Sweethearts

(Author's note: All characters involved in sexual situations are 18+. The first two parts of this story can be found in "Houseguests" and "Teammates," chapters 1 & 2 respectively of "Megan Comes of Age.")

Megan took a deep breath and opened the envelope marked "University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign." She scanned the first few lines, then exhaled, crestfallen.

"I'm sorry, honey," her mother said. "But we knew it was a little bit of a long shot. Anyway, you've already gotten into Towson and Georgia, which are both fine schools, and you haven't heard from everyone yet. More than one school wants you, and you get to choose which one will have the honor of getting you!"

Megan nodded and smiled. "I know, and I'm excited, it's just that I was really hoping. I'm sure I'll be happy wherever I end up." She turned the letter over, but when she didn't find anything written on the back like "Just kidding!" she tossed it in the recycling. "I'll be back down for dinner, okay? I want to get some reading done."

Her mother having nodded assent, Megan climbed the stairs to her room. She closed the door behind her, tossed her bag on the floor, and laid down on the bed.

Why was she so uncomfortable with not knowing where she was going to be in a few months? She used to dream of the day she could get out of this town and go somewhere, anywhere. But the whole college admissions process had gotten a lot less exciting since she and Jenna had - well, there was really no denying it anymore, since they'd started falling in love a couple of months ago.

Megan and Jenna couldn't keep their hands off of each other, and the sex was fantastic. Jenna treated her like a queen and found some way to demonstrate every day how grateful she was to be with Megan. They laughed constantly, and challenged each other intellectually, which Megan never thought could've happened with a high school sweetheart. It was the relationship Megan had always wanted and always thought she deserved, except for two things: they had to hide it from everyone because they were both girls, and they couldn't bring themselves to talk about the future.

Jenna seemed to want to get out of town just as badly as Megan did, maybe more. But Jenna's parents wanted her to return home after college and help run their maple syrup operation like her older sister Chloe planned to, so they'd made it clear they preferred to pay for an education in agricultural business and marketing.

For her part, Megan was leaning harder than ever toward a career in broadcasting communications. She already knew she would be in New York City for the summer for an internship at a cable network, and living with friends of her parents, Cassie Germaine - one of the network's biggest stars - and her husband Jason. When talking to Jenna about this summer plan, though, somehow she had managed to skirt the subject of how close she was to Cassie and Jason. Jenna might not be thrilled to know her girlfriend was going to share an apartment with a married couple who'd had sex with her.

Sure, Cassie had made it clear there were no expectations and no strings attached to the invitation, especially if Megan happened to be in a relationship when the summer arrived. But she'd still be living with former lovers at the very least, which could be awkward. Then again, what right would Jenna have to be upset about that, Megan wondered, when it was already a week into April, they'd been together over two months, and they still hadn't talked even once about what might happen after they graduate high school?

It was exhausting thinking about all that uncertainty, and she closed her eyes, hoping to sneak in a nap. It wasn't to be; her phone buzzed with an incoming text.

"No go on Purdue, got into Texas A&M," Jenna was reporting.

"That's A&Mazing! I'm so proud of you," Megan replied. Then, "Ding from UIUC."

"Sorry, baby. Your parents are hoping for BU anyway, right?"

Megan paused before sending her reply. What are you hoping for? she wanted to ask. Maybe that was unfair; she was just as scared of the subject as Jenna seemed to be, so why lay it all on her?

"They just want me relatively close to home," she finally sent.

"I love you," came Jenna's next text, and Megan smiled.

"I love you," she replied, and closed her eyes again. They had plans to go see a movie Saturday afternoon; maybe they could talk about all of this future stuff afterward.

*****

In the dark of the theater, Megan slowly moved her hand from the shared arm between the seats onto Jenna's leg. Jenna glanced at her for a moment, then back at the movie screen, and grabbed another handful of popcorn. A few more inches of movement to the right, and now Megan's fingers were in between Jenna's thighs. Jenna looked at her again. Megan just shrugged, and gave a little smile, tingling with the excitement of trying to do this in public. They couldn't really go on dates, but nobody would ever blink at a couple of girlfriends - girl buddies - catching a movie together on a weekend afternoon, so she figured she may as well take advantage.

She moved her hand underneath Jenna's sweater, and maneuvered until her fingertips were just underneath the waist of her jeans. Jenna squirmed a little, but made no move to stop her, so Megan continued slowly southward. They'd been together for a couple of months already, but Megan still got a thrill every time she touched the smooth skin where Jenna's pubic hair would be if she didn't keep it completely shaved. She knew it was because of the sleek racing swimsuits they both wore on the swim team, but she still felt like Jenna had made it smooth for her and nobody else.

Finally Megan's fingertips reached the top of Jenna's lips, and she stroked as lightly as she could within the confines of the jeans, casually watching the movie as she did. With her other hand, she reached across into the popcorn Jenna was holding, and took a few for herself. She saw Jenna crack a smile. As she popped the fluffy kernels into her mouth, Megan used two fingers to part Jenna's pussy lips. Jenna responded by spreading her legs a little further apart and shifting downward in her seat. There was nobody in the seat on the other side of her, but there were other people further down their row, and Megan wondered what they would think if they knew.

The two police detectives who were the focus of the movie arrived on a crime scene amid ominous music, and Megan slid three fingers down Jenna's pussy, her index and ring fingers outside the lips and her middle finger in between. She felt a little wetness in the gap, and worked her middle finger further in to find more. Jenna looked at her again, a little more surprise on her face this time, as if to say she hadn't really thought Megan would go through with it. But she also closed her eyes and drew in a breath as Megan continued to rub her pussy both outside and in. Finally Jenna opened her eyes again, smiled broadly, and turned her attention back to the screen, fidgeting slightly as Megan fingered her.

After a few minutes, Megan turned her hand just a little and started running the tips of all three fingers along the inside of Jenna's lips, wetting the fingers and spreading the wetness along the lips at the same time. When she felt she was ready, she gradually started pushing all three fingers inside. Jenna gasped, and Megan smiled without looking away from the movie. Slowly at first, allowing the juices to lubricate the full length of her fingers, Megan pushed them in, then pulled them back out. In slowly... out slowly. A third time... again slowly. Then after a brief pause, she plunged her fingers into the depths of Jenna's pussy.

Jenna was so startled by the thrust that some popcorn flew out of the top of the bag she was holding, onto the empty seat next to her. Instinctively, she quickly brought the bag down to her crotch to hide what was going on. With her other hand she grabbed Megan's forearm, but didn't try to pull it away. She was breathing faster now, and it made Megan feel powerful. Trying as hard as she could not to make their seats shake, Megan started pumping her fingers, fucking her girlfriend with her hand.

