I wasn’t sure what time it was when I finally woke up. The one window in the room had dark curtains covering it, keeping all light out. I wanted to dig my phone out of my pocket to check the time, but I’d die before disturbing the sleeping form of Kara beside me. She was so precious.

The night before was a blur of me going through book after book and outlining everything I needed to know for midterms. I was nearly panicking for some of it, terrified that without studying as much as possible I’d fail. I didn’t even mean to fall asleep. One second I was sitting at my desk, trying to make sure all of my classes’ important formulas were branded into my brain, and the next I was being woken up by the sun’s rays somehow directly hitting my face.

The only reason I got up instead of trying to go back to sleep was Kara’s message. She rarely asked to hang out, and I knew she relied on company more than she liked to let on. During her last semester, there was barely a night where we weren’t on a call together until it was time for one or both of us to get some sleep. Because I wanted to stay on top of all of my classes this semester our time together was drastically cut down, but from what I could tell she usually seemed fine.

From there, I remembered going to Kara’s dorm and nothing else. I must’ve fallen asleep on the couch, and she followed soon after. I didn’t hear Erica or Aubrey, so I hoped they had left at some point. If they weren’t gone, there would be no end of the shit they would give us for this scene. Aubrey would never stop teasing me for cuddling like this while I still hadn’t let Kara know how I felt.  

I would have been content with staying still for as long as Kara was resting on me, but it wasn’t long before my stomach and bladder both began yelling at me. I tried my best to slowly and quietly remove myself from Kara’s presence, and thankfully it seemed to work. She slumped over until she was lying down on the spot where I had just been sleeping, and I took a moment to cover her with what was my half of the blanket. 

My trip to my room was uneventful, and after a few minutes I returned with snacks and a biology textbook. I wanted to eat actual food, but I didn’t want to leave Kara alone while I cooked in my kitchen, or risk waking her up by using hers. Instead, I took a seat on the floor, opened my textbook, and slowly worked my way through some girl scout cookies (thin mints, of course) as I refreshed my brain on what I studied last night.

It was slow going, especially without any of my notebooks or a laptop. I could have left to grab them, but by the time I realized it was a problem I had gotten too comfortable to want to move. Even without them, though, I found myself making some progress. I was slowly beginning to be able to easily recite most of the definitions I needed from the book, and by the time I’d finished with the last of my thin mints I was fairly confident I had most of the important information memorized. I’d need to look through it with my notes, later, but as I was I felt fairly good about my biology midterm.

It was three in the afternoon, almost an hour after I woke up, when Kara slowly began to stir. She made adorable tired noises as she began to move and wake, and I had to turn away to avoid showing her the massive smile she was putting on my face. 

“What time’s it?” My sleepy best friend asked as her brain slowly began functioning enough to make actual words. Her voice just after waking up sounded incredibly cute. Once again, I felt like my emotions were painfully obvious, and I made sure I wasn’t looking at her. 

“About three. I wanted to cook, but I didn’t want to wake you. You seemed like you needed your sleep.” 

She didn’t immediately respond, and I heard her shuffling on the couch behind me. After a moment I heard her get up, and soon after I barely managed to turn away as she sat down beside me. “Thank you for waiting, Luna.” 

“Of course,” I squeaked. Fuck, I was terrible at hiding this.

I felt Kara’s eyes on me as I waited for her response. I looked away from her even more obviously so that she couldn’t see how much I was blushing, but the attempt felt in vain. She had to know. She knew, and she just wasn’t telling me because she didn’t want to make things even more awkward between us.

“Are you okay, Luna?” Kara sounded confused, more than anything. Did she really not get it? I definitely wasn’t good at hiding how I felt, so she had to understand, right?

I wanted to tell her the truth. I wanted to explain how I felt, that I liked her, had liked her since she told me she was a girl. I wanted to tell her that half of my dreams involved the two of us cuddling together while slowly falling asleep to the sounds of a movie in the background. I wanted to tell her that my brain wouldn’t stop imagining the two of us on a date together, dancing our hearts out even though neither of us could dance to save a life.

I wanted to be able to call her my best friend and my girlfriend. 

But what if she said she didn’t like me back? What if asking made things too awkward? What if she did, and we got together until we broke up, and never spoke to each other again?

My brain went into overdrive as my hopes and fears clashed like armies on a battlefield. I sat frozen beside Kara, incapable of doing or saying anything. If she wasn’t worried before, my lack of a response was definitely going to tell her something was wrong. 

And then Kara stepped in. 

