Chapter 25: Hard to Hear
Type: Drama
Rating: T
warpedscientist said: "Any chance Vivian will get some deaf friends/enemies? I can see her not telling anyone at school she can sign so she can spy on the deaf kids (she is Gail's kid after all), until one day they sign something super rude/mean/stupid about someone she cares about and then she storms over and tears them a new one."
Then just-alive said: "That was amazing but now I really want to see a chapter where she runs into her first girl crush Mona again after all those years and she introduces her family to her."
So you can blame this chapter on them.
This takes place when Vivian is in her early twenties and in college. All sign language will be in quotes in italics, and I'll try to make it clear.
Eating lunch alone was normal. Vivian screwed her earbuds into place and popped open the red lunchbox Gail had packed the night before. Twenty and still living at home with her mom making her lunch. Once someone had teased her and Vivian had just smiled. They could invent all kind of ideas of what kind of stay-at-home mom she had, but the reality that she was the daughter of the head of Organized Crime for two divisions in Toronto policing and her mom still made time to make sure she had a good lunch would probably blow their minds.
Also Gail's food was really good.
The lunchbox being red was Holly's doing. It still had 'Office of the Medical Examiner' stitched on the side, along with the gay pride badge Vivian had sewn on when she was fourteen. That was the year she'd been on the float with Gail and Holly (a rare occurrence, Holly turned out to be terrified of being on the float) and worn a shirt saying she loved her moms.
Still. She tended to eat lunch alone on UoT campus, which really was fine. People were noisy and dug into your life and asked weird, and stupid, questions. And since sitting in the cafeteria with her homemade lunch was a constant invitation to people asking more stupid questions, Vivian had taken to sitting at the tables by one of the on campus restaurants who didn't mind that she only bought something to drink.
They had really good bubble tea, too. Vivian sipped the tea and smiled. It went well with the leftover pad thai she and Gail had made the night before.
"Hello, strange girl," announced a friendly voice. "Please tell me you did the homework."
"Hi, Jane," replied Vivian, pulling an earbud out.
"Homework?" Jane leaned over and eyed Vivian's lunch. "Share?"
"Yes and no," she pulled her food closer. "Go buy your own lunch. Your meal plan covers this."
Jane stuck her tongue out. "Help me with the homework and I'll buy you desert."
Vivian would have helped anyway, but she smiled. "Deal. I want the crispy wonton or a bubble tea."
"¿Por que no los dos?"
"If that's the extend of your Spanish, no wonder you're failing."
Jane flipped her off and laughed.
As Jane went to go make the order, Vivian bent her head back to the homework she was working on. It was her own idea to take a mechanical engineering class. She liked it, loved the work, but it was a lot more math than she really wanted to spend her weeks doing. At least this evening was shooting day with Gail, and that was always fun.
It reminded her to text her mother, though. As Vivian pulled out her phone to ping Gail and confirm they were still on, she glanced at a table over to the side where a group of people were animatedly, and silently, gesturing. Without looking, Vivian texted Gail and put the phone down, absently recognizing, and reading, the conversation in sign language.
The group was talking about a party that was going on in a dorm that weekend, and how it sucked and would be annoying because of the vibrations all night. Plus they weren't even invited. It would be too dark to see anything. Personally Vivian felt that the parties were too loud to hear anything, but that made sense too. Everyone always wanted to turn the lights down.
But then it took a strange turn as one of them pointed over at Jane and signed that it was disgusting. The what now? Vivian flicked her eyes to the side, trying to keep up the look Chloe had been teaching her for casual surveillance. Jane was kissing someone.
Well. That was Jane alright.
She flicked her gaze back to the girls, who were signing faster than she could really read, but she caught a few words she didn't like seeing. Like 'slut.' Like 'bitch.' Like 'whore.'
Damn it.
"Whoa, what got you angry?" Jane sat down with the bubble tea and a regular iced tea.
"Who were you kissing?"
Jane arched her eyebrows. "Viv, you're cute, but I don't swing with the ladies."
Vivian blinked. "What? God, no. Not that you idiot." She shoved Jane's shoulder and looked at the back of the man Jane had been kissing. "Is that Jela?"
