𝘚𝘖𝘕𝘋𝘌𝘙 ⁽ʲ ᵐᵒˡⁱⁿᵃ⁾

𝘕𝘐𝘕𝘌𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘕

Waking up in Julie's arms was something Elise never wanted to get used to.

Her eyes floated open before Julie's phone could signal eight o'clock, she had a few minutes of silence before the pair would have to tear themselves from the toasty sheets and prepare for the school day ahead. Elise didn't move, she kept her arms wrapped around the other's torso and her head nearly buried in her shampooed hair.

Julie got her phone back the day after Elise had snuck over. Still, she was glad for her own impatience; if she had simply waited the extra few hours they would probably still be miles away from the conversation they oh-so needed to have. Since then, they'd had three sleepovers – including the current one. Especially recently, Elise tried to stay out of her own house as much as possible. About three nights a week she used to be found taking over Payton's bed. She was sure they didn't exactly miss it, but Elise still made time to hang out with them when she wasn't recreating cliché romance tropes with Julie. She still ranted to the them over facetime and at lunch. Though, it was odd. The two of them never talked about that stuff before.

Family dinner the day prior was less than ideal, giving Elise yet another problem to avoid. Carrie was trying; they both were. But this sort of thing couldn't be rushed, Elise found it best to pace their interactions; she could only the salt of it all in small doses.

The last fight had cut deep. Elise stormed out when her twin took a dig at Julie, her jealousy making itself evident in one fatal blow. Ray seemed to understand when she arrived at the Molina household halfway to tears. At least it was a compromise; she didn't even have to lie to have quality time with her secret girlfriend. She really did dread her own house.

She pushed the memories out of her mind and filled her conscious thoughts with only the girls beside her.

The gap between Elise's stall from reality slowly closed, soon Julie was tossing and reaching to shut off her device as quickly as she could. Elise laughed quietly at the way her hair blanketed her face when she sat up. Obviously not quiet enough, because in a few seconds Julie reeled back to hit her lightly in the head with a pillow. Elise didn't fight back, just wrapped her arms around the girl to playfully restrain her and place and gentle kiss on her neck.

This did much to stop Julie, with a soft smile she turned her head to meet the other's lips. 

The curly-haired girl leaned back into Elise's arms, who kept her arms loosely circling her torso and her chin resting on her shoulder.

"Good morning," she whispered. 

"Morning" Julie responded, her smile evident in her voice. The two basked in the gentle silence that followed. Julie's hand ghosted over Elise's knuckles - still discolored and bruised from her night spent in the locker room - and somehow, the bitter taste the memories left in her mouth faded. She hadn't thought about it since then, ignoring it was always her go to solution; that meant the pain never faded. It meant that it only bubbled under the surface.

They both knew the value of a moment - how each was fleeting, and how they could not stop time even if they wanted to. In a day, everything could change, even if seemingly nothing had changed. Right now would last forever, right up until it didn't. Elise planned to live in this forever for as long as she could. 

Especially if, at some point soon, she might not be able to hold Julie like this at all. Her hand would slip right the other's, and she would be locked in her own isolation forever. But she wouldn't tell Julie that, not yet. Maybe it was selfish, or maybe she was sparing her. Either way, Elise didn't have the energy for a moral battle.

Every day it was a little harder to push these thoughts into the back of her mind. With her fading growing worse (just yesterday, she had a spell where she couldn't touch anything for half an hour,) it was becoming evident that ignoring this particular problem would kill her. She hadn't seen Willie since the hill, she was convinced that seeing his face again would be the thing to end it all. The fear of whatever news he had to bring.