Rose

“Will you listen to me once Rose?”  

Rose was not in the mood to listen to anyone right now. Instead she sat on the living room couch which had been there since she was five. She, then, pulled out a cigarette from her pocket and held it in between her teeth. Lighting it with her right hand, she tucked her hair behind her ears with her left hand. She kicked off her shoes and lied down on the couch.

Rose was exceptionally tall, about 4 inches short for 6 feet. She had shoulder length hair which were dyed pink and had an arrow tattoo around her left arm. At 22, she looked like a younger replica of her mother.

“You know what?” Rose began, after completing almost half of her cigarette.

“Smoking is injurious to your health.” Her mother said and pulled the cigarette out of her mouth.

Rose ignored her.

“Let’s get the cat out of the bag. I’ll listen to you. Go ahead. Reveal what you know.” Rose said, fully aware of what her mother was about to say. She had known it for almost a week now and was dodging the topic since then. But she couldn’t any longer. She waited for her mother to speak.
“I know that you are gay Rose. I have for a long time and honestly I don’t care. I just didn’t want you to keep it from me because I think you know me better.”

“…and? Are you embarrassed?” for the first time Rose was scared.

“And I love you no less.”

Rose didn’t know how to respond to that. She hugged her mother tightly and a couple of tears escaped her eyes.

 “The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you’ve just told them.” – Rachel Maddow, American television host

  “Having to hide something like that just ruined me. It really, really killed me. I honestly think that anybody who is openly gay and visible is powerful. It doesn’t matter what you do, you are impacting people.” – Portia de Rossi, American model