Spectrum (Frerard, Petekey)

3: Lindsey Ballato The Motherly Gothic Vulture

"It's not your homework again, is it?" Gee asked, narrowing her eyes a little as she turned to Mikey, but from the far more sombre look in the thirteen year old's eyes, she knew that this was something different entirely.

"No, it's... it's..." Mikey shook his head, blushing a little as he did so, Gee waiting in silence for him to continue, "this girl, she's a very pretty girl, she asked me on a date, and I said no, and I was really nice to her about it, but now she started a rumour that I'm gay... and... these kids keep coming up to me and screaming 'faggot' in my face..."

Gee shook her head, in something like disbelief, because they were fucking thirteen year olds, and still this shit had been drilled into their brains, and it was the worst thing in the world, and dear god, she never wanted Mikey to experience that kind of hatred.

"Can't you like tell the school that they're making up rumours and bullying you? Like tell your teacher, what's her name again?"

Mikey shook his head firmly, his gaze falling to the floor, "then they'd call me teachers pet, and I... I'm not even gay... I... I mean... should I have really just said yes to that pretty girl?"

"If you didn't want to go out with her then no you shouldn't have." Gee met Mikey's gaze as she spoke, making sure he understood.

"But she's pretty... am I weird for not liking her? Am I a freak... am I a... f-faggot?" And it was exactly then that Gee's heart broke right in two.

"Don't use that word, Mikey." She said, shaking her head firmly as she pulled her little brother into a hug. "You're none of those things, and if you are gay, and you should be under no pressure to know at your age, or any age, but one day you will know what you are... whatever it is, it's fine with me, you know that? I'm always going to love you, and you're always going to be my little brother, well, unless you don't want to be my brother anymore, but... you know what I mean."

Mikey smiled at his sister: a genuine kind of smile that meant the absolute world to Gee, before his face faltered significantly at a sudden realisation, "it wouldn't be the same with mum and dad though, would it?"

Gee bit her lip, hating to agree with him, but Mikey was right, and there was no way around that.

"Why don't they like you being a girl?" He asked, it phrased as a genuine question, and Gee could never quite understand how Mikey could be so accepting and understanding, when their parents were anything but that.

"I don't know, Mikey, I really don't know."

-

"But what if she's not punk rock enough?" Jamia raised her eyebrows, lighting a cigarette as she engaged in somewhat casual, somewhat pointless conversation with a certain Lindsey Ballato. "I care a lot about my punk rock aesthetic, you know?"

"I know, I know." Lindsey let out a deep sigh, shaking her head a little as she turned to Frances for some form of support. "Gee's really punk rock, I promise-"

"If she's a prep, can I put my middle finger up at her?" Jessicka asked, grinning a little.

"I feel like we need to ban you from reading 'My Immortal' again..." Lindsey shook her head in disbelief, because Jessicka had this little problem with the slightly more than ironic appreciation of scene kid culture, and seriously someone needed to stop her before she started walking around wearing a Blood On The Dancefloor shirt or something equally as tragic.

"I feel like that's bullying." Jessicka grumbled, turning back to Alicia, who she had previously been in her own conversation with.

"And don't you reckon calling Gee a 'prep' is bullying too?" Chantal grinned a little, because everyone knew she was right, and Jessicka was definitely going to put her middle finger up at her for being such a prep, but Chantal reckoned that maybe, just maybe, she could deal with that.