"Yeah. He just started here," she said, and grinned. "So your bubble tea is on him. He likes you."
Not that it mattered to her if Jane was making out with her boyfriend or some random dude. But sometimes having the right weapons to fight the queen bees was needed. "I'll be right back. Try the first page on your own, okay? This is supposed to be tutoring, not copying."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jane grumbled and opened her math book.
Vivian walked over to the table with the deaf girls. Normally she'd clear her throat to get their attention. Instead she picked out the leader (the one in the middle sitting more primly), and tapped her shoulder. The girl turned and looked, started, and so did the other girls.
And Vivian signed a hello.
And they all paled a little. Eyes went to her ears, then her mouth, then her hands. The deaf knew the deaf. She was not a member of their classes nor their clique. So she was either an unknown who chose to be separate (rare, but it happened), or she was a hearing person who knew a little sign language.
Vivian could see all of that running through their heads. She made sure she had all their attentions and signed as she spoke, "It's not your business who she kisses."
They paled more. Now they knew. "You sign?" That was the sidekick. The one to her right. Maybe the second in command.
"A lot of people do. Not just you." Vivian gestured at her table. "Don't judge people." She had to keep her sentences short and to the point. Anything super complicated was still beyond her.
The queen bee stood up. "Go away," she said loudly. "Stop harassing us!"
Oh. Well played. Vivian smiled slowly. It wasn't a nice smile. It was the one Gail wore when she was about to nail a perp. Vivian spoke as she signed. "I'm not the one who insults people behind their backs. I don't pretend I know a secret language and hide behind it."
"Liar! You're bullying!"
One of the girls at the table looked guilty and pushed her chair away from the table. The back of Vivian's brain noted that.
"I'm not," said Vivian, calmly. "I'm telling you that you are rude. I'm asking you not to call my friend names." The reverse bully tactic wasn't new to her. She'd seen it before. She'd had it used on her before, her senior year of school.
By not rising to the bait, Vivian knew she was infuriating the other girl. It wasn't nice and she didn't like doing it, but it was the weapon Vivian had now. "You're lying! You don't even know. You hearing people are all alike!" The more she shouted, the more pronounced her speech pattern became. Maybe she was doing it on purpose, making it sound like she was deaf (which was always odd to Vivian, that deaf had an accent, but it did).
"You don't know me," said Vivian, still calm. "You don't know my friend. And I don't know you." She took a deep breath. "But I know right and wrong. Making fun of people just because they can't understand you is wrong. It would be wrong if I did it. It's wrong when you do it."
And the girl slapped her. It surprised the hell out of Vivian. It didn't hurt at all (seriously, she had the muscle strength of a noodle) but the sting shocked her.
The queen bee raised her arm again but the guilty looked girl stood up and grabbed her wrist. "Stop," she said, simply. The other girls hesitated. They were clearly torn. But then the girl did something odd. She pointed over at a table in the corner.
An adult. A professor was standing up slowly. The deaf girls folded and sat down. Vivian rubbed her cheek. "I won't press charges," she said, making sure the guilty girl saw her sign it. The guilty one nodded.
Vivian nodded and walked back to her table. Jane's eyes were wide. "What the hell did you do, Viv?"
"The right thing. Come on, we should go. Get your food."
"But the cops—"
"Jane. My mom's a cop. Trust me. Okay? Two girls arguing and then a slap? They don't care unless someone wants to press charges."
Jane looked nervous, but as Jela came over with her food in a to-go box, she packed up. Her boyfriend gave her a kiss. "You better not come by for a couple days," he said to Vivian.
"Yeah, I know." Vivian shoved her books in a bag and blinked as Jela handed over a small to-go box as well. "What? What's this for?"
"Were they really calling her names?"
"Yeah. They were."
Jela nodded. "That's what it's for."
Once they were outside, Jane punched her shoulder. "What the hell? I don't need you to rescue me, you idiot."
Vivian frowned. "I didn't do it for you." She sipped her tea and eyed the box. Hopefully it was their rolls. She liked them.
"Oh." Jane frowned as well. "Do you have, like, a savior complex or something?"
"No." At least she didn't think so. "Look, how many people do you think they do that shit to?"