On the movie screen, the detectives were in hot pursuit of a suspect fleeing in his car. Despite the blasting sound of engines, screeching tires, and gunshots, Megan imagined that she could hear the squishing sound of her fingers pounding Jenna's swamped pussy. She had never been so excited before, and she couldn't even imagine what Jenna was feeling at that moment, but she was determined to give her the fingerblast of her life. She thrust away, feeling the walls inside Jenna's body spasm and push back against her. Jenna lowered her head, and her grip on Megan's arm tightened.

Megan grinned as she realized the car chase was getting close to an obvious and formulaic conclusion, and she understood what she had to do. With just a little contorting, she felt around with her thumb and found Jenna's wet and swollen clit. Applying some pressure, she continued to pump with her fingers, and allowed the movement of her hand to carry her thumb back and forth over Jenna's clit on its own. Jenna turned her head toward Megan with a mix of pleasure and panic on her face, then looked at the screen, then back at Megan. She closed her eyes, and started gulping for air - then she let out the first soft, involuntary yelp, completely drowned out by the movie soundtrack, and Megan felt a rush of blood to her head.

Megan sped up the pace of her thrusts and pressed a little harder with her thumb, and she felt Jenna shaking underneath her hand, until at last she stiffened and convulsed. Sure enough, Megan had managed to guide Jenna to climax just as the car chase reached its own. It ended in screeches, horns, and the thunderously long series of crashes of a nine-car pile-up, while Jenna cried out over and over and over again, the audience around her roaring with cheers and applause. As Jenna started to come down and loosened her grip on Megan's arm, Megan slowed to a gentle caress. Then she carefully pulled her hand back out from inside her girlfriend's jeans, and wiped it with the napkins she'd grabbed for the popcorn. She watched Jenna gradually catch her breath, and wondered what she was thinking.

Meanwhile, Megan could feel how wet she'd gotten while playing with Jenna, and she was nearly desperate to play with herself, or to have Jenna do it for her. She was suddenly overcome with the image of Jenna going down on her right there in the crowded theater, and shocked and confused by how badly she wanted it to happen and how little she cared about who might see it or what the consequences could be. She looked around quickly, then stuck the same hand down her own jeans and started rubbing her own pussy.

Jenna whispered, "Cut it out!" but Megan kept at it. Jenna got out of her seat, then grabbed Megan and lifted her up out of hers, pushing them toward the aisle. Megan pulled her hand from her jeans and allowed Jenna to walk her out of the theater. She half-expected Jenna to stop them in the lobby and lecture her, but instead they marched out the door, into the parking lot, and over to Jenna's mother's car, where they got in without a word. Jenna started the engine and peeled out of the lot, heading down the road that led out of town.

*****

The car sped up as Jenna put it into gear. "Now you can do whatever you want, you crazy bitch," she said, starting to smile.

Megan laughed, then kicked off her shoes. She quickly undid her jeans and pulled them off along with her underwear, then immediately started touching herself again. "My God, Jenna, I'm so fucking turned on right now. I can't believe you let me do that in there!" She watched traffic zoom by in the opposite direction as she slipped two fingers inside of herself.

"I can't believe I did, either," said Jenna. "I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't bring myself to make you stop! Do you think anybody saw us?"

Megan grunted as she used her other hand to rub her clit. "I don't fucking care. I'm so tired of hiding!"

Jenna glanced over at her girlfriend, who was half-naked and masturbating in the passenger seat of her mother's car, and swallowed. Then she turned her attention back to the road. "You know, there's a big difference between coming out about our relationship, and getting us arrested and thrown in jail for having sex in public."

"Find a place to pull over," Megan demanded, and pulled her sweatshirt over her head. She was completely naked now, and it excited the hell out of her. She hoped people in other cars could see her breasts. She wanted people in other cars to see her breasts. What the hell is the matter with me? she thought.

"Jesus Christ, Megan! What the hell is the matter with you?"

"I don't know, I just want you. Right now." Megan pivoted her body toward the driver's seat and kept masturbating, staring at Jenna as she pleasured herself.

Pulling off the main road with a screech, Jenna drove onto a side lot with an old, abandoned service station, and coasted around to the back. She stopped the car and looked around, then turned off the engine. The two girls got out of the car - Megan still naked, and shivering just a little - and looked around some more. Other than the vacant building, there was nothing but empty, cracked pavement and the woods behind the highway. They could hear traffic passing by only fifty yards away, but nobody would be able to see them from the road on the other side of the building. Jenna went around to Megan's side and opened the back door.

Shaking her head, Megan said, "No. Out here." She shut the door and leaned against it, the late afternoon sun giving her bare skin an orange glow. The metal was cold, and she almost changed her mind.

"You're fucking insane," Jenna whispered.

Megan nodded, moved her feet a little further apart, and started playing with herself again. Jenna didn't need any more encouragement than that; she got down on her knees, grabbed her girlfriend's thighs, and planted her mouth in between them.

Megan whimpered as Jenna started licking, and grabbed the back of her head. She looked up at the gradually darkening sky, and was filled with a sense of something that felt like terror, only in a strangely wonderful way. Anybody could come driving around the side of the old gas station at any moment, and they would see two teenage girls having sex. They would see Megan naked in public, and Jenna on her knees going down on her. Despite all that she'd experienced in the past few months, Megan had never been this excited in her life, and she started to come after only a few minutes.

"Jesus," Jenna said again, as Megan squirted a clear fluid, and she backed off a little.

Megan quickly replaced Jenna's mouth with her own fingers, and rubbed hard at her clit. "Don't fucking stop!" she growled. Jenna did as she was told, leaning back in and working around her girlfriend's fingers to lick whatever was unobstructed. Megan yelled and squirted some more, but Jenna stayed in place this time and it splattered over her face and sweater.

Jenna backed off again for a few seconds, and yanked off her sweater. After pausing for a moment, with Megan watching gleefully, Jenna shrugged and undid her bra as well. She tossed her clothing to one side and dove back into Megan's pussy, grabbing her ass with both hands. She licked and nibbled and sucked, while Megan continued to abuse herself furiously with her fingers. A car horn sounded not far away, and they heard its musical note going a quarter-step flatter as it passed by on the other side of the building.

Megan cried out, then yelled, "Fuck!" and squirted again. Most of it ran down Jenna's neck and breasts, and her skin cooled as the spring breeze caught Megan's juices. Jenna added two of her own fingers to her tongue, and started slipping them in and out of Megan.

Megan felt Jenna insert her fingers, and her knees buckled a little. She slid down the car door a few inches and braced herself with knees bent. Her wrist was getting sore from the rapid movement around her clit, but she kept it up, and soon she felt another wave of tension and pleasure rising. She came again and squirted one more time, screaming as Jenna got splashed.

