Notes

Chapter 1
Elyssa
"If you do this you can't come back! We can't have someone like you connected to a family like this. You would ruin us! Do you understand?" The screaming in the room was nearly deafening. The looks on the people I thought were my family could make a solider cry. Correction. The looks on their faces were making a solider cry.
"Yes. I understand." I whispered, not trusting my voice. When I told them I knew it would be bad, but I thought they could over look it. That maybe they could still love me. I guess not...
"Get out! Now! Before you disgrace this family anymore. And don't come back!" He said, as he grabbed the collar of my uniform, and pushed my out the doors of my childhood home. The place I used to find shelter and happiness in, that now just held pain and rejection.
Tears were clouding my vision, but I could see the man I called father for 18 years throw my bag out the door behind me and then slam the door in my face. Not trying to hide the pain on my face, I took my bag and put it in the bag of the taxi that was waiting for me at the curb of my old home. I got in the back seat, and told the taxi driver where I needed to go. The air port that would take me to Iraq for 18 months.
"You okay kid?" The older taxi driver asked me.
"Yes sir, thank you. Leaving is a lot harder than people make it out to be." I said, sniffiling a little in the end.
"It never is. I saw what happened up there. Family not happy about you leaving?" I knew it wasn't his problem but I wanted to tell him everything. I didn't, but that didn't stop the wanting to.
"Something like that." I told him, trying to smile a little in the end. By the look on his face, I didn't do to well.
"Ok kid. We should be there in about an hour. Just sit back and relax. Everything will work out okay." I just nodded. I didn't want to tell him that I just told my family my biggest secret and my dad had rejected me. The man how had been there for me through everything in my life, had disowned me for something that I couldn't control. I thought he would understand; I though he would still love me. I guess I was wrong...
I was going to a war zone for 18 months, with nothing to come back to. Because of something I couldn't control, I had no family now.
As we pulled out from the curb, I saw my 13 year old brother through the window. I waved goodbye to him, but when he started to wave back he was pulled away from the window and the curtains were put back into place.
I sat in the back seat and cried, letting the pain of what had happened fall on to my cheeks. I was gay, and now I couldn't go home. This was going to be a very long 18 months.