The Deville You Know Ch26
"You had to tell that one?" Sonya asked as they got out of her mom's car.
"Babe, chill, it's funny." Paige said with a grin.
"I must remember to ask your family for stories. I bet Zak and Roy have some good ones." Sonya threatened.
"I think I'll get out of here while I can." Debbie leaned out the window, getting a thank you kiss on the cheek from her daughter before driving off. Sonya turned back to find Paige right in her face.
"You know my worst moments. Everyone does. And you still love me. There's nothing my brothers can tell you about my childhood that will embarrass me, or worry you'll look at me different."
"What about your mom?" Sonya replied without blinking.
"Errr…I mean… nothing worse?" Paige offered in hope.
Sonya was the one grinning now. "Fine. But no jokes on what you just heard, right?"
"Deal." Paige sealed it with a kiss. "Now let's go." They were on the Boardwalk in a few mins and Paige found it almost overwhelming. "It's crazy, like a fun fair back home, but ramped up like, a thousand times." She was staring at all the flashing lights, hearing the bells, whistles and everything like she was a child again, and Sonya loved to see it on her face.
"What do you want to do first?" She asked.
Paige's gaze flittered around from everything she could see, from food trucks to fairground rides, stores to games.
"I don't know…" she almost felt overwhelmed. "Maybe grab something to eat and look around?"
"Not sure we should eat if you want to hit the big rides?" Sonya suggested, to a less than favourable look.
"Nah, I don't think I'm feeling that. Let's just have fun with our feet on the ground. Unless you wanted to?"
"Nope, I just thought I might have to for you. Not going to argue about not going on a roller coaster. Let's eat."
They went up to the truck and read the menu. "Wow, this is like a list of the worst foods for you." Paige said, possibly a bit too loud.
"So do you not want anything?" The man in the truck asked gruffly.
"Are you kidding? I want all of it."
This had a better impact on him, suddenly a smile on his face. "That's more like it, but a pretty little thing like you, if you ate all of it you might explode!"
"While she tries to choose, I'll take a corn dog and onion rings, with a diet Sprite." Sonya asked."
"Ooh, yeah, I'll have onion rings too, and some chicken tenders, and a diet coke. Ooh, and a bag of cotton candy!"
Sonya smirked, handing over the money, trying not to think about how much it cost. They took the food and drinks and took it to a bench overlooking the ocean, not that they could see much in the dark.
"Should have got here earlier. Bet the sunsets beautiful." Paige remarked.
"True, but you don't get the effect of all the lights. This place is far better at night. I'll bring you here in the day some time, but it's not really the same."
"I'd still enjoy it. Is there a gym we can use round here?" Paige wondered. "This is so good, but I feel like I need to run 10 miles to get rid of it. Worth it though." She said, biting into another tender.
"Not a now problem honey. We can go for a run tomorrow if you want, but no rules tonight. Now, bring the cotton candy with us, and let's find something to do." Sonya said, standing. She offered a hand and Paige took it. They went along the Boardwalk, looking in a couple of stores, before rounding the corner and Paige let out a little yelp.
"What was that?" Sonya couldn't help laughing.
"Sorry, but this I haven't seen anything like this before, apart from the movies." They we're looking at a large selection of classic fairground games.
"Really, surely they have this in the UK?" Sonya was confused.
"Well, probably, but I never went as a kid, and I started wrestling at 13 so there wasn't much time." Sonya saw the excitement on her girl's face and knew what they'd be doing for the evening.
Paige was over to the change machine and came away from it with as many quarters as she could carry. She headed for a Skeeball machine, put the coins in and took her first shot, the ball going in the central '30' hole.
"Bulls Eye!" She yelled, laughing, taking her next shot but only scoring 10, which she did for the rest of the following shots. Undiscouraged, Paige went to put in another quarter, but was surprised when the machine produced a line of tickets.
"Keep them." Sonya told her. "If we come back often enough, we might eventually get enough for a lipstick or something, in maybe four of five years. We could share it."
Paige pocketed the tickets. "Or keep it as a trophy. What's next?"
"You play much basketball?" Sonya asked.
Paige shook her head. "We did netball at school, which was kind of simular, we had no board behind the hoop, and no dribbling the ball."
