No Hate

Two girls walk down a hallway at their school, holding hands. As they walk past groups of people, the others (not the girls) stare at them. These two girls have been doing this for the past semester, and they get stares as they walk together hand in hand. About ninety times they have done this, and yet, people still stare. They stare at them as though they've grown a second head, or a third hand. The girls, Alice, and Avery, have become immune to the stares. They still feel the eyes on them; they just choose to not let them ruin their day. Alice and Avery are not ashamed of who they are, they embrace it; if it bugs people, then they can go fuck themselves. They have nothing to be ashamed of.
Yet, every stare, every whispered word about them behind their backs, eats a little away from them. They pretend it doesn't hurt them, but it does. Every week, the girls cry their eyes out together; they don't understand why they hate them. Alice and Avery are the nicest people you will meet, and people hate them. They don't understand. They've heard it gets better, that's what they're told. They aren't sure; they cannot even get married where they live. Not even civil union. They aren't sure if their situation will get any better.
These girls are in their senior year of high school, they've been together since their sophomore year, and they've only just begun holding hands at school this year. Two years of secret a relationship. When their friends found out about them, they stopped talking to them. They called them gross, perverted; I mean, who could feel that way about someone of the same sex? This hurt innocent Alice, and kind Avery, what happened to being "bffs"? Sometimes, they wish they were different, normal; they wish they didn't feel like such outcasts. Then, they remember that they really do love each other, and that's all that matters. Not the people at their school, not their friends that now hate them, not the stares, not the whispered words, not the crumpled up pieces of paper thrown at them reading "dyke" or "perverted freaks", none of it. The only thing that matters is that they love each other. Alice and Avery won't let them see that it gets to them... They can't. They have to stay strong.
Each time their skin brushes against each other, each time they embrace, each kiss, every cuddle, every time that they're together and they just feel this intense... Love. Every single said, mouthed, whispered, and texted "I love you", makes all the teases, and the harassment worth it. Every tear is worth it, because this love they have, it's real; and they're willing to do whatever it takes to keep it. Alice and Avery know that their harassers are just brainwashed, created by prejudice. They just don't understand their hate; they've done nothing to them.
The other students at their school say they don't hate them. No hate, right? They just think that those two girls in love are disgusting, wrong, and ungodly. That's not hate. No hate.