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All Daya had to do was get through nine more months of school until she was free from Missouri. While she lived in the most liberal area of the state (which wasn’t saying much, it was Missouri after all), all she wanted to do was escape.
Chicago was calling her name. Daya had decided she wanted to go to college there when she was in middle school, and she was less than a year away from finally living her dreams—that is, if the University of Chicago ended up sending her an acceptance letter. Until it was time to apply to colleges, the brunette had to focus on one school day at a time, starting with attending her first class and starting off her senior year.
First period was choir, which Daya adored - she would consider herself a very good singer and was always a strong leader in the alto section. Walking into the room and taking a seat on the risers, she recognized most of the faces. There was Crystal, who the brunette liked but didn’t know how she managed to get put in choir four years in a row because she sounded like Kermit the Frog when she sang, as well as her best friend Gigi, who was a much better singer. Jan was also present, which didn’t surprise Daya in the slightest. She was one of the best altos in their grade; there was no doubt that the taller girl would have to spend yet another year fighting the blonde for a solo.
One face that Daya didn’t recognize was a new girl who was sitting on the bottom of the risers, talking to Olivia. She had frizzy jet-black hair, had a nose stud and a septum piercing, and was dressed in a tank top and shorts that would most definitely get her dress coded before the school day was over. This new girl made the brunette’s heart stop. She looked just like a dream—she was absolutely the prettiest girl Daya had ever seen in her seventeen years of living.
As much as she would like to start flirting with her on the spot, there was a slight issue; Daya was terrified to even think about making a move on this girl because she had fooled the entire school into thinking that she had been dating her best friend for the past three years.
It wasn’t like she was leading Mason on—he fully knew that Daya was a lesbian. Them dating started out as a joke because one of the guys in their science class was convinced they were together. It made no sense, because boys and girls were allowed to be friends without having romantic feelings for the other. They were making fun of him one night and decided that it would be hilarious if they pretended to be in a relationship. It was going to be for a month, but that was early freshman year and now it was still going on as they were starting off their senior year. It was a good arrangement though, because it helped Daya hide the fact that she was a lesbian extremely well.
The taller girl didn’t think she was ashamed of being a lesbian, she just didn’t want to come out. The only other lesbians in their grade, Angie and Camden, were always met with disgusting unwanted comments and jokes about scissoring made by the straight guys in their classes, and it made Daya’s stomach churn. She knew she would be subjected to that if she ever decided to drop the act.
Not making a move on the new girl would be easy, though. The taller girl had had a handful of crushes since Mason became her beard, and nothing the girls had done was ever too tempting. Daya had gone her entire high school career without her head going too far into the gutter, what’s another nine months?
Their choir teacher cut Gigi off in the middle of telling Daya details about her summer trip to Italy, “As you know, today will be extremely easy as I have to relisten to your voices and separate the altos from the sopranos. But first, I want our new student to introduce herself!”
It was a smaller school, so having a new student was a rarer occasion. The girl Daya had her eye on went up to face the class, putting on the fakest smile imaginable before opening their mouth. “Hi, I’m Bosco. I’m eighteen, I moved here this summer from Great Falls, Montana and I use she/they pronouns. That’s all of the appropriate things I can say.”
Their name was unique, and her speaking voice was extremely attractive to Daya; perhaps this Bosco person would make keeping her mind out of the gutter a bit more difficult than she originally planned. The taller girl kept her eye on them until they sat back down in her spot on the risers that happened to be directly in front of her.
Mrs. Vaday started calling people up in groups to evaluate their singing voices while the students who she wasn’t listening to were allowed to sit and talk. Daya didn’t speak to anyone because she couldn’t come up with anything clever to say to Bosco, but she did eavesdrop on the conversation that Gigi and Crystal were having.
Bosco invited herself in the ‘argument’ the two started having about a meme that Gigi didn’t understand, taunting the redhead. The brunette had no clue what they were referencing, but it sounded like Crystal had found a picture of a sign that offered catering for horse funerals, whatever that meant.
“You’ve never thrown a funeral for your horse?” Bosco teased. Gigi shook her head in confusion. “I threw one for my horse before I sold him for weed. Just kidding, he lives with my grandpa now.”
