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Sleepovers with Vanessa were always the highlights of breaks. Meeting up somewhere in town and spending the day together doing whatever they felt like. From shopping to swimming to reading in the library, they would have the entire day to themselves before getting picked up by someone’s parents and going to their house. Something about having sleepovers on a weekday instead of a weekend brought a sense of wonder to the whole afair. Or maybe they were just excited to not be in school. Either way, the two teens always planned these days months in advance.
Todays was spent wandering around downtown. They checked out their favorite stores and even discovered a new pizza place that had opened up a week ago (Sammy made a note to tell Heidi about this place, the cauliflower crust here was killer.) Eventually they made their way to the best boba shop in town and waited from Sammy’s parents to pick them up. On the drive home Sammy convinced her mom to let them get some candy from a gas station.
Arriving home with three bags of starbursts and an armful of chocolates they quickly settled in for the night. Sleeping bags were rolled out — they could never decide on who would get the bed so they just both stayed on the floor — and candy was divided up between the two. They passed the evening as usual but Sammy couldn’t get herself to fully focus. Extremely preoccupied with trying to figure out if tonight was the right time to do this.
The room was dark and still smelled like sugar. Sammy could feel the slightly messed up floor board digging into her back, but she was grateful for the distraction. It kept her awake.
She wriggled out of the sleeping bag cocoon and whispered; “Ness?”
“Mmm yeah Sammy?”
“Can I- can I tell you something?” Their mouth felt dry.
“Sure, what’s up?” Vanessa rolled over so that she was on her stomach looking and Sammy, propping her face on her hands. Sammy did the same and steadied their breath.
“I’m non-binary.”
“Cool! What are your pronouns?” Sammy felt like they were going to cry. Even though she knew that Vanessa was an ally it was such a relief to hear it said.
“She/they.”
“Awesome! Do you want me to just use she/her around your parents? Oh and do you want to use a new name?” Now she was crying.
“That would be great, and I still like Samantha and Sammy.” They tried wiping the tears off her face. ”Ness you’re the best.”
“Hey, I’m just looking out for my bestie! Come over here.” Vanessa hugged them and they buried the last few tears in her shoulder.
“That’s not everything. I’m also a lesbian,” Sammy said as she picked their head off of Vanessa’s shoulder and pulled away from the hug slightly, to wipe her eyes fully dry.
“Me too!” Vanessa’s eyes blew wide. “I mean- crap I didn’t want to make this about me.”
“No no no! You too?”
“Yeah I’m a lesbian! An aromantic lesbian.” They looked at each other for a moment before they both started to giggle and hugged each other again.
“This feels like a scene from a cheesy coming of age film.” Vanessa said.
“Please, I would write a way better scene than this.” Sammy pulled away from the hug to give Vanessa a smug look.
“Oh yeah? What would you do, oh ruler of cinema.”
“Well for starters there would be more lasers.” They looked at each other for a few moments before bursting into laughter.
“Does this mean we can talk about how attractive Jessica March is?”
“Oh my god she’s so pretty! Her hair!”
“Her hair!”
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Vanessa hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what Gregory had said in the parking lot. “Sammy has a crush on you.” did they really? “I was thinking about how she acted around you. They kept giving you this lovey-dovey look like you were made of gold.” for whatever reason those words had been playing on repeat in her head since then. Even now, when having a movie night-sleepover with Sammy, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Especially since they were curled together on the couch. Vanessa had had a squish on Sammy for ages, and desperately wanted to be queer platonic partners, but never knew if they wanted the same thing. Maybe she did have a shot.
The credits were rolling and Sammy was saying something about how dumb the twist villain was. No time like the present, just go for it.
“Hey, Sammy?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have a crush on me?” There was silence as the credits continued rolling.
“Yes. I’ll- I’ll back off of the physical affection and stuff if it makes you uncomfortable. I’m sorry-“
“No! Don’t be sorry! I just- Gregory pointed it out to me and I wanted to know if he was messing with me or not.”
“Oh. He wasn’t.” Vanessa couldn’t remember the last time that they had felt awkward around each other. This was horrible. Sammy was pulling away from the cuddle and Vanessa desperately scrambled for a way to save this conversation.
“Samantha, look at me.” Vanessa sat up and faced Sammy straight on. “I’m not mad or upset. You are my best friend in the entire world and literally nothing could change that. You having a crush on me? That’s actually great.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to-“
“You’re not making me uncomfortable, not in the slightest, I promise. If you were I would tell you, trust me.” She gave them a knowing look, silently reminder her of the several times they’ve discussed their boundaries. ”I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a while but I wasn’t sure if you wanted the same thing as me and- oh fuck it.” Vanessa put her hand on Sammy’s and took a deep breath. “Would you be my partner?” Sammy looked at her with eyes the size of saucers.
“Like, like a qpr?”
“Yeah, exactly like that.” Sammy was crying now, but so was Vanessa. They hugged her and she hugged back.
“I wouldn’t like anything more Ness.”
“I’m glad.” They say like that for a while.
“Ness?”
“Mmmm?”
“Can I kiss you?” Vanessa pulled away from the hug and gave her a soft smile.
“Not right now. Maybe later, actually definitely later, but not right now.”
“Alright! Can I choose the next movie then?”
“As long as it’s not horror.” Sammy placed her hand over their heart.
“Betrayal of the highest degree! Alas, I will be forced to choose something from the,” she shuddered for dramatic effect, “romcom genre.” Vanessa rolled her eyes and handed Sammy the remote.