Together #2
“Good morning, family.” Jill entered with Dylan behind her, the two of them in a mismatch of Insley Athletics wear they seemed to have shared.
“Not good morning. You two left the door unlocked again,” Mick said.
Dylan shook his head as he sat down at the table. “Wasn’t us. I swear we locked it when we got back from the bar last night.”
Jill plopped onto his lap, eating straight from a cereal box. “How do you know it’s not Haley?” she asked through a mouthful. “Who I adore, by the way, but is getting a little too comfortable using all the hot water.”
“I am not,” Haley said, pausing on her way to the coffee maker to kiss Mick. “Plus, we shower together, so doesn’t that count for something?”
“Ew.” T.K. sneered. “There are too many people in this house.”
“Yeah, starting with you,” Mick said.
“Hey, I earned my squatting rights long before you all coupled up!”
“I think I should go,” Abby whispered to Kate.
“Yeah.” She nodded and followed, the two of them slipping out the back door where the argument echoed into the yard. Finally free, they broke into laughter. “I thought for sure Mick knew.”
“Me too.” Abby chuckled.
She glanced around, made sure no one saw them from the window, and laced her pinky through Kate’s. Kate wrapped the rest of her fingers around her hand while they walked to the main road.
“Skip your run,” Abby said, pulling her closer. “Come over to my place.”
Kate shook her head. “No. You have to get ready for your midterm anyway.”
Abby groaned as they stopped to face each other.
“I’m still your tutor, even if I’m your…” Kate trailed off, a blush blooming across her cheeks.
Abby smiled. They hadn’t said it or shared it, but in every way that counted, even secretly joining the other couples in the blue house, they were together.
“Yeah,” she said gently. “You’re that too.”
She scanned the neighborhood for witnesses, and when she found none, kissed her. A quick, too-short thing, that skipped through her chest all the same.
“I’ll see you later?” Kate asked.
Abby nodded. “Yeah.”
She waited to leave until Kate jogged away, aching at what they couldn’t avoid. She didn’t want it to end. Not the season. Not the school year. Most of all, not them.
“We’re moving back to San Diego.”
Abby grabbed Kate’s hand beneath the table. Squeezed it like she might float away as Isla and Luca smiled across from them.
“The princess of Coronado returns.” Abby pushed out an empty laugh. “Your mom must be thrilled.”
“I’m not going for her. I’m going for me.” Isla nodded at Luca. “For us. I think maybe I hid out here long enough.”
Abby’s stomach tightened. She didn’t expect Isla to stick around forever, didn’t know if she would either, but her departure signaled another end she didn’t want. Like everyone around her was moving and changing and Abby wasn’t sure how to join them.
“Have you decided what you want to do after you graduate?” Luca asked as he poured more wine.
Abby liked him well enough, found him easygoing in a way that balanced Isla’s prim and proper—even if they did look disgustingly attractive together, like they belonged in a luxury car commercial.
“Isla says you might play one more season?”
“Maybe.” Abby shrugged.
“It’s okay to not know.” Isla nodded at her. “Lots of people don’t know what they’re going to do after graduation.”
“Yeah.” Abby slugged back the rest of her wine.
“You must be excited for Berkeley,” Luca said, mercifully shifting the conversation to Kate.
“I already feel in over my head,” she said with a smile.
“No, you’ll be great. The first year is a bear but you’re not expected to know everything. If you can, try to get in with Professor Donaldson. He was my old roommate at Yale…”
As Luca and Kate spiraled into a law school conversation that Abby had little interest in, Isla leaned toward her.
“Help me with dishes?” she asked.
Abby nodded, glad to clear the table, though her throat tightened when it was just her and Isla in her marble kitchen, where they’d shared more meals than she’d expected when she first arrived at Insley.
“There’s one more thing,” Isla said as they scrubbed dishes together.
She diverted her eyes from the sliding glass doors where she’d been watching Kate on the deck.
“You’re pregnant?” Abby asked.
Isla scoffed. “No.” She handed her a pot to dry. “It’s Dad.”
Abby’s hand instinctually became a fist. “Who is this dad you speak of?”
“Audie wants to see you play.” Isla leaned against the counter. “He saw how good you’re doing and thought he might come to a game.”
“Am I supposed to be excited by that?”
“No. I just wanted to talk to you about it first.”
Abby folded her arms. “That’s the thing about him—he always comes around when things are good, just so he can make them bad again. He’s never there when the shit is hard.”
It took her back to his sporadic appearances during her childhood, disrupting whatever peace she and her mother managed.
