I'll See You When I Fall Asleep

Chapter 38

Like so many mornings before, Cammie awoke next to the love of her life. As she looked over at Virgo, sleeping soundly, hair covering her face, her lips parted in soft breathe, Cammie knew the novelty of waking up next to her soulmate would never wear off. Cammie also realized despite the night before, despite the turmoil she struggled against last night or any night before, the morning always felt better because she knew Virgo was there. The knowledge that she possessed Virgo unconditional love and support engulfed Cammie in a wave of relief and put her at ease.

The bed creaked as Cammie rolled onto to her and brushed the brown locks from Virgo's face. Her eyes fluttered at the movement, but otherwise she remained motionless. Cammie leaned down and painted her cheek and forehead with kisses.

"It's time to wake up," Cammie said with the gentleness that came with morning.

Virgo groaned and rolled over, causing Cammie to chuckle at Virgo's reluctance to leave the bed. Each morning that Virgo resisted the obligation to wake up, Cammie slowly realized that her Soulmate was not a morning person.

Cammie mused to herself as she thought about the contrast of their mornings and nights together. In the morning, Virgo was bleary-eyed and walked around half-asleep. But at night, Virgo was alive with the electricity of the universe.

"You have graduate today, ya know? You should probably get up."

"No, I don't think I will," Virgo said, eyes still closed. "I think I still get my diploma if i don't show up."

"Then what did your family come here for?"

"To meet you." Virgo said this a wide smile but still refused to open her eyes.

Cammie sighed and shook her head, but couldn't fight the smile from her face. "You're ridiculous, Payet."

Virgo chuckled but said nothing more, so Cammie slipped out of bed, deciding she, at least, had to get ready. The absence of her girlfriend from their bed is what eventually caused Virgo to open her eyes.

"Come back to bed," Virgo complained.

"I need to shower. You can stay in bed if you want though." Virgo found Cammie smirking at her from the across the room. "Or you can join me," Cammie added with a wink.

Virgo tried not to smile, but lost the battle and decided but push herself out of bed.

The shower was still more laughter and fighting over control of the water than whatever was promised by Cammie's seductive wink. Virgo complained that this was not at all what was promised as she picked up a fallen shampoo bottle. Cammie rinsed herself off and laughed harder.

"Maybe next time you'll wake up earlier," Cammie remarked, to which Virgo groaned.

Wrapped in towels after their shower, Virgo glanced at Cammie in the bathroom mirror and smiled through the foam of toothpaste. She threw her hip out and playfully bumped Cammie, who responded in kind. A grin spread on both their faces. Cammie supposed this was a small taste of the rest of their lives.

"We're definitely going to need a bigger bathroom," Cammie said when she spit out her toothpaste. "And a bigger shower."

They made their way to the bedroom where Cammie grabbed her dress from the closet. She slid it over her head, careful not to mess her hair or makeup. A quick glance in the full-length mirror told her that she needed to fix a few loose strands and while she fussed with her hair, Virgo approached from behind and carefully pulled her hands away from her head.

"You look beautiful. Don't worry."

Cammie grimaced when she realized she continued with her neurotic behaviors instilled by her mother. Virgo trailed her lips under Cammie's jaw and down her neck, eventually working her way down Cammie's exposed back. Cammie shuddered at the touch, twisting her head to give Virgo better access to her exposed skin.

Slowly, deliberately, Virgo zipped up Cammie's dress. Cammie bit her lip, her heart fluttering.

"Je t'aime de tout mon coeur."

A light blush covered Cammie's cheeks and in her embarrassment at the affection, she playfully pushed Virgo to the closet and commanded her to get dressed.

A mischievous twinkle appeared in Virgo eyes as she pulled the towel from her body and sauntered to the closet. As she sifted through her clothes, she said, "You're sure you wouldn't just rather stay here?"

"You're impossible," Cammie laughed. "I'm going to wait with Shea and Levi so you don't keep get distracted."

"You're missing out," Virgo persuaded in a sing-song voice.

Cammie rolled her eyes, but left the room. She found Shea and Levi waited on the couch, sipping champagne.

"Don't you boys look handsome," Cammie commented, taking in their appearances.

Levi wore a dark blue slack with a matching light brown belt and loafers. He wore a short sleeve button down shirt with the sleeves rolled to reveal a pastel floral. Levi was dressed in a similar fashion with a different color scheme, doning grey slack, brown boots and belt, and a lavender color button down, rolled up to his elbows.

