The Disappointment Kid (Completed)

19

Like all good hurricanes, this one also took time to form and gather speed. It was pretty surreptitious about it, too.

On the surface, my grades were going up, my stomach cramps more or less disappeared (obviously as a result of my brand-new teetotal ways; so, Doc Methuselah, go screw yourself and your diagnosis), home life was quiet and the four Charles Manson puppets at school seemed to have gone into hibernation. Please excuse the rather eclectic mix of metaphors in the final clause of the last sentence, but the dissonance supports the message beautifully in my eyes.

Anyway, neither Peter nor Henry reported any incidents. Instead, Henry had officially come out of the closet with our friends now as well. None of them made a big deal out of it, much to Henry's relief, who had again worried about nothing. It had taken him a gigantic amount of courage - and a whole lot of being kicked in the arse by muggins here - to go through with it, but after the "big revelation" he had grabbed hold of me so hard he had nearly broken my ribs.

"You are the best thing that's ever happened to me, Cat. I've worried about this for so many years, hated myself for such a long time, tried to change who I am, wrestled with myself, wasted most of my energy on covering up my true self for basically as long as I can remember– until you came along and gently prodded me to just be who I am and to be proud of who I am. And it turns out that what I thought was an issue the size of a nuclear bomb is really just the size of a water balloon at a kid's birthday party. Thank you so much."

Of course, not everything was roses and sunshine. One morning, before I even had the chance to sit down at the breakfast table, my mother, who had been carefully distanced and non-critical of me (if you discount the rather frequent eye rolling, grimaces and almost hostile-sounding use of my proper given name 'Katherine' whenever she addressed me) walked up to me, right into my personal space, and demanded, "Are you a lesbian, Katherine?"

"Wow, wow, wow, mother, I love your sensitive approach," I answered in my usual disrespectful and sarcastic way. It always served as a great distraction from whatever it was that she wanted to discuss. Inexplicably, this time my mother ignored it.

"Well, are you?" Her nose nearly touched mine now.

"What difference would it make?" I didn't budge.

"I am asking you one last time, little lady! Are you a homosexual like this deplorable little buddy of yours or not? Everybody is talking about it."

Her words came out so forcefully that I was sure I felt some of her spit hit my face. I still didn't budge, but my blood started to boil.

"I wouldn't totally rule it out," I smirked.

My mother's face went bright red. She threw her hands in the air and whirled away from me.

Just then my father entered the room.

"What is going on here?" He looked from my mother to me questioningly.

"Well, apart from the fact that your lovely Cat is now appropriately a kitten puncher on top of being crazy, socially-challenged and the epitome of a beauty ideal of a parallel universe, she is a real bundle of joy. I've got to go to work."

With that, she stormed out of the room, grabbed her bag and slammed the front door shut behind her.

My father's chin hit the kitchen floor at the same time. He stared out of the window silently and watched my mother's Merc screech out of the driveway. Then he seemed to gather himself and turned to me.

"Jesus, Cat, I am so sorry about that. Your mother was way out of line. I don't know what to say."

I sighed.