There's no way I could be...gay?


She was sitting taking photographs of the squirrels living around the Blackwell dorms with Kate beside her sketching them when it happens.

"So are you and Chloe…dating?"

Max almost choked on her own spit.

"Wh-what?" she looked at Kate like she'd just grown an extra head, but the girl seemed unfazed by the reaction.

"I mean if you're worried about what I think, you really shouldn't be. The Bible preaches love, not hate, but my opinion doesn't really matter. Still, my abstinence campaign can still-"

"We're not!" Max almost shouted, throwing the hand that wasn't holding her camera up to stop the sandy-blonde before she could go on with that sentence. "Dating, that is. We're not dating. Chloe and I…we're just. I mean we've been best friends. We have been for years, I told you the story."

Kate shrugged, smirking lightly, like she knew more than Max. Max figured she probably did, but dreaded being told what exactly led Kate to the conclusion she and Chloe were…a thing.

"It's just, well, isn't that the person you're meant to date? Your best friend. And plus you're always together, I feel like one of these days I'm going to have to pry you from Chloe's cold, dead hands to hang out with you."

"Lots of people are like that," Max tried to brush it off, returning to her photography, "do you want to date your best friend?"

"Well no but I'm not…romantically interested in girls. Plus my best friend is my sister so that would be weird," she said, placing her sketchpad on the bench between the two of them and moving a hand to Max's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

"But…I'm not…gay?" Max protested, sounding uncertain. Kate just smiled warmly and squeezed her shoulder tighter.

"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything Max, if it's something you hadn't thought about yourself. I kind of just assumed, what with all those looks you two share…"

"Looks? It's not…that obvious is it?"

"Well, I'm not sure. I've always been good at reading body language," she said, removing her hand from Max's shoulder and moving to clasp Max's free hand between her own.

"I…I hadn't seen Chloe in person in so long. She'd grown up so much, but she was still my best friend, you know? And everything I liked in her when we were kids, all the stuff that made her fun, still there. Maybe a little harder to find, after…I left, her dad dying, but still there. So…I didn't want to say this out loud but yeah, okay, maybe I do have a tiny little crush on her," she sighed, feeling like a weight had been lifted off her chest from saying the words out loud, "but I'd never throw away over ten years of friendship over something like that."

Kate gave her a strange look then that Max couldn't quite figure out. Somewhere between…smug and pitying? That couldn't be right.

"Alright Max, I understand. But if you ever want to talk more about it, I'm here for you."


I'm not so happy with this one, but I don't really have a lot of time to revise it, and I don't want to leave you guys two days in a row without updating on time. Bad habits and all that.

Kate Marsh is a precious cinnamon roll too good for this world and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.

I'm not sure why Kate hasn't tried to kill herself. Maybe Chloe's confidence is rubbing off Max and making her stand up to more of Kate's tormentors. Or maybe it's just because it's my AU and I'm going to do what I want. I'll reply to comments tomorrow, as I'm about to fall asleep on my keyboard right now.