Megan pulled Jenna's head away from her body, lowered herself into a squat, and kissed Jenna hard. She ran her hands over Jenna's breasts and torso, feeling the wetness. When they broke the kiss, the girls looked at each other and laughed.

"What the fuck was that?" Jenna asked, as they both stood up.

Shaking her head, Megan said, "I have no idea! Honest to God, it's never happened before. I'm really sorry."

"No, it was actually kind of amazing. I just don't know what I'm going to tell my parents about my sweater."

Megan shrugged. "Some asshole spilled Coke on you at the theater?"

Jenna laughed again. "And we're naked in public. That's something I've never done before."

"Well, I'm naked. You're just topless," Megan pointed out with a grin.

Jenna held up a hand. "Baby steps, honey." She retrieved her bra and sweater and put them back on, while Megan just sort of strutted her way around the car.

"I've never felt this naughty before, it's like being free and bad at the same time," she said.

Jenna nodded. "Get your bad self dressed, girlfriend. I should get you home so I can do the homework I told my parents I'd already finished in order for them to let me out of the house and get roped into a life of crime." Megan reluctantly dressed, and the girls drove off.

*****

A few days later, Megan had just started to cook dinner for her family when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She put down the knife to get the phone, and saw a text from Jenna, who never used all caps.

"HOLY SHIT I GOT INTO CORNELL!!! BEST AG BUSINESS PROGRAM IN THE COUNTRY BABY!! SUCK IT TEXAS A&M, I'M GOING BIG RED!!"

Megan smiled as she tapped out an all-caps "HOLY SHIT CONGRATULATIONS!!!" for Jenna, though in truth she was feeling a lot of conflicting emotions. Definitely love and pride for her girlfriend, who had without a doubt worked hard enough all throughout high school to deserve this accomplishment. There was also some regret for Megan - that she hadn't pushed herself in the same way, and was probably ending up with fewer options as a result. But Megan was also sad, now that Jenna knew for sure where she was going to be next fall. It's not like they hadn't known all along they were both going off to college a few months after they started their relationship, but to have it displayed for her with such certainty, and in all-caps... it just made it that much more real, and she had to fight back a few tears.

"Are they offering a swim scholarship?" Megan texted, then went back to the chicken breasts she was trimming.

A few minutes later, the response came, "Ivy League schools don't do athletic scholarships, but the coach invited me to try out as a walk-on!" Megan cringed a little bit at the "Ivy League" part. That was never going to be her, and she started to wonder if there could ever be long-term potential for the two of them when she clearly wasn't as smart. Her phone buzzed again, but this time the text wasn't from Jenna, it was from Cassie.

"Hey sweetie, just got word that the internships are starting Monday, June 26. Do you want to plan on getting here Friday the 23rd so you can settle in, and we can have a fun, relaxed weekend before you start?"

"Yes!!" Megan sent without delay. She knew she'd be graduating on the 18th, which left plenty of time.

"Take your time and think it over!" joked Cassie in her reply.

Megan sighed and returned once again to prepping the chicken. Is this what life is going to be like as an adult out in the real world? No guarantees, no permanence, constant uncertainty? She shook her head as the tears threatened to start again, and tried to think happy thoughts of New York City.

*****

Megan passed Vince in the hall on her way to the cafeteria for lunch, and he kept looking straight ahead to avoid her gaze. She had to smile at that despite the trauma he'd put her and Jenna through; if he'd actually managed to follow through with his threat to rape them, she would certainly feel differently. As it was, he'd forced them to perform for him by having sex with each other, and then forced Megan to give him a blowjob, before Jenna caught him by surprise and attacked his most vulnerable spot. Either way, he had left them alone after the humiliation of getting the crap stomped out of him by two teenage girls and being left to cool off in the high school's pool for a weekend.

Well, not the whole weekend - he'd decided to cut his stay short by escaping through the fire exit early Saturday morning, stark naked and still a little damp, in the middle of February. Ironically, he probably would have been better off staying in the pool building and waiting for someone to find him Monday morning. Instead he was suffering from pretty serious hypothermia by the time he walked into the police station and begged for a blanket. They brought him to the hospital, where he refused to tell anyone what had happened to him - and other than the brand-new ridiculous rumors about him circulating around school for a few days afterward, that was the end of that.

Megan spotted Jenna at a table in their usual section of the room, and headed over to drop her bag. When Jenna looked up, she smiled and winked at her. Megan loved the gesture, even though it always made her wish she could give Jenna a kiss. But any sort of kiss wouldn't fly as long as they lived in a small, conservative town. Megan winked back and sat down.

Jenna had waited for Megan to arrive before she started her lunch, but now she pulled a sandwich out of her bag and immediately took a big bite. "Did you hear Miranda got into Colorado?" she asked between chews. "I think she's going for cheer squad, nobody wanted her for volleyball."

"No, that's great," Megan replied as she stirred her leftovers around a little with a fork. "I heard she only applied to schools in states with legal marijuana anyway."

Jenna laughed. "I didn't know she was capable of that level of research."

"Do you know what you're doing for the summer, yet? Does Cornell have some sort of prefrosh program?"

Shrugging, Jenna replied, "I think they do, but for rising high school seniors, not incoming freshmen. I'm sure my parents will want me to stick around the sugarhouse after cleanup season and work in the gift shop, or something."

Megan nodded. "Do you think you'll have weekends off?"

Jenna shook her head. "I'm absolutely sure I won't. That's when the tourists are staying at B&Bs and spending stupid amounts of money on boiled tree vomit."

Megan nodded again, and wondered how far she should push this topic. "I don't think I'm going to have a car with me in the city to get out of town on weekends, anyway."

Jenna reached across the table and placed her hand on Megan's for a few seconds, before pulling it back and glancing around for witnesses. "Maybe I can come down during the week for a few days sometime, if my parents let me."

Megan nodded for a third time. "I don't know if I'll be able to offer you a place to stay, I'm going to be living with those friends of my parents. I'm basically already a guest myself."

Jenna smiled. "We'll figure something out."

A silence passed between them before Megan said, "Will we?" Jenna looked up, and Megan continued. "Are we actually going to try to keep this going, and make this work after we graduate from high school?"

Jenna kept smiling, but looked down. "I don't know, Megan, but what I do know is that this is definitely the right place to talk about it for the first time."

"I'm sorry, you're right," Megan said, and put her fork down. "I kind of sprung this on you. I'm trying to be grateful for the time we do have, but it's hard not to think ahead."

Jenna sighed. "Would it help if I told you that I'm in exactly the same place?"

Megan nodded and swallowed, wondering why she felt like she was always fighting back tears. "Yes, it really would. It does," she said.

