Just Friends: A Sweet Lesbian Romance

by Mia Archer

  "You still want to call the police? I'm sure they'd be very interested in hearing all about what just happened."

  Pastor Dan looked between the two of us. I didn't think it would be possible for his face to turn a brighter shade of purple than it already was, but somehow he managed to pull it off. But at least he had the good sense to know when he was good and beaten.

  "Maybe it won't be necessary to call the police," he said.

  "I thought you'd agree with me," I said.

  I glanced over to Savannah. She'd completely withdrawn in on herself. It was the same look I recognized from the diner that first day when we'd met. I hated how this guy could make her fold in on herself like that. I hated that he still had that power over her. I wanted to scream in frustration.

  Apparently pastor Dan couldn't resist getting one final dig in, though. He pointed between the two of us. His voice was suddenly soft and quiet. Somehow that was even more threatening than the yelling. At least I imagined it would be for Savannah. I was so over him and his bullshit that it didn't have the desired effect on me.

  "I know what's going on between the two of you," he said. "You should know that what I do is only to save you."

  I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I’m sure you’re really worried about saving us. How many of the people you married over the years have split up, padre? How many of those people still give you money every Sunday without a peep from you? I seem to remember that being up there on the list of unforgivable sins once upon a time."

  He blinked and stared at me with narrowing eyes.

  "Oh yeah," I said. "I read the book you decided to take literally. Do you want to dance?"

  "You don't…"

  "It's none of your damn business what we do in the privacy of our own lives," I said. "That's the beauty of this country, and as far as I'm concerned you can go fuck yourself."

  Finally he let out a growl and turned. Stormed off towards his church in a huff. I followed him until he was walking up the steps. I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to cause any more trouble for us. If there was a wasp in the room you wanted to know where it was, after all.

  "That one's going to be more trouble," I said.

  Now that I was deflating from the anger that had fueled me during that argument, that had led me to say uncivilized things that I normally wouldn't say, I suddenly thought about how ridiculous it was that I'd acted that way towards him. He was a community leader. He could make all sorts of trouble for me.

  And yet that had been the right thing to do.

  I turned to Savannah and she was shivering. Her eyes were squeezed shut and a single tear ran down her cheek. I moved in and enveloped her in a hug. She put her head against my shoulder, seemingly not caring whether or not anyone else saw. I buried my face in her hair and inhaled her scent.

  It was weird. At that moment I should've been thinking about comforting her, but all I could think about was how great she felt pressed against me.

  "Thank you," Savannah said.

  "No problem," I said. "Maybe we should head back to the library? Think you can hold it together until we get back to my office?"

  Savannah looked up at me and nodded. Apparently she didn't trust herself to talk. Well, that was fine. She'd been through a lot in the past few minutes.

  So I put an arm around her and led her back to the library. She was shivering the entire way there. But she at least managed to hold it together until we got back to my office. Once the door was closed she wrapped her arms around me and pressed her face against my chest. Something that normally would have been very distracting, but she burst into tears which ruined any sort of ulterior motives I might have in the moment.

  No, I just held her, rocking back and forth.

  "It's okay," I said. "Everything's going to be okay."

  "Everything's not going to be okay," Savannah said. "Not as long as I'm living in the same town as that man. I have nightmares about my mom having that same reaction, and it terrifies me!"

  I paused. Wondered if I should really say what I was about to say. Especially when she was in such a delicate state. Then again, it was something that had to be said at some point.

  "Maybe you should stand up to him?"

  Savannah looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. "What do you mean?"

  I shrugged. "As long as you let him have power over you he's going to abuse that power. If you let him know that it doesn't bother you…"

  Savannah looked down. Away. As though she was suddenly ashamed of looking at me.

  "I know I should," she said. "It's just so hard. He looks at me and…"

  "You feel like the girl he terrorized years ago?"

  Savannah looked up at me and smiled. Leaned in for a kiss. "It's like you're a mind reader."

  I grinned. "I try.”

  Suddenly an idea occurred to me. Something that would hopefully get her mind off of everything that just happened. Something that would also take us away from this town where we had to deal with the judgmental pastor Dan. No, the more I thought about it the more it seemed like a great idea.

  "How about we get away from this town?"

  Savannah frowned. "I've already explained this to you. I have my mom to worry about, and…"

  I held up a hand to stop her. "I'm not talking about leaving town for good. I'm talking about getting away for a little mini vacation. I figure we can go to of the city, hit some of the places I used to know when I was in school. Really have a good tim, and not have to worry about hiding."

  Savannah brushed a strand of red hair from her face. Smiled hesitantly. I was going to have to draw her out of her shell again, but this seemed to be a good first step.

  "That actually sounds like fun," she said. "I'll have to make sure my mom would be okay if we leave for a weekend though."

  I sighed. "And I'm going have to talk to Ethel about running the place while I’m gone. Not that I don't think she could, but the weekend is usually our busy time. I'm going to owe her big for that."

  "In that case why not just go during the week? It's not like I have anything better to do," Savannah said.

  "That sounds like a great idea," I said.

