Beauty and the Beauty (Lesbian Romance)

And So It Began

It wasn't. Clothes were strewn all over the floor, the bed was unmade, the curtains unopened... It was as if I was seeing the mess I'd been living in for weeks for the first time. I coughed and quickly apologised, kicking things under the bad. A small laugh escaped Lena's mouth. 

'It's fine, you should see my room. This is tidy in comparison,' she said, delicately stepping over yesterday's jeans. 'Do you have any paints? I'm sick to death of sketching.' 

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We worked for a couple of hours before the smell of my mother's homemade lasagna wafted up the stairs. We'd talked a lot about nothing. I desperately wanted to know more about her. Her life before her life here, her family, her friends... But she was done talking about herself, apparently. The weather, though? Hot topic. At least she was still. I'd managed to draw a few reasonable portraits, hopefully without the subject noticing. She hadn't looked at my sketchbook yet, thank God. 

When my mum shouted us down for dinner, I was glad for the change of scenery. Maybe the conversation would finally improve. Funnily enough, I didn't mind the awkward small talk as much as I should have. I figured I'd missed the company of people my own age so any conversation was good conversation. Even reserved, timid conversation. Maybe Lena wouldn't be swiped up by the popular crown after all, she was nowhere near enough of an attention whore. 

We sat around the small kitchen table, my mother pulling her wheelchair directly opposite Lena. I'd forgotten to warn her about my mother's disability but she didn't show a sign of even noticing. I made eye contact with my mother, who smiled and raised her eyebrows at me in response. 

'Hi, Lena, I'm Jen, it's nice to meet you,' my mother said, serving Lena a thick slice of lasagna. 'So, where are you from?'

The conversation flowed naturally - between my mother and Lena that is. I sat opposite them, picking at my dinner and nodding occasionally when my input was needed. I'd heard everything Lena was saying before, I had nothing beneficial to add. Yet I still wanted to be involved, still wanted to speak to her. I hoped the topic would change but my mind had gone completely blank - the only thing I could think about was my project, the one thing I did not want to discuss. 

'So... I have to know. Is there anyone special back home?' My mum asked as my cheeks went red at her prying question. 

'Mum!' I said rolling my eyes at Lena and then quickly looking down into my plate, hoping she hadn't noticed I was blushing.

'No, no - it's fine. Uh, there is. Was. Spencer.' Lena stumbled through the words clumsily; clearly my mother had brought up a sensitive topic. 

'Ooh, tell me more,' That woman never knew when to stop!

'Well... We were pretty serious. At least I thought so. We, uh, we had a date, and I arrived early... It was at the beach so I set up the picnic, there were candles and I'd bought wine and the sun was setting and it was perfect. And then Spencer arrived with her new boyfriend.' She paused as though gauging our reactions. 'Uh, yeah, it wasn't great. I left pretty quickly after that. And later that night, she text me asking me not to tell anyone anything and that she was sorry. And we haven't spoken since.' 

There was a suffocating silence in the room. My mother looked at me and I knew it was my job to break said silence. Brilliant.

'That sucks.' I said. And I meant it. She looked at me and nodded, then looked at her empty plate. My foot began to tap under the table as I wondered if I'd offended her. My mother coughed and I looked up, dreading her response.

'Well I did not see that coming!' She said, wheeling herself to the fridge. The silence returned. So did my blush. A delicate laugh began to fill the room. Nervously I joined in, watching as a wide smile spread across Lena's face. My mother laughed too, bringing ice cream and wine to the table. As I locked eye contact with Lena through laughter-tears I knew we were going to be friends.