Maybe Before Today

Chapter 9

     "Alice. Wow. That outfit looks amazing."
     "Thanks," I said, looking down. "The skirt is new, does it definitely look okay?"
     "Oh, definitely."
     "And I see you have gone for the smurf ensemble."
     "Damn it! I was hoping different shoes would make it seem less smurf-like."
     "Less smurf like? Yes. Un-smurf-like? Not a chance. Maybe if I hadn't seen the original, but it is engrained in my brain."
     They laughed.
     "I love your shoes, though." I pointed to their sparkly silver Docs with rainbow laces. Typical Ziggs. "I'm betting your parents are loving the laces."
      "Oh, they adore any reminder that they raised an unhinged little gay," they said sarcastically. "But as long as I don't correct their pronoun usage they generally leave me alone."
     "That really sucks."
     "Yeah. But I'll be able to move out in a few years and everything will be fine."
     I gave them a sympathetic smile. "Yeah..."
     "Anyway, what prompted you to suddenly agree to leave your house on the weekend?"
     "My parents are being so weird. Mom is being even colder than usual and dad is being even nicer than usual."
     "I didn't think it was possible for your dad to be any nicer."
     "Neither did I but he's outdone himself."
     "Wow."
     "Speaking of..." I held my phone up to show that my dad was calling me. Then I answered it and put it on speaker.
     "Hey Alice."
     "Hey, dad."
     "Where are you?"
     "Just walking to the woods with Ziggs."
     "Okay. Any idea what sort of time you'll be back so I know when to make dinner?"
     "Is mom actually gonna be back for dinner tonight?'"
     "Yes. Unfortunately."
     "She still being a dick?"
     "She was able to be civil to me at church. Then she ignored me on the drive."
     "Can I just call you when we're heading home and you can start on dinner?"
     "Sure. It'll only take half an hour anyway."
     "Okay."
     "Anyway, I'll let you go."
     "'Kay. Bye."
     "Bye, sweetie."
     My dad hug up and I turned back to Ziggs. "You wanna go get coffee?"
     "We're already walking in the direction of Beanies."
     "I should have known that's why you were going this way."
     "Yes. You should have."
     We arrived a few minutes later and luckily it was quite quiet. I wasn't in the mood to wait for my coffee.
     "What do you want?" Ziggs asked me, preempting my anxiety about ordering for myself.
     "Just a latte."
     "Okay."
     We walked up to the counter and the barista, who had brown hair and was about the same height as famous actress Lauren Lopez, took our order. I was pretty sure I'd seen one of my dad's coworkers talking to her before. I left a decent tip, she gave me a smile and we walked back outside and started to head toward the forest. And I winced.
     "What's wrong?" Ziggs asked.
     "These shoes were a mistake."
     "But they look so good."
     "That's exactly what I thought. But they hurt."
     "At least they'll be closer to being broken in after today."
     "True.'
     "Anyway, I have a question."
     "What is your question?"
     "What's going on with you and Lex? You seem to have gotten pretty close."
     "I guess so. She's actually really nice."
     "Not scary anymore?"
     "Not intimidating anymore."
     "Right, right."
     I gave them a mock glare.
     "She does actually seem nice though. Apart from the way she disparaged my outfit."
     "It was funny."
     "Was not."
     "Was so."
     "Fine. It was a little. But I still love this outfit."
     "So do I. It's just funny how much the white shoes with it made you look like a smurf."
     "Okay, getting hurtful."
     "Okay, I'll stop."
     "Thank you."
     So, we sat on a log in the woods drinking our coffee and just talked for the next two hours. I explained what was going on with my parents, they complained about their parents' bigotry and we had some great political discussions. Well, rants. We were just taking about some famous people being homophobic and obviously we didn't disagree on much there.
     But, the sky soon started to darken so we decided we should head home before moonlight exclusively was lighting our path.
     "We should really do this more often. It's fun," I said as we were about to part ways, smiling genuinely. I'd forgotten what that felt like, just having fun and not having to worry about anything for a while.
     "Fun and a great excuse to get away from our parents."
     "Exactly. A win-win."
     "Well, I'll see you at school tomorrow."
     "Yeah. Bye."
     "Bye."
     The smile soon faded from my face when I walked to the front door and could already hear my parents shouting before I even opened the door. What I heard sounded something like:
     "I can't believe you would do this!"
     "You don't need to make such a big deal of it, Bill!"
     "Really? Don't I? Doing it to me would be one thing, but how could you do it to her?"
     I didn't know what they were talking about. I didn't want to know what they were talking about. And I couldn't walk inside, so I just sat on my doorstep, my face in my hands.
     About thirty seconds later, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I was confused since I hadn't heard the door open, but when it wasn't my mum or dad's voice, it all made sense.
     "It's okay, you're okay," Ziggs said, guiding my head into their shoulder and putting their arm around me. I didn't even realise how fast my heart was going until I felt theirs going about half the speed.
     We stayed like that for a few minutes until I calmed down, and then I pulled away, looking up at them?'
     "What happened?" they asked gently.
     "I could hear them screaming before I even opened the door," I answered quietly.
     "Oh, Alice. Is there anything I can do to help?"
     "Just having you here is enough."
     "If there's anything you need..."
     I nodded my head. "Thanks."
     "My phone is going nuts, my parents want me home, but if you-"
     "No, no, it's okay. You go. I'll be okay. They seem to have-"
     Then it started again.
     "I spoke too soon."
     "Aw, Alice, I hope this stops soon."
     "Me too."
     Then their phone vibrated again.
     "You go, don't want your parents getting annoyed."
     "Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow."
     "You'll probably hear from me in less than a half hour."
     They laughed, "Bye."
     "Bye. Oh, wait! Do I look like I've been crying?"
     "You're good."
     "Okay. Good."
     Cautiously, I opened the door and walked inside. And the shouting stopped the second I opened the door.
     "Hey, Alice," my dad said as I walked into the kitchen. "Dinner's ready."
     "Hey, dad."
     My mum just gave me an extremely fake-looking smile, so I gave her the exact same thing before taking my lasagna and going to my room.
     A hissed, "Not a word," was the last thing I heard from my mum before I shut my bedroom door.