CHAPTER 9

“I am so sorry, Dave. That son of a bitch.” Liz was about to burst.

“It is okay.”

“How can you say that Dave? He cheated on you.”

Yup. I had a thing for cheaters. It was to be expected. To be honest, I should have seen it coming.

Liz was madder that I did not care. Tim and I were drifting apart. And Jason and I were apparently cosy with each other according to him.

Mama insisted I bring Tim to our family Christmas party on 23rd if we could make it. Mom hosted it that day because she believed we should spend real Christmas with family members.

On Christmas eve and day, it is mostly just Mom, Aunt Marie and I. I liked it.

I was postponing the question day after day that Liz had to drag me to the party I had previously declined.

Surprise!

Tim was humping some twink on his couch. Liz screamed and I turned around.

When Liz left us to ‘discuss’ I asked ‘Why?’.

His reasoning was that I was cheating him on with Jason. Why else would I call and talk to him every day!

I proved I was not and told about my project.

So he backtracked and told me since we were only dating and he had not asked me to be his official boyfriend, it was allowed. That was how dating worked and I did not know because I had never dated before.

And the twink already had a girlfriend and that again make this not count because he was not looking for a relationship.

I walked away in the midst of his rambling.

Another drawback of being smart was that I could handle only so much stupidity at once without having a literal headache. Like really, when logic clashed it made me angry and frustrated and then headache.

What was my logic in missing Robbie? Oh right. That brought me heartache.

Liz took the matter in her own hands and punched him in the face after I told her.

She was the one to drag me. Poor Dave. Now I was heartbroken.

That was broken for some time, Liz.

I actually was glad that I would not have to attend another party. Tim should cut off his socializing if he wanted to graduate.

At least Liz got one thing right. Instead of having nightmares now it was wet dreams.

I dreamt about following Robbie to a cliff and falling.

I dreamt about being with him as his lover.

I dreamt about us being husbands.

Now tears only came after waking up.

Was it a win?

I texted my mom about our ‘Breakup’.

Good, she said, I was not smiling in those photos. And I should not be with someone who could not make me smile.

Wiser words were never spoken.

Liz was sad that I was going home alone. I was ecstatic that I was not going to share my mom. I wanted to sleep on her chest. I missed her a lot.

“You could at least pretend to be heartbroken, you know.”

I did not have to.

“I am Liz. It is just, I pretend to be happy so no one else sees me in pain.” Finally, a truth.

“Really?” Liz’s eyes widened with horror, it was so comical.

I laughed and she threw herself at me to punch. But we ended up hugging.

“Text me about the party. I wanna see how super rich people party.”

I rolled my eyes. “We watch movies. Except in home theatre.”

She thought it was cool.

I could not wait to go home.

I heard Robbie and Janice were not attending ours. They were to spend at Aunt Marie’s. Or should I say mine? She moved in last month to the house mom bought for me. It was about 5 miles from my home. Good. I did not think I could handle seeing Robbie and Janice together.

****

“Mama.”

“Yes, hon.”

I kissed her cheek. She chuckled.

“Did he hurt you?”

I froze. “Who?”

“Tim.”

Mom searched my eyes.

“No. I was not that into it.”

She nodded. “I felt so. You were not smiling. When you are with someone you love, you would be smiling all the time.”

I could tell she was thinking about dad.

I smiled. “Did you smile so often with dad?”

It was my favourite bed time story. It was nowhere close to bed time. We were getting ready for the party. But to listen to her talking about dad with so much love and adoration, I could pretend to be sleepy.

I laid my head on her chest. “All the time. He would move heaven and earth to make me smile.”

“Did you know how we met?”

Of course I did. But she started again.

Mom had a boyfriend before dad. A real jerk. They were all in same college. Mom was not really comfortable around this guy. She went along with it though, being the perfect girl everyone wanted her to be.

At that time mom did not even care that my dad existed even though he was the star football player. Dad noticed her but everybody knew she was in a relationship.

How they fell in love was an act of destiny. With a heavy dose of help from Dad’s enemy.

Dad was a thick headed jock. He made fun of anything and everything not thinking about consequences. Well he made fun of wrong guy. Ferdinand Jefferson. Yup, the film director.

He was in drama; dad was in football. Complete opposites.

One time the joking went too far and dad told Uncle Fred that ‘all people in drama were faggy fairy bitches’ even though he had no idea Uncle Fred, indeed, was gay.

Long story short with lot of bruises and hospital visits, Dean asked dad to be King Arthur of the drama and Uncle Fred to be the quarterback of the season. He wanted both of them together all the time.

During the drama competition, Mom’s boyfriend tried to be handsy with her. Mom wanted to wait till marriage and he did not like he was turned down in front his friends. Mom ran towards the drama stage because that was the only place with light.

Dad in his shiny tin armour jumped from the stage and smacked the guy with his shield. And Uncle Fred swiped mom away from all the commotion.

Mom became friends with Uncle Fred and dad became infatuated with her to a point of obsession.

So, as any enemy would do, Uncle Fred rubbed his new found friendship with my mom right on his face. Mom was the first person to know about Uncle Fred’ sexuality. And the first person to tell him that there was absolutely nothing wrong with him.

When mom heard about their fight and the reason behind it, she was furious. Dad tried real hard but mom was not budging.

I exactly did not know how it went down but mom accidently spilled to dad that Uncle Fred was gay. Dad actually had no idea. All this time he was calling him names to get a rise from him. Mom was furious that dad made Uncle Fred miserable about something that was normal and natural. She said he belonged with people who made fun of girls for being a girl.

To her surprise, dad apologized to Uncle Fred. In front of dean he accepted how he was the one always provoking Uncle Fred. Dad got suspension for inappropriate conduct. But he scored a goal with mom. Uncle Fred was floored when dad said he knew about his sexual orientation and it was not something he should be ashamed of, let alone hiding.

Dad was miserable. He finally stopped his pursuit of getting my mom’s attention.

Let us just say, all Uncle Fred wanted from life was approval. He turned his own life around when he got two people who did not change the way they treated him because of him being gay.

Mom was still loving and dad was still an asshole.

Uncle Fred literally pushed mom towards dad. He made mom realize that the hot-headed-good-for-nothing jock really loved her.

Dad and Uncle Fred went from enemies who were assholes to each other to best friends who were assholes to each other, then and there.

Life was perfect.

I missed Uncle Fred.

“Mama, I am gonna call him.”