Katie awoke to the sound of the sheets rustling. It took a minute for her eyes to focus, but once her vision was clear, she saw the most delightful image in the world: Jessie, in her arms waking up next to her. Her face looked absolutely exquisite in the morning light. Her soft blonde hair was tousled and her dreamy eyes were gazing back up at Katie.

"Good morning," said Jessie as she started to stretch. She then greeted Katie with an engaging kiss.

"Morning," replied Katie. Then she wasted no time and scooted her way down to Jessie's stomach, lifted up Jessie's shirt and rested her head on her favorite spot, while wrapping her arms around Jessie's waist. She lay there, just listening to the younger girl's breath go in and out and felt her stomach rise and fall. Besides breathing, Jessie didn't dare move. She wanted to make sure this wasn't a dream. And if it was, she sure as hell didn't want to risk waking up.

"How did you sleep?" asked Jessie.

"Honestly, that was the best night's sleep I've had in months."

"Me too," replied Jessie. She stared at Katie in awe. "I can't believe how beautiful you are," Jessie smiled, looked down at Katie and began to stroke her hair.

Katie closed her eyes. She was completely content with absolutely everything at that moment. She wanted to stay there for the rest of her life with her head on Jessie's stomach and Jessie's hands running through her hair. She turned her head and looked up at Jessie.

"This isn't a dream, right? I mean, this is really happening. You're really here right now, right?"

Jessie realized Katie had the same fear she had. She grabbed the older girl by the arm to pulled her up towards her. Katie helped her out by crawling towards Jessie and resting her body on top of her.

"This is definitely not a dream. My dreams are never as sweet as this," Jessie replied as she leaned up to kiss Katie once more.

"Wow, Billie. That has got to be the cheesiest thing I've ever heard."

"Yeah, well. That's how I roll."

The two girls shared a laugh as they climbed out of bed, ready to face this beautiful day. Meanwhile, they were both unaware of the fact that they were not alone in the room. At the bottom of the stairs, Lilly found herself listening in on the very private conversation between the two girls. She had only gone in to wake them up, but when she saw the two of them in each other's arms, she didn't know how to react. Lilly was in a state of shock. She managed to make it back down to the bottom of the stairs as soon as the girls woke up.

"Hey, you girls want some breakfast?" asked Rick as he spotted Jessie and Katie coming down the stairs.

"Sure," replied Katie.

"Well, help yourselves. I'm off. I've got a meeting for work."

"On a Saturday?" asked Jessie.

"Yup. My life is one nonstop party," replied Rick as he kissed his daughter on the forehead.

He went over to kiss Lilly goodbye as she was staring at the two girls from behind her coffee cup. "Bye sweetie."

Lilly smiled at him as he walked out the door and went back to observing Jessie and Katie as they were eating their breakfast.

"Did you girls sleep okay?" asked Lilly.

"Yeah, we were fine," replied Jessie, unable to look Lilly in the eyes.

Lilly had no idea how to go about bringing up the subject. She didn't want to scare either of them off or upset them. She was just trying to get a grasp on the situation. How serious were they? How long had this been going on? Do the kids at school know? Lilly had always tried to be tolerant and open-minded, but she had no idea how to gage exactly what was happening.

"Well, do you girls have any plans for today?"

"We'll probably go to the mall or something," replied Katie, who didn't look up from her food, for fear that it might get away from her. Her stomach would not appreciate that. She was on her second helping of eggs when she felt a pair of crystal blue eyes watching her. She turned to face Jessie. "What? Do I have something in my teeth?"

Lilly noticed as Jessie shook her head and looked at her friend adoringly. "No, it's just…how do you do it?"

"What? Fill up every day with my awesomeness? It's a gift."

"No. How do you eat all that and never gain a pound. You are ridiculously skinny." She nudged her friend in the stomach.

"Hey, I'm a growing girl. You should see my brothers eat. I learned from the best." Katie playfully bumped her shoulder into Jessie's shoulder.

Lilly continued to watch the two girls interact, watching the smile on Jessie's face and slowly coming to the realization that Katie was the reason for Jessie's change in behavior. Katie was the reason Jessie was so happy lately. It made perfect sense. The two girls are never apart from each other. Jessie would not have had time between school and Katie to meet and fall in love with some boy. But did that mean she had fallen in love with Katie? Lilly snapped out of her stupor when she realized two sets of eyes watching her.

"Um…Lilly? Any reason you're staring at us?" asked Jessie.

Lilly flinched. "Oh. Uh…no, no reason. Sorry. It's just early and this coffee obviously hasn't hit me yet." Lilly realized that she should probably be a little more discreet while watching the girls.

"Okay. Well, we're gonna go out for a while. See ya."

"All right. Well, be safe and call us if you're going to be later than 8 o'clock."

