Anne smiled as she saw Abby come down the stairs, her hair was still damp and her blouse was un-tucked. She held a chair out for her friend and pushed it in as she sat.

“Breakfast for madam?” she joked, the tea towel held over her arm in her best impression of a posh waiter. “Might I suggest the scrambled eggs on toast?”

“Oh, that would be divine.” Abby responded in a posh English accent.

“And to drink, we have this fine young fruity number, overtones of orange?” Anne continued holding a bottle of orange juice over her arm against the tea towel.

“Ah yes, fine vintage, that will do just nicely.” Abby responded and they devolved into giggles as Anne poured the juice and then sat down at the kitchen table across from her.

Abby tucked into her breakfast with a gusto, knowing they didn't have a huge amount of time.

As she finished and downed the last of her juice, they stood and loaded the plates into the dishwasher.

“I -” they both started together.

“Sorry, you first.” Anne insisted.

Abby took a deep breath. “I wanted to call you last night. Almost woke you up at midnight.”

Anne smiled, “I wanted to call you too but I decided to wait until this morning.” She paused, her face becoming more serious before continuing, “I didn't want to say this over the phone.”

Abby’s face fell, “No, nothing bad!” Anne quickly backtracked, “Erm… I wanted to ask... “

Anne waited, patiently, a slightly worried look still on her face.

“Are we… going out?” at this Abbys face lit up again.

“That depends, are you asking me out?” she teased.

Anne took another deep breath. “Abby, will you go out with me?”

“Weeeeeelllll, okay.” Abby giggled. Anne let out a little squee and gathered her a hug. “So, I'm guessing we're keeping this quiet for a while?” Abby said, “Unless you want to… you know.”

Anne leaned into her shoulder and happily breathed in the scent of her raspberry shampoo before letting go and holding Abby’s hands, “I dont think I'm ready for that. Not yet. But in private… I can call you my girlfriend?” she said with a coy smile.

“Of course.” Abby's eyes inadvertently glanced at the clock. “Oh my god, we're going to be late!”

They made the bus by the skin of their teeth, having sprinted the length of the street. Breathlessly getting onto the bus they stumbled to the back seat again, sitting in the very corner. They held hands where no one could see.

“My sister says we have to be careful, unless we want to tell people.” Anne said in a quiet voice.

“She’s probably right, we have been a bit careless with the PDAs.” Abby admitted, “And I think you’re right, I'm not sure I’m ready for… that.”

“She says we shouldn't say things in text too, she thinks people read our phones too often.” She said, personally thinking that was a bit paranoid.

“So, sexy phone calls only? I can do that.” Abby wiggled her eyebrows then she processed what they were talking about. “Hold on. You told your sister!” she said, shocked.

“Well, when I ran out the other night we had a big talk. I admitted to reading her diary and stuff. It was a whole big sobbing mess.” She explained. “Then when I came in super happy the next day, well. She would have worked it out.”

Abby closed her eyes. “Well, a secret is only a secret if only two people know it and one of those is dead I suppose.”

“That’s not quite the Mark Twain quote.” Anne teased.

“Yeah, look I don't mind. I suspect it will ‘come out’ at some point anyway. Eh?” She gave her girlfriend a quick one armed hug.

“Ahh, yeah, I suspect Jo knows too.” Anne said, causing Abby’s head to whip round.

“How! I know you didn't see her again yesterday, and we didn't say anything in the morning. She wasn't in any of our classes yesterday. How could she know?” she said in disbelief.

“She’s weirdly observant. Like, spooky psychic knows what you're about to say observant.” she said, remembering their first conversation.

Abby dug her chapstick out of her bag and put some on her lips. Anne looked around the bus and wagged her eyebrows at her.

“No. We just finished saying we were being careful. You can have some lip balm if you want but“ she lowered her voice, “I'm not kissing you in the backseat of the bus, not every day anyway.”

Abby laughed and accepted the balm, applying it quickly, enjoying the way it reminded of the kiss. “It almost makes me want to out myself just so we can.” she joked quietly.