Page 55 of The Dragon's Perfect Omega
One of my friends, right. I had to keep myself from snorting.Yes, Mom, this is my new friend. He's a dragon.But she hadn't realized yet that Lowen was a dragon, had she? It wasn't that obvious. On the surface, Lowen didn't look too different from any other tall and well-toned human. Some people demanded that dragons wear some sort of identifier when in human territory, but the notion had been shot down as too discriminatory.
"I am Lowen Fireborne," my boyfriend introduced himself while I was still looking for words. "It's so nice to meet you."
My mother's ears perked when she heard Lowen's last name. It was so obviously a name of dragon kin. I admired Lowen for speaking it without hesitation. He wasn't ashamed of who he was, and why should he be? He was amazing. I inched a little closer to him and he hooked arms with me in an unspoken show of support—of unity. My mother's gaze went back and forth between the two of us.
"How do you two know each other?" she asked finally, and with a pointed look at Lowen she added, "I'm afraid my son has never mentioned you before."
"Yeah, that's just like him," Lowen said easily, ruffling my hair. "He can be a little shy, don't you think? But I don't mind telling you how we met. Zim came to one of my concerts. I play in a band, you see? You might have heard of us, or maybe not. Wings of Fate? We haven't played too many shows on the mainland, but we're slowly gaining popularity."
My mom's eyes just grew wider and wider as Lowen rattled on. I got the feeling he enjoyed unsettling her maybe a little too much. I didn't feel like stopping him, though. To be honest, I was kind of glad that he was doing all the talking because I didn't know what to say. "You're a dragon, aren't you?" my mother asked, her eyes still fixed on Lowen. "I've heard of that band... and your last name! You must be a dragon."
I clenched my teeth together, hoping my mom wouldn't say anything insulting. I knew exactly what she thought of dragons and most of her opinions weren't flattering. Once when she was pressed to say something nice she'd talked about lovely it was that dragons had their own island and didn't leave it too often.
"Yes, I am a dragon. Is that a problem?" Lowen gave my mom a small smile, almost as if he was itching for a fight. My parents weren't a big fan of dragons, and it seemed my dragon wasn't a huge fan of my parents.
"Of course it's not a problem." My mom responded to Lowen's smile with a fake one of her own. "It's simply that we don't normally associate with your kind, so I'm rather surprised that my son has decided to introduce us." She looked at me. Involuntarily, I gulped.
No, Zim. Don't be scared. It's time to stand your ground.
"I chose to introduce you because Lowen is very important to me," I made myself say in spite of the way my heart was beating in my throat.
"Important how?" she asked. By now, she'd lost all interest in her seating charts, staring down the two of us instead. Sunlight streamed in through the large window behind her, framing her dark hair in a way that made it glow like a dark orange halo. As if she was a saint.
But if my suspicions were true, she wasn't.
I licked my lips. Time to find out the truth. "Lowen and I are dating," I said. "We're in love."
I still remembered how happy my mom had been when I'd told her the same thing about Kathy and me, a couple of years ago. She'd offered to throw us a party. But I could tell there wasn't going to be any confetti today. Still, I couldn't completely predict my mom's reactions. I thought she was going to be angry. I never realized she was going to besadinstead. For the longest time, she only looked at me, and then a tear rolled down her cheek.
The sight tore at my heart.
This was not what I'd expected; I'd never wanted to make my mother cry. "Mom..."
Beside me, Lowen squeezed my shoulder, anchoring me. Reminding me that I wasn't alone in this.
"I really hoped we could prevent this," my mother said so softly I almost didn't hear her. "We've failed you, Zim."
"What are you talking about, Mom?" I'd never felt so confused in my life. I'd come here to get answers, but I'd never stopped to think about whether I was prepared to hear them. Slowly, I was starting to doubt it.
My mother shook her head. "We always thought if we just raised you right, this wouldn't be a problem."
My eyes narrowed at her. "You thought you could raise me to hate dragons the same way you do. I'm sorry that didn't happen." Well, I wasn'treallysorry. I was never happier than when I was with Lowen.
"We thought you could raise you not to stray from the path." She let out a shaky breath. "Not to succumb to your nature."
Succumb to my nature? My heart stopped cold. Those words made no sense unless my mother knew exactly what was going on inside me. What had been going on inside me all my life. "What are you talking about?" I asked again, even less sure now that I really wanted to know.
Could I just turn back time to when my life had been simpler?
No, I couldn't go back inside that closet now that I'd broken out of it.
My mother pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the tears from her face. "Listen, Zim, it's not too late," she said as if she could read my thoughts. "We can forget that you ever met this dragon and get your life back on track."
"I’m not going to forget anything!" How could she even suggest it? "Do you have any idea how hard it's been all my life, just trying to be what you wanted me to be? Pretending that I didn't have these... feelings about other men." My words came out strangled as I nearly choked up. My mom stared at me as if shocked by my reaction. "If you knew this was my nature, why did you never tell me?"
"We didn't want to encourage you. We wanted you to live a normal life. We didn't think you... We thought you were happy."
Before I could stop myself, I tore at my hair and groaned. I'd given them that impression, hadn't I? I'd always tried my hardest to look like I was happy. Well-adjusted. The perfect son.
