Homecoming (Lesbian) - Chapter 8: Chapter 8

I stared at myself in the mirror. My shoes, my jeans, my shirt, my jacket. All of it expelled an 'I'm trying too hard' vibe. The first three outfits weren't any better and I didn't know what to do, I had less than an hour to get ready and every single piece of clothing I owned made me feel awkward, or insecure, or silly. Something that had never happened to me.
I forced myself to take big mouthfuls of air. I was taking this the wrong way. It's Faye. She's my best friend, all my shirts, jeans, shorts, blouses, she knows them all. Hell, she even bough most of them with me, so nothing I'd wear would be a deal breaker. I hoped. In the end, I decided to go with a dark shirt with ¾ sleeves I folded up to my biceps. I also went for dark-gray jeans and low boots. I looked at myself in the mirror and thought about doing something with my hair, maybe a ponytail, but decided against it. I put on some perfume and just bit of eye liner.
Ready or not...
I told my dad I was going out, he raised his hand without looking at me, he was too focused in the game. My mom made a joke about me going on a date. I said I was going out with Faye but I didn't add it was an actual date. I kissed my baby brother goodbye and got on Scott's car.
The whole way I felt my heart beating on my throat. I pulled over in front of her home but didn't get out. It wasn't necessary; she was already waiting for me on the porch.
If I could go back in time to one specific moment and live it again, it would be the moment I saw her smile at me. Sitting on her porch's stairs, standing up and walk toward me with that beautiful smile, wearing a white and black dress and a jean jacket. She had straightened her hair and put on makeup, not too much. I always believe Faye was one of those women who actually looked better without makeup on.
She got on the passenger seat and twenty ideas when through my head in less than the seven seconds it took her to sit down. Should I kiss her? And if so, should I kiss her on the cheek, her hand, her lips? No, no, that's for the end of the night and only if she lets me. Should I hug her? Should I not do anything and just say hi? What kind of hi? 'Hey, baby. Looking hot'? 'Heaven most be broken, 'cuz you an angel'?
Luckily for me, she made the first move and hugged me, then pulled away and said. "Let's go?"
"Yeah, sure."
I turned the engine on again and stepped on the accelerator. It was a one hour drive to the beach which meant we had plenty of time to talk. I looked at her sideways, then at the road, then at her, then at the road again. We had been silent for only four minutes but it felt like an eternity. Say something, for God's sakes. Come on.
"You look... uh, you look beautiful tonight." I remember I thought: 'Wait, there's something wrong with that sentence. What is it? Think, think, think' "Not that you don't look beautiful most nights. I mean every night. I mean... You look more beautiful than usual."
She smiled shyly at my failed attempt at gallantry. Only then I noticed she couldn't stop playing with her hands and would lick her lips continuously. She had to be just as nervous as me. She replied "Thanks. You, too. You smell nice."
"I do?" she nodded "I thought I should wear perfume. I don't know why."
"Suits you."
"Great."
"Great," she repeated and three seconds later, we laughed. How many times had we said 'great' already?
"Sorry, I mean. This shouldn't be awkward, right?" I commented.
"Right! I was just thinking that maybe we're taking ourselves too seriously." She seemed to believe she'd said something wrong because she rephrased "Not that I'm not taking going out with you seriously. I'm just saying that we've known each other our whole lives. It shouldn't be awkward."
"But at the same time we're... I mean we're going out, right? It's new. I guess it's normal."
She stayed silent for a few seconds before saying "Riley, I'm going to ask you something and I need you to be honest with me."
"Of course. I'm always honest with you."
She licked her lips once more. "Did you ask me out because you didn't want to hurt me or do you... actually... like me?"
"What? Of course I didn't. I mean, Yeah. I mean no, I mean..." I had to sigh to put my thoughts in order "I thought long and hard about it and I want this. I want... you."
Faye rushed to look at me, trying to find a sign of deception in my face. She was happy there was none. "Okay. Then, can we just relax and have a nice time, please?"
I laughed "Yeah, of course. How have you been, by the way? I haven't really being... there for you. I was too confused."
"Good. I mean, having my best friend not talking to me is not real pretty but everything else was great."
We kept on talking silly things, nothing important and it helped. We both needed to connect at that moment more than we needed to be romantic with each other. We could do that later on the beach.
We arrived at seven fifty and the party was already on. The trucks were parked around the bonfire at a discreet distance but close enough to play loud music. I parked on the parking lot close to the beach, got out of the car and realized too late I should've probably opened the door for her.
"Don't worry." She said, like reading my thoughts "It's fine."
I smiled and opened the trunk to get the bag I'd packed with all the things we could need. Drinks, sandwiches, chips, a blanket, another blanket, I even got a champagne from my mom's cabinet and two wine glasses. We walked up to the bonfire and I said hello to the only two people I knew. Rosie was the one who told me about this place, a couple of her friends were there but I didn't know them too well, so instead of crashing the party I asked Faye to follow me to a more secluded part of the beach, where we could be alone but still hear the music and see the bonfire.
While we walked away from the fuzz and the loud talking, Faye reached out and held my hand. I swear to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, my heart almost stopped beating. I had to remind myself I had to breathe to survive. But I was happy she'd done that. I looked at her and smiled and we kept on walking. When we found a place far enough from them, I opened the bag and pulled out the first blanket and laid it on the sand.
As we both sat down, I took out the champagne bottle and asked her to hold it for me while I got the glasses out.
"You shouldn't be drinking and driving," she commented.
"I'm not really gonna drink. It's more of a symbolic thing. I'll have a zip."
