The Girl From Spain (girlxgirl)

Day 48/93: Mila

Money was a touchy subject for Camila.

Her savings had taken a huge hit ever since coming to England. Which had been predictable because an exchange semester was exactly what Camila had saved for. During almost her entire time in college, she had worked and almost exclusively spent her money for rent and food.

And now, even when there was little on her bank account aside from her first month's pay that wasn't a lot considering she was a freshly graduated intern, for the first time in her life, she felt like she had some kind of financial freedom.

So, for the second time that week, Camila stood in the plant store that was dangerously close to her work and tried not to think about how much money she had spent in there lately.

It wasn't more than what any high schooler would spend on clothes or video games, but she had built up a blockade for wasting money these past years. She settled for just walking out with one new plant and walked to the bus stop with only a little guilt.

When she reached Sally's place, her girlfriend opened the door, gestured to the phone pressed to her ear and whispered that Jake was in the living room and that she needed a moment. Camila dropped her bag and walked through the small corridor, joining Jake, who was doodling in his sketchbook.

Camila looked over his shoulder and smiled upon seeing all the little quickly drawn symbols on the page. It was a chaotic mix. There was an eye, a whale, a tiny swing hanging in a tree, a plant, and several more. She smiled while she admired his talent and praised, "You're good."

Sally walked in before Jake could reply. "Well, that was my lovely mother," she announced, slumped on the couch next to Camila and rested her head on her shoulder. "Ugh. As usual, best wishes to you, Jake."

Camila was unfamiliar with this apparent ritual and raised her eyebrows when Jake snorted and replied, "Please offer her my sincerest apologies that I haven't turned you around yet next time you speak."

"Huh?" Camila asked, eloquent as usual.

"It's a funny story, really," Sally said. Camila somehow doubted it. "When we were kids and started hanging out," she continued, "my parents thought we were dating and, controlling as they were, tried to keep us apart. Told me to finish all homework before I could go over there, told me to be back for dinner, invited him to our place, and forbid us to close the door. All that cliché, uncreative stuff. I wasn't even allowed to watch a Back to the Future marathon with his entire family and sleep on the couch afterwards."

Camila's intuition had proved to be right. She frowned, bothered by the amused and casual tone of Sally's voice. "One day, I came out to them. It went awful. But it solved my Jake problem! Suddenly, they were always like 'Why don't you hang out with Jake?', 'You should invite him over!' and all that crap."

Sally rolled her eyes. "I figured they just thought they don't need to worry about something happening between us anymore. I realized their actual plan when they sent me off to a sleepover when I was 15 with a talk about contraception."

"I didn't know that," Jake intervened. "For real?"

Sally nodded. "They really showed their priorities that day! The only talk about sex we had before was about how important it was to wait for marriage. But hey, better being a slut than gay, apparently."

The amusement in her tone was fading. "At some point, I was tired of denying that we aren't dating and just stopped it. I think they forgot I ever came out or hoped I was cured. You should have seen their faces when we went to a school performance and sat next to Jake and his girlfriend at the time."

She giggled. "That put a damper on things until we moved in together. And here we are, all these years later with the same bullshit."

Sally finished her speech, leaving Camila with no words to say. What should she do? Join the laugher? Show pity? She settled for simply intertwining their fingers and mumbling, "That sucks."