Curly and Me ✣Narry✣ *COMPLETED*

Chapter 14

Nick had left hours before me. His father, a rather frail and diminutive man came bustling into the office positively beaming with a smirk on his face. It was clear where Nick had gotten his pitiable personality as the guy just chuckled at whatever Principal Hester was saying as though he found the whole thing amusing. The latter didn’t seem at all fazed by the inappropriate reaction shown by Nick’ father. If anything, our principal seemed almost relieved.

Nick made it a point to make eye contact with me before leaving. He was neither glaring nor angry from his expression which was far from the set lines that crowded my face as I stared back at him. He looked so calm and serene that it was infuriating my temper even more to the point that even the principal’s secretary adamantly refused to pay any attention to me after Nick had left.

My mother couldn’t leave the other school. Since my righteous defense of all that was good was not considered an emergency, I had to wait several hours for her to finish. It was almost an hour after school was dismissed before she got there. A few students had come in to submit papers to the secretary or perhaps just to quench their curiosity on what happened to me. I bit down the hope that Harry would be one of the people to walk in and that he would profess that he wasn’t gay. But then, I had personally witnessed what happened so the only way that would be true was if I was delusional or wrong.

Fortunately, I was perfectly sane. I was also never wrong.

My mother was – is – a lot of things. She is amiable, brilliant, caring – I can think of an adjective to describe her for every letter of the alphabet and then some. The one thing she clearly is not is a disciplinarian. She simply did not have the experience for it. That was something other people did for her.

I didn’t know what Principal Hester told her over the phone. But, it was clear she knew enough from the expression she had on her face when it was her turn to walk into the office several hours later.

I could tell almost immediately that she didn’t know what to do. She gave me that half-concerned, half-disappointed look that all mothers were born with and whose faces automatically molded into moments after breaking that vase or getting yourself covered in dirt. Principal Hester made it a point to close his door so I could not overhear anything they discussed. Not like it mattered really. I was certain that once my mom really knew what I was fighting about, she would agree with me. After all, she did have a faggot for a brother.

I expected her to express her displeasure that I was being suspended for ten days. I expected her to call Mrs. S in outrage and reprimand her for exposing me to her gay son all these years. I expected her to do what every other normal parent would have done in such a situation.

Instead, she cried. And that totally made me feel like shit.

She just sat there beside me, asked Rosaline (the secretary) if she could give us a minute, waited for her to leave, and then finally started sobbing next to me. I had never before seen my mother cry and I realized that if there was one thing a man was never meant to see, that would be to see his mother cry.

That and perhaps natural childbirth.

Even Principal Hester had the right idea and kept his door shut while my mother cried her eyes out. I didn’t know what to do. Was I supposed to put my arm around her? Was I supposed to wait out her tears? Call 911 perhaps?

“Is it true?” she asked, her voice cracking a little from the emotional strain.

“Is what true?” I asked in a remarkably small voice, much like the way I did when I accidentally spilled several dozen cookies on the floor when I wanted to get Harry his favorite flavor at the bottom of the jar.