I yawned and stretched as I slowly got up from the floor, trying my best not to wake the sleeping beauty beside me. Kara was so precious, it was unfair. It was a single night since we met again and I was practically head over heels for her. I still couldn’t believe how much her entire presence had changed in the few days since she’d realized she was trans. Ever since we started to grow up, she’d seemed to slowly become more and more uncomfortable with physical closeness, but she suddenly seemed entirely comfortable with spending time close to me, to the point of falling asleep on my shoulder during the naked men scene of Mulan.

Erica and Aubrey were nowhere to be seen, not that that was surprising. They’d probably snuck off to Erica’s room after I fell asleep. I wanted to thank them for trying to take care of Kara in the immediate aftermath of her self-realization, but a quick glance at the clock told me it might’ve been rude to knock. Few college students willingly woke up at seven in the morning, especially during the weekend before school even started. 

I fumbled around in the dark until I found my keycard, and quietly headed over to my room. I stopped myself just before their room door shut and found a small pen to force it to stay slightly ajar, I didn’t want to lock myself out of their room. The hall splitting our dorm rooms was silent but thankfully well lit, and grabbing everything I needed was a quick journey there and back. 

Damn, Kara’s sleeping form was so cute. She was covered with a fuzzy cat-patterned blanket, and she looked so warm and comfy. It took an incredible feat of strength to not immediately reach out and softly scratch her head. I knew from experience how good that felt, and I was positive she’d love it at least as much as I did. Before I actually lost control I forced myself into the bathroom, uttering a silent apology to the girls for taking it in case they woke up. 

I quickly undressed and piled my dirty clothes in a small corner of the bathroom, and didn’t even bother looking in the mirror on my way over to the shower. Oh, shit, it suddenly hit me that I wouldn’t be able to take a bath until I went home to my dads. That was going to suck, but shaving standing up wasn’t that terrible. Usually. Sometimes I fell over while trying, but it was a rare thing. It barely even happened anymore. 

The water was annoying to get to the right temperature, but after a short time finicking with the knobs I managed to make it tolerable. I wasn’t as quick to properly shave, thanks to my lack of practice shaving in showers, but within a few minutes I had most of my body smooth. The rest of my time in the shower followed my normal patterns, with me only slipping on the slick tile once.

Once my teeth were brushed, my dark hair was stuck in a ponytail, and my face was washed I dressed myself in one of my more casual knee-length grey dresses. It was one of the rare dresses that came with pockets, which was good because carrying around my purse or backpack for only my keys and phone was annoying. 

As soon as I finished getting ready, I took a deep breath and left the bathroom as quietly as I could. Thankfully the living room wasn’t too cluttered, and I was able to sneak my way to the couch without disrupting Kara any more than I already had. The couch was hard, probably cheap since the university had to pay for one for each room, but it was fine to casually sit on for the time being. My phone told me it wasn’t even eight o'clock, which meant judging by Kara’s old sleeping habits I had over an hour before she’d even stir.

I was proven right when she finally started moving around and making (adorable) noises at just after nine thirty in the morning. Erica and Aubrey still hadn’t woken up, or if they had, they had yet to leave their room. I wanted to go and get some breakfast, but the urge to stay with Kara until she was fully awake was far more powerful. I didn’t want her to think I’d left her alone. 

Kara panicked for a moment when she didn’t see my form beside her, and jerked her head around the dim room until she saw my face behind my phone screen. I gave her a wave with a small smile on my face. I could barely see her in the low light, but she seemed so cute. Her blonde hair was all over the place, and she had the slightest bit of dry drool on her face. It was adorable.

“Morning, sleepyhead. Was gonna get breakfast, but I figured I’d wait for you to be up.” I moved to the light switch to turn it on, but hesitated so I didn’t immediately hit her with bright light as soon as she woke. Her response to my greeting was a series of incomprehensible noises that only made me fall even further for her. I couldn’t believe how quickly our relationship had changed in my mind. As soon as she went from the ‘boy’ box to the ‘girl’ box, my emotions had begun to go haywire. 

Her actions suddenly went from boring to cute. Our closeness, something that had remained mostly platonic for our entire lives, suddenly had an air of affection and comfort that I only ever felt for other girls. I knew full well that these feelings were romantic, more than the simple quick gay feelings I had for girls I barely knew like Erica or Aubrey. It was impossible to push those feelings down, I was falling for my best friend and I had to hope that it didn’t negatively impact our friendship. 

