"We should tell them, you know," Cordelia said quietly, her head resting on Misty's chest.

Misty absent-mindedly stroked Cordelia's hair, her hand curling around Cordelia's waist. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they figured it out."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. I mean, Nan kind knows, and she tells Queenie everything. And Mallory and Coco ain't dumb – I'm sure they picked up on at least some of the vibes."

"Yeah, you're right. I mean, we haven't exactly been subtle."

Misty laughed. "Considerin' we're in this school that's probably a bad thing."

"Well, as long as no-one else knows."

"Are you comfortable? With them knowin'?"

Cordelia hummed quietly, thinking. After a moment, she nodded. "Yes. I wouldn't have brought up telling them if I wasn't."

"We don't have to tell them, you know."

"I want to."

"As long as you're not, you know, thinkin' of tellin' them just cos you think it's what we should do."

Cordelia shook her head. She didn't want to leave without telling their friends – it would feel like they had left with unfinished business. She was tired of hiding her and Misty's relationship from them. She wanted to be honest. "I want to, if you want to."

"Cool. I was just checkin'."

"Thank you," Cordelia said, pressing a kiss to Misty's cheek.

"Course'," Misty replied.

"How do you want to do it?"

"Guess we just rip the bandaid off. Get it done with."

"Sounds good to me."

"I dunno if I wanna do it all at once."

"We can tell them in pairs, if that makes you more comfortable."

"I dunno. I guess I'm just scared."

Cordelia couldn't blame her, seeing as the last time people found out about Misty's sexuality they had wanted to burn her at the stake. She felt guilty all of a sudden – was Misty only agreeing because of what Cordelia wanted? She squeezed Misty's hand. "Me too, Mist. We don't have to tell them, you know, if you don't want to. It's okay."

"Nah, I wanna tell them. They're our friends and I think I'd just feel… strange if we left without tellin' them why."

Cordelia nodded. She thought for a moment, wondering how she could make it less stressful for Misty – maybe if it wasn't all their friends at once. That would make Cordelia more comfortable too, and she wondered why it hadn't occurred to her to do it this way before now. "How about we tell Queenie and Nan in one pair, and Coco and Mallory in the other? We could even have Zoe around, just in case."

Misty thought for a moment, before smiling. "That would be good."

"Okay," Cordelia said, watching Misty's face.

She shrugged. "I guess if it goes bad we'll be outta here soon."

"That's true. But I have a gut feeling that it'll be fine."

"Me too."

0o0o

"Are you nearly done, Coco?" Mallory complained. They had been waiting for Coco to pick out a new pair of underwear for the last ten minutes – it was, apparently, crucial that she find a pair that didn't look like granny panties – even if no-one else was going to see them. "I want to go to the pharmacy before we have to get back to school."

"Never mess with perfection, Mal," Coco tutted, shaking her head. She frowned at the clothes on the shelf – the only clothing store in town was not, unfortunately, stocked with anything not completely ugly. It made sense, though, if that was where Miss Venable shopped.

"I wasn't messing with anything! I just want to get –"

Misty's fingers nudged Cordelia's hand, and Cordelia smiled, turning to look at her. She wanted so badly to be able to just hold Misty's hand in public, but she knew it wasn't possible. Maybe one day, she thought.

"-to the pharmacy, yeah we got it," Coco said, rolling her eyes. She sighed, and put the panties she was holding back on the shelf. "Yeah. I'm done. It's not like they'll ever get actual nice clothes here anyway, I was just being hopeful."

Ignoring a glare from the shop owner, Coco turned around and smiled at her friends. "Ready?"

"We've been ready for ten minutes," Mallory said.

Walking behind their friends as they bickered, Misty and Cordelia glanced at each other. Misty nodded. There was no one else around, as most of the other girls – including Queenie, Nan and Zoe – had chosen to go see a movie rather than spend their few precious hours outside the school walking around the shops. It was the perfect time to talk to Coco and Mallory, and cross something of their to-do list.

Rip the banddaid off, Cordelia, she thought. She glanced at Misty, who nodded. It was time. "Actually, there's something me and Misty wanted to talk to you both about."

"Oh yeah?" Mallory asked, raising her eyebrows, obviously picking up on the two girls' nerves.

Coco frowned – she had obviously picked up on the nervousness as well. "You're not dying, are you? Oh god, please don't tell me you're dying. That would really suck."

"No-one's dying, Coco," Cordelia laughed.

Misty smiled. "It's somethin' – somethin' good, actually."

Misty and Cordelia looked at each other again. Cordelia reached for Misty's hand and squeezed it. "We're together," she said, avoiding the eyes of their friends.

"And we're still the same people, we're still your friends, nothin' else has changed-"

Coco and Mallory were silent for a moment. Cordelia didn't want to see their faces, so she furiously looked anywhere but – god, they were stupid to have thought this was going to be okay with them, hey should have just kept it a secret. As she listened to Misty's anxious rambling, Cordelia wondered what they had just done.

"About time," Coco said. She flipped open her compact and began fixing up her lipstick. "Oh god, Mal, this means we owe Queenie ten dollars."

"Ugh," Mallory said. "I didn't think we'd actually have to pay her that."

A profound feeling of hope and relief swept over Cordelia – she glanced at Misty, seeing all her own feelings reflected in her girlfriend's face. Were they really okay with it? And did that mean Queenie was as well?

"A bet's a bet, Mal, and you're the one always talking about honesty and blah, blah, blah."

"So you're okay with it?" Cordelia asked, still half-wondering if this was a joke. If Mallory and Coco were going to start laughing, pointing, yelling. It would have been very unlike them to react that way to anything – but Cordelia had learnt to fear the worst.

