10:57am, Saturday
The car fell silent as Fiona turned the engine off, before turning to Jules in the passenger seat.
"Go time." She said excitedly.
Jules smiled slightly, her head a maelstrom of nerves and excitement.
Her breath skipped a beat as Fiona put her hand on her knee.
"You are in control of this." She said in an attempt to be reassuring.
It only worked a little bit...
Jules didn't really feel in control...
She felt her mind calm slightly as she saw that Fiona's recently unzipped hoodie had parted to reveal the black t-shirt she was wearing underneath. It had muted white lettering that simply read: 'I support gay rights and gay wrongs'.
"You still in?" Fiona asked carefully.
The car sat silently, apart from the occasional whoosh of another car driving past.
Jules didn't know what she thought...
She was nervous as shit, and that feeling only seemed to grow the more time had passed...
But there was undoubtedly part of her that was out of her mind with excitement. The thought that within an hour she might be breathing underwater...
It made her feel giddy...
"I'm still in." Jules said, before taking a sip of water.
Fiona just smiled. "Well then, come on."
Jules took another sip from her water bottle and stepped out of the car.
The dive shop was tucked away at the end of a regular suburban strip mall. As they got closer, Jules saw the shop's façade was a set of mostly-opaque floor-to-ceiling windows, with a few 'LEARN TO DIVE' signs stuck across it.
A bell quietly DING-ed as they entered the shop, the whooshing of traffic outside briefly clashing with the soft tones of contemporary pop music from somewhere indistinct.
Jules stepped after Fiona and found her eyes drawn all over the place. The walls were practically dripping with wetsuits, BCDs, flippers, and all sorts of scuba-related accoutrements.
She felt slightly overwhelmed by it all as she followed Fiona towards the back of the shop floor, where a sales counter was currently being leant on by a short-haired brunette wearing tracksuit pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt.
"About time you showed up." Joked the woman, as Fiona stopped about 2 metres in front of her.
Jules felt her heart rate rise as Fiona took her hand.
"Jules, this is Laura. Laura, Jules." She said.
Jules felt Laura's smiling gaze shift to her.
"Hi!" She said, her smile growing a little.
"Hi." Jules said nervously in return.
That's when Jules noticed the small, coin-sized badge pinned to Laura's shirt. It was in the pansexual pride flag colours and had 'SHE/HER' printed on it.
A pronoun pin...
Was she just wearing that because Jules was here?
"Where's Ash?" Fiona asked, looking around a little.
Laura sighed a little and looked sheepishly at her shoes, but maintained a smile.
"5 minutes ago, she 'went to get a gay drink' from the cafe a few doors down." She explained.
YOU ARE READING
Depth Perception
RomanceJuliet doesn't know when the spark in her faded. She doesn't hate her life. She knows she has a lot to be thankful for. She's got friends, she's got hobbies she enjoys, she's got a job that she doesn't completely despise, and miraculously her re...
