Coming Out and Crash
Walking through the front door, Alex looks around and sees there isn't anyone in the main area by the door for now. In the back of the house she can hear them casually talking to one another, so she makes her way over there glad for the slight delay. Taking another deep breath she pauses for a moment and thinks, 'God I'm taking a lot of deep breaths today, am I that stressed about this?'
"Mom, Dad I'm here," Alex announces from the front door as she proceeded away from the front door and towards the living room. Stopping just shy of the living room she clenches her fists in determination and walks into the room. When she does a pregnant pause envelops the room, as everyone sees the way she looks today, as to their knowledge she was a straight man. Looking around the room, she can see that all of her family is present, from her siblings to both her parents.
"Hey, I'd like to talk to you all about a few things, can I have a minute or two?" Looking around the room she gets a few nods of acknowledgement, taking that as a good sign she begins to move forward. "First I'd like to say that I'm still the same person that you've always known, you just haven't known everything. As you probably realize, consciously or not, most people feel like the and associate with the sex their assigned at birth, and others don't and some are in between those. I'm one of the latter, I identify as what people in my community call gender fluid. It means that my perception of self, of my gender fluctuates. As you can see from how I look today, I feel more like a woman today I feel more feminine. It's a little more complicated than that but we can talk more about that in the future. There is one more thing though, I'm sexually attracted to pans," in the back of the room I hear my brother snort in amusement from understanding the joke.
Glad that at least someone understood I continue, "That's a joke, I promise. I identify as pansexual, it means that gender identity doesn't matter to me when I pick a partner. It doesn't matter if they are a man, woman, non-binary or trans I'll date them as long as I like who they are. This has been something I've kept inside for a long time, I'm really glad all of you know for better or worse."
As she's standing there, Alex sees her dad stand up with a straight expression and gets a little worried. He walks over and then gives her a bear hug, "I'm so glad you were brave enough to come out to us, I'm so proud of you for taking this leap. Just remember that I love you, and you can send me towards anyone who hurts you for being yourself." Alex laughs a little, having figured if her dad accepted her that his response would be like this. Though what he said next nearly had her rolling on the floor laughing as he said, "Looks like we could have stopped having kids after you, cuz' we got both a boy and a girl all in one."
In fact not only her, but the entire family burst our in laughter after that comment, a little less the younger siblings but they still did. Unlike a lot of the horror stories that she had heard, Alex had a very smooth coming out. After talking for a little mom started cooking dinner and it was ready an hour later, it was a relatively simple dinner with steak and mashed potatoes but great nonetheless. The anxiety of the day was gone, but in the back of her head Alex felt like more would happen today than she was expecting. She still felt that nagging sensation in the back of her head that something was going to happen to her, but seeing how well everything went she just pushed it to the side. Finally after dinner was done and talking a little longer she happily waved goodbye to her family and went out to her car to drive home. Pulling her sax back from under the passenger seat and putting it on top of it.
Driving home was going about as normal as possible, at least until it wasn't anymore. About half way to the valley, Alex saw a semi get rammed into by another car leading up to the overpass. Thinking nothing of it she put her focus back where it should be, onto the road. Then though is when she heard something break on the overpass, and to her horror saw the semi break through the barrier and off the overpass right in front of her. The semi lands on the freeway with a deafening crash, and her car rams into it going 80 mph, 130 km/h. Even in a daze the first thing she does is pull her phone our of her pocket and call her dad, but unfortunately he didn't answer so I leave a message.
"Hey dad, remember that overpass we all say is a death trap waiting to happen? Well it just became one," as she grabs her saxophone, which is in reach to ease her fear, she realizes that the window is shattered and there is rebar in her chest, probably from the barrier. "I just realized that I'm pretty badly hurt, so let everyone know that I love them and wish them the best. I should probably call an ambulance, love you dad and thank you." As the dispatcher picks up, Alex realizes she is about to pass out, and she needs to get as much information in few words as possible to them. "Passing out, I** and Washington overpass, need ambulance." With those words she passes our and everything goes white.