adding ~spice~: homosexual subtext, and the joy it brings me

as someone who struggles to focus on and complete simple tasks, i find myself dreading reading assignments despite being in the advanced english program since middle school. no matter how interesting, short, or long, a piece of literature may be-- it is scientifically proven that i will somehow distract myself at least once per page. that's why, on wednesday night, i procrastinated on reading three girls by joyce carol oates until eight thirty p.m., which is dangerously close to my bedtime. my suffering was eased by the relative ease of the piece to read; there was no academic jargon or words that just seemed  like academic jargon because i had no idea what they meant; nothing too conceptually new or confusing that would definitely take a handful of minutes of re-reading and staring blankly at the page. the more i read, the more enjoyable and entertaining the story became to me. i could relate to the girls in their struggles with personal identity, aspirations, and place in the world. i also deeply related to their interpersonal arguments, wanting to awe at the sight of a heavenly being but not wanting to bother them, or bring too much attention to them while being in awe. the need for girls to protect each other from men is something that really resonated with me, and i was completely rooting for them by the time they helped marilyn purchase her books. i was thinking yes! girls loving each other, girls supporting each other, girls being in appreciative awe of each other! they might as well just kiss! so imagine my shock when they did exactly that, at the last line too! that's the thing with those last liners-- whether it be in a book or a movie-- those final groundbreaking declarations send everything you thought you understood about the story into space. and then you have to walk back through the entire story and experience all of it again with your newfound perspective! for me, adding a little bit of gayness is just the cherry on top to any suspenseful and emotionally attaching story.