He looked into her eyes, and heaved a sigh of relief. His reprieve was short lived, however, as he saw the look on her face. First shock, which then morphed into anger and hurt; the tears welled in her eyes, but she fought to hold them back.
“So that’s it then?” she asked, with a slight quiver in her voice.
“I suppose, yeah.” Ashamed. His brief moment of freedom and ecstasy was reduced to shame. How could she always do that? She did even really do anything this time, but she still managed to do it. He didn’t know how she did it… maybe it was the way her lip trembled when she was upset, maybe it was just the way the sun hit her eyes and lit them up, but she always made him feel guilty for doing what he thought was right.
“Jesus Christ, Tommy,” she managed, “what the fuck were you thinking?” He could see the information sinking into her. The wheels in her head were turning, processing what had just told her. She put one hand on her hip, the other to her face, and started pacing the room.
“Sara, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I-”
“No, stop.” She stopped pacing and stared at my shoes, like she always does when she’s upset. “Don’t you dare try to apologize for this. You knew, you fucking knew how much this meant to me. This weekend was supposed to be special for me. I thought I could trust you. But no, you had to go fuck it up like you do everything else.”
“I didn’t know they would react like that! But I just thought they had a right to know beforehand. They would have had seizures if you showed up here like that without warning.”
“I told them all they needed to know.”
“You didn’t, and you know it. You told them you were bringing ‘someone special’ home with you. Mom and Dad are Catholic. You can’t just drop a bomb on two old-fashioned church goers like that.” She finally looked up at him.
“It wasn’t your shit to tell.”
“I know,” Tommy responded, “and I’m sorry. But I did the right thing. And see how much better it turned out? If you had just shown up here holding hands with another woman, they would have freaked the shit out! I know, because they did when I first told them-”
“Tommy-”
“But then they had a couple of days to calm down, and they greeted you and Christina with open arms- milk and cookies, for Chrissake! Did you really want your first real relationship like this to be plagued with Mom and Dad screaming at you?”
“That’s not the point! That’s not the fucking point!” Sara broke down now. She seemed to crumple onto her bed, shaking with tears. Tommy rushed to her side. He sat down next to her, putting one hand on her shoulder, and the other on her back. Sara took a moment to breathe and calm down, and then continued, “That’s not the point. They should have heard it from me. I wanted to be the one who told them. I wanted that feeling of accomplishment. Telling your parents that you’re gay is supposed to be liberating. I don’t know if-”
Sara was interrupted by a knock at the door.
