Looking Forward [LGBT Shorts]

Lucy - Between Two Girls

It amuses Lucy to no end, listening to her girlfriend talk to thin air in the next room.

"For the last time, I'm not going to ask her tonight," Paige says, her voice tinged with annoyance. She waits for one of the voices, Juli most likely, to respond. "Then you can die wondering about it."

"Nobody is going to die in this house," Lucy cuts in. "Mom and Dad specifically wanted a non-haunted house, and it's going to stay that way." Meticulously, she wraps the paper over the gift and tapes it. A stray blonde hair gets into her eyes, and she pulls it back behind her ear.

"Done," she whispers, placing a pink bow on top. Gleefully, she takes the gift and calls out, "I'm ready to go! What about you?"

She walks into the living room to see a redhead on the couch with her arms crossed. Paige's hair is pulled into the same ponytail, and her green eyes are as bright as the first time Lucy talked to her that day in class. She's much cuter now, if that's even possible, with sky-blue glasses and a tiny nose stud. Her "date" outfit - a purple tank top and white skinny jeans - is the cherry on top.

Lucy has her hair swept to one side and pinned with a silver butterfly. The dress she's wearing is similar to the one she wore when she came over to Paige's house and met her sister and mom. In fact, Anika was the one who helped her find the dress. It was a nice break from middle school for the 12-year-old bookworm.

"Babe."

Paige looks up. She sends Lucy a dazed smile. "Uh, yeah. I'm ready." Standing up, she holds out a hand for Lucy to take, which she does.

"What was Juli pissing you off about?" Lucy asks as they leave the house. They get into her white convertible Coupe, and she carefully puts the gift under the driver's seat. She'll give it to Paige when the time is right.

Paige takes a bit to answer. "Oh you know, the usual privacy invasion kinda thing."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Paige shrugs. She doesn't expand on it like she normally would. Instead, she asks, "Do you have the directions?"

"Yep."

"And the toll money?"

"Of course."

"And--"

Lucy lets out a laugh. "I have everything, don't worry about it."

Paige stretches and then relaxes in her seat. "Well, Emery said that he'll worry anyway."

"Well, tell him that there's nothing to worry about," Lucy says as they get onto the highway. "I thought everything out. I even wrote back-up plans in case something happens."

For the first time today, Paige smiles warmly. "That's so sweet."

"Well... you won't think it's sweet if we have to use one of the plans."

________

"Fuck," Lucy swears under her breath. She turns the key again. The engine doesn't start. Cars zoom past her on the highway. "I can't believe this."

Paige is out of the car and calling on her phone. In between the calls she makes, she discusses other options to Juli and Emery. With a sigh, she goes back in the car and tosses a worn book to Lucy.

"I called every number you listed in plan 'car miraculously dies while on the highway'," she tells Lucy. The look on her face is tense, both from the situation and from the fact her favorite book is used to store the back-up plans. "No one's available."

"Even AAA?" Lucy asks.

Tsking, Paige clarifies, "They'd be over in an hour past our reservations and charge more than we can afford."