Olivia is staring at a mess of notes and outlines on her laptop that stubbornly refuse to rearrange themselves into the form of an essay. Next to her on the couch, Alison is gaming quietly with her headphones on. Olivia usually likes having Alison’s company while she works, but today she can’t focus. Wondering whether Alison would be willing to help jailbreak her sexual orientation seems so much more important than her term paper for “Paranatural Vigilantism in the Twentieth Century”.

“Aly, could you help me with something?”

“Probably. What’s up?” She pauses the game of virtual table-soccer.

“My brain is refusing to focus on writing my paper for ‘History of Capes’. So I was wondering if maybe you could tell me to concentrate.”

‘This seems dubious,’ Olivia’s inner voice tells her. ‘You’re trying to find out if she’ll mind-control you without telling her your real motives.’

‘Do you want me to just ask her outright and risk our friendship? I didn’t think so,’ she mentally retorts.

“‘Tell you’ as in using my power on you?” Alison sounds a little uneasy.

“Yeah. I mean, I totally get how you don’t want to abuse your powers for personal gain, but is it okay if you’re just doing what I ask you to do to me?”

“Alright, I can’t see any ethical issue with that. Just to be safe, you pick the exact wording.”

“Tell me to focus on writing my paper until I finish the rough draft.”

“Focus on writing your paper until you finish the rough draft.”

“Thank you…” Olivia mumbles as her attention drifts off of Alison, becoming fully consumed by her laptop.

Three hours later, she regains awareness of the world. Alison is still on the couch, still playing the same game. On the screen, a girl dressed as a bard is awkwardly trying to flirt with a girl in a witch costume. Olivia has the complete rough draft of her paper in front of her. When she victoriously closes the laptop lid, Alison pauses the game and asks “Hey, all done?”

“First draft is, at least. Seriously, thank you for making me focus.”

“No problem. I’m glad my power is good for something, helping you make the changes you want to make to your own brain. It makes me wish I could give my own head a tune-up.”

“Do you know if your power works on yourself?”

Alison shakes her head. “It’s not worth the risk. Sure, I could give myself perfect self-control and focus, but then wouldn’t I forget to turn myself back? I could way too easily get stuck in a loop. Or screw up some wording and change my personality permanently. I’m glad I can help you, at least.”

“Thank you. I’ve been thinking, actually, about the things I’d want to change about myself. Like, do you think you could help me actually want to follow through on that exercise routine I said I wanted to start?”

“Sure.”

“And the other one is, well… I want to try being bisexual.”

“Oh. Is this about me?” Alison asks, sounding much more serious.

“It’s not entirely because of you? I really do think being bi would just be better overall, there’s a whole gender I’m missing out on. But yeah, it matters that that gender includes my best friend.”

Alison sighs, looking away from her. “I don’t know if I could date you again. It’s like… you know why Kelsey and I broke up?” Kelsey was the girl Alison dated for a few months their freshman year. Olivia doesn’t know where Alison is going with this, so she lets her continue. “She never actually crossed my boundaries about what I wasn’t okay with in the bedroom, but I could tell she wasn’t happy about me not wanting my dick involved. Eventually I realized she was just bicurious, she thought my body was ‘the best of both worlds’ instead of actually seeing me as a woman.”

“Oh yikes, that’s awful. You deserve better.” She still doesn’t see exactly what this has to do with their situation, but she can sympathize with the fact that relationships are hard for Alison.

“What I’m saying is, I told myself I’d never be with someone again who didn’t want me for who I am.”

That stings. Olivia doesn’t think she’s like that. She knows Alison is a woman, and she loves her, and she wants to be able to want her in that way. But she can tell arguing the point would make things worse. “Okay, I understand. At this time, I am not asking you to go out with me. Even if we can’t be together, I’d still rather be bi, though.”

“Okay, fine, women are attractive and you’re bisexual. But don’t talk to me about… us being together… unless you're sure this time that you want me for who I really am.”

“That’s totally reasonable, thank you.” She thinks about giving Alison a hug, but she thinks better of it.