She pulled me into an embrace, holding on tighter than I thought she ever could. My internal arguing stopped dead in its tracks as every part of my brain became focused on the girl holding on to me. My heartbeat slowed, my face cooled down, more and more of my worst thoughts vanished the longer she held on.

As soon as I was done calming down I did my best to reciprocate the hug. She was so warm and soft. I felt myself getting lost in the girl beside me, content to just stay where we were, wrapped up together, forever. 

We might have, had our stomachs not simultaneously decided to ruin the moment. They sounded like a choir of the damned as they broke the blissful silence between us. In an instant, the air of love and comfort changed to one of joy as both of us laughed. 

“So… Lunch?” I asked, a new kind of smile forming on my face. 

“We’re going out for it, and yes.” 

I didn’t argue with Kara’s declaration. I headed over to my room to get ready, but thankfully I didn’t need to do much more than wash my face and brush my hair. We met in the hall as soon as both of us were done. Neither of us did much dressing up, since we were only going to Renee’s, and I was proud to see that Kara was going out presenting as herself. Nobody paid us any mind as we headed downstairs and out of the dorm. 

The early days of the semester were filled with the men on our floor giving me or Erica odd looks, but the novelty of our existence wore off quickly. With midterms days away and spring break a week away most of the guys had more important things to focus on than the handful of girls living on their floor.

Kara volunteered to drive—we didn’t want to get lost four times on the way to the restaurant—and we made it there without incident. Nobody seemed to pay us any mind as we took a two person booth. The place was a bit busier than I would have expected for the time between lunch and dinner, so Kara and I got comfortable as we waited for a server to help us.

We were both on our phones when a server arrived at our table with a customer service smile on his face. “Good afternoon, ladies. My name’s Cecil, and I’ll be your server for today. Is there anything I can get you ladies started with?” 

I might normally have immediately responded, but I was struck by how cute Kara’s reaction to being correctly gendered was. She quickly looked away from Cecil as she started to blush, which only made her look more adorable. 

After a moment, I shook myself out of my laser focus on Kara long enough to speak up. “We’ll both have unsweet tea, please.” 

“Understood. I’ll be back with your drinks in a moment.” To Cecil’s credit, he didn’t waste a second on Kara’s reaction or my ordering for both of us. Maybe he was used to girls blushing near him? He seemed aesthetically nice looking, in any case. 

More important, though, was my best friend and crush. She seemed to calm down as he walked away, at least until she saw the massive smile on my face. “Enjoying the euphoria?” 

“Mhm,” She quietly mumbled. Oh God, was she blushing so hard she couldn’t speak? She was precious! 

My smile only grew in response, which of course had the effect of causing her to become even more of a mess. It was an endless loop of adorability. One I would happily stay a part of until Cecil returned. 

And luckily for me, that was exactly what happened. Cecil soon returned with our teas and some sweetener, we went ahead and placed our orders, and we were again left alone.

At first, both of us returned to our phones. They were handy distractions, and I was happy to just be near her, no matter what either of us was up to. Normally, that would have been enough. We would silently pass the time, share memes, and only speak up when it was important. 

But this time, there was something different in the air. I didn’t feel it from her side at first, but there was a hint of hesitation in her voice when she spoke, or in her eyes when they met mine. There was something she needed to say. I suppose we had that in common.

The question was, when to bring up the topic I was so afraid of? I had to bring it up here, today. My anxieties weren’t going to go away unless I made a decision. I couldn’t overthink it, I just had to spit out what I needed to say. 

Our lunch arrived before either of us confronted whatever it was that we needed to say to one another. We finished our food, paid our shares of the bill, and our table was cleared of all its dirty plates. Still, neither of us took steps towards the words we needed to say.

Five minutes passed. Ten. Twelve and we were heading to the car. Thirteen and Kara was in the driver’s seat, starting the car. Still, neither of us could spit out whatever it was we needed to say. Was this it? Were we going to just keep going without ever letting go of the tension?

No, I had to say something. Anxieties be damned, I had to— 

And then I felt Kara’s lips meet mine. 

It was quick, no more than a peck on the lips, but it was worth more than any other kiss I’d ever had with anyone else in my life.

Bundled up bliss, relief, and love exploded in my heart as our lips parted. I couldn’t think of anything else, anyone else, but her. Us. All of the tension that had been building in me evaporated. My worst fears fell into the deepest recesses of my mind as I kept thinking about Kara. About us. 

I turned to Kara, my best friend, the person I trusted more than anyone else in the universe. She looked terrified that she overstepped. I pulled her closer, until our lips met in a dazzling reunion.

It was not just a peck.