"Hey Zoe," Kata greeted good-naturedly. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Aranda."

"Hi Kata," Mrs. Aranda said sweetly.

It was Christmas day, and the Adams house smelled of bread and spices as the scent of seemingly hundreds of candles lit up the air. It was almost time for the Adams's traditional huge Christmas dinner, and the Arandas always had this feast with them considering the fact that they were long-term family friends.

Zoe's parents both worked at the same hospital Kata's dad did. Mr. Aranda was a surgeon there and apparently he was the scariest person at the hospital. Kata never really believed her dad when he said that because Mr. Aranda was one of the nicest men she had ever met, the exception being Mark.

Kata really wasn't sure how Lana had gotten a boyfriend like him.

Mrs. Aranda, on the other hand, had been on her way to go to the Olympics and out of nowhere she just dropped running and decided to go to medical school. Kata found it odd, but whenever she asked Zoe about it she brushed it off and changed the subject.

It was a miracle that all three of the doctors were able to get Christmas off to spend with their families, especially Mrs. Aranda considering the fact that she had just gotten out of fellowship a year ago so she was given some of the more unfavorable jobs and hours.

Kata was very aware that her mom pretty much despised the Arandas, even though she put on a nice face. It probably had something to do with the fact that the three doctors were so close and made medical jokes not too infrequently that neither Kata nor her mom understood. Zoe pretended she didn't understand them either, and she probably didn't understand most of them, but Kata had caught her laughing a few times. Or maybe it was the fact that the Arandas were actually kind people and not afraid of Ms. Adams like most people were. Kata was pretty sure her mother absolutely hated any person who wanted to be a good little angel but absolutely loved spawns of satan considering the fact that she was one herself, at least in Kata's humble opinion.

"Oh Evelyn," Mr. Aranda gushed. "Everything smells absolutely wonderful!" Ms. Adams put on a tight smile as she came out of the kitchen to see the Arandas inside, but not without first shooting a glare at Kata.

As everyone migrated to the living room, Mr. Adams and Lana came in from the backyard where they were smoking the ham. The two dads saw each other and their faces lit up then they- no joke- chest bumped each other. Ms. Adams gasped and pursed her lips. "Surgeons," Mrs. Aranda muttered, but Kata could see her laughing just a little bit.

Lana came up behind Zoe and Kata and quickly dragged them up the stairs while no one was looking. The three girls ran into Lana's room and plopped down on the bed. Lana immediately started raking her hands through Zoe's hair.

From a young age, this had been Zoe and Lana's tradition whenever Zoe came over. Lana loved doing people's hair for some reason, and whenever she tried to do Kata's hair it either fought her or Kata herself fought her. Zoe on the other hand had long thick soft hair that any girl would kill for, plus, she didn't mind Lana doing her hair. She rather liked it because Lana could do some beautiful hairstyles and she was gentle on Zoe's scalp.

Truth be told, Zoe just had an all-around soft spot for Lana. She was like the sister she never had.

"So," Lana started. "How've you been Zo?" Zoe smiled a bit.

"Pretty good, pretty good, you?"

"She's been better than good," Kata interjected, smirking. "She's so gonna get some with Mark." Kata could see Zoe's efforts to keep back her laugh, but she was slowly failing. Lana stopped braiding Zoe's hair and started sputtering, cheeks all aflame. Kata laughed harder. "Lana your face is priceless," she choked out.

"I know," Lana shot back, regaining her composer and framing her face with her hands. That sent Kata into another fit of giggles. Zoe soon joined, hiding her smile behind her hand.

The laughter stopped as the three girls heard the doorbell. Lana tried to hide her smile but failed miserably. "Oooooo," Kata chanted, voice rising.

"Shut up," Lana blushed as she practically flew down the stairs to get the door.

Zoe looked at the Kata with questioning eyes, and Kata explained that Mark was coming over for dinner, as a friend of course.

"I don't think anyone's going to believe he's just a friend for one second," Zoe commented and Kata just laughed.

"You'd be surprised what my mother will believe." Zoe opened her mouth to say something, but just then Lana entered the bedroom again, closely followed by Mark.