The redhead was ready to give up, “I don’t have a horse.”
“But you’re rich?” Daya chimed in, “Why no horse?”
“Daya, you’re supposed to be on my side!” Gigi whined, Crystal repeating what she said in a high-pitched voice.
“Just because my boyfriend sells you weed doesn’t mean I have to be on your side.” Daya says, flashing Gigi a bright grin. Bosco sent the taller girl a confused look when she said that, sending shivers down the brunette’s spine.
“Boyfriend?” Was all they asked, clearly biting their tongue.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah! Daya has been dating Mason since freshman year. They’re so cute!” Crystal chimed in.
Bosco questioning her boyfriend worried the taller girl for a moment. Most of the skepticism towards her ‘relationship’ with Mason was because he was quite a bit shorter than Daya, which was backed up with something about how most boys like girls who are a foot shorter than them. Bosco didn’t know who her supposed boyfriend was, though, so why the look and the question?
Daya didn’t allow herself to get too worried though—when it came down to it, she was excellent at arguing and defending herself. Surely a person she had known for less than ten minutes wouldn’t be able to see through nearly four years of lying.
They were called over by their choir teacher to sing for her, and everyone in the group besides Gigi was put in the group of altos. Bosco had a wonderful singing voice, which didn’t surprise Daya considering how buttery their talking voice was.
Instead of going back over to the three and continuing the conversation about the horse funeral, she isolated herself at the back of the risers, messaging her ‘boyfriend’ on Discord about current events.
bug eater:
oh my fucking god you’re not gonna believe this
mason (cool):
what?
bug eater:
hottest girl i’ve ever seen is in my choir class
mason (cool):
is this a crystal or orion situation
bug eater:
first of all, unlike crystal, bosco can actually sing. and secondly. WE DO NOT SPEAK ABOUT WHEN I LIKED ORION
mason (cool):
i can’t unhear you saying you wanted her to put her hand up your ass like you’re her puppet
bug eater:
please stop talking i was different back then
mason (cool):
it was literally last year
bug eater:
grrrr
mason (cool):
daya rhea, you’re my best friend and i love you so please actually talk to this girl
bug eater:
i’ll try.
She wanted to, but she was petrified of letting her guard slip after how long she had put up her straight girl facade.
Daya had learned to love gym class.
Before she found out she had diabetes, she hated gym. She was extremely bad at anything that involved a ball and everyone else besides her treated the basic game of soccer that they were playing like it was the Olympics. It wasn’t uncommon for them to say terribly rude things to Daya’s face when she didn’t do what they thought she was capable of. Hearing one of the irritating boys say “She’s, like, seven feet tall, why does she suck so bad at basketball?” was one of the funniest things to come out of participating.
After her diagnosis, she had realized that it doubled as a ‘get out of gym free’ card. The most her past gym teachers would let her do is walk around the field by herself while monitoring her insulin pump and it was marvelous—forty five minutes of walking around, alone with her thoughts and her AirPods in her ears. The only downside was that she had to hear girls in the locker room whisper about how lucky she was and how it was unfair that the gym teachers treated Daya differently, which led to some interesting half-naked arguments.
She had a feeling she would love gym class just a little bit more this year, though, because she had followed Bosco (who was now wearing the famous ugly and oversized white shirt the staff gave out when they dress coded someone) into the locker room where their gym teacher asked everyone to meet up in to go over what to expect for that year before having everyone pick out their lockers.
Bosco sat on the floor in the corner, hugging their knees to their chest. As much as the taller girl wanted to plop down right next to them and start talking to her new crush, she snagged the last available spot on one of the benches instead.
When their gym teacher started talking, she promptly tuned it out—it didn’t concern her, and she didn’t care enough to find out what the rest of the class would have to do.
After their gym teacher finished her long winded rant about how everyone with long hair was required to tie their hair back or be written up—while also not offering hair ties to her students—they finally got to pick out their lockers. The available ones had green stickers with the locker number written on them, and there weren’t very many left. There were two lockers on the top row, which Daya needed to secure since she was the tallest girl in the twelfth grade.
