Kaylor: Perfect Storms

Chapter 11- Speak Now

Taylor followed Andrea into the kitchen, where she was now doing the washing up. The kitchen was one of Taylor's favourite parts of this house; just being in this room brought back early memories of her mom teaching her how to cook.  Perhaps that was why she loved being creative in the kitchen so much now; it reminded her of home.
"So, have you met anyone special recently?" Taylor's moment of reminiscing was brought crashing down by Andrea's unexpected question.
"Huh? What do you mean?" She replied quickly, feeling her face heating up. She was so bad at hiding her emotions.
"You know, someone you're seeing at the moment?" She asked, scrubbing cutlery as she spoke, completely unaware of Taylor's slowly reddening face.
"Erm..." She had two options here: she could take the easy route and lie, or she could admit that something was going on between her and Karlie. It was going to be far from easy to confess and explain, but there was one thing that Taylor hated, and that was keeping things from her mother. Taylor took a slightly shaky breath in.
"Yes, Mom, I guess you could say that I am seeing someone."
"Really?" she asked, as she turned the tap off and put a clean mug to the side. She turned to face her daughter, her eyes glinting with hopeful excitement. "Who's the lucky gentleman then?"
"Yeah, um, funny you should say that," she laughed nervously. Internally, she was panicking. She didn't know how to tell her in a way that she wouldn't be confused by or overreact to in a negative manner. Why did this have to be so difficult? She should be so excited to tell her everything. She wanted to gush to her about how incredible Karlie was, and tell her every detail of the time they had spent together over the last couple of months. But she couldn't, not right away anyway. It had to be one step at a time; she had to let the basic information sink in first.

Andrea was staring at her expectedly, a smile lit up across her face. Taylor was afraid of her words suddenly dimming that smile.
"Mom, you know you were saying how I'd been spending a lot of time with Karlie? Well, that's because-" Taylor paused for a moment, trying to figure out a way to put it across as coherently as possible. She didn't know how exactly to label what she and Karlie were; the last time they'd spoken about it was the night they'd simply just admitted their feelings for each other. There hadn't been an agreement on a clear definition of their relationship. But like Karlie had said, they were taking things slowly, and they were taking this time to spend more time together and get to know each other. They hadn't even been on a proper date yet. There was no way of putting this across in a way that her mom would understand straight away with no questions asked; she would just have to say it how it was, and face the interrogation.
"It's Karlie. I'm seeing Karlie!" She blurted out, much to her own surprise that it came out so abruptly, as well as her mother's, who stood there looking confused.
"Taylor, I don't understand, what do you mean?"
"I mean that, I like Karlie, and Karlie likes me! As more than a friend! Ever since we went on that road trip in March I realised I had feelings for her, and I flew all the way to New York the other week to tell her, and she told me she feels the same. It's nothing official yet, we're taking things a day at a time and seeing how it goes. I know it's not what you expected or really wanted to hear, but it's my life, Mom. I really like this girl, and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, this is what I want." Taylor finished her rambling, immediately afraid of her mother's reaction. This was one of the most terrifying things she'd ever had to do; it certainly beat performing to a crowd of thousands, releasing an album, or even getting up to accept an award on live television. All those things didn't come close in comparison to telling her mom the truth about who she really was.

"So... you mean to say that you're a lesbian?" Andrea asked, an even more confused expression etched on her face than before.
"No... I'm pretty sure I'm bisexual. It means I like men and women."
"Ok, so right now you're attracted to a woman," Andrea thought out loud, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to make sense of it all.
"Yes."
"Does that mean you still like men though?"
"Yes, Mom, I'll still find men attractive, but right now I'm attracted to a woman." Andrea was nodding her head slowly as Taylor spoke, still processing the information.
"Do you still love me?" Taylor knew what the answer to her question would be really, but that didn't stop her fears and insecurities. She was worried that Andrea was struggling to accept this revelation. She didn't want this to change their relationship.
"What? Of course I still love you, honey!" Andrea cried, pulling Taylor into a hug. Taylor's reaction was to cling back to her tightly.
"You'll always be my daughter, no matter what decisions you make or who you choose to spend your life with. Nothing will change how much I love and care about you." Andrea stroked Taylor's hair softly as she reassured her. Taylor felt her eyes welling up; she loved her so much. Deep down she'd known that everything would be okay, she was just afraid of being too optimistic and then being let down.
Andrea broke off the hug only to place her hands on her daughter's shoulders. She looked into her eyes and said sincerely: "She sounds like a lovely girl, this Karlie, from what you've told me. I'd really like to meet her."
"It's very early days, but if things go well, I'd really like for you to meet her too," Taylor smiled at her through her watery eyes. She had never felt so relieved. This meant that she was okay with it, everything would be okay between them. She had her Mom's understanding and acceptance, and that was all she'd ever needed.
"Come on then, do you want to help me make some dinner?" Andrea asked, rubbing Taylor's shoulders comfortingly.
"Definitely!"
"That's my girl," Andrea laughed. "Let's get on with it then!"