309:Not Like This

Author Notes
If I may be honest, I feel like I did something wrong with the last page. I was a little troubled by how many people cheered on Aiken’s getting hit and told off. It wasn’t really a “victory” as a lot of people seemed to see it. Don’t get me wrong, telling someone off because they don’t accept you IS wholly necessary sometimes (I can’t argue that), but I would never consider it a good thing. I’ve lost friends like this in the past, and as upset as I am that they wouldn’t just accept me for who I am, I still have rather fond memories of these people, and I miss them sometimes.

No, the good thing – the true victory – would be having people accept you for you. Fara didn’t slap Aiken and throw him out to “show him who’s boss”. She wanted to get his attention (and it did, based on the fact that he clearly didn’t fight back). She wanted him to see how serious this whole thing is. It’s a wakeup call. Sometimes we need to hear the last thing we want to hear. It can help put things into perspective. The fact is, Aiken’s probably not actually a bigot… he just doesn’t understand and he’s had a lot of bad experiences regarding the subject. It doesn’t excuse him, but it’s important that his distinction be recognized, I think. And while it’s hard to say if he ever will change his tune or not, Fara felt she had to try… in her own way. Maybe it wasn’t the BEST course of action, but I think it’s safe to say everyone’s a little emotional and perhaps even irrational.

Even on this page, we can plainly see that even with Aiken gone, there is no celebration for anyone here.

The chapter has technically concluded, but there will be one more page on Friday before we jump into the next chapter (right away on Monday; no hiatus). There’s a loose end that’s not been addressed yet…