8

"I thought you were never coming back." My mother attacked as soon I snuck back info the house. The living room was brightened up by the loud television telling news we were familiar with by now.

"Hi mum." I stared at my feet with a sigh.

She returned a similar sigh and walked to a couch. She sat on one of them and beckoned me to sit beside her. "Come here."

I did as she required of me. My little sitter was playing with a few toys on the table, building blocks were arranged in amoebic shapes while she talked to herself, obviously having fun.

"So, tell me." She started. She was speaking calmly. My leaving her presence must have triggered her to take it a lot softly. "Talk to me, you know you can't lie. Are you bisexual?"

This was it. My chance to tell her the truth.

"Mum, what would you do if I was one? Tell me honestly." I shifted my gaze to her, managing to make eye contact the first time since my arrival.

"You can't lie." I added, to ensure she remembered.

"I'd be disappointed. And it would change a lot of things. I'd limit the friends you hung out with and maybe take you to a church to orientate you." She shook her head a little on every point she made.

"Wow." I nodded in accordance, drifting my gaze slowly from hers.

"I told you my part, now, answer me, don't be scared. I'll make sure you get over it, we will find a therapist, someone that will help. All I need is for you to tell me whether or not you are one." She pushed, speaking in a low, consoling voice.

"What if I don't want to be tamed?" I stared at my feet, the sadness casing me.

"You have to be." She held my shoulder. "It's not right." She shook her head pitifully.

"I'm not bisexual." I nudged her hand off my shoulder and deviated my eyes to hers. She looked taken aback.

"Really?" She had to ask in confirmation. The doubt was easily read.

I stood to my feet. "Really mum. Look at me, I'm still here and standing in one piece. If I were bisexual, and I lied about it," I picked my school bag from off the couch where it had been beside me, "I should be lying here dead by now." I scoffed.

"But why did you write those things then?" She followed behind me while I made my way to my bedroom.

"I live a fantasy in my head, I needed to write a story and that's what came to my mind." I trailed up the stairs.

She stopped by the foot of the stairs and yelled up to me. "Hey, discard them. I don't want it poisoning your mind." She called, getting me to stop in my tracks.

"You should not gave gone through my diary." I muttered, disabling her sentence.

I resumed my trail and disappeared from her sight. I tossed my school bag onto the floor as soon as I was in my room. I clicked the key so the door was brought locked.

I hurried to the bed and buried myself in it, lying on my face and crying into my bed spread.

"Why?" I questioned rhetorically, sitting up and drawing my knees to my chest

"Why can't I be who I want to be?"

I reached for my bed side drawer, pulled it open and got out the first letter Grace had given to me.

"I know you feel awful about the kiss, don't. You should never let anyone tear you down for who they want you to be. Much love, your girlfriend till death do us apart, Grace."

I put the letter down beside me and shook my head. "What if who they want me to be is what's best for me?" I sighed.

My ringing phone startled me. It was from none other than Grace.

I gladly answered it and put it up to my ear. "Grace?" I called in a low manner.

"What's wrong?" She called back in worry. I loved how easily she could detect there was a problem with me.

"It's nothing." I smiled, "I'll tell when we see." There was no cause to hide things from her. She was the only one who knew how best to handle these sort of situations.

"That's great. I called you because of the lesbian club. It's time for us to meet." She beamed, discarding every inch of worry I had previously detected in her tone.

"Really?" I stared at my door, unconsciously twirling a loose strand of my hair around my pinky finger. It felt as though my mother would appear through that door any minute from now.

"Yes, really." She answered.

How was I going to get my mother's permission to leave he house. I still had the fear of lying, it had been difficult to stay from it the last month. I hated to take advantage of the almadate. It was something that could easily wear off. I would hate to lose track of time and say a lie, while relying on it.

"I'll be there soon." I told her instead, refusing to change my mind. It would be fair to be amid people who had like minds as mine. "Where do we meet?" I wondered.

"I'll be at the street after your house, meet me there soon. I'll text!" She sounded truly excited.

It was nice to be doing something that gained her this much interest.

"Okay, see you soon." I hung up and jumped out of bed, ready to change out of my clothes.

I discarded the past incident from my mind, dressing up instead and wearing a bright smile.

I changed into my pride Tee-shirt. It was a white shirt with a rainbow on it that said 'pride'.

I pulled a purple jacket over it so my mum wouldn't get suspicious. I pulled my hair into two ponytails and disappeared from the room.

"Where are you going?" My mum's voice was the first thing I heard as soon as I got to the nain door.

