Prodigal

~2.18~

“Emelia, wait!” Sarah said to me as she followed me outside the house. “Don’t leave! Grandpa’s just being like this because he’s old.”

“Being old is not an excuse to be a bigot.” I said back while furiously tapping on my phone. “Especially not to your family. And my dad didn’t even defend me. At all. He just let Grandpa sit there and take swings at me. What the hell?”

“What are you doing?” She asked, referring to the sound my nails were making on the screen of my phone.

“Getting and Uber and getting away from here.” I said. “I’ve never been more humiliated in my life.”

“Emelia…” Sarah started.

“Yeah?”

“Did you really think that brining up the father daughter dance to Luke for the first time here was a good idea?”

“No, I don’t. It was a bad idea. My bad. My fault. But that doesn’t excuse Grandpa’s behavior.”

“Maybe that’s why Luke didn’t defend you.” Sarah explained. “Because he was blindsided with that information.”

“Why was he blindsided?” I asked. “If he indeed accepted me than it shouldn’t have been a shock that I wanted to go to the father-daughter dance with him. I am his daughter.”

“Maybe it makes him…uncomfortable.”

“Who’s side are you on?” I asked.

“This isn’t about sides, Emelia.”

“Honestly it sounds like you’re saying that my dad still sees me as a boy so he wouldn’t want to go to a father-daughter dance with me. It also feels like you’re saying that he still sees me as a boy, so that’s why he didn’t defend me when Grandpa kept treating me like a transvestite.”

“You know that’s not what I’m saying!” Sarah shot back at me.

“I have to go.” I said as my Uber pulled up and I got into it.

Notes

Being old is not an excuse to be a bigot. And don't let anyone ever let you think any differently!