Strawberry Island (girlxgirl)

Morning After

Florence stretched her arms out on the couch and let out a yawn, the sun glared through the windows of the guest house. She sat up, her hair was frizzy and tangled, she spotted her shirt and bottoms that were sprawled out on the floor and scooped them up. Florence looked around the vacant living room, she hadn't realized that Clara had left during the early morning hours. 

"We're going to court today." Elizabeth smiled as she drowned her pancakes in maple syrup. "Don't say it like that, it sounds like we're on trial- we're going to the tennis court this afternoon." Evangeline snickered, rolling her eyes at her younger sister as she pulled up a chair to the Winterberry dining room. "Oh that sounds like fun." Clara responded, partially ignoring their conversation, she was still replaying what went down with Florence in her head. 

"Logan's going to be there, I invited him." Evangeline sang, this time interrupting the blonde's train of thought. "Why?" Clara choked down her sweet tea. "Why not?" She countered with a shrug, "Didn't you have fun at the beach the other night? Besides, how can you opposed to a summer fling?" She added, in a state of disbelief. "I'm not opposed, i'm just not interested in having a summer fling with Logan." Clara scoffed before placing her dishes in the sink. "Well your options are pretty minimal here on the island, you should take who you can get." Evangeline threw her hair up in a bun while shaking her head, Clara let out a heavy sigh- trying to keep herself from letting it be known that she was already interested in someone on the island.

Florence stealthily snuck back up the Mulberry back steps, she quietly pried open the glass door, keeping her footsteps light as she made her way across the marble floor and up the spiral staircase. "Where have you been?" A booming stern voice startled Florence, making her freeze as she turned her gaze to face her father's alert eyes as he crumpled his newspaper firmly in his hands. "I slept in the guesthouse last night, I wanted to be closer to the sound of the crashing waves." She lied rather professionally, and as shrewd and astute as Malcolm was, he rarely could catch his daughter's bluffs, sometimes impressing Florence herself with her own deceptiveness. "Well you ought to be inclined to know that during a thunderstorm it is not wise to reside near large 360 degree windows; which I do recall adding into the architectural plans of said guesthouse." He took a sip of his boiling hot coffee without flinching, his voice was a bore to Florence's busy mind.

"Well I'll be inclined to remember that the next time there is a thunderstorm." She forced a tight smile before turning back towards the stairs, her tired eyes rolled out of annoyance at her fathers borderline brash tone. 

Florence sank to the floor of her bedroom, her back against the bed. She grabbed a nearby pillow and screamed into it, partly out of excitement and another part out of pure angst. She sat on the floor for awhile, minutes flew by where she didn't move a muscle. Thoughts bombarded her head putting her in a hypnotic trance. 

The sound of Evangeline shouting outside of her window caught her attention rather quickly. "Florence! We're going to the tennis court come join us!" Florence let out a deep sigh as she rose to her feet, walking towards the windowsill. She spotted the teens down below squinting up at her with their hands doing their best to block out the glare of the sun. 

"I'm actually feeling a bit under the weather this morning." Florence responded, clearing her throat in order to effectively sell the lie. 

"Seriously, you're sick too? Is there a bug going around?" Evangeline let out a disappointed huff. "What do you mean- who else is sick?" Florence answered her own question after noticing the lack of blue eyes in the group of teens. "Clara woke up with an upset stomach so she's staying in bed right now." 

"That's unfortunate, and if it is a bug then we should probably keep our distance from you all." Florence reasoned before swiftly waving goodbye before closing the window. Though the window was closed, that didnt keep her from peaking out just to make sure that the group was heading off. Florence slipped into the bathroom, tossing on whatever makeup she could find- from mascara to her mom's fancy bronzer. She contemplated straightening her hair in the mirror for nearly fifteen minutes. "Clara has only seen my hair curly, maybe she won't like my hair straight. I better not look like im trying too hard, but then again people always compliment how I look 'put together' with straightened hair." Florence thought to herself, tilting her head back, letting out a heavy sigh of exhaustion.

"Shit, theres no way I'm going to visit her. I saw her less than five hours ago, she'll be tired of seeing me." Florence mumbled to herself while frustratingly wiping off her makeup. 

Twenty minutes later she was out the back door of Mulberry with a bit of mascara on her lashes and blush on her cheeks. 

A few yards away was Clara in the guest room, flipping through the sole family album she found in the back closet on the highest shelf, it was ages old and held only a few pictures of the Ainsworth's when they were much younger. There were exactly four pictures of each grandchild which Clara deemed to be in an effort to erase the idea of favoritism within the family. The creaking of the window behind her startled her, tossing the picture album under her nearby pillow. 

"You're in my window??" Clara was taken aback with a boggled look on her face by the sight of Florence before her eyes.

"I'm in your window." Florence responded lacking confidence or having a valid reason for doing so.

"You're in my window." The blonde nodded as if she now had a better understanding of the current situation.

"Wouldn't this make us even?" Florence shrugged as she let herself enter the room after propping the window open just enough for her to slide through. 

"Uh yeah, I guess." She laughed, trying to distract the brunette from her tired appearance that had been caused by laying around in bed for too long. "How come you ditched Evangeline this morning?" Florence took a seat on the vacant desk chair, rather suspiciously nonchalant.

"I guess I just wasn't in the mood to watch Evangeline grunt a thousand times while repeatedly slapping a tennis ball at Elizabeth for the entire afternoon." She pursed her lips together while shrugging. "Well when you put it like that." Florence let herself laugh for a second before swallowing heavily, hoping that the tension in the room would disappear. "Want to take a trip?" She inquired.

"Why not." Clara responded, with uncertainty.