"We both started making other plans for the future before any of this happened," Jenna continued. "We might just have to make the best of it."

Megan's phone buzzed, and she took it out of her pocket. "Sorry," she said to Jenna, "I just need to make sure it's not one of my parents."

It wasn't. "Admissions" was the subject line of the incoming email, and she said, "Holy shit, here we go," before opening it. After a few moments of reading, she looked up at Jenna. "Boston University said, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'"

Jenna nodded slowly. "I'm really sorry, babe."

Megan shook her head. "My parents will be more disappointed than I am. But they'll get over it, I'm sure someday B. U.'s hockey team will come after Robbie and recruit him to ride their bench." Jenna smiled, and Megan's phone buzzed and lit up again with another email's arrival. "What the hell?" she said, and started reading again.

"What now?" Jenna asked.

"University of Miami said, 'LOL! Seeya, loser!'"

Jenna laughed. "Wouldn't it be awesome if they really put it that way?"

Megan shoved her phone into Jenna's face, saying, "What, you don't believe me?" Jenna laughed and grabbed the phone from Megan's hand, and a few seconds later, it signaled the arrival of yet another email. She took a closer look at the screen.

"Go ahead, open it," said Megan. "Whose turn is it to reject me now?"

Jenna did as she was told, and started reading. "The Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca --" She looked up. "Why didn't you tell me you'd applied to Ithaca College?"

Megan frowned. "What? Why? It was on the Common Application, and they have a good broadcasting program, so I figured what the hell. But I looked at a map of New York, and it's in the middle of nowhere, halfway from Syracuse to Central Bumfuck, Pennsylvania."

"Yeah, I know. I'll be living in that exact same middle of nowhere for the next four years."

"What?" Megan blinked. "Cornell is in Ithaca? I thought it was - I mean - huh." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm honestly not sure where I thought Cornell was."

"It's in Ithaca, you dipshit," Jenna mocked. "It's on a really big hill across from the really big hill that Ithaca College is on." She slid Megan's phone across the table toward her. "And the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College is pleased to offer you a place in their freshman class for the fall semester."

Megan just sat there with her mouth open, staring at her phone.

*****

"My Dad said no," Jenna reported. "He didn't even want to consider the idea." She downshifted as they approached one of the five traffic lights in their town. As long as they were going to be attending college in the same small city, the girls had decided to ask their parents if they could bypass the dorms altogether, and just share an apartment from the outset. Megan's parents, at least, had given pretty good reasons for saying no. They thought that dorm life and the opportunity to make lots of new friends were too important for Megan to skip as part of the overall college experience. Plus the campuses weren't that close together, and that would make the logistics difficult, especially in the wintertime. By contrast, Jenna's father had simply put his foot down, and that was the end of the discussion.

"Well, we'll still be able to see each other pretty much whenever we want, right?" Megan asked brightly. "Especially on weekends."

"Yeah, I was just really hoping that the first time we truly spend the night together wasn't going to be with someone's roommate ten feet away."

Megan put her hand on Jenna's thigh and squeezed. "Hey, I feel the same way. Maybe the odds are better in college that nobody's going to care who we're dating, but I still want some privacy."

Jenna threw her head back and laughed. "Says the girl who made me come in a crowded movie theater, and then squirted on me when I went down on her in public."

Megan blushed. "Yeah, well, that's different. Getting away with something turns me on. The risk of getting caught doing something naughty where we're not supposed to be doing it turns me on. Having to live with someone for ten months while they get to stare at my girlfriend and me every moment we're in bed together is not my idea of a turn-on."

"Oh, I dunno," Jenna squeezed Megan's hand with her own. "Give your roommate a hand-held webcam and a cut of the profits, and we could make a fortune."

Laughing, Megan said, "It's a good thing I know you're kidding."

"Seriously, though," Jenna continued as they approached Megan's house, "people with roommates have been having sex and spending the night since the dawn of time. I'm sure we'll figure it out."

"Since the dawn of time?" Megan laughed again. "'Jurassic Dorm,' coming this fall to a theater near you!"

Jenna pulled up to the end of the driveway smiling. "Where's your mom?"

Megan looked up. The minivan wasn't in its usual spot for this time of the afternoon. Even without swim practice to delay her by a couple of hours now that the season was over, it was rare for Megan to beat her mom home. She worked part-time, but most days she was home before Megan's little brothers got off the bus from their school, which was before the high school even let out for the day.

"I don't know, honestly. Maybe the boys had a doctor's appointment or something?"

Jenna nodded. "Do you want to, um... get some studying in before they come home?" She drove the car past the driveway and parked a few dozen yards down the road.

Megan grinned, and quickly undid her seatbelt. "I'm gonna study the hell out of you." She clambered out of the car and ran for the house, with Jenna close behind.

*****

The girls fell onto Megan's bed, kissing as they rolled. Megan felt Jenna nibble on her neck, and her face flushed with excitement. She reached up underneath Jenna's skirt, and stuck her hand down the back of her panties. Kissing Jenna's face and shoulder, she started pulling the panties down.

"No time for foreplay, Doctor Jones," Jenna deadpanned in a vaguely Asian accent. Megan didn't get the reference, but she appreciated the sentiment. It was challenging enough keeping their ears open for the minivan engine while they were having sex; they didn't need to increase the risk that they would run out of time by wasting it with romance. She'd text Jenna some flower emojis later, or something.

Megan rolled Jenna off of her and onto her back, finished pulling her panties off, and flipped up the front of her skirt to reveal everything that was underneath. Pausing for a moment, Megan drank in the sight of her girlfriend lying there, almost fully clothed - even her socks were still on - but with her clean-shaven pussy exposed. Megan couldn't wait any longer, and she knelt down on the carpeted floor. Pulling Jenna toward her by the legs until her ass was on the edge of the bed, Megan leaned into position between her thighs and started kissing her outer lips. She stuck her tongue between those lips, and she heard Jenna say, "Oh, yeah."

As Megan licked and sucked on Jenna's pussy, she felt herself get more and more turned on, too. She slid two of the fingers on her left hand inside of Jenna and focused her tongue on Jenna's clit, but dropped her right hand down under her jeans and onto her own pussy. Megan found that she was already pretty wet, and after she undid a couple of fly buttons, she had no trouble getting a couple of fingers inside herself, too. She moaned at what she was doing to herself, and Jenna responded with a moan of her own as the vibrations of Megan's voice moved through her. Of the many, many things Megan had learned in only a couple of nights with Cassie Germaine and her husband Jason in January, one that had stuck with her particularly well was that when it came to sex, unselfishness could pay off in a big way. So she had no problem focusing on pleasing her girlfriend first and making her come before expecting anything in return. On the other hand, that didn't mean she couldn't engage in a little self-help in the meantime.