"I need to check something out, it's no big deal." I said, staring at my phone screen. I had at least twenty minutes till the almadate wore off.

"Where?" She tried to push, coming closer to me.

"Look mum, I don't want to get in any trouble with you okay? I'd like to be left alone for now and if you understood that, it would be best for us all." She wasn't giving me a break. I made a mental promise not to use the almadate so I could go back to being silent. That way, no one would question me for not responding.

"Fine, don't stay out too long." She said.

"I won't." I responded.

Soon enough, I was out of the house and heading to see Grace.

*

The club was appealing. There were no other genders except girls. It was welcoming enough. Someone was playing 'coming out' by a popular trans woman, Jenny Organ.

I nodded to the beat and secured my hand in Grace's. I rid myself of the jacket once I was in the club.

"Come on, let's party!" I beamed in excitement.

"I want you to meet some of my friends." Grace yanked me in with a great force. There was no stopping her when she was this excited. The club was wide and dark , the only illumination being pink lights from the disco ball rotating on the ceiling.

"Easy there Grace, you are going too fast, don't you think?" I called, running to catch to up with the speed at which she was pulling me.

I knocked into a couple, doing a lap dance, knocking the blonde off her significant other.

"Sorry." I cringed, waving them while we continued into the room.

"What's going on? What's with the rush?" I shook my head, unable to grab what was happening.

"We are here!" Grace shrieked. We were in an isolated corner of the club and the bright room was filled with three other girls, ranging from different heights and sizes.

Only the beat ot the song could be heard from the cream coloured room.

"Stephanie, Blakee, Eva, meet my girlfriend Ariyah." She introduced me proudly.

"So you are real?" Stephanie, the tallest and the thinnest of the group popped a gum in my face, keeping one hand on her waist whilst staring at me from head to toe. She had multiple colours in her hair, her face was pierced with metals everywhere and her tattooed neck informed me that her body must be dressed in ink. She honestly looked as if she should have died from lying by now. She didn't have the appearance of a truthful person at all.

"I am?" I wondered, staring at Grace for clarification.

"The girls thought I lied when I said I had a girlfriend." Grace confirmed. "I hope that goes in your faces." She shook her head.

"You are some really pretty thing though." The shortest one in the middle tweaked my nose, standing on her toes to do so. She was a little pitchy especially for how mature she looked. "Nice to meet you Ari." She added.

"She doesn't like  to referred to as Ari. Please call it in full." Grace said on my behalf. She was right. Most people believed Ari was short for Ariana and so some others began to refer to me as the latter.

The last girl on the other hand made no comment. I liked her vibes even in her silence. She was chubby to the sight, her face was pretty and her lips were full in a beautiful way.

"Can I talk to you privately?" I nudged Grace, growing uncomfortable with the scene.

"Sure." She agreed, "I'll be right back y'all." She said and turned to leave.

"What's wrong?" She asked in a whisper when we were away from the group.

"Are these people really your friends? I feel like you're just trying to impress them rather than friendship." I pointed out to her in the same pitch she had spoken with.

"Nonsense." She raised an argument that was cut when my phone began to ring.

I mentally crossed my fingers with the high hope it wouldn't be from my mum.

"Hey." I called into the phone. It was Luke. Something about his phone call made me feel weird for a second. I wondered why he would be phoning me.

"Did you use the almadate a third time?!" He alarmed.

"No?" I automatically panicked.

"Thank God. Are you alone?" He sharply retorted.

"No?" I grew a lot more fearful than previously. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Find a place to be alone, for now. Hurry, the almadate would wear off in three minutes based on the time you used it." He said.

"So?"

"I forgot to say this, I should have before giving it to you but you sounded like you needed it so bad." He said.

"Just go straight to the point!" I warned, hurrying out of the girls' presence.

"Where are you going?" Grace called behind me.

"Using it twice, after it wears off the second time, it mutates your body and you become invisible." He said.

"What?!" I gasped in shock.

"Don't worry, it's temporary and it only lasts for twenty minutes, find a place to hide before people see you disappear." He warned.

"Oh my God." I began to run, ignoring that Grace was running after me. "Why are you just telling me this?" I wanted to quit him from across the phone.

"Two minutes left, hurry!" He called into the phone. He was definitely not helping matters by telling me what the time was.

I hung up on him and dashed to find safety. This would be bad, I could feel it.

I thought I had lost Grace but she was following right behind me, this was so not good.

I put my phone in my pocket and increased my speed.