O- miss me yet big sis?
W- Who is this? 🤔
O- funny aren't you?! 🤨
W- Olympia give me five minutes, you just left!
O- We are actually just turning into the driveway, so it's been two hours. Nice to know you are feeling our absence 🙄
W- Are you on your period? You're being very sensitive today, of course I miss you, you idiot... this place is echoing. I'm still waiting on my room mate.
O- Mama has been sniffling all the way home, mom is being stoic but I can tell it's going to hit as soon as we get in. You've clearly done too good a job at being the oldest child and now I have to take the lead and I cannot tell you how I detest the thought of taking on that role. I am not responsible, or good at taking direction. I am the sloppy second child who shouldn't have survived her childhood.
W- that's true... I think this role needs to skip and go straight to our Josephine... she's got oldest child written all over her.
O- she told mama she would run her a bath when we got in and get her favourite ice cream ready for after to cheer her up.
W- Case and point. Josie it is.
O- the relief! I can go back to being the little shit.
W- you never stopped being! 😝
O- Get lost! Golden girl! If mom and mama knew how many tattoos you really had... if it didn't break the sacred sister code I would tell
her right now to stop her from crying.
W- oh she would still be crying, just about that instead. I've got two more booked for next weekend ... whoops 😅
O- Wren ... don't get anything too crazy, if you come home on my birthday and cause a scene ... you are dead!
W- quite fitting for Halloween... for you to be born on it and me to die on it... 🤪
O- Okay I'm fed up of talking to you now and we are home. Mom just disappeared.... I bet she's crying out back. Josephine is as promised running mama a bath and Bash is in your bedroom taking everything he's ever had his beady little eyes on.
W- He better not be, O!
W- O?
O- Yeah?
W- I do love you... and I will.
O- I love you too. You will what?
W- miss you x
O- that's probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me 🥹 now fuck off and make friends for gods sake 😂
W- I hear someone moving in opposite. I'm going to go be a social butterfly like you for once.
O- Everything crossed it's a hottie with lesbian tendencies 😉👌🏻👈🏼💪🏼😈
W- 🫵🏻🖕🏼Everything crossed you meet someone your own age sophomore year and ditch the cradle snatcher ✌🏼
O- Don't make me block your number. Goodnight sis x
***
I roll over, resting my hands and my cell on my stomach, staring at the ceiling, my hair tickles my cheek and I reach up and push it away, running my fingers through the ends. I had just got my hair cut this past weekend, a little shorter than it was, it sat on my shoulders now. I stripped the colours out of it and went back to my natural deep red, just as my mama and my grandmother had theirs, naturally so. I think it was my attempt at stripping myself back, to before I met Ava, to a fresh me, a more mature me, and the tattoos I was about to add to my flesh would have that same effect. I wanted my body to be different, so that it was no longer the same one Ava could conjure thoughts and memories of, I was changed, and she didn't know it anymore, just as she didn't know me.
I knew when I went home in the summer I couldn't hide an ankle and leg tattoo but I could most certainly hide it in the winter, and my soccer socks came up to just below my knees, so that wasn't a concern either. I was pretty excited to finally get the tattoos I had been waiting to leave home to get, and the freedom to date around now and discover myself a little more, without my moms watching over me. I was ready to discover who I was, away from my family.
My phone rings and makes me jump and I pull it up and see Cams cheeky face pop up as I answer.
"Hey" I say noting he's at his mom Rias in the background.
"Hey bird... how's it going?" He asks and he smiles, his bright white teeth showing.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I ask frowning.
"You look cute upside down" he observes.
I sit up and turn the phone around, leaning my back against the wall. "Am I still a chin with hair?" I ask and he chuckles.
"No you're good, ooh I love the hair... you look so much like Allie with the natural red... I think it's just the eyes and that red beside it... you really snapped up every blessed gene in that gene pool didn't you" he asks.
"I dunno, I have no idea what my donor looks like, so I couldn't tell you if they were all from my mamas side" I add.
He nods "same... have you thought about looking yours up?" He asks.
I find my eyebrows knitting together and I scrunch up my nose at the thought "god no, why would I" I ask.
Cameron walks out onto the deck and sits outside, I knew the view there to be beautiful, Ria had a dream house by the coast in Oregon, quite different from Greers smaller home in the burbs, she barely got anything in their divorce.
"Because we are eighteen now... it's legal for us to access our donor files now, my moms gave me the number and the information I need to call the clinic and access the file on him. I mean I have a file at home with basic information and a baby picture of him... but we can get actual contact information now Wren. We can contact them if we want to" he finishes.
I raise my eyebrows and grimace and he laughs. "No thanks" I throw back with little interest. I had never thought about my donor or wanted to know anything about him. I already had parents, and the small microscopic sperm that was used to help create me, it didn't make this man anything to me but a wonderful person who assisted in my creation.
"I think I might just reach out to mine out of interest" Cam says taking a sip from what looked like a soda.
