It was summer, and Maralee was in love.
Love, she found, was an odd thing — an odd, glorious thing that made her heart feel full and made her friends feel happy. Well, most of her friends.
“No,” Stryker said, her tone flat in response to Maralee’s announcement. “I don't support this.”
Maralee gazed at her closest friend, dumbfounded. “What?”
“You heard me, Maralee. I don't support this.”
“But why?”
“You won't be happy in this… this relationship with Gabriel. You probably don't really want it.”
“Oh, but I do. I really do. He's so sweet and kind, and he makes me feel…” Maralee's voice trailed off. Her cheeks pinkened. “Well, I feel... content? Yes. That's it. I feel content around him.”
Stryker merely shook her cobalt braids, sighing. “It won't last,” she murmured before grabbing her bag and shimmying out Maralee's window.
Confused, poor Maralee watched her dearest, strangest friend dash across the strip of green which separated their respective houses. Turning away from her window, she tried to banish Stryker's words from her head, and as she called her other, more excited friends, she managed to do just that, though it was only temporary.
*******
It was summer, and Maralee was confused.
Confusion, she found, was an irksome thing — an irksome, ever present thing that made her head spin and made her boyfriend unhappy.
“Please,” her boyfriend murmured into Maralee's ear as his hot, calloused hands trailed down her body. “You know you want to.”
Maralee gazed up at her flushed boyfriend “What?”
“You must be tired of only kissing.” Gabriel's breaths were heavy, scorching her ear as his soft, swollen lips brushed against her skin. His fingers played with the band of her underwear, the contact unsettling Maralee.
“Please…” Maralee murmured, her heart pounding. Gabriel looked up into her eyes, his fingers tightening at her hips. “Please… stop.” She didn't move, then — didn't push him away. “Please just… stop. I don't like this.” She waited for him to get off of her, her body still, her mouth dry. Tears began to well up in her eyes.
Slowly, Gabriel sat back, his pupils still dilated as he stared at Maralee. “You don't like this?” He asked tersely, still panting.
“No,” Maralee whimpered, beginning to sob. “I'm sorry.”
Calmly, Gabriel pulled Maralee into his lap, simply hugging her as she cried into his shirt.
With Gabriel's wiry arms around her curvy body, Maralee felt safe. She liked this — feeling safe, but to Gabriel, as she later found out, that wasn't enough.
*******
It was summer, and Maralee was sad.
Sadness, she found, was in itself a comforting thing — a comforting, lonely thing that made her heart break and made her best friend uncomfortable.
“So,” Stryker began as she settled next to Maralee on her bed, “I think it's about time you lift up your chin and get past this mess.”
Maralee looked blankly at her most cherished friend. “What?
“You've been in a funk for two weeks, now. Maralee, it's time to move on.”
Maralee bit her lip, realizing that Stryker was completely correct. However, she wasn't going to simply move on — not when she'd discovered that she wasn't the same as everyone else.
“Renée,” Maralee mumbled as she cast her gaze down at the floor to avoid the sharp look Stryker sent her in retribution for the use of her first name. “I don't think I'm going to be able to just get past this.”
“Why not?” Stryker snapped, still fuming from the use of her dreaded first name (Renée Stryker was named after her grandmother — such a dreadful woman). “Why can't you just move on? You and Gabriel ended things fairly amicably!”
“Did I never tell you why he and I ended it?” Maralee said, her voice faint and trembling. Stryker shrunk back, fearful that Maralee would burst into tears.
“No.”
“I loved him,” Maralee said. “At least, I thought I did, but… he wanted to have sex, and I didn't.”
“You broke up because he didn't like that you weren't ready?” Stryker’s voice rose as she spoke, incredulity and indignation igniting her coal black eyes. “That son of a—”
“No!” Maralee interjected, grasping her dearest friend’s tightening fist. “It wasn't that I wasn't ready, it was that I didn't feel anything.”
Stryker stared at Maralee in bewilderment.
Taking a deep breath, Maralee plowed on. “I didn't feel attracted to him in that way, Renée.” She ignored the subsequent glare. “I just liked being close to him. I loved him, in my own way. It just wasn't the way he wanted me to.”
“So, you're gay?”
“What?”
Stryker took Maralee's other hand and looked directly into her watery brown eyes. “I'm asking you if you are gay — homosexual, if you will.”
“I don't… I don't know.” Maralee shrugged helplessly. “I thought about that myself, but I just don't—”
Maralee let out a strangled gasp as she found herself with her lips pressed against Stryker's. It was odd to kiss a girl, but after the initial shock, she found that it made her feel warm. It wasn't all that different from kissing Gabriel.
Suddenly frowning, she pulled away from Stryker.
“I'm not particularly sorry for doing that, Maralee,” Stryker confessed. Her dark hands released Maralee's, her fingers lacing together as she sat back. “But I am sorry if that made you uncomfortable.”
“I…” Maralee's cheeks flushed a vibrant red. “I liked it.”
“So you are gay.”
“But it was like kissing Gabriel,” Maralee added haplessly. “I liked it. It made me feel happy, but I don't have any urge to go any farther than this.”
The two girls sat there for a long, quiet moment, watching as the summer sun sank lower and lower into the sky.
“So you like boys and girls,” Stryker suddenly mused, breaking the silence. “You just don't feel sexually inclined.”
“I suppose.” Maralee's head hurt, for once more, she was horribly befuddled.
“Do you like me?”
“I suppose.”
“Want to got to the Independence Day Parade with me tomorrow?”
“We were already going together.”
“Yeah, but this time, I'm asking you on a date.”
Maralee paused to ponder the situation. “I'm not interested in you sexually, Renée — stop glaring at me, I like that name — you know that, right?”
Stryker smiled, her grin soft in the fading sunlight. “I do.”
“And you still want to go on a date with me?”
“Yes.”
Maralee met Stryker's smile with one of her own. “Then I suppose I'm okay with that.”
*******
It was summer, and Maralee wasn't sad or confused. She wasn't in love, either, but for now, she was happy. She was very, very happy, and that was what mattered.
Happiness, Maralee found, was a wonderful thing — a odd, wonderful thing that made her face hurt from smiles and made her best friend (her girlfriend) hug her just as happily under the bright, summer sun.
-Fin-