Jane didn't say anything for a while. Not until they got to the benches across the lawn. "You don't like bullies, do you?"
"No." She thought about Matty. She thought about herself. She thought about everyone who was shoved into a locker or treated like shit. "The stupid thing, Jane. They think they can get away with it because they're bullied and no one sees them."
"But you did."
"But I did. Yeah."
Jane shook her head and opened her lunch. "Your moms are going to flip."
They did. Probably not like Jane had anticipated. Both told her she did the right thing. Holly hugged her and Gail said she was a trouble maker, but then made fried chicken and greek roasted potatoes, so Vivian knew her mother was proud in her own way.
That didn't get her out of a lecture not to be a savior, of course. "It's not your job to save everyone," said Gail, sitting in the sun room with her after dinner.
"That isn't why I did it, Mom." Vivian frowned, though.
"Look. As your mom, I'm hella proud of you for calling people out on shit like this. People suck, and they think they can get away with it any time they have a little power." Gail laced her fingers together. "But you want to be a cop. You can't just go and do that anymore."
"But… Mom. It is your job to protect people."
"It is." Gail nodded. "But not like that."
Vivian frowned. "I don't understand."
"Okay." Gail looked at her hands for a moment. "Keeping the peace, making the city safer, doesn't mean you jump in front of bullets or hunt down bullies. It means you show up on the worst day of someone's life and try to make it a little better. It means you take kids away from parents, or tell them someone's dead."
"I know that," she said, annoyed. "But I did the right thing!"
"You did a right thing," Gail replied. She stressed that 'a' carefully. "It's a good thing. And it's also abuse of power, Viv."
That hurt more than the slap. "What? How?"
"You played her. You knew how to piss her off, how to push her, and you knew the worst that would happen is she might attack you. And then you'd win." Gail's voice was quiet and it was cutting. "You knew you'd win. You started from a place of power and you used it, Vivian."
Vivian felt cold. Her mother was right. She hadn't even thought about it, but Gail was right. "I'm just as bad as they are?"
"No," said Gail, reaching over and touching her shoulder. "No, Viv, because you did it to try and help people."
Covering her face, Vivian groaned. "Why is this so complicated? I just… I just wanted to stop them from hurting people."
"I know." Gail's arm wrapped around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. "Your heart's in the right place, kid. You just have to remember the whole thing at once. And it's hella hard, I know. It's a lot to keep in your head. Why are you doing it, how does it look to everyone else, are you pushing because you can get away with it… " Gail sighed long and loud. "It's really hard."
Vivian leaned into Gail. "I should apologize."
"That'd be good," Gail said, agreeing. "Give it a week. Then go back and, if you run into them, tell them the truth."
What was the truth. "That I was mad they were insulting my friend and I wasn't any better than they were and I shouldn't have done that in public?"
"That's a good start. They'll probably tell you to fuck off."
"I would," Vivian admitted. "So if they do… Just let it go?"
"Yes," agreed Gail. She got another shoulder squeeze. "Look. You just have to keep living and learning, sweetheart. You have to hear your head and your heart with this sort of thing."
It was something to dwell on, though. Vivian replayed the afternoon in her head a few times. Her mother was right. She had used a place of power, small though it was, to push them and try to make them feel guilty. But how else were you supposed to make people see they were wrong? You had to do it from a place where you felt safe, which inevitably meant a place of power.
And that meant that Gail, who could make a perp roll over and confess, was bullying them. Gail always said she wasn't actually a very nice person. That was where her non-niceness came out. She used it to punish and attack and cajole and trick the criminals. Sometimes though, sometimes Gail used it to make the innocent confess far lesser crimes in order to catch the big ones.
Did that make Gail evil? Vivian didn't think so. She felt it made Gail… well. Gail. Someone who understood the line she walked and let the bad things that were a part of her be used for the right reasons.
A right reason.
Why had Gail said that? A right thing, not the right thing. That implied there were only levels of grey and maybes and possibilities. That maybe there were more right answers. But also… also maybe there wasn't a right and a wrong sometimes. Maybe there was a right and another right and another right, and they all came at a price. Which meant the idea of 'winning' was the wrong one.
There was no way to win. There was no win. There was just another choice.
