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She sent one back of her blowing me a kiss.

Hey, girlfriend, hey.

I skipped to the bathroom and I couldn’t stop smiling. I also couldn’t wait to get to school, which was pretty unusual. I didn’t hate school, but if I had a choice, I wouldn’t go there every day. I’d much rather hang out in a huge library somewhere, reading whatever I wanted, day after day. Someday I’d get to do that. Maybe.

I just happened to see Kyle getting out of her car when I parked in the student lot and I honked at her. She turned around to glare at the asshole who’d honked and then her face lit up when she saw me.

That look. That look was everything. I wanted to see that look on that face every day. Forever.

I told myself to chill out, but it was hard when I got out of the car and Kyle came over to say hello. The lot was busy and people were calling out greetings to one another and talking, so we had an audience so we couldn’t kiss or anything.

“I couldn’t wait to see you, is that crazy?” she asked as we stood with several feet of space between us, both leaning on my car.

I looked up at the grey sky. They were calling for snow, which was bizarre since it wasn’t even November yet. It would definitely mess with the football schedule.

“No, because I couldn’t wait to see you,” I said, turning back toward her.

“I want to kiss you so bad right now, baby,” she said, reaching out to touch my face, but then pulling back.

“Soon. Soon you can do that all you want. It’s Wednesday. Just a few more days and the week is over. And next week . . .” I trailed off.

Next week.

“We’ll have to make a plan.” She agreed.

“Definitely. I think that means we should spend the entire weekend together making said plan. We really have to think through all the possible scenarios.” She was saying one thing, but meaning something entirely different, something that made my skin tingle.

“I think that can be arranged,” I said, my fingers aching to touch her.

“Good. It’s a date.” She winked and then pushed off my car to walk to homeroom. I gave her a head start and then walked behind her. Mostly to check out her ass. She’d started wearing tighter jeans lately for some reason and I was very much enjoying the view.

I had to go to a different building and by the time I sat down in homeroom, I had a text on my phone.

Stop ogling my ass.

I snorted and then sent her back a winky face.

“S
o? What’s the update?” Grace said to me as we were supposed to be doing an experiment in chem.

“With what?” I asked, adjusting the height of the flame so it didn’t hit the ceiling and burn a hole through it.

“With you-know-who?” I stood up.

“Voldemort?” Grace gave me a look like I was being dense.

“Oh, oh,
that
. Things are good? Really good.” I bit my lip and Grace bumped her hip with mine.

“Sounds like it. So are you guys going public?” I did a quick sweep of the room, but everyone else was immersed in what they were doing.

“Soon,” I said and then we both pretended to be working very diligently as our teacher walked by.

“I’ve got your back. And hers, by extension. And I think I should get to hang out with both of you. I’ve never seen you in a relationship like this before.” That was because there hadn’t been one. There was nothing like this. I didn’t know if it was because we were both girls. I’d never find out. But I did know that what I felt for Stella was something big.

Something beautiful and new and amazing.

“You get all smiley when you’re thinking about her.”

“Stop it,” I said, smacking her arm.

“I
feel like we haven’t seen you in forever,” Paige said at lunch. I had no idea what she was talking about. I’d eaten with them yesterday.

“Okay?” I said, unsure of whether or not I was supposed to apologize.

“You’ve just seemed kinda distant,” Molly chimed in. I looked around and every single one of them was wearing an uncomfortable look.

“Is this some sort of intervention?” I said, looking around and landing on Grace. She had her arms crossed and looked like she didn’t approve of whatever they were doing.

“No, that’s stupid. We just miss you, that’s all.” Molly’s face went red and I had half a mind to get up from the damn table and leave all of them.

“I’m literally sitting right here. Talking to you. I’m not off slitting my wrists, or hanging out and smoking pot under the overpass. So I really have no idea what the fuck is going on.” I didn’t mean to get so pissed, but I felt like I was being attacked or something.

“Just leave her alone, guys. All of you,” Grace said, sending a glare around that made some of them cower. The guys had been avoiding eye contact with me the whole time.

“So, did anyone hear what Chad Hoskins got arrested with?” Grace said and that got everyone talking again. Thanks, Chad.

But I still had an uneasy feeling in my stomach when I tossed my tray.

“I told them not to,” Grace said in my ear. “I really did. I told them to leave you alone and that you were fine, but then Molly started going on and on about her cousin who’s on crack or something and it got blown out of proportion. If you decide to, ah,
tell people
, next week, I think they’ll lay off. Not that that’s a reason to do it. But it would give them an explanation. You know?”

I understood what she was saying, but I still felt like they were backing me into a corner.

Fuck it. If they were going to be assholes about me being happy, then they weren’t my real friends anyway. And since when did happy = being on drugs?

Fucked up. I sent Stella a text about it.

OMG, your friends are weird. But maybe they’ll leave you alone next week?

Hopefully. We didn’t have anyone else gay in our group that I knew of. No one really said anything outright that was homophobic, but you never knew. It was like rolling dice, but instead of winning money, you got the freedom to live and not be harassed.

“S
o I talked to one of the other gays today,” Stella said that afternoon as we hung out at her house. Her dad was teaching late tonight, so we had several hours of uninterrupted time. I wanted to spend most of it making out and doing other things, but she seemed to want to talk.

“Which one?” I asked.

“Tris. It just kind of happened. She was in the bathroom and we were using the sinks at the same time. I said hello and she gave me a look like I was going to punch her in the face. So then I tried a smile and she sort of gave me one back and then scurried away.” I couldn’t stop laughing. My girl was intimidating.

“You probably scared the shit out of her. I bet she thinks you’re going to target her or something. It’s going to be funny to see what she says when she knows the truth.” She laughed with me and then moved so her head was in my lap. I ran my fingers through her hair and she closed her eyes.

“That feels really good. I can’t remember the last time someone else played with my hair.” She curled up almost like a cat. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she started purring.

“Don’t fall asleep, baby.” We had some stupid reality show on that neither of us was paying attention to. I was too busy focusing all my attention on her.

“I won’t. What if they hate us?”

“Who?” She turned her head and looked up at me.

“The other gays.” Was she serious?

“Why would they? And don’t they kind of have to accept us? Based on the fact that there’s safety in numbers.” I had no experience with this, but it made sense. And we had a lot in common with them, so why wouldn’t we get along?

I had definitely realized, early on in knowing her, that Stella had issues when it came to trusting other people. Especially trusting that they weren’t going to hate her right off the bat. It was shitty, but the only way she’d realize that not everyone was an asshole was to introduce her to more people who were going to adore her just the way she was. Not the bitch queen. The beautiful girl who spent an entire summer with Tolstoy. The girl who loved animals and laughed in the library and was passionate about cheerleading. If anyone didn’t like that girl, they had some serious issues.

“I guess you’re right. I just don’t like meeting new people.” I stroked her temple.

“I know, baby. But I think this will be good. For both of us. As much as I like living in our bubble, I think it’s time for us to get out. I don’t want to turn into people that never leave their houses or go out in the sunlight.” She giggled.

“I think we’re going to be fine.” I leaned down and kissed her head.

“Yeah, we are. We’re gonna be fine.”