“I hate to say I told you so,” said Lisa with a smirk. “But…”

“Stop,” I said, lightly smacking her arm. We stood together in my dorm room, Lisa helping me unpack the suitcase my mother had brought me full of my winter wardrobe. She bent down and pulled out a pair of thermal underwear and held it up with a surprised expression on her face.

“Do these have a flap?” she asked, turning them around to look at the backside. “How do you pee when you wear these?”

“Lisa!” I said, ripping the thermals from her hands and balling them up. I tossed them over to the couch.

“Your mother gave you the best possible reaction for her,” said Lisa, returning to our conversation. She pulled a thick fleece-lined hoodie from the suitcase and hung it up in the closet. “I mean, she didn’t scream at you and damn you to hell. So… success!”

“Right,” I said. “It honestly feels like a huge weight off my shoulders. I’ve never felt lighter!” I said, bouncing up a couple of times on the balls of my feet.

“That a girl!” said Lisa, grinning happily at me. “It’s not over yet, though.”

“I know,” I admitted.

“I mean, you’re barely even comfortable coming out and saying that you’re a lesbian in those words,” said Lisa, dishing out a slice of truth.

“Right? Does it make you feel weird to say the word ‘lesbian?””

“Yeah,” I said, slinking down into my desk chair, sitting with my legs to the side and an arm slung over back of it. “I said it to my mother, but it still doesn’t feel natural or without some sort of negative connotation.”

Lisa adorably slid over toward me, slipping across the floor in just her socks. She placed both of her hands on my arm and then bent down and kissed me on the head.

“Look,” she began. “You’re just pulling the bandaid off right now and the wound still needs some time to heal. Don’t beat yourself up or worry too hard about it. We all figure it out at a different pace.”

“Thank you,” I smiled, looking up into her understanding face.

“I’ll stick with you,” she said, smiling, shrugging innocently. “Though you’ll have to cut me a little bit of slack if I get impatient. I didn’t have it as hard as you.”

“I will,” I said. But the more I began to think about it, the less difficult it all seemed. I think I had just built it up so much in my mind, dwelled on hiding from myself for so long, that I didn’t even consider the possibility that maybe coming out wouldn’t be that big of a deal for me. It sur