Viola adjusted Olivia's bag on her shoulder and started up the stairs. She could feel Mrs. Lennox's glare aimed at the back of her neck. This was the same thing that always happened with her girlfriend's mom.
Vi turned in to the first bedroom on the left, one she was well acquainted with. Olivia's bedroom had obviously been decorated by her parents when she was small. The pinks that colored the room made it very bright and all of the cream colored furniture made the room perfect for a debutante. Viola's mother had done the same to her daughter's room, but she'd repainted the room Carolina Blue with the paint she bought herself. Mrs. Hastings went ballistic when she realized it.
Vi set the bag on the floor next to the bed and sat herself on the edge of the bed. She took some sick joy from wrinkling a little bit of the quilt that Mrs. Lennox had probably just straightened. She looked around the room she was already familiar with; Viola wasn't ready to Mrs. Lennox's snide remarks and icy stares.
Viola knew that several halves of a poster-boards sat in the closet. Paul had watched Love Actually with Viola after the drunk mistletoe kiss she'd shared with Olivia over Christmas. Vi thought she'd screwed up with Olivia and the movie was Paul's favorite. He'd said for 'true love' that she should copy the way that Mark had professed his love for Juliet.
Vi shuffled her feet nervously outside Olivia's dorm room. She checked the order of her cards and knocked on the door before she lost all of her nerves. When Olivia opened the door Vi could only watch Olivia's face change from confusion to a wide, if embarrassed, smile.
"Hi, I want you to hear me out."
"I'm sorry if I've made it awkward."
The next poster-board had a picture of the kiss that neither girl had noticed Paul taking.
"I can't say I'm sorry it happened."
"'Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' Right?"
"Hope we're still friends and that I'm not being Malcolm weird."
"Let's talk about it sometime."
"Besides I hear that Anthropology has cute shoes by the accessories."
And when Vi had been about to walk away when Olivia followed her in to the hall. The two had shared a better, and sober, kiss. It could have been a scene right from the movie, but they'd actually had a happy ending, or at least a happy on going dating period (but nobody says stuff like that since it sounds awkward).
Smiling at the memory Vi looked at the pictures that were clustered around the mirror at the vanity like bees around a hive. Vi and Paul were prominent features in the newer pictures. Illyria pendants hung on the wall, as did pop star posters of singers that Viola had no idea how her girlfriend could tolerate.
"Hello," a small voice said, coming from behind Vi. She whipped around to see a small boy sitting at Olivia's desk. How had she missed him? The little blonde boy and Vi just stared at each other for a while before the boy broke the silence. "Aren't you going to say 'hello'? It's the polite thing to do you know."
"Um hey little buddy," Vi said, and immediately began to wonder if she was always this stupid. "I'm Viola. I'm a friend of…your…well I'm Olivia's friend." She wasn't sure how this little boy was related to Liv, or if she was allowed to explain to him that she was dating Olivia. Kids and Vi didn't mix well.
"So you are Viola," the little boy said, and coupled with another lengthy silence unsettled Viola. "But I am not your 'little buddy.' I am Todd, and I am eight. And you are sitting on my cousin's bed."
"Umm yeah. I was going to wait for her, but I just remembered I have to go," Vi told the boy, hurriedly standing up and walking towards the door. "It was nice meeting you Todd."
As Vi walked in to the hall the little voice that followed her said "It was interesting meeting you Viola." Vi shot a look back to the bedroom but the odd little boy wasn't following. Looking out in to the foyer Vi could see that the Lennox family had dispersed.
Vi went down the stairs and decided to look for her girlfriend. Neither Olivia nor her mother were in the front room or the hallway. But Vi could hear noise from the kitchen and decided to skip that location or earn a scowl from Mrs. Lennox. She could hear voices from a room at the end of the hallway and followed them.
Leaning against the doorjamb Vi smiled at the father daughter interaction. Vi cleared her throat to announce her presence. Mr. Lennox looked up and gave Olivia a gentle push towards the door. "Thank you for bringing Olivia home Viola."
"No problem Mr. Lennox. It was nice seeing you again sir but I have to leave," Vi said with a meaning full look in Olivia's direction.
"Go see Viola to the door Olivia. I'll be here when you come in. And Viola it was good to see you again as well," Mr. Lennox said sitting back down in his chair.
The two girls walked out of the den before Vi shot Olivia a look. Then the brunette mouthed 'Cherry toes?' to the blonde, only to receive a smack on the arm.
The girlfriends went out the front door to have their good bye kiss away from Mrs. Lennox's disapproving glare. What had been intended to be a chaste kiss stopped only when a certain brunette's fingers began to fiddle with the buttons at the top of her blonde counterpart's shirt. "Vi," the out of breath blonde admonished, reluctantly pulling away.
