Chapter 744

After the chuckling died down Kat spoke again, “Ok, so we can table the sleepover for just a bit. I do want to come back to it, but more importantly... are there any other worries you have that I need to soothe? I don’t mind. I don’t want there to be issues like that between us Lily. I’m perfectly happy to tell you anything you want until you’re skilled enough to just look over my memories through this link,”

[I... I don’t know? I mean... I didn’t realise I even had an issue with you getting other friends. It just hasn’t come up before now. Oh dear... I hope I haven’t accidentally prevented you from getting new friends before now? I... I could see myself doing that if I wasn’t really paying attention. Being snappy with people who get too close... but I don’t think I did? I’m also pretty sure I avoided glaring at anyone checking you out because I caught myself doing that a few times early on in our friendship. I’m thankful nobody noticed...]

Kat couldn’t help but picture them both back in school, sitting down side by side in the library with Lily looking over Kat’s shoulder and hissing at people checking her out. Kat then added cat ears and the entire thing was adorable. The juxtaposition of Lily trying to be scary while remaining utterly adorable was awesome. Kat pushed her feelings down the link, letting Lily have a bit of a taste of how much Kat really did care.

“I can’t help but find it amusing. I do also wonder if other people noticed and just didn’t say anything. The bitches three might have been a constant issue but we didn’t exactly have problems with the rest of the school. They might not have been willing to befriend us but it’s not like we made any enemies. Honestly, I’d say the chances are pretty high at least one person figured it out. It’d be even more likely if there were other lesbians in school but I don’t really know how common that all is,” said Kat.

Of course, the try purpose of Kat pointing that out, was because Lily had certainly researched the numbers. It would help getting Lily’s mind off her recent issue and give Kat the chance to just listen to Lily ramble again. [Yeah you and me both. I mean, the data is really bad. It’s still not something a lot of people like to admit to.]

[Most official sources I could look into never really had anything above 5% with less being quite common. But that was for gay men, gay women, and bisexual people. All adults though, people more set in their ways. I’m sure that there are more people who aren’t straight that just grew up thinking that was the only option and are too set in their ways to admit it now.]

[So it really makes it hard to tell. The studies done on teens aren’t very reliable either. A... maybe this is unfair... but from what I’ve seen of the studies, not that they were super formal, but... quite a few teens just claim they aren’t straight to annoy their parents or to seem different and not because they actually aren’t.]

.....

[Which would be fine except for the fact that the adults are likely underreporting. So overreporting teens, underreporting adults, and those few people who are very secure in their sexuality like myself are left not really knowing how common it is. I mean, just based on natural logic most people shouldn’t be gay.]

Kat raised a mental eyebrow at Lily and sent her confusion along the mental link. [That might have sounded wrong. Look, obviously I have nothing wrong with it, but the way genes are passed on of course when two people have kids together. Gay women and gay men can’t have kids ergo it shouldn’t be common at all...]

[But a rather interesting fact I found is that while the numbers have never been particularly high... people have been attracted to their own sex for basically the entirety of recorded history. Which is weird isn’t it? I mean if theoretically the gene can’t be passed on it shouldn’t continue to propagate itself through the species. It’s really quite fascinating when you think of it from that perspective. The counter argument of course is that it’s not a purely nature thing.]

[The nature vs nurture argument is an old one that we’ll never really figure out with any certainty. It does however complete the sexuality question because if it’s always been around, and the people it applies to, theoretically only go for their sexual preference, they shouldn’t... no that sounds wrong. The WON’T be having biological children. If that’s the case. Is it a nurture thing some how?]

[Sadly I didn’t really find any studies that covered that line of enquiry. Not really anyway. I’m not sure how it would be tested for anyway. It’s not like there’s a definitive gay gene or something so we can’t know people’s sexual preference ahead of time to then take into account specific environmental factions.]

Kat smiled as Lily started to go into the studies she’d read about it and which ones she felt willing to trust. The problem with self-reporting and the issue of ‘how bisexual’ someone needed to really be to count. Kat couldn’t understand, but apparently it wasn’t uncommon for other girls to recognise each other as sexually attractive. It was just a question of how many of them looked at each other the way Kat looked at everyone, pretty art pieces essentially, and how many looked at other girls with the same eyes as Lily. Well, the little Memphis only had eyes for one person so she was perhaps not the best example...

Kat was just enjoying the sound of Lily’s mental voice. It didn’t sound any different to her voice under normal circumstances. It changed slightly depending on if Lily was excited or not. Really the only difference was that Lily didn’t feel the need to stop talking to breathe. Kat found herself taking a strange enjoyment in working out which places Lily would normally stop during her rants to get in as much oxygen as possible before continuing on.

Eventually the topic had to run dry of course, and Lily had already made several branching points, [... so really I guess what I’m trying to say is that a properly working gaydar as a commercial device would make collecting this data so much easier]

Kat didn’t really know how to respond to that. Or how exactly Lily had got onto that particular line of thought. She’d been a little lost in Lily’s voice and the details had already fled her mind. Kat was sure she could find them if she really wanted, but she didn’t really feel the need. “Lily, I feel like you’d run into the issue of homophobes using it to cause issues if we could more accurately identify gay people. Sure it’d be nice but bad actors would make things a nightmare really quickly. It’d also have to be really accurate and not insulting somehow? Like how would you decide how attracted you need to be to both sexes to show up? What would such a device label ME for example?”

[I’m still not really sure what I should refer to you as either. Technically a lesbian is just ‘a woman who is attracted to other women’ which you aren’t... but most people don’t really account for asexual people. The fact that you’re dating a lesbian probably means that even if the term doesn’t fit technically, it’s the best one they have...]

[As for the theoretical device. I’d imagine depending on how it worked, you’d either not show up, or be labelled straight if the device is just measuring your attraction to other women. Hmm... I do wonder what the best way to design something like that would be. Maybe hormone response when the subject looks at other individuals? I feel like it’d be a much larger machine for that though... more ‘wheel in to use’ and less handheld device.]

“Well I’m glad you’ve worked out those truly pressing questions. Now that you’ve had a chance to cheer up though, I’m going to ask again. Do you want to go to the sleepover Kamiko is probably hosting?” asked Kat, concern lacing her voice.

[Yes I do. I mean, it’s not ideal and I’d prefer being able to talk to them as well... but I can deal with it. You’re right as well. I should start to meet your friends because they’ll need to be my friends as well. Or at least, it’d be good if they were. I’m not really sure how well I’ll handle Sue... but... I don’t want to say she means well but she at least doesn’t mean ill.]

“Yeah... Sue will probably decide you’re her new favourite person if you start blushing every time she makes any comments even vaguely lewd. She seems to enjoy getting that reaction from people. I believe I’ve mentioned it though, she’s very straight, so you don’t need to worry about her stealing me away. Or Kamiko for that matter.”

[I know. It’ll be fun.]