'til forever falls apart | gracie abrams

11 - i got so damn close to packing it up

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Gracie blinked, once, twice, then a few more times. She was at a loss for words, having not quite fully processed the words that just left the blonde girl's mouth. Amelie's hand squeezed her own, warm, safe, lovely as her thumb traced circles on the back of Gracie's hand.

Amelie didn't even realize she was holding her breath, her usually casual composure melting away in Gracie's presence. She waited with bated breath as Gracie's lips faded into a tearful smile. The brunette took the bouquet from Amelie, carefully letting it rest beside her as she launched herself into the taller girl's arms.

"Yes," Gracie whispered into her neck, and Amelie could feel the way Gracie's tears soaked through her own skin, "Always yes, Melie."

Amelie breathed a sigh of relief, closing her arms around Gracie as she felt herself begin to tear up, too. She felt Gracie toy at the chain around her neck, the necklace Gracie had gotten her for her birthday that she hadn't taken off since. Not even during volleyball practice or games where one wrong move could potentially choke her to death. Amelie buried her face into Gracie's hair, inhaling with everything in her the soft scent of vanilla and sugar cookies and thinking about forever.

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As the weeks of senior year passed, Gracie attended every one of Amelie's games and Amelie attended every one of Gracie's matches. They took turns being the star on the court and field respectively, and being the supportive girlfriend on the sidelines that raged just slightly when someone on the other team went a little too rough. Amelie especially, since for whatever reason, girls on the opposing soccer teams liked kicking Gracie's ankles to make her fall. Amelie bandaged Gracie's scrapes and Gracie iced Amelie's bruises and taped her fingers before each game.

Archer's soccer team hadn't made it through to regional finals, having lost to a particularly good Buckley team in the semis. Gracie didn't mind, she just played because Amelie had told her she liked to watch.

Archer volleyball, on the other hand, had swept all of their opponents in regular season three sets to none, and had breezed through all of the regional playoffs with much of the same. The final match was a home game due to the team's number one ranking, and Gracie wouldn't have missed it for the world.

"You've got this," Gracie comforted, "You've worked so hard all year. Brentwood's got nothing on you."

Gracie and Amelie were sitting in an empty hallway a good twenty minutes before the game was supposed to start. Gracie held both of Amelie's hands in her own, pressing soft little kisses to the back of her palms as the blonde girl tried her best to even out her breathing. Usually, Amelie would've been getting as many reps in as she could before the game, ensuring all her limbs were stretched out and as warmed up as possible, but nothing could compare to this. Nothing could compare to Gracie kissing her fingertips and smiling at her. Nothing made Amelie as calm as the gap between Gracie's teeth or the dimples in her cheeks when she made her laugh.

"College scouts are here today," Amelie informed, "This is more than just regional finals. This is my last chance at UCLA."

"Come on, Melie," Gracie sighed affectionately, "They'd be stupid not to recruit you. You're gonna have at least five offers by the end of the first set, I don't have a doubt in the world about that."

Amelie was melting. Her heart was soaring before the game even began and for the first time in her life, she thought that losing regional finals and not making it to states wouldn't be the end of the world. She could see the rest of her tomorrows, cuddled up with Gracie at the beach or the park or a parking lot or everywhere and everything in between. It didn't matter, as long as she spent the rest of her tomorrows with her favorite pair of chocolate brown eyes and silky dark curls that looked like velvet and smelled like Christmas. For the first time in her life, everything she wanted didn't look like a white picket fence, a perfect husband, UCLA, two and a half kids and a golden retriever. She didn't even like golden retrievers, she liked sausage dogs named 'Weenie'. Everything she wanted was right in front of her.