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One week, three days, endless hours and an unimaginable amount of seconds – that's how much time has passed since Bianca slowly blinked her eyes and realized that one particular dream was actually coming true.
As a kid, she wished on stars or crossed her fingers. That's for toys at Christmastime, for a test score to be good, for nightmares to stay under the bed and not find you while you slumber. But, somewhere along the way, Bianca kept on hoping. She'd look up at the darkened sky, long after Miranda and Gabby had gone to sleep, and tiny points of illumination would twinkle at her as if to say "you've still got a lot of wanting to do, Bianca Montgomery".
And, with no one else around, she would close her eyes.
And she would ask those stars for a love that remained elusive.
But it's not like Bianca ever believed it would really happen; years of watching friends morph into lovers and then crying as their faces faded in the rear-view mirror had left her more than simply cautious – it left her scared. Bianca could tell the cosmos all her silent wishes for someone to share her life with but those words never slipped out during the day.
Well, until recently.
Until recently, Bianca wouldn't say she was content but she was okay. She had managed to stand tall while Reese disappeared; she had been able to set aside her disappointment and her rage with another relationship falling apart so her children would never see her falter. Bianca could be the supportive daughter, the caring sister, the shoulder to cry on and the shoulder to lean on…
…It wouldn't be bliss but it would be okay. She could do 'okay' for the rest of her life. That's what Bianca told herself anyway. She had been telling herself that – like a personal mantra – every time things went awry. Every time the world decided to let the shit hit the fan, Bianca would opt for 'okay' before any other aspirations.
Why aim for the moon when the ground beneath your feet is so much closer, so much more realistic?
But all of this was before one week ago.
Or, to be more exact, one week and three days; endless hours and an unimaginable amount of seconds have passed since Bianca looked at the truth so blatant upon Marissa's face and realized that this 'thing' between them was coming to life.
This 'thing' - the way Marissa's touch simultaneously comforts and arouses Bianca to no end; the way just one smile from Marissa makes Bianca's insides melt; it is the way Marissa knows what Bianca is thinking before anything is said; it is the caring and it is the friendship and it is the way each look from Marissa seems to envelop Bianca in a kind of warmth she has never fully known.
This 'thing' is love. It is the kind of love that you get when you wish on stars; it is the kind of love you get when you cross your fingers and close your eyes.
It is the kind of love that the hopeful never give up on.
And for all Bianca told herself, that being just 'okay' would be… well, okay, she has never been so happy to be proven wrong.
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END