The Marketplace (Book One of The Marketplace Series) by Antoniou Laura

Author:Antoniou, Laura [Antoniou, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Circlet Press (Luster Editions)
Published: 2010-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen: Claudia's Tale

I was nothing before I realized what my true purpose in life was. I know that sounds odd, but it’s true. I lived a dull, ordinary, nothing life. My father was a big, scary man, who worked at building big office buildings, and my mother was a nice lady who perhaps drank more than she should have. I was a middle child. I wasn’t oldest, or youngest, or a boy, so I lived like a little nothing.

It was very nice, sometimes, being nothing. People never expected anything from me, except that I stay out of the way and not make a lot of noise. And I was a good child, I think. I tried not to bother anyone.

When I was in school, thinking about going to college, I had a boyfriend. He was kind to me, and very gentle. We would take long walks together, and I wrote poems to him. It was like one of those romances you read about in those cheap books with the pretty covers, the ones that sell millions of copies to secretaries and housewives. It was... sweet. Yes, that’s it. Sweet. We were sweethearts.

But one day, all of that changed. He became very, well, obsessed, with one thing. If I loved him, he told me, I would, um, sleep with him. All the other kids were doing it, he said. And besides, if I didn’t want to, it meant that there would be no future for us as a couple. Grown up men and women have sex, he kept telling me. When would I grow up?

I guess he was right, really. Everyone was going it. And he was never forceful with me! No, he was always insistent until I firmly said ‘no!’, and then he’d sigh and start the car and we’d go home. It was just that even though I really liked him, maybe even loved him, I didn’t want to... do that... with him. It didn’t seem right.

So that year, I thought maybe there was something wrong with me. All the other girls I knew were interested in boys and sex. They talked about it all the time. And the grownups at school spent so much time telling us not to do it, I knew it must be wonderful! But I was never interested in anyone enough to investigate it. I was a good student, and I acted and danced in plays, and I had a busy life. I guess I didn’t miss it much.

But I still was always aware that something was different about me. I knew what it was when I walked into my first part-time job and I fell in love with my boss. You see, my boss was a woman. A very sexy, powerful woman, with short hair and a long stride and a way about her that made men afraid of her. And there I was, a little invisible nothing, loving her and wanting to be with her. So, I thought I was gay.

Which was fine.

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