"If you want to you should" i say shuffling off the bed and pushing my feet into my sneakers.
"And when you do, tell me all about him" I add. "I'm more intrigued about yours than mine to be honest... does he share your handsome looks... is that where your height came from, and your funky ears came from somewhere, and I know it wasn't Greer" I tease.
He looks to me like I'm on my last warning. "Leave my half chewed ears alone"
I smile at the thought of them, Cameron had always had the cutest little ears, they had a crinkle in the tip, like someone took a bite and left an indentation. Greer says it's because he's always been so cute, he was good enough to eat. I kinda thought it was a cute thing that he thought was a flaw but people that loved him thought was adorable, pure Cam. I know I have seen Olympia run her fingers over them before now, with a soft smile on her lips that revealed the affection she had for him, affections that she didn't even seem to register.
I look back to him "I love your moth eaten ears, don't get it twisted... and I'll miss them. Hurry up and get your butt down here in September" I beg.
"I'm coming... now behave okay until I get there, and always stick together with the other girls, don't break away on nights out... and always get each other back to the dorms don't leave anyone behind" he reminds me like a nanny goat.
"Yes Cameron I know" I groan as if I'm talking to my mom.
"Okay... love you Wren" he says and I look back into the phone and wish I could reach into it and hug him. Cameron was the cuddliest person, he had large arms which you could sink into, and although I'm not into guys, I could appreciate that boys cologne, he smelt dreamy and he hadn't changed his scent since he was thirteen, so anytime Olympia and I ever smelt it when we weren't with him, on someone else, we would both look to each other and mutter "Cameron"
"I love you too Cam I am" I tease.
"Go get laid" he throws back and I laugh out loud.
"I'm leaving my dorm room right now to scout out my neighbours"
"Good luck" he says and he clicks off with a smile and a wink.
***
I stand in the floor length mirror of the open closet door and straighten out my t shirt and jeans and then fiddle with my hair until I feel presentable, and then I finally brave the corridor and the voices out there.
As I open the door, the sounds and voices become three times as loud and I'm relieved to see a family settling their daughter in opposite. I stand and watch them for a second. Two pre teens in the hallway on hand consoles were sat leaning against the wall, seemingly over their sibling being moved in by now. The boy looked up at me as he spotted my door inch open and he smiled "Hi, my sister is moving in today" he greeted "are you on the soccer team too" he asked and his sister beside him nudged him.
"Jack don't be nosey" she chastised.
"I was just wondering Violet" he threw back a little irritated by her.
I smiled "are you guys the same age" I asked.
"Twins" they both said in unison and I try not to laugh at how cute that was.
"I figured you were... I have a friend who is like my twin... and you remind me of him" I say gesturing to Jack. "You both remind me of us actually"
"Oh hi" comes a voice and I look up to the doorway to find a striking woman, probably about my moms age, she had dark hair and light green eyes, that like mine, popped against the contrasting colour of her hair.
"Hi" I say a little more shyly.
"Soccer" she asks with a broad smile.
"Yes... I just moved in today" I return "my names Wren" I say stepping forward into the corridor.
"Our daughter too... it's nice to meet you Wren... let me go get her and introduce you she's feeling a little home sick so I know she will appreciate a friend whose about to be a team mate" and she disappears into the room and comes back with a girl who must be my age, with long wavy blonde hair, she is beautiful.
"Hi" she says with a smile that is cheek personified.
"Hi... I'm Wren...centre forward"
"Clark ...Attacking centre midfielder... I'm right behind ya"
"Nice to meet you Clark... I think we may be the first here" I say looking back down the empty corridor "it's been pretty quiet since I arrived this morning"
"I thought I was here alone... it was starting to give me horror movie vibes" she admits and her mom rolls her eyes.
"This" she says pointing at her mom "is one of my moms"
I can't help the smile that springs onto my lips "you have two moms" I ask excitedly and her and her mom smile.
"Yes... why are you so excited about it" she asks with a jovial curiosity.
"I have two moms too" I add, excited to have someone with something like that in common with me on the team.
"Awesome" Clark returns "my other mom is downstairs heaving the last of my stuff up with my aunty Rachel, if you recognise her please don't let on..."
"Who" I ask "your mom"
"Yes, I told her she wouldn't be recognised anymore by anyone under thirty and she bet me someone on campus would... and since your the only one here I beg you to let me win this one" she asks.
But before I can say "deal" her mom and her aunty Rachel come round the corner with a TV between them, one on each end of it and my mouth dropped open.
Clarks other mom, was Amber Rose Beaton, of course I recognised her, she was a queer icon, she was absolutely stunning and she was on a show I binged with Ava the summer before last "life on the lane" I say out loud and Clark curses beside me as her mom shouts out a triumphant "A...HA"
"I win" Amber calls out.
Clark stamps her foot. "God dammit" she curses.
