chapter 37: weisz loves his family

~weisz~

       As I watch TV, my bedroom doors suddenly opens. Celine walks in carrying a bunch of dresses from her closet. She drops them on my bed and crosses her arms over her chest as she examines the clothes. "The hardest part about school dances is planning what you're going to wear," she says.

       "Uh huh," I say, still trying to watch TV but it's kind of hard with Celine wanting my attention.

       "So I need your help picking an outfit," Celine says. "You've always had a better sense of fashion than me."

       "Wow, a compliment," I say. "That's something I never thought I would hear from you."

       Celine hasn't noticed that my tone has been extremely dead, since that's what I'm currently feeling inside. I don't even know why I bothered going back to school if it was just going to turn around and kick me in the ass.

       "So the theme is Casino Night," Celine says. "I was thinking this dress would be good." She holds up a gold mini dress. "Because, you know, everyone thinks of gold when they think of casinos." She holds up a red two piece dress. "But then there's red because red and black are also what people think of when they think of casinos." Next is a black mini dress. "But like I said, black is also a colour they think of."

       "Yep."

       "There are just so many options. I don't know which one to go with. And I know the dance isn't until next Friday, but if I don't pick out my outfit now, I'll stress out. Like massive stress out. You've seen what my room looks like if I don't have an outfit planned out before the dance. It looks like a tornado hit it."

       "Sure."

       "So gold, red, or black?"

       I sigh and pause the TV before I sit up on the bed, knowing that she's not going to give up until I help her choose an outfit. "The gold, I guess."

       Celine picks up the gold dress again and looks at it. "Yeah, I think this one will work. Ooh, you know what shoes would go good with this? My gold ones."

       "Wow, gold on gold," I say. "I never would have thought. You can take your dresses off my bed now."

       Celine looks at her pile of clothes. "You know, this didn't take as long as I thought it was going to be. Let's pick out you outfit for the dance."

       "Why?" I ask.

       Celine walks over to my closet and opens the door, examining all the clothes. "Uh, because I love picking out outfits. You know, I should become a stylist or something. Or we can become a brother-sister stylist duo because, like I said, you have a great sense of style. Ooh, maybe you and Reno can do, like, a red and black combo. He wears red, you wear black."

       "There's not point," I say. "We're not going."

       Celine furrows her eyebrows as she looks at me. "Why? You were excited to go."

       "Yeah, well, that was before Reno and I got banned from going to the dance for being a same-sex couple."

       "You what?" Celine asks. She doesn't even wait for my reply before she walks out of the bedroom, calling for Mom and Dad.

       I sigh and pull myself out of bed to follow her. "Celine, wait."

       Celine has already made her way downstairs by the time I caught up to her, especially since I can't move too fast. I get out of breath too easily, and probably will for a long time during my treatment. "You would not believe what Weisz just told me," Celine says. "He and Reno are banned for going to the school dance because they're a same-sex couple."

       "What?" Mom says. "That's completely ridiculous. Did you talk to the principal about this?"

       "Yeah, we did," I say. "She's the one that informed us we're not allowed to go to the dance. Apparently, we would make people feel 'uncomfortable'."

       "Which is stupid, by the way," Celine says. "I see straight couples making out in the hallway and basically grope each other, and no one bats an eye. Just today, there was one couple in the cafeteria where the girlfriend was sitting on her boyfriends lap. Pretty sure they were dry humping. No one told them to stop."

       "Hold on," Dad says. "So you're telling us that the principal told you that you can't go to the school dance because of your sexuality?"

       "Exactly," I say. "We wouldn't want to make the people who put a lot of thought into the dance feel uncomfortable. That would be incredibly selfish."

       "Don't tell me she called you selfish," Mom says.

       "Not exactly," I say. "But she did say it would be unfair for them to feel uncomfortable, so I think it was implied." I sit down on the couch. "I wanted to do something about it because there might be other LGBTQIA teens banned from the dance in the future, but Reno doesn't think it's a big deal." I sigh. "I don't even know what to do about it."

       "Simple," Grandma speaks up. She hasn't said anything yet because she was supposedly napping on her recliner. I guess she woke up mid-conversation and figured out what was going on. "There's usually school district meetings every month, and it's always open to everyone in the town just in case there are parents or students that have something they want to bring up."

       "Is there going to be a meeting before the dance?" Mom asks.

       Grandma nods. "This Friday, actually. We should go and tell them how appalling it is that the principal is okay banning LGBTQIA students from the dance."

       Mom looks at me. "This is about you. If it's something you want to do, then we'll all go. If you just want to leave it, then we'll leave it."

       I shake my head. "No, I definitely want to do it. It don't want it to happen to any other students."

       "Then that's exactly what we'll do," Mom says.

       I smile. "Thank you."

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just wait until reno's dad finds out about it. he will not let it go to rest >:)