Becoming More Than Strangers

Chapter 6: The Morning

Jess awoke that morning to the smell of pancakes being made. She lifted her head off the couch and rubbed her eyes, unsure if she was dreaming. A familiar redhead was flipping pancakes on the griddle as Maya sat across from her at the island, drinking a glass of orange juice. Sadie glanced up and said, "Oh! Looks like the sleepy monster is awake." Jess squinted as she got up and said, "What time is it?" Maya said, "It's 9:30. How late were you two up last night? I don't think I even heard you come in." Sadie, "I honestly don't even remember. I feel like I sleep walked to your room last night." Jess said, "Um yeah. We came in through the fire escape. I think it was maybe like 3 AM or something. Not too bad. When did you get back, Maya?" Maya sighed, saying, "Well I had to get the Joe's to their room." Jess chuckled at the fact that Maya was referring to both Joseph Quinn and Joe Keery as "The Joe's". Maya continued, "Let's just say they're going to be pretty hungover today." Sadie and Jess scrunched up their faces, Jess saying, "Been there done that." Maya said, "Yeah. So I guess I got in at like 2 AM. Pretty early night considering that we were bar hopping." Jess said, "Wow. Yikes. Well it sounds like you had fun?" Maya nodded with a big grin as Jess headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth and take a shower.

Upon returning to the kitchen, Jess brushed through her wet hair with her fingers and spotted a plate of pancakes and cut up strawberries that Sadie had set out for her. She gratefully sat down as Sadie and Maya ate their helpings. Maya and Sadie had been talking when Sadie turned to Jess saying, "Yeah. Why did you sleep on the couch? You literally have a queen. We could have fit easily." Jess stuck a bite of pancake in her mouth before saying, "I don't know. I felt like I was intruding. Like, I felt like I was crossing a boundary doing that after coming out to you and stuff." Maya opened her mouth in excited shock saying, "You came out to Sadie?? Aw that's cute." She turned to Sadie saying, "Jess has always been such a precious gentle-wo-men. Always wanting to make sure she knows boundaries." Sadie said, "Well next time, please do sleep in your own bed. I really don't mind sharing your bed." Jess shook her head smiling and chewing the food. She said, "These are good by the way. Are they supposed to be banana flavored?" Sadie said, "Yeah! It's a vegan recipe I love. I'm glad you like them." Jess said, "Yeah. They're great. Same with the strawberries. I feel like they really compliment these...vegan-banana-pancakes." Sadie chuckled, saying, "Thank you. What can I say? I try."

Maya said, "So how did Jess come out to you, Sadie? Was it as bad as when she came out to me?" Sadie said, "Bad??" as Jess said, "Hey! Hey! That was not that bad!" Maya teased, "Oh reallyyyy?" Jess crossed her arms and sat back in her chair saying, "Also stop yelling about me coming out. Someone could overhear and leak it." Maya said, "Who's gonna hear us here? Stop being so paranoid!" Jess put her arms up in defeat as Sadie said, "So what happened when you came out to Maya?" Jess glared at Maya as if to say, "You brought it up. You tell her." Maya said excitedly, "Okay well, it was actually so sweet. She was so precious. So we're sitting at krafty during a break in filming and basically she thought it was just us in there and she says, 'Hey Maya. I think I'm ready to tell you I'm bi—' and then this production assistant walks by and Jess's face turned bright red so she tried to cover it up by saying, 'Bi, bi—by the muffins. Maya you're by the muffins can I have one?' And she's yelling it at this point with the hopes that the assistant wouldn't think too much of it so she runs to grab a muffin and trips right into the coffee." Sadie tried hard to hold in her laughter but couldn't at this point. Maya continues, "And get this she manages to drench herself and me. And we literally had to halt filming for a few hours so that costume could figure out how to coordinate getting news outfits for us. It was bad, Sadie. Literally so bad." Maya and Sadie sat there laughing hard and Jess couldn't hold back her own laughter either. Sadie said, "Yeah. Definitely wasn't like that. I think she's gotten a little better at coming out since then." Jess said, "Yeah. Well now I just tell myself before I come out to people that it can't go as bad as it did with Maya." Sadie covered her mouth as she continued to laugh. Jess shook her head with a smile and threw her crumpled napkin at the red headed girl and said to Maya, "You're dead, ya know that?" Maya sarcastically shrugged as Jess got up to clean her dishes in the sink.

When she set the clean dishes in the drying rack, Sadie said, "Hey, Jess? Do you need help unpacking? It's a mess in your room." She teased as Jess said in playful exasperation, "I just got here yesterday! But yes, please. That'd be amazing." Sadie smiled and got up running to the room. Maya called, "Great, Sadie! Leaving me to do our dishes?" Sadie called back with laughter in her voice saying, "Thanks Maya! You're the best." Maya sighed as Jess winked at her before going to her room.