Life, Love, and a Career - Chapter Three
Overcoming, Understanding, Graduating
Written and published By KAD and Cao Kev
A/N
In collaboration with and at the request of the original author, we have started this rewrite. As was the original, this is a collaborative story. We reviewed and have considered the previous comments for which we, as well as the original author, are grateful as we would like to create a fresher story. There are some points where it does lull or muddle a bit. We wanted to really bring out the characters for a deeper understanding. We seek and thank you for your understanding as we try. We hope you enjoy
Fall Semester - Senior Year Undergrad
Kate and I felt rejuvenated when we returned to our campus apartment. We had a plan for our senior year, study, go on job interviews, graduate, and succeed. It sounded easy and we made it through the good times and the bad. We were heckled a little bit by our sorority sisters when we both showed up for the Halloween party as Raggedy Ann. Admittedly this might not have been the wisest choice but we loved it regardless. We were questioned when not going to the fall dance but stayed true to who we are. Who we want to be and who we were in love with.
As Chelle suspected, Kate and I discussed and prepared for, our liberal college wasn't as liberal as we thought or hoped it to be. Our sorority sisters were the ones who really turned their backs on us, almost to the point of ignoring us.
It was a week before Thanksgiving; I left class and headed back to the apartment for lunch. I walked into the apartment and was floored seeing my Mom and Chelle sitting there with Kate. I was not only surprised but I was taken aback. Kate looked scared but Chelle smiled. Mom stood and approached me, opening her arms for a welcoming hug.
It wasn't her normal loving hug, there was tension, and there was hesitation. There was a look in her eyes.
The next choice I made was not for me but solely for Kate. I had vowed to protect her against anything and anyone, this was no exception. We were too soon removed from previous negativity of that ass recruiter and I needed to protect her from any potential negativity. She had recently regained her confidence. We were in a great place in our relationship so I took a stance.
"Kate!" I started in a strong voice and with as much confidence as I could muster, "Will you take Chelle down to Jo Jo's for some coffee and lunch? I would like to speak with my mother for a bit, maybe 45 minutes or an hour."
She stood and looked at me. I nodded my head and smiled. Kate looked as if to say something but I winked, kissed her cheek and stepped to the side taking a seat on the couch.
Chelle and Kate grabbed their coats and headed out for lunch. With the front door closed, I turned to my mother, smiled and took her hands into mine.
I started "Mother, I guess I need to tell you a few things."
She nodded and I started. I wish I could say the next hour or so was an easy conversation with my mother or that it was totally understandable but it wasn't. I tried to explain how I just didn't feel for a boy what I felt for Kate. I admitted to her my past relations with boys when I high school. She called me naive for thinking she didn't know.
At one point telling me she knew what sex smelled like saying, "I am not an old fuddie duddie."
I went on to explain that it wasn't just about sex; it was about the love I felt when Kate and I were together. How I
feel
when we are in each other's arms. We exchanged words, thoughts, feeling, and fears. There was nothing hateful, nothing harmful. We were calm at some points and understanding and hardnosed at others. We didn't scream, well I raised my voice once which earned me
the
look; we were respectful.
There was passion from both perspectives; she wanted to be a grandmother. I responded very quickly screaming, "And I want to be a mom! Just like you dammit!"
Then another ten minutes discussing biology and how babies are conceived. I thought I heard footsteps outside the front door of the apartment but I could have been mistaken.
"Mom!" I stood tall from the couch, and looked at her. "Please understand, Kate inspires me, she warms my heart, and she is kind, loving and just as passionate."
In the end, I begged her to understand that I love Kate and would never want to love another.
She bowed her head, blessed herself with the sign of the cross, like a good Irish Catholic would. She said she didn't quite understand but she loved me no matter what and would welcome Kate with open arms into the family.
"God rest your fathers' soul. He would understand Beth, he would understand."
I don't know why, but out of the blue and just hearing the mention of my father I fell to the floor and just cried.
I cried so hard my chest hurt, my sides hurt from crying, missing him, my confidante, my rock. Yet there was my mom sitting on the floor of our apartment with me, holding me tight, and reassuring me that he always loved me and that she would always love me. Eventually she helped me back to the couch and we continued our conversation.
It was well over an hour and a half later when Chelle and Kate returned. I was calm and Mom, well she was mom; loving, compassionate and caring.
