Peach & Lemon

Chapter 9

"Over here!" I hear Autumn's voice. She's sitting in the best place to watch the game. I have no doubt she was the first one to get here.
"Hi!" I sat next to her. Even though she's not dressed as a supporter, she's for sure the one that supports the most.
Through the games she would hype Olive up, celebrate every time they got a point and tell her "It's okay, you can do this!" when they couldn't defend.
When Olive's team finished all the games they had for today, Autumn got up, held my wrist and dragged me with her to the locker rooms'.
"It's okay, I can wait outside." I tell her, before we enter and before any girl feels uncomfortable with my presence. Usually, before PE classes, girls would always be worried if I was picking on them, after they knew my sexuality.
I never did.
I would always look at either the ground or my bag.
"What's the problem?" She asks, confused.
"I don't want them to be uncomfortable, they don't know me." I explain, freeing my wrist from her hand.
"Why would they be uncomfortable?" I blush.
Isn't it obvious?
Is she really that blind?
"You know I like girls too, right?" She doesn't look shocked or surprised, which makes me wonder why she would ask that.
"I guess." She holds my hand this time. "But there's girls in the team that like girls too. You don't need to be afraid."
I don't say anything, I just let her take me.
"Hey, Autumn!" Someone says when she opens the locker room's door. I stare at the ground with my cheeks burning. I don't want to be here.
"Hi!" She waves with her free hand.
"Who's the hottie?" The same girl comments and I blush even more.
Hottie?
Me?
Are y'all blind or you just choose to ignore the goddess that is holding my hand?
"Her name is Twyla." She speaks for me and I feel like we changed our personalities, all of the sudden. I'm an extrovert by nature. But not here. Not in the locker room.
"She speaks?" Another girl asks.
"She does. She's just embarrassed because she feels like all of you would be uncomfortable if she was here."
"Why?" Another voice. I don't want to look at them. They're probably in tight sports bras' and in lycra panties.
"Because she likes girls too."
"Autumn..." I force myself to murmur.
"Well, Twyla, you don't need to be embarrassed. You watched our games, right? You saw us almost naked." The others laugh. "It's okay, no one will judge you here."
I look up for a second. I see all these girly faces looking at me. Blonde, brunette, painted hair. Blue, brown and green eyes. Skinny, thick, mid-therm.
But none of their hair was ginger.
None of them had the greenish eyes that I dream with.
No one had the perfect amount of freckles distributed over their nose and cheeks.
No one was Autumn.
I didn't feel the same for them.
All of them were watching me, except for Olive, who was focused on getting ready to leave. I wave to the curious eyes and they wave me back, smiling.
"Will you be joining us for dinner?" Someone asks and I open my mouth to answer, but Autumn is way more ahead of me.
"Actually we'll join Olive."
"As always." A girl rolls her eyes. She's not actually mad, she's just playing around.
"You need to join us some time."
"We will." Autumn smiles. "Perhaps in summer."
"Olive, make sure the three of you join us for tomorrow's party." I heard a party? I absolutely love parties!
I also realized no one calls Olive "Ollie", like Autumn does. It must be a best friend's thing.
"I try every year but you know that Autumn isn't much of a party-person." Olive explains in a chill voice. I hope she's almost done dressing up.
"Come on, Autumn! You really need to come this time!" The girl is making puppy eyes.
"I'll think about it." The other girls consider it a victory.
"Let's go?" Olive comes in our direction.
"Sure! Bye, girls!" I wave at the same time as Autumn.
"Bye, Autumn!" They answer in choir.

🍑🍋

Olive's mom has strict vibes. Not the crazy-strict vibes, just half-strict. Like, she would let you go to a party at night and you can come home whenever you want, but you can't have a sleepover with a boy. Crazy half-strict mom.
"So, what do the girls want for dinner?" We're in the car. Autumn introduced us and I wasn't expecting she would like me. She did, for now.
"Anything with fried chicken." Olive answers in the front seat. Me and Autumn are in the back seats and she's not holding my hand anymore. I miss her touch.
"Chick-fil-A? KFC? Jollibee?" Olive's mom asks.
"Does Chipotle have chicken?" Autumn asks and Olive's mom thinks for a second.
"I think it does. Didn't you order chicken last time?" She asks her daughter.
"I did. Chipotle it is." Autumn and Olive smile. "You like Chipotle, right, Twyla?"
"Everything's fine to me." I shiver in my place. I don't want Olive's mom to think I'm a bad influence. I'll just go with their lead.
When we got to the restaurant, Olive's mom dropped us there, paid for the meal and left us alone. We sat and Autumn couldn't shut up about the game, for me it was a good thing since she doesn't usually talk this much nor gets so excited about something.
I stay silent the whole time. Until Autumn needs to go to the bathroom:
"Hey, Olive."
"What do you want?" Her cold voice from the other day comes back.
"I just wanted to thank you. For what you did on Friday."
"Autumn talks about you all the time. She got really sad when you betrayed her trust. And even though I don't know you very well, what makes Autumn happy, makes me happy."
"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to fix my friendship with her."
"As I told you, I hate to see her sad. And you took good care of her while I couldn't. So thank you, Twyla." She takes a bite of her food.
"I did my best."
"So... Truce?" She extends her hand like on the first day we met.
"Were we even in a war?" I laugh but I shake it.
"No, but I didn't like you at first."
"I knew that." I smile and she gives me a sample of one. I'll take that as a win.
"If I knew that a trip to the bathroom was the only way for both of you to become friends, I would've done that earlier."
We were talking so much we couldn't even hear Autumn coming in our direction. But it's like Olive said: if Autumn's happy, I'm happy.

A short chapter for you because I need to post :')