Life's a Bitch, but I'm Friends with Her Sister

Jordan’s Point Of View

“Jordan sweetie, time for dinner!” My mom’s voice echoed through the house, also knocking me out of my thinking.

“Coming mom!” I yelled back down to her. I put down the pen I was using and closed my notebook for the time being. I was sat trying to figure out ways that I could help Alex without anybody finding out, I honestly wouldn’t know what I would do if one of the guys or Tay came round while I was having dinner and decided to wait in my room for me, then see that sat on the table.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs my nose was filled with the delicious scent of my mom’s homemade spaghetti bolognaise. All of my friends loved it and asked for it whenever they were over, resulting in my family having it a lot. Not that I minded, as I said, it’s delicious.

“How was school today honey?” My mom greeted me as I walked into the kitchen and took a seat at one of the stools along the bench.

“It was okay.” I shrugged. “I managed to hit my head in gym again though”.

“You need to be more careful honey! One day you’ll do some serious damage to yourself!” She said with a laugh.

The fact that my mom was so caring and protective towards me just made me think about Alex’s situation more. I know that he gets beaten, but I have no idea to what extent. Was that a light beating I saw or a heavy one? What else goes on? It sickened me to know that all of it was because Alex was gay too. Nobody should do that to anyone, but to do it because of someone’s sexuality is just plain awful. If that had happened to me when I came out of the closet to my parents, I’d probably have run away. I’m such a wimp when it comes to pain, I just wouldn’t have been able to handle it. I don’t have a clue how Alex handles it.

Right then I made a silent agreement to myself to tell someone. One person wouldn’t harm right? I just needed to choose the right person to tell. There’s no way I could help Alex with this on my own. Thinking of the right person to choose, I did a mental checklist.

Jack? No, too loud, and would spill it to everyone in the school, let alone out group.

Tay? No, she has a crush on Alex and would just freak out.

Rian? Now, that would work. The caring, mother figure of the group. He’d be sure to have some ideas about what we could do the help Alex!

I finished my food as fast as I possibly could then ran upstairs to find my phone. I dialled Rian’s number as soon as the phone was even in my hand.

“Hey, Rian? We may have a small problem....” I trailed off. “Could you get over here soon please?”
“Yeah sure, what’s the problem Jordan?” Rian replied.

“It’s probably better to tell you in person...” I trailed off again. To avoid any more questioning I hang up the phone and patiently waited for Rian to arrive at my house.

After fifteen minutes of idly playing guitar in my room, I heard the knock of the front door echoing through the house, then my mom answering the door.

“Hello Rian honey! I wasn’t expecting to see you here tonight, but Jordan’s upstairs. Go, go, and make yourself at home!” My mom said in her always over enthusiastic voice.

Rian was then stood at my door, looking at me expectantly.

“So, what seems to be the problem, giraffe princess? Rian asked me in a joking tone.

“Rian, as much as I love your joking attitude to everything right now you might want to be a bit more serious with this situation.” I said, deadly serious.

“Okay...” Rian said, seeming a bit taken back. It’s not often I go all ‘stern and strict’.

“So, the problem isn’t to do with me, it’s to do with Alex. Basically, he came out as gay to his family, and they started beating him. It’s awful. He had a huge bruise on his chest in gym today, I have no idea if that’s something normal for him or if that’s one of the worse times, but he had it. Now, everything I’ve just told you, you can’t tell anyone else. Alex seemed so scared to even tell me about all of this, and I promised not to tell anyone else, but I have no idea what I would do on my own, or how I could do anything to help him on my own.”

“Wow.” Rian said, still taking everything I’d told him in the past minute in.

“Well, we best get thinking Jordan” He said with a sad smile, and it was then decided that we’d start planning now, and starting putting the plan into action tomorrow.