Sarah did indeed make a roast. A delicious one too. Josh was late for dinner. He had a study group meeting. He was that guy. The smart guy, the one who'd be rich as fuck in the future.
"What the fuck?" Is the first thing he said when he saw me. "Did Alice hurt you again?" I shake my head.
"Do you believe me now that you see it?" I ask him as I take another bite.
"I do." He pauses. "I'm sorry. What happened?" He sits next to me. He immediately starts serving his plate that's already on the table. The roast is right in the center. I look over at Sarah.
"I'm not moving, I'd love to see this play out." She says. She was one of those cool moms. She loved Josh and just wanted the best for him. It was clear she wanted to be more invested, she just didn't know how.
"Celeste made me promise her I wouldn't let myself stay with him. Then she kissed me…"
"She kissed you?!" He says shocked. He sounds almost hurt.
"Tell him." Sarah gestures.
"Yeah tell me." Josh whines.
"And to quote the legendary Katy Perry, I kissed a girl and I liked it." I pause. "But she hasn't spoken to me since."
"Wait you liked it?" He says in even more shock. "But did she?"
"What part of she hasn't spoken to me since did you not get?" I say.
"Yeah Josh set them up." Sarah jokes.
"Ha." He says sarcastically to her. "Do you like her?" He tries to pry.
"I don't know." I think about the fantasy I had. How I wanted more with her. Sexually. But how I wanted a future with Josh. I didn't know what any of this meant. I've never felt a tingle for another women. Was I bisexual? The worst type of girl to date a lesbian according to Sarah.
"Where's Aunt Cheri?" Sarah asks.
"She's coming back tomorrow night." I bite into my food.
I keep thinking about Celeste. How soft her hair was. The way her strawberry chapstick tasted after on my lips. So distracted in Celeste, I haven't even thought about this weekend. My egg donor attempting to reclaim her title.
"She better call me when she comes back." Sarah says and starts pointing her fork with food at me. "You better tell her."
"I'm sure you will. You'll raise hell together." Josh adds. "Nah but for real Cheri a bad bitch."
Sarah and I laugh.
—
Celeste is waiting for me. She's wearing a long tight black dress with black heals. The heals cover most of her foot but not her toes. They're painted a bright red to match her nails. Her hair is straightened and it adds a few inches. Her eyes glistening in the moonlight. She's near a tree in the forest.
"What took you so long?" She asks me. She extends her hand to me and pulls me in. Her hands are now on my waist. I put my arms around the back of her neck and I smile at her.
"I had to find something to wear. Do you like it?" I ask her. She looks down to see a tight red dress that expose a lot of cleavage. I wore brown wedges with a red floral pattern.
"You're beautiful." She says. She puts her left arm around my throat. I crash my lips on to hers, hard. She kisses me back and shares her tongue with me. She removes her hand from my throat and slides it down
—
I wake up with soaked sheets. I'm gasping for air as I realize I had a sexy dream involving Celeste. She still hasn't texted back and I wonder if she'll even show up today. I feel sorry in a sense for letting it be like that. For letting her kiss me. I thought about our friendship and how I only wanted to be her friend before the kiss.
I glance over at my phone hoping she texted back but it's only Josh telling me he'll he here in fifteen. A part of me wants to tell him to ask Celeste if she's coming but I don't want to put him in that situation. Without asking Josh does mention that Celeste will be showing up today. I asked if I was mentioned and he said no.
I look in the mirror examining my look. My hair is straightened and long. It's such a dark shade of brown that people always think it's a dyed black. I wore a white blouse with dark denim blue jeans and cute strap black wedges. I did my makeup today as well, I usually don't. I had only done my eyes though because I didn't want my foundation to stain my shirt. My skin tone was a bit on the tanned side, I looked more like my dad than my mom. I pray Celeste doesn't reject me.
At school, I'm antsy, and anxious. I'm a bit sweaty because of it. Celeste shows up late as usual with food in her hands.
"Hey." I say to her.
"Hi." She says and hands me a sandwich. I go to grab it and our fingers touch. There's electricity. But she quickly brushes it off and hands Josh his sandwich.
"Cheers." Josh says after observing us.
"Cheers." Celeste and I say at the same time and we clink our sandwiches together.
When the bell rings Josh says he's going to the bathroom and bolts out the door. Celeste and I are left alone to walk together to our next class.
"So can we talk?" I say to her as she's putting her things in her bag.
"Nothing to talk about." She says.
"But…"
"It was a mistake." She cuts me off.
