The first thing you should know is that my family isn't very supportive. Or nice. At all.
As in, my mother fired her secretary for sneezing too loud. My eldest brother, ever the control freak, found out that his girlfriend, who he was not exclusively seeing, had found comfort in the open arms (and dick) of my other elder brother, and sued her fifty thousand pounds, got her fired, turned social media against her and dumped all on the same day. Her birthday.
Then, of course, he sued his brother.
My father, however, is not at all demonic. Not compared to that. At least, not on the same level. In fact, if I didn't know him better, I would say he was a trust worthy man, a good husband, a family guy.
I know I said he wasn't demonic. That's because, instead of being a mere, lowly demon, he took it upon himself to convince us that he actually had horns and red skin. He wasn't demonic. He was down right the devil incarnate.
"No!" I hear you say, once again. You honestly disagree with my story? I haven't even started it yet. "Your family can't be that bad, surely." You say, defiant and adamant.
Alas, dear reader, if only you were right. If only I could pretend to see the good in them, even if it is an act.
No, I speak the truth. I do not exaggerate.
My family are demons, summoned from the nine circles of Hell.
Metaphorically, of course.
Of course, in every good story, there is a nice, polite person, a side character who helps speed along the protagonist, who shows them how to defeat the dragon. My wife, Jade, is not that person. She is not all that polite. In fact, she can be extremely rude, and unnecessarily stubborn. I know for certain that, in secondary school, the debate club and their sponsors, the English department, lived in constant fear of her purely because they had the nerve to tell her that their ranks were full. Some of the did not make it to their end of year exam that year. She would kill me if I called her a side character. And the dragon? No, I'm sorry. Jade was feeling hungry. The dragon was in her way before she had her morning coffee. I feel bad. Jade, naturally, does not.
Jade, even in the morning, even modelling the hair style more commonly known as the morning after, was gorgeous. Yes I know what you're thinking. No one could look good with that. Especially not in her favourite Hello Kitty night gown. Don't ask. Seriously. Life or death. Or Jade. (Tip: GO FOR DEATH!!!!) I assume that you're also thinking that I have to say she looks good. It's my duty as her wife. No, I mean, she could model that look on a runway. Jade is hella hot. Which makes sense, as she is a model. And an actress. And a well known singer. (In London, I don't know about you weird-os in America).
Well, to me right now, she looked even hotter. She was handing me a mug of coffee and was leaning over our kitchen's island to steal the remote from me.
"Sweetie, not to rush you, but are you ever going to go over to your parent's house to tell them you're back?"
"Oh, yes, of course. I was thinking, maybe December in five years time. How does that sound?"
"It sound like you're trying to avoid them."
"You know me so well." I was stalling. We both knew it.
"Hun, they're not so bad. Your mother actually talked to me last week. Sure, she called me Mary and tried to set me up with her colleague's son, but still! Progress!!"
"Wow, that is an improvement from praying to a God she doesn't believe in, asking for this marriage to be just a faze."
"Your mother's sweet, Ems. She is trying to support you, but, you know..."
"She still refuses to come to terms with the fact that I'm gay."
"That's not what I ment! With the divorce and all, it could be hard to realise that her little baby is in an serious relationship." Oh, yeah. Another key fact. My parents are getting divorced. I'm unclear at what happened. There was yelling. My mother screamed. Something broke. My idiot brother charged in. And cut himself on broken glass. While me and Jade took him to A&E, the argument continued. Eventually, my mother decided to attacked my father in court for abuse. Apparently, he hit her. I don't believe it. He would never do something so direct. No, if he wanted to hurt her, he would create some intricate plan, and carry it out undetected. He would do something that would touch the very fibre of her being, and cut her sharply, without her even noticing it. Then, it would begin to sting as she became more aware of it, like the paper cut of the soul. I couldn't see him raising a finger to her. I could see him doing much, much worse.
My mother was a fool to marry him.
"Alright, fine. You win." Jade nodded, satisfied that she got me to break. "I'll arrange to meet up with them later in the week."
"Lovely. I'll provide moral support, of course. Hey, M, by the way, how's your back? That machine thingy that gave you surgery really seems to have worked."
"They used really advanced technology and made me a new spine. It's my ankles, legs and shoulder that hurt. I'm alright though!" I protested as she frowned at me, concerned, and walked over to poke at the bandaged that surrounded my left shoulder.
"As long as you say so, Em. How's therapy?"
"Well, I feel much better now than I did two months ago." Jade visibly winced, trying to hide it with a smile. It had not been pleasant, the nightmares, the waking up in cold sweat. The mental break downs it took to get me to seek help with Jade. And all through it, she was there, with her bell-like laugh and her Friends references, holding my hand through the tears and vomiting.
She made it better. I pitied any of my fellow soldiers who did not have a Jade.
I would have died if it weren't for her.
Several times.
Mostly in the Army.
But in my family, too.