The Boat We Row (GxMxM, 18+)

1

Mansfield was too ordinary for me, and I think everyone in town thought I was too extraordinary for it- especially since the tensions between us soon would cost me a roof over my head. My parents were fed up with my progressive antics, my unruly behavior, and my stubbornness in being the good Christian girl they wanted me to be. If you looked rebellious up in the dictionary, my face would surely be there. The more rules they set on me, the sneakier I became, but my luck was soon to run out.

One Sunday afternoon, when I thought my parents and younger brother Aaron would take their regular visit to the store after church, I took it upon myself to unwind in my room with a freshly rolled joint and Fleetwood Mac on my player. I was as high as a kite in the middle of a daydream that was about to put me to sleep when I heard the car pull into the driveway. I instantly snapped up in my bed and sobered up like someone had flipped a switch in me.

"Fuck." I said to myself, smothering the joint on a saucer that sat atop my nightstand. That car engine was the most dreadful sound in the world at that moment.

I sprang up to my dresser and picked up the needle on the record, causing a distorted crackle before there was silence. I flicked the switch off and began fanning my room with a magazine, hoping the air would blow out of the room through the windows. By then, I could hear their chatter while they made their way up the steps and through the front door.

I buried the joint in the soil of the flower basket just under my window, then rushed to lock my door. I had no clue how I was going to get out of this one. The entire room, I was sure, reeked of reefer and there was no way of airing it out in time. My heart was thumping in my throat when I heard the door downstairs shut. I sighed, wondering if there was any point in fanning the air anymore. My sense of clarity was already too far gone and I lost the energy to care with the weight of the high on my brain, so I just fell belly first on my bed, shut my eyes, and waited for one of my parents to bang on my door give me my sentence.

The wait was unbearable. They were downstairs doing God knows what for the next nearly ten minutes, fueling my anxiety even more. I thought about just hopping out of my window and walking off down the road so I didn't have to face being in trouble. At least I would get to evade my inevitable doom for a little while. However, my body felt like too much of a load and I talked myself out of it, though it wasn't more than a 12-foot drop. While I continued building up and breaking down scenarios in my head, I began hearing the heavy footsteps of my father coming up the creaky stairs. He seemed to take a million steps before I heard them stop at my door. There was silence. Then he sighed.

"Josephine, what is that smell?" He said, sounding as though he was bothering himself by parenting me. He never really came off as a strict or even over-protective father but he wasn't a permissive dad. My mother, on the other hand was the complete opposite toward me, but somehow acted more like my father with Aaron- probably because I sort of have a mind of my own. So basically, it wasn't my father who I was afraid of since I could easily beg him for forgiveness. It was my mom who I had to prepare for.

I lifted my head out of the duvet. "What smell?" I mumbled, hoping I sounded convincing enough.

There was silence for a moment more. Then he tried to let himself in, the door rattling with thudding noises sounding from the other side. I turned and watched the knob shake, pursing my lips. This had to be it for me.

"Why is this door locked, Josephine?" Dad said, forcing the door over and over to no avail. It always sounded like an insult when my parents and older folks used my full first name. I was always Joey or at least Josie to most people at school and my friends. Hell, some people even took the risk of calling me Jojo as a joke- which I did not find funny.

"Because I'm naked, Dad." I huffed out a laugh through my nostrils that I made into a cough towards the end. At least I could find the fun in all of this. Somehow.