“Belle's withdrawal from consideration aside, along with Holly's occasional booty calls, you do know Neevie's still madly in Love with you, right?"

I nodded. "And I love her too.”

“As much as you love Sam or Belle?”

I rolled my eyes.

“I've tried saying over and over again that I don't quantify my love for any of you, and that's clearly not working. I gotta come up with something new. Like... blank stare and just say,

“Next question'."

“You're deflecting."

“I'm not answering anymore traps. Next question."

"You saying you don't Love Neevie as much as you Love Sam or Belle?"

"I love all three of them differently but equally.”

“There, was that so hard?"

Holly Laughed. "I think your ‘next question’ shtick didn't work."

I sighed. "Y'know, I've spent a lot of time over these past few months contemplating the nature of love, the meaning of love, how to quantify an emotion that defies measurement, and you know what I've finally figured out?"

Both girls looked at each other. Alice finally sized me up and asked,

“What ?"

“That it's impossible! Humans have been pondering the meaning of love for millennia, and in all that time no one has ever fucking figured it out. Rich men of ancient times assembled harems for physical pleasure.

Medieval kings traded their daughters for political alliances. A whole bunch of royals married their own sisters or cousins to avoid intermingling with other kingdoms. Nowadays polite society has deemed that the only acceptable family unit has one man and one woman together at the head of it.”

I got off the bed and flung my hands out.

“Well I say fuck that, alright? I've got seven girlfriends, and yes, I still count Zofi because I know she really loves me and I love her. And yes, I count the both of you because even though Alice, we're not romantic, and Holly, I

DO care about you but we just haven't had time to build up the kind of history I have with the others, I KNOW I love both of you, too! And that's okay with me! I'd like to think that's okay with you. Our relationships are our relationships, and we've spent all fucking year not giving two shits what anybody else at school thinks about us. We just spent Last Saturday night telling Neevie's parents, ‘Hey! This is who we are. We're the fucking BTC and you can't do a fucking thing to change it. These are my girls! I love each and every one of them."

I paused and gestured at both of them.

“I love both of you. I don't love you the same way I love Sam, or Belle, or Neevie, or Zofi, or

Mari... but I Love both of you. I'm done trying to reconcile the way I truly feel inside with some societal notion than I'm supposed to have

One True Love and no others. I love all of you, and I'm gonna do whatever I can to make my own happiness as best I can. Am I only supposed to show up to Berkeley with one girlfriend instead of three?

Well FUCK THAT. Different but equal, right? I know what I know. And I know how I feel. I love Neevie. I love Belle. I love Sam. I love all three of them, and I love both of you and Mari and Zofi too. I wish I could take all seven of you to Berkeley, but I can't."