Chapter Thirty-Two
KALLEN
‘So, when was the last time you saw all of them together?’ Dan asks me on our drive to Toowomba on Saturday morning.
I roll my eyes as I think, gaze drifting out the window, fingers tapping on my lips. ‘Hmm, about a year and a half ago now,’ I reveal, going on to tell him about the Christmas before I moved to Brisbane.
‘Even through uni when I worked in a bar on the Gold Coast, I still kept my sexuality a secret from my biological family because I knew how they were,’ I explain, picking at my gel phone case.
‘But I’d been fired for getting into this weird love triangle with the bar managers at work, who were both gay, and my mum had let it slip to my aunt about what had happened, and then my aunt told the whole family, because she can’t seem to keep anything to herself. ’
Dan places his hand on my thigh, massaging it with his fingers.
‘That Christmas was hell,’ I go on. ‘I never saw eye to eye with them up until this point, so I was usually silent in conversations over Christmas meals. But that year I saw their true colours and how a few of them feel about queer people . I felt sick. I moved to the city in early January and didn’t join them for any more holidays.
The job at Untold was a literal saviour. ’
‘Kallen, I’m sorry you had to go through that,’ Dan says, voice soft, scooping my hand with his. ‘Why are we doing this? Should we just go back home and finally see each other’s apartments and spend the whole weekend making ourselves…at home?’
‘It’ll be over before we know it,’ I exhale, stroking his knuckles with my fingers.
I’m far too embarrassed to say the real reason is to keep my stupid ties – and occasional finance boosts – with Katherine.
Still, do I even need that anymore? Since my pay rise at Untold in March, I haven’t really needed her money.
I could always take up some freelance work, as Blake has suggested, yet I’ve ignored every time.
Perhaps it’s wrong of me to think Katherine and the rest of my family will magically change and become more accepting.
‘We don’t have to stay for long,’ I tell Dan. ‘Couple of hours, tops. As long as everyone sees I’m there, they can’t say I didn’t show up. Buuuuut…should we have a code word for when we want to leave?’
‘Uh, sure,’ Dan says. ‘What would you like the safe word to be?’
‘Safe word? We’re not going to a kink party, Dan.’
He shrugs. ‘Code word, safe word, same but different.’
‘They’re very different, but look…’ I grab at his bulge. ‘I’d let you tie me up and we can use a safe word for my release. ’
His cock hardens in my hand as he says, ‘Noted,’ waggling his eyebrows. ‘So, what do you think the codeword should be?’
‘Umm,’ I think out loud, lifting my hand off his crotch. ‘How about something like Blue? And if we’re stuck in a conversation when we want to leave, we say that you have a cat named Blue who needs feeding back at home, and then we skedaddle the fuck out of there?’
Dan’s face forms a smirk. ‘Sounds foolproof.’
‘Sounds cooked family-proof too,’ I say.
The drive up the mountain to Toowomba flies by in a wave of pre-emptive anxiety, of how this party is going to go down. The inordinate white manor in which my aunt Karen lives is so obnoxiously large it could be mistaken as a mini palace.
Once we reach the tall gate and white picket fence, I let out a long lengthy sigh. While the manor is surrounded by gardens, it sure lacks the rustic charm of the vineyard Dan and I were at the other day, and the contrast is striking right now.
I sometimes talk about Toowoomba like it’s the worst place on Earth. But it’s quite beautiful here. There’s just one group of people in it who’ve ruined it for me.
‘You ready?’ Dan asks as we park the car on the street. He taps me on the knee.
I push out a hefty breath. ‘Nope.’
Dan lifts my hand and presses his lips on it. ‘Just remember the code word…and use it whenever you need.’
‘Blue,’ I exclaim. ‘Kidding.’
‘That’s the only time you can jokingly use th e code word,’ Dan warns me as we hop out of his car.
My gaze flicks up to the balcony at the top of the manor. A shiver crawls up my spine, as if Dan and I are about to enter a haunted mansion – inundated with the otherworldly feeling that something isn’t right.
Bold statement, but I’d without hesitation take the haunted house horror film over a ghastly family occasion.
At least in the horror film, there’s an element of mystery and intrigue to keep you on the edge of your seat.
With today, we know it’s going to be torturous, excruciating, all the above.
But my resilience levels have kept me going thus far.
Today shouldn’t be anything I haven’t been thrown into before.
As we wander into the manor, Dan’s eyes drift to the enormous chandelier gleaming on the ceiling.
Indistinct chatter of many voices fills the manor, yet I can’t see anyone.
Footsteps clatter at the top of the stairs, where three young children appear.
It’s my younger cousins, who are scared of me and won’t ever talk to me. They give Dan and I a deadpan look.