"You don't look too bad yourself," Levi said, offering Cammie a glass of champagne.

Virgo finally appeared from the room in a cream colored dress that complimented her figure and heels. Her hair had a light curl that was akin to beachy waves and on her face was a light layer of foundation and mascara. Cammie helped her apply a natural shade of eye shadow to make her eyes pop.

"Don't you clean up nice," Shea commented.

Virgo stuck out her tongue. Cammie gave Virgo a quick peck on the lips when she approached.

"You do look very beautiful."

Levi grinned. "You two look absolutely adorable."

Virgo, who was more comfortable in clothing that had leg holes, smiled shyly. A glass of champagne was passed to Virgo and after a quick toast to Virgo's successes, they all piled in the rented SUV and went to pick up the rest of the Payet family.

The rental car was full with the seven of them packed tight together. Amélie sat in the passenger seat next to Shea, who volunteer to drive the monstrous SUV. Benoit and Matthieu sat in the very back seat, while Cammie, Virgo, and Levi took the middle row.

The brothers exclaimed how big American cars were and discussed what troubles this SUV would have navigating the small streets of Marseilles. They were thoroughly impressed with Shea's excellent driving, especially in the crowded streets of Los Angeles on a particularly crowded graduation day. The brothers also laughed whenever Shea honked at someone. It took everything within Shea's power to restrain himself from flipping every driver off and screaming obscenities at them, but for the sake of Amélie, he restrained himself.

When they arrived at the ceremony, they bid Virgo goodbye while she shuffled off to change into her robes and prepare herself for the stage.

The rest of the the group made their way to their seats. Shea and Levi sat on one end, followed by Matthieu, Cammie, Benoit, and their mother. While they waited, the brothers animatedly chatted about Virgo, thinking up the most embarrassing stories they could while Virgo wasn't here to defend herself. Cammie laughed hard at a particularly embarrassing story when Matthieu walked in on Virgo with another girl in her room.

"The worst part was I thought this girl liked me! But Virgo got to her first," Matthieu laughed. Benoit laughed hard at this story, so Mattieu quickly spun on him to remind him that Virgo had also stolen a girl from him. Everyone laughed at Virgo's audacity.

Cammie considered telling everyone that her roommate walked in on herself and Virgo, but was too embarrassed to say so and instead just laughed at Virgo's misfortune and the brothers' too.

"Have you had many girlfriends?" Matthieu asked. Cammie was learning that between the two brothers, Matthieu was shameless; he had such a pure heart that he didn't consider that anything he said could be misconstrued as rude or invasive.

"Actually, Virgo is my first girlfriend."

"Really? You have never dated a woman before my sister?"

Cammie shook her head.

"Did you know you liked women before my sister?"

Cammie laughed awkwardly, recalling the last six months of her life. What disaster it had been.

"No, actually I didn't. I was a little surprised when I woke up on my birthday."

Shea and Levi were exchanging grins, both privy to the story of how the two girls met.

The sound that escaped Matthieu's mouth could only be described as a French exclamation, because Cammie had no idea what he said. But judging by his expression, Cammie was sure he was surprised. Even Benoit leaned in to hear the rest of the story. It seemed that Amélie was also interested.

"Virgo never told you how we met?" Cammie asked, genuinely surprised.

Benoit shook his head. "No, she was quiet about the whole thing."

So Cammie took a deep breath, preparing to tell the story of how they met and managed to fall in love. With a lighthearted smile painted on her face from embarrassment at her own reaction all those months ago, Cammie dove into the abridged version of her and Virgo's relationship.

Benoit offered translations here and there for his mother when her face puzzled in concentration at Cammie's words. At the end of Cammie's tale, she laughed at her own, what she considered to be, embarrassing escapades in her journey to loving Virgo. Although she omitted the word love from her tale, unsure of how the family would react to that.

Amélie began speaking in French too complex for Cammie to follow, so she helpless looked to Benoit to translate his mother's rapid French.

"She wanted me to tell you she is happy for you and and she is very proud of you." A small feeling Cammie couldn't quite identify the feeling that leaped into her chest as her heart fluttered at the praise. Suddenly, Cammie felt light as a feather. "She said that while she does not know what it felt like, she watched Virgo struggle to find herself and knows that it is not easy. It is not easy if you do not have the support of your family, either."

Benoit paused while Amélie continued speaking. He nodded his head slowly as the words turned from French to English in his mind.

