“I bet she’s disgusted with me, being...like that.”
“Being like what?”
There was a pause, and then she whispered, “Gay.”
“Why would you think that?” I asked, although we’d all seen Evie’s reaction to Skye’s kiss. But I knew Evie wasn’t homophobic.
“I— I shouldn’t like her.” She sniffled.
“You like her? Like, like-like her?”
The more Skye spoke, the more confusing yet clear things became. It was as if the pieces of a puzzle were all coming together. The playful flirting with Evie. Her trying to be with Evie outside of work almost every night. Small touches here or there.
Skye sat up and wiped her face. “Can I tell you something?”
I wasn’t entirely sure where this conversation was going. Would I have to compete for Evie with Skye? Of all the people I thought I’d have to worry about, I hadn’t considered her best friend.
“Yeah, of course. I’m here for you.” The words sounded fake coming from my lips. I wasn’t any good at any of this stuff—I wasn’t someone people came to for comfort.
“It’s about my past. My parents. They...”
The blood drained from my face. Parental trauma was not good. I had it in droves.
“Skye—”
“They are hyper-religious. They saw me kissing a girl and told me to never come home,” she blurted before I could stop her.
“Fuck your parents so hard. You don’t need them. You’ve got us.”
She rolled her eyes and sniffled. “Hardly. Evie hates me now.”
“That’s not true. She was just surprised.”
Eventually she calmed down. I stood and went to her mini fridge, pulling out water for both of us.
She threw her arms up and huffed. “Sebastian, I don’t think I like men very much!”
I fought back a laugh. “Is that so?” I recalled her going on a date with me in place of Evie the first day we met. However, looking back, she wasn’t all that interested in me, speaking mostly about getting the lead part alongside me. She’d been trying to schmooze, not seduce.
I could see the weight coming off her shoulders. She smiled and fell back against the couch, and I followed suit.
“Yeah. I mean, I’ve slept with guys. I went through a phase in high school. My parents were always trying to get me involved with the boys in youth group.”
I let her vent. She told me about her past. She’d grown up in a religious household, and after her parents caught her giving a chaste kiss to a neighbor girl, they disowned her. She spent the next few years trying to make it in Hollywood and then landed this gig.
“Evie...” She sighed and rubbed her face. “That was so dumb. I don’t know what I was thinking. I thought maybe we…”
“I’m sure she’s not as upset as you think,” I assured her.
“What if she hates me for being...”
The religion they’d shoved into her for years continued to return, and I wanted to murder both her parents and their church for what they said to her.
“Gay?”
“Maybe bi.” She scrunched up her nose in thought. “Sex with men isn’t terrible. I can appreciate the male form. I think I definitely like women more, though. God, that feels so good to say!”
I laughed. “Sexuality’s a spectrum. Everyone just falls somewhere on it. And Evie can’t hate you for being gay because then she’d have to hate me too, Skye.”
