Five Days Before The Meltdown...
"Get down here, Richard!", the man sounded more than angry at this point as he slammed the front door shut.
First his son had come home earlier than usual and he was already pretty sure that he would never have known, or even have been told by the boy in question, if he hadn't gotten a call from the school saying he was being a bully in class and had been disrespectful to a teacher so the principal asked him to go home for the day and bring his parents to the school the next day.
Rix was sure the neighbours were curious now, coyly opening their windows so they could get some gossip material for the day, fucking hypocritical bastards and their saccharine sweet smiles on Saturdays when they come to invite Rix's mother for their stupid brunches and bookclub activities but bearing the hidden motives of getting juicy gossips and secrets from the woman who they easily assumed had loose lips like they did. Well jokes on them. His mother's got lips like welded metal, never budging an inch, despite all their subtle and not-so-subtle hints and baits.
"Calm down, honey", Rix's mother tried, voice calm and quiet as she sought to keep the man from shouting too much, she'd sooner bite her tongue off than let the neighbours get any juicy gossip from her or as a result of her husband's rage towards their otherwise quiet son that was nearly an invisible presence both at home and whenever they went out.
—
First it was the teasing for his feminine looks, hell he was always mistaken for a girl until he was 7 or 8 then the teasing began.
It felt like something that would pass at some point but kids these days were far more vicious than you could even begin to imagine.
No one wanted to hang out with the freak you couldn't even tell what 'their' gender was at a glance, it wasn't normal.
Puberty did nothing to smoothen things even in the slightest, neither his voice nor his build change.
Where most kids lost their baby fat and began to accumulate a nice amount of muscle, Richard stayed completely the same way, without an ounce of fat and a seemingly stagnant muscle growth. His voice didn't thicken or crack like his peers but rather maintained a cool, smooth, near deepened, timbre that a lot of women had but he was definitely male, and his peers were definitely blind or they just chose to be blind.
Sometimes, Richard wished he didn't look like his mother, like anyone at all.
Then the rumors came up, all from nowhere and fucked up his already fucked up life some more.
He went from Richard, the lonely boy that got teased, to Richard the faggot thief.
Somehow, all of this never reached his parents ears but he knew he'd never remain the same in the town. Ever.
Now he was practically invisible and when he was seen, he was evil incarnate to the archaic residents who still believed in the 'orthodox' ways of society, like they were back in the 90's and not born and currently living in the 21st century, 2023 where social norms had become far more flexible and easily adapting to the fast changing world. They simply chose not to change and adapt with the change.
But that's another topic.
The main point is Richard is now officially cursed and he would rather die than remain in the town after he's done with high-school.
First, he was framed in middle school for taking a classmate's custom pencil case and was branded a thief till he got into high school and then, when his classmates figured out the existence of the LGBTQ+ community, all their mocking insults that were often branded by the adults as simple childish teasing, reached the peak and everyone simply assumed he was gay.
Now the blind hypocrites in the small, stupidly tiny, town didn't look at the LGBTQ+ community favorably and thanks to the children and the years of insults and isolation, it all boiled down to the adults putting two and two together and literally shunning him from the small society, claiming that he'd corrupt their children and make them stray from the natural order of things and become rotten like he was.
Funny thing, neither of his parents knew about all of this.
The simply working class couple with a family of 4, them and two kids, simply lived like they usually did, since it was only Richard that got the irritated and disgusted looks thrown at him and not his parents or his precious little sister and Richard was most grateful for it.
—
Richard stomps away from his parents, his angry father and exhausted mother, and rushes up the stairs, first pausing to check if his little gem was still in her room before he's entering his room and slamming the door shut to drown in his thoughts.
"Rix", Richard jerks where he sits on the bed and turns sharply to face the door. He'd been staring out the window that overlooked the small street that went towards the edge of his neighborhood, in the direction of the river.
Standing out in the corridor, holding his door open was a small girl, matching nose and lips but with slightly different skin tone, different colored eyes and dark hair. His gem.
"Hey, Dani. How are ya?", Richard gave her the brightest smile he could muster and beckoned her to get closer and sit beside him on the bed.
The eight year old nods and walks into the room, leaving the door slightly open as per usual, to sit beside her brother on his bed, swinging her feet cutely.
"I'm fine", she answers, voice a near whisper and Rix smiles again, reaching out a hand to ruffle her hair before his attention shifts and Dani is forgotten to give way to Richard's thoughts again.
He's staring at the wall over her head, eyes dilated and glazed over as he stares, mind far away and going farther.
"You're doing this a lot, Rix. Are you sick?", Dani's pulling him back to the room, her small hands holding his own atop her head, pulling at his fingers to wake him up but he just stares at her with watery eyes.
Dani is confused by her brother, looking at him closely, more like searching his face for what she isn't sure of but her brother looks at her, really looks at her, and smiles again.
He never really talked to people or went out to play like the other kids in the neighborhood and she liked that since he spent more time with her and he was her favorite person, her best buddy and he loved to play with her dolls and teddies with her.
"Can you braid my hair, Dani?", Rix looked better all of a sudden but Dani couldn't care less about his earlier behaviour, preferring his usual behaviour.
She's nodding and Rix is getting off the bed to sit cross legged on the floor so Dani can braid his hair for him.
" Don't hate me, Dani, don't leave me alone too", Rix whispers and he doesn't have to look to know Dani heard him and is nodding. Yes.