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“Things will work out,” I said, rubbing my thumb on her palm in what I hoped was a comforting manner. “But I completely understand your frustration. The whole situation is messed up.”

“Yeah,” said Brianne absently, like she was lost in her own thoughts. “Oh shit, I forgot I had to ask you something.”

“Yeah?”

“So… My cousin Marcy is getting married. The wedding is the weekend before graduation. Do you want to be my date?” She looked right at me, her expression a bit more cheerful.

“Uh, yeah, that’d be great!” I said. “And that reminds me… you called me your girlfriend.” I grinned.

“I mean… do you want to be my girlfriend?” Brianne asked with a small smile.

“Hell yeah,” I said.

“Good, then we’re girlfriends,” she said, and I couldn’t hide the blush from creeping up my cheeks. She blinked at me. “God, you’re cute, you know that?”

I blushed even more, the words lost in my mouth. “Th-thanks,” I managed. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

She laughed. “This is gonna be great, isn’t it?”

There was a pause where we both just smiled at each other, looking into each other’s eyes. Girlfriend. I had a girlfriend now. My heart felt like it never had before.

“Um, so there was something about a wedding?” I asked.

“Right, right,” she said. “I was just worried because you’ll be meeting my parents and like, all the rest of my family. And I don’t know how you feel about being an out gay couple?”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m sure I can handle it.

”

I wasn’t at all sure I could handle it, but I wanted Brianne to be able to have faith in me. She needed to know she could depend on me, and I had to suck it up and deal with this wedding myself.

“Cool,” said Brianne. “I’ll forward you the details in an email later.”

“Cool,” I said, snuggling up closer to Brianne. I wanted to make her feel better about everything, but I didn’t know how.

“I’d love for you to stay over, but I’m sure you have work to do,” she said. “I know I do.”

“I do have work. But hey, maybe sometime I can bring my work and we can be together,” I suggested.

She smiled. “Brilliant idea.”

Reluctantly, we got up from the couch and kissed a goodbye, lingering at the doorway.

“When will I see you again?” I asked.

“I’ll let you know,” said Brianne. “Once I figure out how miserable this week is going to be.”

“Okay,” I said, smiling softly. “See ya, Brianne.”

She waved and watched me as I walked down the street.

It wasn’t a long walk back to my place. When I got there, I saw that Marnie’s car was parked outside. She’d been helping Cass out since she came back from the ER. Apparently Cass would recover just fine soon enough—it had been an autoimmune disease, a rare case of rheumatoid arthritis striking someone young.

“Hey,” I said when I walked in, spotting the two of them cuddled up on the couch. I wasn’t jealous anymore because I’d been cuddled up with my own someone special just a few minutes ago. Now seeing happy couples made me feel happy.

“Hey,” said Cass, smiling. I was glad to see her cheerful. Even though I knew she’d be okay now, the whole incident with her knee had been terrifying, and I knew it was still painful.

“Where’d you come from?” asked Marnie, seeing my foil-covered and now empty dish of roast vegetables.