Chapter 13 #3
The borrowed cotton came down over her head and torso. It was enormous. The sleeves reaching her elbows and the hem falling nearly mid-thigh.
She looked at Aspen in the window reflection again. She was standing still, in an equally enormous t-shirt, still facing the opposite direction.
Aspen cleared her throat. “Are you decent?”
“Yeah.” Maddy’s voice came out rougher than she expected it to.
They turned back at the same time.
Aspen was drowning in a shirt that showed a woman in overalls with a head bandana, a garden hoe slung over one shoulder, and big block letters reading DIRTY HOES GARDEN SOCIETY.
Aspen’s mouth twitched.
Maddy looked down at her own shirt for the first time. An alien, mid-step off a flying saucer, one three-fingered hand up in a peace sign, with the words: I COME IN PEACE.
The universe really did have a twisted sense of humor.
They looked ridiculous and under any other circumstances, Maddy would have laughed. But she shut down the smile before her lips could make a move.
She looked at the bed.
“I’ll take the floor.” Aspen said quickly, already scanning the room for something to put down there. “There’s gotta be extra blankets in here somewhere.”
She offered it up so fast and so easily that Maddy’s traitorous heart squeezed and fluttered at once, and Maddy resented it for it.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” She heard herself say. “We’re both adults. We can share a bed.”
Aspen blinked at her.
Maddy immediately wanted to take the words back, but it was too late. They were out. So she committed to them like they were no big deal. She walked to the far side of the bed and reached for the edge of the quilt to signal that was the end of the discussion.
Maddy crawled into the bed and got comfortable. Aspen pulled the covers back slowly and got in much more cautiously, then reached out and turned off the lamp. The room went dark, and the moon took over.
They both laid flat on their backs, a careful strip of mattress between them that Maddy was aware of down to the inch. Maddy stared at the ceiling, and she didn’t have to look over to know Aspen was doing the same. The thumb lightly drumming on Aspen’s stomach spoke volumes.
“Beats sleeping in the car, doesn’t it?” Aspen said quietly.
Maddy stayed silent.
“Back to ignoring me then?” Aspen added after it became clear Maddy wasn’t going to respond.
“Yep.” So much for silence.
Aspen turned her head on the pillow. “Why am I the one you’re mad at? Yes, I knew our parents were dating, but it wasn’t my place to tell you about it. That was between you and Bunny.”
“That hasn’t stopped you before.” Maddy kept her eyes on the ceiling.
The mattress shifted. Aspen pushed up onto one elbow. “What is that supposed to mean?” It came out sharp.
Sharper than Maddy had ever heard from her, sharp enough that it pulled Maddy’s head up off the pillow, and then she was up on her own elbow too, body rotated towards Aspen, the two of them propped in the dark less than a foot apart, the moon illuminating their faces, and she met Aspen’s gaze.
“It means, you swooped in the second I left town and took my place as Bunny’s daughter.
I see how close the two of you are, so it really shouldn’t have come as a surprise that you would use me to go along with one of Bunny’s ridiculous schemes. ”
Aspen shook her head, brows scrunched together. “Use you?! Maddy, what the hell are you talking about? When have I ever used you?”
Now Maddy was really getting pissed. It was one thing to trick her; it was another to play dumb about it. “You asked me to go to that stupid soccer game with you so that you could get me out of the house and I wouldn’t find out about their little affair.”
“What?!” Aspen came all the way up, off her arm, onto her hand.
“Are you kidding me right now? You think I would do that? Maddy, I wasn’t using you.
I had no idea Bunny and my dad were even hanging out that night.
I asked you to go to the game with me because I like you, Maddy.
Because I wanted to go on a date with you.
And I honestly do not know how someone so smart could be so blind to something that is so glaringly fucking obvious.
I have been doing nothing but flirt with you for weeks! ”
She had to be lying.
But Aspen didn’t stop. It kept coming out of her, faster, louder.
“What the hell do you think I’ve been doing, Maddy?
All the looks. The texts. Popping into the kitchen just to talk to you.
Bringing you coffee. Volunteering to come with you on these errands.
Inviting you to the aquarium. Asking you on a freaking date.
Picking you up. Never once letting you pay.
Opening your car door. Almost kissing you. ”
Each one hit a spot where Maddy had already explained it away. And every reason she’d built left her at once. Her heart hammered in her chest—
Aspen was still going. “God, Maddy, you are so infuriating! Why can’t you just—”
Maddy grabbed the collar of Aspen’s shirt with both hands, and pulled her the last eight inches across the dark and kissed her. Hard.
Aspen went still against her mouth.