Page 69 of Don't Puck Up

“Post-game interview with Hux,” Kam murmured just loud enough that I could hear. He’d played a brilliant game, scoring a hat trick and assisting two other goals.

The table went silent, and I looked around, then placed my cutlery on my plate.

“I don’t understand—why are you still together?” Jenny asked, her lips pinched into a frown.

“Do you believe everything you see on television?”

“We do when you don’t explain why it’s untrue,” Kate shot back.

Kam quietly laid her cutlery down and placed her hands in her lap, not looking up from her plate.

“I didn’t know someone was guilty unless proven innocent,” I barked. I may not have said anything to them, but I hadn’t said anything to V, either, and he didn’t believe Kam had cheated for a second. “You’re our family—the people who should love us unconditionally and know the kinds of people we are. You shouldn’t have believed the trash TMZ published.”

I looked around the table at the stony gazes that met mine, and I couldn’t help unleashing a tirade on them, my voice rising with each word I spoke. “You took what TMZ said as gospel. You immediately lost faith in Kam. You know, I did the wrong thing by staying silent. I can admit that now. But you believed some tabloid bullshit? Your opinions of Kam flipped the instant you saw something bad about her on the television. You completely disregarded everything you knew about her in favor of trash journalism—”

“Enough,” Dad ordered, his voice as sharp as the crack of a whip. His words were like a slap to the face.

“It wasn’t Kam,” I said carefully trying to keep the tone in my voice even and calm. “Kamirah never cheated on me.”

“It didn’t look that way,” Mom answered.

“No, it didn't, but it's the truth.” I licked my lips and inhaled slowly, banking the embers of anger burning in my gut and gathering every vestige of courage I had. I interlaced my fingers with Kam’s, needing her strength to say the words. “I was the one sleeping with Hux that night. Kam arrived home, not me.”

“What? You?” Luke asked.

“I'm queer," I said, holding my chin up and finally owning it to my family. I wanted to laugh and dance—the truth was finally out there. But I didn’t dare. Not with the color fading from Mom’s cheeks while Dad’s did the opposite.

"You're gay?" James blurted out with a guffaw like it was the most ludicrous thing he’d heard.

"No. I'm bisexual," I responded holding my breath. Not a single word was spoken, the table going so silent that you could hear a pin drop. Even the kids spread out on the picnic blanket in the living room were unusually quiet.

“You’re… you’re bi-what? What does that mean?” Mom said, her voice eerily calm.

“It means thatIwas having sex with Hux that night, Mom. Me. Not Kamirah.”

Mom recoiled like I’d slapped her. She turned her lips up in disgust and she shook her head, disagreeing with me. I watched as she squeezed her cutlery so hard her hand shook.

“Christopher,” Dad barked, his eyes wild and his nostrils flaring. “Watch your language.”

“‘Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is an abomination,’” Mom spat. She dropped her cutlery onto her plate, and the rattle echoed through the silent room. “You take back what you just said. Repent, and you may still enter the kingdom of heaven.”

She pointed at me, and I wanted to shrink under her withering glare. But I was not going to cower anymore. The genie couldn’t be put back in the bottle, so I kept my back ramrod straight, refusing to follow her orders.

“You will go to hell for this. Sodomy is a sin. That… man is going to be your downfall,” she cried, her voice carrying through the whole house.“Jesus died on the cross foryou. He sacrificed himself foryou, and this is how you repay him? By living a life of sin?”

“Mom, there’s nothing wrong with what we did. You know that Leviticus has been translated to mean different things—”

“Sodomy. Is. A. Sin,” she shouted. “You are a disgrace.”

Kam squeezed my hand, but I barely felt it. I was numb. I knew Mom wouldn’t react well, but I never imagined she’d be so cruel.

“God made me in his image,” I murmured.

“No, you have been misled. You’ve been lied to. This man, this… homosexual, has brainwashed you. You aren’t like him. You have a chance to save your soul. The only path to righteousness is to repent. You must beg for forgiveness at confession.” She looked at her watch. “I can contact Father Brennan. We can go right now.”

“No, Mom.”

“Christopher, you're throwing away your chance at everlasting life. Repent and follow God's word. Come back into the light.”