"Hey kid" Holly greeted the blonde and sat beside her in the freshly trimmed grass.
Gail didn't respond, she didn't even turn her head to acknowledge Holly's presence. Holly was expecting this reaction, she came over fully informed, given the whole rundown of what had happened and knew how Gail would be.
Gail's lizard, Hank, died and she had been home alone when she found him. Steve was late getting back and so their parents got home first, and basically told her they were happy that Hank had died because they had never liked him anyway. So by the time Steve had gotten home poor little Gail was on the edge, she was drawing back, even from him, and nothing could console her. Steve had tired all of the usual things. Cheese puffs, Star Wars, letting her ride his bike, giving her black mail on him, taking her out to her favourite bakery and letting her get anything she wanted, all of which Gail didn't react to. She didn't even give it thought, just stared blankly into the distance.
So Steve tried one last thing, one last attempt to get his little sister to properly react to Hanks death. He called Holly.
Holly knew not to talk, no matter how badly she wanted to, she had to let Gail go to her, otherwise the blonde would run and they couldn't have that.
"You should go back to bed, Holly, he shouldn't have called you so late." Gail mumbled, still staring at the dark grass and unmoving.
"Yeah, I probably should." Holly replied lightly. "But I'm going to sit out here with you instead."
"You don't have to, I'm fine."
"I know, but I'd like to stay if it's okay with you." Holly turned to watch for the blondes reaction, which did move. One small chip was made in the mask, the corners of Gail's lips twitched up for a second, her eyes splashed with emotion. She was making headway.
"If you must. But I know how much you nerds like school, and you need sleep for that."
Holly smiled, that was more like it.
"I think I might like you more than school then." She bumped shoulders with Gail, who pushed back in turn.
"As you should." Gail was slowly getting back to colour, getting her natural tongue, her snark and that light blush to her cheeks wherever Holly complimented her.
The was a long pause, long enough for the feelings to come rushing back to Gail, and comfortable enough for her to finally express it all. It started with a sniffle, Gail trying to crush the noise by rubbing at her nose and eyes. Then Holly noticed the light shake of little shoulders and the perfectly placed sweater covered hands, and it only took a second to react. She moved closer and pulled Gail into her side, holding on tightly as the blonde snuggled into her and cried.