The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl's clothes off.
– Raymond Chandler

"Oh! I never turned my phone back on," Paige suddenly realized. "It was kind of nice, living without it this weekend."

"You don't have to turn it on, yet, you know. We can have a few more blissful hours off the grid for the drive home."

"I just want to take a quick look, just in case there was an emergency," Paige said as her phone came to life. "Um – 80 texts from Pru. And they're all in caps: 'WELL?' 'TELL ME!' 'DEEEEEETS!' 'DYING HERE!' Plus, 60 texts from unknown in 267. I'm guessing that's – "

"Hanna!" They said in unison.

Paige switched off her phone.

Emily nudged her sleeping girlfriend. "Hey."

"Hey," Paige replied sleepily. "Where are we?"

"About an hour and a half from campus."

"Oh. I fell asleep," Paige said through a yawn, stretching her arms and legs as best she could in the confined space of the Toyota's front seat.

"I know. I'm bored. Distract me."

Paige inched closer to the driver's seat with a devilish smile on her face.

"No, not like that," Emily laughed. "I don't want to swerve off the side of the road."

"Do you want me to drive for a while?"

"No – that's all right. Just keep me awake."

"Well, we could play 'Ask me anything.'"

"I'm guessing that's exactly what it sounds like?"

"Pretty much…"

"Okay. You first. Ask me anything."

"Hmm… Okay: What was your first time like?"

Emily laughed. "We're jumping right in, aren't we? Well. My first time was pretty forgettable. Maya and I were young, and we had no idea what we were doing. We just did it to prove a point, you know? – That it was okay for girls to do things with girls. It was nothing like our first time. With you and me, it was just the natural progression of our love. The first time with Maya was all about rebellion and making a statement. Any more questions?"

"Well, yeah – a ton, but that's not how the game works. You have to ask me a question. And don't waste your question asking about my first time, because you were there." Paige laughed. "And it was perfect, by the way."

Emily reached out and squeezed Paige's knee. "Aww – I think it was, too! So, first crush?"

Paige sighed. "Okay. This is really cliché, but my first crush was my best friend."

"Pru?"

"You're not allowed to ask two questions, but, yes, Pru. Pru and I were so close for as long as I could remember. We laughed together, cried together, had epic fights with each other, hugged, lay in bed talking all night till we fell asleep... Anyway, so, I started to realize that I was a girl who liked girls, and I realized that it wasn't just girls in general, but Pru in particular.

"So, one day, I sat her down, and I just told her. 'Listen. I'm pretty sure I'm a lesbian.' She did a double-take, but then she gave me a big hug and said that she'd love me no matter what. And then, I told her that I had a crush on her."

Emily cringed, sucking air through her teeth. "So, you just came right out with it. Awkward…"

"Yeah, it was. But not for the reasons you would think. Pru was absolutely great about it. She hugged me again, and she said, 'I really wish I loved girls too, 'cause we would make an awesome couple, but – yeah.' And she just kept on acting the way she always acted around me – like, not worried about hugs, or walking arm in arm, or sleepovers. I was the one who was awkward, and not because of unrequited love. I just felt that I had exposed myself to her, you know? And that, as cool as she was being, she could never see me the same again."

"But, obviously, you guys worked it out."

"Nice, how you managed to ask two more questions without actually asking them," Paige smiled. "But, yeah. I got over myself. I realized that she just saw me – not the lesbian, not the girl who had a crush with her. I could be who I was with her, and it wouldn't change anything."

"Aw – that's sweet."

"That's how I feel with you," Paige said softly, dipping her head. Emily grabbed her knee again. "Don't make me pull this car over, McCullers!"

Once again, Emily had to nudge her girlfriend awake, this time as she was shutting off the engine. "Hey. We're here." Emily helped Paige carry her luggage up to the room. As they turned the corner, they saw Hanna and Pru sitting cross-legged on either side of Emily's doorway, staring into their phones as they talked to each other. Hanna saw them approach and let out a squeal. Soon, Emily and Paige found themselves being crushed by their best friends in a group hug.

"Hanna, what the hell? How long have you guys been sitting out here?"

"Uh – all night! You guys were ignoring our texts, so we didn't know when you would be getting here."

"And you couldn't just wait to see us tomorrow?"

"No!" Pru shouted before Emily even finished her question. She grabbed Emily's jaw and shook it back and forth. "My little Paige left a girl and came back a woman, and we have to know all about it!"

"Oh, God!" Paige was unable to deal. "Oh, Hell no! We are not doing this here – or anywhere. Or ever!"

"Oh, come on, Paige! You have to give us something! We were rooting for you!"

"Yeah," Hanna agreed, "For both of you! Team Paily all the way!" Turning to Emily, she added, "Plus, you kind of owe me – I mean, I did get you that. room…"

Paige looked at her girlfriend, her eyes begging for help. Emily just smiled. "You know they're not going to let this go until we give them something."

