I Did it For Love (On Hold)

Prologue

"Are we there yet?" America Fayette hummed in boredom as she walked closely behind one of her moderately close friends, Tianna. The cracks in the sidewalk were littered with weeds and anthills that America made a big show of trying to avoid. She couldn't wait to reach Tianna's new neighbour's house.

It was apparently a single parent family with two kids and a dog. They had just moved to Darwin the day before, and Tianna's mom had sent the girls to the store to go and pick up some ice cream for the new neighbours. The late June sun was beating down on the two, soon-to-be, grade elevens as they hurried along the sidewalk. Children zoomed by on brightly coloured bicycles across the road. The sunlight reflected off of the aquamarine paint of a little blonde girl's bike, temporarily blinding America. "Shit!" America grunted while turning her head in the opposite direction.

"Calm down. We're almost there. It's at 2313 Champlain Road. There's 2306." Tianna explained, pushing a few of her box-braids over her shoulder while pointing over at one of many dull green craftsman houses with an overgrown lawn.

In almost no time, the girls arrived at the new neighbour's house. It was dull and green like the rest, but it's only standout feature was a set of wind chimes that remained relatively still on the humid day. Tianna nodded her head in the direction of the glass door to signify that America should be the one to knock. The pale girl walked forward and pressed the doorbell before knocking three times. A Caucasian man with a slightly red complexion who seemed to be in his late forties answered the door. America noticed that he seemed to wipe the sleep out of his eyes, despite it being two o'clock in the afternoon, before speaking.

"Hello." It was more of a statement than anything.

"Hi. I'm America Fayette, I live on the next street over." America realized that the new neighbour was not listening to a thing she said when he looked past her and stared at Tianna.

"Tianna Chatum?" The man asked in his raspy voice.

"Yes?"

"Don't you remember me? I'm Cadence and Flora's father!" A large smile broke out on his face.

"Oh my god! Mr. Paisley, long time, no-see. What are you doing back here?" Tianna questioned happily while going up and hugging the man, who went by Mr. Paisley.

"Why don't you girls come in and I'll tell you all about it," Mr. Paisley smiled widely, as if reliving memories from a time that had long since passed. America and Tianna found themselves walking into the house, down a moderately sized hallway that ended in the kitchen. There were boxes strewn across the floor with different labels gracing the surface of each of them. There was no kitchen table, only three stools in front of the island in the kitchen. America took a seat on the end stool, while Tianna sat next to her, handing Mr. Paisley the bucket of slowly melting ice cream.

"Quick debrief, before you moved here, I was best friends with Flora, one of Mr. Paisley's daughter who's in the year above us. We were quite young at the time, probably six or seven, when they moved back to Toronto. We lost touch for various reasons and now these city slickers have rejoined our little community here in Darwin," Tianna explained to America. She nodded with comprehension as she wicked away a bead of sweat that came from her hairline and stopped right in the middle of her monolid.

"So, we decided to come back from Toronto because it was too damn expensive out there. It was a struggle to make ends meet especially with what happened to Elora," Mr. Paisley began to explain but Tianna jumped in.

"Wait, what happened to Mrs. Paisley?"

"She acquired a horrible affliction. As you know she was a bartender, but in Toronto she found herself working at Lacey's, a lesbian bar. Well she confided in me that she began to feel attraction toward women so I had to drop her off at a mission house that deals specifically with things like that. I knew if I tried to fix her myself, I wouldn't know where to start. So we left her to get better on her own time," he finished his story while looking off through the kitchen window dramatically. Tianna turned to America who wasn't very amused by the homophobic undertones of Mr. Paisley's story.

"Well, I'm sorry about your wife's absence and I wish it didn't have to be this way." Tianna beat around the bush, trying to stay away from the topic of sexuality.

"Dad! Who is that?" A voice came from upstairs, followed by the sound of creaking wood as somebody made their way down the stairs. A few seconds passed before a girl of average height with a beautiful thick athletic build walked into the kitchen. She had he long brown hair in a messy bun, that was just barely managing to balance on top of her head. She had a few red spots on her face, perhaps pimples that she had evidently been picking at, but other than that her complexion was slightly pink like her fathers.

"Flora!" Tianna mumbled. She shot up off of her stool and sprinted to hug her former best friend. They embraced happily.

"Tianna! Look at you!"

"Look at me? Look at you!" Tianna replied just as enthusiastically to Flora's implied compliment. "You're thick!"

"Am not." Flora laughed and turned away, seeming reluctant to accept the compliment.

"Are too!" Tianna squealed before hugging her again.

"I'll let you ladies have your reunion." Mr. Paisley nodded to all three girls before heading up the stairs. America waited for Tianna and Flora to stop squealing before introducing herself.

"Hi! I'm America Fayette." She interjected.

"Flora." The athletic girl leaned over to shake America's hand.

"Nice to meet you." America smiled awkwardly as Flora continued her conversation with Tianna. She was really beginning to feel like a third wheel.

"Come to the living room, we actually have a couch so we can sit and talk!" Flora suggested before pulling Tianna out of the room. America was about to go and join the pair when she realized that every stool at the island was askance and nobody had bothered to put them back after using them. America, being the meticulous human that she was, took it upon herself to put all of the chairs back.

"I don't think that's the guest's responsibility," an unfamiliar voice comes from the entrance to the kitchen. America whips around to see a shorter girl who looked like Flora but only in the mildest sense. She had burnt orange shoulder length hair with black roots and was wearing a black band t-shirt with pure white denim shorts.

"Just doing my part. I'm—"

"America. Yeah, I heard." The girl folded her hands behind her back, timidly before looking off at the floor.

"And you are..." America raised an eyebrow while walking closer to the girl and extending her hand.

"June. But you'll probably hear Cadence a lot from other people. It's my government name after all." She smiled faintly before shaking America's outstretched hand.

"Nice to meet you. 'You starting grade ten this year?"

"Grade eleven. We're the same age."

"Oh cool! Well I hope Trafalgar Secondary School is all that you imagine and more. I know this town is a little bit dingy compared to The Big City. We don't have pop-up shops that exclusively sell kale chips, or fair-trade vegan mango-lemonade iced tea, but we do have Alessandra's Deli/Coffee shop. Maybe I can show you some time. Alessandra makes a great poutine." America rambled as the two walked towards the living room at a snail's pace. June chuckled and looked away.

"I'd like that. Alessandra's was just a deli when I lived here, so clearly I never went."

"Well, why not? A deli seems like a great place for a six year old to chill out. All those butcher's knives and frozen flanks must've been like Canada's Wonderland to a kid."

"You're funny." June muttered, more to herself than to America.

"I'd like to think so."

~

The weeks went by, which proved to be both beneficial and detrimental to the state of America's social life. She had managed to keep and maintain the attention of Cadence Paisley while her best friend Tianna slipped away, back into the arms of her own old best friend, Flora.

America wasn't sure that this was a fair trade off but there was little she could do when Tianna's phone was always busy. It was at this point America realized it was fight or flight when it came to the two friendships she had, or else she would end up alone again. She knew it would be risky but June was her choice. Her only real option.