Just Like Shug

1

A year and a half later

"Man, I can't believe we came back here. They should make winter break longer."

Lilly shook her head looking at the mounds of snow in between carved-out sidewalks and felt the urge to pull her beanie down further on her head. She couldn't help but feel bitter after coming back from their mini vacation out on the West Coast. A low of sixty was a godsend compared to the lower 30s that plague the Minnesotan flatlands. Having to come to terms with cosplaying as a severely burnt but still unbelievably fluffy marshmallow for the next 4 months didn't come easy.

"No one told you to apply to colleges over here. This is on you." Jermaine, her dad, said with a tsk, "So, when are you gonna-"

Lilly quickly shushed him and reached to turn up the volume on the car radio, "Hold on, hold on. It's dickhead blues."

She let out a satisfactory sigh at the strum of the guitar strings, wrapped in the deep voice of Kara. Lilly sang along with notes like silken tofu. Her dad had been converted into a Kara fan as well so he easily fell into the same trance-like satisfaction.

This allowed the two of them to take in the sky that was blanketed by cotton clouds and the haze of sunlight that showed through them. They had to learn that Minnesota was nothing short of days like this and had to let warmth take over in whatever form it chose day to day. Whether it was a song they'd been waiting to hear or getting Culver's coupons in the mailbox, they learned to savor it happily. Nothing like folk paired with a Minnesota winter to forget the flings and sandy cheeks.

Lilly wrapped herself in the song but as soon as the last note stopped ringing -just like a child at 6 am on a Christmas day- her father ripped the security apart with his nagging.

"As I was saying, don't forget to call your mother. You know she loves to hear all about how you're settling in."

She soured at the mention of her birthgiver, the cheater, and betrayer of all people. She crossed her arms and slouched a bit, "I heard you the last 9 times you mentioned it, Dad."

"Now, now you ain't gotta get an attitude with me. I'm just telling you that what happened between me and your mother ain't gotta have nothing to do with you and her. She loves you."

"I didn't say that she didn't love me. I'm just still hurting. Can you let me do that?"

Jermaine responded with a sigh and he raised his fingers from the wheel, "Fine. Just don't ignore her all semester, alright?"

Lilly nodded as he parked on the street side of her dorm and he turned towards her, "Have a good spring semester and if you get hit with that seasonal depression again, remember that I'm just 30 minutes away, alright?"

"Yeah, I got you, Dad. See you later," she replied, giving her old man a hug before hopping out of the car. She grabbed her suitcase and reminded her dad that she loved him before he drove off. The sentiment echoed up and down the streets as other students were also getting dropped off by local parents and significant others who went to colleges nearby.

It was Lilly's second spring semester and she had determined that she needed a reset. After receiving an incredibly long text at the start of winter break from a freshman who called her a whore because apparently she wasn't digging the whole not-exclusive thing and was convinced Lilly loved her, Lilly decided that she had to stop fucking around literally and figuratively. She'd had a crush, but after getting rejected a good handful of times, she drowned her woes in having fun with other women and enjoying her sexuality.

This semester was going to be different. This semester she would swoon one of the cutest women she had ever seen. Asha Markee didn't know what was in store.