"Okay," replied Jessie. "Is it okay of Katie stays the night again tonight?"

Lilly froze for a minute. She had no idea what to say to that. Was it really such a good idea, knowing what had happened last night? And how many times had that happened before? She looked back and forth from Jessie to Katie.

"Well, I don't know if that's a good idea. Katie's family might want her home for once. But I'll check with your dad."

Katie could see how uncomfortable Lilly was. 'Oh God, does she know something? Lilly's fairly perceptive,' thought Katie.

"Um…you know what? You're probably right. My parents have been complaining that they never see me anymore. Maybe next time, Jess."

Jessie looked at her friend quizzically. "Well, maybe I could stay at your house?"

Katie nervously looked over at Lilly and back at Jessie. "I don't think my parents would like that. They don't like to have company very often." Katie looked down and felt horrible for denying her friend, but what if Lilly suspected something? She didn't want to risk her finding out for sure.

The girls walked out the door, leaving Lilly to sort out everything that had transpired in the last half hour.

Katie grabbed Jessie's hand as soon as the door closed. "I'm sorry. I just…I think that Lilly might sense something's going on."

Jessie stopped in her tracks. "You mean, with us?" She looked panicked.

"Don't worry. Maybe she doesn't know anything. But I know you're not ready for people to know about us yet. I just didn't think you wanted her to start asking questions. I know how you hate that."

Jessie couldn't help but smile. Katie always had her back and did everything in her power to protect her. And she knew she'd never find someone so amazing as that.

The weekend went by fast and it was Monday yet again. The girls managed to spend most of the weekend together, but they weren't able to arrange another sleepover that weekend, so they had deal with waking up alone, which they had done thousands of times before, but this time it was so much harder. It was almost torturous compared to how perfect it was to wake up in each other's arms, but they would have to thrive on the fact that they would see each other at school and all would be well. Things were a little different now. The intensity between them was through the roof and they were more in love than ever. It was impossible to break a bond that strong.

Katie was at her locker waiting for Jessie to meet her when two hands came over her eyes, leaving her in darkness.

"Guess who."

Katie smiled and turned around. Her smile quickly faded when she realized it wasn't Jessie. "Oh…hey Sarah."

"So how have you been?"

Katie occupied herself by digging into her locker. "Fine."

"Cool." They stood in silence until Sarah spoke again. "So look, I know we haven't talked in a while and I just wanted to see how you are."

"I said I'm fine."

"Okay. Listen, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being a complete bitch to you…and to Jessie. I know you guys are good friends and I really should have been nicer to her."

Katie was visibly annoyed. "Yeah, you should have." She slammed her locker and started to walk away. Sarah grabbed her by the arm to try and stop her.

"Wait. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to look for Jessie."

"Oh." Sarah looked dejected. "Well, you look really nice today. Did I tell you that?"

Katie rolled her eyes. She hated when Sarah did this. It was her little trick that Katie learned about her early on. She always tried to feed Katie's ego and Katie wasn't falling for it this time. Sarah loosened her grip and slid her hand down to Katie's hand.

"Look, Sarah. I don't know what this is or what you're trying to do, but stop it."

"I just miss you," replied Sarah, gripping Katie's hand tighter. At that moment, Katie looked over to see Jessie staring disbelief at the scene before her. There was probably a rational explanation, but at that moment, Jessie could only see Katie holding hands with Sarah. The horrified look on Jessie's face was more than Katie could take. She yanked her hand away from Sarah's, went up to Jessie and put her arm around her.

"Hey. Come on. Let's go."

She led a distraught Jessie down the hallway. "Look, that really was NOT what it looked like. I swear."

"Okay. But you haven't spoken to Sarah in like months and now all of a sudden you guys are friends again?" asked Jessie.

"No! No, not at all. I don't even know why she was talking to me. Well, I mean…I know WHY, but I told her to leave me alone."

Jessie stopped in front of her classroom. "Right. Well, okay. I should go in to class."

Katie nodded, sensing that Jessie was really not okay with what she saw and mentally cursing Sarah for bringing any kind of pain into Jessie's life. "Okay, I'll see you at lunch." Then she leaned in and whispered, "I'll miss you."

Jessie ambivalently nodded and walked into her classroom, almost in a daze. Katie moped all the way to her class. Why Sarah would pick today of all days to do that to her? Why? She grew more and more angry just thinking about it.

At lunch, Katie too nervous to eat. She had to see Jessie and make sure she was okay before she could eat a bite. Leave it to Jessie to make her lose her appetite. She was the only one who was able to do that. Out of nowhere came the thorn in Katie's side who suddenly decided to make second attempt at talking to her. Sarah sat down right next to Katie. Katie could not believe that Sarah had the audacity to make yet another appearance. Twice in one day after months of not speaking? What was wrong with this girl?

