The Courtship (GxG, WlW, Lesbian Love Story)

Chapter Six

I wake up feeling like shit. Ugh, I definitely went a little hard on the alcohol and sweets. I can tell by the raging headache I have and the taste still in my mouth. 

I look to the left of me and see that Elijah is passed out. His shirt has ridden up, and his mouth is hung open with drool going down his cheek.

Gross.

I make myself get up and go to the bathroom. I grab some Advil from the cabinet and swallow it down with sink water. Turning on the shower, steam quickly fills the space as I brush the gross feeling out of my mouth. The mint doesn't quite cover up the taste of clearly too much fun.

I step into the shower and stand still under the heat. It feels good, relaxing my muscles and making me sag.  After a few minutes of enjoying the water pouring down my back, I start to scrub last night off of me. 

The feeling of getting too fucked up washes down the drain, but it still leaves me with thoughts of last night.

Maybe I'm not like this at all. Maybe I just want so badly to be different that I'm overthinking things. A drunk night spent kissing someone who helped me doesn't have to mean that I like women.

Why would I even like women?

I mean, sure, they're beautiful. A lot of times, I want to be them; there are others who I find so attractive that I wish it were me. 

Maybe I don't want to be them. Maybe I want to be with them.

I shake my head hard, hoping that like an etch-a-sketch, my mind will clear of such ridiculous things. I don't like women.

I start scrubbing myself hard. Maybe I can scrub these stupid thoughts down the drain. If i just scrub hard enough, I can be normal again. I scrub until my skin is raw and angry red. 

This isn't working.

I finally get out of the shower and get dressed. I need Elijah to distract me.

-

I get ready and do my makeup. My bruise has turned into a nasty brown with yellow around the edges. I shudder at the look of the ugly thing and the stupid memories that come with it. I decide that it's time to wake Ellie up.

"Ellie," I kick lightly at him. He doesn't stir.

"ELIJAH," I raise my voice. He finally startles awake. "It's time for breakfast. You know how mom feels about family meals."

He finally opens his eyes enough to glare at me. He never has been a morning person. He yawns after a minute, adjusting his body to stretch, and sits up groggily.

"What time is it?" he asks.

"9:15," I say in a slightly annoyed tone. Mom likes to have breakfast at 10 as a family on weekends. I definitely don't miss that when I'm at the college. 

It's not that I mind getting up early or anything, cheer and classes have me used to that, I'm just not super big into eating breakfast. Mom, especially on the weekends, always has some sort of elaborate, movie-like breakfast. I know she works hard on it, so I eat it to avoid breaking her heart.

I'm sure that Ellie feels the same way as me if his face is any indication, especially since we're both hungover by the looks of it.

He scrubs his eyes with the backs of his hands, and I squirm at the sound of his eye squishing.

Yuck.

After yawning again, he finally stands up and walks to the bathroom to get ready. I hear the shower turn on and know that it was smart to wake him up 45 minutes before breakfast. His "quick" shower is at least thirty minutes. I have no idea how.

When Ellie pops back out, smelling like my pomegranate body wash and L'Oreal hair care, I bounce off the bed so that we can head down for breakfast. Elijah barely finished in time. I look down at my watch and note that it's 9:58.

"Fina-fucking-lly," I say in an exasperated tone.

"What? It takes time to look this good," he grins at me.

"Funny, because it takes me no time at all to look this good," I retort as we descend the stairs.

He raises his eyebrow at me as he looks me up and down, "Yeah, I can tell".

I give him a glare and shove him playfully. I love that we can have banter without hurting each other's feelings most of the time.

Rounding the corner, it looks like Mom is dishing out the last plate. Eggs, sausage, pancakes, and cut fruit. Not a bad meal, but I just wish I liked breakfast more. It would be a fantastic brunch.

"Jenna, dear," mom says happily, "come have a seat. We have more to catch up on."

Oh heck I think to myself. Mom wanting to catch up is a bad idea. Especially right now. There's no telling what she's going to ask.

Dad puts his newspaper down and looks over his glasses, clearly interested in the conversation. I'm nervous that I'll say something to them that will have them suspecting that something is up. If we can just chat about classes and cheer then I should be good. Hopefully they won't go too in-depth. I can also always include Elijah and Ronan so that they take some of their attention from me. 

It seems my parents are decently good at sticking to the script I have for them in my head. They ask about classes. I have no complaints, but Ellie yaps for a while about Mr. Douche and his DSM-whatever thingy that he has going on for psychology. Ronan jumps in talking about his math teacher being a similar way.

"So, how are you and Kai?" Mom finally asks one of the dreaded questions.

I quickly say, " We're fine."

Elijah gives me a weird look, and I pray that my parents don't notice. Thankfully, right as my dad seems like he is about to say something, Ronan jumps in with "So, when is the next game you cheer at Jen?"

I send him a grateful look, "Actually, we're thinking of expanding this year into some other sports besides football, so the schedule isn't completely set yet. I know that we'll still be cheering at most if not all football games, but the squad is getting so many members that it shouldn't be a problem to split them up."

Ronan gives me a look that says we'll need to talk later, but I ignore it for now as my mom asks me what sports we're thinking about cheering for. I let her know that werre talking to the basketball and wrestling teams for the winter, and baseball, softball, and volley for the other seasons. 

Dad complains that he doesn't really understand why or how we could cheer for some of those sports as they're "not as intense or interesting".

"It's about showing support and comradery," I sigh. I mean, I somewhat agree with him, but people in other sports need encouragement too. 

After chatting a while more, mostly about nothing, I inform my parents that Elijah and I need to head back. I pack up my stuff and swap some clothes from my closet with ones I typically have at the college so that I can have new outfits in the rotation. After I'm done, I meet Elijah at his house. We say good-bye to his parents pretty quickly and then head the quick trip home. 

Leaving always makes me feel weird. It's nice to know that I'm not stuck in that small town. But, part of me always gets a little homesick as soon as we pass the edge of town. I wonder if Ellie feels the same way. 

"Hell no," Elijah says dramatically. "I know I can always come back. I don't want to ever miss it enough to become stuck like my parents, so if we visit as often as we do, I'm sure we'll be fine."

I nod my agreement to what he's saying. I guess there is something kind of freeing about leaving your little box.

A/N: Don't forget to vote, comment what you think, and follow! Also, please don't hesitate to correct where I missed editing. 😁
QOTD: What box are you scared to leave but know will be freeing to do so?