Catch The Stars

Chapter 33

Jennie nods her head, lower lip wobbling as she tries to keep it together.

"Whenever I ask your mother if you have a boyfriend, she says no. I'm not saying there's something wrong with not having had a boyfriend yet at your age, that's not it. Heck, kids these days don't get married before their thirties, so you've got plenty of time left."

She nods her head, feeling a familiar ache spread in her chest. She's going to be so disappointed.

So damn disappointed.

"I guess you and Y/n have that in common," She continues. "That girl is so beautiful but she won't accept any of the boys her family introduced to her. Maybe that's what made you guys hit it off so well, huh?"

Jennie swallows and forces a smile, nodding her head. "Yeah, maybe."

"Or maybe you both just don't like boys that much?"

"Yeah, grandma-" Jennie stops once she realizes her mistake, the words that left her grandma's mouth only sinking in once it's too late.

She looks at her, her lips parting, and feels like she's going to throw up.

She raises her eyebrows at her, and it's like the world around them goes completely quiet. "Oh?"

"I-"

"Is there something you need to tell me, Jennie?"

And sitting here in her grandparents' living room with the pastel yellow walls and her granddad probably staring down at them from above, the cool morning breeze before another warm summer day making the curtains sway, Jennie knows she should laugh it off.

She knows she should deny it, for her parents' sake, for her own sake, and mostly, for Y/n's sake.

But her grandmother looks at her so gently, nodding her head almost like she's encouraging her, and Jennie can't really believe what she's doing.

"Do you hate me?" Jennie asks, her voice catching, lower lip wobbling pathetically in fear and shame.

And her grandmother's face suddenly falls and Jennie feels like her whole world comes crashing down, because fuck, this was a mistake.

She just-

Did she just come out to her?

She came out to the woman that used to let her sprinkle pumpkin seeds in her garden when she was four, who used to make fresh green tea lemonade for her when she was six, who used to put bandaids on her knees when she fell down playing on the swing when she was eight.

The only person from her family that still... loves her, entirely.

And now she screwed that up, too.

"Grandma, please don't," Jennie starts. "I love you, please don't hate me-"

"Are you listening to yourself?" She asks harshly, her eyebrows furrowed, and Jennie thinks she sees her eyes well up with tears. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to? Do you believe your grandma is just like every other old person in this village?"

Jennie bites down on her lower lip to keep it from trembling, her heart is racing, and she can't quite understand what's happening. She stares at the ground, waiting for her to say something, but instead feels her place her palm on the top of her head, fingers carding through her hair as gently as ever.

Jennie starts crying then.

"I keep disappointing everyone," Jennie mutters through her tears. "My parents they-I know they're embarrassed of me. It's why they haven't told anyone. They haven't even told you. I'm just so sorry-"