BUTTERFLIES

CHAPTER FIVE

Over the next three weeks, Lena and I saw each other nearly every day. Sometimes for less than an hour, and other times we would spend the night together. I couldn't fathom that it had been a full month since we had met. It felt like hardly any time had passed since the day we met, but at the same time it felt like we had been this close forever. I was getting the hang of skating and Lena had learned two new songs on the piano. We had established the places that were our "spots," and had made a habit of going back to get tea or coffee from the cafe where we first met. Despite how romantic or sentimental the nature of our behavior was, we had yet to bring up the word "girlfriend," or even any future, more than a few days ahead. At least not since our conversation about my leaving. I think we both didn't want to think about it, because to bring up the sadness of leaving would force us to confront the fact that there was something more than friendship to be sad about. There were emotions forming that we both felt, but both worried we were feeling too soon.

***

On an afternoon when she was away at a meeting, I had scheduled to call my two best friends from home. I had known Anna and Rens since freshman year of high school, but we didn't get super close as a group until senior year. Besides my flatmates at university, they were my closest friends. I decided I would tell them about Lena today. I felt it was time, and I couldn't keep lying about why I was so happy when we had called the times before.

"Hey! I missed you!" I said when they picked up. We usually did three-way calls.

"Miss you too! So, what's new?" asked Anna.

"Well..." I paused, smiling.

"What."

"There is something I have neglected to tell you guys."

"TELL US!" they exclaimed in tandem.

"I'm kinda talking to someone. Or, like, more than talking to them."

They both shrieked. I knew they would be excited because I never really talked about relationship things very often, and this was the first time in the while I had given them news like this.

"OH MY GOD WHO IS HE!"

"MARI OH MY GOD."

"Okay, okay her name is Lena. And we met in a coffee shop. And she's from Germany but she's living here in Copenhagen." I hadn't really ever come out to my friends, but I just figured they would get the message at some point. I guess this was me sending the message. Luckily, they weren't phased by the pronoun switch.

I filled them in on the past month and how I was feeling about it. I didn't tell them that she was famous on TikTok. I decided that I would let them figure that out on their own, knowing they would at some point try and follow her on Instagram and I would have to tell them.

It was a relief to tell them, and I was happy they were so excited for me. I had broken the ice, and now I could bring Lena up to them without being weird about it.

***

When Lisa came to Copenhagen for the first time, she was not what I expected. I knew she and Lena were identical twins, but I had always thought they looked so different in photos and videos. Somehow, they seemed more alike in person, but not so alike I couldn't tell them apart. They had a dynamic I couldn't really describe. Two say they were two halves of one whole would belittle the fact that they were two already whole, individual people, but they clearly had a twin connection. I had gathered glimpses of Lisa from social media, but what I mainly knew about her came from WhatsApp calls with Lena and when Lena told me about her, which was adorable. Lena talked about Lisa with awe, as if Lisa was the most incredible person she knew in the whole world. I almost worried that I would feel like a third wheel hanging out with the two of them, but I think their closeness somehow made it easier to get along in a group of three.