Licking away at Jenna's clit and with fingers in both of their pussies, Megan watched Jenna writhe around on the bed. Megan's bed, where she had slept since her family had moved to this ridiculous little town after she finished kindergarten in Boston. The bed where she'd masturbated while imagining what it would be like to seduce Jenna, absolutely convinced it would never happen. The bed where Megan and Jenna had made love for the first time in early February. Megan was really revved up already, and getting close to coming, so she eased up on herself and started sucking hard on Jenna's clit. Jenna yelled, "God, Jesus, Megan! Oh, God!" Megan just sucked harder.

She hated the fact that it was going to be at least another year before the two of them could share a bed for real every night, but maybe her parents were right - college was a big deal, and she and Jenna shouldn't seclude themselves when they have the opportunity to make a lot of friends and important connections. They could still get a place together sophomore year, and pretend to be just good friends sharing an apartment, with none of their parents the wiser. As for after college, it was crazy to worry about that now.

"Fuck, I'm gonna come," Jenna whimpered, and Megan dug her fingers in hard while she kept sucking and licking Jenna's clit. Jenna's body started shaking, and she whimpered and yelped gibberish for about ten seconds, then she grabbed the back of Megan's head and screamed. Megan tried to suck in air through her nose, then finally she pulled Jenna's hands off of her head, sat back on her heels, and started laughing.

"I need to breathe, bitch!" Megan said, as Jenna's own breathing was just beginning to slow down toward normal.

"Sorry," Jenna said weakly.

Megan stood up, and laughed again at the sight of her girlfriend still mostly dressed, but utterly disheveled. "It's my turn now," she said, and undid the last couple of buttons on her jeans before sliding them off along with her panties. She was sweating a little from the first round, so she took off her t-shirt and bra, too. Naked except for her socks, she climbed onto the bed laughing some more, and didn't wait for Jenna to move. She just threw one knee over Jenna's head, and straddled her face. Hovering a few inches above her mouth for a moment, Megan looked down at her girlfriend's face, and said, "I love you."

In response, Jenna smacked Megan's ass. Megan yelled, "Ow, motherfucker!" She grabbed Jenna's hair, and lowered herself down onto Jenna's mouth. "You love me, too, right?" Muzzled by Megan's crotch, but now laughing herself, Jenna nodded vigorously.

Megan was horny and impatient, and started to gyrate a little on Jenna's mouth, but Jenna quickly caught up. She took hold of Megan's ass with both hands, and licked her pussy enthusiastically. Megan threw her head back and groaned, "Yeeeeaaaasssss..." The feeling of Jenna's tongue and mouth on her slick lips and clit was so amazing, and the level of pleasure Jenna was capable of giving her was so absurd, she started to wonder how she would ever get by if they couldn't be together. Megan wasn't just in love with her best friend, she was addicted to sex with her best friend. That's a really good thing, right? she caught herself thinking.

Megan leaned forward, and looked down into Jenna's eyes. Jenna didn't stop eating Megan out, but when she looked back at her, her eyes sparkled. Megan felt a crazy warmth swell up inside of her at the same time the tension and pleasure in her pussy were steadily increasing, and as usual, she nearly started to cry. Instead, she leaned back again, and started fingering Jenna's pussy with one hand while she used the other to play with her own breasts and nipples. She felt electrified.

Vibrations shot through Megan as Jenna whimpered into her pussy. The tension inside of her continued to build, little explosions of physical joy going off all through her midsection, and she shuddered. She focused as hard as she could on rubbing Jenna's clit without letting go, but the jolts Jenna was delivering to her kept on coming. Megan started crying out, "Oh! Oh! Oh!" and Jenna squeezed Megan's ass while she tongued her clit as fast as possible.

Megan felt the spasms start inside of her, and suddenly she was so out of breath that she had to stop fingering Jenna and let go to steady herself. She leaned forward and planted her hands next to Jenna's ears, gasped a few times, and let out a yell as she came. The spasms continued for a minute with Jenna still licking her steadily, and Megan worked to catch her breath. Then she heard the click of a latch, and when she looked up, she saw her mother in the bedroom doorway, looking stunned.

*****

The door closed as quickly as it had opened, and Megan immediately rolled off of Jenna onto the bed, saying, "Shit, shit, shit!"

"What?" asked Jenna.

"That was my Mom! She saw us!"

"What?" Jenna repeated as she sat up, and Megan had a brief, uncomfortable flashback to the first time she'd tried to kiss Jenna. "Fuck, no, Megan, she can't tell my parents!"

Megan started grabbing her clothing and throwing it back on as fast as she could. "Stay here, okay? Put your underwear back on, just stay here and let me go talk to her. Maybe it's not as bad as we think."

"Not as bad as we think?" Jenna squeaked. "She just saw us having gay sex! She's going to call my mother, and my mother's going to call a priest and a hit man, and I swear to God I'm not sure which one I'd rather have find me first!"

Megan took Jenna by the shoulders, and kissed her gently. "Take a deep breath. I love you." Jenna slumped down on the bed, and Megan calmly stepped through the door and closed it behind her. Pausing to think for a moment before going downstairs, she turned and stepped into the bathroom to wash her hands.

She found her mother sitting at the kitchen table, staring out the sliding glass doors into their backyard, with tears in her eyes. Not knowing quite what to say at first, Megan stood there watching silently. Finally, she said, "I didn't hear the minivan."

Debbie Fletcher laughed and turned to her daughter. "That's what you have to say to me? 'I didn't hear the minivan'? Jesus Christ, Megan, what if the boys had been with me, instead of at a birthday party?"

Megan cringed. "I... I thought I would hear you getting home. I'm sorry."

"The minivan is in the shop. Carla next door gave me a ride home, and when I came in, I heard you yelling. I thought someone was hurting you." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I didn't knock first and ask if you were okay, but I cannot adequately describe what it feels like when you have children and you think one of them is in danger."

Megan nodded, and if it was possible, started to feel even worse. "I should have been more careful."

Her mother sighed. "So who's your friend?"

Blinking, Megan thought, She doesn't know? She tried to come up with some way, any way out of this, but with Jenna still upstairs and Jenna's mother's car up the block, that didn't seem likely. "Please promise you won't tell her parents," she finally said. "She's terrified."

After a moment, her mother nodded.

"It's Jenna."

Debbie's eyes widened. "Jenna? Jenna Cameron? Well, no wonder she's terrified. Her parents would be... upset."

"A little," Megan smiled.

"Didn't you think of that before you started messing around? If you were curious and wanted to experiment, couldn't you have picked a friend whose parents might not burn her at the stake?"

