- You're exactly like your father!" That's what her mother told her when she decided to tell her the truth. That she, Claire Macdonald, daughter of Megan and Jamie MacDonald, was in love with her best friend. Her female best-friend. She knew that her parents wouldn't take it well, they were true Catholic, her mother go to church every Sunday. And well, she knew that her father trained as a priest when he was her age. But she choose to tell her the truth and that's why, at 17 years old, she was leaving Scotland and her mother's house to live in London with her father, because apparently her mother couldn't stand her now. Well, there was better school in London anyway.
That hurt, a lot. She knew that her parent's separation was because her father was unfaithful and had an affair. She had never known with whom or for how long, she only knew that it destroyed and parent's marriage and happiness. So yeah, she was like him, she liked women too much, she was a disappointment, and she wasn't honest. That's probably what her mother mean.
The worst part was that she barely knew her father, even if he called often and always sends letters and presents for her birthday, she lived with her mother since she was 12. She didn't even knew if he would accept her now, after all, he trained as a priest, he probably thought that this was some kind of ordeal that god stand on his way "Save your daughter from herself and you'll go to heaven". Fuck.
Leaving Glasgow and all her friends wasn't her idea, she didn't wanted to go, but her mother insisted and throws her out. She had heard what her own mother though about her last night when she called her father to inform him that his daughter was going to live with him and that no, he didn't have anything to say, because it was his fault and that he should be ashamed to give this decease to his daughter. She didn't have any idea of she meant by that and she didn't really wanted to know.
Finding her father among the crows at train station was easier than she thought, apparently he was immortal because he looked younger than she remembered.
Hey dad" she was so nervous. Was he going to told her that he was so disappointed to have her as a daughter? Or was he going to turn around and let her be homeless for the rest of her life?
Well apparently none of the above, since he just took her in her arms and hugged her "Don't worry everything going to be okay". That's when she finally cried.
- You're exactly like your father!"
She woken up startled, in her bed. After three weeks with her father, she was still having nightmare of the night her mother threw her out. The last thing she told her ringed again and again in her head. Speaking of witch, she could hear her father yelling from downstairs, to whom, she didn't knew. Since she started to live with him she learned a few things about her father.
First, he yelled, a lot. Not at her, never at her, but he yelled a lot on the phone. He probably wasn't used to have someone else here with him. Second, he worked a lot; she was sure that some nights he wasn't at home until 3 or 4 at the morning. And three, he was seeing someone. She didn't knew who, but she had heard him talk on the phone, saying thing like "I can't tonight I have to stay with Claire" or "I can't stay all night you know it" or even worse "We can't fuck in my apartment, she would be in the next room and she doesn't know about you! » The last one was pretty disgusting.
She didn't know who this woman was, but it probably wasn't really serious, because her stuff put aside, there wasn't anything that could belong to a woman in her father's apartment. She had found a few things belonging to Malcolm Tucker, her father's best friend and her own godfather, left after a long strategy meeting. Uncle Malcolm, like she used to call him. An Uncle she hadn't see since at least ten years. From the way her mother always spitted his name "Malcolm Tucker", like it was some kind of insult, she had always assumed that the dear Uncle Malcolm helped her father to have an affair. Probably providing him some alibies "No he wasn't cheating on you with some posh London whore; he was with me, working all night".
But from what she could heard her father, wasn't talking to Malcolm, or to his girlfriend but to her mother, and they were talking about her. She didn't want to spy him but well, like her father always says "It's okay to spy on someone, as long as you don't get caught. After that, you're fucked". So she quietly leaved her room and hide behind the door to heard what he was saying.
Of course not, she's not like me! Stop saying that"..."Ho ho so you think I gave her that? You think it's some kind of genetical decease? The gay gene?"..."Don't be so fucking stupid, she's born like that you won't change her by praying"... "Ho so we're back to me? Fucking back to me?"..." Yeah, yeah you right our daughter like girls because I gave her a fucking gay gene, well you're a fucking scientist, congre-fucking-lation you solved a mystery. You know what? Let my daughter and our fucking gay DNA alone, we're better without you Bitch! ".
She was ready to go back to bed when she heard another voice.
"Well, that went fucking well right?" Ha, Uncle Malcolm was there apparently.
"Don't fucking start with me Malc'" her father seemed calmer now that he hanged up, but he had his "don't-fuck-with-me-or-I'll-kill-you" voice.
"I'm just saying, your bitch of ex-wife from hell, seemed really happy to throw her daughter out, I don't even know you try to talk to her about it" He was right on this point, her mother didn't wanted to talk to her, what the point to call her?
"Because, I can't believe she did that to Claire! Fucking bitch, she's gay, not a fucking demon." Her father seemed so angry and defeated right now.
"Jamie she takes your daughters back to Glasgow when she learned that you enjoyed banging men, what did you expect?" Wait? What? Her father was gay? But since when?
Then all seemed to take place, she suddenly realized how stupid she was, all of this was so obvious. "You're exactly like your father", it wasn't because her father loved women, and it was because her father was gay! The whole hiding, the fact she still didn't have a step-mother while her mother was already married to someone else (Liam, a real dick).
"I thought it was because of the affair, not that she would do the same to her own offspring!" Her father seemed so sad right now, she wanted to tell him that she didn't cared about what her mother thought of her now, but she also wanted to hear the truth about the affair that break her family.
"Jamie this mad bitch came to my house and told me that people like us will fucking burn in hell" I still get hat mail from her every years, and it's been 6 fucking years!"
People like us? Does it mean that…? That was it; she was going through this door and talk to her father. As she looked into the leaving room, Claire finally understands why her mother hated Uncle Malcolm so much. She also decided that this talk could wait one more day.
She wakes up to find her father in the kitchen, alone. It's been two weeks since she learned the truth about him. She still didn't have the courage to talk to him about it and he was still acting like he was just single. Or at least he tried, because she could see a tie, that she was sure belonged to Malcolm on the couch. Which mean he was there last night after she had go to bed. She briefly wondered If Malcolm left before her wake or in the middle of the night at 3 in the morning.
"I need to hurry or I'll be late at school" she was actually already late, but he apparently really needed to talk to her.
"You didn't bring anyone home since you came here. Not a friend or a girlfriend. I want you to know that it's not a problem for me, you can bring anyone here, just not an Irish or a fucking British posh." She actually didn't have anyone to bring for now, but It gave the opportunity she needed to tell him that she knew his secret.
"You know, you don't have to be shy because of me… You... You can bring people, I don't mind, I know you had a life before I came here, I don't want to bother you" She didn't knew how to say what she wanted to say. And he apparently didn't want to help her. "I mean Uncle Malcolm should stay the whole night and not just runaway at three in the morning once you guys finished… It's not really nice for him, and I don't care as long as you don't make noise, 'cause that's gross to hear his father fuck with his boyfriend. So yeah, you should tell him to come to diner sometime. And now, I really have to go or I'll be late, bye dad". She kissed his cheek and left promptly.
The stunned look on his face was so great; she should have taken a picture.