The initial shock dissolves and this time I press my lips to hers, my heart about ready to crack my ribs as I wrap my arms around her, holding her up. We kiss and this time, she doesn’t pull away.

I do.

I need to catch my breath.

“But why?” I ask. “Last time—I thought I made a mistake and ruined our friendship, that you didn’t like me that way. That you…”

An awkward silence hangs between us as I struggle to say what’s been gnawing at my mind for months and months and months.

“I thought you stopped liking me because I came out as nonbinary,” I continue. “That maybe you only liked girls, or boys, or something.”

“No, that wasn’t it at all.” She grips my hands. “I just—when you kissed me, I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t sure what I was feeling. It’s complicated you know, with my moms. Like they’re super supportive. But I didn’t want to be the queer daughter of the only queer parent couple at our school.”

“That we know of.”

“True, and it’s silly, but I didn’t know it then. I do now. I know how I feel about you, and after all this…” She twirls our hands in the air. “Life is way too short not to admit when you have feelings for someone.” Natalie offers me a smile and I swear she hasn’t lost her magic at all because the look on her face sets my blood on fire.

“I did try to talk to you about it afterward,” she continues. “But you were avoiding me, and I thought maybe you regretted it and didn’t know how to tell me, so I just—”

“No! No, never!” I stammer. “I was afraid I’d ruined our friendship and I was so afraid of what you’d say if we did talk in case you hated me. I—I guess I did actually ruin things.”

“Ancient history now, though, right?” Natalie says, but I can feel her waiting on me to confirm.

“Ancient history,” I say, and she tugs me into a hug.

My chest explodes with a supernova of warm fuzzies as I inhale the scent of her and soak up her warmth. I want to stay like this forever, but our embrace turns into a group hug as Aysha, Katya, and even Sini wrap their arms around us. I brace myself, half expecting to get zapped by Katya, but I don’t, and it actually feels kind of nice.

“Okay, enough, enough, I can’t breathe,” Natalie says, and the hug breaks apart.

I don’t have the words in either English or Finnish to express what I’m feeling, but Natalie takes my hand and nothing else matters.

“Aw, he looks lonely.” Katya nudges Aysha toward Morgan. “Should we go cheer him up?”

We head over. He sees us coming and meets us halfway.