"And she says while Virgo has never been unhappy in her life, she feels that Virgo was never fully herself. Like maybe you unlocked a door that only you had the key to and now we can see Virgo as her true self. Virgo is very happy with you and it is very obvious." Benoit smiled, his mother finished speaking. "We're actually all very happy Virgo found you. She really is much happier. She's much more herself. It's difficult to explain, but I think my mother tried."

Cammie flushed.

"I know that is it difficult, what you have been through, but we are happy to accept you as our family too. You are as much family to me as Virgo."

Cammie blinked rapidly, trying to hold off the tears.

"Thank you. Excuse me, I'm just going to run to the restroom." Cammie quickly stood and rushed off, overwhelmed by emotion. She wandered aimlessly through the grounds, her eyes unfocused as she turned over the kind words from Benoit and Amélie.

It was absolutely astounding, Cammie slowly realized, as her feet carried her through throngs if people milling to find their seats, that her sexuality was completely insignificant. This point of contention in her life, that only months before had caused utter chaos and turmoil was irrelevant. Each new person she met and invested in accepted and loved her for exactly who she was. There were no supplications, no qualifiers; she was allowed to simply exist perfectly as who she was, loving whom she did.

It was simple.

Perhaps it wasn't ideal to not have the acceptance and love from her parents, but perhaps it was enough to have the love and acceptance from others? Perhaps it was enough to know she had friends that loved her, sisters that loved her, a wonderful girlfriend who loved her endlessly, and now she had the love and support from her girlfriend's family. Of course it wasn't how she pictured her future, but somehow it was enough.

Cammie thought about Virgo's brothers and how they had wives, who would love and accept her as well. She thought of the baby that Benoit was soon to have, who would grow up learning to love her and not think anything to be amiss about two women loving each other. The child would love their two aunts as much as anyone else.

Perhaps, after all of this, there was some hope for the future that things wouldn't be so bad. Maybe, just maybe, despite all the confusion, despite the enduring hardship, despite it all, there was a silver lining to the storm clouds that rained down on her life.

As Cammie walked, a sudden surge of confidence and acceptance filled her. She did have people who loved and supported her. Though she couldn't choose her family, she knew she had the ability to create a new family that loved and supported her in any endeavor.

Some things sucked, there was no deny that. Some things could be better, sure. But overall, Cammie realized she loved her life and loved the people in it. Suddenly, she understood that this was her life to live and conquer. The ability to live without her parents, once a source of indescribable fear, became a feat easily accomplished.

There were, after all, good people in this world, it was just a matter of taking the time to find them.

Cammie returned to their seats and greeted everyone with a bright smile. Shea gave Cammie a meaningful look, silently asking if she was okay. Cammie, grateful he was concerned, offering a reassuring nod.

Matthieu immediately began talking to Cammie again once she sat down, eager to get to know her more, though their conversation slowly drifted away from important topics to more random things, like what Cammie liked to do in her spare time and which types of wine she liked.

The rest of the afternoon passed with everyone chatting about nothing in particular, laughter filling the spaces between words. The conversation become much lighter after Cammie explained her journey to acceptance. She did try and speak with Amélie as much as possible in French, but she was constantly pulling out her phone to translate a word here and there, or hopelessly begging one of the brothers to translate for her. The conversation was difficult for Cammie to follow, but Amélie appreciated the effort.

Soon, the commencement speaker came to the podium and announced the graduating classes. The ceremony was shared with several different programs. Everyone eagerly waited for Virgo's name to be called. Once it was, she walked across the stage, her red robes billowing behind her, her cap perched carefully atop her head. She shook several hands, posed for a picture while she held the diploma, and waved to her family, who stood up and screamed loudly so Virgo would see where they were. A wild grin appeared on her face.

After the ceremony, everyone took turns taking pictures with Virgo.

"Should I start calling you 'Master?" Cammie joked when she stood next to Virgo for a photo.

"Master Payet. It has a nice sound."

They grinned for pictures together, laughing at their lame banter. Cammie plucked the cap from Virgo's head and placed it upon her own, posing for another picture.

"Next year will be your turn," Virgo commented, admiring the red atop Cammie's head.

"That's not for a while. Today is all about you."

Amélie suggested they all go out to eat once more and they followed. The evening ended in a celebratory dinner and drinks while they explored Los Angeles. As Cammie watched from the sidelines all of Virgo's biggest supporters loving her and cheering her on, Cammie realized this same team that was here for Virgo was pulling her into the fold as well. As many times as they thought she couldn't be happier in the past, today definitely topped them all.

And all at once, Cammie realized she had a family again.