Maddie snorted loudly at her friend’s continued habit of combining words. She covered her mouth and nose when the noise woke up the animals. How their place had turned into a zoo, well, Maddie did know because it was mostly her doing, but still, at that moment she wondered at how they managed to have any clean space in the room. And how the duck and chicken would fare when the cats were older. She hadn’t really thought that Christmas present through all the way, but oh well.
Caitie mentioned the rumors that had been posted on the intranet and Maddie’s amusement died from her face. She leaned her head back against her bed and rolled it so that she could still see Caitie. “Some people just like spreading crap around about other people. Guess we just gotta hope that Security puts a stop to it, ‘cause it’s totally annoying.”
“Obviously,” Maddie repeated. “It’s ‘cause we’ve got similar taste.”
People thought they were girlfriends now. It was annoying because it wasn’t true. And even if it was, Maddie would’ve preferred telling people herself, rather than people just randomly finding out. The insensitive part of her was glad that most of the comments were being directed at Caitie. Maddie didn’t like being forced to have her own sexuality in question; to be forced to deny it and sound sincere, when she really didn’t know.
“I know,” she mumbled. Even with a few drinks in her, she still wasn’t completely comfortable talking about it. “Doesn’t really matter what other people say. You know you’re not a lesbian. Probably the only way people will stop talking about it is if they see you with, like, a boyfriend or something.”