Jared Abitol is ugly, past his prime, and desperate for love.
Years of being hyper-aware of his own looks have made Jared develop social anxiety. When you look like Jared, love isn't easy to find. Jared might not have the looks or confidence, but h...
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"You were such a fat baby," Nathalie laughed, holding on to Darnell's shoulders as she leaned forward to look at the picture properly. It was Tuesday evening and Darnell was sitting on the sofa in the living room while flipping a photo album his father had mailed to him. Since he exchanged numbers with his father they've been calling and texting each other. Darnell had been a little hesitant about sharing his address, but he eventually did, and a few days later a couple of his things got delivered to him.
The bag things had come in was mostly filled with sentimental objects Darnell couldn't take with him when he left. The icing on the cake was the photo album. Darnell loved looking at his pictures from when he was younger. He loved looking at pictures of relatives, and it made him smile whenever he spotted someone familiar. There was a downside to it, though. Darnell could barely look at pictures of his mother without his eyes getting spotted with unshed tears.
"Lord, where did all your cheeks go," Nathalie commented when Darnell flipped a page and they were soon looking at a picture of him sitting up on a play mat while drooling. Darnell frowned. He didn't like the picture at all. His parents had pampered him beyond words, and that resulted in an overweight baby. He lost most of that weight when he was a toddler, and if he was remembering what he was told about the events correctly, his aunt had to step in and take over his feeding.
"Your mother used to say I was starving you." Darnell smiled, remembering one of his aunt's sweet voice as she laughed. They used to have a lot of family reunions, and those were one of the things Darnell missed most in the first year since he was kicked out. He only had Nathalie, not the tens of family members that flooded his home during the holiday season.
"Why are you laughing?" Nathalie asked, making Darnell blink and come out from his thoughts. He realized he had a grin on his face, threatening to split his face in half. He relaxed, adjusting his sitting position on the sofa so that he had one leg up on the cushions with him.
"Why are you just hovering behind me?" Darnell asked, looking over his shoulders. Nathalie shrugged, leaning off him before walking around the furniture to join him on the sofa. She took the book from his lap, placing it on hers before plipping through the pages. She stopped at one, looking over at Darnell with a sad smile before flipping past it. It was a picture of his mum and dad smiling at the camera as they held hands.
"You're not feeling too good, are you?" Nathalie asked Darnell, watching as mixed emotion's pooled in the younger man's eyes. She could pinpoint what was going on. She had felt similarly when she was kicked out and her siblings developed a strained relationship with their parents because of their association with her.
"Darnell," she called, closing the book and putting it aside before reaching out to take his hand. Darnell turned his gaze to the floor, afraid that if he kept looking at her he would start crying. He had been doing so well trying to pretend that seeing his mother and father together in pictures didn't affect him. He had been doing so well pretending that looking at pictures of his mother cradling him didn't affect him. It hurt. It was a confusing pain. One of both sadness and anger. An 'all this wouldn't have happened if he had just not come out' conflicting with an 'all this wouldn't have happened if she had just accepted him' feeling. Was it her fault? Was it his fault? Why was he even trying to find whose fault it was?
