Chocolate Chip Mint 20, Fudge Ripple 11: All I Need
Title: All I Need
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Chocolate chip mint 20 (uncomfortable), fudge ripple 11 (hesitation), pocky chain, cookie crumbs (an expansion on Gina's section of this), whipped cream (Gina's fifteen in the first one).
Word Count: 500
Rating: PG
Summary: Gina, coming out.
Notes: I meant to write something with Ivy and Gina being cute. This came out instead. idk. Also, there is a hidden Tipping The Velvet joke in here.
Ned wouldn't speak to her, after she told him.
Her best friend Florence gave her sidelong glances for weeks, and refused to change in her presence.
Her health teacher told the class that it was just a phase, something people grew out of.
Gina thought about it, about the looks on Ned and Florence's faces, about the way they'd started avoiding her in the hallways and ignoring her phone calls. She imagined those looks on her parents' faces, that withdrawal coming from them, for a "phase."
It was pretty clear by then that she could never tell them. Not ever.
--
She'd planned this all carefully, from coordinating her schedule with Olivia's to the precise words she would say. But now that they were here... oh, God, she didn't think she could do it.
Olivia sat on her bed, knees together, head cocked to the side, expression worried. Gina swallowed hard, and made herself. Olivia had a right to know.
"I'm gay," she said.
For a moment Olivia's face went blank, and Gina felt sick.
Then Olivia half-shouted, "That's all? Jesus, Gina, I thought you had cancer or something! Don't scare me like that!"
Oh. Well, then.
Gina began to smile.
--
Olivia saved her again, years later, when she met Ivy and had no idea how to proceed. She wanted Ivy, so much, so much it hurt sometimes, but how did you go about announcing your sexual orientation to a total stranger? Gina wasn't sure she knew how to risk that much. Her exes, the others, she'd met them at gay bars or GSA or pride days, safe places to tell. But Ivy, meeting a girl in a bar...
"So," Olivia chirped, "you're both lesbians. What's that like?"
Ivy spat her drink clear across the bar, and Gina sighed with relief.
--
It was at Christmas, their fourth one together (if you counted that first December, which Gina did), that she made her decision.
"I'm going to tell them," she told Ivy, who frowned, and took her hand.
"Are you sure?" she asked, gently. "Gina, I don't want you to feel you have to. I know you're not ashamed of me."
"I'm sure," Gina said. "I love you. I want to be with you. I want them to know that."
Ivy made a humming noise, something she'd picked up from her mother. "Then I'll go with you."
Gina wouldn't argue with that.
--
In the end it was Ivy, standing beside her and holding her hand, that gave her the strength to do it.
They had to take the train to her parents' house in Syracuse, a five-and-a-half-hour ride, but this wasn't the sort of thing you told your parents over the phone. The whole way there Gina felt like she was going to throw up. But this was Ivy, who meant more to her than anyone, who deserved better than sneaking around and lying to her parents.
This was Ivy.
So she breathed in, and breathed out, and said it.
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Chocolate chip mint 20 (uncomfortable), fudge ripple 11 (hesitation), pocky chain, cookie crumbs (an expansion on Gina's section of this), whipped cream (Gina's fifteen in the first one).
Word Count: 500
Rating: PG
Summary: Gina, coming out.
Notes: I meant to write something with Ivy and Gina being cute. This came out instead. idk. Also, there is a hidden Tipping The Velvet joke in here.
Ned wouldn't speak to her, after she told him.
Her best friend Florence gave her sidelong glances for weeks, and refused to change in her presence.
Her health teacher told the class that it was just a phase, something people grew out of.
Gina thought about it, about the looks on Ned and Florence's faces, about the way they'd started avoiding her in the hallways and ignoring her phone calls. She imagined those looks on her parents' faces, that withdrawal coming from them, for a "phase."
It was pretty clear by then that she could never tell them. Not ever.
--
She'd planned this all carefully, from coordinating her schedule with Olivia's to the precise words she would say. But now that they were here... oh, God, she didn't think she could do it.
Olivia sat on her bed, knees together, head cocked to the side, expression worried. Gina swallowed hard, and made herself. Olivia had a right to know.
"I'm gay," she said.
For a moment Olivia's face went blank, and Gina felt sick.
Then Olivia half-shouted, "That's all? Jesus, Gina, I thought you had cancer or something! Don't scare me like that!"
Oh. Well, then.
Gina began to smile.
--
Olivia saved her again, years later, when she met Ivy and had no idea how to proceed. She wanted Ivy, so much, so much it hurt sometimes, but how did you go about announcing your sexual orientation to a total stranger? Gina wasn't sure she knew how to risk that much. Her exes, the others, she'd met them at gay bars or GSA or pride days, safe places to tell. But Ivy, meeting a girl in a bar...
"So," Olivia chirped, "you're both lesbians. What's that like?"
Ivy spat her drink clear across the bar, and Gina sighed with relief.
--
It was at Christmas, their fourth one together (if you counted that first December, which Gina did), that she made her decision.
"I'm going to tell them," she told Ivy, who frowned, and took her hand.
"Are you sure?" she asked, gently. "Gina, I don't want you to feel you have to. I know you're not ashamed of me."
"I'm sure," Gina said. "I love you. I want to be with you. I want them to know that."
Ivy made a humming noise, something she'd picked up from her mother. "Then I'll go with you."
Gina wouldn't argue with that.
--
In the end it was Ivy, standing beside her and holding her hand, that gave her the strength to do it.
They had to take the train to her parents' house in Syracuse, a five-and-a-half-hour ride, but this wasn't the sort of thing you told your parents over the phone. The whole way there Gina felt like she was going to throw up. But this was Ivy, who meant more to her than anyone, who deserved better than sneaking around and lying to her parents.
This was Ivy.
So she breathed in, and breathed out, and said it.