"Good enough, I'll take you on here, bet I kick your ass."
Paige was never going to back down from that, and Sonya knew it. They took places at two basketball machines and held their hands over the start button.
"3…2….1….Go!" Sonya shouted to start them off. Paige grabbed the ball, and shot it, missing even the rim. She quickly found this was not her game and although she did make some shots in the minute they had to play, Sonya made several more and was the clear winner.
"Domination!" Sonya laughed, not really meaning it. "What's my prize?"
Paige stepped close to her, held her arms, gave a quick kiss and whispered into her ear. She could feel Sonya's whole body quiver, so she knew her idea for a prize had gone down well.
"Geez, honey. That's hot, but not at my moms place ok? When we get back."
"Fine." Paige agreed, and went in for a real kiss, which was reciprocated with eagerness, at least for a few seconds. The shout of "Ew, gross!" Was more than enough to kill the mood. Sonya and Paige broke apart to find themselves confronted by three teenagers, probably around 16 years old.
"You shouldn't be here. Should be against the law." One of them said, aggressively. Paige didn't take well to the threat and stepped up to them.
"What are you gonna do, dyke?" Another said, making all three of them laugh in her face.
Sonya was trying hard to keep the red mist at bay, wanting nothing more than to give the little punk the slap he deserved, but she was more concerned in how Paige was going to react, the fact she had stepped up had caught Sonya off guard.
"Leave it honey, walk away. We don't need this." Sonya offered, but it wasn't even acknowledged by Paige continuing to give a death stare, before eventually allowing herself a smirk.
"Nah babe, it's ok. We can't hold it against him. He's just jealous."
"What?" The loudmouth kid grunted.
"I can't blame you for being jealous kid." Paige didn't elaborate on this, instead grabbing Sonya's face in both hands and kissing her intently, Sonya unable to resist responding in kind to Paige's tongue forcing itself into her mouth. They kissed for several seconds before parting, the three teenagers rendered speechless.
"Like I said, he can't help but be jealous. I've kissed more girls than he has, or ever will with that attitude." The formerly loudmouth teen's jaw dropped.
"Yeah, well, um….you're gay!" Was all the response she got. The teenager quickly turned and walked away, his friends following on in silence.
"Bye virgins!" Paige called after them.
"Sonya put her arms back around her girl. "I was almost embarrassed for them. Thought they could have done a bit worse than 'You're gay.'"
"I know, must have had a sheltered childhood. They need an education." Paige said, making Sonya laugh.
"Just hope they get it. It was amazing to see you stand up to them."
"Of course. I told you I'm not letting anyone ever put you down again, or us. I love you."
Sonya smiled and gave Paige a quick kiss. "I love you too, but what if they recognised you? You'd have outed yourself."
"They didn't, or we have had phones in our faces taking pictures. But I get what you mean. Let's get out of here."
"Soon. There's one last thing I want us to do, let's get a drink or something, ok?" Paige silently agreed, and let Sonya take her outside by the hand. She led her to a bench overlooking the ocean, but it was nearly dark, so there wasn't much to see. Paige went to get drinks and came back with a couple of diet sodas.
"Thought you'd have gotten us beers? Sonya asked.
"I'm having enough fun without it. I don't need alcohol they way I thought I used to." Paige said as she sat down. Sonya loved hearing it, but thought better of making a big deal of it. Paige sat down and they looked out over the ocean in silence for a little while, before a small fireworks display began over the water, launched from the far end of the boardwalk, off a short pier. Sonya watched on, enjoying the end to what had been a great day, when she felt her girlfriend reach over and hold her hand in the darkness. She knew it couldn't be seen so had no problem holding it back and bringing both hands into her lap. What caught her off guard was when Paige closed the small gap between them and put her head on Sonya's shoulder. Sonya forgot sometimes that Paige was only a year or so older than her, with all she'd been through. She switched hands to be able to put her arm around her girl as well.
They stayed there till the firework show was clearly over before Sonya chose to say something. "This was really nice. It's the second time tonight you've risked people seeing us as 'us' though, what gives?"
Paige stood up, trying to keep hold of Sonya's hand, but she moved too suddenly. "Come on, let's get back to your mum's place."
