those three words

i love you.

"I love you."

Hope stared at her with wide eyes, her heart racing at those three words. had she actually said it? Did Josie Saltzman just tell her she loved her? Hope was speechless. There she was, sitting in the common room with the girl she was madly in love with, and that girl had just said those three magical words.

The only problem was, those three magical words weren't for her. You see, Hope had been too busy daydreaming about the pretty brunette beside her that she didn't even notice when Josie picked up her phone, or when Josie dialed her girlfriend's number or the two-minute-long conversation that occurred before she said those words (to her girlfriend, and not Hope).

So basically, Hope was just an idiot.

Hope was still sitting there slack-jawed with wide eyes when Josie sat her phone down, ending the call, which was when Hope realized that those words hadn't been directed towards her.

They were directed towards Finch. Hope's stomach turned at the thought of the girl. Josie gave her a weird look, partly because Hope looked like she'd just found out she was going to Disneyland and also because she looked like she was about to vomit.

"You okay?" she asked, looking at Hope up and down out of concern.

"Uh yeah, why?" Hope asked, trying to gather herself and appear as if she hadn't thought Josie confessed her love for her just a moment ago.

"Because you look like you just got told you're pregnant," Josie said, her face dead serious.

Hope burst out into a fit of laughter, leaving a very confused Josie to just sit there and watch as her friend dies from a laughter fit. Honestly, Hope wasn't sure why she was laughing so hard, maybe it was out of relief that Josie didn't catch on, or maybe she thought it was just that funny.

"Whew," Hope breathed out after what must've been 2 minutes of nothing but laughter, wiping tears from her eyes. "Thank you for that, wow. um, no I'm not pregnant," she said chuckling.

"So just a weirdo then?"

"You're the weirdo here."

"Okay, whatever you say, Hopey."

"Oh shut up," she said, looking down at her lap to hide the blush creeping onto her cheeks. Hope always told Josie she hated the nickname, she said that it made her seem like a child. but truthfully, she adored it. She loved hearing it, but only from Josie's mouth. Anyone else who's said it even once has never said it again.

Josie smiles at her, the whiteness of her teeth catching Hope's eye, causing her to look up from her lap. For a moment, Hope could swear the world stops moving, just to stare at the beautiful girl before her. (It doesn't.)

Hope pulls her eyes away, to not look like a creep. Or like someone in love with Josie Saltzman, which she is, but nobody else needs to know that.

"Oh good, you're both here. I need to talk to you," Lizzie says loudly, rushing through the room to where they're sitting.

Both of the girls look worriedly at each other first, then back at Lizzie, who looks frantic.

"Yeah, sure. what's going on?" Hope asks, sitting up in her seat.

"Okay, so you know how there's that guy-,"

Josie groans, interrupting Lizzie's storytime. "Oh come on, Lizzie. I thought you saw a new monster or something, not that you wanted to talk about this boy. Again."

"Oh, shut up Jo. I listened to you talk about Finch and all her problems last night, it's my turn now," Lizzie says.

Hope's stomach twists in a nasty, jealous way at the mere mention of the name, she pictures the name in her head, Finch. She thinks of how the letters just don't fit together. She sees Josie glance at her from the corner of her eye, and Hope just thinks it's her attempt at sharing her annoyance with Lizzie.