Previously…

Tina was helping Dmitri with his homework and Bette was sitting in the garden reading a book when suddenly her daughter Maleah-Odette sat beside her.

“Mamma, can I talk to you?” Maleah-Odette asked. Maleah was 10 years old but she acted as if she was 13 or 14. She had always been more mature than her brothers and sister.

Bette closed her book and laid it beside her. “Sure, baby girl.”

“Uhm, when did you know?” She asked her mother.

“Did I know what?” Bette asked her daughter.

“That you are a lesbian.” Maleah said.

Bette smiled. “I think I always knew but I had my first girlfriend when I was 18. Why do you ask that, Leah?”

Maleah looked away. “I… I kissed a girl today.” She told her Mom.

Bette’s eyes grew big. “Why?” She asked.

“I like her. Mamma, when my friends talk about boys they all began to giggle and talk about how handsome and cool they are but I don’t feel the same. I don’t think boys are handsome. I like to have fun with them and I like them as friends but that’s everything. When my friends look at boys, I look at their sisters or girlfriends.” Maleah told her mother. Bette laid her arm around her daughters shoulder.

“Can I ask you if you have ever kissed a boy before?” She asked her daughter.

“Yeah, I have. I kissed two boys but I never liked it. With April, it felt different. Mamma, I know I’m only ten and stuff but I feel like I know and feel I’m different.” Maleah said.

“If you think that you are gay, then that’s okay but I really wouldn’t like it if you felt pressured to be gay because Mommy, I and most of our friends are.”

“I don’t Mamma.”

“And you are still young. I’m not saying you aren’t gay or not but you don’t have to ‘label’ yourself just yet. You are 10; I can’t remember having boy or girlfriends at that age.”

Maleah rolled her eyes. “Mamma, we are. It’s not 1800 anymore.” She told Bette and then chuckled.

“Oh, I’m not that old!” Bette chuckled.

When they stopped chuckling Bette decided to ask some questions about the girl her daughter had kissed. “So, do you want to tell me a little about that girl?”