Coming Out
Alice woke up at around 11am. Her and Deb had a sleepover the previous night but when she woke up, she wasn't next to her, so she went downstairs.
"Hey Alice" Emma smiled. Bill was on a work trip, so he asked Paul and Emma to watch her. Sure, Alice was 11 years old, which meant she was old enough to stay home alone for a little bit. But due to her anxiety, she didn't want to. It's not that she didn't want to, she just couldn't. She would get too scared.
"Hey Auntie Emma. Did Deb get picked up already?" Alice asked.
"Yeah she went home about an hour ago. Why?" she responded.
Alice shrugged. "Just curious. Hey, where's Uncle Paul? I have to um… Talk to him about something" she said hesitantly.
Emma looked at her. She could tell something was wrong. "He had a work emergency. He'll be back at around 7. But I'm always here if you need to talk." she shrugged. Her and Alice never really had a close bond. Alice was extremely shy, so it was hard for her to trust people. Especially adults.
The younger girl looked around as if she was checking to see if anyone else was around, even though no one else lived there.
"Is everything okay Al?" her aunt asked. Alice shrugged and sat down on the couch. Emma sat down next to her and looked at her. “If something’s bothering you, you can talk to me about it. Sure, I’m not as good as Paul, but I can try.” She understood that Alice struggled with opening up to people she’s not relatively close with, but she just wanted to assure her niece that she was there to support her. Alice looked up at her, then at the floor.
“Well uh…” she was unsure of what to say, so she just let words flow in hopes that it would make sense. “Basically, I’ve been hanging out with Deb a lot… And when I hang out with her, I feel… odd. Like- a good odd. Like how I’m supposed to feel about boys..”
Emma nodded. “Ok. So basically you have a crush on Deb?” she asked.
“I think so yeah… I’m just.. Confused..” Alice responded. Emma looked at her.
“Confused about what?” She questioned.
Alice shrugged. “Just- aren’t girls supposed to like boys?”
“Well…” Emma hesitated. “Not all girls like guys. Some like girls, others like both.”
“Oh.” Alice didn’t think girls could like girls, so she was happy to hear that her feelings weren’t considered wrong. “So I can like Deb?”
The older girl smiled “I don’t see a problem with it. Some other people might. But you know what? Fuck them! You’re you and you can love whoever you want.”
Alice giggled and made eye contact with her for the first time in this conversation. “Yeah, fuck them!” she responded. Emma laughed.
“Ok but on a serious note, can we keep this between us? And Uncle Paul when he gets home?” The brunette asked.
“Of course Al” Emma smiled, glad that her niece finally trusted her. Alice thanked her Aunt and hugged her tightly. Just as that happened, Paul came home from work.
“Oh look at you two getting along” he smiled, but internally he was shocked that the two were getting along, considering Alice almost never interacted with her.
“Uncle Paul!” Alice exclaimed, as she ran over to him and hugged him.
Paul laughed. “Hey kiddo.”
Emma smiled and walked over to them both and kissed his cheek “Hey babe, how was it at work?” she asked.
“It was interesting. My Boss needed help with something" he responded
"Uncle Paul I gotta tell you something!" Alice smiled. Emma laughed.
Paul looked at Emma then at his niece, unsure of what was about to be said. Then Alice told him all about her conversation