Thanks for the feedback everyone. Glad to see that I wasn't the only person who thought about how the parents found out about Emily. I'm trying to make it true to the character of each mother, but forgive me if I miss the mark slightly. Anyway, here is Ashley Marin as promised. Also I'm glad at least one person caught the Charmed reference in the last chapter. Anyway, enjoy folks.
Hanna was flipping through another fashion magazine when her hospital door swung open and Emily poked her head around the corner.
"You up for another visitor?"
"That depends do you come bearing gifts." Emily rolled her eyes and pulled the newest Vogue out of her bag. Hanna clapped her hands like an over excited child, "yes, you rock and may take a seat." Emily plopped down in the chair next to the window and rested her feet on the end of Hanna's bed. "So where's your mom?"
"Went to go grab a newspaper or a book, something boring and informative. Enough about my life, what's up with you how's it going at home?"
"Let me phrase this properly, I imagine that there was less tension in the room when Henry the 8th split from the Catholic Church than there was in my house when my dad confirmed my mother's fears about me being gay."
"Wait…what. Is this like current events or something?"
"Hanna, stop sleeping through history class."
"Not my fault it's boring, but anyway I'm sorry your mom is taking it so hard." At that moment Ashley Marin walked back in and was only half paying attention to what she was doing as she dug through her purse. "Hanna they didn't have Vogue, but I brought you another magazine." When she looked up she saw Hanna with the magazine and sighed into a laugh. "Who needs a caring mother when you have best friends that will bring you fashion magazines? Thank you Emily. So what are you two talking about?"
"Nothing interesting." Emily answered quickly, but Hanna blurted out, "Emily says there is trouble in paradise at Casa de Fields."
"Hanna." Emily spat at her friend through her teeth, "do you even know the meaning of the word discretion."
"I know that it was a word on our SAT's. What it's not like we haven't all dealt with mommy issues in our lives, your mommy issues just happen to be more complicated."
"Oh my God, Han I will pay you to stop talking."
"What, it's my mother not a member of the press."
"Still, not everyone needs to know that my mother is being difficult." Ashley watched in silence as the two girls went back and forth and she finally jumped in.
"Ladies, back to your corners and everyone calm down. Emily is everything alright at home?"
"It's fine." The teenager answered a little too quickly and Ashley knew something was going on underneath the swimmer's quiet demeanor.
"Come on Em, just tell her that you and your mom having been butting heads over you being…"
"Hanna, god damn it, I don't want to talk about it anymore ok. I have done nothing but talk and fight about it for days and I'm too tired to defend my life to anyone else, I just want ten minutes of not talking about it." Emily stormed out of the room and Ashley looked to Hanna for an explanation and she got a blank stare.
"You knew better than to push her like that Hanna, but what is she so mad about?"
"Her mom's just been giving her a hard time lately."
"You aren't going to tell me why she's upset are you?"
"I value my life too much to break the best friend code of secrecy."
"You were about to break it ten seconds ago."
"That was before I found out that Em would break me in half for doing it."
"Hanna."
"Mom, look she didn't go far cuz her bag and her keys are still here, she'll calm down and be back." Ashley picked up Emily's bag and when she did a book fell out of it and when she picked it up off the floor to put it back inside she had a pretty good idea about what had Emily so upset and had her and Pam up in arms. She told Hanna that she would be back and she left the room holding Emily's purse and keys. She stopped at the elevator and paused to think about where a teenager would go in a hospital in an effort to get some space. She tried every place she could think of and when she ran out of options she found herself staring at a map of the hospital trying to plot her next move and when she turned down another hallway she crossed in front of the hospital's chapel. She was three steps past the doorway that led to the chapel before something made her turn around. Sitting in the first pew of the small chapel was Emily, at least from what she could tell it was Emily. Ashley walked in and quietly walked up to the front of the Church and stood by the pew.
"This seat taken?" Emily jumped a little when she heard the familiar voice, but then resumed looking at the floor. Ashley took her silence as an invitation to sit down so she settled in next to Emily, careful to give her some space.
