SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

I was standing in my mother's study with Kimberly beside me, but both of us were staring at the woman in disbelief, since we couldn't believe what we'd just heard.

"What do you mean by that...?" I slowly demanded. "I don't think I understand, Mom."

"I'm not going to repeat myself," my mother said in a cold tone, turning her frigid green eyes on me. "Get out. I've dealt with enough shame raising a half-broken son, but I absolutely refuse to take care of a faggot. I don't care where you go. Be gone by tomorrow. Go pack your things."

"You can't be serious!" I choked, looking at her in blind outrage. "You're disowning me because I am who I am?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! I'm your son!"

"No, you're not. I've never thought of you as my son. In fact, I never even wanted you," she callously informed me; the hurt stung my heart and I almost burst into tears, and beside me, I saw my little sister go rigid out of my peripherals. "For sixteen years, you've been nothing but useless, cleaning, cooking, you're terrible at both so there's no point in having you here."

Rage tore over the pain and iced it over into a bubble that expanded, protecting my heart.

I completely detached myself from her in that moment, severing all emotional connection. 

"Excuse me?" I blankly asked, narrowing my eyes. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me," she retorted. "Go pack your things. Now."

"Mommy, this isn't fair! This is wrong!" Kimberly cried, throwing her arms around me. "I don't want Aerin to go! I love him just the way he is! It's not bad that's he's gay! In fact, my teacher Mrs. Bowden says that--"

"Let go of him, honey," our mother interrupted. "Right now."

Kim didn't have to. 

I shrugged her off myself and stepped right up to our mom, glaring directly into her eyes.

"If that's how you feel," I said, hiding the pain coursing through my heart, "how about you pay me for the last twelve years of physical abuse you've put me through? How about you pay me for the psychological and emotional scarring I have to deal with because of you? Hm? Because whether you like it or not, kicking me out won't change the fact that I'm your child."

She glared and immediately tried to shove me backwards, but I barely budged. I'd dealt with her hitting me and beating me to the point of death for years, but this time, I wasn't going to lie down and take it. Disabled or not, allergic to sunlight or not, I didn't need someone like her.

When she tried to hit me, for the first time in all my sixteen years, I caught her wrist.

Squeezed.

Squeezed hard enough to hurt, and when shock slid across her face, I stomped forward and shoved her in the stomach as hard as I could. She fell to the ground before me, red hair falling across her face, and looked up at me with actual fear as I arrogantly tilted my head back.

Kimberly seemed shocked, little round face pulling tight, but I didn't care.

"You... you hit me," my mother spluttered, outraged. "How dare you?!"

"Oh, so you don't like it when I hit back? Well, that's too bad, I've gotten big enough to protect myself from you," I quietly informed her. "So let me make something clear. If you ever put your hands on me, or even Kimberly once I'm gone, again... I can and will unload all the years of bottled hatred I've kept inside me on you, and I won't stop until you need a hospital."