She had to listen to the truth, emotionally and intellectually. She couldn't let one override the over. It was hard to listen to both at once, but she wanted this. Vivian wanted to be a cop. She was going to have to learn.
She ended up waiting a couple weeks before showing back up at the restaurant. Jela was delighted to see her, as was his boss, who said he wished next time she'd keep it quieter, but thank you for standing up.
It made Vivian feel uncomfortable. She did take the free bubble tea, though, because it was bubble tea and Gail hated it so she never got it at home. And it was another week before she ran into anyone from the linguistics program or the sign language coalition.
"Excuse me," said a woman Vivian didn't know. Her voice had the slightly off quality of someone hard of hearing from birth.
Vivian looked up. "Hi? Can I help you?" She put her pen down, taking care to speak clearly.
"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but you're the girl who talked to my students last month? About their behavior?" The woman tucked her hair behind her ear and Vivian saw the hearing aid.
Crap. This was the teacher from the other day. She was probably their professor or TA or mentor. "I did," replied Vivian, signing a yes. "I'm sorry about that. It was rude of me to attack them like that."
The woman looked from Vivian's hand to her face and beamed. She signed as she spoke. "Thank you for reminding them that they can be overheard."
Oh. So she wasn't in trouble. Vivian frowned. "But I was mean to them."
"You were," agreed the professor. "But something tells me you already know why what you did was wrong. Besides, you're not my student."
Vivian exhaled. "I do. And I am sorry."
"You can apologize Friday, if you'd like. My students are having a mixer." Then she paused. "I'm sorry, speaking of rude. I'm Dr. Mona Kilner."
"Vivian Peck," she replied, spell-signing her name since, unlike Gail, she'd not been given a cool name-sign. Not that Gail had ever said where she got that from.
Weirdly, the professor looked startled. "Peck?" She spoke aloud and then signed the name back.
"Yes," replied Vivian, confused.
"Do you know Steve or Gail?" Prof. Kilner was so excited, she signed almost faster than Vivian could read.
And it was now officially weird. "Yes." She paused and then explained, "Gail's my mom."
Prof. Kilner stared at her. "Gail? Gail is your mother?"
Vivian nodded. "Um. Yes?"
The woman shook her head and started laughing. "And Steve is your uncle?"
"That's usually how it works." Vivian sighed. "You know them?"
"I went to middle school with Steve. I haven't seen them since we were … younger than you." She looked thoughtful and a little sad. "How's your mother? Did they end up cops?"
It was long past the time that Vivian wondered about the coincidences of the universe. "Yeah, they're detectives."
Prof. Kilner smiled, as if that was pleasing to her. "And married?"
"Yeah," Vivian said and nodded. "Both."
"I cannot imagine Gail married," admitted the professor. "But she was nine or ten the last time I saw her."
Vivian paused and then pulled her phone out, tapping up a photo of Steve and Traci at a police benefit from earlier that year. "Traci, she's a cop too, she's married to Steve. They don't have any kids... Well, Traci has Leo, but he wasn't adopted or anything." Dr. Kilner nodded. "And..." Swiping, she pulled up a photo of Gail and Holly from the same event. Holly was in a stunning cocktail dress. "There's Gail and Holly," she added.
As a surprised expression crossed the professor's face, Vivian remembered that Gail hadn't always been gay. Or at least hadn't known. Maybe that was a bad thing to have said. Vivian was never sure. "Holly."
"Yeah," Vivian said slowly. "Dr. Holly Stewart. She's the head of forensics. Chief medical examiner for Ontario." And she waited for a comment. There was almost always a comment.
But the professor just smiled at the photo. "She looks happy. Gail does."
"I think we are," said Vivian, thoughtfully. "It's hard to tell sometimes."
"Isn't it though?" The teacher laughed. "Come to the mixer. I'll make sure you get a chance to talk to my students. You can meet some deaf students who aren't idiots. Brush up on your speed reading."
Vivian sighed. "Mom is way better. It's disgusting."
"Gail has a gift for languages. Will you tell her I say hello?"
Of course Vivian promised to do so. And as soon as she did that night, Gail looked as shocked as the professor had. "Dr. Mona Kilner? Brown hair? Tan? Tall?"
