One day I'll have it all. // Williamson

No more Villanueva

"And then, she ate an entire fucking mango. For like, 15 minutes!" Katie recounted to me, as we walked through a park near her apartment. My eyes widened at the idea.

"An entire mango? Like, a big one?"

"Yeah, a huge one. Like, a kilo or something." She said, spreading her arms in a clearly exaggerated manner.

"A kilo? No way."

"I'm telling you, mate, she just sat there and demolished the whole thing. She peeled it like a fucking banana." She said. "Beats me, mate. Weird ass movie. You know that shit won like, actual trophies?"

I was about to answer her when my phone rang.

I quickly glanced at my phone, sighing when I noticed the caller ID. "Sorry, it's my mom," I told Katie, who raised a playful eyebrow I didn't quite like at my words.

"Mama Villanueva eh?" She told me, chuckling.

Thing is, Katie had no idea how bad the situation was with my mother right now. And we hadn't talked since I told her I liked girls. Since then, she probably learned I was publicly in a relationship with Leah. And that certainly didn't sit well with her and her homophobic ideology.

I cleared my throat and reluctantly answered the phone, Katie staying by my side somehow patiently. "Hey, mom," I mumbled.

"Maria Valentina Villanueva Quintero! What I heard from Charlotte better not be true!" She immediately yelled right into my ear, making me wince slightly. I shot a gaze at Katie, who was visibly listening to the conversation, and considered switching to Spanish. But before I could answer her, my mother talked again. "I'm warning you, Valentina. If this is true, do not even dare come back here. You are not my daughter anymore. So you better tell me that's not real."

At her words, I felt like throwing up. I wasn't surprised, though. I knew how she felt about me. About all that. I answered unapologetically: "It's true."

I closed my eyes for a second. I knew very well the rest of my mother's words to me were going to be a torrent of insults. Maybe these would be the last words she would ever throw my way. And somehow, I felt more relieved than anything else.

As the words left my lips, a heavy silence descended upon the conversation, punctuated only by the sound of my mother's sharp intake of breath. I braced myself for the onslaught of anger and condemnation that I knew would follow, steeling myself against the hurtful words that would surely pierce my heart like daggers.

Sure enough, my mother's voice exploded through the phone like a thunderclap, her words laced with venom and disdain as she unleashed a torrent of insults and accusations upon me. Each syllable felt like a knife planted right through my heart, leaving behind a raw, gaping wound of pain and suffering.

But even as her words battered against me like a relentless storm, I refused to cower in the face of her hatred and bigotry. With every fiber of my being, I clung to the truth of who I was, refusing to apologize for the love that bloomed within my heart, no matter how vehemently my mother sought to extinguish it.

As the tirade continued, I felt a hand gently grasp mine, and I glanced up to see Katie standing beside me, her eyes filled with empathy and support. I offered Katie a sad smile, squeezing her hand silently, and she squeezed back, offering me a silent gesture of solidarity and understanding.

Finally, as my mother's tirade began to wane, I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the final blow. But to my surprise, Katie took the phone away from my hands. My eyes immediately widened, and I tried to take it back from her hands before she could say anything, but Katie shook her head firmly, her expression resolute as she held the phone away from me.