Vianne paled as she recalled the position they had been in.
Alexa threw on clothes and kneeled next to Rhian, examining her injuries. There was a rather large bump forming above her eyebrow. Rhian hissed in pain when she prodded her ankle. “It’s swollen. And you’re gonna have a black eye.”
Vianne finally shook off the embarrassment to take a look. “Yep,” she said simply.
Rhian glared at her. “Thanks for your input, Dr. Royce.”
“You get so cranky when you’re hurt,” Vianne shrugged.
Rhian whimpered again.
“I’ll get you some ice.”
Alexa helped her up and started guiding her towards the bed.
Rhian stiffened and balked.
“What? Are you okay? Are you dizzy?”
“I’m not getting in that bed.” She wrinkled her nose.
Comprehension dawned. “Oh. Yeah. Of course. Think you can make it to the couch? Or your room?”
“Couch. And I expect you two to keep me company.”
Alexa sighed. “I guess I don’t get to finish.”
She physically recoiled from the glare directed her way. “Sorry.”
***
THEY insisted she go to the doctor.
“No. C’mon, guys. We’ve had enough injuries between us. I don’t have a concussion and my ankle is fine.”
She went anyway.
***
THEY returned home a couple hours later.
Alexa looked up from the TV, raising an eyebrow when she saw Rhian on crutches.
“No concussion. But minor sprain,” Vianne said.
Rhian inserted as much dramatics in her limp as possible as she crutched her way to the couch.
“Very minor sprain,” Vianne said pointedly as she headed to the kitchen.
She lay on her back, and Alexa gently propped her ankle on her lap.
Vianne returned with a bag of ice and a bottle of vodka.
Rhian clapped in excitement.
They got smashed that night. Well, Rhian and Alexa did. Vianne tried to restrain herself to a moderate buzz. That in itself was a momentous occasion. She usually stuck to a few beers when they went out.
“I can’t believe you guys were having sex in the middle of the afternoon.”
“I can’t believe you still don’t know how to knock.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting it! Plus, usually I can hear you guys if you’re in Vianne’s room, but you were quiet this time.”
Alexa’s drink sprayed from her mouth.
“You two can be loud. Apparently, Vianne does this one move that you really, really like.”
She laughed at their horrified silence. “I never pictured anyone actually saying ‘awesome yo’ in bed.”
Vianne poured herself another shot. This was too much embarrassment for one day.
***
“ALEXA!”
Alexa stirred awake and mumbled sleepily.
“Alexa!”
“Vianne, I’m sleeping.” She snuggled in closer to the warm body next to her.
Vianne turned on her side and murmured back, “I’m sleeping too. That wasn’t me.”
“Alexa! Alexa! Alexa!”
Alexa flipped onto her back and cursed. “I’m going to kill her.”
“You’re talking too loud.”
Alexa pulled the pillow over her face and drifted off again.
Her phone rang.
“Your phone.”
“They’ll leave a message.”
It rang again.
“Lex, your phone.”
“Hmph.”
Vianne pulled off the pillow. “It’s Rhian.”
Alexa sighed and reached for the phone. She peered at the display with squinted eyes. It was way too early, she was way too hung over for this. The phone slipped out of her hand and dropped on her face.
“Ow! Shit!”
“Babe, shut up. I’m sleeping.”
Alexa glared at her, but Vianne had already fallen back to sleep.
“Rhian, it’s seven. Why are you calling me.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Get off your ass and make something.”
“My ankle is sprained.”
“You have crutches.”
“It’s sprained because of you,” Rhian pointed out.
“I feel like shit, Rhi.”
“So do I. It’s called a hangover. And again, I’m hung over and injured. I win this pity party.”
“Rhian,” Alexa warned.
“Please? I’m so hungry.”
Alexa hung up the phone and heard a yelp of protest from Rhian’s room.
She turned to face Vianne and kissed her head. Vianne blinked her eyes sleepily.
“I’m making breakfast for Rhi. You want some?”
“We went to bed three hours ago. Why are we up?” Vianne pulled her on top of her. She started to fall back asleep. Alexa kissed her and rolled off.
“Pancakes. And bacon,” Vianne called after her before pulling the blankets over her face.
***
“WHY don’t you guys move in together?”
Alexa darted her eyes upwards. Rhian just looked back, with raised eyebrows and a questioning smirk.
“We already live together,” Alexa said carefully.
“You know what I mean.”
She did know. There was no point in denying it. The thought had crossed her mind already. Several times actually.
“It’s pretty early to be...you know...sharing a room.”
Rhian just hummed, unconvinced, but played along when Alexa changed the subject.
***
“YO, you want to take a trip to Florida? My treat.”
“Yo? Did you just say yo?”
Alexa ignored and waved her phone. “Sashia called. Asha’s back from Germany again, and she’s acting pretty weird. Abs said she’s not really talking to anyone. She wants to know if we could see her sometime, see what we can find out. I figure maybe we can get her to visit.”