"I know, I know. 'We are outside my parents' house.' But I can't help it, I'm going to miss you," Vi replied, not looking contrite in the slightest.
"I was going to say 'don't tease' but that works better," Olivia replied with a grin. A quick peck and she shoed the brunette back to her car.
"I'll call you later," Vi said as she started her car. Vi waved until the driveway took Olivia out of her line of sight.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Bastian! Bastian wake up!" Viola yelled at the locked door of her brother's bedroom. It wasn't even seven thirty in the morning and Viola had been woken up by her brother in the midst of one of his night terrors.
"If you don't wake up I'm going to get a Q-Tip and unlock the door!" Viola threatened. The twins had learned early on how easily the doors came unlocked with only the tiniest of attention with a Q-Tip. Vi turned away from her brother's door to go get the Q-Tip when Sebastian's moaning stopped.
"Finally, now I can go back to sleep." Just as Viola passed her brother's door on the way back to her own room the door opened. But it was not Sebastian in the doorway. It was his British girlfriend Emily, who was wearing one of Sebastian's overly long band t-shirts.
"Morning Vi," Sebastian said from behind his girlfriend. Her brother didn't seem even remotely embarrassed at all that she had caught the two of them having sex.
Vi shut her eyes but images of Sebastian and Emily flooded her brain. "I am blind. I am deaf. And I am going downstairs because there is no way in Hell that I can go back to sleep after that," Vi said turning back towards the stairs.
"See ya later Vi, and don't trip down the stairs since you are blind and deaf and all that," Sebastian replied and Viola knew he was barely containing his laughter. As she walked towards the stairs Vi shot a one finger salute back towards her brother. And then his laughter followed her down the stairs.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Hey Yvonne I'll be right back, I need to go to the bathroom," Viola said hastily getting up and heading towards the front door instead of the bathroom. Not that her depressed friend noticed, Yvonne was too busy playing with her drink. Vi slipped a waiter a twenty so that he would be ready for his part of the plan.
Once the waiter was blocking one edge of the booth Kia would slide in the other side, effectively trapping Yvonne. Kia walked in the front door and Vi gave a quick head jerk to indicate where Yvonne was sitting. With the waiter in place Vi said, "Go Kia."
Vi watched Kia walk over to the table with a diabolical grin. She was the diabolical brains of the group of friends or this would never work. She waited long enough for Yvonne to look like she wanted to bolt before returning to the table right as the waiter walked away, perfectly according to plan.
"Vi!" Yvonne shrieked, looking for a way out of the booth. "You said you wouldn't tell!"
"And I didn't. Kia told me. I can't help it that you both come running to me when you have problems. Now you two are my best friends and best friends with each other. Stop behaving like Kindergarteners and fix this," Viola ordered her two best friends. She crossed her arms and wasn't going to move until this was squared away.
The three of them sat for a while in silence. Viola ate her way through half of the basket of breadsticks, while Yvonne and Kia continued to look in opposite directions. "I am not going anywhere until this is resolved," Viola informed the other two as she finished off another breadstick.
And still the silence continued. "Alright this isn't funny anymore. I am tired of you two acting like this and this secretive business is taking a toll on my relationship. So either fix this or I am going home and you two can do whatever you damn well please," Vi threatened because she had reached the end of her patience. "Kia tell Yvonne what you told me on Monday."
Kia mumbled something incoherent. Viola frowned at her and tapped on the table meaningfully. "I said that I've had a girl crush on you for two years. Happy?" this was shot in Viola's direction.
"Ecstatic. Now that we've cleared the air I'll leave you two to talk this over in private. And I am going to be telling my girlfriend why I've been running all over God's green earth. So have a pizza on me and fix this," Vi said putting money down on the table. "If you don't I'll have to do something drastic."
Vi walked out of Cesario's feeling accomplished but glad that this would be over. Getting in to her car Viola ran her fingers through her hair. "All this drama gives me a headache." The Vi wondered if that is why she didn't have any friends at Illyria who were girls. The guys never had problems like this, maybe that is why she liked hanging out with Duke and Toby. Well besides soccer, which definitely played a role in it.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am so so so so so sorry about the long wait! Don't kill me please. In reparation I made this the longest chapter yet. I am in over my head because it is the end of the year and each professor thinks that his/her class in the only on that I am taking and there for should take up all of my time. I have less than twenty days of school so hopefully I will be writing more before the month is out. I have also decided (for the time being) to drop my coming attractions announcer thing. I have very little creativity to spare as of now. So I hope you liked it and I hope you all haven't left since I haven't updated in forever.