Mark's curly black hair flopped over one of his eyes which was rimmed by his round glasses. He was wearing simple grey jeans that surprisingly had no rips in them and a red and black checkered flannel shirt over his plain green v-neck. He had his acoustic guitar strapped to his back and Kata's favorite game in the other, Warhammer Quest. It was a Dungeons and Dragons-like game that he, Kata, and Lana always played when Mark came over and Ms. Adams was home, a.k.a., they played for about an hour, and then Lana and Mark left Kata to go make out.

"There's the gayest straight to walk the earth!" Kata called, running up to Mark to embrace him. Mark smiled widely.

"How's my quirky little lesbian doing?" Kata giggled, inhaling Mark's woodsy scent as she pressed against him. Lana rolled her eyes, used to her boyfriend and sister's behavior by now.

"I was doing better before you got here," Kata replied, shoving Mark who looked mock-offended.

"Oh, well then, I suppose you wouldn't mind if I just played this without you so you didn't have to be in my presence, and made myself bright wizard," he said, holding Warhammer Quest above his head where Kata couldn't hope to reach.

"Wait no!" Kata moped, jumping to reach the game. Zoe laughed from her spot on the bed.

"Y'all are nerds," she pointed out, good-naturedly. Kata turned around, momentarily distracted from trying to get her game character back from Mark, to stick her tongue out at Zoe which only made her let out a stark laugh.

Even though Kata could only see them out of the corner of her eye, she easily caught the longing looks that Mark and Lana were casting at each other. It was painful to watch. Kata exchanged a look with Zoe and gestured towards the door. Zoe nodded and hopped off the bed.

"Well gayest straight," she said to Mark. "It was nice to meet you, but I believe this is our cue to go." Zoe hurried to the door of Lana's bedroom, grabbing Kata's hand and dragging her along. Kata pulled against Zoe.

"Lana I put mistletoe over your bed when you were cooking with Dad, make good use of it, '' Kata called before being pulled out the door by an over-excited Zoe.

"So I take it, that's Lana's boyfriend?" Zoe asked once she and Kata were out of earshot and heading to Kata's bedroom. Kata nodded happily.

"Yup, Mark's awesome." Kata paused, smiling. "He's a nerdy musician and everyone is pretty much in love with him because he's the best person ever. I honestly hope Lana marries him, he's like that one cool uncle you have that you are always excited to see when you have family reunions. He already feels like part of the family whenever he comes over so it'd be cool if he really became part of the family, you know?" Zoe nodded thoughtfully.

The two girls made their way to Kata's bedroom and Kata flopped on her bed, laying down. Zoe sat in Kata's desk chair and propped her feet up on the desk. She looked down nervously.

"So," she said, voice wobbling slightly. "Mark...called you lesbian does that mean...?" Zoe trailed off and Kata shrugged.

"Nah, I still haven't figured out what my orientation is. I mean I wouldn't be surprised if I'm lesbian, but he just calls me a quirky lesbian because he needed something to get back at me for calling him the gayest straight and when I told him I thought I liked girls apparently the best he could come up with was 'quirky little lesbian'." Kata paused. "My nickname's better though." Zoe nodded with a smirk.

"It definitely is." The room fell silent for a second before a small smile tugged at Zoe's lips. "Why exactly do you call him what you do?" she asked. Kata looked at Zoe incredulously.

"Have you seen the way he dresses?" Kata asked, deadpan. Zoe burst out laughing.

"You do have a point."

Zoe and Kata sat in silence for a while, not the kind of silence that Kata was used to with Alex, but still a comfortable one.

Whenever Kata and Alex fell quiet, Kata felt so close to her. They didn't need to talk in order to enjoy each other's company. Those were the times when Kata could study her friend and wonder what the heck was going on in that head of hers. Those were the times when Kata wanted to maybe hold Alex's hand...just to see what it would feel like laced up in hers.

Kata heard a soft ping emanate from her phone which was sitting on her nightstand.

It was a text from Alex.

Kata opened her phone and she was immediately smiling.

Alex had sent her a piece of digital art of what looked to be the two of them backstage, Kata doing Alex's hair.

Alex <3: I promise next production I'll be better about my hair...

Alex <3: I know this isn't much of a gift, but Merry Christmas! I wish I could see you :(

Kata smiled widely.

Kata: It's awesome Alex I love it <3

Kata: Ur the greatest friend I could ever ask for and I'm so glad I met you...also...you can see me...

Alex <3: ?

