A Death, Baked Bob, and the Personal Ad
(F/F, oral, anal, exhibitionism, jewelry, drugs, tattoos, piercings, food, bad accents)
DISCLAIMER β This is a fictional story to be read and enjoyed. If you can't read, stop reading. If you can't enjoy, stop reading. If you don't like any of the story codes mentioned above, stop reading. If you can't stop, it's not my problem.
Part 1 β Death and Addiction
There was complete silence for almost the entire car ride. At first I wasn't sure if Greg wanted it that way or if he was uncomfortable and unsure of what to say. We were stopped at a red light when a woman walking a Dalmatian crossed in front of us. She was wearing a white fur coat with black spots and looked like the human twin of her dog. Greg broke the silence by saying, "If I were that pooch I'd be mighty offended."
I didn't respond and kept my eyes forward. Greg turned to me, and out of the corner of my eye I could see that he was smiling. He shrugged and said, "I can't tell who's walking who."
That's when I knew he was uncomfortable. I didn't say anything. Greg's smile slowly dropped. If there was a slight amount of tension in the car before, it had just doubled. A horn behind us honked because the light was green. Greg hit the gas and didn't say anything else for the rest of the ride.
It wasn't that I was trying to be a bitch, I was just holding in my emotions. I'd wanted to cry all day. But I didn't want to do it in front of Greg or any of his family, didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing me vulnerable. I wanted them to see a woman who was standing tall, not ashamed of who or what she was and able to take tragedy without turning into a puddle of tears. Especially after the way they'd treated me.
I wasn't sure if Greg's offer to give me a ride home came from genuine sincerity or if someone had dumped the responsibility on him. I should have left with my friends when they took off, but something β pride, stubbornness, or most likely spite β made me stick around until almost everyone was gone. Very few of the family talked to me or even acknowledged my presence, which seemed to make it all the more important for me to stick around, so they would remember that I had been a part of her life too.
When we pulled up in front of my building I uttered a thank you, figuring I should get out quickly and save us both from any more uncomfortable time together. But before I could open the door Greg said, "Keisha?"
"Yes?" I responded, without looking at him.
"I'm sorry," he said, "for the way my family behaves around you."
It should have cut the tension in half, yet somehow it didn't work. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to respond to his statement, but Greg continued before I had the chance. "They're a conservative bunch of people. And with Monica being the baby of the family, well, that just made it worse." He paused for a moment and I realized he couldn't look at me either. "They just wanted to think that it was some kind of phase she was going through."
"It was not a phase," I spat out with anger, "and she was twenty-seven, not a baby."
"I know," Greg said. Then he turned to look at me. "And I know it wasn't just some phase. I think I knew it since we were teenagers. Just one of those things you kind of sense, you know?" Greg waited for a response but I offered none. He continued, "Anyway, I'm not trying to excuse the way they behaved, in fact I'm telling you I know it's not right and I'm sorry I played along with it." He turned and looked out at the street. "My cousin really loved you and we should have understood that. To tell you the truth, I don't think Monica had half as much of a problem with the family accepting her for who she was as she did with how we treated you."
There was a long silence after that, but the tension was gone, at least for me. I realized I needed to ease it for Greg, but couldn't think of how.
Finally I said, "When I came out to my dad...he laughed."
Greg turned to me and I looked at him. "Not the kind of reaction you'd usually expect, but if you knew my dad," I smiled, both for emphasis and the thought of my father. Greg smiled too. "He was such a joker," I continued, "and a wiseass. He laughed at a lot of things in life. But it was the kind of laughter that came as a reaction to how horrible and twisted life could be, because if he didn't laugh the only other options were anger or depression. So when he was done laughing he told me 'Honey, you're a woman, you're black, and now you're gay. All you need is a disability and you'll be the Minority Queen.'"
Greg laughed outright and so did I. When we finished I shook my head. "And in that wonderfully fucked up way of his I immediately knew what my dad was saying. That I'd better prepare for having a hard time with people accepting me."
Greg's smile faded and so did mine. We both looked straight ahead. Greg said, "You're father sounds like a wise man."
I took a deep breath. "He was. And he was right about a lot of things." I turned towards Greg again. "But it's people like you that prove he could be wrong sometimes." I leaned over and kissed Greg on the cheek. "Thank you."
I got out of the car before he could say anything else.
*
Walking up the stairs to my apartment brought back memories, specifically of that day, six months ago, which was the last time I could remember feeling any kind of happiness. A day when I was running up those stairs with only joy and excitement coursing through my body because I'd just found out I'd landed a promotion at work, something I had been working on and sweating over for months. Monica kept telling me I'd get it even though I worried and fretted, so I was dying to tell her. When I burst through the door she was sitting on the couch.