Chapter 40
Watching a broken Court leave and unable to stop her, Stephanie knew one thing for sure, she was ready for this. Whatever this is. That there was no choice, because Court was her life, whether or not her parents saw it.
As the door shut, Marlene and Calvin started talking at once, but Stephanie wasn’t listening. She was done with them. If they couldn’t be her parents when she was with Court, they had no place in her life.
Holding up her hand, both of them stopped talking. When the room was finally silent, she said loudly, “Her, I choose her, every fucking day. Her.”
“Stephanie, you need to think about your future before you make any decisions.” Marlene stated, as if her opinion mattered to Stephanie anymore. Those days were gone.
“I am. I choose her. And if you aren’t excited about that, you can leave. I have nothing else to say to you.”
“I didn't just stop caring when I met your mother, you know,” Calvin mumbled, but his argument wasn’t enough anymore.
Turning on her stepdad, she wanted to pummel him right there. He could have saved Court from going to Hell, but hadn’t.
“Did you know she was gay?” Stephanie demanded.
“Who? Courtney. I mean Court.” Calvin finally said her name correctly, but far too late for forgiveness.
“Yes, Court. Did you know she was gay?”
“No, yes, maybe. As I told you when you said you were gay, it doesn’t matter to me. I still love you. I’ve always felt that way.”
“Nice words for a man who sent a girl he said he loved like a daughter to a conversion camp at seventeen.” She knew she shouldn’t tell, it was Court’s past. But the couple had to know what their actions caused. That if they had stepped in, she’d never have been sent there.
“What’s a conversion camp?” Marlene asked in confusion.
Folding her arms, she leaned against the doorjamb, leveling her mom a glare.
“A place where parents send their gay kids to convert them back to being straight. Which doesn’t work and has been proven psychologically damaging.
Something that, despite all the evidence, was already out when it happened.
Helene sent Court when you refused to let her move in with us. Do you remember that now?”
Calvin leaned against the counter. “Yes, Healing Harbor was the name. But it wasn’t like that.
She had to go because Helene couldn’t control her anymore.
We all saw that she was out of control that summer.
Helene had said she was constantly getting into trouble. And it was getting worse, not better.”
“Or maybe, just maybe, Helene and her second husband didn't want a gay daughter. Her acting out was all because of that. And she had nobody to turn to who would help her. She had learned over the years that she couldn’t go to you.”
“She punched Dylan so hard it broke his nose.” Marlene argued as if that mattered anymore. What happened to her was far beyond the punishment she deserved for that slight infraction.
“Because he cut off her hair, almost all of it. And you never would have punished him for it. You never punished us kids for picking on her. Not once. And we were awful to her every time she came to visit.” Stephanie wondered if they had even cared back then or even now that it had been happening.
“We couldn’t punish you when we brought in an outsider to live with us.” Marlene said it was the first time she had used that defense of her actions.
“She wasn’t an outsider, mom, she was someone special to your husband. I thought you would have considered that family. We did everything in our power to make her life miserable when she was around us, and you knew it. Never stopped it.”
“No, we did not.” Calvin insisted.
Stephanie rolled her eyes at his words. “Because you were always at work. Even during the family weekend, we pranked her many, many times. You paid no attention.”
“The past is the past, and we can’t go back.” Marlene said, her tone stating she had known the entire time.
“I still don’t like you two together.” Calvin restated, as if his opinion mattered to her anymore.
“You will either learn to accept it or, well, I guess this is goodbye. Because she's my person. Since the moment we met, she's all I’ve wanted. I don’t see that changing and, to be honest, I don’t want to change it.
Not for you or for anyone else. You don’t get an opinion on who I love.
” She stated, grabbing her jacket, needing to find Court. Where would she go? Home?
“We just don’t think this is a good idea” her mom wasn’t listening to her, instead, she thought her opinion mattered to her.
Stephanie grabbed her car keys before turning to her parents, the ones who she used to think were never wrong, but now could barely look at them.
“Once again, I don’t care what you think.
Court is my future, whether you like it or not.
Now I have to track down my girlfriend. Because of you, she's hurting, and she needs me. Because I never want her to be alone again.”
Walking out of her apartment and away from her parents was freeing. Stephanie hadn’t realized how much telling them had been weighing on her. Even after telling her mom about their dating, she hadn’t said enough. Now she had. The rest was up to them. If they never got
Stephanie didn’t think finding Court was going to be hard until she didn’t find her at her apartment or at the office. After spending an hour driving by Court’s apartment and her office a few times, then by the gym and circling back to her place, she was out of places to look.
Picking up her phone, she knew she had to call one of the Ellis sisters. She didn’t know where either of them lived, but did have both their numbers in her phone. Something she hadn’t thought she’d need when Court had programmed them in. Now she was thankful.
Her first choice was Rebel, but she didn’t pick up her phone. Whether she was busy or screening her calls, Stephanie didn’t know. Which left her with one choice, Court’s best friend. The woman Stephanie knew disliked her, but she had to make the call no matter how Ellis was going to treat her.