"I told you not to take your mom on" Rachel interjected "you my god daughter have no idea how deep your moms reach is in the lesbian community, she's deep Clark, so deep we read about her in the lesbian bible... the queer queen who single handedly changed a networks favourite show to three months of lesbian romance... forcing the gay initiative into homes and upon the people right across the country, which by the way, was unheard of at the time" she announced with dramatic flare, I liked her.
Clark rolls her eyes "Wren might not even be gay... so this whole speech might be utter shit"
"Language" her mom says beside her.
"I'm Sydney by the way" her mom says sticking out her hand and I shake it and smile at the back and forth between them all.
Rachel and Amber pass me with the TV and start to pivot into Clark's room as her and her mom move aside.
Rachel turns to me, only inches away "are you gay Wren" she asks me bluntly.
Amber frowns from around the opposite end of the TV "Rachel we don't just come out and ask kids that... don't answer that" she says looking to me.
"I am gay" I return and Rachel almost drops the TV as she laughs and jumps up and down.
"Yes yes yes" she squeals.
Clark frowns at her "whatever" she throws back and she comes to stand beside me "So we are both gay... both the only two here and both have a hell of a lot in common" she says with that cheeky smile and I find myself returning it. "But are we both single" she asks curiously.
"Clark put her down" a teenager calls as she comes from the room, she's got curly dark hair and her moms light green eyes, in fact she was pretty much her moms image.
"I'm Bea" she says sticking out her hand and I shake it as she gestures toward Clark "please don't let her get in your pants... she's not the settling down type" She urges as the air comes out of Clark's held in breath.
"That's not true Wren" Clark argues "I just haven't met the right girl yet and I'm eighteen Bea, it's quite normal" she says scowling at her younger sister.
I let out a laugh "you two remind me way too much of me and my sister Olympia. To answer your question Clark... I am newly single, not looking for another relationship and unfortunately for you and for me... I'm not into blondes anymore"
She grimaced disapprovingly "no blondes" she asked disappointedly.
"Sorry" I say.
Bea laughs at her sisters expense. "Good call" she says before heading back into the dorm room.
"I will leave you guys to it" I say reaching for my door handle "but knock a bit later ... we can get to know each other" I offer.
Clark pushes off of the wall "I will ... and if you don't mind... I may just take that bed beside yours until your room mate shows. I'm not keen on being alone in these creepy halls"
"Of course" I offer and she smiles.
"See you later blonde hater" she calls and her siblings on the floor chuckle.
"Safe journey home Jack and Violet" I offer with a wave .
They look up with matching grins and beautiful matching golden coloured eyes that I note match Clark's "it was nice to meet you" they both say sweetly.
***
Clark did knock, a couple hours later once her family left and she dragged in her entire bedding set and began to set herself up in the bed beside mine before jumping onto it and resting her hands under her head.
"This is cosy" she observes lolling her head to the side to take me in.
I rolled onto my side to observe her fully "Just friends right"
"Of course..." she says but her eyes run over me suggestively and a smile pricks her lips. "You are going to have so many girls after you though" she muses "so prepare yourself Wren... college is about to get wild"
"Friday night we should head into the city and check out the gay scene" I suggest. "Perhaps we should both start as we mean to go on" I say with an eyebrow raise.
"How about we start now" Clark suggests with the most irritating but cheeky look on her face.
"I told you I don't do blondes" I rebuff trying to be serious but her face just makes me smile.
Clark stands up and I sit up and watch as she crosses the room, she stands with her hand on the light switch and looks to me with a daring and amused expression as she shuts off the light.
The entire room is pitch black and I frown "why did you do that" I ask.
"Can you see my hair colour" she asks and I fall back onto the bed and try and stifle the laughter.
"You're going to be that friend aren't you" I ask into the darkness and then she turns the light back on.
"Hey" I moan "why did you put it back on" I ask sitting up on my elbows.
She looks back to me surprised but her lips lift and she catches her bottom lip between her teeth. "You want to" she asks and I decide in that moment, to hell with the rules, i hadn't touched another girl in two years, no time like the present to get back into the world of being single and single at college.... Let's go!
"If it's meaningless and you promise to be my friend tomorrow... and to not envision me naked after today... then yes"
"I can't envision you naked if it's dark" she reminds me.
"Then get over here" I dare and the light goes off in an instant, and I hear her stripping off her hoody, she throws down her vest, and jumps onto the bed, my hands reaching and finding her warm skin, hers taking my t shirt and throwing it off before it all became rather intense and lustful. Hands roaming flesh, kisses that lit the entire encounter up, nothing sweet about them, pure lust, pure fun!
And so started my college experience, a quick and lustful encounter with my temporary room mate who would end up being one of my good friends, and funnily enough, it didn't make anything awkward, if anything it was something we had both shared that first night, that nobody else did, we sought out the comfort and familiarity of each other in that moment, and we didn't mention it again, not in a serious way anyway.
Clark Grant Beaton would be my wing woman, my best friend on the team, and a sounding board as both of our college experiences began and unravelled ahead of us, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
***
The cross over you asked for 😉