Sunshine, Max Mayfield

𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 - PUTTING THE 'FUN' IN FUNERAL

The Gry's girl looked to him quizzically.

"...You said there was a guy. From another school?"

Rosie's eyes widened in realisation, recalling the flimsy lie she had strung together weeks ago, "That kinda fell through."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh," Rosie sighed thickly, avoiding his gaze.

The burden of her barely-told secret was crushing before, and since she had told Chrissy (which was totally unplanned), it had significantly lessened. She didn't feel ashamed of the fact she was a lesbian, so to speak, Rosie held more guilt over the fact she hadn't told her closest friends about it yet. There had always been stuff pulling her back, Dustin's hurt feelings if he found out Max was flirting with her (Rosie still wasn't over that, by the way), or the fact that it would definitely be inappropriate to blurt out something so private as sexuality when you were running for your lives. But all of those circumstances had disappeared, so there was really no point in hiding behind them anymore. She needed to do this. Rosie was ready.

"Dustin?"

The boy looked up, adjusting his black cap, "Yeah?"

"I'm..." Rosie tried to search for the proper words. She just had to rip the bandaid off, "I like girls."

Quiet. Very, very quiet. The occasional chirping of birds only heightened Rosie's bubbling anxiety.

"And...you like Max?"

Wait. Hold the damn phone. Rosie's jaw dropped open as the words escaped Dustin's mouth before she felt the blood rush to her cheeks in embarrassment. Was it really that obvious? "I— how could you tell?"

"I felt the electricity between you," Dustin admitted, face suddenly a shade of melancholy, "And...well it was pretty obvious. Max barely even looked at Lucas and me, she was too busy with you."

Rosie bit her tongue, mulling this over, "Oh. Okay. Cool, cool cool cool cool. I don't think she likes me back, though."

Dustin's jaw dropped, "You're joking, right?"

"...No?"

"Look," Dustin started, placing a hand over Rosie's, giving her a small smile, "I know for a fact she likes you. You said she flirted with you, according to Steve's standards, she kept staring at you, you were like, all over each other after we left the tunnels—!"

"Hey!"

"Just take my word for it," Dustin assured her, and Rosie turned her attention back towards Mews' early grave.

"Alright...I'll— I'll ask her to dance at the Snow Ball," Rosie told him confidently, nodding as if to convince herself this was a good idea.

"Atta girl," Dustin patted her back encouragingly, before he moved on to a different conversation topic, "So, for cat names, thoughts on Captain Kirk?"

"Definitely not."

"Darth Vader?"

"Maybe we should do something simple, like Fluffy, or Spots, or Honey?"

"...Spiderman?"

"No."

•. ° . * .·. . ✧:. ·.

THE SNOW BALL. Rosie had been preparing for this event since school started, immediately signing up to help make decorations as soon as it was possible (she had been particularly good at crafting paper snowflakes). The brunette was honestly just very excited. Her dad had gotten the night off so he could drop her off, which was a rarity in Rosie's case, and she'd get to see all her friends in one place again. Plus, she'd hopefully be able to ask Max to dance. Everything had gone swimmingly so far, her Dad had arrived early enough to change out of his nurse's uniform, and was there to help his daughter with her hair.