“Getting the locker on the top shelf because you’re taller?” Someone observed as Daya peeled off the sticker, claiming her ideal locker. She turned towards the voice, only to see Bosco ripping off the sticker on the locker right next to hers.
“Yeah, I would rather smash my head into the concrete floor than get on my knees to get into my locker.” Daya said bluntly, making the girl with black hair snicker.
“That’s one way to phrase it.”
Despite having wasted a quarter of the class period, their gym teacher still required that they get dressed to play a game of dodgeball. The reputation of the gym teacher preceded her, so the class, including Daya, was prepared for this. What she wasn’t prepared for was the fact that having a locker next to Bosco meant that she would have to see them get changed every single day. She had never paid too much attention to the other people around her getting changed, but she felt like she had been electrocuted when she looked up for half a second and found Bosco only wearing a lace bralette and her gym shorts.
She looked away before they noticed her staring, but it appeared that keeping up her straight girl persona was going to be harder than she thought. She could do it, though.
Right?
It was not easy, and she was trying as hard as she possibly could.
While Daya only had two classes with Bosco, it was too much. Whether it was hearing them sing in choir, the black haired girl involving herself in the conversations the taller girl would have with Crystal and Gigi, or having to see Bosco in their underwear before gym and then watching them badly play sports, it was a lot.
Bosco was just as funny and charming as they were hot, something Daya loved and hated at the same time. Every single interaction she had with them ended with her liking them even more.
They were friends now, which was mind boggling to the taller girl. She felt like Bosco was the coolest person ever, and the fact that they enjoyed her company enough to keep coming back made Daya feel giddy.
“Daya! Are you and Mason going to homecoming this year?” Crystal asked once Daya had sat down on the risers.
“Uh.. maybe. I’ll talk to him, we’ll see.” Daya and Mason weren’t ones to go to school events. They had gone to homecoming their freshman year only because it happened a few weeks after their fake dating scheme began and they wanted to be believable, but that was all they wanted to do. To Daya, getting high in Mason’s room while they watched stupid YouTube videos was one thousand times better than dressing up to hang out in the gym while shitty music played.
“Well, if you do, we should all go together! Me and Crystal are going—as friends, of course!” Gigi chirped, obviously lying about the last part. (Not everyone was as good of a liar as Daya was, and that was okay.)
Bosco butted their way into the conversation the three were having once again, “Would you mind if I joined you? I don’t have a date or anything, I just want to go for the bathroom drugs.”
“Yeah!” Crystal called out, “The more, the merrier. Oh my God, can you imagine how awesome the photobooth pictures would be if we were all in them?”
She was originally going to tell Crystal and Gigi that Mason had said no to going to homecoming, but that settled it. The brunette definitely had to go if Bosco was going.
bug eater:
we’re going to homecoming lol
mason (cool):
…. why do you want to go?
bug eater:
what? i can’t want to go to homecoming?
mason (cool):
you hate wearing heels. and nice dresses. and people.
bug eater:
well uh actually gigi and crystal invited us to go with them and then bosco invited themself and now i wanna go
mason (cool):
i do miss selling weed to freshmen… let’s do it.
bug eater:
you’re the best friend / beard ever
mason (cool):
i know :D
Daya felt like she had done an incredibly poor job at acting straight as of recently. Bosco turned her world upside down, and she figured that if he was there, it would help her get back to normal.
Meanwhile, they ate lunch together every day with most of Daya’s choir friends and a couple of Mason’s friends, making sure they did couple-y things to keep up the act, but Bosco had never joined them for that. To make sure that Bosco did witness Daya being straight, she brought Mason to go dress shopping.
While the girl with black hair had never outwardly doubted Daya being straight, she felt pressured to amp up the act whenever they were around; which is exactly what she did when it was time.
Gigi went first, trying on way too many dresses to keep count of, until she finally settled for a shorter, deep red velvet dress. Crystal had too much to say about it—such as how it fit the ginger’s body—that it could not be considered platonic.
Daya went next, only having a few options that fit her well because of how tall she was. The first two were hideous, and she was praying that the last dress, which was pink, wouldn’t be so ugly. “How’s this?” She stepped out of the dressing room, twirling around to give everyone a 360 of the dress.
