One Day At A Time

Chapter Forty-Four: Rainbow

The last few days of May slip past them as it's now the first Saturday of June.

Ava and Lilly stick to their plan of a shopping trip-date together.
Lilly picks Ava up at around ten o' clock in the morning and they drive down the road both full of excitement.

On the way to their local shopping center, Ava looks out the window, looking up at the sky.
It's cloudy for sure, but the sky behind it is bright and blue.

A little while later, they go into a home goods store, where the pride collection is towards the back of the store.

So, Ava briskly walks towards the back of the store, with Lilly following behind her.

And soon enough, the two of them stand in front of all the colorful, rainbow-covered items in the store, all packed into one isle.

Ava smiles at the display in front of her, going up to a coffee mug with a rainbow-striped heart on it.

But Lilly stands back for a second, retreating into her own mind.

The opportunity of buying whatever she wants is right in front of her. The opportunity to partially spite her mother is right in front of her.

But she can still see her mom's face, her mom's teeth-gritted expression, when she closes her eyes to blink.

She sees a small display of hand-held pride flags and her eyes land on the orange and pink lesbian pride flag.
"Why does she need a flag for that?"

"Are you okay?" Ava asks her, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"I'm okay."
"Are you sure?"

With being best friends for so long, Ava's intuition has fine-tuned itself when it comes to Lilly.

She's not the best with reading people or picking up on what they're thinking, but Lilly is an exception.

Lilly nods her head.
She steps closer to the hand-held flag display and picks up the lesbian flag.

"I think I'm gonna get this." She says, sounding a little unsure of herself.

Her bounds of determination from a few weeks ago might've been a spare of the moment thing.

But she holds the small flag in her hand and looks at Ava, who is looking at the other rainbow coffee mugs.

A huge grin comes across Ava's face when she spots a mug that has the word, "Queer" written across it in rainbow letters.

She picks it up with no other thoughts in her head and her happy grin calms Lilly's mind for the time being.

They wander over to the home decor section of the store a couple minutes later.

They take their time looking at different bedding sets and throw pillows and blankets.

Ava finds a plain white bedding set and runs her hand over the comforter, smiling at it's incredibly soft texture.

"Maybe we could get this for our house when we're older." She thinks out loud.
Lilly's heart swells in her chest.
"Yeah, maybe we could. I'd like that."
"I'd love to live in a house with you." Ava tells her, looking right at her.

She really means it.
She's always wanted to spend her life with Lilly, even long before she had fallen in love with her.

They walk through the rest of the store, working on their hypothetical future house, pointing out different things to each other.

It fills them both with joy, an insane amount of joy that follows them out to the car after they check out their items.

On the way home, Ava absentmindedly looks out the window again, though the sky has gone from blue to gray and the clouds are gray and heavy-looking.

"I, I think it's gonna rain." Ava says.
Lilly glances up at the sky through her front window.
"Oh, you're right. I'm sure we'll be fine."
"Maybe we'll see a rainbow?"

Lilly chuckles lightly.
"That would be funny, wouldn't it? We see a rainbow after going pride-shopping?"
Ava laughs a little, too.
"Yeah. That would be funny."

Their drive home is a calm one, where they both are feeling pretty good.

Lilly is feeling quite optimistic in a way, she feels more confident in herself than she ever has.

And in all of her spare-of-the-moment confidence, she blatantly tells Ava,
"I think I'm gonna tell my parents about us."

Ava looks right at her as they stop at a red light.
"Woah, really. Are you-" She clears her throat. "Are you ready for that?"
"Yeah, I think I am."

Ava smiles at her proudly.
"I'm happy to hear that. I'm really happy to hear that. I believe in you."

The light turns green a minute later.

"I'm glad you believe in me."
"I always believe in you, Lilly."

Ava's voice is sincere, Lilly knows it.

She puts that phrase into her mind and into her heart.

Ava believes in her.
She can believe in herself.

When they pull into Ava's driveway about twenty minutes later, Ava holds Lilly's hand for a moment.

"You got this, you'll be okay, okay?"
Lilly nods her head slightly.
"Okay."
"Tell me how it goes after, after you do it, please." She pauses for a brief second, thinking. "And, if anything, um, bad happens, you can come to my house."

"I love you, I just want you to know that." Lilly says, her heart feeling warm from Ava's reassurance. "You know that, right?"

Ava smiles at her.
"I know. I love you, too. I love you a lot."

Lilly leans forward a little bit and kisses Ava for a good few seconds.

A good few seconds to end off their date and-or day together.

Both of their faces are flushed pink when the good few seconds end.

Ava says her goodbyes and one final, "I love you", before she steps out of the car and giddily runs into her house.