“What about Vianne?”
“What about her?”
“Don’t you want to go with her?”
“If you can’t, then I’ll ask her. I was hoping for some Rhian time though,” Alexa said, almost bashful.
Rhian launched herself towards Alexa. “Aww, I love you too!” she shouted aggressively, nuzzling her face into Alexa’s shirt.
Alexa shook her off.
“You gonna tell her about you and Vianne?”
“I’m not worried,” Alexa said carefully.
Rhian narrowed her eyes, that was awfully vague. She filed that thought away for later. There were more important things, like going to Florida, getting to visit Asha.
“When are we going?”
“If your ankle’s up to it...I was thinking this weekend?”
“Okay, cool. I don’t even need the crutches anymore, that was just to make you two feel guilty.” Rhian yelped and darted out of the room, as Alexa lunged for her.
***
“YOU think she’s actually going to visit?”
“Nope.”
“Dammit.” Alexa looked disappointed in herself. Sashia had given her a job, and the feeling of failure was obviously gnawing at her.
“Maybe she will. We just need to keep bugging her,” Rhian suggested, hoping it would cheer her up.
Alexa just shrugged. She looked deep in thought. “If Asha does visit, she’ll need someplace to sleep.”
Rhian forced herself to keep a straight face. “Yeah, our couch isn’t that comfortable.”
“Yeah,” Alexa trailed off and returned to staring blankly at a magazine.
***
VIANNE met them at the airport. Alexa gave her a quick kiss once they got in the car, but spent the rest of the ride staring out the window.
Vianne’s anxiety grew as the minutes ticked by. Rhian kept up a steady stream of conversation, but Vianne could only focus on the words that were not coming from Alexa. She sent a frantic glance back
at Rhian through the rear view mirror. Rhian just shrugged and mouthed, “Don’t worry about it.”
But Vianne did. She worried the entire way home. What did she do wrong?
They got back to the house, and Rhian immediately disappeared into her room to take a nap.
Vianne looked warily at Alexa. “I’m sorry.”
Alexa was bewildered. “Sorry for what?”
“I don’t know. But I think I did something and I’m sorry.”
“What are you talking about?”
Vianne panicked. “I don’t know.”
Alexa grabbed her hands and took a deep breath. “We need to talk about something.”
Vianne turned cold.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about this...”
“Don’t break up with me,” Vianne blurted out.
Alexa took a step back in confused shock.
“I love you,” Vianne whispered. She turned away to hide the tears that were gathering.
“You...what?”
Vianne just shook her head. If she spoke, she was pretty sure she would start bawling.
“Vianne.” She wrapped her arms around her, and rested her chin on her shoulder. “I...well...I love you too.” Her voice shook with nerves. She hid her face into Vianne’s back.
“What?”
“I love you.” Her voice was stronger this time.
“Then why are you breaking up with me?”
“I’m not, silly.”
“You’re not?”
“I wanted to know if maybe you wanted to move in with me? Like into my room. Or your room?” She felt Vianne stiffen. “Or not, never mind.” She dropped her arms and stepped away.
“Lex, I...are we ready for that?” She turned to face Alexa.
“I mean...maybe?”
“You love me?”
Alexa smiled a little. “You don’t believe me?”
“I thought you were mad at me. You were really quiet. I thought I messed this up.”
“I’m sorry, I was nervous.”
Vianne laughed suddenly. “I love you.”
Alexa giggled with her. “I think we established that.”
“Yeah, I just like saying it.” Vianne kissed her forehead. “I think we’re ready.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Sweet.”
***
“SO Asha called.” Alexa walked into the living room with a weird look on her face. “She’s going to come live with us.”
Rhian nearly fell off the couch.
“I guess I should’ve asked you guys.”
“No, this is awesome!” Rhian smirked. “I guess it’s a good thing you two finally got the balls to get serious.”
“Shut up, Rhian.”
“Yeah, shut up, Rhian.”
Rhian frowned. “Just wait. Once Asha gets here, you two won’t be able to gang up on me anymore.”
“Maybe she’ll join us.”
Rhian leered. “Oh my, Vianne. Never knew you were into stuff like that.”
Vianne looked at her, confused. “What?”
Alexa started laughing. “Yeah, Vi. You’ve never mentioned that before. What other things are you hiding from me?”
Vianne frowned, trying to figure out why they were laughing at her.
“Oh. Oh! Dude, gross!” Vianne tossed an empty water bottle at her head.
“I've been hit!” Rhian screamed, falling to the floor dramatically.
Vianne grabbed another water bottle, full this time, and squeezed it hard, the water shooting out into Rhian’s face. A full-blown water fight broke out.
Alexa sighed as she searched for her own bottle to defend herself. Asha was a responsible adult, right? Maybe she would bring some calmness, some maturity into the house. She could only hope. Because otherwise, she wasn't sure how long the house could stay standing.
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