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Tierney Tishler is definitely, unquestionably, totally not gay. Sure, she’s made out with a few girls, but that only happened when she was really drunk, so it didn’t really mean anything. And sure, Angelica was really pretty, but that didn’t mean Tierney wanted to kiss her or anything! She was straight. One hundred percent, completely straight. It wouldn’t be acceptable for Tierney to fantasize about taking Angelica into her bedroom and slowly peeling off the many layers Angelica always wore… Tierney shook her head. It wasn’t right. She couldn’t- wouldn’t think about her best friend like that. They’d been friends for almost three years now, and Tierney wasn’t willing to risk her only real friendship over some silly crush that didn’t mean anything anyway because Tierney. Wasn’t. Gay.
And sure, they owned a house together, but they were just really good friends. And it made sense financially, so that didn’t mean anything either. Besides, Tierney had a boyfriend. Ryan made her happy; he did! The fact that sometimes Tierney couldn’t help but think of Angelica when she and Ryan were having sex… It didn’t mean anything. It didn’t. Fuck. Ryan was great, he was, but Tierney hadn’t been in love with him for months. She wasn’t sure she’d ever really been in love with him. But that still didn’t mean she had a crush on her best friend because, honestly, who did that? Not Tierney. She couldn’t be in love with her best friend because her best friend was a girl, and Tierney didn’t like girls… Tierney buried her face in her hands. Who was she trying to fool? She was definitely, unquestionably, totally in love with her best friend.
Now, here’s the deal. Angelica Murray knew she was gay; she had known for decades at this point. But! Angelica wasn’t in love with her best friend because Tierney was straight, so being in love with her would be completely ridiculous and would definitely ruin their friendship if Tierney ever found out. They owned a house together, and Tierney had a boyfriend, so even if Angelica had considered confessing her feelings to Tierney- which she hadn’t- it wouldn’t go anywhere anyway, so it definitely wasn’t worth risking their friendship. Angelica was gay, sure, but she couldn’t be in love with Tierney. She just couldn’t.
Tierney broke up with Ryan that night. Now that she knew, she couldn’t string him along. Even if she never actually told Ange how she felt, it wasn’t fair to Ryan to pretend she was still in love with him. To make matters worse, Ange was totally avoiding her and had been for about three weeks. It didn’t make sense unless… there was a way she could find out for certain. No. Tierney admonished herself; she couldn't do that to Ange- couldn’t use her powers like that. Tierney hurried out of the house, heading straight to Maylynn’s house. She didn’t bother knocking; she didn’t have time to waste. She found Maylynn in the kitchen, working on some potion Tierney didn’t care to ask about.
“I need you to stifle my powers,” she said as soon as Maylynn looked up from the stove. Maylynn fixed her with a look, and Tierney rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know. Our powers are beautiful things, but right now, mine is interfering with my life, and I need it to go away for a few hours. Please.”
Maylynn turned back to the stove, and Tierney was about to speak when Maylynn raised a hand, waving it in her general direction. “You have two hours.”
Tierney yelled her thanks as she hurried back out the door. All she had to do now was find Ange. That couldn’t be too hard, right? An hour and a half later, Tierney was about ready to lose it. She had less than thirty minutes before Maylynn’s spell wore off, and she couldn’t find Ange anywhere. Finally, mercifully, she spotted Ange’s car outside the Espresso Pump. Tierney didn’t even bother to park properly before she hopped out of her car, running into the shop to find Ange chatting with Stephen Platt. She grabbed Ange’s wrist, apologizing to Stephen as she dragged her best friend away. Ange protested the whole way to Tierney’s car, refusing to get in until Tierney explained herself. “Look,” Tierney said, a pleading note taking hold of her voice. “I’ll explain in a bit. But I’ve only got,” she paused, glancing at her watch, “fifteen minutes before the spell wears off, so just get in the damn car.”
Ange rolled her eyes but complied, and Tierney ran to the other side of her car, flipping off the very angry line of cars that had formed behind her as she peeled away. She swung into the driveway with about six minutes to spare. She'd been mute for the entire drive, but there was no time to waste now. She dragged Ange into the house and… huh. She hadn't really thought about this part.
"Tierney?" Ange looked pissed, and Tierney couldn't blame her. She also couldn't think, which was really a massive problem because she was running out of time. Ange grabbed her hands, leading her to the couch. She rested their hands on Tierney’s lap, gently squeezing them when Tierney couldn’t bring herself to speak. “What’s going on?”
“You’ve been avoiding me.” Ange started wringing her hands- a gesture she only made when she was feeling guilty- and Tierney powered forward, determined to get it all out. “I don’t want to invade your privacy, so I got Maylynn to stifle my powers, but there’s only like,” She glanced at her watch, and her words were even more panicked now, “Three minutes. There’s only three minutes before it wears off so please will you just tell me why you’re avoiding me, instead of-”
“I think I’m in love with you.” Angelica looked more scared than Tierney had ever seen her. Her mind was blank. It wasn’t- “I’m sorry.”
Tierney looked up from their clasped hands; Angelica was crying. Why was she crying? Tierney hadn’t said- Tierney hadn’t said anything. “I’d understand if you wanted to move out-”
Tierney cut her off with a kiss.