I didn’t want to hurt her, and it felt wrong to express my feelings while she was still new to understanding herself and beginning the process of transition, but I was terrible at keeping control of my emotions. If I didn’t concentrate around a girl I liked, I knew I could mindlessly find my hands rubbing her back or scratching her head. It was so easy to fall into the traps of accidentally reaching for her hand or hugging her for a little longer than was generally considered platonic. 

 Knocking me out of my thoughts was the very focus of my affection, flicking me on the forehead with a playful expression on her face. “Hey, you alright? I asked if you were okay with driving.” Oh shit, how long was I out?

“Um, yeah, of course,” I stuttered, but the correct words eventually fell out of my mouth. I was such a mess.

Kara nodded to herself in the cute way she did and went to her room. Within a few minutes she was back, her hair in a high ponytail and her clothes from the night before replaced with a faded band t-shirt, jeans, and a purple women’s hoodie I recognized from when we were in high school. I was fairly certain she’d told me she’d bought it for a bet, and was going to return it. 

It seemed my smug grin was enough to make her defensive. “I, I just, I really liked it. I know I was supposed to return it, but it was so comfy and the lack of pockets made me feel like I could relate to girls and… and… Ugh.”

“Hey, hey. You’re a girl. You don’t need to explain yourself, Kara. You’re a girl, you wanted a girly thing. That’s normal.” I could have explained that she didn’t need to like feminine things to be a girl if she didn’t want to, but I wasn’t about to get into that while she was already anxious. It seemed she did like feminine things, so there was no need to make her feel like she was a stereotype for doing so.

She nodded almost reluctantly at my explanation, and from there I guided her to my car. I could tell she was somewhat nervous about going outside in ‘boymode’ (she was incredibly androgynous-leaning-femme, but I bet that she didn’t believe she could pass as a girl in the slightest), so I took her hand and made sure she knew I was there for her. I forced myself to ignore the rising feeling of joy in my chest as our fingers intertwined.

In too short a time we were safely at my car, having avoided almost everyone in the dorm. Most were probably still sleeping late, thankfully. Quiet days were good for going out while early in transition. There were fewer people to worry about judging you for being yourself, though for the most part almost nobody paid enough attention to truly care about you unless you directly interacted with them.

We made it through the drive thru with breakfast in hand, making sure to get extra for Aubrey and Erica. The dorm was slightly busier, but again nobody paid us much attention. Even the guys on our floor ignored the two of us (unfortunately we were holding on to the bags of food instead of one another’s hands). 

Aubrey or Erica was in the shower when we arrived, so we sat around the coffee table and dug in. Breakfast was mostly silent as we tore through our food, and I did my best to avoid even glancing in Kara’s direction. She was almost certainly going to have jelly or something on the side of her mouth and I’d have to force myself to point it out to her instead of wiping it off myself. It was easier to just not look at her.

I raised my eyebrow as I caught both of the girls exiting the bathroom, and Erica’s eyes widened as she realized they were not, in fact, home alone. As if it would change anything, she hid behind Aubrey, who to her credit barely seemed surprised by our presence. I was tempted to ask if they had fun, but I forced the urge to tease down. I knew it would bite me in the butt later if I did.

Thankfully it seemed as though my emotions were much more under control as I glanced at them. My heart didn’t flutter at the sight of them like it had just yesterday, though unfortunately it seemed Kara had already taken over that role. I could still appreciate their beauty, of course, and I was surprised to see a tattoo of a doe reaching from just under Erica’s towel to her knee, but they weren’t taking up rent in my head like they had.

Kara was blushing almost as brightly as Erica, but she actually managed to speak. “Breakfast is, um, ready when you’re ready.” Her voice was so much higher pitched as she avoided her roommate’s eyes, she was almost squeaking. I had to stop myself from giggling at how precious she was.

The other girls were quick to throw on clothes and take their part of the breakfast in silence. All it took was one glance around the table to know that both Erica and Kara were still red in the face, and I needed to focus all of my energy to not enter into a fit of laughter. Aubrey lacked my self control, and her boisterous laugh filled the room as soon as she first let out a snicker. I couldn’t help but follow suit, to the not nearly intimidating enough glares of the two blushing beauties.