"April come she will, when streams are ripe and swelled with rain"
"Okay, really? I'm pretty sure a stranger would be more helpful than you," Holly rolled her eyes and leaned her back against one of the bookcases.
"I'm being helpful!" Gail collapsed into the one of the nearby armchairs. She sank farther into it than she had anticipated and ended up staring at the ceiling. The local bookstore was bustling on the rainy spring Sunday, which wasn't helping. God, Gail really hated people. Especially people who walked too slowly, people who stopped in their tracks without warning, not to mention people who walked along without looking up from their phones. Surely those should be arrestable offenses. Holly raised an eyebrow and locked eyes with Gail. "Fine. I'm not being helpful. But, for the record, my suggestion was to give him fifty bucks. I still don't get why we can't do that."
"Because he's turning eleven, not nineteen," Holly rolled her eyes and laughed.
"I'd write a check. I'm not a heathen."
"Okay, but seriously, writing a check is for uncles," Holly said, looking around hoping to find some inspiration.
"Eleven year olds hate reading, why are we even in a bookstore anyways?" Gail was bored. Like seriously bored. She had little patience for shopping, mostly because of the other people that came with the territory. Shoppers were so aggravating. At least they weren't in a mall.
"Because, as I said, you were being no help so this was my default starting point. Plus Leo likes reading."
"Ugh, why'd we have to ruin this perfectly good Sunday shopping? His party isn't for two more weeks. What's the hurry anyways?"
Holly pulled out her phone and started to tap away at the screen, "because, you're working next weekend, so this is basically the only time we could both go when the stores would be open. Plus you said that, and I quote; 'today is already garbage because we're having dinner with my parents tonight so we might as well,' oh, and you said 'the weather accurately projects what should be the mood of the day,'" Holly peered out the window at the rain for a second before looking back down at her phone.
"Humph. So I did," Gail leaned back into the chair and gazed up at the ceiling again.
"Do you know if Leo's read Harry Potter yet?"
"How should I know?" Gail began tapping a finger on the armrest, "isn't that book for kids anyways?" Gail looked up at Holly, doubtful.
"Gail, Leo is a kid. Plus adults love those books too," Holly walked over to the chair Gail was sitting in. Gail lifted her arm as Holly sat down. She placed her hand on Holly's upper back while continuing to rest her elbow on the armrest. "Ugh, I need to sit for a minute."
"Yeah, nerdy adults love those books," Gail turned her head to the left to look at Holly and narrowed her eyes, "are you a Harry Potter fan? Are you a Potterhead?"
Holly smiled and looked down at Gail; "yeah, and you know what else?"
"No, what?" Gail continued to peek through her narrowed eyelids.
"I'm proud of it," Holly laughed as her phone buzzed in her hand, "ohh, will you look at this?" Holly gloated.
"What?" Gail huffed. She was having zero fun today.
"According to Steve Leo does love reading, he doesn't think he's read Harry Potter yet but that he would probably love it," Holly smiled down at Gail.
"Can you stop gloating so we can leave?" Gail rose from the chair and looked around, "where's the nerd section?"
"Hey," Holly looked over at Gail as she closed the door and buckled her seatbelt, "are you okay?" Holly placed her hand gently on Gail's forearm.
"Huh?" Gail looked over at Holly, confused. Holly was looking at her with her deep, caring eyes, and a slight questioning lift of her eyebrows.
"I mean, you're mom was kinda," she searched for the right word, "harsh in there," Holly's words trailed off at the end of her sentence.
Gail scrunched her face, "are you nuts? That was beyond tame. She's probably trying to lure me into a false sense of security or something. Now let's get out of here before it embarrasses her and she come out here, guns blazing," Gail gave Holly's thigh a couple light pats. They drove in silence out the driveway, down the street, onto the main road. Gail looked over at Holly and said in a droopy voice; "I've got a case of the Sundays," Gail didn't look away.
Holly smiled, "what?"
"Wait, keep going straight," Gail instructed as Holly turned on her left turn signal.
"Bossy," but Holly did as she was told.
"Turn right here."
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see," Gail said right before they entered a large turn in the road, and the shore came into view. "Turn in up there," Gail instructed, pointing to a parking lot up to the left.
"Yes, ma'am," Holly chuckled. Gail was out of the car before it was in park. She stopped at the edge of the parking lot to take off her shoes before bounding down the sand. Holly took her time getting out of the car, then removed her shoes and threw them inside before walking to the edge of the parking lot. She watched Gail for a moment who was down at the edge of the water. Gail had rolled up her pants and was gingerly putting one toe in the water before pulling it back instantly. It was still early April and saying that the lake was still cold would be an understatement. No matter, Gail continued to poke one tip of one toe into the water before immediately removing it, almost as if she was surprised by the cold. Holly slid her keys into her coat pocket before taking it off, rolling it up, and throwing it onto the concrete wall. She leaned down, rolling up her own pants before taking off towards the water.
