So, This Is Love?

Chapter 2

Chloe's POV

Feeling her shoulder get slightly heavier than before, she glances at Red peacefully sleeping. She smiles at how relaxed she looks against the laptop's hazy light and how their hands are still intertwined. Looking back at her younger years, she never really spared any boy a glance as much as she does with the sleeping girl beside her. No matter how much her mom would tell her stories about princesses eventually finding their princes and wishing her to experience the love her mother and father has, in a sea of boys, she would hope she'll find a certain girl with hair shaded with that strong of a red among them.

Realizing the movie had already ended a moment ago, she forces herself to let go of Red's hand and gently places her head on the pillow as she sits up, letting the warmth linger a little longer before turning off her laptop and setting it aside. Her eyes traced the silhouette of Red's face against the moonlight, memorizing every feature, stopping her hand as it reached out to caress her face and that's when it dawned on her, it wasn't just a silly little crush.

How can someone look this peaceful in their sleep be surrounded by chaos in their previous time?

“If she was actually capable of this back then, then am I really that unlovable for her to act that way in raising me all those years?” She hears Red's voice echo through her mind.

Oh Red, you were never unlovable to begin with.

She doesn't really know if her family will support her on who she'll fall in love with, but what really worries her is how would Red react if she knew about her feelings? Was her abruptly letting go of her hand back at the cafeteria the reaction? She frowns but what about now? She fell asleep with her head on her shoulder and her fingers laced around hers. She shakes away her thoughts as she lays face to face beside her, her eyes never leaving the girl in front of her. Sighing and disregarding all the thoughts running in her head, she decided it would be best to sleep thinking sleeping beside her would never happen again.

Morning eventually came and she found herself warmer than she usually felt after waking up on any other day but today wasn't like any other day, with the exception of her body aching from all the fighting yesterday, she flutters her eyes open slowly adjusting them to the sunlight as the feeling of someone's arms wrapped around her waist sink in her mind, fully waking her up when she remembers who she's in bed with. She gently turns around trying not to wake the other person in the process and sees she is still peacefully asleep but now with the sunlight highlighting the edges of her face instead of the soft glow of the moon. Deciding to slowly remove herself from Red's arms to get ready, she checks the time on her phone and sees that it's a quarter till seven, knowing classes start at 8 she decides to get ready first.

As she heads to the bathroom, she hears the sheets shuffle around, thinking Red woke up by now. Stripping out of her pajamas, she stood underneath the shower head and let the warm water hit her face as she recalls the conversation she and her mother had yesterday in the courtyard after the welcoming.

“How are you with Bridget's girl?” She heard her mom say as they walked towards an empty seat near the roses.

“We're good, I think?” Struggling to find a truthful answer even if she knew her mom would see right through her.

Her mom chuckled softly. “You think? You and Red have been best friends since childhood and it’s never “we're good” or “I think”, darling.”

She sat there in silence, her mom placing her hand on top of hers.

“Tell me, love. Are you the Chloe that went back in time to all those years ago?” Cinderella delicately smiles at her.