"Uh, not as tall as me," Vivian said. "She's probably a bit shorter than you." Though the words of Gail's description clicked in her brain. Her mother totally had a thing for stacked brunettes with dusky skin. And glasses. She probably shouldn't tell Gail that the professor - that Mona had glasses.
Gail was struck by an amused look. "My god. I haven't seen her since I was ... Nine or ten. How crazy. She's their teacher?"
"Yeah. And she wants me to come to a mixer on Friday. Meet some deaf kids."
Still smiling that amused-by-a-memory smile, Gail nodded. "You should go. You learn better by doing. I can brush up on my sign language by reading."
Vivian stuck her tongue out at her mother. But she went to the mixer. And she meet with the girls who still hated her. And she apologized and they apologized and then it was like every other awkward party Vivian had ever been to. She didn't fit in or get along with most people, so she spent a lot of time standing out of the way and watching. Except it was louder. Way louder.
The music, pounding and throbbing and so loud she could feel her bones vibrating, was worse than the normal annoyance of not knowing what the hell to do at a party. Also worse was the fact that everyone was signing way the hell faster than she could read. Maybe she should head home.
A girl about her age tapped her shoulder. "Here," she said loudly, holding out a small baggie with bright yellow plugs in them. Vivian eyed the bag and signed that her mom was a cop. The girl just laughed. "Ear plugs. Trust me!"
Vivian blinked and took the bag, squeezing them and then sliding them in. The sound lessened and her head started to stop pounding. "Thank you," she signed.
The girl smiled broadly. "Welcome," she signed back. "You're new here. Partial hearing?"
"Fully hearing," replied Vivian a little slowly. "My mother learned sign language from your professor."
"Your mother the cop is deaf?"
The girl was quick and Vivian grinned. "My mother the cop is gifted at languages."
The girl laughed. "You're not bad yourself." But then she started signing faster than Vivian could follow, and she didn't know all the words. It was something about the professor (at least Vivian thought that was the word) inviting her, and was Vivian the girl who had stopped the idiots from being … something. "Sorry. Was that too fast?"
"My vocabulary is limited," Vivian admitted, feeling very sheepish.
"Can you spell?" Vivian nodded and the girl spelled out a word. No. A name. "S. K. Y. E."
Skye. Vivian repeated it and then spelled her own name and asked, "Do you have a name sign?"
Skye nodded and started the sign for 'sky' but turned it into an E at the end. "Really inventive, I know."
"Shorter than trying to spell mine."
"Right now, their name sign for you is 'bitch.'"
Vivian rolled her eyes. "They called my friend a slut." And like she always did, Vivian had to step in. She'd learned one important thing from her mothers. People needed help and she couldn't say no to that. Because not everyone was strong enough to stand up for others. But she was. Her mothers were. Now, though, she had to think about what her actions meant, what drove them, and what she was doing.
"They're idiots. Thank you for calling them out on it."
Vivian spent the next hour with Skye, sitting where they could feel the beat of the music but it wasn't loud enough that Vivian could hear it clearly through the ear plugs. Skye was considerate about that. She pointed out people, telling Vivian their stories. Like how that boy was from Texas and complained about winters. And that girl was engaged to a hearing math student, but he didn't want to learn sign language so everyone thought he was a dick and kept telling her to dump him. Or that girl was hearing but her mother was fully deaf so she was studying to be a teacher.
Slowly the conversation changed a little. Skye was majoring in animal medicine and wanted to be a vet. When Vivian explained she was majoring in mechanical engineering, but minoring in criminal justice, because she was going to be a cop, Skye found that delightful and cool.
And she kept touching Vivian's knee or arm. Skye kept taking her hands to help her form new words (like mechanical engineering), or correct her motions for the ones she knew.
It took a moment, longer than she might have liked, but she realized what was happening. Skye was flirting with her. Vivian blinked at the realization and smiled. She was single. And Skye was fun. She'd had a girlfriend, Pia, an art student from Germany who'd gone back home at the end of the last term. They'd agreed to make it a clean break since the odds were low that they'd ever see each other again.
When Skye leaned in a little closer, Vivian closed the distance so their shoulders were touching. She'd just have to turn her head and Skye's lips were right there. But the possibility that she was reading it wrong held Vivian back.