Gail looked down at the water; a deep black in the night. She tried once again to get her whole foot in the water. Touching the water was like being shot with needles. Gail pulled away once again. When they were younger sometimes she and Steve would come down to the beach after dinner. Usually it was in the summer when they didn't have any homework to do, it was hot out, and the sun stayed up long after dinner time. However, when they came down and the water was cold they'd play chicken. One evening some spring Steve had proclaimed that there was no way Gail could stand it longer than he could. She challenged for a rematch for years. They took off their shoes and would each put one foot in the water to see who could last the longest. They never actually timed it. If you asked her back then how long they kept them in the water for Gail probably would have guessed about fifteen or twenty minutes. Right now though, Gail was sure that was a delusion. They probably lasted at most seventy seconds. Gail started to wonder how much longer Steve actually would have been able to stand it. Once she shot her foot out of the water he would always keep a straight face as he removed his foot. He had won after all; no need to continue suffering. But how much longer could he have lasted? Gail stared at the water, gearing up for another attempt and just like that she felt her body jerk. She shrieked. She was spinning around. Her hips were resting on Holly's shoulder, Holly's arm holding tight around the underside of her thighs.
"OH MY GOD. PUT ME DOWN. PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN!" Gail shrieked. She lifted her head, looking to the beach. But the beach was getting smaller and smaller. Now she seemed to be moving more upright and closer to the ground. No. Not the ground. Gail was moving closer to the icy icy water.
"Are you sure?" Holly asked with a laugh.
"No no no no no!"
And then she was whipped around. Lifting her head she saw the wide expanse of water. Thankfully, she seemed to be moving away from the horizon. Gail could feel her body coming closer to upright, and then she could feel her feet meeting the cold sand. Holly was beaming down at her with one of her huge lopsided grins. She was even giggling a little bit. Gail looked up at her speechless, mouth agape.
"You looked like you could use a little encouragement," Holly smiled.
Gail closed her mouth, squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and narrowed her eyes, "and you. You were gonna get lucky tonight. Key word being were," and with that Gail turned on her heels and headed down the beach, farther still from the parking lot. Holly just smiled one of her half smiles and followed along a few paces behind, looking around. It was pretty nice at the beach at night. No one was around, it was nice and quiet, and you could look up at the sky and see the stars. It was a little chilly though and Holly had left her coat by the car. She wrapped her arms around her front to get a little warmer.
Gail stopped and turned, "that's kinda creepy you know," she said, cocking her head to the side.
"Huh?" Holly looked around.
"Following me like that, it's kinda stalkery," which in 'Gail' roughly translated to; 'come walk with me,' and by now Holly was pretty good at understanding 'Gail'. Holly smiled, walking forward a few paces to close the space between them and then waited a second for Gail to continue walking. Her hand found Holly's before Gail took another step.
"My favorite is having Tuesday off and working on Monday. Everyone's walking around like the living dead but it's casual Friday to me."
"Huh," Holly laughed, "I bet that would be kinda trippy."
"It is a little trippy I guess. I also really like having Sunday and Monday off. Sundays should be enjoyed and savored but Mondays usually put such a damper on all the glory that Sundays have to offer. But, when Monday is just a second Sunday, Sunday is ten times better."
"Kinda like having a three day weekend from school," Holly smiled.
"Exactly. Sunday was always the best day because it was like you got to experience Sunday like you never had before. Sunday's possibilities were endless." Gail stopped and turned to look Holly in the eyes; "we should probably turn back. Can you even feel your toes anymore? You got them all wet."
Holly shrugged casually, "meh, not so much." Gail just stood still and maintained their eye contact. "What?" Holly asked through a laugh. Gail cocked her head to the side, closed her eyes and shrugged. She slowly took a step forward, looked up at Holly, and cupped her cheeks. Gail got up on her tiptoes, and waited for Holly to reach forward half an inch to meet her. The kiss was soft and slow. It was lazy. It was loving. Holly's hands wrapped around Gail's waist causing Gail to release a soft moan. Gail's right hand fell to Holly's hip as her left hand lazy dragged down Holly's front before latching itself onto Holly's belt buckle. Gail traced the square metal slowly with her thumb twice before sliding her four fingers between Holly's skin and jeans. Gail gave Holly's pants two tugs and intensified the kiss. Holly broke free and husked, "I thought I wasn't getting lucky tonight?"
Gail smiled, winked, and barely finished saying, "race you to the car," before she was bounding through the sand towards the parking lot.
"April come she will, when streams are ripe and swelled with rain"
- Simon and Garfunkel "April Come She Will"
A/N: Thanks for reading/reviewing/being adorable guys!
Just to clarify it anyone's confused; chapters 1-14 took place over a 3(ish) week span. I was kind of fuzzy on the cannon season 4 timeline so I'm just pretending that 4x13 was sometime in January and my fic picks up mid February.
The next few chapters are going to be somewhat filler. The first half was kind of setting the stage for what's to come and I wanted a few months to go by but I thought it would be kind of lame just to be like "Six months later..."
So, I hope the next few chapters are enjoyable for you guys because there won't be much plot advancement. That being said, if there's anything you guys want to see that's kind of random and one-shot-like let me know and I can probably work them into the next couple chapters!
Also, this chapter took me forever and I'm sorry. I still love you all.