Sonya did as asked, but wasn't going to let it go. "Fine, but what's changed? You never came close to any real PDA before. I'm not complaining, tonight was something I won't forget, but are you sure you're ok with it?"
"Yeah, I mean, no, I mean, hell I don't know." Paige was making no sense for a moment, but she slowed herself for a moment, took a breath, and continued. "Today was great. I love your mum, and she accepted me with no fight, believed that I love you with few questions, made me feel like part of the family, then tonight was just so much fun, because it was with you. I didn't care who knew I was with you."
"That's amazing honey. You've come so far over these months." Sonya said sincerely. "But what if we had been recognised? It could be all over the internet in minutes."
"Thanks Miss Buzzkill." Paige said, realising she had been too harsh right away. "Sorry, you're right. I still want to do this my way, I just love you, and I don't want to disappoint you."
"I know you don't, and I'm not putting pressure on you, but the only way to be able to do this without risking that is to go public ourselves." Sonya tried to look supportive.
"I know. I'm still really nervous about what will happen when the world knows. Terrified even. But when we're having fun together, or just cuddled up watching tv, or hell, just when you kiss my cheek, I don't care what anyone else says, I just want you."
"Babe, that's sweet, and I know you're scared, but when you decide, I think people will surprise you."
Paige caught her tone. "You are disappointed."
"A little. I'd wait forever if that's what you want, but I hope one day I can hold your hand in public without having to look both ways first. Tonight showed me how good that feels. I like it, but as long as I've got you, the rest is second."
"How about a compromise for now?" Paige suggested.
"What's a compromise here?" Sonya asked, confused. "We tell people, or we don't. Is there a third option?"
"Well, how about we tell a few people, people we know. Like, the girls at work?"
"Really? You'd be comfortable with that?" Sonya couldn't hide her smile.
"I don't know, but it would mean we wouldn't have to hide it in the locker room, and we have been hiding it from them for a while."
"Ok, I'm not trying to put you off, but you know some may not be as ok with it as others." Sonya said, trying to be serious, despite this being what she wanted.
Paige shrugged. "Same as what will happen if we went public. At least these are people we know and can hopefully trust. They accept you, so hopefully will accept us."
"They've always known me as lesbian. You're the one who will be the shock. You know them better than I do."
"I guess we will find out how well. But I don't think we can hide it from them anymore." Paige looked Sonya in the eyes. "They need to know, no matter if it scares me or not. Besides, Hunter has pretty much figured us out anyway, I guess we should go talk to him first."
"Fine. Let's not talk about it anymore, then Monday at tv we will go to him, ok?" Paige was firm, but Sonya cloaked on to her concern right away.
"Don't you want to talk about what we want to say?"
Paige shook her head. "No, I don't want to overthink it and get cold feet. I will just tell him the truth."
"We will tell him. We."
"Sorry babe. I meant we." Paige gave her girl's hand a squeeze as they reached the taxi stand. One pulled up almost immediately, and they got in, giving Sonya's mom's address.
"It's nearly November. You know it's been nearly a year since we got teamed up. Sonya mused as they rode back. "If you would talk you yourself one year ago, how do you think that would go?"
"Seriously?" Paige smiled in disbelief. "I'd never believe me. It's just too far fetched. Too incredible to believe. It's not like I took to the idea instantly. I think I'd yell at past me to get over it, not waste all that time thinking it was some stupid girl crush. But I'd make myself believe it. What do you think yours would go like?"
"If I went back a year? I think I'd need a second to let it sink in, then spend the next five mins doing backflips around the room. But I wouldn't do anything differently. I love where we've got to, no matter what we had to go through to get here."
"You softy." Paige said as the cab pulled up at their destination. She paid the fare and they walked towards the front door. "But good answer. Maybe I'll open that black box back up when we get upstairs?"
"Paige, no! My mom is asleep up there, what would she say if she caught us all…" she went to mime her words out, but saw the smirk on her lovers face and realised she'd walked into it. "You bitch. Lucky I love you."
Paige didn't stop smirking till they fell asleep.
A.N.: That went pretty well. Paige was able to put a few stupid kids in their place, but telling friends, co workers, and their boss will be different. How well do you think it will go?
As always, thanks for reading :-)