black & gold

Chapter 9

When Grace wakes up in the morning, she feels different. It's the first time in a long time
that she's woken up with a smile on her face. She knows that she'll have to tell Mamrie
about this soon, but she wants this to be her and Hannah's secret for now, even if just for
a day.
"So that girl you were making out with last night..." Tim's voice breaks Grace's thoughts
and she jumps up in bed, flipping her head to stare at her brother standing in her
doorway. "Was that the girl you were talking about?"
"Jesus Christ, Tim, knock," Grace whines and sits up in bed, motioning for him to sit by
her, "And how did you know we were making out?"
"I saw you when you came in," Tim shrugs, "So was that the girl?"
Grace sighs and nods, "Yeah. Hannah."
"Hm," Tim nods and thinks to himself for a second, "She seems nice, I guess. I can't
really tell. Your face was all over hers and her tongue -"
"Tim, stop. Why do you always have to make everything weird?" Grace frowns.
Tim shrugs, "Just a skill, I guess." And then in a fluid motion he jumps off of Grace's
bed and sprints out her door.
-
"You look cute," Hannah comments when Grace rushes out of her house and into
Hannah's arms as the brunette rests on the hood of her car.
Grace feels her cheeks grow hot at the compliment because even though this is real now,
Hannah still makes her just a little bit nervous.
"You look nice, too," Grace returns and tugs on either side of Hannah's black vest, "I like
the vest."
"Do you?" Hannah asks and looks down at her outfit, "I never really wore vests before
but I saw this one online and... I don't know, I thought maybe this could be my thing.
Wearing vests."
"Your thing?" Grace laughs, "Well, I wouldn't complain. The vest suits you."
Hannah grins, "Hey, is it okay if we postpone our date for an hour or so? My baby sister
Maggie slept over at a friends house and I have to pick her up."
"Wow, I'm already meeting the family?" Grace laughs and moves to the side of Hannah's
car, letting herself in as the brunette mimics the action on the other side of the vehicle. "Maggie's probably the only family you'll be meeting," Hannah frowns, "My older
sisters aren't at home for you to meet and my parents are... well, they don't know I'm
gay and knowing them, they probably wouldn't take it too well."
"They don't know you're gay?" Grace raises an eyebrow, "I mean, no offense, but look at
you."
Hannah feigns shock, "Are you saying I'm not a lipstick lesbian?!"
"Oh God," Grace laughs and rolls her eyes, "Just drive, okay?"
-
Grace sits in Hannah's car while the brunette enters the large, blue house they're parked
in front of. It doesn't take more than five minutes before Hannah's walking back out,
holding the hand of a small, blonde girl.
"Maggie, this is Grace," Hannah says as she helps Maggie into the carseat in the back of
her car that Grace only now notices.
Maggie looks up at Grace and gives her a shy smile, "Hi."
"Hey," Grace grins, trying to make herself look less awkward than she feels inside. Kids
aren't her thing, really, but she wouldn't dare tell Hannah that as she knows how much
she loves her younger sister.
"Grace is a really good friend of mine, so be nice to her, okay?" Hannah says and pats the
top of Maggie's head, earning a frown from the smaller girl as she runs her tiny fingers
over her hair to smooth it out.
Grace doesn't know what else to say to the five-year-old, so she simply turns to face the
dashboard in front of her. Hannah glances over at Grace and smiles to herself, hoping that
the blonde will muster up the courage to talk to her sister in the future. She's sure they
could bond over a mutual fear of social situations and people in general.
-
"Fuck!" Hannah yells and rests her head against her front door.
Grace opens up her car door and lets herself out, walking over to Hannah and Maggie.
"They're not home," Hannah frowns and pushes her key into the keyhole of her front
door, "This completely ruins everything."
"Why?" Grace asks and steps into Hannah's house, looking around.
"Because I had this amazing day planned, Grace," Hannah whines and lets Maggie run up
the stairs and towards her room, "It was going to be great, just you and I. It didn't involve
babysitting my five-year-old sister all day." Grace laughs and wraps her arms around Hannah's neck, looking down at the shorter girl,
"We can do it another time, okay? We have your house to ourselves, Hannah. That's not
a horrible fate to have."
Hannah's lips quirk up at the corners and she nods, wrapping her arms around Grace's
small waist and pulling her closer to her, "Yeah, this is better."
"Hannah?" Maggie's small voice comes and the two girls immediately turn their heads
towards the staircase where Maggie is standing, "Can I watch TV?"
Hannah pulls herself away from Grace and shoots her girlfriend an apologetic look before
turning back towards Maggie, "Yeah, man. Of course."
Maggie grins and throws herself onto the couch, reaching for the remote. Hannah laughs
and sits beside her, wrapping an arm around Maggie's small shoulders. Grace, on the
other hand, stands awkwardly beside the piece of furniture and hugs her arms to her
body, unsure of what to do.
