I Will Love You Unconditionally (GxG)

Chapter 16: We're in This Together

"Ellie, there's something I gotta tell you." I begin as I take another bite of my chicken salad sandwich. We're sitting at the diner, which is surprisingly quiet given the time. Dani seems to be off in her own world as she stares down blankly into her half-empty glass of root beer, stirring the ice around with her straw.

"Sure, what's up?" She asks, still stuck in a trance.

I take a deep breath, thinking about what exactly I want to say. "Ever since I first met you, I've felt this really strong attraction to you, stronger than I've ever felt towards anyone." I begin, properly catching her attention as she finally looks up from her drink to make eye contact with me. "You've helped me figure out my sexuality, you always know what to say or do to make me feel better, you've stayed by my side ever since...what happened." I continue. Dani smirks and shrugs.

"Well, that's what I'm here for. If that wasn't the case, I'd be a really shitty girlfriend." She states, keeping her voice low since her dad is walking around the diner, taking orders and cleaning the tables.

"I know, but I'm not finished yet." I tell her. "All the things you do and how happy I am with you...I guess what I'm trying to say is that in the eight months I've known you, I've really fallen in love with you, Dani. I wasn't sure how to say it at first, but I'm really damn proud to admit it now." My voice grows more confident as I speak.

I scan Dani's face to see nothing but pure joy. She has a large grin on her face, and her eyes are practically sparkling with excitement. "God, I fucking love you, Katie. I love you so much, you don't know how happy it makes me to hear you say that." She reaches across the table to hold my hand, her grin not fading even a little.

She lets go of my hand after a while and turns her gaze back down to her drink. She looks like she has something to say, but she's struggling to figure out the right words. She takes a deep breath. "There's something I wanna talk to you about now..." She trails off. She looks nervous, a rare expression for her. I nod for her to continue.

"We've been together for a while now. I think...I think I'm finally ready to tell my parents about us." She tells me quickly, taking me by surprise.

"Seriously?" I don't try to hide the shock in my voice. She actually wants to tell her parents about us. We'd talked about it a few times before, but we still haven't gone through with it. I don't like having to hide our relationship and act like we're just friends whenever her parents are around, but Dani kept saying that she wasn't ready to come out to anyone other than her friends, which is a valid reason. That's the way it's been for months, I'm glad to see things are starting to change.

"Yep." She states simply, taking another sip of her drink. "I haven't come out to anyone in my family yet, so I honestly have no clue how they'll react to all of this. But I love you way too much to give a shit what they'll think."

I can't help but smile at her words. She's willing to risk losing her family for me? That's a brave choice. "What should we tell my mom? About the pregnancy test, I mean." I change the subject.

"Well, it came back false, so I don't think it's something we really need to worry about, right? Even if you did turn out to be pregnant, she would know it's not your fault. We just have to explain to her that you wanted to take a test, just to be safe." Dani leans back in her chair as one of the waitresses collects our empty plates and glasses.

"Everything's gonna be fine, okay? I'll do anything I can to make sure of it."

~

Mom doesn't get home until a little after five. We're sitting on the couch, flipping through the TV channels and trying to find something good to watch, when she steps through the door. My heart starts thumping. Why do I feel nervous? She was in a similar situation when she got pregnant with me, she should understand what I'm feeling.