Megan sat down next to her mother, who hadn't moved from her chair. "Mom, we're not messing around. We're not experimenting. We're in love." There was no reaction. "We're in love," she repeated.

Her mother shook her head, then bowed it, and tears started to flow. "Well, now I guess the whole Ithaca thing makes a bit more sense," she laughed, then hugged Megan, who let out a huge sigh of relief.

Once the hug broke, Megan put her hand on her mother's knee. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you! I knew you wouldn't react the same way Jenna's parents would, or at least I thought you probably wouldn't. But we didn't think it was right to ask you to keep our secret for us, so I had to keep it a secret from you and Dad."

"Oh, Lord," her mother said, "let's not tell Dad just yet." She chuckled a little. "Honey, why don't you go get Jenna and bring her down here."

Megan squeezed her mother's thigh. "Are you sure?" Her mother nodded, and that was all she needed.

A few minutes later, Megan returned to the kitchen with an obviously-shaken Jenna. She'd been crying, and Megan was leading her by the hand. Debbie had poured them three tall glasses of cold apple cider that sat on the kitchen block, but first she stepped over to Jenna and hugged her tightly. Jenna started crying all over again, and Megan joined the hug from behind.

A few minutes later, the three of them were sitting around the table, and chatting over cider about subtle clues from the past couple of months that Debbie now understood much more clearly. "I'm sorry to say this in front of your girlfriend, honey," she said to Megan, "but I was truly and genuinely confused about how much you had started to care about studying on the weekends." The girls laughed out loud, then Jenna blew her nose.

"Mrs. Fletcher --"

"Debbie," she interrupted.

"Okay. Debbie. Forgive me, but why are you being so nice?"

"First of all, Jenna, you're scared out of your wits, and you haven't done anything wrong. I'm quite sure you didn't hypnotize my daughter or make a deal with Satan to seduce her." Megan grinned and took Jenna's hand, and her mother continued. "Oh, you can rest assured that Megan and I are going to have a serious talk about sneaking around and lying, and sex, and all that. But it's not appropriate for us to do that while you're here. You're a guest in our home. And..." She hesitated, and looked at Megan.

"Mom, what?"

"This is something else we're not going to tell Dad just yet, okay? But it's important to me that you know. That you both know," she added, nodding at Jenna.

"Of course, Mom, it's vaulted," Megan said.

Debbie smiled. "I had a few girl crushes when I was your age. In college, I guess, before I met your father."

Megan blinked. "You?"

Her mother nodded and laughed. "Oh, I was never brave enough to do anything about it, things were different then, and I would've lost some friendships for sure." She shrugged. "I mean, I don't really remember it clearly now, but there might have been a party or two where I got drunk and kissed another girl on a dare. For a long time, I wondered what it would be like to go further than that, and I never found out. I'm fine with that, because I love the life I have with your father, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Obviously I haven't been through everything you girls are dealing with, but I'm just saying, maybe I don't have to work very hard at using my imagination to understand where it comes from."

Megan glanced at Jenna, and saw her wiping away fresh tears again. "Mom, that was really brave, and it means a lot to me. To us," she corrected.

Debbie smiled and shook her head. "You're an 'us' now. My baby's growing up."

"So, Mrs. -- uh, Debbie," Jenna began again hesitantly. "You're not going to tell my parents?"

The older woman shook her head. "You've always been a perfectly lovely guest, Jenna. Frankly, I don't see how my daughter's relationship or her disciplinary issues are any of your parents' business."

Jenna exhaled. "Thank you," she whispered.

"But please don't make the mistake of abusing my sympathetic position. I don't want to hear about the two of you using this house - Megan's bedroom - as a safe haven for sex when we're not home just because there's no other place that's safe for the two of you."

Jenna nodded sincerely. "Of course not. You don't have anything to worry about."

Debbie Fletcher smiled. "I know I don't," she said, turning to her daughter. "You understood me too, right, Megan? I don't want to hear about the two of you using your bedroom for sex when we're not home," she repeated carefully.

Megan's chin dropped slowly as she realized why her mother was saying what she was saying the way she was saying it. She broke into a wide grin, one which her mother had to try very hard not to return.

Jenna looked back and forth between them, confused. "Wait - what?"

*****

"Listen, Jenna, there's something I need to tell you about the friends I'm staying with this summer," Megan said. They were in Jenna's bedroom, where Jenna was trying on a couple of prom dresses her mother had bought for her on spec, and Megan was sitting on the bed watching. It was kind of surreal for Megan to see the girl she loved preparing for a date with someone else. But Jenna had been totally up-front about it with Megan when their friend Ben asked her to go with him; she even told Megan she would turn him down if it's what she wanted. What Megan wanted was to be able to take Jenna to their senior prom herself, but she knew that was impossible in the small town where they lived, so it seemed silly for her to ask Jenna not to go have fun out of spite for a situation that wasn't Jenna's fault.

In truth, Megan was now kind of hoping someone would ask her to the prom, too, so she and Jenna could have fun together that night after all... especially if it meant being able to stare at Jenna for a few hours while she pranced around in the slinky, backless black dress she was test-driving right now. But time was growing short. College deposits were in the mail, families were making plans for graduation parties, and the mid-spring New England air was finally starting to feel like mid-spring.

"Your friends in the city?" Jenna asked, pivoting to check the dress from a different angle in the mirror.

"Yeah, my parents' friends. Dude, that gown looks amazing on you."

Jenna laughed. "I'm in love with a girl who calls me 'Dude'."

"I'm in love with a girl who fucking rocks that dress and makes me want to tear it off of her so hard she won't be able to return it for a refund," Megan retorted.

Jenna blushed a little, and leaned down to kiss Megan. "Okay, you can call me 'Dude' whenever you like."

Megan smiled, and asked, "You'll save me one dance if I end up going, too, right? Fuck 'em if they can't handle it."

"Of course I will. So what about your parents' friends?" Jenna slipped out of the backless dress, and standing there in just her thong, she picked up the other dress, a more traditional purple number. She held it up in front of her to see if she could get a sense of how it would look on her without actually going to the trouble of putting it on.

Megan took a deep breath. "Well, remember a few months ago, I couldn't go to the 'optional' swim practice because they were staying at our house for the long Martin Luther King Day weekend?"

Jenna's eyes wandered toward the ceiling as she searched her memory, then settled back down into the mirror. "Yeah, I guess so. I must not have really made the connection that it was the same friends."

"Okay, so you also remember that you and I first got together the weekend after that, right?"

Jenna lowered the dress and turned to face Megan, her bare nipples pointing straight ahead. "That sounds right. I'm not the world's biggest calendar nerd like you, though." She smiled, and then saw the uncomfortable look on Megan's face. "Sorry. Yes, you and I hooked up the Friday after MLK, why?"

