Beautiful Pt. 05

"Okay."

"Just don't let the season end Friday."

Sandy chuckled and nuzzled my neck. "Yes ma'am."

Eventually I did walk her to the door. "Do you think there'll be any blowback from today?"

Sandy shrugged. "I hope not. But I'm worried about Kaylin. I can't imagine the stress on her right now."

***

It turns out she was right to be concerned. I got to practice to pick up Paige just as they were finishing, and I didn't see Kaylin in the stretching lines. There were only about half the number of parents watching, and Mary Ann Ellis wasn't among them.

Paige came out of the locker room ten minutes later with a concerned look on her face. "Kaylin wasn't in school today, and she hasn't been answering her texts, not even from Dani. I'm worried about her, Mom."

"You want to try to call her on the way home?" Paige nodded, and we started to head toward the door. Coach Dalton emerged just before we left, and I exchanged a significant look with my lover, which told me she was concerned as well.

I pulled out of the parking lot as Paige pressed her screen. I could hear the phone ring once, then twice before a voice answered. It was distinctly masculine.

"Hello." It was more of a statement than a question.

Paige's voice was unsure as she spoke. "Mr. Ellis? It's Paige Pierson. Is Kaylin there?"

"My daughter doesn't have her phone for the evening, Paige."

"Oh, okay. I just didn't see today at school or at practice. I just wanted to be sure she was okay."

"She's fine. She'll be back at school tomorrow. But she won't be playing for the rest of the year."

"What? Why not?"

John Ellis's voice hardened. "That's not any of your concern, Miss Pierson." He paused for a second, but continued. "It will be best that none of you from the team contact her for the rest of the year."

"Mr. Ellis, this is Melanie Pierson. Can I ask why?"

"I think you know why, Mrs. Pierson. I may not be able to control who you choose to expose your children to, much as I wish I could for their sakes, but I will not allow my impressionable young daughter to be exposed to licentiousness and sin. Good day." The line went dead.

I felt the anger burn in my ears, and I had to resist the urge to call him back, knowing that wouldn't accomplish anything. I glanced over at my daughter, watching the tears forming in her eyes. I reached out and took her hand.

"There's nothing we can do about him, sweetheart."

Paige sniffed, bowing her head. "I know."

"Is Kaylin eighteen yet?"

"No, not until March."

I sighed. "I'm sorry, honey. Just try to be there for her as much as you can."

***

"So it's because of me."

"This is not your fault, Sandy." I hated the dejection, the impotent frustration in her voice, wishing I could reach through the phone and hold her. "This is on her parents for being loathsome bigots."

"I know." She heaved a sigh. "They're going to destroy her future. I'm almost sure Wake Forest was going to give her a scholarship, at least part of one."

"Well, she'll be eighteen then. She can take it if she wants."

"Walking away from your family is hard, so hard, especially at that age." She gave me a little smirk through my phone's screen. "And it doesn't help our chances Friday, either, losing our best defender. That means Paige is going to have to stay further back to help out. And the offense was in such a good place."

I could tell she was trying to distract herself from her worry about Kaylin. "Don't worry sweetheart, she'll be okay."

Sandy responded with a forced smile, nodding. I hope she believed me more than I did. We talked for another hour, just being with each other as best we could. I couldn't wait for the day that we'd actually be in the same room, getting ready for bed. I mean, the sex was great, amazing even. Way better than I ever thought I'd have again. But it paled in comparison to her presence, her arms around me, or mine around her. I thought about Kaylin, fighting to be herself at only seventeen years old. I was doing the same thing at forty-three. How could I be a role model for Kaylin, or my own kids, if I was too scared to be who I was?

***

Will had his first mock debate on Tuesday, sort of like a scrimmage against another school, so I had to be there to pick him up. Paige texted me around midday that she was going to get a ride home from Sherri, so I wasn't worried about her, but I was definitely surprised when I saw several cars parked in our driveway.

My older son and I walked in the back door to see at least six members of Paige's team gathered around my dining room table, which was scattered with Taco Bell wrappers.

"Paige?"

"Hi, Mom. I hope you don't mind. We needed somewhere to talk."

'That's fine. Where did...?" I waved at the food.

"I took care of it, Mrs. Pierson." Adrienne Perry smiled at me shyly from the far end of the table. She was the last person I expected to see here.

"Thank you, Adrienne." I turned to Dani, who was sitting nearest the door, and I could see the tear stains on her cheeks. I put a hand on her shoulder. "How are you doing, sweetheart?"

Her face screwed up in pain, and she started to cry.

"Oh, honey, come here." I held out my arms, and she stood, almost falling into them. I held her as she wept. Moments later Paige joined the embrace, followed by the rest of the girls, except for Adrienne, who stayed in her seat, tears rolling down her face. The look in her eyes told me she didn't feel she'd earned the right to be part of the group hug.