"What do you want?" Katie didn't even look at her. She was busy scanning the cafeteria for Jessie.

"I just wanted to talk."

"We haven't spoken in months. Seriously. If I wanted to talk to you, I would have talked to you by now."

"Why won't you talk to me?"

"Because. You're not a nice person. It just took me too long to realize that."

"Katie, I know you don't mean that. We were good friends. Close friends. Don't you miss that?" Sarah took the liberty of stroking Katie's hair while talking to her. Katie looked over at her and couldn't believe she had the nerve to do such a thing. Sarah would not let up. She leaned in closer to Katie. "God, you're so beautiful."

"Is she?"

Katie looked up to see Jessie standing in front of them, tears filling her eyes. Katie jumped up instantly. "Jessie."

But it was too late. Jessie had stormed off, while Katie was frantically running after her. They ended up out in the hall when Katie finally caught up to her.

"Jessie, wait!"

Jessie turned around, tears now completely running now her cheeks. "Look, if you were just using me to get Sarah back-"

"What?!? No, Jessie. That's not what it is. I swear it's not. Sarah and I weren't even together."

"Really? Then why are you talking to her out of nowhere?"

"She talked to me. Personally, I can't stand her."

"Yeah, well that makes two of us," replied Jessie. "I just can't believe that after everything that happened this weekend, you would do this. I mean, is that it? That's all you wanted from me and now you're moving on?"

"Jessie! You need to calm down. That's not it at all. I swear. I swear to you. I don't care if I ever see Sarah again. Please believe me."

"So am I just supposed to be okay when my girlfriend is flirting with some other girl?" asked Jessie.

Katie was taken aback. "I wasn't flirting with her. I swear. She may have been flirting with me, but I would never do that to you." Katie thought for a minute and reached over to grab Jessie's hand. "You know, that's the first time you've ever called me you girlfriend."

"Yeah well…" Jessie voice trailed off, only to come back with, "I don't like that fact that people think it's okay to just flirt with you. I can't…I can't deal with this right now."

Jessie turned to walk away. Katie grabbed her arm. "Billie, please don't do this."

Jessie broke away from Katie's grip and stormed off. Katie had never seen Jessie like this before. This was something very new, but she understood that seeing her with Sarah must have stirred up an insane amount of jealousy. She realized she'd feel exactly the same way if she saw Jessie with some other girl, or guy for that matter. Especially right after that amazing night they had shared together. Katie watched as Jessie kept walking away. She felt so helpless. She was barely audible when she choked out the words, "I love you."

After school, Katie waited for Jessie at her car, but she never showed up. She looked around for Grace to see if maybe she was taking Jessie home instead, but had no luck finding her. Katie climbed into her car and sat there for a minute. She had to find Jessie. It was all she could think about. She knew they could get through this. There was an emptiness inside her right now, she was almost lifeless. Jessie was they only way to fill that void.

Jessie ended up walking home. She needed to blow off steam and try to hide the redness of her eyes from crying so much. She walked into the Manning home and slammed the door. Lilly came out of the kitchen when she heard the door slam.

"Hey girls, how was--oh. It's just you, Jessie. Where's Katie?"

Jessie just looked at her with disdain. "How should I know?"

Lilly was taken aback by Jessie's comment. "Okay. Well, dinner will be ready in -"

"I'm not hungry!" Jessie stormed up the stairs and slammed the door to the attic. The sound echoed through the entire house. Lilly stood there, trying to make sense of Jessie's behavior. She could only assume she and Katie had gotten into a fight, which was hard to believe, since they never fought.

An hour later, Jessie came down stairs with her bag. "I'm going out. I'll be back in a couple hours."

"Wait, where are you going?" asked Lilly.

"I said I'm going out. I'll be back." Jessie walked out the door and ran off before Lilly even had a chance to catch her. She ran outside to see which way Jessie went, but she was gone. She shook her head.

"This can't be good."

She was just about to walk inside when she saw a car pull up in the driveway. Katie got out and walked up to Lilly. Lilly was stunned to see how distraught Katie was. She looked like she had been crying for hours on end. Her eyes were completely bloodshot.

"Katie, sweetie. What's wrong?"

Katie answered meekly, "Is Jessie here?"

"No, she just took off."

"Do you know where she went? I've been looking for her everywhere."

Lilly shook her head. "I'm sorry. She wouldn't tell me. All I know is she had her overnight bag with her. But she said she'd be back in a couple hours. Why don't you come in and wait for her?"

Katie looked down. "I really should go find her."

"What happened with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, obviously something happened with you two. Jessie's never been upset or depressed since she met you. And now…well, I can only assume you two got into a fight."

