Kaya stood in her room. Fear and uncertainty made her indecisive about what to do next. There were two messes that needed to be cleaned up. All of her makeup and the broken mirror on her floor, and the relationship between herself and her family. Those messes did need to be cleaned up but Kaya did not know which one to do first. The teenage girl wanted to make the right decision to make up for all the bad ones she had made today.

Alana came in to see the living statue still standing where she was when the mother left her daughter’s room. Kaya’s face matching that of a mannequin was a good sign to the mom. The emotionless stare meant that Kaya was coming to grasp how bad she had messed up with all those bad decisions. There were many of them today.

Alana was happy that Kaya now knew she was wrong for not following the rules she and her husband set when their daughter was babysitting her younger brother. That siding with her boyfriend when he was mocking Lynn was a bad choice. Not kicking that no good soon to be ex-boyfriend out of their home as soon as he laid his hands on Lynn was a horrible choice. Then the worst, Kaya acting threatening and then forcing her brother to wear that dress and makeup.

Not finding joy in her daughter’s confusion was how Alana was not making the situation worse. Thinking about why Kaya was in such a sad state of being, would have made the mom lose it on the daughter. Yelling and screaming would have felt nice, but would not have helped the situation. Getting the anger out would have been therapeutic to the mom, but not the tonic to fix the damage Kaya did.

Alana kept the pain her daughter was in when she started to assess the situation. Knowing that Kaya also hurt herself with her own actions would make sure this stayed about Alana’s daughter learning from her bad decisions. “What is your punishment?”

The question did not pull Kaya into the conversation. She was still staring at the ground when she replied. “I don’t know.”

Not looking up at her mom was taken as a sign of disrespect. That somehow Kaya was going to be defiant while getting the penalty for her transgression. “Kaya, look at me when I am talking to you. I will ask again, what is your punishment?”

The unknown is one of the most common reasons for fear. Not knowing what is happening or going to happen takes away any sort of control from a person. Kaya had no idea what the future was going to be. What was going to be the punishment or what kind of relationship she was going to have with any member of her family? Did she even have a family? Her dad gave up on her and her brother’s opinion of her being a cunt was well established. The terrified teenager looked up, her face was covered with fear, and said, “Mom, I don’t know.”

Alana saw the fear and knew she had to work the answer out of her daughter. People tend to withdraw within when they are scared. They only say the bare minimum. Wanting to make a safe place with all the kindness she could muster the mom started to walk the daughter through by asking, “What did your dad say was the punishment?”

“He said he was done with me just like Lynn is.”

“Kaya sweetie, he is not done with you. Your dad is just mad and did not want his anger to cloud his judgment. He would never give up on Jellybean.

“Lynn is just upset with what you did. He will come around. You are his older sister. He loves you.”

Hearing the pet name Kaya’s dad used for his eldest daughter was too much. Kaya was irked whenever her dad would use it lately. Now she would give anything to hear him call her that. That would mean she was still sweet in his eyes. “I am not dad’s Jellybean anymore. To Lynn, I am not his sister, but a cunt, he told me as much.”

“You will always be your dad’s Jellybean. You will see that I am right.

“As for Lynn, don’t worry about him. I will have a talking to with him. He might have been mad at you, but he had no right to call you that word. Why don’t you clean up this mess and tell me when you are done. We can talk about what trouble you are in then.”

***************

With getting off the phone so easily Troy knew he was lucky to have such understanding in-laws. His request for them to keep the twins overnight was met with an enthusiastic yes. His parents would have pried into why the change of plans. They had to know why and would not take anything less than a detailed response to their inquiry. What was happening had to stay in home and was no one else’s concern. So having his family’s privacy respected, helped immensely in dealing with the issue. Having one of the issues from today under control helped in lowering Troy’s stress.

Alana came into the dining room and noticed the vein on Troy’s forehead was not pulsing anymore. She was as relieved as a son getting his parents’ smile of approval when they first meet his girlfriend. Her husband being calmed down meant that they could have a productive talk about how to handle the crisis in their household.

Wanting to start small so they could have parts of the situation solved Alana started with Lynn using cunt. That word should have never been uttered by her son. Just thinking of the word made her cringe. It was such a dirty word. If what Kaya did was not so bad, Alana would have grounded her son for at least a week for the use of that word. He was too young to be talking like a seasoned sailor.

