The Hill Scene

The park bench

"They should make a movie about your life Philly, that would be really, very interesting." Alice chuckled thinking about it, a movie about Ophelia's life would sure be entertaining, though She let out a sigh. "I think it would be really, very sad."
"C'mon Philly it wouldn't be that bad..I'd watch it." Ophelia always hated that nickname, until it became something that Alice called her, then suddenly it became her favourite name to be called, especially when it was spoken by her. Ophelia was getting scared, she felt as if she was starting to like Alice a bit to much. What if Alice didn't want that? And more importantly, what would her mother think about it? Alice could tell that Ophelia was becoming distant. They'd still hang out every day after school, but in school Alice hardly saw her. She knew Ophelia meant no harm, she knew it was mainly her mother's fault, but regardless it still hurt that she'd basically gone back to having no school friends. She enjoyed Philly's company, and school was honestly hard without her. Alice was starting to become a target to bully's, the classic getting pushed in the halls and shoved into lockers, as well as called names and having things thrown her way. Ophelia saw this, and for a while even if Ophelia was avoiding her, she'd still stick up for her against them. However rumours had started to spread, rumours that Ophelia could not risk her mother hearing about, so as much as Ophelia hated seeing Alice hurt, whenever she saw her getting shoved around, she'd just walk away. She'd apologise about it after school and Alice understood but it was getting hard. Alice just wanted to scream, just get out every single feeling inside of her, sadness, anger... love.

"There's church tomorrow." Alice said sadly to which Ophelia just nodded. "Honestly I'm getting really sick of it. It makes me feel so small."
"How do you mean?" Ophelia asked questioning her last comment. Alice sighed before responding. "I mean our church specifically, it's not like any church I've ever been to. Other churches I've been to have been about preaching love. But this one? This one uses scare tactics. Constantly talking about the devil and hell and hate rather than god and love. Using the fear of sin and hell to make people live by their rules. They're not following the rules because the want god to love them, they're following the rules so god doesn't hate them."
"Wow" is all Ophelia could respond with, she could hear that Alice was getting a little angry. "And our church is not exactly accepting of people." She added before signing sadly again. "Accepting of who?"
"Certain people in certain relationships."
"Why are you worried..about that? Is that...you? Do you want to be in those 'certain relationships'?" Ophelia didn't want to seem as if she was judging Alice, she simply just needed to know Alice's opinions. The only opinions she knew on the topic were her mother's and the churches and both were negative. "Honestly...I think so. In fact I know so." Alice answered honestly and Ophelia nodded looking sympathetic. In a way Ophelia was relieved that that's how Alice felt, but now she was even more confused. Why was she relieved that Alice might like her? That wasn't supposed to be how she lived her life...but maybe she wanted it to be.

Despite their complicated relationship, Ophelia still always assumed that her mother was right about things, after all she was the parent, and you always think that parents know best. But Alice made Ophelia think, maybe..just maybe, her mother was wrong about this one thing. She had always just accepted that that's what most Christians believed and lived by, but maybe she shouldn't just accept that, maybe she should be as upset as Alice when things aren't inclusive or accepting. Maybe she had a right to do that without having to worry about other people and the rumours they might spread, she should be allowed to be as proud as them. She should be allowed to openly talk about Alice without fear of judgment. Who knows? Maybe they would just be friends, maybe Alice didn't see her that way, but even if they remain just friends they should be able to be as close as they are without people assuming things and being rude about it. And when someone was rude about it they deserved to be able to make a fuss and stand up for themselves free of anymore backlash. But that clearly wasn't the case, maybe it would be one day and maybe she should be fighting for it more, especially in school where she sees Alice getting picked on and all she does is run and hide. She decided then in that moment, that she wasn't going to hide anymore. She wasn't exactly sure what this feeling was, or where she stood, but she knew that she didn't want to hide it anymore because that was not a good way to live.