Martin's Flash Fiction - 1. Chapter 1 - Chocolate Sauce

Katie took a deep breath and paused for a moment, trying to steady herself. She was a bag of nerves by this point just thinking about what she was about to do. Sitting in her bedroom, she could hear her mum downstairs cooking dinner and she knew she had to do it. She had to tell her mum the truth- her only child was a lesbian.

But how? How could she say it? Her mum would be devastated if she found out. It would come as such a shock to her, to everyone! Katie knew there was no way anybody could have suspected, could have guessed. She wished they did. It would make it so much easier to handle, so much easier for them to deal with. But they didn’t know at all...how would she be able to tell them? Does she even need to? It could be kept hidden and secret for longer... there’s no reason not to.

Except there is a reason. Suzie is the reason. Katie smiled for a moment just thinking of her girlfriend...but that wouldn’t last if she didn’t do this. Suzie had been saying for a while that she needed to come out to her parents. And she is right; Katie did need to come out. If they knew then it would all be so much easier. No more hiding. No more feeling guilty for lying to them. It was just....so scary. What if they hated her for it? They might be disgusted; they might throw her out onto the street!

Katie shook her head again. She was just being stupid now. Of course they wouldn’t. She just needed to go downstairs and tell them. Standing up, she took another deep breath, and headed towards the door.

...

As Katie entered the kitchen downstairs, she saw her mum was still cooking dinner.

“Hello dear, what are you up to?” asked her mum, turning away from the cooker to look inside the cupboards.

“Umm...nothing much” said Katie, fidgeting nervously.

“Oh, ok” said her mum, checking more cupboards. “Its sausage and mash for dinner, ok? Oh, and ice-cream for afters”.

“Ummm...good” said Katie, “Ummm...mum? I need to tell you something”

Katie’s mum turned away from her search looking at her daughter.

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Ummm...I...I’m a lesbian, mum.”

“Are you? Oh, ok dear” said her mum, turning back to the search.

“Is...is that all you have to say?”

“Well, I sort of suspected a little, Katie. No real reason, as such. Just sort of... intuition. Oh, you haven’t seen the chocolate sauce, have you? We’ll need it for the ice-cream”.

“No, mum” said Katie, blushing a little behind her mums back.

“Oh, well you’ll have to quickly run down to the shop to buy some then. It seemed to disappear the last time you’re friend Suzie stayed over. I can’t think for the life of me why”.