“I love that!” Crystal squealed, clapping in excitement.
“I want that dress on my floor.” Mason winked, making Gigi gasp and Bosco roll their eyes.
“Gross, Mason!” The redhead squealed.
“Is this too much for homecoming, though? It feels kinda prom-y.” She asked, hoping Bosco would chime in and compliment her like Crystal did to Gigi.
“No, not at all!” Gigi insisted, which was debatable considering she loved overdressing. “You should get it!”
“It looks great, babe.” Mason reassured her, “Go for it.”
“I like it.” Bosco said simply, satisfying Daya.
While she never thought pink was her color, she didn’t mind it too much. She loved the cut of the dress too, it was by far the best dress she had tried on—and Bosco liked it.
“I think this is the dress, then!”
Crystal ended up getting a suit that had a bizarre pattern that made Daya’s eyes hurt. Mason didn’t get a new suit, saying that he was sure that the one he wore during freshman year would still fit, but got a tie that matched the color of his ‘girlfriend’s’ dress.
Bosco had a hard time finding a dress they liked that was appropriate for homecoming, finally settling on a long sleeved, black dress with white polka dots on it. Daya thought it was the cutest thing she had seen them in, but didn’t utter half of the words she was thinking, playing up the PDA with Mason to distract herself.
Despite how good everyone looked, homecoming was not that fun for Daya.
She amped up the straight girl persona that night, making sure she was attached to Mason’s hip when he wasn’t selling weed. The two slow danced for what felt like hours, Daya sneaking looks at Bosco who was at the snacks table whenever she could.
Gigi and Crystal eventually started dancing together too, dropping the ‘as friends’ act and not caring about what everyone else there thought about two girls slow dancing. Daya envied them, she wished that it could be her and Bosco dancing to the terrible music.
Her friends weren’t the only ones dancing together. While Daya was watching Bosco out of the corner of her eye, she had to witness Jasmine, a girl from their gym class, going up and asking the girl with black hair to dance. Bosco said yes.
The brunette didn’t know why she expected her crush to be able to read her mind and not show interest in somebody else. It didn’t help that the person Bosco chose to dance with happened to be Jasmine Kennedie, a girl who Daya wasn’t particularly fond of.
Seeing Bosco and Jasmine team up during gym bothered her, but she never thought it was anything too serious. Daya used to have friends that she exclusively hung out with during gym and assumed that the situation with the two was similar because she had never heard the girl with black hair mention the blonde outside of that context.
It stung, but it wasn’t like anything had happened between them. The most that had happened was them sharing a couple of longing looks, neither of them saying a word. Jasmine talked a lot though, so she supposed it made sense that Bosco would go for her instead.
Daya stopped watching Bosco after that. She didn’t want to see her with Jasmine, not if they were going to follow in the footsteps of her and Mason and start kissing.
By the end of the night, Daya was getting overwhelmed: Jasmine existed, her feet hurt from her ill-fitting shoes, and she was starting to regret going to homecoming. She just wanted to be alone.
While the bathroom wouldn’t be completely empty, she headed that way anyway, looking forward to locking herself in a stall to recharge.
To no one’s surprise, Bosco was at the sink, a joint they most likely got from Mason in hand. “You almost look like you’re having fun.” She observed after taking a hit.
“Dances aren’t really my thing,” Daya admitted, “I would rather just cuddle while Mason watches whatever anime he feels like putting on. But, hey, it’s the last year we get to do this.”
“Are you going to try to convince me that you’re the little spoon?”
“It’s not his fault he’s 5’8! We make it work, though.” She wanted to ask about Jasmine, but Daya was already irritated, there was no way she would be able to hide her true feelings if Bosco said something she didn’t want to hear, “But is it a really good idea to smoke a joint in the bathroom? I could smell it from outside.”
“Does it matter? Your… boyfriend sold like, half of the freshmen weed tonight. It’s not like I’m the only one who’s high.”
“Yeah, but you’re the only one stupid enough to smoke it inside.” She argued.
“Fine, party pooper—I’ll stop. Crystal is probably looking for us to take group photos, anyway.”