  I wiped the rest of the tears from Savannah's face. Put my hands on either side of that beautiful face. Leaned in and kissed her. It was a slow, sensual kiss. I enjoyed exploring the contours of her lips pressed against my own. I hesitantly moved my tongue out, and hers darted into my mouth.

  I luxuriated in the taste that was Savannah. In the feel of her body as she suddenly pressed against me in a way that was completely unlike how she'd pressed against me when she was sobbing just moments ago. It was as though that encounter had filled her with a longing, with a desire, and it was something that I could more than understand. After all, I was feeling a bit of that myself. The aftermath of the adrenaline rush from confronting that guy was one hell of a drug, and the cure was Savannah.

  I pulled away from the kiss. Looked down at her. Smiled. "So are you feeling better now?"

  She nodded and bit her lip. "I think so."

  I held her against me again. I was trying to show a brave face, but inside I was worried. All this was just highlighting the problems that were facing me and Savannah. We were only going to run into more of this, and I wondered what that meant for our future. I wondered if a future was even something I should be thinking about considering I was still planning on only being here for a few years and then getting out. Considering that Savannah seemed to be planning on staying here for the rest of her life that put a hard limit on our time together.

  I pushed those thoughts out of my mind as she leaned forward and whispered in my ear though.

  "So what would you say to skipping lunch?"

  I blinked in surprise. "Here? In my office?"

  Savannah bit her lip and giggled. "You'll just have to keep quiet to keep Ethel from suspecting anything, now won't you?"

  And then suddenly I was so distracted that all the worries in the world seemed to escape from my
mind. For the moment. I knew they'd come crashing back down later, but that was later and there were far more interesting things happening in the here and now.

  12: Meet the Parent

  I paced up and down in the living room, full of nervous energy. Kirsten was coming out here. Not to the edge of the driveway and then we’d go to the back field or anything. No, she was coming right up to the house where she’d meet my mom.

  As I paced a thousand ideas occurred to me as to how we could have gotten around this. I could've gone into town and picked her up in front of her building, though that would have risked other people around the town square seeing us riding off together and disappearing for a couple of days. And I didn't for a moment believe that people wouldn't notice that sort of thing.

  It was a small town. Everybody's business was everybody else's.

  We could've maybe parked over at her parents’ house, though she said they only had a small two-car garage and it would've inconvenienced them for the couple of days we were gone constantly shuffling cars around. No, that wasn't the ideal solution either.

  Of course that brought us to the eventual solution we'd settled on, which was also less than ideal. Which brought Kirsten out here. Where my mom was.

  "You seem so nervous," mom said.

  I jumped and turned to smile at her. It spoke volumes about just how crazy I was that she was able to sneak up on me like that. Usually I could hear the sound of her oxygen machine loudly allowing her to breathe from a mile away, but somehow I’d missed that steady hum this time around.

  Mom turned and looked out the window. She had a wistful look on her face.

  "You know I remember a time when the idea of you going off to the city with some guy would have driven me crazy," she said.

  I sighed. "I already told you…"

  She waved a hand. "I know. You say you're not going off with a boy. With that guy you've been dating. The one you haven’t introduced me to yet."

  She turned and gave me a long stare. The sort of stare that made me feel even more nervous than I already was. The sort of stare that made me feel like I should just come clean already and tell her everything. As always I resisted that sudden urge, and the moment passed.

  "This really is just a trip into the city with a friend for some shopping," I said.

  "Right. A two night trip. I know."

  "I'm serious!"

  I actually felt a little giddy having this conversation with her. She was so close to the mark, and yet she’d missed it entirely. Giddy and guilt all mixed together. Giddy because I really was pulling one over on her. Guilty because I was pulling one over on her.

  Damn it.

  Mom sighed. "I don't know why you're acting like this Savannah," she said. "The boy is coming out here and you're driving into the city with him. I’m going to meet him in a minute and you’re still playing games?”

  She sniffed derisively to let me know exactly what she thought of that. Not that the sniff was necessary. This wasn’t the first time we’d had this conversation.

  “I can’t believe you’re driving, either. What kind of guy lets the girl do the driving?"

  I rolled my eyes. "Come on mom," I said. "This isn’t the ‘50s or something. I can drive if I'm going with going out with someone!"

  She pointed a finger at my nose and I went cross eyed. "Ha! So you admit you're going out with this person!"

  "I meant that in the sense that I'm going on a trip. Not in the sense that we're dating."

  I hated lying to my mom like this, but the alternative was even more terrifying. No, I had no intention of telling her even if I had an overwhelming desire to do just that. A desire that seemed to be popping up more and more the longer I was with Kirsten. I felt so secure with her that it was difficult to imagine a world where my mom wouldn’t love her. It was difficult to imagine, but my mind had no problem serving up that worst case scenario.

  "Just you wait until my friend gets here mom," I said.

  At least all of this sneaking around and lying was going to allow me to pull one hell of a fast one on my mom today. That or she'd figure everything out. Talk about terrifying.

