Maraschino 🍒 (gxg)

17

happy new year. i'll try to finish this and commit to a better story next year.

./.

Chelsea woke up the next morning tired and groggy. She could feel that Julia was next to her still -- maybe even awake; she was really quiet -- and fell back asleep. She woke up a couple hours later again with the door slightly ajar and the soft sounds of the TV from the living room wafting in. Chelsea checked her phone and saw that it was almost noon.

She groaned, turning on her side and noticing that Julia was gone. She felt a little defeated -- it was nice sleeping next to someone -- but quickly shook it off.

She wandered into the living room, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes along the way. Julia was already sitting on the couch, munching on a bowl of cereal and watching Saturday morning cartoons.

"You still watch cartoons?" Chelsea asked, going to the kitchen to get herself a bowl of cereal.

"Everyone still watches cartoons," said Julia around a mouthful of food. "Some people just don't admit it."

Chelsea grabbed her food – there was, suddenly, a carton of milk in the fridge for cereal, and she wondered if Julia got up early to get it – and sat on the couch next to her. They watched cartoons for a while in silence while eating. It was a comfortable silence, not an awkward one like they usually were. Chelsea was starting to get used to the weird things Julia said and did; she was just an eccentric person, someone unlike anyone else she'd ever met.

"I don't like this show." Julia changed the channel; it landed on a teenage drama, right in the thick of the climax. Chelsea had seen some of the show before. It was all about hormones and trying not to get pregnant in high school.

"These shows are stupid. High school isn't really like that," mumbled Chelsea. She took out her phone to start playing with it, losing interest in the TV.

"Yeah, but teens suck up this kind of drama. The romance is unrealistic, too. No guy actually does the things these kids do."

"I wouldn't know about that," said Chelsea without thinking. She quickly looked at Julia, who was staring at her with a confused look. "I mean, I wouldn't know because I've... never really been in a relationship before."

Julia stared for another second, then nodded. "They're overrated, anyways."

Chelsea felt defeated again, and fought against the feeling. That means she doesn't want a relationship? That kind of sucks. It really didn't matter, she told herself. She wasn't trying to look for anything, either, just a night of fun if she could find it, but she couldn't help but feel – and couldn't deny – the deflation in her joy. She also couldn't judge too harshly, because she hadn't even begun to tell Julia her feelings, or that she was gay in the first place. She couldn't predict what Julia wanted if Chelsea wasn't being truthful herself.

Julia reached for the remote, stretching across Chelsea's lap to get it off the coffee table. Chelsea had to resist the blush forming on her cheeks. She was so close, she could smell the shampoo radiating off her hair. It smelled like aloe and roses.

In the moment she was pulling back, Julia turned her eyes and stared into Chelsea's. It was a tender moment, a moment where Chelsea didn't think about how awkward it was to stare at her, to think that she was pretty and that she wanted to braid her hair. She stared into her chocolate eyes, watching her reflection in them stare back.

Suddenly, Julia leaned even more forward, and pushed her lips against Chelsea's, softly, asking can I kiss you? Chelsea leaned in, just enough to apply pressure, and Julia closed the distance.