It took her back to two years ago, when Abby was drowning in grief.
Now that the floods had receded, now that she was playing the best softball of her life, of course he wanted back in.
“I told him it probably wasn’t a good idea anyway,” Isla said. “It’s just…”
Abby narrowed her brow at the way her voice wavered. “What?”
Isla stared at her for a beat and Abby knew whatever she said next wouldn’t be the full truth. “He looks out for you in his own way,” she finally said.
“Fuck, Isla—”
“That’s it.” She threw her hands up. “I’m not saying he’s a good guy or you need to forgive him or that you even need to see him. Okay?”
Abby clenched her jaw. She dried a skillet like she might rub it to pieces until Isla touched her shoulder. A timid, uncertain hand that she left there.
“I’m going to miss you, you know?” she said.
Abby gulped and stopped drying. “I’m going to miss you too.”
“But we’ll see each other. You can both come visit.” Isla smiled when Abby shifted to meet her gaze. “You and Kate.”
Abby’s eyes widened. “What?”
“I mean, well. You two. Are you…” Isla raised her eyebrows.
Abby blushed. “Yes.” For all the secrecy and sneaking, it felt good to tell someone. And this, despite their parting ways, felt like a chance at something closer. Something like sisters. Like family. “Just, you know, don’t make a big deal out of it.”
Isla grinned so wide that her eyes nearly shut. “Okay.”
“Stop smiling like that.”
“I’m not.” Isla handed her another dish.
Abby groaned. “You’re still doing it.”
“Sorry, you’ve just liked her for so long.”
“I have not.” Abby’s mouth fell open, uncertain whether she’d always been that obvious or if Isla just knew her better than she thought.
“Don’t mess it up.”
“Wow.”
“Kate’s just…you know, she’s special. Sweet. Really smart.”
Abby’s gaze drifted out the sliding glass door. Kate’s hair tangled in the wind, her dress fluttering while she nodded and smiled. Abby sighed. “I know that.”
Isla smacked her with a dish towel. “Sister to sister, she’s out of your league.”
“Out of my league?” Abby smacked her back with her own towel.
“Oh yeah.” Isla laughed before hugging her. “I’m happy for you.”
Abby closed her eyes as she held on. “Thanks.”
She savored the chiding and Isla calling her sister. She savored what felt like the last breaths before a plunge. Everything was moving too fast and she wasn’t ready. Not even close.
Kate knew she’d lose her virginity to Abby.
She just didn’t expect it to be after dinner at Isla’s, though maybe she should have.
It lived in the glances, in Abby squeezing her hand, in the talk of the future that lately felt equally terrifying and thrilling, in the way Isla grinned at her when she and Abby returned from doing the dishes.
In the way Abby pecked Kate’s cheek, uncaring of their audience.
She’d fluttered with surprise, but it also grounded her.
Like it solidified everything they’d always been.
“I’m sorry about my sister,” Abby said as they walked to the blue house. “She just kind of figured it out.”
“That’s okay.” Kate smiled. “You know you’ve never said that before?”
“Said what?”
“Called Isla your sister.”
Abby’s throat bobbed with a swallow and Kate wanted nothing more than to hold her just like when she noticed her hiding a wince at the news during dinner.
“I know it’s dumb, but for some reason I just expected her to stay.
Like I’d always get to come back because she’d be here. It’s not home, but it’s something.”
“You can still come back,” Kate said.
But she knew what she meant. As they walked through the neighborhoods of college houses with their overgrown lawns, surrounded by fragrant Douglas firs, the sky pastel pink before the moon arrived, it felt more like a picture than a place.
Something they’d look back on but never fully return to.
Perhaps that’s why instead of stopping at the blue house, Kate said, “Let’s go to your place. ”
Abby’s cheeks twitched with a hesitant smile. “Okay.”
They’d spent time at Abby’s one-bedroom before, but never the night.
Abby insisted on being the one to sneak in and out, and Kate secretly appreciated her roommates as an extra guard against temptation.
Not that Abby ever pressured her to have sex, though it bubbled beneath the surface, the two of them often stopping just short with thundering heartbeats and moans caught in their throats.
The ceiling fan was working overtime in Abby’s apartment when they entered, and she scrambled to crack open a window.
Kate found it transient, like most college housing, easily picking out the furniture and décor that came secondhand from Isla.
But she admired the pieces that were clearly Abby—the surfboard she’d brought from California, the concert posters, the trophies hidden in a closet, and the photographs.