"Hey," I open the door and Katie is stood there, "You look awesome," She's wearing jeans and a floral shirt, she even has a little bow tie on and she's not wearing her wig today, she has her short hair styled all neatly.
"Thank you, so do you," She hands me a bouquet of beautiful tulips, "For you,"
"Thanks,"
"This must be Katie," Mom says, as she and Mama emerge from the kitchen.
"Hi Katie," I turn around and all of my siblings are on the stairs, watching us, I shoot Callie a look and she swiftly ushers everyone back upstairs, out of our way.
"It's so nice to meet you both," Katie shakes both of their hands, "Thank you for having me over," She's so polite.
"No problem at all," Mama says.
"Come on, let's go outside," I take her hand and bring her through the kitchen out onto the deck, "Sorry about my family, they can be a little overbearing," I blush a little, we sit down on the bench.
"No, they're awesome," She says, "Your house is amazing, this backyard, wow," She looks around.
"Yeah, mama loves to garden, sometimes Jude and I help out,"
"It's beautiful," She looks at me, "So, uh, thanks for saying yes-," She blushes a little too, "To the date, I was super nervous to ask,"
"I'm glad you did, I had no idea you saw me that way, I didn't even know you liked girls like that,"
"I guess I've always known, and I came out last year, but it wasn't until I met you that I wanted to do anything about it, you know,"
"So, there wasn't anyone you had a crush on or anything?"
"There was a couple of girls at school, I thought they were pretty, but I never really had an actual crush on someone I knew in real life, you know?" I nod, "When did you come out?"
"I've kind of been out for most of my life, I mean there was no one to come out to when I was in the system, except for Sophia, but when I first got here I told my sisters and then eventually the rest of my family, I came out as gay, and then," I laugh, "There was a guy, and I liked him, we were together," She raises her eyebrows, "No, not like that, we were a couple, sort of, I had just gone through something and it made me all confused about it, and then there was this girl," I go back to the moment I first met Rachel, but I shake it off, I don't want to think about her, "And I ended it with the guy, and then there was Taylor,"
"The girl you just broke up with,"
"Right, but yeah, I've known my whole life pretty much, and I was pretty lucky that I got the family I did, they were awesome about it, I mean my moms are gay, and so is my brother, how did your family react?"
"Well, my mom and sister were amazing, my dad, on the other hand, he took a little longer to wrap his head around it, we didn't talk for weeks, but eventually, he got there, and now he's okay, he doesn't love how I dress and he still doesn't like to talk about it but it's better than no talking at all, but anyway, enough about all that, I've never been on a date, or anything, not even with a boy when I was in the closet, so you might have to bear with me a little," She laughs.
"You brought me flowers, you were polite to my moms, trust me you're doing just fine, and I like how you dress," I straighten her bowtie a little.
"Really? You don't think it's too much?" She gets nervous.
"Not at all," I take her hand. She's a little sweaty.
"Sorry, chemo," She laughs awkwardly.
"You really feeling it today?" I ask.
"Yeah, I didn't sleep last night, mostly because I was nervous about this, but, I always get a little bit of insomnia during chemo,"
"Really? I sleep all the time," I tell her, "My last cycle, I slept for like 3 days straight, I only woke up to pee," Oh my God, I'm talking about pee on a date, "Uh, let's change the subject again,"
"Okay," She smiles at me, "So, what made you say yes to this?" She asks. I didn't expect that question at all.
"Oh, well, I just figured, you're pretty, you make me laugh, and even though I'm newly single, why not seize the day, being sick has made me want to make the most of every second, plus, when I saw you for the first time, at group, I thought you were amazing, I brushed it off though, I was just thinking about making friends, the thought hadn't crossed my mind, and then when you asked me out, I was just kind of in shock,"
"Really? You seem so confident, you could have any girl you wanted, I just can't believe you actually said yes,"
"Me, confident?" I laugh, "Okay, I've been called a lot of things, but never confident," I must be pretty good at pretending not to be anxious. Plus, all of my meds for my mental health help me out a bunch, "You're the confident one, all that activism you do, it's amazing, and-," She cuts me off mid-sentence, with a kiss.
"Sorry," She says after she pulls away, still looking in my eyes, "I wanted to do that since the second I saw you," My breathing speeds up.
"No, don't apologize," I kiss her.
"Wow," She says, and she blushes again.
"Wait," I say, "Was that your first kiss?" I ask her.
"First and second, yeah," She nervously giggles, it's adorable, "How was it?"
"Hmm, I don't know, maybe you could kiss me again?" I lean into her, and put my hand on her cheek, "Go on," She kisses me, for real this time, a romantic, long kiss. She slides a little closer to me and puts her arms around my waist, my hand runs through her short brunette hair, making sure not to mess it up, "Not bad at all," I tell her, and I lean in again.
I hear the sound of someone clearing their throat, and we instantly pull away from each other, standing in the kitchen doorway is my mom.
"Time's up I'm afraid," She says, wow, were we really kissing for that long?
"Okay, uh, bye Gracie, we stand up, I go to hug her, but she extends a hand to me, and I shake it, "Thank you for having me over, Mrs Adams-Foster," She shakes mom's hand too, and quickly leaves. I cringe and bury my hands in my face.
"Oh my God, mom, seriously?" I'm so embarrassed, I run past her straight up to my room, "I can't believe that just happened," I crawl into bed and pull the covers up over my head.
"What happened?" Callie asks, my sisters come over to my bed and try to pull my comforter away, but I need to be in the dark.
"We were kissing, like a lot and then mom appeared, and Katie was so embarrassed that she practically sprinted away," There's a moment of silence, and then Callie and Mariana burst into a laughing fit, I come out from my comforter and swat them both with my pillow, "It's not funny, she'll never want to come over again, and chemo tomorrow is going to be so awkward," I slide down in my bed.
"Gracie, it's fine, you know how many times mom has caught me kissing Mat," Mariana says, "Like a million,"
"Yeah but that's different, all you do is kiss Mat," I mock her.
"It'll be fine," She ignores my snarky comment, "She'll cool off from the embarrassment by tomorrow and you can go back to playing tonsil tennis,"
"Ew, do you have to make everything sound so gross," I say to her.
"Was kissing her a good idea?" Mom says. She and mama come into our room.
"Callie, Mariana can you go start on dinner?" Mama says. I hide under the comforter again.
"Listen, Gracie," Mom says, "We know you like this girl, but you're sick, I don't want you getting a virus, kissing is the last thing you should be doing," She tells me.
"Please stop," I writhe, it's so uncomfortable talking about this.
"Gracie," Mama pulls my blanket off of my head, "This is serious,"
"You didn't care when I was kissing Taylor," I argue.
"Taylor didn't have cancer," Mom says, "Listen, it's not just about you, what if Katie gets sicker?" I hadn't thought of that.
"But I don't have any kind virus or infection, neither does she okay, it was one kiss!" They look at me, "Okay maybe it was more than one, but still!"
"Her cancer is different to yours, one of you could have a virus that your body can still fight off, but your immune system is weak, you know you can't even have a cold,"
"Okay," I say quietly, "I'll cool it for a while, until after chemo and everything," I say, I don't want to fight with them, and I certainly don't want to her to get sicker, or me.
"Maybe we were right honey," Mama says, "Maybe now isn't the best time to be dating,"
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