Unexpecting by Jen Bailey EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Jen Bailey
- Language: English
- Genre: Coming of Age Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
“Mom, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Everything about this moment is eerily familiar. Like I did two months
ago, today I sit facing my mom and stepdad, hands hanging between my
knees, fingers clasped.
“Another big announcement, Ben?” Mom asks with an awkward
chuckle.
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Though she’s making light of it, she’s closer to the truth than she could
ever imagine. She too recognizes the similarities to the last time I initiated
such a conversation. And, like last time, Mom and Roger, Stepdad #3,
watch me with a combination of worry and confusion.
I can’t make myself look her—or Roger for that matter—in the eye.
Instead of meeting her gaze, taking a deep breath, and saying “Mom, I’m
gay,” this time I take a deep breath and brace myself for the shitstorm I’m
about to unleash.
I stop to swallow. My mouth is dry and anxiety is throwing a pool party
in my gut.
“Mom, I’m going to have a baby.” Crap crap crap. Wrong word choice.
My having a baby is a physiological impossibility. “I mean, I’m going to be
a dad.”
She stares at me for a really long time.
Roger glances between Mom and me like a spectator at a tennis match.
Back and forth. Back and forth.
I bring my hand to my mouth, tugging a sliver of thumbnail between my
teeth. Why is this so hard? I’d thought coming out to my mom and my new
stepdad was going to be tough. It wasn’t bad, just supremely awkward. But
this … this is so much worse.
A beam of late-afternoon sunlight sneaks through the gap between the
two halves of the front window’s navy-blue curtains, spilling over me. I sit
on the center cushion of the worn suede couch, but it might as well be
center stage at the school’s auditorium given the spotlight treatment and
Mom and Roger’s scrutiny. Even though I requested this conversation, I’ve
never felt so exposed.
The coppery taste of blood hits my tongue and I cringe. I’ve chewed my
thumbnail down too far. I shove my bleeding hand under my thigh,
brushing past the thick packet of papers I’ve crammed into my pocket. My
knee immediately starts bobbing. Up and down. Up and down.
Okay, so things could definitely be worse. I mean, she isn’t laughing at
me. There’s no screaming or tears. All she does is fall back into her
matching suede chair, hand covering her mouth, which is her “I’m thinking”
pose. Roger scrunches his face up, which is his “I’m thinking, but I don’t
quite know what’s going on” pose.
Finally, Roger asks, “How is that possible?”
Roger’s a nice guy, and he’s great to me and Mom, but sometimes his
common sense comes to the party late.
“Well, I had sex with a girl.”
“But aren’t you gay?”
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