Stuck On The Same Team (Daly/Mewis)

"It's A Sensitive Topic"-Chapter 9

"Your what??" Melissa (aka Mrs. Mewis) leans over in her chair and looks around the restaurant as if the word 'girlfriend' was a vulgar word.

"I need this. We've needed to talk for awhile." Kristie pleads with her mother.

Sammy and Robert (Mr. Mewis) stayed quiet and the older man takes a long sip of his wine.

Melissa nods, "I just don't know where to start."

"Well, I'm...I'm sure you have questions for me. Why don't we start there?" Kristie didn't want to just talk to her mom; this had to be a two-sided conversation. She knew that Melissa needed to speak, and ask, and figure things out. Kristie couldn't just lecture at her. That would get them nowhere.

"Um...well..." Melissa starts, deciding what to ask first, and finding the courage to ask it. "How long have you known that you're...um...?" Kristie actually thought she saw her mother squirm.

"Gay," the older Mewis sister finishes for her. "I'm gay, Mom. You'll have to get used to saying it."

Mrs. Mewis swallows, audibly, "Right. How long have you known you're......gay?"

Yup, that was definitely a squirm.

Kristie almost laughed, mostly from the awkwardness her mother was exuding, "Mom, please relax, you're so tense. I know this is hard, but try to be calm. Breathe."

Melissa closes her eyes, inhaling deeply, attempting to slow her heartbeat. Not to mention the speed of the butterflies fluttering a mile a minute in her stomach. No, bats. They were bats.

When Melissa opens her eyes again, she looked at Kristie, waiting for an answer, "I guess I've always known, in a way, but I denied it for a long time. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was somehow different. It was with Rachel of course, a few months ago I guess, that I finally and truly knew. But it feels like longer, because it's always been inside of me."

"But that's so little time, maybe you're wrong. I mean how can you really know? You're so young." Kristie's heart sank. She thought her mom had at least accepted that it was true, even if she hadn't accepted it. She had her work cut out for her tonight.

"Mom, I'm 27. I know who I am."

"Yes, but honey, you still have time to figure out who you really are. If you came home and said you'd found the love of your life, the person you were going to marry, do you really think you could be sure of that at what 20?"

Kristie again reminded herself to keep cool. This was just lack of knowledge, and her job was to teach. She looked over at Sammy who seemed to be doing the same thing, giving Kristie a supportive squeeze on her thigh.

"This is completely different. Wait—listen," she said when her mom was about to interject. "I'm not claiming to have found my soul mate. But I know for a fact that, whoever my soul mate is, it will be a woman."

Melissa stares at Kristie, digesting this. The Dash player continued, "Did you know beyond a doubt that you were straight when you were my age?"

"Well, yes. I knew much earlier than that. Before I even started dating," Mrs. Mewis conceded.

"And you knew it wasn't a phase, or something that would ever change?"

"Yes, I knew it."

"Then it's no different for me."

"But being straight is normal, so I never had any reason to be unsure of it."

Kristie noticeably winces, "I'm normal, Mom. I'm just not your normal. I'm still a human being—your daughter. Being gay doesn't make me some sort of alien."