That night, Emily stayed up, unable to shake the words of her classmates. She texted Ava, and they ended up talking late into the night. Ava tried to ease Emily's worries, but Emily confessed her deepest fear: that her family might find out.
"They'll hate me, Ava. They'll think… they'll think I'm wrong. Broken."
Ava felt anger bubble inside her—not at Emily, but at a world that made her feel this way. She replied with a steady resolve. "You're perfect, Emily. And if they can't see that, then they're the ones who are wrong."
The words comforted Emily for a while, but as she fell asleep, she still wondered if loving Ava was worth the risk of losing her family.