What Passes For Normal

Chapter 19

"Where's my girl?" my dad says, his voice cracking as he speaks. "Where's your smile gone? How did this happen?"

There are lots of tears as we all sit in the living room, Geoffrey and me on the couch, Neea and my mother in the two big armchairs. Dad and I are crying and Neea is too. My mother isn't much of a crier. She's just sitting there with a look on her face like she's just been served undercooked chicken.

Finally she says, "Are you anorexic too?"

"No, Mom," I say, flatly, wiping my eyes. "I'm not anorexic. Side effect of meth use. You tend to not have much of an appetite."

She just shakes her head. The woman finds out I've been living on the street, addicted to a dangerous drug, and she just wants to criticize my appearance. Whatever. I won't let her get to me.

It actually feels good to cry in a way. Besides extreme irritability, I've been pretty low on emotions, both good and bad, so it seems like a kind of progress just to feel something. Maybe once I get good at sadness I can work on joy. But yeah, just seeing my dad cry is going to bring on the tears every time.

My parents are dressed in their church-worthy best. My dad often wears this grey-green tweed jacket to work, not just church, alternating it with the brown corduroy one and the darker grey one with the the leather elbow patches, but Pat has gone full-church mode in her purple—sorry, "shiraz"—blazer and slacks set, matched up with a satiny beige blouse and the pearls Granny Guerin gave her. It's a look that says she's here to do God's work and this time, I guess, I'm the charitable cause.

• • • •

Teddy had barely recovered from the excruciating dinner at his dad's and now he had to deal with Darwin's parents coming over. From up in his room he heard them come in, the loud pleasantries impossible to miss even over the sound of an online game and Byron's voice coming through the computer's speaker. While he and Byron mindlessly slashed their way through hordes of lizard men they talked about Byron's cousin Shane. Shane Lin was six years older than Byron and was starting to make a name for himself as an artistic photographer, having graduated at the top of his class in art school. Byron grew up idolizing Shane, following him around town, learning which comics were cool, what music to listen to, what books to read. When Shane came out as gay a few years ago, nothing changed between them. Teddy didn't know if Byron had even suspected, but he certainly didn't seem to care.

Apparently, Shane was working hard putting together a show of his work for a gallery in town. He'd had his stuff in galleries before but this would be his first solo show. He was nervous, Byron said, but excited about showing the new work.

"Switch to glacial blades," said Byron. "Flammarions."

"Yup," said Teddy.

"So we should go," said Byron.

"No, we got this."

"No, I mean Shane's thing. We should all go. He'd appreciate it."

"Oh, yeah. We totally should," said Teddy.

Teddy wondered if C. J. would be into going to Shane's show with him. She looked like she might have an artsy streak, with her cool clothes and the buttons on her jacket. He was imagining walking around a gallery with her, maybe arm in arm, saying smart things about the art and making her laugh... Now Byron was talking about how Katie's dad gets him to help with projects around the house.

"Even if Katie's brother James is just lounging in front of the TV, he'll ask me. I think it's a Japanese thing. He's testing me. He wants to see if I'll make a good son-in-law."