Chapter 2:

Previously in Chapter 1:

Both of my parents looked at each other with steely eyes and nodded.

"We would like to call a family meeting. With just the three of us," my dad said tersely.

Chapter 2:

"What about Thomas?" I asked.

"Thomas can stay upstairs. I don't think he needs to hear this," my mom said quickly.

They got up and started to walk to the kitchen. They didn't look back so I guess they expected me to follow them.

In the kitchen, we all sat down at the table. "Your mother and I want to get a divorce," my father stated bluntly.

I couldn't get it through my head. My brain tried to process the information that it had just received. When I could finally pay attention to the world around me, I looked at both my parents. They were staring at me expectantly.

"Why?" The first word that came out of my mouth being the exact same one that kept floating around in my head.

"Your father told me some interesting information last night and things have been really tense since then. I don't know if I can accept it," My mother stated quietly.

"What did Dad tell you?" I asked hesitantly.

"Your father is...gay. Honey, your father is gay." she stated awkwardly.

"But why does that matter? You taught us that sexuality doesn't matter as long as you're with the person you love," I was so confused.

"Your mother and I decided that divorce would be better than staying together. We wouldn't want you and your brother to suffer through arguments that are bound to happen." Well that made sense but why so soon.

"Why so soon, though?" I had so many more questions that I knew I didn't have time to ask.

"Like I said, we didn't want to put you guys through anything, your brother doesn't need to judge either of us by his memory of our ruined marriage," my dad said nervously.

"Okay," I had no clue what else to say. Their reasoning made sense. Plus, if I accepted it now then I could try to understand it later without the awkwardness. "But what are you going to tell Thomas?" I highly doubt that my 7 year old brother would understand what gay meant, despite being told that it was okay his entire life.

"We'll just tell him that things aren't working out between us," my mom said calmly.

"Okay. When are you going to file the papers then?" I wasn't completely ignorant on stuff like this. A few kids that I used to talk to at my old school ha parents that went through the same thing, though I doubt it was because of the same circumstances.

"Tomorrow. While you guys are in school, we're going to go to the lawyer's office," all this was said with an air of confidence, which I wasn't so sure was real or not.

"Got it. So is one of you going to move out right away or are both of you going to wait till the papers are filed and done with to sort everything out?" I had to know how soon I would have to make a choice, if I had to at all.

"I don't know yet. But this is a lot to process, so thanks for not flipping out about it," my mom said soothingly.

"Welcome. I'm gonna go to bed. Night," I rushed up the stairs, hoping that the faster I went to sleep, the more this would become a dream.

When I woke up in the morning after a dreamless sleep, I changed as slowly as possible. When I went to the kitchen and the same scene from yesterday greeted me, I knew it wasn't a dream.

Pouring a bowl of cereal, shoveling it down as fast as possible without choking, and running out the door so fast that anything passed looked like a blur, I continued on my way to school. Sometime during the walk, the thought that today was Friday finally hit me. 'Thank god it's Friday, I can go to the dojo after school,' I thought.

I was, surprisingly, really early today. Seeing my friends in a corner, I tried to avoid them but as I walked by, Kim noticed me and called out my name, making the rest of them turn around.

"Jack," Kim yelled from where she was standing. The rest of the guys turned, saw me and patted me on the shoulder one by one.

"So did you find out what was wrong with your parents?" Eddie asked after a few tense minutes.

"Yeah. They ummm...they're gonna get a divorce," I muttered, stumbling over the words, while staring interested at my sneakers.

After some time, the silence became too much to handle. I looked up, only to be surprised by the looks I was receiving...