Then there was a moment. Someone yelled loudly and Vivian turned to see a man with beer over his face being hauled out by a bouncer. She read the scene in a second, knowing everyone was alright, knowing she wasn't needed. But she turned all the same to make sure he was taken out and the girl had someone with her.
"Sorry," she signed, turning back to Skye with a sheepish smile on her face. And that was all she said. Because Skye's fingers were on her chin, guiding her face into a kiss. Skye's lips were soft and warm. The fingers on her face were gentle, certainly not holding her in place. It was brief, not really short but certainly not all there was to it, and Vivian hardly had a chance to do more than lean in a little.
She was still smiling, not sheepish any longer, when Skye leaned back. Now it was the other girl who was a little embarrassed about what she'd done. But not enough to not lean in again and, this time, Vivian was able to kiss her back.
Between the music and the earplugs, Vivian could only hear the sound of blood rushing in her own head. The world wasn't silent, but it was quieter. It was like a slice of privacy in the middle of a party. She'd not felt that before. It was novel.
Skye was still smiling. She let go of Vivian's face and signed. "Do you want to go to some place quieter?" Singing a simple yes, Vivian let herself be led up the stairs and down the hall. Of course. Some of the girls lived her. It was a small dorm building, but it was a dorm.
The sign on the door said "Skye and Becca," doodled with little flowers and hearts. Vivian laughed unexpectedly. When Skye turned to look at her, she signed and said, "Cute."
"Becca did it," replied Skye, and she rolled her eyes. "Becca is also home for the weekend." She unlocked her door and walked in. It was a standard dorm room, small. Two beds, two desks, two dressers, two closets. Posters on one wall, photos stuck up all over another.
The door closed and the sound level dropped. "Wow," Vivian said, surprised. She eased one earplug out and, finding it was tolerable, removed the other. Nearly soundproofed rooms. She could still feel the vibrations in her feet, but they didn't rattle her brain as much here.
Skye kicked her shoes off. "Does it look like your room?"
Turning around, Vivian shook her head. "I live with my parents," she replied. It seemed natural and right to sign in that moment, even though Skye spoke aloud. She hadn't quite figured out the level of Skye's deafness. The girl wore only one hearing aid, in her left ear.
"Townie." Skye was teasing her. She sat on a bed, probably hers, and patted beside her. After a moment, Vivian stepped out of her sneakers and walked over, sitting down beside Skye.
They didn't have to talk at that point. Skye took her hearing aid out and put it on her nightstand (aka her mini fridge) and they settled into some fairly serious making out. The vibrations from the music downstairs were definitely doing a job on her, though. Every part of her that wasn't turned on from the girl lying on the bed next to her was getting there from the music. It was like riding a motorcycle.
When Skye's hand started moving up her shirt, Vivian realized that it was going to be that, right away. And she wasn't really sure she wanted to have sex in the middle of a party. "Wait," she mumbled and gently pulled Skye's hand back.
Skye acted like she was burned. "Oh, shit," she said, possibly louder than she meant. And Skye sat up, leaning against her wall and breathing hard.
That was not expected. Vivian pushed her hair out of her face and sat up. "Sorry. It was just a little fast," she said, signing as she spoke.
"God, you're straight," said Skye, groaning and covering her face.
"What!?" Vivian started laughing. She didn't know if Skye could hear her but she could only laugh and laugh.
Eventually Skye poked her leg. "Hey." Then she asked, "What's so funny?"
"I don't know the sign for ..." Vivian paused and finger-spelled lesbian. Skye replied with an L held up to her chin. Of course. "I'm a lesbian," signed Vivian.
Skye exhaled, looking relieved. "Are you seeing someone?"
"No. It was really just a little fast."
Skye blushed. "Sorry. You don't meet a lot of lesbians here."
Vivian smiled and scooted around to sit crosslegged beside Skye. "Not ones who know sign language."
"That too." Skye reached over and pushed Vivian's hair out of her face. "And I barely know you."
