Parents

Joseph's POV

When I woke up the next morning, my arms were still wrapped around Mio.

"Good morning," she said before I kissed her on the forehead.

"Good morning to you too," I said before we both sat up to stretch.

"Joseph, can we talk?" she asked me. When I looked in her eyes, I could see the hurt.

"Of course," I said as I held her hands.

"It's my parents. We had a fight the other day. They don't like that I'm hanging out with you. They think you guys are just a distraction from my studies," she said. Ugh, I hate it when people think like this. There's more to a teenagers life than just education.

"I'm sorry your parents look at it that way," I said. Ok, maybe not my best line.

"It's not just that. They, well, they're really homophobic," she said. I couldn't help but wince. That's definitely a problem.

"I know that's bad. Which means that if they find out about all of this, they'd definitely kick me out," she said. My heart dropped when she said this.

"Mio, I'm so sorry I'm causing you all this stress," I said before she cut me off.

"NO! Don't apologize. I've never been happier than I am when I'm with you. I love you. I just needed to get that off my chest," she said. I nodded before giving her a kiss on the lips.

"I love you too. And I promise, I'll do my best to help you however I can," I said to her. She smiled and we shared a hug.

Unfortunately, this wasn't my only difficult conversation today.

...

I'm honestly surprised that we were able to get eight of us around the table for breakfast. Jasmine had cooked, or magiced, up a nice meal for everyone and was dishing it out.

"No thanks, I'm ok," said Emily when Jasmine offered her a plate. I didn't like this, especially since I could see her basically drooling over the food.

"No, no way. You are going to eat," said Heather with a pointed glare. I was about to tell her to stop, but May gave me a look that told me not too.

"Heather, I'm fine. I'm not even hungry," said Emily, but Heather wasn't having it.

"Bull shit. I can see you drooling over the food. Come on girl, you need to eat. You're a thin that a light breeze might blow you away," said Heather. I could tell this was making Emily uncomfortable.

"Heather's right. Please Emily, you don't need to **** yourself to be thinner. You're beautiful just the way you are," said Amy, making a small smile creep onto Emily's face.

"I keep telling you Em, no one thinks you're ugly. And if anyone does think that way, they're not worth your time," said May. Emily smiled even more for a moment before her smile turned into a frown.

"My parents think that way," she said. I, I don't really know what to say to that.

"THAT'S HORRIBLE! How could they think that?" exclaimed Lyn. I don't think that's a question that can be answered.

"Th-they've always thought that way. I guess that could be why I developed this eating disorder," said Emily before her face turned into one of determination. She grabbed one of her waffles and took a bite. Instantly, her eyes watered up and she smiled as she chewed.

"THIS IS AMAZING!" she exclaimed before chowing down.

These are definitely going to be problems, but we can work on them together.