holidays

part 7

It didn't take long for both Stefania and Danielle to lay in her bed together. Somehow neither of them could sleep so they started talking again.
"Your family is amazing, you know?" Stefania smiled.
"Well besides my dad" Danielle laughed but Stefania could feel her pain and instantly cuddled the blonde a little closer.
"But yeah.. besides him I got really lucky. And I think they really like you too." Danielle smiled and so did Stefania.
"You know I don't usually bring people here for Christmas. It's just... Somehow there's my LA life and then there's here. And it's so different and I'm scared if I mix it it'll blow up" she sighed.
"Mh... I get that. I tell my dad al about LA and filming but... It's a different world" Stefania agreed.
"Does your dad watch the show?" Danielle curiously asked.
"He... not really. He's Italian. So... Strong opinions and all that" Stefania sighed.
Danielle picked up on the sadness and frustration in her voice. "What exactly do you mean?"
"Well he doesn't like that I play a bisexual character" she answered looking into Danielles big blue eyes.
"Does he know...?"
"Yeah. I came out to my parents a few years ago. It took my mom a while to be okay with it but she was always trying whereas my dad he just... I don't know. I gave up trying"
Danielle was now unconsciously stroking Stefania's arm.
"Sorry for whining. It's not that bad. He didn't cut me off or anything we just don't talk much anymore" Stefania said but was almost cut off by Danielle "Hey, it's okay. You know with how perfect you are it's good to know you have problems too." she giggled.
They were so comfortable with each other Danielle basically forgot they weren't actually together. If anyone had seen them they'd have for sure thought they were a couple.
After some silence Danielle started talking again " but you are braver than my you know. My family doesn't know I'm gay. Not even my sister. And we were super close growing up. I was just terrified. I mean you heard my dad today.."
"I didn't hear much to be honest but I heard enough to absolutely hate this idiot" Stefania got angry.
"Yeah..." Danielle sighed. "He's a hardcore Republican. And when he saw that I'm playing a bi character on TV he got so angry... He calls my mom every now and than to try to reach me. He thinks it's turning me gay. And he hates that I pursued acting as a career in general"
"Wow" Stefania grew more frustrated.
"Hey, don't get upset over my dad" Danielle smiled.
"It's just... When he's hurting someone I care about... I'm Italian. Blame it on that." She giggled.
"When was your 'oh my god I'm gay' moment?" Stefania asked out of the blue.
Danielle thought about it for a bit before answering. "I mean looking back there were so many moments where I feel like I should've figured it out by then but... I never even knew I could like girls until like highschool. We had this amazing teacher wo talked about different sexualities in a class we had. I never told my parents about any of that because chances are they'd have gotten the teacher fired. From there on it still took like a year, I think, for me to realize that when I liked a female character on a show it wasn't just because they were pretty and I wanted to look like her" she giggled.
"But the moment I think I was sure was when I had my first kiss... Homecoming. I went with some dude, you know just so nobody would get suspicious that I might not be straight. And he kissed me and I just... I felt nothing. It was okay but I just couldn't... That night I got kinda drunk. I stayed at a friend's house with a few others and we ended up playing spin the bottle. I had to kiss this girl I'd kinda developed a crush on since she came into our class at the beginning of the year and oh my god... It was a whole new world"
Now they were both laughing.
"Did.... You two ever get any further than that kiss?" Stefania asked curiously.
"Well we ignored each other for a while... but then we eventually talked and turns out she liked me too so... We were together for a few months." Danielle smiled at the memory.
"Awwww" Stefania smiled.
"Yeah. But you know all the internalized homophobia and that stuff... I mean I'm still dealing with all that" she sighed.
"Yeah"
"So we broke up when she was ready to be our and proud and I just wasn't anywhere close. After we almost got caught. So I didn't really date anyone for.... a while. When was your first time with a girl? You know, besides that 1st kiss" Danielle laughed about the memory of their live.
"Uhm... Took a while. I was like 25 I think. I was totally boy crazy in school so I never would've guessed" Stefania explained.
Their conversation faded after that and it didn't take long for both of them to fall asleep.