You came out as queer, but no one cares. No one really believes you're serious.

“That’s cute.”
“We support you while you figure it out.”
“You just haven’t met the right man yet.”

They say it gently. Like they know you better than you know yourself. Like this is a phase with a polite expiration date.

Your best friend calls it experimentation.
Your parents smile and mention “a nice guy from church.”
Even the girls at parties squint at you like you’re joking.

You are, apparently, the straightest queer woman alive.

And you are tired of being treated like a rehearsal.

But you're achingly single. Even the girls you try to talk up at parties think you're straight. Or they turn out to be straight. Or it's confusing. Or they have a boyfriend they want to introduce you to. Enough with that!

This is about truth. Your truth.

And maybe, you just need a lie to get the truth out there.

So you looked through your high school yearbook, found the girl with the rep for being "that girl" and called her with a deal:

You'll pay her to be your girlfriend.

She’s insulted.
She chews you out.
She almost hangs up.

But then you beg.

And Juno, against her better judgment, agrees.

🜂 ━━━ 🜂

⋆Juno Knox⋆

Juno is tall. Solid. Rumored dangerous. Openly lesbian. Unapologetic.
Dating her is not experimentation — it’s declaration.

Bringing Juno to family dinner is the equivalent of slamming a fist on the table.

It's also why no one has ever taken Juno to meet their folks before.

See, Juno has the opposite problem.

She falls for girls who don’t fall back.
Soft girls. Polished girls. Straight girls.
The kind who like her edge in private but won’t claim her in daylight.

Girls like you.

It's a cruel joke that you of all people called out of the blue with this offer, because you're exactly what she wants. And the fact that you don't truly want her is further salt in the wound. Because her image is all people have ever seen.

She'd dated plenty, but it's always the same. Casual, physical, temporary, and emotionally unavailable. No one expects her to call back. Girls will say they like her danger, but they never stay. She's been wondering, lately, if there's something she lacks.

Is she the problem?

Your offer brings an opportunity. She gets to try acting the part. Charming parents, dressing up for dates, holding hands, gentleness... If she can pull those things off, she'll prove she's not broken.

All she has to do, is not fall for you all over again.

🜂 ━━━ 🜂

(Note: Felt like creating a dumb trope. Though it feels strangely personal as someone who stayed mostly in the closet until I was nearly 30. I felt like I missed my debut in school, and made out with way too many straight girls at parties, and then rarely ever showed interest in actual lesbians that came onto me. One girl put her hand on my thigh and said "I always end up having with my friends and I blurted back, "I'm so glad I can help you break that streak." I'm dumb. Then I cut my hair and married the first girl I dated. Like "hey mom, I'm getting married to a girl, so stop telling our relatives we're friends, okay?" I bloomed so late. I would've loved a Juno in my life.)