"You left in such a hurry you left your keys and bag. Thought you might need them so I came looking for you." She handed Emily the items and Emily mumbled thank you. "When I picked your purse up this fell out of it, thought you might like it back seeing as t you are almost done reading it." Ashley handed her the book and Emily's face turned a funny mix of stark white and beet red. The silence settled back over them and so Ashley kept talking.
"Not many teenagers read 'Always My Child' unless they are hoping to give it to their parents at some point." Emily turned the book over in her hands a few times, but said nothing. Ashley didn't think it would be this hard to get Emily to just say it, but she was hurting and was fast shutting down.
"You don't have to say anything to me Emily; we can sit here in silence all day if that is what you need to do to make you feel better. But if there is something you want to tell me, something you need some help with, I can be a pretty good listener." She looked at Emily whose head was dropping lower and lower and it hurt Ashley to see a sweet kid like Emily suffering so much over something like who she was. Ashley reached over and grabbed her hand, "would it help if I told you that I will love you regardless of what you have to say to me?"
Emily looked up at her best friend's mother and was lost as to how a woman who wasn't her own mother could love her so unconditionally. Emily tried to say something, but nothing came out of her mouth but the weird noise you make after you have been crying too hard for a long time. She closed her mouth and let Ashley Marin wrap her arms around her shoulders and hug her as she lost control over her tears. When her breathing had evened out she shifted so that her head was resting on Ashley's shoulder.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
"Tell me what?" Ashley wasn't going to let Emily get out of this conversation unless she actually said it out loud.
"I like…I'm a…I'm gay." Ashley smiled and kissed the top of Emily's head, "see not that hard to tell me after all. And you never have to apologize to me for not telling me sooner, you did it in your own time."
"Why aren't you mad?"
"Why on earth would I be mad about you being gay?"
"My mother is acting like I killed someone." Emily sighed heavily, "I'm pretty sure she hates me."
"Emily, no parent ever truly hates their child and your mom may be set in her ways, but the last thing she would do is hate you."
"If my dad hadn't been home I'm pretty sure she would have kicked me out."
"I highly doubt she would have done that."
"She said I needed to be fixed, that she and my dad needed to fix this, does that sound supportive to you." Ashley winced and eternally cursed Pam for jumping to every extreme before thinking through her words. "That must have hurt. What did your dad say to that?"
"That after all the things he saw in the war that me being alive and healthy was the only thing that really mattered. He stuck up for me even though he doesn't understand it. At least he's trying."
"Sounds like he's trying hard to accept and understand this new part of your life so he can love you through all the hard parts of it. Honey give your mom some time, she'll realize sooner or later that you are the same baby she's loved since she heard you cry the day you were born."
"You think so?"
"I would never lie to you about something like this. And just so you know, you are always welcome in our home if your house is too much to handle."
"That means a lot, thank you. Sorry about crying on your jacket."
"Never apologize for crying, it's healthy and after what you all have dealt with recently, you have every right to cry." Ashley stood up and Emily followed suit and as they walked into the elevators that led back upstairs Emily turned back to Ashley.
"Aren't you shocked?"
"About what?"
"That I'm gay." Ashley laughed a little and Emily finally smiled, "what is so funny?"
"Honey it may be a stereotype so please forgive me, but you wear more plaid than a lumberjack and every time I saw you kiss a boy you looked like you were being tortured." Ashley stepped off the elevator first and when Emily followed her she finished, "also you talk in your sleep sometimes and three months ago during a slumber party you were talking to someone in your dream who apparently tasted like strawberries. Call me a psychic, but the last person I kissed who tasted like strawberries was a girl I met at a kegger in college." Emily smiled and followed Ashley back down the hallway to Hanna's room.
I always saw a deeper bond between Ashley and Emily so I wanted to make this one more intense, hopefully you all liked it. Always my Child is a book for parents of gay teens and one I read hoping to help my parents help me. Off to bed with me because I have a dentist appointment in the morning but thanks for reading everyone, hope to hear from you all in reviews.