Katie nodded slightly. "Yeah, I guess. But it wasn't intentional. I'd never do anything to hurt her."

Lilly looked at the young girl and saw how desperate she was. It seemed all she wanted was to make Jessie happy. "I know you wouldn't, sweetie. Jessie's just very sensitive. She always has been. She's very fragile."

"She's not as fragile as she appears," replied Katie, thinking back on how strong Jessie was during her Tae Kwon Do class. Then, all of a sudden, it hit Katie. She looked at her watch. "Oh my gosh. Um…I have to go. Thanks Lilly."

With that, she jumped in her car and drove away. Lilly could only hope Katie knew where to find Jessie. She didn't want to have to explain Jessie's absence to Rick when he came home.

Katie pulled into the parking lot of the Tae Kwon Do center and ran inside. She scanned the entire room looking for Jessie. There wasn't a class in session, but there were several people there training. And there she was. That unmistakable blonde hair. Katie breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Jessie in her Tae Kwon Do uniform punching and kicking a training bag. She stood there and watched Jessie, trying to decide what she should say to her.

Meanwhile, Jessie was giving everything she had to that punching bag. Kicks, knees, punches, elbows; absolutely everything. She couldn't focus. All she could think about was Sarah putting her hands all over Katie and it drove her completely crazy. Granted, she may have overreacted, but Katie is the love of her life. And she never thought Katie would ever hurt her. And while Katie probably didn't do anything wrong, Jessie still couldn't get that visual out of her head. She began punching faster and harder while the thoughts kept swarming around in her head. 'Sarah called Katie beautiful. I'm the only one who should get to say that to her,' thought Jessie. She decided her arms weren't letting out enough aggression, so she switched to side kicks. 'Why is this upsetting me so much? I mean, I really had no right to treat Katie like that. She wasn't doing anything,' Jessie continued her inner dialogue. 'But that's just it. She didn't do anything. She didn't even pull away from Sarah until she saw me there.' The poor punching bag was getting the brunt of Jessie's angry kicks. She was exhausted. She wanted to cry. She wanted to just curl up into a little ball and cry. And she wanted Katie to hold onto her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. At that moment she stopped kicking. Her thoughts completely enveloped her until her heart skipped a beat. A feeling of relief came over her as soon as she heard a familiar voice.

"Getting out some aggression?" asked Katie.

Jessie grabbed her water bottle and took a drink. She didn't face Katie. She couldn't look at her at that moment. All she wanted to do was take her in her arms, but she was so upset and so confused, she couldn't bring herself to turn around. She just continued punching the bag, feeling a little better knowing that Katie was right there. She'd never let Katie know it, though.

"No. I'm just practicing to kick Sarah's ass," replied Jessie.

"I'm all for that."

"Really?" Jessie still refused to look at Katie. Katie could sense this and she could feel the tears start welling up in her eyes again. She did her best to fight it off.

"Yeah. I mean, she's the reason you're mad at me. She's the reason you're upset. And because of that, I hate her."

Jessie stopped punching and finally faced Katie, trying her hardest not to cry, and also trying to keep herself from hugging her.

"So it's all her fault, huh? You had NOTHING to do with it?" asked Jessie.

"What could I do? She doesn't know we're together."

"Well maybe she should!" Jessie snapped back.

Katie was shocked at her response. "You want me to tell her? Okay, I'll tell her."

"Well, that's not gonna stop someone else from thinking they can have you, too."

"But…Billie, that means that people are gonna have to know. Like…everyone."

Jessie nodded.

"But I thought you didn't want anyone to know," replied Katie.

"I don't care anymore. I don't ever want to feel that way again. It sucked." Jessie held Katie's gaze.

Katie had no idea what to say. She hadn't been prepared for Jessie to be ready to disclose their relationship so soon. "Well, Jess…I mean, are you sure you want to do this? I know you were worried about it before and ---"

"Look, it's obvious you don't want people to know about us," interrupted Jessie. "I guess you want to be free to flirt with other people." Jessie turned away from Katie, trying to fight the tears that were about to pour out.

"Jessie, of course I want people to know. I've wanted to tell everybody I see that I'm in love with the most beautiful, intriguing girl the world has ever seen. I love you. I love you so much and seeing you like this is breaking me. I just know that you were really apprehensive about telling people…"

Jessie had heard enough. "No, that's fine. You're right. We won't tell a soul. That way you can have your fill of flirting." Jessie grabbed her bag and ran out before Katie even got a chance to respond. She tried to run after her, but Jessie was too fast. Katie was at a loss. It felt as though her heart had been ripped out of her chest. She could barely breathe. All she could do was finally let the tears fall. She sat there on the curb and cried. She had to make this right. She had to. Life without Jessie was not something she wanted to experience.

To Be continued…