Young God [GirlxGirl]

16. Ladies' Night

Can you tell me, oh, would you lead me on? // Would you start me over? I'm ready to be torn apart // And oh, would you break my heart? // And I'll break it for you, I'm ready to be torn apart // Ready For You, Years & Years

A week had passed.

Seven whole days since Violet and Ash had shared their first kiss beneath the stage of an illegal backyard concert. It was Saturday afternoon, and even still it was all Violet was able to think about. By now, she had committed every small detail of the encounter to her memory, from the tremble in Ash's lips to the way - when they finally pulled apart - Ash had smiled like she just won the lottery.

The more she thought about it, the happier Violet became. The pretence was over; it died when they kissed, and Violet wouldn't miss it. She didn't have to cloak the feelings she hadn't even known she had for Ash behind a dozen layers of apathy and sarcasm anymore. Nor did Ash.

Following on from their kiss, Ash and Violet had seen each other in college every day. When Blake wasn't around, they'd shared a few brief, stolen kisses and Ash flirted very openly with Violet. Instead of Ash using her nicknames in a condescending, arrogant manner, they ended up becoming terms of endearment, which Violet grew very fond of. They made a mutual decision not to tell Blake what they were up to; she'd only worry about them.

But the fact was, neither of the girls knew exactly what it was they were up to. In fact, when Violet had raised the question in the midst of introducing Ash to the 'Harry Potter' franchise, which she maintained was an essential part of human culture that all newly fallen gods should be introduced to, Ash's answer had been incredibly vague.

"We don't need to label ourselves right now." Ash had said, eyes never moving from the TV screen and fingers drawing absent patterns on the skin of Violet's hand. "We can just be two girls who like each other a lot and make out in secret. How's that?"

At the time, Violet had been content enough with the response. After all, they had only just recognised their feelings for one another, and it's not as if they'd known each other for very long either. So she just nodded in agreement and let it slide. But as time went by, and as she allowed her feelings to develop and grow, Ash's non-answer became less and less satisfying. They were spending more time together; their encounters becoming increasingly more intimate, and considering themselves 'two girls who like each other and make out a lot' started to seem less fitting.

However, Violet had yet to bring it up again. She didn't want to scare Ash off by pushing her to pick a label, so instead, Violet decided to be patient. If she refused to think about the fact that Ash was a god from another planet who would soon be expected to return home, then she could almost pretend like they had all the time in the world. They both could.

Another development that had happened during this week was that Matt had started at their college, and as a result of this, both he and Nate somehow ended up incorporating themselves into the lives of the girls. Nate, of course, knew all too well about what went down under that concert stage. But as requested by Violet, he was keeping it to himself. Luckily, he was a pretty quiet kid anyway. Matt, on the other hand, continued to be his obnoxiously confident self: cracking jokes at the wrong time, failing to pick up on the most obvious social clues, and flirting with pretty much every person he met. And somehow, Violet ended up hating him less than she thought she would. Part of the reason for that, she assumed, was because he stuck to his promise to try and make up for how he'd wronged her in the past.

He took care never to say anything insensitive or ignorant at Violet's expense, he was lovely to Blake and Ash, he minded his own business, and he respected Violet's personal space and need for privacy. Overall, he seemed to have a grown a lot as a person since they'd last met, even if he still had a tendency to be kind of irritating. Of course, Violet still struggled to find it in herself to forgive him; she wasn't sure when she ever would.