The small girl sitting beside Hannah looks up at Grace and pats the couch cushion beside
her, "Sit by me."
And so Grace complies, taking a seat next to Maggie and smiling down with as much
strength as she can manage at the five-year-old.
-
"HANNAH!" A loud voice comes and all three girls immediately jump up from their
positions. Grace, sleeping against the armrest of Hannah's couch with Maggie resting on
her side and Hannah leaning into the other side of the couch.
"Shit..." Hannah rubs her eyes, "Oh, hey, dad."
"What's happening here? Who's this?" Hannah's father questions, looking over at Grace.
"This is my friend, Grace. We're working on a project together for Physics. Well, we
were going to work on a project together until we had to babysit Maggie because nobody
was here," Hannah says and crosses her arms. Grace wonders how the lies roll so easily
off her tongue. Perhaps she had been preparing for a moment like this for a while now.
Hannah's dad lets go of his offensive demeanor and nods, "Sorry, Han. Got caught up in
work this morning," He turns towards Grace, "Grace, is it?"
Grace nods, "Yes sir."
The man laughs and shakes his head, "Call me Dave."
"Yes... Dave," Grace corrects herself.
"So Grace, I've never seen you around here before. Hannah usually only brings home that one fruity kid, Tyler," Dave says and the accusation in his voice doesn't go
unnoticed.
"Dad," Hannah retorts, "Could you stop calling him that?"
Hannah's father laughs and shakes his head, "See, Grace, I'm a reverend. Sometimes
Hannah gets a little bit irritated when I speak His truth."
Grace stares at Dave with wide eyes, trying to fathom why Hannah failed to mention that
her father was a God damn reverend.
"So do you have a boyfriend, Grace?" Dave pries, resting his head on his hand.
Grace glances over at Hannah quickly who nods at her, "Uh, yeah. His name is Mitchell."
"Good name," Dave nods, "Hannah here never tells me anything about the boys she dates
so I never get to meet 'em. You take home Mitchell to meet your parents yet?"
Grace hears Hannah stifle a laugh next to her and she tries to hold herself together as
well, "Not yet, we just started seeing each other. But... I think I might take him home
soon. I think my parents would like him," Grace replies, looking over at Hannah as her
last sentence escapes her lips.
"Good, good," Dave grins, "Well, I'll stop bothering you two now. Why don't you go on
up to Hannah's room and get your work done. I'll keep an eye on Maggie down here."
"Thanks, dad," Hannah mumbles and gets off the couch, traveling towards her staircase
as quickly as her legs will carry her.
-
"Hannah, what the fuck?" Grace asks once Hannah shuts her bedroom door behind them.
Hannah exhales and nods, "I know, I know. I'm sorry, I should've told you about how
much of an ass my dad is. I just... I didn't want to scare you, that's all."
"It's... I get it," Grace replies, "I just wish you gave me some kind of warning before I
had to make up a fake boyfriend, that's all."
"I'm sorry," Hannah says once again and takes a step closer to Grace, linking their fingers
together, "Do you forgive me?"
Hannah closes the gap between their lips and moves a hand to Grace's cheek, softly
stroking the flushed pink flesh.
"Stop," Grace pouts and pushes Hannah away, "It feels weird with your dad downstairs.
He could walk in at any time."
Hannah sighs and nods, moving back and sitting on the edge of her bed, trying not to think about how much she wants Grace to stand between her legs and push her back onto
it.
"So what do you want to do? Actually work on a fictional Physics project?" Hannah asks,
lips quirking up at the corners.
Grace rolls her eyes, "No, I just... I don't know. We're going to be stuck here for at least
an hour, we might as well do something productive."
"I'm sorry today turned out this way," Hannah sighs, "Trapped in my room with my
father downstairs isn't my idea of a first date."
"What was your idea of a first date?" Grace asks and sits next to Hannah, a smirk on her
lips.
Hannah glances over at her and grins, "You wanna know?" Nod. "You promise not to
laugh?" Nod. "I was going to take you on a picnic on the beach where I kissed you and
you freaked out."
Grace smiles, "That would've been nice."
"Meeting my father was not on my list of things I wanted to do with you today, I swear,"
Hannah laughs and runs her hands over her thighs, trying to figure out what to do with
herself now that she can't touch Grace.
"Well, I guess I'd have to meet him eventually. It's okay, Hannah. Really. I didn't care
what we did, I just wanted to be near you."
And the words really shouldn't mean that much, but they make Hannah's heart swell two
sizes. When Grace reaches for her phone and scrolls through old text messages, Hannah
watches her with wide eyes, trying to figure out if this feeling of dependency and need
for another human being is something she wants.