“Troy we need to talk with Lynn about what he called Kaya. No son of mine will think it is fine to call a woman that word.”

That resting vein pulsed right away as Troy said, “You can’t be serious. Our son was assaulted by our daughter’s douchebag of a boyfriend. Then she put him in dress and makeup and you are worried about him calling her a cunt. She was a fucking cunt to him.”

“Troy, do not call our daughter a cunt. She did wrong but you respect her.”

“Alana do not put words in my mouth! I did not call Kaya a cunt. I said she acted like one. If I was Lynn I know I would think she was a cunt and that is what I am saying.

“Also, don’t talk about me disrespecting her. She has not been doing anything to have our respect lately. In fact, our daughter has been doing so many little disrespectful things to Lynn and the twins. Not talking to them unless forced, rolling her eyes when she has to interact with them, changing the channel on them and today… what she did today, was so far out of line. How she acted with no regard to Lynn. She hurt him emotionally and psychologically. Lynn looked up to her and trusted her and that is how our daughter repaid him.

“Maybe Lynn calling her a cunt will be a wake-up call to Alana. Talking, and trying to reason with her, has not been working. Our little punishments have not been working. Maybe the pain of someone she loves hurting her will make her see how she has been behaving”

Troy’s passionate defense of their son’s use of cunt woke Alana up like a bucket of ice-cold water thrown on someone who was sleeping. The plain truth was a bad word being used in anger from being severely hurt paled in comparison to intentionally hurting and betraying someone who trusted you. Bringing up the use of cunt came off as Alana being more concerned about the aesthetics instead of the issue.

“Troy you are right. I just wanted to feel like I was in control of something. What are we going to do with Alana?”

“You make that decision, I am done with her.”

“Troy quit that. You can’t be done with her. She needs you now more than ever.”

“I know that. Until she shows me she wants my help and guidance, I am not wasting any time or effort on her. We have three other kids who need us to be their parents also.

“Plus even if I had the energy to help our daughter, I don’t know what to do. We can’t make her breakup with Rick, she will either see him behind our backs or resent us. Ground her again, like that did anything before, what will that do now?

“I will back you with how you want to deal with Kaya. I am going to go now and check up on the big guy.”

***************

Lynn was in the family room playing Madden on the big screen. The gaming session was not about honing his skills for the big game tomorrow. At first, his goal of being online was just to beat his opponent. Then the goal of the gaming session became to totally humiliate his opponent when whoever he was playing started to talk smack. That person said that Lynn played like a girl. Hearing those words caused the preteen to lash out and make sure the person who put him down was hurting as much as Lynn was. At that moment, he wanted to make someone feel smaller than he did at that moment.

The pain Lynn felt was coming from feeling as small as a luxury restaurant. His mom and dad said the right thing to him, but the boy was having a hard time believing their words. How could they still see him as a boy after they saw how well he fit in that dress. His shoulders should have been too broad for that dress. His chest should have been wider so the dress would have been tight on him. His arms should have made the sleeves bunch up.

After looking for Lynn in his room, Troy made his way into the family room. He was proud and relieved to see Lynn was playing that game. The pride came from his son working on his goal of making it to the Madden tournament finals. The relief came from his son moving on from what happened earlier today. Playing the game meant that Lynn was not needlessly dwelling on his sister putting him in a dress.

Then Troy saw that the score of the play was 49-3 in the 4th quarter and his son was running a no-huddle offense. Lynn was running up the score. Lynn was not showing good sportsmanship in the game. Games to Troy were about more than winning or losing. They also helped build character.

Lynn, having his focus intensely on making the rout even worse for his hapless opponent, did not hear his dad come into the living room. Then the boy heard in an inquisitive tone “What are you doing?”

Troy using that tone meant one of his children was doing something which they knew was not right. The answer to the question gave Troy the information he was looking for to see how he handled the situation. If answered correctly, he will only give a warning. The next time the issue will be dealt with. If they answer incorrectly, either by stating the wrong answer or using the wrong tone or words, then Troy would take measures to make sure his child would correct their behavior.

Lynn’s answer of, “Sorry I should have gotten permission,” was both correct and incorrect. Technically when his parents were home Lynn needed to ask before he played his Playstation on the big screen. Troy was giving an understanding pass about his son not following the rules. Playing a game was a way for his son to destress from his sister treating him badly. The issue he wanted Lynn to bring up was being a bully. That running up the score was not acceptable behavior.

