"Janis, come on!"
"I don't even see why we have to go to this stupid thing," Janis grumbled, clambering out of the car. "None of us actually like sports."
"Jan, for the last time," Cady sighed. "We have to support Aaron."
"But whyyy?" Janis groaned. "You broke up with him. That should mean that you don't have to go to his stupid basketball games."
"Soccer," Cady corrected. "And he's still our friend."
"Your friend."
"And therefore yours by proxy."
Janis glanced at Damian. "Help me out here?"
He shrugged. "I'm with Cady on this. It's just a couple hours of your life. You'll live."
Janis made a face.
"Why don't you like Aaron?" Cady asked as the three of them began walking toward the soccer field. "He's a good guy."
"Then why did you break up with him?" Janis fired back.
"Because."
"You do know that's not an actual answer, right?"
"God, Jan, just drop it."
"I'm just saying."
Damian, who had been walking several paces ahead of them, whirled around, annoyed. "Good Lord, I can't take this anymore," he hissed at the girls. "Cady, Janis is just pissed because she's jealous of Aaron and is afraid you still have feelings for him. Which is totally irrational because you broke up with him, but whatever. Janis, Cady broke up with Aaron because she's in love with you, so kindly stop giving her a hard time about it." He placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Now work it out, because I can't stand another minute of listening to you bitch at each other because you're too oblivious to realize how much you love each other."
With that, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Cady and Janis staring after him, wearing matching expressions of shock.
After a long moment, Cady turned to Janis. "Are you fucking kidding me?"
Janis's eyes widened. "What?"
"How long have you liked me?"
"I-I don't think that-"
"Janis." Cady's eyes were narrow. Janis had never seen her this pissed. "How. Long."
"Since, um, we met?" Janis winced.
"Seriously?" Cady folded her arms. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't ask!"
"Because I thought you weren't interested!"
"Why would you think that?"
"I don't know! I was scared!"
"So was I! And I thought you liked Aaron!"
Cady gave a hysterical chuckle. "Oh my God, enough about Aaron, Janis. I never liked him. Not like I liked you. It was just a cover so that I wouldn't get hate-crimed by the Plastics! And then after everything that happened I figured that I'd ruined any shot I'd ever had with you, so I figured there was no harm in dating Aaron."
"Well if you'd just told me -"
"You're the first friend I've ever had, Janis. I didn't want to mess that up!"
Janis sighed. "Caddy. Have I ever once implied that I wasn't completely, utterly in love with you?"
"Well, you got pretty mad at me when I accused you of it, so-"
"That's because I thought you meant it as an insult!"
“Well, I didn’t!”
“How did you mean it, then?” Janis raised an eyebrow.
”I don’t know! I was drunk! It just sort of slipped out!”
”That doesn’t mean-“ Janis started to protest, but Cady cut her off.
”Oh my God, just shut up.” She pulled Janis to her and kissed her roughly on the mouth. Janis made a small noise of surprise, but kissed Cady back, wrapping her arms around the shorter girl’s waist.
As they made out in the parking lot, the rain clouds that had been hovering menacingly overhead finally gave in, and it began to rain.
Janis pulled reluctantly away from Cady. “Dammit. I knew this was gonna happen. Terrible weather for a baseball game.”
”Soccer,” Cady corrected with a smirk.
Janis grinned at her. “Come on, this way.” She took Cady by the wrist and pulled her gently over to the large tree at the edge of the parking lot, which provided some shelter from the rain. When they were safely under its branches, Janis pushed Cady up against the trunk and kissed her again. Cady giggled softly, tangling a hand in Janis’s two-toned hair.
After several blissful minutes, Janis pulled away again. “We should probably go watch the game,” she murmured teasingly. “Supporting Aaron and all that.”
”Right,” Cady agreed, but she didn’t look particularly excited about it. “Plus, Damian’s probably wondering what happened to us.”
Janis snorted. “Did you see his face when he was yelling at us?”
Cady shook her head, smiling. “I’ve never seen him like that before, have you?”
Janis nodded solemnly. “Once, when he found out that the school was cutting ‘Blue’ out of their production of Heathers.”
Cady raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“‘It’s crucial to the plot! It explains so much about Kurt and Ram as characters! And it’s not even that explicit, really!’” Janis mimicked. Cady laughed, and Janis smiled. Cady’s laugh was one of her favorite sounds.
“Shall we?” She gestured toward the field.
Cady nodded and held out a hand. Janis took it, and together they ran through the rain.