Sweet Like Candy

Two Great Sons.

TRIGGER WARNING: some mild abuse and slur words 

JEFF'S POV: 

     It look me a long time to fall asleep that night. The bad thing about me was that I tend to be a light sleeper. And no sooner than I felt myself doze off, a beeping cried in my room. "Is it school time already?" I cried to myself. I was not ready to conquer the new day. So, as a normal person would do, I ignored the beeps. But then the beeping started again. And again. And again. 

    Wait.... that was not my usual alarm. 

    My face was planted in my pillow. I let a single eye peep out to see it was still quite dark. I lifted my body off my comfortable mattress. I continued to hear more beeps. It was coming from my phone on my bedside table. Which for me was highly unusual.

    Curious, I decided to investigate as I retrieved my phone. Notifications from Facebook popped up on my screen. Oh no. 

    As much as I didn't want to, I forced myself, albeit in my sleepy state, to open Facebook as I entered in my pincode. Yup... I'm doomed. A video of me and Jackie almost kissing was the hot topic, it seems. You can clearly hear Randy's obnoxious 'documentary' voice, "...here are the local fags..." blah blah blah. The video already had over 200 likes. And it was posted in the last 30 minutes. I couldn't imagine how many likes it would have in the morning. Fuck my life... 

   I scrolled down to the comment section, and there were some pretty nasty things I did not want to read this late in the night... or some could argue this early morning?? I felt tears start to form. "I've always knew he was a fag", "Wow, who'd ever love that freak?!", "He should do us a favor and kill himself" and "Oh, he still exists? I haven't noticed lol.." were some of the top comments. Maybe that person was right... I should have just killed myself? Don't worry, I'm sure my parents will do it for me when they find out in the morning...

   The comments just get worse and worse as I scrolled down. And the post just keeps getting more and more likes. And nastier comments at that. Who even is awake at this time?! I thought long and hard about trying to steal my parents' phones and finding some way to block them from seeing the video. But I didn't know their passcodes, they will find out about the video anyway, and if they see me in their room at this time I'm sure I'd get in trouble anyway. I so envy kids whose parents are not homophobes... 

   So basically my night ended in me having a panic attack and crying myself to sleep till I finally passed out.

     I woke up to someone yelling in my ears...

     "Jefferey!" a voice I couldn't quite totally comprehend screamed. "Jefferey Woods!" Oh, it was a deep voice. Must be my dad. Then someone tugged hard onto my hair, shaking my sleepiness away as fear replaced it. 

    "Wha..?" I said, exhaustion apparent in my voice. 

     "What is the meaning of this?" Now that both my eyes were working properly, I could see both my parents' faces right in my own face. I could even smell their early morning breath... someone needs a mint. I could also see Liu in the background by the door, nervously tugging at his pajama shirt. 

    "What are you talking about?" I yawned. Deep down... I knew instantly what it was. 

    "This video?" my mother hollered. She brought her phone right up to my face, playing the oh-so dreaded video. When it was over, my mother continued, "Do you want to tell us something?" 

    "Tell you what?" I played dumb. 

     My mother sighed dramatically and my father looked like he was going to pop a blood vessel. My mother suddenly began to cry hysterically, walking away from me with her phone clenched in her hands. My father got closer to my face. He kept turning to see Liu and back at me. After a horrendous moment of silence, my father spoke in a rather calm matter, "Son, can you leave the room? I need to have a talk with Jefferey.." I really hated when my father used my full name (sigh).  Liu and I shared a knowing look. My older brother nodded and walked away. When my father was sure my brother wasn't listening, he turned abruptly to me. All calm demeanor was gone as he glared daggers directly into my soul. If murder was legal, I'm sure I'd be dead by now. My father had a difficult time transforming his thoughts into words. I could just tell from the way he kept opening his mouth like he was about to speak, but then closing it again, unsure of himself. I silently rolled my eyes... silently as in in my mind. Finally, he basically scream-yelled, "We do not accept homos in this household!" He gripped tightly onto my shoulders as he said this. If I'm being honest, this has been the first time in a long time where my father gave me any physical contact. It's pretty sad that the reason why was to hurt me. "You are a disgrace to this family!" Okay, those last words really hurt. But I refused to let it show on my face. "In case you haven't noticed, your mother and I have a perfect reputation," as he continued, his voice got louder and louder. "I'm not gonna have a fag, out of all things, ruin that for us." My father took a moment to really get a look at me. In particular, his gaze fell onto my hair. "You even do something like dye your hair. You look stupid. You look like the disappointment you are!!" He tugged at my hair, perhaps hoping by tugging at my strands that the dye will go away. "I want you to dye your back to its original state today!!" 

    "No." I muttered, maintaining my stare away from my father's gaze. 

     "What?!" my father looked taken aback. 

    "No!" I said louder. When I mean louder, I was hardly shouting.

     In the loudest voice my father could muster, my father boomed, "HOW DARE YOU SPEAK LIKE THAT TO YOUR FATHER?!!!" I felt a sensation tap against my cheek. It was many seconds later when I realized my father smacked me (hard!!) against my cheek. I raised a hand, feeling the spot where my father hit me seconds ago. My parents hardly ever hit me. And well.. that was because they were hardly ever present in my life. I looked up to my father. He looked like he lost it, taking in deep breaths like he ran a marathon. Now I could see a vein protruding from his forehead. 

     "What was that sound?" a voice shrieked. My mother busted into my room, cradling my father instead of me. Her son who was hit. She gave him a hug from behind, cooing into his ears, "Your gonna give yourself a heart attack if you keep this up!" I could have laughed right there in front of her. But, from the shock, I couldn't let a word escape my mouth. 

    When my father finally caught his breath, he muttered dangerously, "Homos do not live within this house. If you want to remain under my roof, you best do yourself a favor. One more time... that is all it will take before I kick you out." And just like that, both my parents left my room. My mother was still acting like my father was the one beaten. And I could hear my father tell to my mother how disgusted he was to have a son like me...

    Once their voices were no longer audible to my ringing ears, I cradled my head in my arms, crying quietly to myself. My cheek was still red from where my father hit me. I heard my door creak softly, and saw, with tears still blocking my vision, Liu coming in. He hesitantly walked to my bed before throwing me into a big hug. 

     "You aren't a disappoint." He told me firmly. I tried to hold back the incoming tears, but Liu's words just made me want to cry even more. He rubbed slow circles onto my back. He always knows how to make me calm down. After some time, the tears were subsiding and I could finally regain my ability to breathe normally again, with the occasional hiccup. "Feeling better?" Liu asked, still holding me tight. I nodded. We broke away from the hug. I hated when my brother saw me in my vulnerable state. I couldn't look him in the eyes, not because of fear, but humiliation. "By the way," Liu said. I hummed to let him know I was listening. My brother ruffled my hair suddenly, "I happen to like the hair color." This made me crack a smile and I tackled my brother into another hug. 

    "I love you," I said softly. 

    "I love you, too." Liu replied. "Don't listen to the parents. They're too dense to see they have a great son." 

    "You mean two great sons," I laughed. Liu chuckled along. 

     "Yeah... two great sons."