"Ugh. Fine – But not here in the hallway. Get inside!"

No sooner had the door closed than Hanna and Pru started firing off a stream of questions like a machine gun.

"Any road sex in the car on the way up?"
"Did you throw her on the table and jump her bones?"
"Who topped?"
"Is she a freak?"
"Is she a screamer?"

Hanna changed the pace, inching up to the pair slowly and suggestively. "Were there any… toys involved?"

"Oh God, Hanna – Have you guys been fantasizing about the two of us all weekend?" Emily asked.

Hanna and Pru looked at each other for a moment, then back to their best friends, nodding and replying with an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

"Okay!" an exasperated Paige shouted. "I'm only going to say this once. It was beautiful, perfect – not just the sex, but the whole weekend. We talked, we hung out, we rested, and we gave ourselves to each other. And it was a precious gift, and I don't want to cheapen by having you two drool over it like horny teenage boys. It was two people who love and trust each other coming together and becoming one with each other. It was all that I hoped for, and more."

This was too much for Emily. She drew Paige into an intimate hug, kissing her with all she had. Hanna and Pru squealed with delight, high fiving each other. It took a while for them to realize that the girls weren't planning to separate anytime soon.

"We'd better get out of here before they start Round 2," Pru whispered.

"More like round 4 or 5," Hanna speculated.

Before the door closed behind them, Paige disengaged from Emily's lips and corrected her. "7."

Paige began spending less and less time in the dorms, as more of her belongings migrated to Hanna and Emily's apartment. Paige had gotten used to waking up to Hanna's mural every morning, and she really missed it. It wasn't just the beautiful way that it symbolized her relationship with Emily; it was the memory of the weekend when old friends and new came together to brighten her corner of the world. Of course, Paige knew that she would have to leave it behind at the end of the school year, and, of course, she had pictures of it (It was the banner on all of her social media accounts and the background on her phone and her laptop.), but those facts didn't make her miss it any less. It was silly: Waking up with Emily was so much better than waking up with the mural, but that's the thing about feelings. They can't just be reasoned away. One night, after Emily had fallen asleep, Paige tiptoed out of bed and opened up her laptop on the desk across from the bed so that she could fall asleep and wake up to the image of the mural. When she crept back into Emily's big spoon, Emily asked, "Are you all right?" "Mm hmm," she murmured with a low sigh. She hoped that Emily wouldn't figure out what she had done and how silly she was being. She grabbed Emily's arm and wrapped it around her as she continued to stare into the laptop.

For the most part, moving in with Emily was like a dream. Naturally, there was some of that tension which comes as two individuals figure out how to live with each other. The fact that Paige and Emily had both grown up as only children didn't help matters. When things got tense, Hanna often served as a buffer. She was fiercely protective of and deeply loyal to both of them, and she was highly invested in their relationship.

Sometimes, their living arrangement. was just plain weird. Paige once told Emily that it felt as though they were the parents of an adolescent daughter.

Paige never forgot Pru's joking comment that they only got together when it was the four of them, and after she moved in with Paige, she made it a point to see Pru one-on-one at least once a week. She wasn't doing it just for Pru; she didn't want to sacrifice that part of her life as she moved on to a new life.

Paige could tell by the way that Hanna was behaving that something was up. Hanna had been bouncing around in anticipation from the moment Paige walked through the door. Paige looked questioningly over at Emily on the couch, but Emily just shrugged and blew her a kiss. "So what am I missing?" Paige asked.

"Oh, nothing!" Hanna was beaming. It had to be something big. "Why don't you go lie down for a bit? You look tired." Emily just shook her head and smiled into the book she was reading.

Okay - whatever it is, it's in the bedroom.

Paige opened the door and gasped in shock. She ran back and grabbed Hanna in a bear hug. "How?"

"I know some people," Hanna said casually.

Hanna was friends with the technician who oversaw the art department's large-format printer. She took a high-resolution picture of the mural from Paige's dorm room and had it enlarged and silk-screened onto a giant canvas. "That way, you can take it with you after the school year."

"Thank you! That's the sweetest thing anyone could have done for me!"

Hanna shrugged it off. "Thank your girlfriend. She's the sweet one. It was her idea. I only went along because I needed some good pictures of my work for my portfolio."

Emily had gotten up from the couch and joined them. "I know how much you missed it."

"I knew that this had to be your idea," Paige said before kissing her. "You are the sweetest girlfriend ever! I can't believe you would give up your wall just so that I could have my mural back."

"Paige, that mural isn't just you. It's both of us. It's special to me, too." Paige just kept peppering her with kisses. "Although, apparently, not as special as it is to you!"

"What did I tell you, Em?" Hanna interjected. "You are so getting laid tonight!"

"Yeah," Paige confirmed, dragging her beaming girlfriend behind her, "She so is!"