Grace
I still wasn’t completely sure what happened yesterday. I absentmindedly went through my work on Monday morning, thinking about Eve. Jack had told me afterwards that she gets overwhelmed in social situations sometimes, and I just needed to give her space, but that didn’t fully explain away my confusion.

Eve hadn’t texted back yet to respond to me checking on her, and I hadn’t had a chance to talk though the situation with Brianna yet. Oh gosh, that meant I’d be coming out to her. Maybe I was ready. I felt a small surge of happiness that spending time with Eve had changed me for the better.

I was done using my parents as an excuse to stay in the closet, and the first steps to that might be getting closer to Eve and coming out.

After a short preparation. I wasn’t about to burst into my parent’s house and scream at them ‘I’m gay’. Baby steps. I’d tell Brianna, she’d talk it out with me, and maybe shed some light on what happened yesterday.

Where did all of this confidence come from? Maybe Eve was on to something and I was an alien. How would I know if I was?

As I was pondering my humanity, my boss walked into my office, followed by a young man, barely too old to be called a teenager, in a button up shirt and an oversized blazer.

“Brianna,” he yelled boisterously, “This is our new intern, Mike. Say hello Mike.”

“Hello ma’am,”

I cringed, there’s no way I was old enough to be called ma’am.

“Sir, does this mean we have two interns now?” I asked, referencing Brianna. I didn’t think we needed that much staff but maybe they needed help in another department.

“No that traitor was fired, good riddance,” he shook his head. “Mike is replacing her.”

My eyes widened, “What do you mean?”

“Oh you haven’t heard? It’s such a shame, the poor girl’s parents told me they found out she’s a homo. Let me tell you, around here we all follow the word of the Lord, and the Lord says ‘no homos’. I had to scramble looking for Mike here to replace her, couldn’t the heathen at least have found a replacement for herself?”

I stared. I guess I should have seen this coming, but I’d thought she would have warned me first.

I was too stunned to even try to protest her firing, and they quickly left after I’d been introduced. I was pretty sure it was illegal to fire someone for being gay, but I’m sure he would try to say she’d ‘disrespected his religion’ or some nonsense.

I wondered why Brianna didn’t tell me. Did she expect me to side with my boss, with her parents, and with mine? A pit formed in my stomach.

Maybe a few weeks ago I would have been the kind of coward to do that. I felt like now I had the courage to do something, I just had to figure out what. I had a lot to talk about with Brianna.

—

I drove up to Brianna’s apartment, where she lived alone. We had discussed moving in together to save on rent at one point, but we both liked having our own space.

I knocked on her door and she answered, still in her pajamas, looking as if she was going through a tough breakup.

She invited me in, sat me on the couch, and gave me a bowl of ice cream to match hers before resuming the movie she had been watching. We watched while she slowly explained that she’d gotten caught having a woman over when her mom came by for a surprise visit and invited herself inside with the spare key. Her mom told our boss, now her ex-boss, and it spiraled from there.

She also told me she thought I’d cut her off too.

“Do you really think that terribly of me?” I responded, feeling hurt.

She sighed, “No, but neither of us can deny it would be the much easier choice to continue on with your life like nothing is wrong. I wouldn’t hate you for that, although I hope I get to keep Jack and Evelyn in the breakup.” We both laughed.

I was glad she was feeling well enough to crack jokes. I felt terrible for her, knowing she might never talk to her parents again. I realized suddenly the same would happen to me. It was one thing to think about it in the abstract, and it was another to actually see Brianna go through what I’d have to deal with. I shook my head, this wasn’t about me right now.

I smiled, “You can have Jack, but I’ve gotten closer to Eve, she’s mine,” I said with a blush.

“Anyways,” I quickly interjected before she could respond, “When have I ever done something because it’s easy? I do things I think are right, and I know who’s right in this situation.”

She smiled and leaned over to hug me, “I’m really glad you’re so uptight,” she teased, “And what’s this I hear about Evelyn? I didn’t know you were in nickname territory yet, and I certainly hadn’t realized you had claimed her,” she smirked.

I embarrassedly explained to her the events of yesterday before she burst out laughing, “Oh my god, her boyfriend? Who?”

“Jack, right?”

She collapsed on herself wheezing, “How did you get that impression? Oh my god did you never hear us talking about his crushes, on men? I can’t believe you’re a lesbian, of course you’d be that useless.”

I was caught between wanting to join in laughing, being mad at her, and feeling embarrassed, so I half-heartedly did all three. “It’s not my fault,” I whined, covering my face with my hands.

