Inner Desires

14.

On that same day, in the afternoon, four friends had gathered in Hanna's living-room. She had called all of them from the restaurant, saying that she wanted to meet them after her shift and tell them something important.

After a few weeks seeing Kimberly, she had decided that it was time to be brave and inform her friends. Having to lie about her whereabouts to everyone except for Terhi and keeping her happiness to herself was getting harder and harder each time. Of course, she couldn't deny that she was frightened, but slowly the Finn had managed to convince her that it would be liberating. Besides, she thought it would be fair to let those belonging to her closest circle know, especially her roommates and some of her best friends – Martin unfortunately didn't have time that afternoon, so she would tell him the news some other time. Now they were all waiting for her, sharing their theories.

"Wanna bet that what she wants to tell us is that she's into Kimberly?" Johanna guessed.

"No way!" Delia gasped "Hanna's not one of those!"

Zach clearly didn't take the comment too well. He put his hands on his hips, narrowing his eyes at Delia.

"One of those?"

"Sorry, didn't mean it in an offensive way" Delia shrugged, defending herself "You know I'm not a homophobe, but I'm sure she's not a lesbian."

"Who said she has to be? Bisexuals exist, too" Johanna pointed out "I wouldn't go as far as to call her gay."

"I would" Zach disagreed "She clearly has all the symptoms. Just look at all her relationships with men."

Mark, who had been listening to the conversation in silence so far, gave Hanna's soul brother a skeptical look.

"Isn't that one of those stereotypes you gay people run away from? By those standards, we would have to think that you've had a traumatic past with women."

Zach whacked him playfully. The youngest girl was the one to continue the conversation.

"He does have a point, though. Remember the thing with Adrian?"

"You mean the crush she had on him?" Mark responded with another question "That crush she completely forgot about when Butch Koskela and the Sundance Kim came along?"

Johanna nodded, unable to suppress a giggle.

"That one!"

"Not to mention that she didn't invest half as much energy to get him as she's done with that Kimberly chick" Zach observed.

Yet Delia still didn't seem too convinced. She tucked some streaks behind her ears as she said:

"Why are you all assuming it means something? While it's true that she's spent an awful lot of time with that girl lately, many women go for dinner with a friend; it's just normal. Maybe they needed to talk about something more private."

"Would you go out to dinner with your bisexual friend?" Johanna wondered slyly.

"Hey!" Zach intervened "Is that a problem?"

"Of course not" Johanna replied, slightly annoyed that Zach got so up in arms whenever they made such comments "I mean, if you have a bisexual friend and you know she happens to be into you, would you let her keep hitting on you instead of stopping her? Or go out to dinner so often with her?"

"She's right in that" Mark agreed "And they're texting all the time."

"Ohhh!" Johanna exclaimed, leaning forward in excitement "And you guys haven't seen the way she grins whenever her phone rings and it's her!"