"C'mon Bird." Emma said, stepping out of the white van that picked her up at the airport. She was in Oklahoma for rehab at a Christian facility, far away from her Virginia home.

The van driver got her suitcase out of the back of the vehicle. "This way, miss."

Emma texted her mother that she arrived and got ready for her intake. It was pretty standard stuff: weight, height, please piss in a cup, allergies, that stuff.

"Willow lodge" That was what her bracelet said. She followed a staff member who used a key card to unlock the door to a lodge.

"Who's the new girl?" Someone asked.

"She has a service dog! ohmygod!"

"Can I pet her?" Another asked.

"Girls." A staff member with a badge said. "You know the rules."

"Now we have two service dogs."

"I'll show you to your room." The staff member said, taking Emma's suitcase. Emma nodded, awkwardly, and followed her. "knock , knock."

"Come in." A girl said. It was a two- bed room. Emma opened the door and a girl was listening to a cassette player with her dog laying on her legs. "I'm Jade. This is Caspian."

"I'm Emma. This is Bird."

"I'm Alex." The staff member said. "I'm one of the BHS's."

"Behavioral Health Staff." Jade said over the music playing on the cassette tape. She was short-haired and cute. "I didn't figure it out for a week."

"We need to go through your suitcase to make sure you don't have any contraband."

"Contraband?"

"Yeah." Alex said. "Hoodie strings, shoelaces, razors, alcohol-based toilitries-"

"Oh- like the hospital." Emma understood.

"Yep." Jade said. "No headphones, thus-" She pointed at the cassette player playing rap music by Logic. Interesting choice.

Jade had an eating disorder and some major PTSD. She was strangled by a coke dealer in his house when she was 17. She was 20 now.

Emma came out about being molested by her neighbor, being punched by Brady, having anxiety, watching her father pass away in the middle of the night in the hospital. Now she hated hospitals. That is why it was so much worse when she was put in the psych ward two years ago.

There was a group called "survivors" and it basically was a group for people who had been physically abused. Emma shared sometimes but mostly kept to herself.

"So what's the big deal?" Jade asked, as Emma sifted through drawers. "It's a shirt. You probably forgot it in the laundry room."

"No." Emma said, distressed. "It was my dad's shirt."

"Oh." Jade got off the bed. Caspian stayed asleep. "Is it this?"

Emma looked and sighed. "Yes."

It was nighttime. The girls took their meds and it was almost 'lights-out'. Emma watched Jade change out of her jeans into a tshirt and underwear. Now she was starting to feel bad for eating Chick-fil-a. She was having feelings for Jade- for a girl.

Jade woke Emma up in the morning. She was in a sports bra and underwear tying her hair up into a top-knot. She had longer hair on top than on the shaved sides of her head.

"Do you ever just wonder if you're gay?" Jade asked.

Emma was caught off guard. "Um- yes?"

Jade looked in the mirror at Emma's reaction and laughed. "I don't"

"You don't wonder if you're gay?"

"Oh, I know I'm gay. You just seemed confused."

"What?" Emma asked. "What does your family think?"

"Well my dad's Chinese. They don't dig it but my mom is Mexican and she's cool with it. I guess Mexican culture is more LGBTQ+ friendly? At least that's how it turned out for me."

Emma looked at the Bible verse posters in their bedroom. "Does the staff know you're gay?"

Jade laughed. "Yeah, everyone knows. They're all pretty okay with it- it's just some of the ultra-Christian nurses that have a problem."

"Okay-" Emma began. "So say I am queer-"

"Ok. You're queer."

Emma's face dropped, unamused. Jade laughed as she buttoned her shirt. 

"What if I am?"

"Then you are."

Jade knelt on Emma's bed. "Wanna find out?"

"Find out what?"

"Kiss me."

"Now?"

"Now."

Emma sighed. She put a hand softly on Jade's cheek and kissed her.

"What do you feel like?"

Emma grinned. "It felt right."

"Eureka!"Jade laughed. "The gay-dar has once again found an ally."

Emma hushed her. "But the staff-"

"We don't tell the staff."

"Gotcha."