The Queerest [🗸]

jeans 'n justice

"We're moving."

It's a strange two words that leave my dad's lips. They're so clear cut, yet sound foreign as they slip from his mouth, nearly unfamiliar. After all, this is our town, one that I know better than life itself. 

Somehow, it takes longer than necessary for me to compute what he's actually saying.

I'm in the living room, slung all over the arm chair, legs hanging off the arm part of the chair, and head bobbing over the other arm, my hair wisping as gravity pulls it down. My parents are seated across from me, Mom's legs on Dad's lap, his hands clasped together in front of them.

I blink, then the first question slips out. "When?" Somehow, that one word is all I can really ask at the moment.

"This summer," is what Dad says in return, eyes searching mine as though waiting for a reaction of some kind before his gaze flicks back to Mom. "Early July. To San Diego."

I inhale before exhaling carefully. Straightening up in my seat as much as I can, my eyes widen. "Is this because of me, because of—?"

"We think that we've run our course in this town," Mom says, catching onto Dad's gaze as she plows on. "Yes, that does include those pieces of shit attacking you," I can nearly hear the anger rising in her tone as the thought reignites an old rage. 

She clears her throat as Dad gently pats her legs. "But, I also got a job offer in the city," she says, "and you know how irritated I've been since being laid off."

The fact is more than an understatement. The company my mother worked at has been laying people off left and right after taking a huge hit and subsequently, a budget cut. With that, they let people off. People like Mom who had worked her ass off for her role only to be let off.

She'd been pissed ever since, and rightfully so.

A job offer is a massive deal.

"So, got anything in mind?" Dad asks, gaze flickering from Mom to me as he exhales. "You're quiet."

Closing my eyes before reopening them, I exhale. "Okay."

"Okay?" Mom asks, eyebrows raising. "How about Liyah? Your best friend? Do you think the two of you will be okay?"