“Wait, so what happened yesterday?” I asked desperately.

She sobered up a bit looking thoughtfully at me, “Well I’m going to go out on a limb and say she wasn’t trying to proposition you…”

“Oh gosh I knew that was too good to be true,” I paused for a moment, “Wait no I didn’t mean it like that, I meant– I don’t even know what I meant.”

I sighed, “I didn’t really think she did. I was just playing along to tease her, but I guess I took it a bit too far. I feel really bad because we were having such a good time. Maybe I should offer to meet her mom to make up for it.” I smiled, feeling like I had found a satisfactory resolution.

Brianna looked at me confusedly, “You should what? You know what, I’m not going to question it, you two are kind of weird. Let’s see if we can arrange something for the four of us this week.”

We did end up arranging something for tomorrow night after work, and Bri and I talked more, about our futures, about me coming out and about nothing. It felt nice to relax with her like this, and I was glad I was going to keep hanging out with her even after everything that happened.

Now I just had to figure out my relationship with Eve and come out to my parents, how hard could it be?

Evelyn
Oh my god, I was such a moron. I laid in bed, thinking about the day I’d spent with Grace. After she left I’d fallen asleep early, woke up in the middle of the night to eat, and then fell asleep again at seven in the morning after anxiously staring at job applications for a few hours. My sleep schedule was officially fucked.

It was now in the early evening two days later, just after I woke up, and I was finally figuring out what was happening.

I was always terrible at figuring out how I felt. Sometimes it would take me days, weeks, or even months to be able to put words to the signals my body was telling me. And right now, it was definitely telling me I liked Grace. She was so sweet and gentle with me, and it was adorable when she played along with my antics.

It had also occurred to me that she might not be as straight as I’d thought, although that might be wishful thinking. I just had to figure out how to stop annoying her and start seducing her.

I grimaced, that sounded kind of gross; maybe I should stick to not annoying her like I did last time. Oh my god, that was so embarrassing.

Once I’d finally figured out where the miscommunication happened, I’d felt a rush of mortification and disappointment. I would’ve loved to play a game of chicken with her if I’d understood what was going on, both of us teasing the other, seeing how far we’d take the joke. Instead, I’d had a breakdown over her teasing me, and now I felt really stupid.

I still didn’t understand why she thought Jack was my boyfriend but that would be pretty easy to clear up. Thank fuck she hadn’t been replaced by an alien, I actually liked human Grace. Although with how prim she was with her perfect posture and strict morals, maybe she had been an alien all along. Was there something wrong with me if I was attracted to an alien?

I shook my head, I needed to stop thinking about aliens, and start thinking about solving my problems.

I pulled out a sticky note and a pen from my nightstand drawer and started writing a list. Lists always helped me break down my problems into simple steps, and even if I never completed my list, at least I didn’t feel anxious about trying to remember all of my problems while I avoided them.

I started writing, talking to myself as I did, “Make up with Grace,” I muttered, trying to figure out how I’d do that. Oh, I know, she seemed like she was interested in meeting my mom, maybe I could invite her when I went home for Christmas. We had talked around it while on our hike but I’d never formally invited her.

Although she did have her own family…

And then I remembered my meeting with her family. “I definitely should invite her…” I mumbled. I could not believe Grace and Joshua came from the same place.

I added a few things to my list about applying to different jobs and looking about getting into an IT certification. I desperately wanted to get a job, even if it wasn’t perfect, because I didn’t think Grace wanted to date an unemployed loser, not that she’d want to date an employed loser. Whatever.

I walked out into the living room, still thinking about my list, when I saw Jack and Brianna sitting on the couch together, chatting. I hadn’t been paying attention to the noises I’d heard earlier, I’d assumed Jack was watching TV, but apparently he’d invited her over.

“Oh, there’s your girlfriend,” Brianna snickered.

I glared, “Hilarious, Brianna. Nice of you to invite me to hang with you and my lovely boyfriend. I sure hope you don’t steal him from me.”

She laughed, and Jack interjected, “You know we actually did invite you right? Have you looked at your phone?”

I hadn’t. I pulled out my phone and immediately started panicking when I realized Grace was coming too. “Oh shit, why didn’t you say Grace was coming?” I ignored their protests that they did tell me. “I need to get ready,” I ran back to my room to tidy it up, before heading to the bathroom to freshen up. I needed this to be perfect, or I could ruin everything.