warmth {complete}

22||honey, i love you, that's all she wrote

"My mom's a lesbian, apparently," Arden tells me the next day as I'm nibbling on some grapes. "She came out last night, and my dad was like, eh. Like, what the hell?"

"Are you a homophobe?" I ask, furrowing my brows.

"No, but shouldn't he be upset or something? His wife has been faking it for the past fifteen years of their marriage, and he couldn't even muster a two-syllable word? Isn't that a little ridiculous?"

"Maybe he knew?" I suggest, nodding a sup to Griffin across the courtyard. He winks at me and then returns to his conversation.

"Of course he didn't know!"

"How do you know?" I mutter, picking at the hem of my skirt. "Maybe he knew and just thought your mom should be the one to tell you?"

"You're wrong."

I blink and shrug my shoulders. Her views seem a little narrow-minded, but I don't know. I guess it'd be hard to have your mother come out so suddenly.

"I don't really know, Arden," I say. "Just give it some time. You'll get used to it, I'm sure."

She scowls and crosses her legs. "Yeah, whatever."

Her mood has turned sour now, and mine is steadily darkening, so I hum a let's change the subject song and lean forward. "So do you think you aced the history test? I had it third period."

"Oh my God!" she exclaims, grinning. "I totally failed it. What did you get for number four? A?"

"No, I got B."

"Ah, fuck, you're smart."

I laugh, she smiles, and all is forgotten.

***

"Katherine, I'm not going to graduate on these mediocre grades," Griffin tells me as I'm extracting my car keys from my locker at the end of sixth period.

"Aw."

He mock-glares at me and leans against the locker next to mine. "That was a call for help. Help."

"I have to study for final exams," I say, "which are this month, by the way, so you better shape up." I bite my lip so I won't start singing "You're the One That I Want" from Grease because that would be awkward.

"Because you need a man?" he teases, nudging his shoulder with mine.

"I knew there was a reason we're friends," I say, sighing happily and linking our arms.

He walks me to my car, then pops his head in through the window once I'm inside. "I don't think I'm sleeping over tonight. My mother wants me to talk about things with her."

"Have fun," I sing sarcastically, flashing a smile.

"Oh— "

"Griffin!"

His eyes roll instinctively, and he forces a smile at me before straightening and swaggering over to Lucia. She wraps her arms around his waist and cuddles him, he mutters something and places her a safe distance away from here.

"What were you doing with her?" she asks, attempting to intertwine their hands. He crosses his arms casually and flits his gaze over to mine.

"Talking," he says, shrugging. "She's my best friend."

Oh, good.

I drive away after that, before I can get my hopes up. 

A/N: i don't know what i'm doing at all. i don't have any more ideas for this so i'm not sure where this is going. yay. thank you for reading.