Pink and white streamers and balloons adorned the patio of her backyard and a matching banner that read, "Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen" added to the spectacle that had been Jane Rizzoli's sixteenth birthday party. The color scheme wasn't her choice. She hated pink and she hated the idea of having a stereotypical sweet sixteen party, but it was what her mother wanted for her and Jane had spent the past sixteen years trying to be everything that her mother wanted.
At least it's finally over, she thought while she sat outside by herself, still in disbelief over what had happened that night.
Her party guests were family members that knew absolutely nothing about who she was becoming and who she wanted to be. To them, she was little Janie and little Janie was expected to live the same life that they lived. She was sixteen now—a young woman—and they were curious as to why there wasn't a young man in her life.
"You're so beautiful, Janie," so many of them told her. "Why doesn't a beautiful girl like you have a boyfriend yet?"
She wanted to tell them she wasn't interested in boys, but instead she lied and said she had no time for a relationship because all of her focus was on school. They accepted her response and with every lie she told Jane felt a knot in her throat. She hated lying to her family, but even worse she hated denying her girlfriend.
"It's okay," Maura insisted, but it wasn't okay. Jane wasn't okay.
Maura tried to make her feel better in the way only Maura could—a way that involved the two of them sneaking off to Jane's bedroom yet it did little to put Jane at ease. She felt like she was just going through the motions while she was making out with Maura and it wasn't long before her girlfriend sensed it.
Maura slowly pulled her lips away from Jane's. "Do you want to stop?"
"I'm sorry," Jane muttered. "I just want this party to be over with and I want to stop keeping us a secret. I love you, Maura, and all I really wanted for my birthday was to be with you. This party isn't for me. It's all for my mom. None of my friends are here; it's all people she knows and right now they're drinking and talking and—"
Jane was interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on her door. "Jane, it's time to cut the cake," her brother Frankie informed her.
"We'll have cake like we're expected to and then we'll sneak over here again," Maura said before stealing one last kiss.
When the birthday girl returned to the party, she noticed all eyes were on her. The facial expressions of her guests ranged from shocked to disgusted and Jane wondered what about her they were looking at. She turned to the side to see her girlfriend covering her mouth. Her eyes were wide and, if she could elicit that facial expression from Maura, she knew something had to be wrong.
"Janie, what's this?" her mother asked as she touched a mark on Jane's neck.
Maura, what did you—they had always been so careful, but they were in such a hurry to get downstairs and avoid suspicion that they forgot to check each other for marks.
"Janie?" Angela asked, bringing Jane back to reality.
All of the months she had kept this a secret made Jane snap. Keeping her relationship and her sexuality a secret had brought her nothing but agony and she was ready to confess what she had kept hidden from everyone.
"It's a hickey," Jane responded. "And, no, it's not from a boy. It's a hickey from Maura, my girlfriend Maura. While you were talking and reminiscing, I went upstairs to make out with my girlfriend. What I did was normal. Loving her is normal. No, I'm not ashamed and I'm not disgusted with myself for being gay. Loving Maura makes me the happiest I've ever been and I don't give a damn if nobody approves."
Little by little their guests started to leave and it didn't phase Jane until her mother went inside without saying a single word to her. She was ashamed of her, Jane knew it, but Jane was no longer going to hide who she was.
It had been an hour since she came out to her mom and Jane was left alone after Mrs. Rizzoli had told Maura to go home.
"You have good taste in girls," her brother Tommy said as he stood outside the back door. "Stop moping and come with me."
Jane wondered where they were going, but instead of asking questions she followed Tommy and Frankie out to the driveway where Maura was sitting in the front seat of a car with her mother. "Get in," Maura said excitedly. "We're going to my house."
During the drive, Jane wasn't allowed to ask any questions, but the silence didn't bother her. Instead, it enabled her to reflect on what had happened and come up with a plan for talking to her parents when she returned home.
When Jane arrived at the Isles' residence, she was surprised to find her friends waiting for her in the living room.
"It's your coming out party," Frankie quipped. "Or a half-assed version of a debutante ball—a gay debutante ball."
"Your other party sucked," Tommy pointed out. "So me, Frankie, and Maura knew you deserved something just for you. We called your friends when everyone left your other party and Maura and her mom went to the store to buy a cake."
"So you're okay with what happened?" Jane asked her brothers. "You're not upset like Ma and Pop are?"
"No," Tommy scoffed. "We're proud of you."
"You're finally going to be yourself," Frankie added. "And you liking girls means there's another thing that all three of us have in common."
"But we're still going to give you a hard time," Tommy pointed out. "We're your brothers and we're going to make your life hell whether you're gay or straight."
Her party at Maura's house had been put together in less than an hour, but Jane enjoyed it more than the party that had taken weeks to plan. Besides Frankie and Tommy, Jane's guests weren't related to her by blood yet she felt so much love and acceptance from them. Jane didn't know what was going to happen when she arrived at home, but she wasn't going to let the uncertainty bother her. As she looked around the room, she realized Maura and her friends were like her second family, a family that she had chosen, and for the first time in her life, she felt free to be herself.