Star Crossed Lovers (Girlxgirl)

Chapter 10

Jesse’s POV

The house was beautiful. Two floors, three bedrooms, a large living room area, a small but comfortable kitchen and a front and back porch. On the second floor, the porch faced the beach. Jesse loved what Jade and Lana had done with the place. The interior décor was lovely.

She was shocked to see two women who were deeply in love and happily living together as life partners. She was shocked because she’d never been in a successful long term relationship. Seeing Jade and Lana together, so happy gave her some kind of hope.

Apart from Jade, Lana and Alex, Max was also there with a beautiful new girlfriend named Joss and Kim had just arrived. Jesse had thought she would find Billy there, but she was nowhere in sight. Everyone was friendly and Jesse had no time to feel out of place or uncomfortable.

There was a lot of alcohol and the women were drinking from the living room and low music played distinctly in the background, allowing everyone to indulge in conversation.

Alex was wonderful to Jesse and went out of her way to make her feel comfortable. Jesse was glad she’d given herself a chance to get to know her.

During the second round of alcohol, when Jesse was listening to the women’s stories as they individually narrated about their first love, Billy showed up. It was endearing how Alex was so pleased to see her and for a moment, Jesse understood why Billy could not tell her what had happened between them.

Kim was second happiest, if not first, to see Billy. She practically got to her feet and went to hug her. Billy said hello to everyone and when her gaze fell on Jesse, it lingered there a moment longer than it should have and it felt like a soft and gentle caress.

Jesse was the first to look away. When everyone was settled back down, their discussion resumed and in a few minutes, it was Jesse’s turn, everyone sat quietly and listened. She was amazed at how at ease she felt around those women and so she calmly told her story.

“When I was in fifth grade, I fell madly in love with my English teacher. I could not wait to attend her classes. I’d sit at the back of the class and just gawk in amazement at how beautiful she was. For almost a full term, I’d steal single stemmed sunflowers and have them sent to her.” She giggled at the memory.

“Did you ever tell her?” Lana asked.

“I couldn’t, I was too scared. But she found out anyway, I don’t know how. She called me to her office and I dumbly sat there as she talked. She told me that she knew I was her mysterious admirer, and while she was flattered by the gesture, she could not let it go on because she was married. I was so embarrassed, but somehow she found words to make me feel special. She made me realize that it was okay to be who I was.” She finished.

“That is so sweet,” Joss, Max’s girlfriend said.

The discussion resumed until everyone had had their turn. Billy’s story was quite brief and was more about sex rather than love, Max’s story was similar to Billy’s but Alex’s story caught Jesse’s attention. She said that she’d been fifteen when she’d fallen in love with a girl in her class.

“She wasn’t the most popular or the most beautiful, but she was the smartest girl in our class. Every time I saw her, my day would get better. We were barely even friends, we only said hello when we met in the hallways. One day I decided I was going to tell her. I didn’t know what she would say or how she would react, but I wanted to know why I was so drawn to her,” Alex narrated.

“One day after school, I nervously approached her and asked her out. She was a little taken aback, but she agreed to go out for lunch over the weekend. We had so much fun together and when I took her home that evening, I confessed my feelings.”