"Was it?" I ask. Hoping she says it's not a mistake.
"Yes it was." She starts to walk, I follow her.
"I've never kissed another girl." I say. "I think I like you."
Celeste laughs.
"You do not like me. You can't even get over Alan." That stung a little.
She keeps on walking away as I'm trying to gather my thoughts and hear everything she says. I grab her shoulder and pull her back.
"Why are you being such a bitch when you're the one who did this?" I say to her face.
"I'm a bitch?" She points at herself like I'm wrong. "I've done nothing but be your friend."
"You kissed me." I say in a soft tone. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. "You kissed me and now I'm confused. I've never even thought about girls like this. Until you."
"Do you honestly think I want to be your teacher in the gay world? No" she pauses. She paces back and forth. "I'm sorry that I kissed you. I was sad and lonely and you were there. You followed me and of course I think you're pretty but there's so much going on with you." She points at me up and down. "You have Josh and Alan on your nuts, you don't need another especially a depressed lesbian."
"I thought we were best friends." I sigh.
"We were." She paused "how can I be your friend if you're seeing me in a new light?"
"How could you not be my friend considering I've tried to be there for you too? How could you tell me you want tattoos for my birthday and then unfriend me? How could you kiss me, knowing you were vulnerable and didn't like me?" I'm about to start crying.
"I'm sorry…" she scratched the back of her head. "Maybe if you broke it off with Alan."
"Why do you think I have a bruise on my face?" I point to it. "Because I did end it with him. I kept my promise. Hopefully you can do the same." I walk away from her. She stands there for a moment. I turn around after a second and I see her walk towards the back gate. Clearly leaving school early again
~
Flashback:
The first day of school was always a dread. Especially a new school. I had healed already from my bruises. Alice and her two friends were all charged with assault. Unfortunately for me, Alice was a rich bitch. Her dad got her off the hook. Not too much off the hook since I heard they all got expelled. I guess Counselor Jenny was a good friend of Sarah's who told Aunt Cheri who then told me.
"Personally the system isn't working out for me." Sarah sighs. "You wouldn't believe how many people I see slowly dying but us nurses can't do anything since the government won't let us just cause their low income people."
"If it were up to me I would've taken justice into my own hands." Aunt Cheri says to her. "Sorry sweetie but she needs a real ass whopping since her step mom is too busy being an alcoholic." Aunt Cheri says to me. Aunt Cheri had met Alice's parents. We had thanksgiving dinner last year together.
All four of us were having breakfast at Aunt Cheri's kitchen table. Josh sat next to me and across from us was Sarah and Aunt Cheri. We were all having waffles with whipped cream and some scrambled eggs on the side.
"We should get going." Josh says as he finished downing his orange juice.
"Okay," I say and I grab my waffle folding it like a taco. "Ready." I bite into it. The whipped cream smooshed together makes it ten times better.
Sarah laughs at me.
"You're a rare breed." She says and she takes a huge swig from her mimosa.
When we get to school one of the office receptionists tells us we have to wait for our student tour with another student. She arrived shortly.
She was a pretty red headed goth girl. She was wearing all black and her hair almost reached her shoulders. She had freckles all over her face and her arms.
"What a cute couple," she says. "I'm Celeste by the way."
"Hi Celeste." Josh shakes her hand eagerly.
"Hey you," she says it awkwardly. "And you two are?"
"Not dating for one." I snap. So far I'm not a fan of the sassy attitude.
"Oooh snatchy." She chuckles. "I like you."
"I'm Josh and she's Ariel. Her ex best friend called her Ari."
"Well I refuse to take recycled nick names." She taps her finger on her chin and puts on a thinking face. "How about little mermaid like princess Ariel!"
"I like it." I smile. Maybe she's not so bad?
Celeste walks us through the school basically going over where our classes are located. She also walks us through the huge cafeteria that has an option for everything.
"Yeah this is some rich kid shit but it's so worth it. Really get your money's worth." Celeste says.
"So you're just some rich bitch?" Josh scoffs at her. She laughs.
"Ha i wish." She sighs. "I'm here on a scholarship."
"Oh? What for?" I ask.
"I was very smart growing up." She laughs. "No privilege just brains."
"Can we ask you to do our homework?" Josh laughs.
"He's already smart, he's the one who got paid to do others homework!" I tell her so she can just ignore him.
"Sadly no, but I promise to be your guys friend until the end of the year." She smiles and extends both of her pinkies towards us.
We both pinky promise and kiss our hands and Celeste kisses her left which was josh first then me.
"Promise." We all say at the same time.