"Are we okay with it?" Mallory asked, looking surprised. "Of course we are! Why wouldn't we be?"

Misty cleared her throat and stared at the ground. Cordelia knew she was thinking about what had happened to her the last time people had found out she liked girls – she been shunned by practically everyone in her life except her sister, sent away from everything she ever knew so she wouldn't be burnt at the stake. Cordelia felt somewhat guilty – what right did she have to be worried, when Misty had gone through all that? Sure, people had reacted badly, but Fiona had kept most of it under wraps. Not for the first time, Cordelia felt immensely grateful that she hadn't gone through what Misty had. Cordelia knew that she wouldn't have been able to survive it – Misty was stronger than she could ever even dream of being.

"Well, we both know how people treat people like us in this world –" Misty said, fidgeting with a loose piece of string on her coat.

"Babe," Coco said, patting Misty's cheek. She reached for the loose string and pulled it free, which made Misty stop fidgeting and meet Coco's eyes. "We love you. We'd never treat you bad just for falling in love. And you fell in love with each other! That's perfect, because now I don't have to hire a private investigator/hitman to take out shitty boyfriends! This is perfect, and we would never treat you any different."

"Never!" Mallory said, shaking her head vehemently. She didn't comment on the private investigator/hitman, though.

"So you knew?" Cordelia asked, wondering when they had figured it out.

Coco rolled her eyes. "I mean, you're not subtle. Like, at all. Come on, the other day when we got back to school? You were two seconds away from fucking each other right there –" Mallory elbowed her hard in the side, and Coco stopped talking, the evil grin not leaving her face for a moment.

"Coco!" Cordelia protested, her cheeks going red. Misty only laughed.

"Well, it's true! And that's not even to mention the sexy looks you give each other…"

"So you had a bet?" Cordelia asked, desperate for Coco to stop talking – she thought she'd die of embarrassment if Coco said another word. Misty was still laughing.

"Oh, yeah," Mallory said, snickering slightly. "Coco and I said you'd tell us at the end of term. Queenie said it would be three weeks into term. Technically it's been two, but I'm still considering that a win on her part."

Coco huffed. "And now we lose ten dollars. Because of your convoluted moral code."

Mallory shrugged. "My moral code isn't convoluted. And it's five dollars each, technically, so stop your whining."

Cordelia had never loved her friends more than she had in that moment – in a perfect world, she wouldn't have had to worry about their reactions over her and Misty's relationship. In a perfect world she would be able to assume acceptance from everything. But in this world, she had been terrified. And in this world, she was grateful that the outcome of this conversation hadn't been different.

"Five dollars I could be spending right now!"

"Coco, your daddy's got billions!" Misty laughed.

"Not the point!" Coco protested.

"Can we go to the pharmacy now?" Mallory asked. "We have to go back in like fifteen minutes, and I need more mascara."

And so with that, the four of them walked back to school – two of them chatting amicably as if nothing of significance had just happened – and two of them feeling lightheaded with their relief.

Next, they would talk to Queenie and Nan. But Cordelia felt nowhere near as scared for that, because now they didn't have to doubt that their friends were all on their side.

0o0o

"What did you want to talk about so desperately?" Queenie asked. "I've got Venable's shitty essay to write."

"Why did you want to go all the way out here?" Nan asked curiously. They were standing behind the school, where students usually only came to smoke. But there was no-one here now – they had chosen to go straight after dinner, when most people were having showers or finishing off homework.

"We're just going to say this quickly," Cordelia said.

Misty grabbed Cordelia's hand, as she had done with Mallory and Coco. "Me and Delia are together. Romantically."

"Yeah, no shit," Queenie said, rolling her eyes. "Can we go inside now? It's cold."

"We already knew!" Nan said. "You're always looking at each other."

Queenie grinned. "So I guess that means Coco and Mallory owe me ten dollars each."

"Oh yeah, they seem to think it's five dollars each, ten total," Cordelia said, laughing.

The sense of relief she felt was unlike anything she'd felt before – she felt so much lighter now that she knew their friends would stick by them no matter what. She hadn't realised how much keeping it secret had been weighing on her, but she felt as if she had been carrying around a bag of flour and someone had lifted it from her shoulders. She squeezed Misty's hand tightly, and looked at her, seeing all her own feelings written on Misty's face.

"Bitches! They're trying to cheat me. So you know about the bet, huh? You told Coco and Mallory?"

"Yeah, in town today, when you were at the movies."

"You didn't need to tell us," Nan said. "We all knew a long, long time ago."

"Why didn't you say anythin'?" Misty asked curiously.

"I don't know," Queenie said. "I guess we didn't want to force you guys to come out before you wanted to. Zoe told us you were both really scared, so we didn't want to add to that I guess."

"Well, thank you, Queenie," Cordelia said, touched.

Misty pulled Queenie into a hug. The other girl returned it. "We both really appreciate it." Misty gestured for Cordelia and Nan to join the hug, and they did.

They were too busy hugging to notice Claire, Madison's closest minion/friend, standing around the corner, an unlit cigarette dangling from her fingers.

Dun dun!

I really enjoyed writing this chapter :)

ALSO I FUCKING LOVE DOUBLE FEATURE SO FAR LIKE HOLY SHIT ITS ACTUALLY AMAZING! I was kinda doubtful after 1984 but I'm really loving it so far. Frances! And Sarah! Are both back! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH also macauley culkin's character is really interesting? also harry can go to harry. Idk man just watch it it's worth it.

Chapter title from 'Unconditional Love' by Stevie Nicks.