15 YAY LIBRAS) so here's a little gift! The first chapter to She/He/They.
Beware not fully edited!
————————————

"Clementine, what are you doing? Are you trying to embarrass me?" My partner Dallas whispered-yelled, causing my eyes to go wide as saucers, and I quickly dropped my dab pen in my pocket.

"Dallas-" I tried to say, but a violent cough ripped through my body from inhaling wrong.

" Look, I'm not mad, but this is a family event. Pulling out your marijuana pen isn't a good idea, and it makes me look bad," he admonished like a parent, even placing his hand on my shoulder like one would do a rebellious teen.

"I'm sorry, I thought I was far enough away from everyone. I mean, no one was around to see." I tried to explain, but I sighed and mumbled my apology.

Dallas looked at me and smiled, "It's okay. Luckily it was just me coming to look for you; if it were anyone else, I wouldn't have heard the end of it. You said you were quitting."

"I didn't say quit; I said tolerance break," I kicked my heel on the ground.

"Well doesn't matter; come on, let's get back to the party."

I took out my perfume and sprayed myself. My dab didn't leave me smelling bad, but better safe than sorry. I liked Dallas and that he made me feel normal as my chaotic self wanted me to be. I liked that he seemed to like me for me. Not every day you saw a fat, not thick, just fat, dark-skinned black girl with a waist-length goddess braid with tons of shells and beads wrapped into them didn't help that I had both nostrils pieces as well my septum. You especially didn't see her with the conventionally attractive mixed-black guy.

I thought of myself as a free spirit; some days, I dressed like I was going to frolic through the forest, and others like I was about to throw bows at a mosh pit. With a name like Clementine Victory Tempest, I figured I was born to be wild and free, and I fully intended to live up to my name, but now that I was two years shy of 30; something in me was telling me it was time to chill out just a little bit. Although I didn't want a white picket fence, I did want to settle down eventually, maybe soon.

No more following my favorite band around the country and sometimes out of it, no more dancing topless on bar tables completely sober, and no more dating men who only wanted one or two things from me, both being warm holes. So when I ran into Dr. Dallas Fitzpatrick almost a year ago at the health food store, and he complimented me on my juice selection, I thought this was it. But here it was nearly a year later, wondering when he would break up with me because I didn't fit the mold. I might have wanted my happily ever after, but I wasn't going to sacrifice everything I loved for it.

"Sorry. Everything was just so nerve-wracking meeting your whole family. I mean, they are great and nice. Really lovely, actually. I just felt out of place, and I was getting hot because of this dress" I hated long sleeves they made me feel like I was suffocating, but Dallas had asked me to wear them to hide her sleeves of tattoos from his devote baptist family, and I was trying to be a "good" girlfriend. Being around people didn't make me nervous; what made me nervous and in an, I'm about to curse some people out was the subtle looks of disdain people had when I had the nerve to be taking up space.

.

"Clementine, it's fine. There are some more people I want to introduce you to." I took out a mouthwash strip and placed it on my tongue; when it dissolved, I gave Dallas a thumbs up, and he grinned, pulling her back into the frying pan.

"So Clem? What is it that you said you did again?" His brother Sherman asked, wrapping his arm around his wife, who was heavily pregnant with their third child. His parents had a severe hard-on for Texas even though they left it behind for Washington state before any of their kids were born. I mean, Dallas' sister's name was Odessa, for god's sake.