Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend.
– Bill Watterson
Paige sat against the door in silence for a few moments while she processed the evening's events. Only, she realized, it wasn't silent; she could hear the rhythmic squeaking of her bedsprings. She looked up to see Pru on her bed, a mile-wide grin spread across her face, her leg bouncing up and down like a yo-yo on crack. Pru had waited that whole time, ready to rejoice with or console Paige when she returned.
Paige told her everything: From how nervous she was at the outset and how natural it was talking with Emily through the part where Emily offered her a ride and claimed her in the parking lot. Pru gave her a warm hug. "I'm so happy for you," she sighed into her shoulder. But, as they parted, she grabbed both of Paige's hands and said, "But don't make too much out of it, okay? It was just one kiss."
"I know it was," Paige said softly, dipping her head, slightly embarrassed at having been so naïvely optimistic. She was a little deflated, but she rolled the night's events over in her head again and knew that it was more than just a kiss to Emily.
Seeing the effect that her words had on Paige, Pru smoothed a hand through Paige's hair and backtracked a little. "I really am happy for you." she assured. "I just think that you should take things slowly; let them happen."
Earlier, when Pru had finished putting Paige's clothes away, she passed the time watching Netflix on Paige's laptop with the lights off. In her excitement to tell Pru how the evening went, Paige never bothered to turn them back on, and with only the glow of her laptop illuminating the room, Paige was beginning to feel herself suffocate under the unrelenting, dim gray of the walls.
"She wants to meet you," she croaked out in monotone, desperate to change the subject.
"She does?"
"She does," Paige smiled. "And she wants us to meet her friend, Hanna."
"Well, we will definitely have to make that happen!" Pru sounded upbeat again. The fact that Emily wanted to meet Paige's friends was a good thing.
Paige felt her phone buzz in the back pocket of her jeans and smiled brightly when she saw who it was who had texted.
Pru read the look on her friend's face and didn't even have to ask who it was. She squeezed Paige's shoulder and gestured toward the door as she let herself out. Pru really cared about her friend, and the fact that Emily had texted Paige so soon after seeing her, whatever the text said, made Pru feel better about everything. On her way out, she flipped the light switch, and the sudden brightness dazzled Paige's retinae, giving the illusion of flashes of color wherever her gaze fell against the gray walls that surrounded her.
Paige read Emily's text over and over, dissecting each word: "Hey, Paige! Just checking in to make sure that you made it to your room okay. :) I had a good time tonight. Hope you did, too. Good night, xo – Em"
Eventually, Paige collected her thoughts and replied, weighing every word and starting over several times before she hit "Send." "I had a great time, Em. Thank you for everything. Good night, xo – Paige"
It was an overcast Sunday morning, and Paige and Pru were standing out in front one of the university's art spaces, waiting for Emily. They had made plans to attend a showing of Hanna's student project and then grab brunch. Paige couldn't stop her leg from shaking. She was nervous for Pru to like Emily, of course, but, more than that, she was nervous about seeing Emily again. This was a woman, after all, whom Paige couldn't even summon up the courage to talk to less than a week ago; someone who couldn't possibly have known that Paige existed back then. Yes, they had both had a good time Friday night, and Emily had invited her and Pru to this showing, but who knew how things would go the second time? Pru's attempts to calm her friend weren't really working. It was Pru, after all, who had told Paige not to make too much of their first – Paige still couldn't convince herself to call it a date.
Emily rounded the corner with that "All's right with the world" smile, took Paige's hand, and brought her in for a quick kiss. It felt automatic, somehow – as though they'd been greeting each other that way all semester. Looking Paige up and down, Emily commented, "You look great!" under her breath, and Paige dipped her head. With the hand that wasn't holding Paige's, Emily pulled Pru in for a hug, saying, "You must be Pru! I'm so glad to meet you." Pru winked at Paige and gave her a thumbs up over Emily's shoulder. Paige felt her face flush.
As they entered the art space, Paige couldn't get over the fact that Emily was still holding her hand. Paige came from a very small town in Wisconsin, and, although she was out to her family, friends, and school, she wasn't used to this kind of public display, even among straight couples. Emily was so confident and sophisticated, in her charcoal gray slacks, black pumps, cashmere pullover, and pearls. A week ago, Paige would've been intimidated by her, but now, here in Emily's orbit, the confidence was contagious. Paige felt so proud that she was one whose hand Emily was holding.
Hanna was a very talented artist. Her project consisted of a series of self-portraits, ranging from representational to abstract, tender to macabre, sincere to bizarre. As the three wound their way through the space, Emily filled them in on the stories behind several of the portraits, squeezing Paige's hand occasionally as she recounted some horror or drama associated with a certain piece. "The joys of living with a tortured artist!" she mused.
At the far end of the space, beyond the last canvas, there were several tall tables which black-vested waiters were navigating with trays of wine or cheese. Hanna was standing in the entryway in a beaded black cocktail dress, a glass of white wine in her right hand, her left hand on the shoulder of an older woman, her face scrunched up in a smile. To Paige, the scene looked like an ad for a luxury car or something. When Hanna saw Emily, she gestured her over. Emily released Paige's hand and told the girls that she'd be right back.
When Emily left, Paige's self-confidence went with her. "Oh, what am I doing here, Pru?" she whined, leaning into her friend's arms. "I don't belong with this crowd!"
"You're here with Emily. She wants you here. That's all that matters."
Paige watched as Emily gave Hanna and the woman with whom Hanna was talking her trademark one-armed hug. Paige started tugging at her dress. All of a sudden, it didn't seem to fit. She didn't seem to fit. Paige was just about to manufacture a headache, to spare Emily the awkwardness of having to ditch her and Pru, when she saw Emily coming back towards them with a wine glass in each hand. She handed one to Paige and one to Pru, saying, "I hope white's okay?" Then, instead of holding Paige's hand, Emily put her arm around Paige's waist and said, "Come with me. I want to introduce you two to Hanna."
