Special Kinda Love (Lesbian Story)

Chapter 9

Gail slammed her alarm clock to silence it's cries. She had tossed and turned all night after crying herself to sleep. And the little sleep she did get was shit, absolute and utter shit. The bed felt too big, too cold and not cold enough. Holly wasn't there to warm her icicle toes on her legs, wasn't there to whisper goodnight, wasn't there to remind her of all she had to do in the morning, wasn't there to turn off the first alarm before it woke her. Holly wasn't there and everything was off because of it. She hoped Shiloh wouldn't really notice, Gail didn't know if she could handle it if her son started asking questions, gave her sympathy.

She flipped off the half warmed blanket and rolled out of bed, slipping on a sweater before shuffling into the bathroom to start her morning routine. She looked miserable. Her face was paler than usual, which was saying something, and her eyes were bloodshot, her hair in it's expected state of mess.

What had Gail been thinking? Telling Holly had obviously been the biggest mistake of her life. She'd probably lost her, lost Holly. She regretted it deeply. Had she not spilt the beans, had she just apologized and told Holly she was just being weird and didn't have an excuse, Holly would have woken her with a smile and a perfectly made coffee.

Gail smiled at  the clumsily sleeping boy. Shiloh was taking full advantage of his bed, sprawled out like a starfish with his blanket only covering half of his body. She approached quietly, not wanting to wake his by being loud. "Shiloh." Gail hummed softly, running a finger over his warm cheek. "Baby man, it's time to get up."

Shiloh stirred, the first step in his wakening.

"It's pajama day isn't it? Don't want to miss that do you, Nugget."

He grunted and groaned. His face scrunched up in discomfort and disgust as he rolled away from his mom. Gail giggled in response and gave the blanket a tug. "Common, I thought you were excited to show off your new Cap onesie."

Another grunt followed, one of annoyance.

Gail placed a kiss to the side of his head, just on his hairline. "Well I'm going to be downstairs, watching cartoons and eating all of the Fruit Loops."

Shiloh was up before Gail got to his door. "Mom, you can't eat it all. You know they are my favourite." He whined, his voice cracking a few times in it's sleep rested way.

"Guess you're gonna have to stop me." Gail teased and ran down the stairs. This she could do, she could play with her son and everything, just for a moment, felt okay. She could pretend everything was great and normal and she still had her heart in her chest.

"Mamma!"

Gail hid around the corner of the stairwell and waited for Shy to tumble down the steps.

"Momma, it's not-" Shiloh didn't get to finish his complaint as Gail scooped him up and began a tickle attack. His laughter filled the house, splashed colour onto the walls, and warmed every room.

They settled on an agreement, Gail wouldn't eat all of the Fruit Loops if Shy promised not to eat all of the animal crackers. With that out of the way the two coolest of the Peck's grabbed their respected breakfasts and sat themselves in front of the tv.

"Where's mommy?" Shiloh asked around a mouthful of brightly coloured loops.

"I don't know, Shy, she left in the middle of the night with no note." She tried her hardest to sound casual.

"That doesn't sound like mommy."

Gail didn't reply and hoped that it would be dropped. But of course it didn't, not when it came to Holly.

"Maybe she texted you." He offered.

Maybe she had. Gail hadn't checked her phone, she'd been far too distracted with all of her feelings to think to check her phone. It was possible she'd thrown everything out of proportion all because she hadn't thought to check her phone. She set her coffee down on the side table and began the search for her phone. And sure enough when she found it haphazardly thrown on the kitchen counter from the evening before, there were multiple texts from a Lunchbox.