Despite wanting to have some alone time, she followed Bosco out of the bathroom and they went as a group to the photobooth. They were there for a while, taking a bunch of pictures to make sure that every person had plenty of photos from their ‘unforgettable night’. The only thing unforgettable about that night was how miserable the taller girl was, and how tightly Bosco gripped her arm while they were taking pictures of just the girls, and how the girl with black hair tickled her lightly to make her smile during the last picture.
To Daya’s annoyance, Bosco mentioned Jasmine a lot after homecoming.
The taller girl was already stressed enough because she had to compete against Jan for a solo at their first performance, and Jasmine being brought up in their morning conversations didn’t help.
Crystal and Gigi ate it up, of course. The ginger was incredibly nosey and wanted to hear every detail of every interaction Bosco and Jasmine had at homecoming, and the girl with black hair did not spare a single detail, to Daya’s horror.
“I really didn’t think that a pretty girl was going to kiss me while we slow danced, but I’m not mad about it at all. She was an amazing kisser.”
“That’s soooo cute!” Crystal gushed, “Are you going to ask her out?”
“You should!” Gigi chimed in, “She’s obviously so into you.”
Bosco smirked at that, briefly glancing at the taller girl before answering. “I’m thinking about it. I never thought about it until she asked me to dance, but I think she’s pretty cool; Definitely makes gym more manageable. Sorry, Daya.”
As much as she wanted to say something about how Crystal and Gigi were idiots, how that was a terrible idea and that Bosco should date her instead, Daya stayed quiet.
“How would you ask her out?” Gigi asked, and before Bosco could give her an answer, Daya excused herself, heading to the nearest bathroom. She locked herself in a stall and started sobbing, she couldn’t do it anymore.
The thought of seeing Bosco with Jasmine was torture to her. She cursed herself out for being so stupid, for not coming clean sooner. Everything she wanted, she couldn’t have, all because Daya couldn’t even bother being honest to her friends.
This was her reality now. Daya used to love watching Bosco during gym but now she would stare straight at the ground while she walked laps by herself. The two trans girls would talk a lot in the locker room, Jasmine coming from across the room to discuss something that did not matter with the girl with black hair. Who fucking cares about the fact that one of Jasmine’s cats can use the toilet like a human? Bosco, apparently.
As much as it hurt her, Daya had fully stopped making the effort to talk to Bosco less than a week after homecoming. It felt like no matter who they were talking to, Jasmine would always come up in conversation.
Gigi and Crystal didn’t seem to mind. They were listening to Bosco go on and on about how good Jasmine was at Genshin Impact, and as much as Daya still enjoyed hearing their voice, they were wishing and hoping that they would zip their mouth shut. She was tired of hearing about Jasmine all the time, and it would only get worse once they actually became official.
“You don’t look happy,” Bosco observed after she finished with her story, “Trouble in paradise?”
Daya left out a huff, forgetting that other people can see her facial expressions, “I’m fine. Me and Mason are fine. I can have a bad day for no reason, you know.” Her tone was bitchy but she didn’t care.
“I don’t know, you’ve been grumpy ever since homecoming.” Crystal chimed in, “Are you absolutely positive?”
“God, yes!” Daya shouted, “Leave me alone, I’m just PMSing.” Gigi and Crystal seemed to buy the little lie, but Bosco’s response stressed the brunette out.
“If you have something to tell us, we’re here for you.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“I don’t have anything to tell you. I promise.” She lied, praying that they would move on. “As long as Jan doesn’t get my solo, I have no problems.”
Bosco chuckled at that, “If you say so!”
Why their gym teacher made everyone go outside to play softball when it was November, Daya didn’t know. What she did know was that the rest of their class were freezing their asses off because, of course , their teacher also didn’t let anyone wear longer pants despite it being cold enough for it to start snowing.
The taller girl had spent half of the class walking in the field before she resorted to hiding in one of the dugouts to try to warm up. It was made out of brick, and if she sat down, no one was able to see her. The concrete was cold on her thighs, but overall, it was a tad warmer than walking around in the cold.
