Fish Out of Water

Chapter 14~ Rough Waters

    Sean's dad glanced between the two of us , Sean's hand still gripped my wrist.

"Well Sean," his dad's eyes fell on our hands. "Introduce me to your friend."

Sean's shoulders curled forward. "This is my friend Dakota." He swallowed and looked to me. "Dakota, this is my dad. Brian."

I stepped forward and offered my free hand. Sean still clung to the other one. "Nice to meet you."  Brian gripped my hand, squeezing harder than necessary.

"Pleasure's all mine." He looked me up and down. "You a boy or a girl?"

"My pronouns are they/them." I didn't drop his eyes, but his non-existent patience was already waning.

"I didn't ask that?" His fingers pressed into my hand. You got a pole or a hole."

His wording curdled my stomach. Why did it even matter and for all he knew I was a minor. Not that a fifty-year-old man saying that to an eighteen year old was any better. "I've told you what you need to know about me already." I drew myself up, he wasn't tall, only a few inches taller than me. Maybe five foot ten.

"Dad." Sean's voice was quieter than I thought possible for him. "It doesn't matter, their name is Dakota, alright.?"

Brian barely looked at his son, instead holding onto my gaze. "Come on, kid. I just want to know if I was right about my son?"

"Right about what?" I glanced back at Sean, pulling on my hand my nerves fizzling at the potential threat in front of me, but Sean gripped my hand tighter as if he needed the support.

"My son likes boys huh?" Brian dropped my hand and snatched me forward by my collar. "You gonna tell or am I gonna have to take a look for myself. He grabbed the bottom of my shirt. I grabbed his hand.

"Dad."

I gripped his wrist in my hands, digging my thumb into his bone to loosen his grip.

"Get off." I ordered trying to keep myself calm, trying to keep everything from escalating anymore.

He chuckled and looked down at my hand on his holding my shirt down to keep him from the satisfaction of knowing what I was born with just because he felt he had the right to know more than what he could address me as.

"Dad." Sean finally moved and stood beside me. "Please, they've got to go."

"What are they, Sean?" He asked. "You had 'em pinned down, you must have felt something."

Sean's face went red.

Brian's hand jerked up breaking my grip for half a second before I caught him again.

"Get off." I pushed against him, but he held tight trying to yank my shirt up. "Let go."  I planted my feet, but I was already being pushed back and Sean was still holding my hand. "Brian, I'm going to break your wrist if you don't take your hands off me now."

"Come on, Dakota. Just tell me." He pulled on my shirt again. "Is my son gay?" He gave a hard yank and I plowed forward but he had height and weight on me. Fear prickled up my spine. Sean frozen beside me, helpless against a man he had been stuck with, and knowing his mom chose to leave Sean alone with him made me hate her. I met Sean's eyes and he seemed to reanimate, anger clouding his eyes as he pressed between his dad and me. "They said get off." he shoved his dad away. "Get off them." Sean stepped between us my shirt hung looser than before.

Brian laughed. "Sean's a big boy now huh?" He glanced behind him to me. "Maybe he likes girls after all. You a little girl. That why you didn't want me seeing the goods."