Coming Out (Chapter 6)

Daphne and I met for several months after that. She soon became skilled at the crafts I had taught her and quickly surpassed me. We found that her backyard worked for sport practice, as her father never paid attention to anything much but the tv and her mother was usually at work. I tackled the challenges will relish and she claimed that I was now better than her, though I wasn't a very good judge of such things. I suppose I would have been biased since I felt that anything she did was amazing.
Concerning our relationship, it didn't move much farther. The night that I had been knocked out had been purely a gut feeling that I followed. I enjoyed it though, and wondered how our relationship would turn out in the future. We did get past the touch barrier, and we were comfortable just casually putting an arm around the other and those kinds simple acts. The only thing was that we were scared to let our parents know that we were in a relationship. And we were also scared of having other kids our age find out. We stood a relatively decent distance apart in public but in private, we were much more comfortable and relaxed about everything.
We kept our relationship in the dark to the world. But then one day, everything changed.
"Jacob?"
"Is something wrong Daphne?" I stopped bouncing the soccer ball up and down on my knees, catching the whirling ball of black and white.
"It's not that something is wrong, it's more...don't you feel that this is wrong?"
"What feels wrong?"
"Hiding all this from the world. I want to be able to hug you in public. I want to be able to do things that 'normal'" (She scowled at the usage of the word, but I knew what she meant.) "couples do that aren't usually questioned by society."
"How do you want to go about this then?" I walked over to where Daphne had been absentmindedly embroidering a piece of cloth and sat in front of her.
"I want us to come out." I had been taking a breath in, and somehow I had managed to choke on my own saliva. It took a minute to recover from the coughing fit that followed.
"You want us to what?!" I hoped that I had heard her wrong.
"I want us to come out." I hadn't. If we were to come out, we would go through extreme bullying. A lot of problems would come up from our coming out.
"But...are you prepared for what will happen if you come out?"
"Of course I am."
"Are you really sure about that? I know the whole process will be hard, especially on the parents."
"Yes, I'm sure. Oh Jacob, please say you'll do it with me!"
"I..." I didn't really, but I found myself gazing into those gorgeous brown eyes and I felt myself give in. "I'll do it with you." I eventually said, knowing I'd probably regret the decision later.
"Thank you soooooo much Jacob!" she squealed, quickly hugging me.
"You're welcome." I murmured softly.
We hung out for a while more before it was around time for me to go to dinner. She made me promise that I would talk to my parents before the week was up. I did and then I headed home with dread weighing me down.
~*~
I couldn't bring myself to tell my parents on the first night, nor the second nor third. I only had a fourth and fifth night left. On the fourth night, my parents were so ecstatic about something Kathy did (I wasn't really listening), that I thought it unfair to intrude in their rejoicing.
Finally, I managed to bring it up at the dinner table.
"Um..."
"Don't say um!" snapped my mother.
"There's something I need to tell you."
"It isn't something bad is it? You haven't gotten yourself pregnant or done drugs?" my father inquired as I winced slightly.
"No, I'm not pregnant or on drugs. But it might be hard to take this."
"Shall we sit down properly and expect the unexpected?" My mother was the control freak she was as usual.
"That would be a good idea." The family scooted around until they were completely in their seats.
"This may come as a shock to you and I want you to think about it when I tell you." I could hear my pulse rushing through my ears. "You may have noticed certain changed about my hair and attire." My hands grew sweaty and damp. "There has been a reason for this change." I think my heart stopped for a moment here. "This is because I am a boy inside."
"That's a good joke, Jona!" Kathy said, smiling.
"No. It's not a joke. I was born a girl, but I should have been born a boy."
"Kathy. Please leave the room." My father looked ready to kill someone. Kathy, always the obedient one, left the room and headed to her bedroom.
"You freak of nature." my mother shot at me, her eyes cold.
"Get out. GET OUT! YOU AREN'T MY CHILD, GET OUT!" I had never heard such a commanding, harsh tone in my father's voice before. The only things I was able to take with me were what I was wearing and the cell phone that was in my pocket.
"THAT'S RIGHT, LEAVE AND NEVER COME BACK YOU FREAK!" I could hear my father's voice in the distance as I ran to Daphne's.
When I knocked on the door, I was told that Daphne (well, her father said Noah) was gone and that I probably wouldn't find her here. And then the door was slammed on my face.
I ran to the first place I could think of; our little place in the woods behind my school. She was already there, sobbing into her hands.
"Daphne." I called softly, not wanting to surprise her. She looked up, her chocolate eyes ringed with red and tears falling from them.
"Jacob!" she cried out and ran to me. I folded my arms around her protectively, pulling her towards me as she sobbed into my shoulder.
I had never been as close to my family as Daphne had been, but the fact that my parents threw me out of the house hurt all the same. Poor Daphne though, her family was tight and it probably hurt her more than it hurt me.
We stood there for a while; her crying and me trying to comfort her. There was no where we could go when the sun finally set and the stars came out.

AN: This chapter just about killed me. I am feeling so bad for the characters' whose lives I just destroyed.