Lauren and I had three days together, the first one we mostly just sat around her place watching anime and just enjoying each other’s company. The second day however Lauren determined she had recovered enough and I spent the better portion of the last two days tied up in all the best ways.
On the day Mia was set to return we got up early and Lauren drove me home. I managed to sneak in without anyone spotting me and got a few hours more sleep before my return and I was given a thorough interrogation by my Mom. She screamed a lot, I don’t even know why it wasn’t as if she liked having me around.
While I’d never outright come out to anyone I hadn’t really made any attempt to hide it either. My mom was fortunately oblivious, she has a very special selective homophobia where she loved fetisizing gay men but any other kind of queerness disgusted her, similar to every person I’d ever met online who self-identified as a fujoshi. However my mother hated anime too, despite never giving it a chance. She talked down to me for “Dressing like a lesbian” and how “Lesbians will never attract a man doing that”. I’m pretty sure my dad had figured it out, he’d occasionally ask if I was seeing anyone, to which I’d always say no, and he would ask no follow up questions.
Lauren had a soft rule about not dating outside the club anyway, it was just too likely to kick up drama. Interclub romances were fine to a point and I know the Seniors from last year had dated on the side until they realized they were headed to different colleges and decided they didn’t want to try a long distance relationship. I wouldn’t say the split was completely amicable but the school year was effectively over by the time it happened so it didn’t really have time to do any real damage.
Sunday night It was hard getting to sleep, anxiety and anticipation made for a seriously rough night. So the first day of school I was falling in and out of sleep for most of it like everyone else. Look if you can honestly say you were operating at 100% the first week of high school you’re either lying or you were one of the AP students gulping energy drinks on the sly.
I had to go back to my locker to swap text books before lunch and spent longer than I should have not getting it open before realizing I was trying to open 3136 and not 3137. I felt super smart after that and almost slammed my actual locker shut when I was done. I barely had time to think better of it when I heard someone VERY loudly address me from just off to my left. The volume was understandable how anyone was supposed to get anyone else's attention in the din between classes without raising their voice was beyond me. I shut my locker normally and turned to see some familiar brown hair and almond eyes. Mia was a bit shorter than her mom and didn’t wear glasses but she was beautiful in her own right.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
“Yo~” She greeted me and offered me a friendly hug. Now Junior Nichole would have been too anxious to accept a hug from an acquaintance but Senior Nichole was able to put her anxiety aside and accept the hug anyway.
“How are you feeling? How are things at home?” Mia asked.
“I got the 3rd degree when I got home but it's fine.” I admitted honestly, trying to be as vague as possible about the timeframe just in case.
“Aw… I’m sorry.” Mia said apologetically. “Do you have lunch?” She asked, pointing loosely toward the cafeteria.
“Yeah. I just needed to swap books before my next period.” I spun the dial on my locker to something random and crammed the replacement book in my bag.
“Would you like to sit together?” She asked. Something about the way she ended her sentence sounded a bit anxious. I had no other plans, it also wasn’t as if I had anything resembling a friend group at school so nobody would miss me.
Mia and I stood in line and got our lunches together. Despite the cafeteria being absolutely massive, the seating was claustrophobic. It was hard to hold any real conversation in the absolute sea of them swirling across the room but we got to talking about her classes and mind. I had AP Science right after this and then gym. Which was a little like being handed a lovely after meal chocolate and then getting punched in the face.
As we were dumping our trash she asked me if we could hang out later. I had no idea how to respond to that. So I gave a noncommittal ‘sure absolutely.’ and we traded cell numbers. She seemed like a really nice girl who was genuinely interested in getting to know me. I couldn’t bring myself to tell her to beat it, but it was still kinda awkward ya know?
Like how exactly do you talk to a girl your own age when you’re getting down with their mom on the sly? I just really hoped this didn’t turn into a Stacy's mom situation - that would just be far too much to take.