"That too," repeated Vivian. She'd never had sex with anyone she'd just met. With Liv, she'd known her since forever. Pia she met in art class (to help with her diagramming) and they'd gone out for coffee and snacks a dozen times before she'd dared ask about a real date. Admittedly, Pia had said that it was only a real date if it had ended in sex, which flustered Vivian badly. Not badly enough that she didn't cheekily say the challenge was accepted, and not badly enough that they hadn't dated for the rest of the term. But still.
This would be a first if that's what happened.
Skye ran her fingers down the side of Vivian's face before signing. "Would that be so bad?"
Would it? She honestly didn't know. Wasn't college a time to find out what you liked and what you didn't? Both Aunt BitchTits and Gail's friend, Frankie, had touted the wonderful world of sleeping around. Of course, Lisa and Kate had been living together for four years, dating for eight, and were just as committed as Gail and Holly. Frankie... Well. Frankie still got around. Holly called her a serial monogamist. She'd date one woman for a while, even up to a year, and then they'd break up and Frankie would show up and drink beers with Gail and Steve.
Vivian was twenty.
It was a good time to enjoy life. Sow wild oats. Right?
She smiled at Skye and leaned in to kiss her.
As it turned out, it wasn't a great idea. Oh the sex was good. It was different, a little loud though it wasn't like Vivian really needed to worry about pissing off the neighbors. Besides, the thudding vibration of the music was pretty good for covering the noise. And Skye was good in bed. And yes, she definitely felt good after sex. She had that heavy limbed, satiated feeling.
There just was a weird, niggling feeling in the back of her mind. It wasn't fulfilling. As she drove home late that night (or early that morning), she tried to put together the differences between the three girls she'd had sex with. Olivia had been awkward and funny in a way. Sad at the end. But that was unrelated to sex. Vivian didn't think they'd been compatible, really. Maybe that had been due to their shared relative inexperience. Maybe not.
Then there was Pia. She was incredibly direct. Pia knew what she wanted and gave good directions. More experienced than Vivian, Pia taught her a lot about making love to a woman. The directness was a little off putting at first. Being told 'no' in the middle of sex was just distracting and sometimes mood killing. As Vivian got used to it, though, it became a lot more fun. Pia wasn't saying no because Vivian was necessarily bad, she wanted Vivian to know exactly what she liked and was just very forthright about it. When asked why, Pia shrugged and joked that maybe it was because she was German.
And then Skye. She took her time at a lot of things. She was slow and measured, reading Vivian's expressions and reactions. That made sense. They had a little bit of fumbling, trying to communicate while having sex was hard when your hands were occupied. And Skye was totally deaf in one ear. The other, her left, she could hear without the hearing aid, but not enough to communicate well.
But none of that explained Vivian's feelings about it. She sighed as she pulled into the garage. Both her moms cars were parked. By habit, she hovered her hand above the hood of each car. Holly's was slightly warmer than Gail's cold one. They'd been home for a little while, maybe a couple hours. Vivian frowned and eyed her watch. It was three AM. Where the hell had they been?
She made noise on purpose as she came in, checking the fridge for leftovers to scrounge. The food at the party had been nonexistent, though apparently that was normal. Vivian found takeout from a fancy restaurant. Oh. It had been a date night. She rolled her eyes and heated up the leftovers, biding her time to give her mothers the opportunity to finish whatever they were doing.
When she finally went upstairs, she found their bedroom door open and her mothers asleep. Gail was curled up on her side of the bed, one arm reaching out to touch Holly, who was sprawled over the majority of the bed. Smiling, Vivian closed their door quietly.
The next morning she woke up to a soft rap at her door. "What?" She groaned and hunkered down in her bed.
"Checking if you're still alive." That was Gail. "I'm making Leftover Omelets."
Food. Vivian opened her eyes. "I ate your leftovers."
Gail was quiet a moment. "Eh," she finally said. "I'm making Denver Omelets, then." And footsteps walked away from the door.
Vivian lay in bed for a while. She'd showered when she'd gotten home, but she felt like she needed another one. Weird. Taking a quick shower, she got dressed and came downstairs to help Gail with breakfast. "Hi, Mom. Where's Mom?"
"Still asleep. I'll bring her breakfast."
Making a face, Vivian made herself a cup of coffee. "Just a date night or something special?"