Daya heard a whistle blow, prompting the class to switch positions. What she wasn’t expecting was Bosco to appear in the dugout, sitting down right next to the brunette. “I’m fucking freezing. I’m joining you.”
How the girl with black hair had noticed that Daya went to seek out shelter in the dugout when they were supposed to be pitching, the taller girl didn’t know. She didn’t mind, though. She just hoped that they wouldn’t go out of their way to bring up Jasmine.
“But you’re from Montana?” The brunette laughed, expecting Bosco to be immune to the cold.
“By the time November rolled around in Great Falls, we weren’t forced to go outside in shorts. We had gym inside from October to April.”
Daya couldn’t argue with that. “Our gym teacher is just insane. I used to dread being a senior before I was able to use my diabetes as an excuse to get out of gym solely because I didn’t want her to be my teacher.”
It was a running joke that the senior gym teacher was awful, but Daya had been a little too busy staring at whatever Bosco was doing from across the field to notice their teacher treating her students badly.
“She made Jasmine cry today because her hair tie snapped while she was putting her hair up. Like, what do you want her to do? Not have hair?”
There it was. Daya couldn’t help but feel sorry for Jasmine, though; she cried a lot. “That’s such bullshit. I feel so bad for everyone.”
“I’m just glad they let me and Jasmine in the girl’s locker room. Transphobia aside, teenage boys are fucking concerning - especially country boys.”
“Ew,” was all she had to say. Daya didn’t have anything to add to the conversation as a cis woman.
Bosco talked some more shit about the people in their class, telling Daya all about how she had to fight ‘that stupid ginger’ over the pitcher poistion and only won because they convinced their team to vote for who they wanted to pitch. They seemed pretty proud of it, which would make sense why she ditched the game when she would have to actually hit the ball.
“I know you’re gay, Daya.” They said out of nowhere, making the warm feeling the taller girl had from spending alone time with her crush turn into unbearable anxiety.
“I’m not gay. Why do you think that?” Daya asked for the sole purpose of stopping the thing that gave her away to Bosco.
“First of all, you looked miserable at homecoming. Second, you look like you want to die every time I mention Jasmine. You also wear that damn Paramore shirt all the time. No fan of that band is straight. I’m not stupid, Daya; I can feel your eyes on me when we’re getting dressed for gym.”
The brunette rolled her eyes. “I just hate dances and I’m not gay for listening to Paramore. I don’t listen to Hayley’s face, I listen to the actual music. I’ve just always hated Jasmine and I’m not looking at you on purpose, you’re just always next to me when we’re getting changed.”
Bosco let out a snort before bursting into laughter, “Are you hearing yourself? You sound fucking ridiculous!”
“I don’t!” She didn’t know why she was fighting so hard against the gay allegations when Bosco clearly knew the truth.
“Okay, then. I was so wrong. You’re straight,” Bosco threw her hands up in defeat.
“I’m straight. Just because I’m emo and I hate Jasmine doesn’t mean anything.” Daya was getting the last word, hoping it would prevent Bosco from bringing it up in the future.
The two heard their teacher blow her whistle again, this time announcing that it was time to go back to the locker rooms. Daya got up, only for Bosco to pull her back down, grabbing the brunette’s chin and kissing her softly.
Daya’s eyes widened, but she didn’t dare to pull away. This was what she had wanted since the day she first laid eyes on Bosco. But why in the world was she kissing the brunette if she was basically dating Jasmine?
“That’s what I thought.” The black haired girl observed after they pulled away and got up, heading back to the locker room. “I’m always right. Don’t forget that.”
Safe to say that Daya was a wreck the rest of the day. She couldn’t think straight, the only thing her mind would do was replay the kiss instead of trying to figure out what was on her calculus worksheet.
She couldn’t even tell Mason until she got home from school. It was too big of a conversation to have over text and the last thing she wanted was to tell him in person and have someone to overhear her telling her ‘boyfriend’ of three years that she had kissed someone else, and a girl too.
After she had gotten home and got herself an after school snack, she logged onto Discord and saw that Mason was online. She pressed call and waited impatiently for him to pick up.
“This better be good, I paused the newest episode of Stone Ocean to answer.” He said sarcastically, which usually would make Daya laugh, but she broke down completely once she heard his voice.
