Jake’s Life

When my mother heard the message she asked me about it and I of course denied it. I thought she believed me, but she didn’t. Within a few weeks she told me that we were losing our house and she needed to take another trip to Henderson in order to put more time into the shop so that we could have enough money to rent another, and that she would only be gone for a few weeks. I came home from the school the day she left and found very little left inside the house. She told me that it had been put into storage to get that out of the way and make the move easier when she gets back.

Wait, are you catching on yet? She wasn’t coming back.

She called me one night and let me know that I had to call friends and family to see who I can move in with because she can’t have a devil-worshipping, prostituting, drug using son (which in her mind directly translated to “gay”). So here I was 14 years old, no mother, and no way to even think about what was going on here. I stayed with one friend for about two weeks before the police showed up at their home and letting them know that my mother was pressing kidnapping charges if they didn’t release me to them. They took me, dropped me off at the empty home, and that was that. I then moved in with my best friend, and that lasted a few weeks before she was transferred out of her mother’s custody to live with her father.

A few days prior to this happening I had heard that my mother was back in town. When I was told to leave this house I called her and she hung up on me after telling her that I had nowhere to go. I called another friend’s mother who immediately came to pick me up and that’s where I lived for a few months. After the financial burden weighed too heavily, they called my aunt who came and picked me up to live with her and my two younger cousins.

Living with my aunt was no treat. Her idea of providing for us was going to McDonald’s on $.39 cheeseburger day and buying 50 of them to last through the week. When my grandfather sent her money to help with the cost of adding me to the household she bought one shirt and one pant for me to begin the tenth grade, and put the rest up her nose. I was constantly at my wit’s end here and walked to my grandmother’s small studio apartment every night until my aunt fell asleep (which was often really late). I ended up moving in with Gammy (who moved to Washington and lives near me now) and finishing my ninth grade year here.

Between ninth and tenth grades my grandmother sent me to my uncle’s house in Washington to get away from things, and also knowing that my uncle is gay and should be able to give advice on how to develop from here. I spent two weeks up here and found a lot of things that I have never seen before, namely people living the life that was inside me that I have never been able to experience. I actually found a place where I felt I could fit in, and his circle of friends welcomed me more than I have ever felt welcomed before. It really was the best place for me to be, but I came back at the end of Summer to go back to school.

End part two.