Chapter Twenty-Six, final chapter

Tina Kennard narration

“Vous y êtes presque?” I yelled. Helena was upstairs making herself ready for ages. She appeared at the door.

“When are you going to stop talking French all the time?” she asked me. I chuckled; I loved playing this game. I was getting French lessons and I knew Helena didn’t understand a word of it, so I took pleasure in talking to her in the language all the time.

“Hurry up, we’re gonna be late,” I said, not answering.

“There is no such thing as being late for Alice’s party,” Helena said annoyed, combing her hair. It always took her ages to get ready. Sometimes it seemed like she enjoyed being half an hour late everywhere, whereas I wanted to be on time. Not that Helena cared.

As I stood waiting for Helena to come downstairs, I wondered if Bette would have been invited as well. Get rid of that thought right now, Kennard. You. Don’t. Care. I kept repeating that to myself, as if it were some kind of mantra.

My mom was in the living room, reading one of her many magazines about flowers and gardens. My dad was reading the paper and my sister was staying over at her best friends. My mother looked up at me and frowned an eyebrow.

“Do you have to go like that?” She asked me, clearly disapproving my outfit.

“Yeah, mom, I do.”

She mumbled something about the youth of today and went on with her reading. I looked at both of them and suddenly, I felt so lucky to have them as my parents. They could be extremely annoying, but it only showed me that they cared.

They had accepted my sexuality from the beginning and had always supported me. They treated Helena like another daughter of theirs, she was staying at my place all the time. Helena wanted to have sex all the time, but when my parents were home I rather didn’t do it. She found the risk of being caught or heard exciting, for me, the thought of it only was enough to make me want to disappear from the earth.

I heard footsteps and turned around. Helena was ready. She wore a shiny black skirt that came to her knees and a black blouse, showing a fair bit of her cleavage.