Emily and I have been dating in secret for a while now and it is amazing. Emily is all I have ever wanted. She is smart, funny, caring and is five feet, 7 inches of gorgeousness. She has amazing hazel eyes and an extremely charming smile. She has beautiful wavy long brown hair. We have been together for almost 3 months, but I still haven't come out of the closet because I'm terrified of my dad. He is Nick Greendale, the priest, and I'm the perfect preacher's daughter. Only if he knew how imperfect I am. He is always talking about how homosexuality is a sin and that I should stay away from anything to do with the LGBTQ community. Him and his fellow priests are always protesting at pride parades up in Philly. He used to be an amazing dad when I was younger; that changed when mom died. She was driving home late from work one night when a drunk driver hit her, and she died on impact. After that he became distant, drank more, and only cared about how basketball and school were. It got worse when Emily came out at school. Emily took my spot as starting point guard and I didn't really care about it, but my dad he just lost it and said I couldn't speak to her anymore. That was definitely not the case I thought as I glanced over at Emily. We were in my house studying while my dad was away on business until tomorrow.

"Okay, my brain is officially fried from studying too long," Emily says while getting up and lying next to me on my bed.

"Me too, I think I've had enough trigonometry for the day," I say, putting my textbook on the nightstand. "What do you want to do now?" I ask Emily.

"We can watch a movie," she suggests.

"Yeah we can do that," I agree. We go downstairs, and I go over to the movie rack.

"Would you like to watch 'Coach Carter' or 'Love and Basketball'?"

"'Coach Carter', of course," she says in a know it all attitude.

"'Coach Carter' it is then." I put the DVD into the DVD player and sit on the couch next to Emily.

As we watch the movie, I can see Emily staring at me. I pick up the remote and pause the movie.

"For someone who picked the movie, you don't seem too interested in watching it," I say, turning to face her.

"I can't help it that you're much more interesting to look at," she says just as she is leaning in for a kiss. Our lips meet, and I kiss her back.

Things get a little heated quickly. I pull Emily onto me so that she is lying directly on top of me. Her lips are just an inch away from mine. I crash my lips with Emily. Our lips move together in synchronization. It's not long before Emily is grazing her tongue across my bottom lip, begging for entrance. I let her deepen his kiss. I really love this girl. She is just amazing and so supportive. I slip my hand under Emily's shirt grazing my fingertips across her toned stomach, making her shiver beneath my touch. I tug on her shirt desperately trying to get closer to her. She breaks the kiss to take off her shirt. I can't help but look at her amazing body. She is perfect. Everything is going great until I hear a car pull into the driveway.

"Oh shit. My dad is home. You got to go," I say as I push Emily off of me. I can hear the keys jingling by the front door.

"Paige, I'm home," I hear my dad call out to me. " They ended the conference early."

Emily quickly jumps off me and throws her shirt on. Her eyes are as wide as a deer stuck in the headlights of an oncoming car. We are both thinking about the consequences if my father was to walk in on us right now. Emily parked her car out of view of my house.

"Paige?!" my dad shouts again with concern.

"Bye, babe," Emily whispers softly to me, breaking me out of my reverie, as she turns to jump out of the window. A soft thud follows and then I can only hear wind as she disappears into the night. She's really good at sneaking out I think to myself.

"I'm in the living room, dad." I sit down on my couch and flick through the channels as if I'm looking for something to watch on TV.

"Hey, P, how was school?"

"It was good, dad, kind of slow though. How was work?"

"You know that oddball of a kid, Sammy, the daughter of the Bowman's. I think she might be on your basketball team? She's friends with that homo Emily that took your spot as starting point guard."

"Yeah, I know her. Why?"

"Well I think you should stay away from her. She came in for an interview, and she brought one of her " friends". They seemed like a couple of dykes, if you ask me. I told the hiring manager she would not be a good fit to be a youth camp counselor," he says as he hangs up his coat.

"Sammy isn't gay dad," I say rolling my eyes.

"Hmm, could've fooled me, I still don't want you around her, and definitely not that Field's girl."

"I play basketball with both of them so I'm going to be around them. Even if they're gay, it's not like they have Ebola dad," I say a bit annoyed.

"Are you defending them?" my dad turns to look at me with disgust written on his face.

"Yeah, I am, dad. There's nothing wrong with being gay," I say seriously looking right at him. I have no idea where all this courage is coming from. My dad starts laughing.

"You're joking, right?"

"No, I'm not dad. It's 2018 and people are allowed to love who they want… I am allowed to love who I want."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" my dad said as the vein in his pale forehead bulged out.

I am fuming with anger, but I take a deep breath and say, "nothing, forget it."

I stiffly walk out of the room and to my room in silence. I had my chance to com out to him and I blew it. I wish this didn't have to be so hard. I grab my phone from my night stand and see a text from Emily.

Had a great night! I'll see you at practice tomorrow. XOXO - Em

I shoot her a quick text back.

So did I. See you tomorrow! :) - P

I plug my phone in to charge and put it back on my nightstand and then just stare at my ceiling thinking about different ways to come out to my dad until I fall asleep.