What is the best way for I(22M) and My Girlfriend(21f) who are Step-siblings to come out to the folks.

A Couple days ago I posted this in Relationship Advice but like 4 people saw it and I was hoping for answers from somebody whose maybe done something similar.

TLDR- My Girlfriend and I met when My Dad married her Mom when we were 17 and 16 respectively. I moved out a year or so later and we became friends and started dating on the DL. Looking to come clean in a way that's best for everyone.

I know what you're thinking and save the Alabama jokes. In my senior year of High School, when I was 17 my Dad remarried and my Stepmom and my girlfriend moved in with us. We weren't dating at the time, but we sort of knew each other from around school. We had friends who were friends but never too much contact. Basically we knew we existed before our parents started dating. When they moved in my girlfriend and I got along great and became pretty good friends and since our friends were friends it kind of made our clique a little bigger. We were very happy with how things were as new stepsiblings.

When I was 19 we both went off to college. She stayed at home while I took the opportunity to get my own apartment. I'm not like a huge party guy, but every so often I'd have our friends over for drinks and we'd get a little rowdy. Naturally I invited her to these gatherings or she showed up anyway with one of our friends and we spent a lot of time together. She's always been beautiful I've always thought that, but I started seeing her differently. We were never the touchy or cuddly sorts, but sometimes after the friends took off we'd watch a movie and she'd sit closer to me. Pretty soon we were going out to eat together alone, spending a lot of time at my place playing video games, or she'd do her schoolwork here as a change of scenery.

One night last year, right before Christmas, we went out to do some last minute shopping together. The crowds were pretty big and so we didn't get separated I took her hand. That was apparently the catalyst because we continued holding hands for the rest of the night wherever we went. We stopped to eat and as we're in the both she takes my hand again. It just sort of clicked to both of us that we had fallen in love with each other, were acting like a couple for several months and just never bothered to bring it up with one another. We talked and discovered we'd both had a crush and for obvious reasons we didn't want to do anything to ruin the friendship we had and cause a family schism.

We decided to date but take it slowly and keep quiet about it just to explore if there was something there. Well there was and we saw a great deal more of each other and months later started sleeping together. It's almost been a year now and we'd like to be more public with our affection as it's become a point of sadness and contention. We know that there really isn't anything wrong with what we're doing. It's not as if we're blood siblings, or even step-siblings that were raised together. All in all we only lived under the same roof for 13 months before I went out on my own.

I love her, She loves me and I believe we have the potential to make a very happy family together in time. Is there a way we can lessen the blow when we come forward? I'm aware we sort of made it something this sordid by lying about the nature of our developing relationship for almost a year. But we're ready to be honest.

Submitted November 28, 2020 at 09:38PM by Throwrabrewster https://ift.tt/3liwfbr