“Lynn, you playing without asking today is fine. Your mom and I were handling bigger issues so you were right in not bothering us to ask.

“I am thinking about how you are playing the game. You are running up the score. The game is out of reach and instead of running out the clock you are trying to embarrass your opponent.”

“Yeah, he tried that with me by saying that I played like a girl.”

“Lynn, you know two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“I was proving him wrong. I am not A GIRL!”

At that moment, the talk needed to be serious. What Lynn was doing was overkill. The point was already made. Troy needed his son’s total attention to get Lynn back on the right track. “Lynn quit the game.”

There was no way Lynn was going to quit that game. Leaving the game would be a forfeit and give his opponent a victory. Also, it would back up the false assertion that Lynn played like a girl. “No, dad I cannot let him win!”

“Son, you won the game. It is over.”

“If I leave the game, it will be counted as a loss! There’s only a minute left. I will run out the clock.”

The talk those two were going to have was vital, but winning the game was even more vital. Lynn’s self-esteem was lower than Barry White’s voice. Losing a game that he should have won would only do more damage to the young boy’s fragile ego. The best way of mitigating the damage done to Lynn was Troy allowing him to finish the game. “Go ahead, Lynn.”

After the game was over Troy started having the talk by saying let’s go to the kitchen. Moving the talk to another room was making sure that the other parts of the talk were treated with as much importance as the message itself. The condition in which the talk occurred would help Troy in expressing how he felt. The father wanted it to be a conversation where his son felt free to express himself also. That meant both of them needed to be sitting down so they could look at each other eye to eye. Troy wanted the severity of Lynn’s action to still be front and center so he wanted them to be facing each other. The easiest way to do that was to sit at the kitchen table.

After getting them both a can of Coke, Troy told Lynn to take a seat. After his son was sitting Troy sat down across from him. “Son, I know you were hurt today and upset. That is still no excuse for what you did. You do not put other people down to make yourself feel better.”

“Like I said dad, I was proving him wrong. He said that I was a girl. I am not a girl.”

“Lynn that is an excuse. You got mad and took it out on some stranger on the Internet. That person has feelings.”

“He did not care about mine.”

“Lynn, how other people act does not matter. You need to rise above it. I call you Big Guy because you are going to be a great man.”

“I did not feel like a man today.”

“Come on son I taught you better. The clothes do not make a person. Your height does not make you a man. It is what is inside you that does. Your morals, how you treat others, and what you do are what makes you who you are.”

“That is easy for you to say, you do not look like a girl. I do. I look just like any other girl in my grade.”

“Lynn, you are more of a man than most of the so-called men I know. You stood up for yourself, even at the cost of getting hurt. You did the right thing and that is what being a man is about.”

“I still feel weak. I should have fought so it did not happen.”

“No, you did the right thing. Some fights only leave you bloody”

“No, now Dick sees me as a sissy that he can boss around.”

“No, he will not. You have too much fight in you. What happened today was because the odds were too much against you and you had no way out of the situation.”

Those words being said gave Lynn relief about having to worry about how people would treat him. The son had faith in his dad. Lying to make someone feel better was not how Troy operated. He would instead help people resolve what was making them feel bad to help build them up again. Saying something untruthful was only pushing the problem down the road. Getting rid of the issue makes it goes away.

“If Dick tries anything ever again, I will make sure he knows he can’t mess with me.”

“Good, now what are we going to do about the blowout?”

“Dad, I will message him offering to give some pointers. That will really improve his game for I am the GOAT.”

How Lynn was going to right the wrong was pleasing to Troy. He knew not giving an apology was the right course of action. Saying sorry for beating you so bad would come off as pity. Offering help was code that I went too far and it was my bad.

“Great idea, do it now son. I'll let you at it.”

Leaving the family room, Troy’s mind went back to the thought about his son needing help. He would love it if somehow he could by himself rebuild Lynn’s self-confidence. Sadly rebuilding his son's self-image to where Lynn would not need to defend who he was to others was beyond his ability. The worrisome father knew the damage was not that bad because he was able to reach his son. If the narrative which Lynn had about himself was changed too much then words would not be able to convince him. The feelings of being inadequate would win over logic.