TRIGGER WARNING: THE REST OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE STORY INCLUDE MENTIONS OF ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS. STAY SAFE! 

My small cousin would be my ticket to Georgetown.

The year I understood George's bruise. It had long sense faded, but I still saw it sometimes when I closed my eyes. My small cousin, harmless, bookish. What could've happened?
I was eighteen. He was twenty. He was going to a university at Georgetown. I almost laughed when my mom told me. The irony was too much.

Another family reunion. We stopped trying to talk that year.

Relative after relative asked me if I had a boyfriend yet. I honestly think most of them expected me to get married soon. After I got this question ten times in a row, my mom dragged me off to the run down cabins our family stayed in. We were a true southern family, bashing vegans and democrats in the middle of a hillbilly campsite. She took me inside.

"Why don't you have a boyfriend Ivory?"

I sighed. She was about to voice the paranoia behind the question.

"Ivory... are you gay?"

"No mom. I'm not gay."

"Then why don't you have a boyfriend?"

"I don't like boys." I whispered.

"What?"

"I said I don't like boys!" I screamed, and braced myself for what was to come.

"So you're gay?" She asked, on the verge of tears.

"I don't like boys, I don't like girls." I took a deep breath. "Mom I just don't feel romantically attracted to anyone."

My mom stiffened up. "What would your father say?" This was a common scare tactic she used. My father went missing in action years ago.

"Maybe he joined the army because he was gay!" I yelled. I had no idea what I was trying to say. "He probably thought the other soldiers were hot!"

She lifted her hand and slapped me across the face. "Do. Not. Disrespect. Your father." She took a shaky breath. "We don't talk about this ever again. I have half a mind to send you to a therapist."

She stormed off to the minuscule bedroom, and I rushed for the door of the cabin. The air stunk of cheep cologne and incest that another family left behind.

When I opened the door I saw George going down the faded sidewalk that went through the campsite. He looked like he was just going around to get away from the mess of relatives, but the look on his face gave away what he had heard.

The next day I sat down next to him in the pavilion where everyone met.

"How much did you hear?" I asked him.

He closed his eyes. "Everything. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop."

"It's ok." I said.

"So, you should probably know this," He said. I looked at him. This was the most I'd ever heard him say. "I'm super gay. Bisexual, to be specific."

I looked at him, and my eyes widened. Then I laughed. "My mom has been comparing me to you for years! If only she knew!"

He gave me a smile. "Yeah. But, is it true? You don't feel romantic attraction?"

I nodded.

"Got it." He said.

There was a pause. George cleared his throat."So, you just graduated high school, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it seems like staying with your mom right now wouldn't be too fun." He looked over at me with an impish expression. I couldn't help but know he was about to change my life. "So how would you like to move to Georgetown with me?"

"Really?" I sat up straight.

"Yeah. My roommate's mom just got diagnosed with a pretty serious case of cancer. He had to move back in with her."

"Yes!" I shouted.

A happy silence, the first of many to come.

"Just so you know..." George said. "I-I'm not looking for a caretaker. Despite the wheelchair I'm pretty independent."

"I know." I said. "I've known that sense we were seven. You know more words than a dictionary and your GPA could beat mine in a fist fight. Even though you seemed kinda mean, I knew you'd go far in life, farther than I ever could. That didn't change when you got in the accident."

I barely knew this kid, but he was my way out of my mom's house. I looked at him and I could see his seven year old self again. Drowning in freckles, reading a book. A pair of glasses were perched on his nose like a bird ready to take flight.

It's time to repay him. I'll help him out. He still has so far to go in life, and Dominic will not get in the way of that.