K. Jackson: Week Five
Prompt: Moving away from home
Warnings/Rating: PG-13 for adult concepts
Word Count: 444
Summary: Ephraim thinks about what his life will be like in college
It was with a mix of eagerness and trepidation that Ephraim placed the phone call to the scholarship application committee at M.U.
It’s not like going to college wasn't going to happen. It was a foregone conclusion that he’d be going to M.U. Mom and Dad went there. Zeruiah and Xyzzy were both there now. Hell, everybody from the Village went there; going to another school meant leaving SimNation. He wasn't willing to do that. Nobody did that.
It’s not like he didn't want to leave home, either. Dad was so busy working at the Hospital that Ephraim rarely saw him, and when he did, he was usually in a surly mood. Mom was constantly worrying about whether her pilot would get picked up by the Yummy Channel. As far as Ephraim was concerned, he couldn't stand that Texan crap she made, never could, but it seemed to go over well in other parts of SimNation. The BlueBonnet roadhouse kept her busy, at least, so somebody was eating there… just not Ephraim.
And he missed his sisters. They had always been close growing up, despite the age differences. He talked with them almost daily, listening to their stories of college life. He was thrilled when Zee told them she was engaged and then Xyz too! But as happy as he was for his sisters, he wondered about himself. His friends in school had started hooking up, but he hadn't. Some of the other guys even chided him for not having a girlfriend.
It was sort of funny considering most all of Ephraim’s friends were girls. And he could see they were pretty girls too, but he wasn't interested in girls, at least not that way. Being gay wasn't a problem in Monkeykid, at least in theory, but there didn't seem to be much evidence of it, either. Besides, Ephraim wasn't even sure he was gay, maybe he was just asexual.
He was glad he could talk to Zee about it, though. They had always been open and honest with each other; she had told him that she had been with girls before being with guys and encouraged him to experiment to figure out what and who he wanted. M.U. was definitely the place for that, she told him. There would be new people there, and lots of opportunities to try new things. Nobody judged you there, and things sometimes got a little crazy. Really, a LOT crazy. He couldn't believe some of the things she told him happened in her dorm and really didn't want to think of his sister doing some of those things…
But he couldn't deny looking forward to it himself.