Hanna was visibly bursting with anticipation as the three girls approached. She snatched the wine glass out of Paige's hand so forcefully that about half of its contents spilled over as she set it down on a nearby table and grabbed Paige into a bear hug, shrieking, "Ohhh! I'm so glad to meet the girl who rocked my Emily's world!" Emily could only laugh. She wouldn't have expected anything less out of Hanna. Hanna pulled a very shocked Pru into the hug with one arm. "And you must be Pru. Aren't these two just the cutest couple?" Emily pulled Paige, then Pru, safely out of Hanna's grip, whispering to them, "She's not even drunk. She's just really excited to meet you." Reading the nervous smile on Paige's face, Emily stroked her shoulder and assured her, "Hanna just has to talk to a couple more people before she can duck out. It won't be long, I promise."
Emily led them to an isolated table in the corner where it was a little quieter and set about learning a bit about Pru. Paige found herself smiling with pride as she watched Emily talk to her best friend. Emily's eyes lit up as though were talking to the most interesting person in the world. Every once in a while, she glanced over at Paige, her smile saying, "Your friend's really great, isn't she?" Paige couldn't help putting her arm around Emily's waist and resting her head lightly on her shoulder. When she did, Emily deposited a quick kiss on top of her head without missing a beat of her conversation with Pru.
Paige, Emily, Hanna, and Pru were settling into their booth at Campus Grounds. Hanna insisted on paying, because she was celebrating her showing. Emily had warned Paige and Pru that Hanna, as bold and outgoing as she was, needed a lot of reinforcement when it came to her art. Once they were all seated, Hanna folded her arms in front of her and plopped her head down, sighing. She had already managed to divest herself of her heels. She looked up with a wide smile and said, in one breath, "God I'm so glad that's over I friggin hate those things so what did you guys think?" Pru told her how the portraits made her feel, calling out two in particular that really moved her. Hanna grabbed her hand. "God bless you." She turned to Emily and said, "You trained them well!"
Paige shot in, "No, seriously, though! You're an amazing artist! I mean, I'm always impressed by the work that you display about halfway through our Sociology seminar each week, but these portraits really took my breath away!"
Everyone in the booth laughed, and Hanna, satisfied, moved on to the next topic. "Okay. That's out of the way. So, tell me," scooting closer to Paige, her voice dripping with insinuation, "how did you and my Emily meet?" She tried her best to keep a straight face, but she couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"Yes, Hanna: Thank you for that. As… unorthodox as your methods were, I can't complain about the results." Emily reached over and squeezed Paige's hand under the table, letting her hand remain on Paige's thigh.
"Listen – about my methods. I apologize. I really didn't mean to embarrass you… well, I did, but not that much. But I couldn't just stand by and do nothing when it's so obvious that you and Em were made for each other!" Emily shot Hanna a look and squeezed Paige's hand tighter, worried that she was going to freak out at this statement. Pru crumpled up her napkin and threw it across the table at Hanna. "Yeah, so no pressure," she mocked.
Hanna laughed and tossed the crumpled napkin back. "Ooh – I like this one! I can tell that you and I are going to be great friends, kiddo!"
After brunch, the girls all piled into Emily's Toyota and she took them home. Hanna and Pru were in their own world in the backseat, immersed in animated conversation. In the front seats, Paige and Emily held hands in comfortable silence. Finally, Paige and Emily were alone in the car, outside Paige's dorm. Emily switched the engine off.
"Thanks for coming with me today, Paige."
"I had fun!"
"I could tell that it wasn't your thing, though. I hope that it wasn't too uncomfortable for you."
"No, I was fine." Paige looked down at her hands in her lap and added, softly, "I'm different when I'm with you."
Emily put her hand under Paige's chin and gently tilted her head up, her eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Hey," she began, finding Paige's eyes before she continued, "– I hope you don't feel that you have to be different for me and my friends."
"No, I didn't mean it like that. You make me feel different; – better. I'm more confident when you're around. I don't feel like some – stupid freshman."
"I never saw you as a stupid freshman, Paige."
"I know. But you didn't know me."
"Do you think that I never noticed you before? I was always impressed by the things you said in Soc. – like, 'how does that brain come up with those thoughts?'"
"I was trying to impress you," Paige confessed with a shy smile.
"Really?"
Paige nodded her head. "But, if you looked at me," she laughed, "I'd lose my whole train of thought." Paige dipped her head, shaking it in embarrassment. Emily leaned over and gave her a long, passionate kiss, communicating all of her pent-up emotion and a semester's worth of words that had gone unsaid. She tangled a hand in Paige's hair while Paige tugged her by her shoulders to pull her in closer.
The kiss was so intense that Paige found herself unable to speak for several moments afterwards. She was also unable to get the smile off of her face. Emily's hand was on her cheek, gently stroking at her jawline with her thumb. Paige's body warmed all over. She never wanted to leave that car. She grabbed Emily's hand from the side of her face, intertwined their fingers, and asked, "So, are we… Does this mean… Am I…" Emily's gaze became too much for Paige. She had to turn away and look out through the windshield. Emily drew her back in for a kiss before she answered, enthusiastically, "Oh, yeah. We totally are."
A/N - I hope that you have enjoyed these daily updates as much as I've enjoyed your reviews. Now that Thanksgiving break is over, it may be a while before I update again.
I really appreciate everyone who's read this story, and I so appreciate those of you who've taken the time to leave a review. Much love to you all! Thanks for reading.