The world according to Alicia (Girl X Girl)

Chapter 11

"Well," she mumbled after moments of silence, "I'm glad you don't hate me, and I don't blame you for not talking to me. I shouldn't have been so bold, I'm sorry."

I shrugged and wrapped my jacket closer around my body, the oncoming breeze was cooler than expected for this time of year. She looked at me expectantly and I noticed the absolute brilliance that shone in her eyes, the way her mascara clung to and clotted her eyelashes together in a streak of blue color and how her eyeliner started to partially run because of her tears,

"What is it you want to do?"
"Let's just, talk okay? The festival is still going on inside and we can walk around the town square just a bit and just talk." I said while extending my hand to her.

Roxanne glanced down at my hand hesitantly before offering a hooked arm to me instead,
"It might not look as bad if we hook arms, girls do that all the time."

I nodded and hooked my arm through hers and we started off.

The walk around town was nice, Roxanne and I caught up on the events of our lives since we last spoke, Roxanne apologies profusely about how inappropriate she had been at every chance she got. She told me about how she spoke about the incident to her aunt, being careful not to include my name, and how she went into a frenzy about how she should talk to me and make things right before it was too late.

"For a second I thought she was going to throw me into the car and drive me around until she found you." She laughed while pushing herself slightly on the swing. The park was empty, the sounds of summer cicadas chirping rattled around in my brain as we talked.

"I haven't known Deaconess Leliana long, but that sounds exactly like something she would do."
"Oh trust me, she would. When I first came out to her she wanted to throw a party, take me to dinner."

"Seriously? Isn't that a bit over the top?"
"Yeah, it could be," she shrugged and fluffed her afro, "But the most important thing was she accepted me."
"Especially with what happened between you and your parents I imagine?"

She nodded and looked up at the sky, the stars dancing in her eyes as she puffed out a breath of clear white smoke.
"Are you ever going to talk to yours?"
Roxanne asked after a few moments of comfortable silence. I looked at her almost in disbelief, I knew we had talked about our families before and I told her about how devout they were, and my mother's usual tirades against Caprice and everything she does.

"I highly doubt I will, I know they won't take it well." I started while reaching to play with my hair,
"No you don't," she countered, "How they act about Caprice doesn't always dictate how they'll act with you. You're their daughter they're supposed to love you unconditionally."
"Then your parents need to learn that lesson huh?"

She threw her head back and laughed, it was loud and boisterous and echoed out across the street. A few standalone people glanced over to see what was going on, but when they realized it was nothing gossip worthy they turned and went back to their own business.

"Yeah, I supposed they do. But my folks are nothing like yours Alicia."
"How do you know that?"
"Just by the way you talk about them, they're not perfect but they aren't horrible too. Besides, I think they'd be more upset if you kept it from them, I had accepted myself long before my mother caught me with that girl, I like to think sometimes that maybe if I had told her the resulting outcome would've been different."

We continued to walk and eventually found ourselves walking through the park, the grass moist with evening dew and littered with the remains of orange and black plastic stripes of confetti, discarded novelty toys and half eaten bite sized candy bars. I felt really bad for the people who signed up for the cleanup committee this year.