happiness is a butterfly

i believe in us

She was scared to see his family.

Did they hate her?

Did they think she was a slut?

Did they blame her for his arrest?

Nate's hand reached out to squeeze her reassuringly as they walked up the front door steps. It seemed weird that up until last week this had become her home, and now she almost felt a bit shy walking up to the house.

Nate's hand reached out to squeeze her reassuringly as they walked up the front door steps.

There was a sweet smell in the air as they walked through the house, and Cassie looked around to see if anything had changed in the last few days since she had been there. The photos on the wall stayed the same, the fresh hydrangeas on the hallway console, the vintage mirror she had taken so many photos in.

It was all still the same, but felt so different.

"Why don't you go pack some of your clothes first?" Nate had suggested, hearing the sound of his mother rustling through the kitchen.

Leaving Nate downstairs, she made her way up the stairs and into the bedroom she had been sleeping in for months. Her fingers traced the hole in the wall with a small shudder, but she willed herself to not go back to that night.

To that Nate.

"Hey." A soft voice broke her out of her reverie. It was Gemma.

She stood in the doorway in an oversized t-shirt, most likely Aaron's, her tanned legs and arms adorned by random tattoos. Her ankle had a stack of colourful anklets, some beaded, some a bit ratty. Her nails had specks of paint stuck under them, her dark hair in a messy bun held together by a paint brush, her nose ring catching the afternoon soon.

In the weeks she had gotten to know her, Cassie had come to realise Gemma was always unapologetically herself. Sure, she stood out like a sore thumb in the clean cut Jacobs household. And Nate had described her style as caravan hipster and Bev had baulked at her tattoos.

But Cassie envied the way she seemed to know exactly who she was.

Next to one another, they were like chalk and cheese. Complete opposites in features, Gemma with her long legs and olive skin, Cassie with her petite form and rosy pink skin. Complete opposites in style, Gemma with her denim cut offs and band t-shirts, Cassie with her short dresses and platform heels.

She reminded her of Maddy.

Not in looks or style, but in the way she presented herself with confidence, in the way she could command the attention of a whole room without saying much, in the way she stood up for herself, in the way she would never conform to what others wanted of her.

"How are you doing?" She asked her, stepping into the room and sitting down next to Cassie.

For the first few weeks of knowing each other, Cassie was to Gemma nothing more than the sad girl in the bedroom upstairs. She observed her spend time alone moping around the house, waiting for this boyfriend that never showed up. She watched from afar her belly grow each week, she took note of the fact that she never had any friends to go meet, she reflected on the fact that she was a high schooler living with her boyfriend's family.

To Gemma, she seemed painfully boring yet fascinating at the same time.

"Does she always just sit by the pool?" She had asked Aaron one afternoon, watching Cassie tanning from the kitchen window.

"Pretty much, she's got nothing to do until Nate comes home." He had responded with a shrug. And Gemma thought that was pretty sad.

Aaron had shared some little gossip and stories. He told her how Nate's ex was her best friend who called their mom a cunt at town fair. He told her how Cassie's sister had put on a play humiliating both her and Nate. He told her how he ended up outing his own father to his grandparents after one too many edibles. He told her how Cassie had been living with them for most of the school year after a fight with her family over Nate.