Kata giggled and opened her camera app. She switched it to video and started recording herself. She waved. "Hi Alex, Merry Christmas!"

She sent the video.

Zoe stared at Kata. "You talking to Alex?" she asked. Kata shook her head.

"Just over text, but she said she wanted to see me so I sent her a video." Kata paused. "Kind of cheesy but I mean..." she shrugged. Zoe smiled softly.

"Nah, it's really sweet." Kata heard another notification on her phone.

Alex <3 loved a movie.

Kata grinned.

"Alex?" Zoe asked. Kata nodded, still smiling like an idiot. Zoe frowned but covered it up. "You must really care about her," she said, kindness emanating in her voice. Kata looked down at her lap.

"Yeah, I really do." Zoe nodded and started picking at her hands. They sat quietly for a moment until Kata took in a sharp breath. "Zoe?" she asked. Zoe looked up from her hands.

"Yeah?"

"How'd you know you were lesbian?" Zoe choked on air before proceeding to laugh loud and long and for the life of her Kata couldn't figure out what was so funny.

"Well, where to start? Um, I guess I started suspecting something around second grade because there was this girl that I thought was really pretty and I would imagine her in a wedding dress." Kata smiled slightly. "I imagined her in that wedding dress whenever I saw her and soon enough I had her whole wedding planned out and she looked beautiful. Everything was beautiful, except for one thing. I couldn't find someone in my imagination to marry her. All the boys just didn't fit right and then one night I had a dream of her wedding that I made up but I was the one marrying her. And then next time I saw her I realized I had a crush on her." Kata nodded and bit her lip.

"But aren't you always the one to say that sexuality isn't just determined by one crush?" Zoe nodded furiously.

"Well of course it's not. Just because you like someone of the same gender doesn't make you gay. It might make you bi-curious, but I really don't believe one crush can determine your label for life you know?" Kata nodded mostly understanding what Zoe was saying. "I think it was around sixth grade when I started realizing that I didn't really like boys at all. I mean, you can only check out the popular girls so many times before you realize that you're probably more like wet spaghetti noodles than dry ones." Kata started cracking up and Zoe huffed. "I swear to god Kata if you make a sex joke right now I will stop talking to you forever." This only made Kata laugh harder, and Zoe couldn't help the chuckles falling out of her own mouth. "So anyways after all that I just kind of realized that I was attracted to girls and not guys. There was this one guy who was into me in seventh grade and so I tried dating him just to experiment but I felt literally nothing even though he was generally accepted as attractive. Then I felt bad about using him but he actually was the one to break things off with me so I don't feel all that bad anymore. Plus whenever I imagine myself kissing a guy I really don't care but when it's with a girl I really enjoy it. Does that make any sense?"

"Yeah, I think so." Zoe shook her head, smiling after a moment.

"I feel like a lesbian guru or something." She said. Kata laughed again. "You're so giggly today," Zoe commented, and Kata just started wheezing. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Zoe exclaimed laughing at Kata, who fell off her bed and onto the floor, clutching her stomach.

"I can't stop it!" she said between giggles, there were tears that were beginning to stream down her face from laughing too hard. Zoe pulled up Alex's contact in her phone and facetimed her, laughing. "No what are you doing?" Kata wheezed. Zoe just stuck her tongue out at the pile of giggles on the floor known as Kata.

"Something is wrong with your girlfriend," Zoe chuckled as soon as Alex picked up. She turned the camera around so Alex could see Kata.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Kata squealed, still unable to stop her laughing. Alex started laughing.

"What the heck is wrong with you Kata?"
"I'm gay!" Kata snickered, which then made both Alex and Zoe erupt in a chorus of laughter.

"The fuck Kata? That was the weirdest way to come out. Just gonna frickin burst out the door of the closet like that I guess." Zoe stated.

"I'm gay!" Kata exclaimed, getting up to jump on her bed, by now water was streaming freely out her eyes, and she was finding it hard to breathe. "I'm gay!" she laughed yet again just as the door opened.

"You're what?!"

Well fuck.

***

A/N: This is the most chaotic chapter ever I am so sorry this is what happens when you try to write something at 3 am. Also, I spelled lesbian wrong six times...

Thank you so much for reading this chapter, if you liked it please consider leaving a vote/comment!

-Sunny <3