She managed to get out the sentence, “Bosco knows that we’re lying.”
“What? Did you tell them?”
Daya shook her head even though he couldn’t see her face. “No! We were hanging out alone in the dugout and all of a sudden she told me that she knows I’m a lesbian. I denied it of course, but then they kissed me and I don’t know what the fuck to do now!” She was crying now, she felt so incredibly stupid even though nothing terrible had happened.
“Fucking finally!” Mason cheered, “I mean, uh… You know we aren’t actually in a relationship, right? You can get with Bosco if you want to.”
While he was the only good guy Daya knew, he would never understand how she was feeling. As much as she wanted Bosco, she felt overwhelmed at the things she would have to do to get Bosco to be hers. The taller girl didn’t want it to be public knowledge that she was a lesbian, but she didn’t want Bosco to feel like they needed to hide their relationship if they wanted to shout from the rooftops that Daya was her girlfriend.
It was hard. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do. We haven’t talked since the kiss.” She explained, wiping the tears off of her cheeks. “I don’t even know why I denied it. I’ve wanted Bosco since the first day of school and I feel like I ruined my chances. Plus, Jasmine exists. But that might not be a problem anymore since they kissed me.”
“Well, they know you’re not immune to being kissed by pretty girls, at least.” That managed to get a laugh out of Daya. “I don’t think you’ve ruined anything.”
Daya didn’t say anything, even though she knew that Mason was right.
“Do you have any of their social media? You should reach out because who knows when you’ll be alone again.” She didn’t, but she caught herself opening up Instagram and typing ‘Bosco Constantino’ into the search bar.
Only one account came up, and Daya clicked on it. It was in fact Bosco, who liked to post a lot of selfies with a filter that gave herself cat ears. The brunette got so mesmerized by the pictures they had posted that she forgot what she was doing and that she was still on a voice call with Mason.
“Does she have Instagram?” He asked again, pulling Daya out of her thoughts about how she wanted to kiss Bosco again.
“Yeah. What should I say?”
“I don’t know.” He mumbled, both of them not speaking as Daya stared at Bosco’s Instagram until she came up with something to say.
[dayabetty:] hey
[dayabetty:] you were right
“I sent something. Now it’s time to have my second anxiety attack of the day!”
“It’ll be okay, Daya. I promise you.” Mason tried to comfort her, which didn’t work at all because Bosco replied as soon as those words left his lips.
[hereisbosco:] about what? ;)
[dayabetty:] shut up!
[hereisbosco:] but it’s so fun to get a rise out of you…
[hereisbosco:] on a more serious note, if you want to talk about it, we can meet up before school. i usually get there at 7 to hang out in the library
The brunette was relieved to receive the second message. While she was prepared to have a deeply personal conversation over Instagram DMs, it wasn’t her first choice.
[dayabetty:] …are there other people present in the library?
[hereisbosco:] it’s usually just me in there until like 7:30
[dayabetty:] i guess i’ll see you then
“Looks like I’m going to school early tomorrow to talk to Bosco.” Daya enlightened Mason, “I’m scared.”
“Dude, it’s going to be okay. If it goes wrong, I’ll bake you some edibles to make up for it.” He tried to make it better yet again, making Daya laugh.
“Mason, did you forget that I’m diabetic?”
“Fuck!”
They stayed on call for a while, Mason eventually sharing his screen so they could both watch the episode of the anime he had on before Daya called. By the time they hung up several hours later so he could go to bed, the brunette felt better about everything that had happened at school.
Daya had managed to get through the night without being so anxious that she felt like she was going to puke, and by the time she was ready to go to school an hour early, she felt okay despite not knowing the outcome of the conversation she was about to have.
Bosco was curled up in one of the chairs by the fiction section when Daya got to the library, typing away on her phone. The brunette sat down in the seat next to them, tapping their shoulder to pull her attention away from a video of a panda she was watching on Instagram. “Why do you hang out at the library? You seem like someone who doesn’t want to be here.”
Bosco shrugged, locking her phone and putting it in their pocket, “I don’t want to be here, but it’s better than home. But this meeting is about you.”