Megan closed her eyes tight. Maybe if I don't see her reaction, it can't be a bad one. That totally makes sense. "The weekend they were staying in our house, I kind of had sex with them." She waited for a reaction, but didn't hear one, so she opened her eyes. Jenna had a puzzled look on her face.

"You kind of had sex with them?"

Megan nodded. "I had sex with them."

"These people are college friends of your parents, right? What are they, like fifty?"

Megan sighed. "No, my parents went to college with the husband, but the wife is a lot younger and they just got married a few years ago."

"Well, if only the guy is fifty, then that makes it totally fine that you had sex with both of them," Jenna laughed. "What the hell got into you, Fletcher?" She sat down on the bed next to Megan.

"I'm honestly not sure," Megan shrugged. "It's still a little bit of a blur, I just know it made sense when it was happening. You know the cooking show 'Cassie's Kitchen'?"

Jenna put her t-shirt back on. "I don't watch it, but I know it."

"Okay, Cassie Germaine is the wife, and --"

"You had sex with Cassie Germaine??" Jenna practically yelled, then clamped her hand over her mouth as she looked over at her closed bedroom door.

"Yes, I had sex with Cassie Germaine," Megan said. "Let's make sure to put that in an email to your parents, okay?" Jenna nodded, her hand still over her mouth. "So, Cassie's husband Jason is a lawyer at the cable network, and they met when she first got the show. They're really nice people."

"How nice could they be?" Jenna asked, incredulous. "They seduced their friends' teenage daughter!"

Megan sighed again. "That's not what happened. The truth is, I kind of went looking for it. January had been a really tough month - I had that stupid date with Vince, and forgive me, but I was kind of in the dumps over my chances of ever getting anywhere with you. Then Cassie and Jason showed up out of nowhere. I'd had a crush on her for literally years just from watching her show, and my parents never told me they knew her until she and her husband showed up at our door that Friday night. It rocked me back, I was angry and heartsick, and I went to them in the middle of the night to confront them."

"Confront them? About what?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

Jenna let out a hollow laugh. "I don't understand any of this, Megan."

"Believe me, you're not the only one," Megan replied. "I was so confused and turned upside down over you, over them, over my parents treating me like a child, that somehow the whole night turned into a referendum on whether anybody besides me could see I was an adult. Cassie and Jason treated me like a woman instead of a little girl, and it made me feel special."

Jenna opened her mouth to speak, but stopped and closed it again.

Megan smiled, and put her hand on Jenna's. "Honey, nobody makes me feel the way you do. But that first night with Cassie was also my first time with a woman, and if it hadn't been for the confidence I got from that, I don't think I would've had the guts to go after you." She leaned in toward Jenna, and they kissed.

"Okay, that's not a small thing," said Jenna. "But these are the people letting you stay with them for free this summer - and didn't they also get you an internship at their TV station? What do you think they're expecting in return for all of this generosity?"

"Jenna, nothing, I swear," said Megan. "Cassie was clear about that, there are no strings and no expectations, especially with me in a relationship. These are good people, and I know you would like them." She looked into Jenna's eyes, and could tell she was still skeptical. "Look, what if you drive me down there at the beginning of the summer? I know your parents won't give you any weekends off, but maybe we can head down on Tuesday or Wednesday after graduation? I'll bet Cassie and Jason won't have any problem with me showing up a couple of days early, or with letting you stay there for the first couple of days, either. And not for nothing," she added before Jenna could respond, "but right there, that's our first time spending the night together, before either of us ever sets foot on campus. In June, not August or September."

Jenna's expression slowly melted into a thin smile. "When you put it that way, I'm not sure how I can say no." Megan started to bounce up and down on the bed. "But I'm not the only one with a say in this, Megan. So you ask your cradle-robbing sex maniac friends if it's cool with them, and I'll ask my comically throwback puritanical parents if it's cool with them, okay?"

Megan laughed. "Sounds like a plan." She put her hand on Jenna's cheek. "You know I love you, right? This is going to work out. We're going to be together forever."

Jenna glanced again at her closed bedroom door, then gave Megan a quick kiss, and whispered, "Since when have you been the romantic in this relationship? Jesus, Megan, together forever? I love you, but let's get through the rest of our senior year of high school first, okay?"

Megan was a little shocked to hear Jenna talk that way, but she nodded, and kept a smile on her face. "You're going to go with the backless dress, right?"

"Fuck yeah," Jenna said, standing up from her bed. "My girlfriend thinks I'm hot in that thing, and I'm saving a dance for her." Megan laughed and clapped, and decided she should ask their friend Josh to the prom, instead of waiting to be asked.

*****

"I've never been more nervous in my life, Cassie," Megan said into her phone.

"About the prom?" Cassie sounded like she was a million miles away, which let's face it, with the vast chasm of differences between Megan's hometown and New York City, she may as well have been.

"No, that's the funny thing," Megan said. "Jenna and I are both going with friends, but we've agreed to save one dance for each other, and at this point I honestly don't think either one of us cares what anybody thinks about it if they watch us dancing together and see more than just good friends having a good time. What could they do to us now, anyway?"

"You're right, of course. But that's still very brave, considering what you've both been through to get here."

Megan could hear music, and the clatter of kitchen implements being used, in the background. "What's Jason cooking up for dinner?"

"He's making bun xao, I'm very excited."

"What's 'boon jowl'?"

Cassie laughed. "I'm guessing you don't have a good Vietnamese restaurant up there."

"Cassie, we don't have a good restaurant up here, period. You should still be counting your blessings that I saved you guys from having to eat at Hallowell's the night I made those enchiladas."

"Megan, sweetie, I have dreams about your enchiladas that would make you blush."

It was Megan's turn to laugh. "I'm not sure I want to know."

"So wait," Cassie changed back the subject. "What is it that's making you so nervous, if it's not the prom?"

Megan was silent for a few seconds. "It's hard to explain without feeling like I'm insulting you."

"Wow. Well, if it helps any, I don't get insulted easily."

Megan pursed her lips and thought for a moment. "It does help, but even so, can you listen to what I mean and not what I say?"

Cassie chuckled. "That's a new one on me."

Exhaling, Megan said, "Cassie, I'm nervous about the first few days at your place. I'm not worried that you won't like Jenna. She's been a good friend for years, I'm in love with her, and she's really good for me. I'm worried she won't like you guys because of what happened in January."

"Let me guess - you're worried she's already formed an opinion of us based on the fact that we had sex with you when you were vulnerable, and you'd been a legal adult for about a heartbeat?"

"Well, yeah."

"And in a cold, calculated fashion, we preyed on our hapless victim again the very next night?"

Megan laughed. "Yeah, that, too."