When the woman answered with a gruff hello, Stephanie asked, “Is Court with you?”
“No, she’s with you all damn weekend. Did you do something?” She asked snidely.
Ignoring what she was asking, she went on with her own questioning, “Where would Court go to be alone?”
“Why?” Ellis demanded, her tone a bit concerned.
“She told me she needed alone time.” She lied a little, not wanting to go into everything that had happened today.
“Home or work, especially on a weekend.”
“I checked both. Nothing.”
Ellis let out a low breath into the phone before finally saying, “Head towards Newberry Park, and tell me what happened. Another place might come to me as you tell me what really happened.”
Turning around as soon as she could and heading in the right direction, she started, “My parents showed up at my apartment, and she went off on them. Which they deserved. After she left, I did the same.”
“About hell?” Ellis asked in a sobering whisper.
“Hinting at it more than anything, but yeah,” Stephanie admitted and wondered how much Court had told Ellis, because she had said not everything.
“Then she most likely went to Ty’s. When everything falls apart, she goes there.”
“Do you know where Ty lives?” She asked, hoping against hope she did.
Ellis rattled off an address that was close to Newberry Park. It was only a block from the park itself. “Why would she have gone to Newberry Park?”
Ellis was silent for a few moments as Stephanie stopped at a red light.
She was sure she wouldn’t answer, or they had been disconnected, when her voice came through the line again.
“Heather died there. It all comes back to those four. If you’re going to keep dating Court, you have to keep that in mind. It all comes back to those four.”
“Thank you, Ellis. I didn't know where to start looking for her. I thought I’d lost her.” She admitted she didn’t know her girlfriend as well as she wanted to.
“Give yourself a break, it’s only been a few months, Stephanie. I have a dozen years in and I still lose her sometimes.” It was the first kind words Ellis had said to her. Maybe the ice queen was thawing a little towards her. She hoped so. It wasn’t easy on Court for them not to be getting along.
Parked on the street in front of a gray house with a blue door was a familiar BMW. She had never been so excited to see that car again. And now she could finally breathe now that she had found her.
“I see her car.” She said excitedly.
“Always back to Ty.” Was all Ellis said before she hung up on her. Was Ellis jealous of Court’s friendship with Ty? Was Stephanie? All she knew was that they had a bond that wasn’t going to be broken anytime soon. If ever.
Pulling up behind Court’s car, Stephanie parked and headed towards the house. It was the only one on the street that had a flower bed with actual flowers in it. The rest felt more like rentals, where nobody cared what the house looked like. But Ty did.
Before she could knock, the door opened to a woman in sweats and an oversized black tank top. The woman was nothing like she had assumed Ty would look like, and maybe it was because she was holding a baby in yellow pajamas close to her chest and looked like she hadn’t slept in a week.
Her dark hair was super curly and out of control, and her dark eyes had deep bags below them. There was a thin blue blanket over her shoulder that was far from clean, and Stephanie was sure she didn't know that her shirt was on inside out.
This wasn’t what she had expected Ty to look like.
For some reason, she had felt Court’s oldest friend would be feminine and not Middle Eastern and not a mom of an infant.
Stephanie knew she should have asked more about the woman, but had resisted because she didn’t want to bring up the past any more than she had to since finding out about her for the first time.
But like Court, this woman had lived a life after their troubled times together.
She knew she had been silent for too long when the woman asked, “Stephanie?”
“Ty?” she asked as the woman stepped back and let her into the house.
“Yup, Court’s walking around the block. It helps her process.” Ty closed the door behind her. She knew exactly why Stephanie was there without her having to say anything.
“How old is your baby?” Shoving her hands into her shorts pockets because she didn’t know what else to ask.
Ty shifted the baby when it made the slightest sound. “Two months, Amyra and Kaain, this is Kaain.”
“Can I hold him?” She took the baby from the woman rather than wait for a response.
The baby was small in her arms, and she instantly hugged him to her. It had been a long time since she had held a baby, but instinct took over and she held him close, even as his dark eyes assessed her. She just hoped he didn’t start crying so his mom would have to take him back. Ty needed a break.
“Where is Amyra?” She asked, looking around the room and seeing only baby supplies. No second baby.
“Sleeping in their room. They don’t seem to do that at the same time lately. It’s getting old.” She admitted, her eyes dropping.
“I can watch him while I wait for Court. You take a nap.” She offered. There was nothing else she could do but blindly walk the neighborhood, looking for her lover. Besides, she’d come back here, anyway. Her car was out front.
“I couldn’t ask that of you.” Ty waved her offer off.
“I offered.” She said. She turned away from Ty when she reached for the baby. Not wanting to give him up yet, and knowing the woman in front of her needed a break. If only for an hour or so.
“Just until Court comes back.” Shrugging, Ty walked away from her, which showed how much she either trusted Court and her friends, or was tired. Stephanie would bet it was the latter.