The strange thing was that it didn't feel awkward at all, even though I'd only had one or two brief conversations with Dani. But she needed a mother right now, and that was one thing I was good at. I just let her cry, rocking her gently as I whispered that it was going to be okay.

I let it be until the embrace started to break up on its own, and I guided Dani back into her seat.

"So I take it today didn't go well?"

Paige shook her head. "Kaylin broke up with Dani. I mean, she really dumped all of us. Said she can't talk to us, to everyone on the team, anymore. But it's the worst for Dani."

"She still loves me. I know she does." Dani's voice wavered, coated in misery, and each of the girls present agreed with her. Sherri, who was sitting on her other side, reached out and took her hand.

Fei held out a piece of paper. "She slipped me a note after physics. Her parents made her change phones, and she isn't allowed to give out the number to anyone on the team."

I looked at Dani. "Could her parents have found out about your relationship? We know her father had her phone yesterday. I'm sure it was unlocked."

Dani shook her head. "We never texted, Kaylin was always worried that her parents would find out if we did. If they look at her Facetime history they'd see a lot of calls, but nothing about what we talked about. They might suspect, but they couldn't know unless she told them. She was terrified about telling them. She must be so scared." With that she sobbed again, and I could feel my heart break in my chest. She was just a young girl in love, and the person she loved was being kept from her for no reason she could comprehend.

"Is there anything we can do, Mom?"

"I wish there were, girls. Unfortunately, taking a teen's phone away, or not letting them play sports, that doesn't rise to the level of child abuse, not in the government's eyes. And being a bigot doesn't disqualify someone from being a parent."

"It should." Sherri crossed her arms under her breasts, slumping back into her seat.

"We can't think like that, girls. That's how they think. They think they have the right to force everyone to parent the way they think they should, that their way is the only right way. We have to be better than that. We can't tell her parents how to raise her, just like they're not allowed to do that for us." The realities of the culture war raging in our country struck home at that moment, and the casualties of it were our children. "We have to show them there's a better way.

"As for Kaylin, like I told Paige, all you can do is be the best friends you can be, let her know you support her, the real her."

I smiled and stood. "Does anyone want anything?"

Dani wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Could I have some ice water?"

"Of course, sweetheart." I patted her shoulder and headed toward the kitchen.

"I'll help." Adrienne stood and followed me. I was a little surprised, but I didn't stop her, of course. I pulled several glasses out of the cupboard and handed them to Adrienne.

"Thank you, dear."

She smiled at me. She looked so much like her mother, but her eyes were different. There wasn't any of the manipulative scheming, the angry drive to control everything. She was just like me, desperately wanting approval from a mother that would never give it. "I'm glad you're here, Adrienne."

She nodded, dropping her chin. "I'm sorry about what my mom is doing to you and Coach."

"It's not your fault, dear. Trust me, I know what it's like to have a mother like yours." I began to fill a pitcher with ice and water.

"Are you and Coach Dalton really dating?" She said it quietly, so none of the girls would overhear, and I answered in kind.

"Yes, we are."

"And, how did you know? That she liked you?"

I smiled. "Well, I'm sure this will come as a shock, but Coach Dalton can be very direct when she wants something." We both giggled, and I cocked my head at her. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing." She blushed. "Just a boy at school. But he's shy, I think. I was hoping he'd ask me to Homecoming, but he didn't. But I still think, well, sorry, TMI."

"Nonsense. I take it it's not easy to talk to your parents about this?"

"Yeah. And I managed to alienate most of my friends trying to be the daughter my mother wants."

"Let me ask you a question, Adrienne. Is your mom happy?"

She let out a wry chuckle. "No, never. She's always angry about something, trying to, oh." Comprehension dawned over Adrienne's face. "She's wrong about my hockey. I'm a better player now than I was, we're a better team, that's because of Coach Dalton. I think Mom's wrong about a lot of things."

"We all are."

We carried the glasses and a pitcher of water back into the dining room, and the girls talked for almost another hour before they started heading home.

When they did, I saw a shadow slip upstairs, so I followed it. I knocked on Will's door, and he actually responded. When I entered he was lying on his bed, throwing a baseball up into the air.

I sat down in his desk chair. "So, did you listen to the whole thing?'

He caught his baseball and sat up. "Yeah. Were Kaylin and Dani really dating?

"They were. If they had a choice they still would be."

Will looked troubled. "I've seen them at school together. I had no idea."

"That's because they couldn't be open about it. It'd get back to their parents."

"Anna and I walk to third period together everyday. We hold hands, and she kisses me when we get to her classroom. Nobody cares about that."

"The world isn't fair. Do you remember your reaction when I told you that I was dating Coach Dalton?"

"Yeah, I remember. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted." I smiled at him. "Just keep that in mind."

******************

Part six is ready to go, and I'll send it in as soon as I see this posted on the sight. Please rate and give comments and send feedback, they mean so much to me.