about you | c.c & k.m

•prologue

Caitlin and Avery had been friends since they were 5 years old, maybe even earlier, but they were too young to remember for sure. Their families were neighbors who didn't interact much until both moms realized they had daughters of the same age who could play together. After that, the families became inseparable.

The truth was Caitlin's and Avery's moms each needed a friend. Their busy husbands were hardly ever home due to work, and being young and newly married, they craved some company. Their beloved daughters became the perfect excuse to spend time together. The moms enjoyed activities like knitting or doing crafts together, while their little girls had playdates at whoever's house was hosting that day.

Caitlin liked Avery-at least she thought so at six years old. She held onto that feeling without trying to explore it further because it seemed fine as it was. Caitlin liked Avery. And so did Avery, but she dug deeper into that feeling-at six, ten, thirteen, definitely by fifteen, and put an end to it around her seventeenth birthday. Avery liked Caitlin.

The girls were inseparable, until they weren't. They stayed friends but eventually met new people, made new friends, and had new feelings. But they always knew they'd be there for each other.

When they left for college, they cried because, despite growing apart sometimes, they'd never lived more than a block from each other. Suddenly, they were close again. Distance was just a number, but they texted each other constantly. Iowa and Connecticut weren't that far apart... not for them.

They took every chance they had to be together, as if being apart was impossible. It was during these times they started to revisit old thoughts and feelings.

During these times also Kate Martin enters the picture, a former Iowa alum and Caitlin's teammate, who wanted to take Avery's place as Caitlin's best friend. Or at least that's what Avery thought at first. That idea didn't last long. Kate was great, but you wouldn't want to hear what Kate's first impression of Avery was-maybe not yet.

But you do wanna hear about Kate's and Caitlin s friendship. Oh what the love for a sport can do to two girls...I think they both needed to meet each other, like it was destiny. Once they met, they never separate form each other. Until they did.

Avery and Caitlin came and went, but they were always there. Never fully out of each other's lives, but never completely in, either. Just there.

At some point, they both knew their relationship was complicated, or different, or just weird-Kate thought so, at least-but they weren't going to talk, think, or do anything about it. It wasn't about that, specifically. They all thought it was about something. But really... it was about all of them.

About you.