‘Hi, kids,’ I say, waving. One of them whispers in another’s ear. They then giggle and run off, out of sight. I shake my head, turning to Dan. ‘Haunted house vibes, I tell ya.’
He stifles a laugh, then whispers, ‘Blue.’
I shoot him stern eyes. ‘Do you actually want to go?’
‘Yes, but we need to at least say Happy Birthday to your mum,’ Dan whispers back.
‘Okay, as soon as the birthday cake show is over, we’re gone, okay?’ I propose.
Dan shakes my hand. ‘Deal.’
‘There’s my wayward son!’ squeals the voice of no one but Katherine, who’s already tipsy, holding a champagne glass.
The demonic creature known as my mother is joined by my aunt and uncle, who evoke a sense of dread in me as I lay eyes on them.
As usual, they look me up and down as though I’m an abomination, one of which will continue to be seen as an abomination until I join my family’s lifestyle ideals of breeding as many children as humanly possible.
Which is not on my agenda. One or two, perhaps.
One day. Maybe. But eight children – which is something Aunt Karen proudly wears as a badge of honour and brags at every chance she gets – no thank you.
‘Don’t you mean social media influencer son? ’ chimes in my fifteen-year-old cousin, Bella, who appears by her maniac mother. Bella’s the black sheep of the family. So in other words, the only one I see eye to eye with.
‘I’ve told you so many times before, Bella. It’s the ones who have no lives that spend theirs wasting away on those sinful apps.’
There we have it: the narrow-mindedness of Karen in a nutshell. Her opinions are the only ones of importance, and all others? Inferior.
She sends me a fake smile and pulls me in for a hug, making kissing noises without actually kissing me. I turn back to Katherine.
‘Happy Birthday.’
‘Yeah, Happy Birthday, Kather ine,’ Dan chimes in.
‘Thank you. And you are?’
He starts to stutter. ‘Oh. I’m Dan.’
Karen, Pat, Katherine, and Bella all turn to him as he waves at them.
‘And what do you do, Dan?’ Karen asks, lips pursed.
‘I’m also a writer. I work with Kallen,’ he says, immediately caving under the wrath of Karen’s pressure.
‘He’s also my neighbour, funny enough,’ I add, in a tone more sarcastic than it should be. ‘I know, right? What are the odds?’
‘It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Kallen?’ Karen segues. ‘Have you been fairing well in the city?’ She sounds slightly invested, while in reality couldn’t give a rat’s arse.
‘It’s been good,’ I say with a newfound confidence. ‘Got good friends, good job.’
‘Not good enough, I’ve heard,’ Karen interjects, one evil eyebrow raised. ‘Not that utilising your mother’s money is a bad thing. I still provide for my kids, even the ones as old as you. It’s something we love doing as mothers. Don’t we, Katherine?’
My skin prickles with discomfort. They’re worse than usual, and Dan’s getting a front-row seat.
Katherine’s head dips, waiting for me to blurt out the details of her money troubles, which, by her embarrassed features, tell me the rest of the family doesn’t know about those little details. She just nods as though she didn’t ask me to promote her wine brand not long ago.
‘I mean, we told you being a writer would be tough,’ Karen reminds me. ‘You would’ve made a good d octor, you know. Three of my kids are doctors and they already own their own homes.’
‘That’s great,’ I reply, taking each hit as though my body’s already numb.
As Karen continues to babble about the amazing university her kids attended, followed by their successes, I’m taken away to the exact memory of when my family tried to steer me away from taking up a writing degree.
I nearly believed them when they said I wouldn’t get a job, that there isn’t enough work for someone like me.
I nearly studied medicine. Glad I didn’t, because me, a doctor?
Fantastic joke. Cackling all the way to the office at my writing job.
Karen becomes preoccupied with her phone screen. ‘Oh, shoot. I just realised; I need an extra set of muscles to help me move a cabinet from Susan’s car into mine.’ She shoots Dan a look. ‘Mind if you get on one end while Pat’s on the other?’
Been here five minutes and Aunt Karen’s already trapping people into completing tasks. Typical.
‘What? Like now?’ Dan asks.
‘Yes, now, if you’d be so kind . Lunch will be ready in fifteen and lifting things with a full belly just won’t do.’
Pat eyeballs Dan, as if to telepathically tell him to say yes without question, otherwise Karen will throw a tantrum. Dan smiles. ‘Uh, yeah, s-sure thing.’
‘Fantastic!’ Karen rejoices.
Pat gestures his hand at Dan, then the door. ‘Wanna go?’
Dan glances at me. ‘Want to come help?’
‘Oh, I’d love t o have a little talk with my son, if that’s okay,’ Katherine jumps in.