"Megan, do you think we took advantage of you in January?"

"No."

"Do you think we owe you an apology for our behavior?"

"God, no."

"Then you'll understand why I don't think we owe your girlfriend who wasn't yet your girlfriend at the time an apology, either."

"In my brain, yes, I understand. But I want to try to help her understand that before she meets you, too."

Cassie was silent for a moment, and Megan could hear more clattering and some sizzling in the background. "Jenna is going to like us or not based on her own mind and her own heart. Trying to sell her on us in advance is probably going to sound to her like you're making excuses for us."

"Cassie, I'm really scared. As much as Jenna and I both want to leave this town, it's where we learned how to be together. I'm scared of what life in college is going to be like with a million other things to worry about, and I'm even more scared of what could happen over the summer before we get there." Megan swallowed, and cleared her throat. "Why is love so frightening?"

"Because it requires a huge leap of faith to trust that someone else cares about your happiness as much as you do, maybe even more."

"Okay, but we've only been together for a few months. When did you know that you loved Jason enough to take that leap of faith with him?"

"I know you don't know it yet, sweetie, but you're asking the wrong question."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, love isn't like a thermometer that has to reach a certain temperature before you can decide if it's worth the risk."

"Okay, I'm lost again. Where does the leap of faith come in, then?"

"Love isn't just an emotion, it's also a decision, a deliberate act, one you choose to make over and over again. The act of loving someone is the leap of faith."

"Jesus, Cassie," Megan said in frustration. "You're talking to me like I'm in a graduate-level philosophy class, when my hormones are still in high school."

"No, Megan, I'm not," replied Cassie, sounding about as serious as Megan had ever heard her. "I'm talking to you like a friend and an adult."

Megan sighed. "Well, I really do appreciate that you're willing to let us both come stay with you those extra days. I was sure Jenna's parents wouldn't be okay with it, but they said yes."

"Why not?" Cassie posed with mischief in her voice. "We're a successful, happily married couple. Just look at the last young woman we took under our wings, and how wonderfully she's turned out."

Megan snorted.

*****

Jenna was radiant, and Megan practically couldn't look away from her. If graduation in a couple of weeks was the official, legal end of high school, senior prom was the symbolic one, a raucous celebration of the almost-graduates' impending freedom - and Jenna had waited a long time to be free. She was dancing, laughing, and full of joy.

The four of them - Jenna and Megan, and their friends Ben and Josh - were sharing a table with two other couples, but they might as well have been at the other end of the room for as much as they were sharing the experience with the others. The two boys were friends from the track team, and pretty decent guys, nothing like the more typical "jocks" who played football and baseball in their school. But Megan had been friends with them basically since second or third grade, so she'd never really thought of them as possible boyfriends, and she always assumed they were on the same page.

Megan's date Josh had asked for a dance with Jenna, so Ben and Megan were left at the table on their own, and talking about what they would remember most about high school. "I'll miss competing, I guess," said Megan, shouting to be heard over the music. "I was never one of the strongest swimmers at the meets, but that helped me push myself and gave me more to shoot for."

Ben smiled and shouted back, "It's not whether you win or lose?"

Megan laughed. "That's such bullshit, though. For the rest of our lives, nobody is going to give us another 'It's How You Played the Game' trophy."

Shrugging, Ben said, "That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to play fair, though. If nothing else, I would get a lot less sleep if I got where I was going by cheating other people out of what they'd been working for."

Megan shook her head. "I know we're kind of young for me to be cynical," she replied, "but I think you're in the minority these days. I don't know a lot of people whose first thought in the morning is, 'What's the right thing to do today?'"

Ben smiled again, a toothy smile that conveyed genuine emotion. "I think you know at least one of them pretty well." He pointed at the dance floor, and as Megan's gaze followed his finger to Jenna, she smiled as well. Still looking at Megan, Ben added, "You know, I understand why you were scared of people finding out, but you would've had a lot more allies than you thought you would."

Megan's smile disappeared, and she turned back to Ben. "I don't know what you mean," she said, hoping he would believe her.

"It's okay, Megan. I've known for a while. And I'm not the only one who figured it out. But I'm pretty sure nobody who knows would be interested in causing any problems for the two of you."

"How," was all Megan could manage to say, but even then the sound didn't actually come out of her mouth. So she tried again. "How?"

"You should see the way that you look at her," Ben said. "And the way she looks at you. It's beautiful, and anybody who feels otherwise is a moron."

Megan felt herself blush, and tried not to panic. "Why haven't you - hasn't anybody -"

"Because it's none of our business," he interrupted. "And nobody else's, either."

Megan put her hand on top of his. "Jesus, Ben, I had no idea. Thank you!"

"Don't thank me yet," Ben said with a wink. Before Megan could respond, he stood up and held his hand out to her. She took it and stood, still barely coming up to his shoulders, and he led her out onto the dance floor just as the song was ending.

The next song was a slow, romantic ballad. As Megan watched with some curiosity and more than a little confusion, Ben looked first to his left, then to his right, nodding slightly both times. Finally he drew Megan toward him, taking her right hand in his left, and his right arm landing on a respectful area of her back. He steered them across the dance floor until they were next to Jenna and Josh, and it was only then that Megan noticed five other boys approaching them from various parts of the room, all of them even taller than Ben, and three of them with their dates in tow.

Megan felt her heart start to pound, and she pulled back. "Ben, what the hell is going on?"

Ben smiled again. "You trust me, right?"

Before she could answer, Megan felt a tap on her shoulder, and she looked over to see Josh. "There's someone who'd like to have a dance with you," he said, as Ben let go of her.

Jenna stood there beaming in her gown, the most beautiful sight Megan had ever seen, and for a change Megan allowed herself to start crying just a little. She didn't fully understand what was going on, but as Jenna stepped up to her, Megan was dimly aware of Josh, Ben, and the other eight students who'd approached them forming a circle around them and facing outward, then locking arms. Jenna grabbed hold of Megan and pulled her close, and Megan could smell Jenna's perfume. They wrapped their arms around each other and slowly began to sway, not at all in time with the music, with their cheeks touching.

Right there on the dance floor, a couple of yards away from a few hundred people who might never be able to understand, Jenna and Megan kissed. Megan ran her hands into Jenna's hair as their kiss became deeper and more passionate, and she felt Jenna's hands grab her ass. Megan smiled and laughed as the kiss broke for a moment, and she couldn't believe how lucky they were to have friends like these. It might not have been ideal, they might not have been flaunting their love proudly and defiantly for the entire world to see - and she still had no idea what challenges the summer would bring them, much less the four years of college life to follow. But right now, Megan was dancing with the woman she loved at their senior prom, and for the next four minutes, she was the happiest eighteen year old girl on the planet.