I never made it to my afternoon class and I would feel the grind and do everything I could to follow up on the HR course. A few hours later and following a light dinner that Mom prepared in our little kitchen, she hugged us both and told us both that loved us and would welcome Kate into her home. As she and Chelle were preparing to leave, we exchanged love, emotions and of course tear filled hugs. Mom and Chelle left us and headed home.
Lying in bed that night with Kate there was just silence with her seemingly understanding, without words spoken Kate knew I needed her here with me, while my mind, as typical, and overthought the day.
I really didn't sleep well. The thought of Kate's very conservative parents entered my brain. I wouldn't think it would go so smoothly with them. This worried me deeply.
Soon semester finals were upon us, I spent extra time in the library studying and Kate took the apartment for her quiet place. We were so in love and so infatuated with each other after finding the support of my family it was tough to focus when we were together. What can I say; we were young women, in love and exploring what it was like to love each other.
When I returned to the apartment that third Monday of December and I was met with the greatest challenge so far in our relationship.
Kate was sitting on the couch, wrapped up in her afghan with a blank stare on her face. I could see she had been crying. As I shut the door, she looked at me, shrugged her shoulders.
"Do you know where I can spend Christmas?" Then started crying.
As it turns out, she called her parents wanting to share with them the great news of our relationship and hoping that they would be open minded and loving like my mom.
Kate said, "My dad has uninvited me to his home for future visits until I get my head on straight."
Kate broke down but continued, "He said his daughter doesn't love another woman and when this phase is over 'she' can return home."
"Beth," Kate said between sobs, "He didn't even use my name, he referred to me as
'she'
." She broke down crying again muttering, "I am so hurt. I never want to speak to them ever again."
I sat with her for over an hour just holding her, assuring Kate I had her and we would not fail.
Comments her parents made and said to her must have been harsh and directed at me. Kate wouldn't repeat anything else discussed. Kate was keeping this to herself which meant they were trying to drop a huge guilt trip on her. Attempting to drive a wedge between us; my heart broke for her.
"Kate dear, we,
we
, will thrive and conquer."
I reassured her as I continued by telling her our family was strong, our foundation of love wouldn't crack under the pressure of others who failed to understand. We ended up spooning with each other on the couch. I had her wrapped in my arms so tight and had her pulled so close to me I could feel her heart beating like a drum; my drum.
With exams behind us and our hearts filled with love, pride, and joy we headed to Mom's for Christmas break. We had been home for a week and out of respect for my mom and her house, we hadn't been intimate and it was making me crazy. Crazy with lust.
Christmas Eve or rather Christmas morning, we returned home from Midnight Mass. My mother hugged us both, kissed our cheeks and was sneaky smiling the whole time. We opened one gift as was tradition. When we finished my mom stood still smiling and headed towards the stairs. She was up to something, I just didn't know what.
When she reached the top of the stairs she turned around looking down, we were three steps behind her, when she said, "Let's take our time in the morning. There was no rush to open the gifts in the morning. I remember all too well what magic Christmas morning brings waking in the arms of the one you love. Merry Christmas girls."
Kate walked to the top of the stairs standing next to my mother she kissed her cheek and hugged her saying, "Thank you Frances."
"Mom." she replied. Stepping out of the hug, she graded Kate's hands she looked at her.
"I am not Frances to my daughter's lover, um or um, one day her wife. I am "Mom." My eyes immediately filled with tears.
She winked and turned heading to her bedroom, Chelle was right behind us, heading to bed also. Me? Well, I took Kate's hand and walked my girlfriend into my childhood bedroom with my family's support and blessing.
We made love late into the morning hours just being with each other focused on the other and not our individual needs. I laid there with Kate's head in the nook of my shoulder and chest. The smile on her face was more than I could handle. That smile made me feel as proud as a peacock.
We had a wonderful Christmas dinner, mom, Chelle, Kate, and me; our new family.
Spring Semester - Senior Year Undergrad
Kate and I were well aware starting our last semester of college would be a closure to this chapter of our lives but yet the start of a new chapter and life for us. We were contemplating and still discussing if we wanted the world, well our little world in western Pennsylvania, to see and potentially understand how we felt about each other and how it could be normal; our love felt normal and natural.
We had a long discussion one morning in bed while cuddling and decided that we would not be overtly romantic and not sexual in public with our public displays of affection but we would hold hands without question when we felt like it, when the moment felt right.
No hiding who we were. I wasn't sure how I could explain this growing feeling to Kate but I feel like I was hiding something from her. I needed to do some reading and learn. I needed to learn control of a relationship; taking the lead. Information and books not necessarily found in the local library.
