Part Two
Katie breaks the moment and redirects the conversation.
"How's you mom doing?" she asks with sincere concern.
Jessie is a little surprised at the question, but is prompt with her answer.
"She's fine, in fact, she'll be going home tomorrow."
Katie is happy to see Jessie's face light up.
"You're beautiful when you smile," Katie lets slip, disregarding the heaviness her words could have.
"What?"
"Well, not just when you smile, but...," Katie trails off and notices Jessie's worried expression, "...wow I'm being really inappropriate. Forgive me?"
Katie stands up, thinking it would probably be a good idea to leave soon. Jessie has enough reason to worry how recent news could change their friendship without tagging on that there may be other emotions Katie has to work around to avoid extra complications.
When she peers back at Jessie, waiting for a response, she notices a distant look in the younger girl's eyes.
"Billie?"
"Katie, can I ask you something?"
Jessie looks up at Katie seriously.
"Sure, anything," Katie responds, using a tone of casual in her voice that she definitely doesn't feel.
"How did you know that...that you liked girls?"
Jessie moves herself so she is lying on her stomach and propping herself up by the elbows, prepared to hear what Katie has to offer, hoping the question isn't too suspicious.
"It was kinda cliché I guess. There was this party...well two actually. Back in middle school, before I'd ever been on a date, I had the type of friends who got invited to things, so I'd go along with them. This one weekend somebody had absent parents and their older, party-loving brother was supposedly left to babysit. He had better places to be so, being a bunch of curious pre-teens, it was suggested we try seven minutes in heaven."
"Wait, people were playing that back in middle school? What happened to spin the bottle?"
"You're jumping ahead, we played spin the bottle at the next party...their parents were right upstairs."
"Alright, so what happened in the closet?"
"I got chosen to go in with this boy named Ronald. One of my friends had a huge crush on him so I felt guilty enough that I wasn't planning to kiss him, even in the spirit of the game. He didn't waste any time though. I barely had the chance to register that I was having my first kiss before his tongue was pushing its way into my mouth."
"You dealt with it for a whole seven minutes?"
"Yeah, my friends always insisted making out was some amazing experience. I thought maybe I'd adjust and start to like it."
Jessie's nerves are creeping up on her as the story continues. That's the same inner pep talk she had with herself when she wasn't interested in Kissing, or doing anything else, with Tad.
"Anyway, I convinced myself that the seven minutes in hell was Ronald's fault for being a bad kisser, until the next party. We were playing spin the bottle and there were no rules set so if your spin landed on someone of the same sex it was still fair game. It was this girl named Joyce's turn and the bottle ended up pointing at me."
Katie was pacing the floor for a while, but suddenly stops and faces Jessie to end her story.
"Long story short...when she kissed me I felt this twist in my stomach. Joyce achieved something in under ten seconds that Ronald couldn't pull off in seven minutes. It all fell into place for me from there. I mean, there was denial for a while, but it got me to where I am now."
Katie drags a chair from Jessie's desk and sets it in front of the bed, sitting in it and facing her.
"Got any other burning questions, Jess?"
"Just one," Jessie replies, gathering up the courage to act on the idea that has been swirling in her head.
"Okay, shoot..."
"Can I kiss you?"