I placed the wine glasses on the blanket next to Faye. I grabbed the wire around the champagne lid and twisted it to open it, but Faye stopped me "Wait! Let's do it together."
She grabbed the bottom of the bottle and started shaking it. I laughed and joined her, then I asked "Ready?"
She nodded and I snapped open the bottle. The liquid inside exploited like a bomb of foam and the lid landed on the other side of the beach. We laughed and I poured us the champagne.
"Alright, let's have a toast." I said.
"What do you want to celebrate?"
"Well, for starters, you didn't say no." I joked.
She smiled and added "Seriously."
"Let's celebrate because honestly... there is no one I'd rather be with right now."
Her grin widened. "Now, that is a good toast." We clashed glasses and drank. Like I said, I just drank a sip.
I took the sandwiches out and gave her hers first, "Turkey sandwich."
"Thank you very much. You know me very well."
"And―"
I pulled out mine but before I could say what it was she guessed it. "Chicken sandwich for you."
"And you know me very well."
We ate in silence; we enjoyed the view, the salty taste of the ocean breeze in our mouths, the sand under our skin. We talked about the movies we wanted to see and without noticing, we were already making arrangements for our second date when the first one wasn't even over.
"I think it's with Chris Pratt or something. I'm dying to see it."
"Fine, but if we watch that, we have to go watch Resident Evil." I said in exchange.
"But I don't like it."
"I don't like Chris Pratt either. And Mila Jovovich is hot."
Faye could do nothing but nod to that "Yeah, she is. Fine, on our second date we go see the one with Chris Pratt, on our third date we go see Resident Evil."
We shook it off and I couldn't hide how happy it made me to know I had already scored a second and a third date, everything I had to do now was not blow it.
After our conversation about movies and discussing the music the guys at the bonfire were playing, Faye stood up without saying a word and walked towards the ocean. I could only watch her, she had taken over every single corner of my mind and I was hypnotize by her feet kicking the water, jumping around, the smile that refuse to leave her face, her voice when she said, "Come here!"
"No, thanks. I'm good."
She insisted and I shook my head, which frustrated her more so she took upon her the duty of throwing sea water at me. When she did, I stood up and chased her around the beach. She ran faster than me but her feet kept getting sucked in by the sand. We stayed on the shore using our hands to scoop water and throw it at each other. She got my hair wet and then laughed, so I chased her again and threw water at her back. When we got tired, we walked back to the blanket and I pulled out a towel.
"Damn it." I said.
"What?"
"I'm an idiot, I only brought one towel." I gave it to her so she could dry herself up.
"That's fine, we can share it." She kneeled next to me and placed the towel on my head to shake my hair dry. Once she was done she brushed it with her fingers and said "There, beautiful as always."
Once we were dry, we sat on the blanket and I pulled out another one to cover us from the cold as we watched the waves break on the shore. Who would've thought I would be having what I wanted when I asked her out, sharing a blanket with her under the stars.
Faye sighed and leaned her head on my shoulder. Two out of three.
"Faye?"
"Yeah," she responded in a whispered that made my blood hotter. Everything about her made me shiver, made my heart beat harder.
"You said you were in love with me."
She sighed, "Yeah."
"Are you?"
I thought she would take her time to answer, or that maybe she'd say it wasn't the moment, but instead she replied quickly, as if she didn't even had to consider it "Yes."
"Since when?"
"Since always. Since my mom made that stupid play date and you showed up in my room. I remember I thought... I remember I thought 'I'm gonna marry that girl one day.'"
I laughed "No, you didn't."
"No, I didn't. I thought you were the most beautiful girl I'd ever since. I was ten I thought that was enough."
"Then why did you date all the idiots you usually date?"
"Because I thought I didn't have a chance. And when I thought I had, you already had Rosie, so I got myself a Landon."
"You started dating Landon because I was with Rosie?"
She laughed too and replied "Not my best move, but yeah."
I pulled my arm over her shoulder and brought her closer to me "You should've said something."
She shook her head on my shoulder and said "I was too afraid. What if you didn't want to be my friend anymore? I can live with you not loving me back, but I can't live without you being a part of my life."
"I'm sorry, Faye."
She straightened up away from me and asked "Why?"
"I should've noticed. And I should've said something too but I only came to grips with it when I met Rosie. I could've saved you a lot of... assholes."
She gave me a tender grin and said "It doesn't matter anymore. It was all worth it."
At ten, we picked everything up because it was starting to rain and it was already getting late. My parents wouldn't be happy with my getting home so late but who cares. I was happy; even if I got grounded it would be worth it. By the time we reached the car it was pouring rain and the guys from the bonfire where picking everything up, too. Faye ran toward the trunk of the car to put away my bag. Then walked up to the passenger seat door and called out "Riley, open the door!" She had to yell because of the noise the people around us were making.
But I didn't care about the door, I didn't care about my soaked clothes or the people running getting to their cars to take refuge from the pouring rain, none of them existed to me. Only two things existed; the cold drops of water on my skin and Faye.
She stared at me while I made my way around the car to reach her and grab her face with my hands. She smiled and put her hands on my hips. I moved slowly not to rush the moment, to cherish it like nothing I had ever cherished. Our lips stroke each other at first, then pressed against each other, trying to get closer than skin would let us. I pulled away and looked at her. She was smiling again. She pulled me closer with her arms around my back and we kissed again with every single emotion we had hidden from ourselves for so many years. I don't know how long we stood there, but by the time we stopped, we were alone and soaked in water.
And that's three out of three.