Daya twiddled with her thumbs, “Yeah…it is.”
“I want you to say it out loud.”
“Say what out loud?” The brunette asked even though she knew what Bosco was on about.
“Bosco was right and I’m a tall, dumb lesbian.” She smirked, Daya shooting them a glare.
“Bosco was right. That’s all you’re making me say.”
That seemed to satisfy them, “Fair enough.”
“It all started off as a joke. Mason hated this guy in our science class and the dude wouldn’t even learn my name, he’d just call me Mason’s girlfriend. It became an inside joke and eventually we decided that the guy would be dumb enough to believe it if we said we were dating. And… so did everyone else… Now we’re here.”
“Your performance was about as great as Gigi trying to convince me that her and Crystal were just ‘practicing’ leaving hickies on each other for when they get boyfriends.” Bosco laughed, “God, homecoming was great.”
Daya couldn’t help but be slightly offended by that comparison, “Hey, me and Mason fooled the entire school for almost four years. I’m definitely a better liar and actor than Gigi is.”
“I’m incredibly glad that I’m smarter than everyone in this fucking town.” They paused before changing the tone of the conversation. “What do you want to happen?”
“I don’t know what I want or what to do.” Daya confessed, feeling her heart start to race. Bosco was staring into her soul, waiting for her to finish her thoughts. She was terrified to confirm everything that the girl with black hair had been suspecting. “I… I want you so bad but it’s just a lot. Like, yeah, I’ve had crushes since the fake dating thing started but it never escalated like this.”
“Do you want to come out?”
“I don’t know.” Daya had no clue what she wanted anymore. The idea of being with Bosco excited her like nothing else had but she knew what she had to do to live in that reality. Oddly enough, the idea of coming out didn’t seem as scary as it did before. “Why are you even asking me this? You want to date Jasmine, not me.”
Bosco let out a snort, “No, I don’t. I want to date you.”
The brunette was trying to find a coherent train of thought after hearing those words leave Bosco’s mouth, “But you two kissed at homecoming!? And you haven’t gone a day without mentioning her in our conversations in weeks!”
“I was lying, Daya. You’re not the only person who can pretend to be into someone. Jasmine is like my little sister, I don’t have any interest in her.”
“But you kissed her?”
“It was actually a two second peck on the lips, stop being so worried about that.”
The taller girl had never been more relieved in her life. “Oh my fucking God. Hearing you talk about how pretty she was every single morning made me want to eat wet cement.”
“Oh, I know.” Bosco cackled, “You made it clear before you didn’t like her, which is exactly why I chose her. I planned to take it further, but Jasmine didn’t want to wreck her chances with the girl she actually likes.”
“You’re a bitch!” Daya laughed, leaning forward to shove at their shoulder.
“How? By doing the same thing you were?”
“That’s different.” She insisted, “I’m sorry.”
“We wouldn’t have to shout from the rooftops that we’re a thing, by the way.” Bosco said, bringing it back to the conversation they were having before, “I would like to be able to tell my friends, though.”
The brunette ran a list of all of Bosco’s friends through her head, “Including Jasmine?”
Bosco nodded, “Including Jasmine.”
The girl with black hair was a loner, so it wasn’t like the entire grade would know. “Okay. I think I can handle that.”
“We can go as slow as you want. I’m not expecting you to show me off or anything, especially since you’re pretending to have a boyfriend.”
Daya was caught off by how gentle Bosco was being, but she really liked it. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want you to feel like I’m keeping you a secret.”
“I won’t feel like that, princess. We can be as annoying and couple-y as we want to be in the privacy of our own homes.”
Daya grinned at that. “Do you want to come over tonight? There’s a Pawn Stars marathon later.”
Bosco couldn’t help but laugh at that, “ Pawn Stars? What are you, a forty year old man?”
The taller girl squealed, “It’s a good show!”
“Fine. I would love to watch Pawn Stars with you tonight.”
Daya didn’t know if it was the fact that Bosco liked her, or the fact that the girl with black hair leaned in to kiss her again, but for the first time in ages, she felt like everything was going to be okay.
She just hoped she was right.