Love isn't easy

Chapter 28: Late June 2029 (Part 2)

Late June 2029 (Part 2)

Roseanne closes her laptop, takes off her glasses, shuts off the bedside lamp, and for the first time in months she turns her body towards Lisa. Roseanne tentatively wraps her arm around her wife's torso. Lisa immediately stiffens taken aback by the contact. When Lisa doesn't pull away Roseanne grows bolder and rests her head on Lisa's shoulder. They lay in silence for a while, neither of them moving until Roseanne breaks the stillness.

"I miss this. I miss you."

Lisa doesn't say a word, but a couple of minutes later she readjusts their bodies so that her arm is under Roseanne's neck and she pulls Roseanne tighter towards her chest. This is the closest they've come to casually existing in over a year. Roseanne smiles against Lisa's chest because she knows this is as good as she's going to get for now.

Minutes pass and Roseanne becomes even more emboldened. She knows if she doesn't say it now, she might never say it.

"I think we should have another baby."

It hasn't been longer than five seconds after the word "baby" leaves Roseanne's mouth before Lisa is pushing her away and getting up from the bed.

"Lili."

Lisa leaves the room and before Roseanne even has a chance to react she can hear her wife at the front door opening and subsequently slamming it behind her.

Roseanne inhales deeply, rubs her eyes, and attempts to sleep. She knows it's the only real option she has right now.

—

Coraline rests her back against the thick trunk of a Yellow Birch tree that lives by the moonlit, placid lake. Her day was long and filled with dull camp activities she had less than zero interest in taking part in. Even though she was physically exhausted, her mind couldn't seem to rest. The insomnia was responsible for bringing her out here. Coraline has been sitting in this exact spot since the routine headcount that followed lights out. She'd very much rather be having some time to herself than laying in a stuffy room with five other girls, specially Snoring & Sleep Farting Kim.

Coraline had only been here for a week and she was already beyond over it. Truth be told, she had been over it since before Roseanne dropped them off at the bus top, but she was particularly annoyed now. Coraline was very much a fan of lattes and Wi-Fi, neither of which she was getting out in the middle of the Adirondacks Mountains. Another thing putting Coraline on edge was the fact that she severely underestimated the amount of cigarettes boredom would make her go through. Coraline's stash is running dangerously low when she still has two weeks left being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Those packs are the only thing keeping her from biting someone's head off and she's not entirely looking forward to seeing what will happen if she can't ration them wisely enough and actually does run out.

A journal filled with lyrics rests on Coraline's lap. The teenager is obviously in the process of writing a new song. The nearly fourteen-year-old takes a long drag of the half-smoked cigarette she holds between her index and middle fingers while repeatedly humming the melody that's been stuck in her head for the past two days but that she can't quite figure out.

Coraline speaks to herself in an attempt to try to find the lyrics that go with this particular bit of music.

"Because darling, it's just us..." Coraline shakes her head and takes another drag of nicotine. "Darling, it's just you and me. Daydreaming about all the things that we..."

Coraline begins to jot down the lyrics on her pad when she is interrupted by a blood-curdling scream. The sound of it cuts cleanly through the still night. A second one quickly follows. Coraline's skin is instantly blanketed with goosebumps as soon as she hears them. Whoever is screaming sounds truly terrified.