"Her article will be on the cover of the September issue of Forensics Magazine." Gail said it nonchalantly, but she was practically vibrating with delight.
Even Vivian had to admit it was pretty damn cool. "Nice! Which article?"
"The one about extracting DNA from compromised bones found in the lagoon."
Vivian grinned. "That was fucking cool."
"Yeah it was." Gail grinned right back. "We went out to that fancy new Italian place downtown and, since you were out when we got back..." She trailed off and grinned more.
"You're welcome." Vivian snorted. "Also you left your door open."
Gail had the grace to wince. "Sorry. When did you get back?"
"Around three something."
"Yeah? So you had fun?"
"It was educational," said Vivian after a moment. "Professor Kilner - Mona - says hi."
Her mother smiled. "Educational? What's her name?"
Vivian sighed. "Skye, and I'm not like Aunt BT or Frankie."
It took Gail a moment to follow. "Well. You got her name, which puts you one up on Frankie. She banged some girl in the bathroom at the Penny." Gail made a face. "Please tell me you weren't in the bathroom."
"Ew." She laughed. "We went to her room."
"Good. Feel kinda dirty though, huh?"
That was it! "Thank you! Yeah!" Vivian sat at the kitchen island. "It felt skeevy. I mean, I know like nothing about her, except she's deaf and her name is Skye." The weird weight fell away.
Gail nodded knowingly. "Yeah, I hated that too. Nothing wrong with not liking one night stands, Monkey. Did you get her number?"
"No. I left her mine, though."
Gail nodded again. "Well. Now you know."
"Know what?" Holly was yawning as she came downstairs in a robe.
"I hate one night stands. Congratulations, Mom."
Holly smiled and kissed Vivian's forehead. "They tend to suck. And thank you. What's breakfast?"
"Denver omelet. I was going to bring it to you in bed, baby." Gail frowned.
Holly wrapped her arms around Gail's waist. "I hate crumbs in bed." She rested her chin on Gail's shoulder and said something quietly.
Watching her mothers, a little more calm and mellow than normal, was nice. She smiled. Maybe one day she could find something like that, mused Vivian. Back when she'd been a teenager, she worried about it a little more. Was she a failure because her moms got it and she was just flubbing relationships by not knowing who she was? And then... Then she realized something that should have been obvious.
Her moms were total fuckups at her age.
Holly had the girlfriend who cheated on her. Gail had Nick, who apparently left her at the altar in Las Vegas. And Vivian? Well she'd fallen for her best friend and screwed that up. She'd had a fling with an exchange student. And now a one night stand. Maybe she was ahead of the game.
Her watch buzzed, surprising her. Vivian tapped it and stared at the message. "Oh, it's Skye," said Gail, knowingly.
"Who's Skye?" Holly frowned and sipped her coffee.
"The hot deaf girl who shagged Viv last night."
"Seriously, Gail?" Holly wasn't actually mad, but she managed to sound like she might be.
"What? She's twenty, Holly. I was sleeping around at her age."
"I don't think talking about your daughter's sex life is appropriate."
"Hey, Lily's the one who asked if I was sexually satisfying you."
"You were a baby lesbian, Gail!"
Vivian ignored them both. They were just arguing for fun anyway.
It's Skye. We should do a meal thing.
Not the best pick up line in the world, but Vivian grinned. She tapped the 'okay' button. "She wants to go out," Vivian said to her moms.
"Suddenly feels a lot less icky, huh?" Gail was very amused.
"Yeah," Vivian said. "But I think I'm not going to do the whole sex first thing again. I don't like that."
Gail nodded, understandingly. "Solid plan."
"Lessons learned from tequila?" Holly was smirking over her coffee mug.
"God, Viv, never make sex decisions on tequila."
"That's your advice?" Holly broke out laughing. "Just sex decisions?"
Maybe most people didn't talk with their moms about their love lives, but it made Vivian feel better to have them in her corner.
There you go. Vivian has a deaf friend (a few actually), and Mona's doing just fine. A little surprised Gail's gay but then again, she hasn't seen her since Gail was nine.
As of today (Nov 17, 2015) this is the last chapter I have written for OHDH. If there are more, I'll post them. Prompts are welcome, but not a given.