  I heard the familiar sound of gravel crunching on the drive outside. I went to the window and looked out. Sure enough, Kirsten’s beat up old car was moving towards the house. I turned for the door with every intention of heading mom off at the pass, but then I was surprised to see she'd already bolted for the front door.

  "Damn it mom!" I said. "You know you're not supposed to move that fast when you're on your oxygen!"

  No, it was dangerous for her to get too excited. Exercise was a thing of the past for her, and yet the way she sprinted to that front door, trying to beat me so she could be the first person to meet whoever was out there, you’d think she was an Olympic level sprinter or something. I shook my head and growled in frustration. Parents could be such a pain!

  By the time I got to the door mom was already there holding it open with a triumphant smile. Now it was my turn to put a finger right in front of her nose, and it was her turn to go cross eyed.

  "You know you're not supposed to do that," I said.

  She grinned, but her breath was coming in gasps. "You know I couldn't resist. I want to be the first to meet this new…"

  She looked out to Kirsten's beat up old car. Saw that the person stepping out of the battered car had a distinctly feminine form, and I think it finally hit home for dear old mom that I’d been telling the truth the entire time. Sort of. From a certain point of view.

  "… Guy?"

  I fixed her with a self-satisfied smile of my own. "I told you I was just going into the city with a friend," I said.

  Another lie. It probably shouldn't disturb me how easy it had gotten for me to lie to my own mother, but I'd gotten so used to it that it really didn't feel like much of an issue anymore.

  "Well I'll be damned," mom said.

  Mom plastered a big smile on her face. She might be surprised, but she wasn't going to let it show. She wasn’t going to let that get in the way of being a good host. Even if I had no intention of letting her be a good host for long.

  She was still breathing heavily long after she should've caught her breath. I thought back to her running through the fields with me and playing around the house. She'd been invincible back then, and this was yet another reminder of her mortality as I was getting ready to leave her for a couple of days. That filled me with a completely different sort of guilt that had nothing to do with lying to her about the true nature of my relationship with Kirsten.

  Kirsten walked up the steps to the front porch with an uncertain smile on her face. Clearly she was just as surprised to see my mom standing there as my mom was to see a girl coming up the steps. Mom managed to hide her surprise pretty well as she held her arms wide.

  "Welcome. Nice to meet you! Any friend of Savannah’s," she said.

  "Nice to meet you too," Kirsten said. "I've heard a lot about you."

  Mom looked between the two of us with suspicion plain on her face, but I wasn't giving anything away. No sir. And then she looked pointedly at me as though she expected something. It took me a moment to realize that I hadn't actually made formal introductions yet.

  "I'm sorry. This is Kirsten. She's the new librarian in town," I said.

  "Oh so you're the new librarian," my mom said. "I've heard all about you from Ethel."

  "All good things I hope," Kirsten said.

  "Definitely," mom replied.

  I turned to go back into the house when mom held out a hand to stop me. She made a production of peering out into Kirsten's car. I cocked an eyebrow at her. "What on earth are you doing?"

  "I just want to make sure you're not trying to pull a fast one on me."

  "A fast one?"

  She looked at me and rolled her eyes. "You know. The old trick where you have one person come in to distract while the real person you're going out with is waiting out in the car."

  I didn't think it would be possible for
me to be any more surprised, but I couldn't help but bark out a laugh at how ridiculous that was. How old was I and she still thought I’d try to do something like that?

  "Are you serious?"

  "Totally serious!" she said. "I used to pull that with your dad all the time. My parents, your grandpa, didn't approve of him at first. Did I ever tell you about the first time your dad came over to take me out on a date? Your grandpa met him at the door with a shotgun!"

  "Only about every other time you talk about your first date mom," I said.

  "Well then. It looks like everything's on the up and up." She turned to Kirsten. "Nobody hiding in your trunk, I presume?"

  Kirsten looked a little shellshocked. Obviously she was having trouble dealing with the avalanche that was my mom. It was amazing how she could still roll over somebody even caring around that oxygen tank. And I found myself wondering how much longer she would be able to do this sort of thing. How much longer it would be before the disease finally caught up with her.

  I pushed that thought out of my mind. It was best not to think about that sort of thing.

  "Well come along into the kitchen dear," mom said. "I'm sure Savannah has a few things she needs to finish getting ready, and I can make you a drink or something. Do you like coffee?"

  "Um, I guess I like coffee?"

  As Kirsten was dragged into the kitchen she shot me a look. It was a harried look that I knew all too well. The sort of look I'd seen on boyfriends who had to deal with my mom, though she was the first girlfriend who had to deal with the avalanche of words that was my mother when she really got going.

  I breathed a sigh of relief once they were in the kitchen, though I could hear the chattering going on even so. Mom thought I was trying to pull a fast one on her, and in a way she was very right. I had just pulled a fast one on her. She seemed none the wiser that Kirsten and I were an item. Though of course she could just be keeping her opinion to herself. She did that from time to time.

  It was really rare, though.

  I went upstairs and finished the last few things I needed to get ready. Really just putting a couple more items into my bag that I’d saved for the very end in case mom came around and decided to snoop. I paused as I got to a pair of lacy black underwear and blushed.