Gracie lay between Rachel's legs with her head resting against her chest, the blonde's hands danced up and down Gracie's arms as they watched the waves crash onto the shore. Each time a wave curled, the tide got closer. They'd been sitting together for hours, kissing, talking, just looking at each other.
It may have been easier for everyone if Gracie started a relationship with Jason, but it would never feel as natural as it did with Rachel. Nothing else mattered when they were together, and Gracie started to wonder if that was what love felt like.
"I should go home," Gracie sighed, "I switched my phone off and didn't tell anyone I was leaving," she stood up, brushed the sand off of her, and pulled Rachel up to her feet. Rachel raised her eyebrows. "What?" Gracie asked.
"You called it home."
"Yeah, I guess I did," Gracie smiled, "Thank you for coming," she kissed Rachel on the cheek
"You're going to leave me with that?" Rachel pulled Gracie close and planted another kiss on her, one that was difficult to pull away from, "Let me know when you're home."
"I will," Gracie could tell Rachel was watching her walk away.
As she got closer and closer to the Tucker house, her bliss faded away. It was time to face the reality that her foster mothers were probably going to be furious, and she hated that she'd let them down again. But at the same time, it didn't matter. She wasn't going to be living there forever. Why bother trying to live up to their expectations at all?
Before she could even knock on the door, Marco swung it open and pulled her inside, "She's back!" He shouted to his family, and they all immediately came swarming around her, except for Danny, who lingered nervously on the staircase, his head hung.
Lilah was almost crying, "Thank God!" She hugged her tight and rested her head on Gracie's. "We were so worried!" Gracie thought they would start yelling at her, but both of her foster parents just seemed relieved to see she was alive, she felt twice as guilty now.
"Where were you?" Riley asked, "You didn't answer any calls."
"I just went for a walk, by myself," she lied, "I just needed to be alone. I'm sorry." She wasn't sure why she decided to lie, it just seemed like the right decision at the time. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Stella sighed, and hugged Gracie again before clearing her throat, "Okay, everyone, homework," Stella said, "We need to talk to Gracie alone."
The other kids all shuffled up the stairs while Gracie was ushered into the living room. "I'm sorry, I swear I won't disappear like that again," she felt awful for making them worry.
Stella and Lilah exchanged a look, and Gracie couldn't get a semblance of an idea of what they were thinking, "Listen, Gracie," Stella said, "Lilah and I have been talking, and um," she couldn't finish her sentence.
"This is it. They're kicking me out," Gracie thought. She knew it was too good to be true, sneaking out of the house had been the last straw for them.
"Look, it's completely up to you, but we're just wondering if it might be best if we find you a new placement," Lilah said.
Her fears were coming true too quickly, Gracie's heart pounded, "You - you want me to leave?" She held back tears.
"No, honey, no," Stella reached for Gracie's hand, "We love having you here. Just with everything that happened tonight with Danny, we'd understand if you would feel more comfortable staying somewhere else."
"I'm comfortable here, I promise. Tonight was just a one-off. Danny and I just had a disagreement. This is the best home I've ever been in," she pleaded her case.
The women both sighed with relief, "Well good," Stella said, "We've had a word with Danny, and it's no excuse but he feels terrible about what he did."
"I know," Gracie thought about what Rachel said, "I think it was his weird way of looking out for me. But Danny and I are good friends and we'll get past this," Gracie promised herself she wouldn't hold a grudge against him, "Can I go talk to him?"
"Just one more thing, love," Lilah said. "Do you want to talk about what he said?"
"Uh," Gracie stood up, "I'm not ready to do that yet if that's okay, but thank you. Um, so am I getting punished for sneaking out?"
"Grounded for a week," Stella said in her cop voice, but she was smiling.
Gracie smiled back, grateful for what Stella and Lilah deemed as punishment, "Right, that's fair. Sorry again."
She headed upstairs to talk to Danny, she had already forgiven him for what he did, but she still wanted to hear an explanation from him.
"Hey," he said as Gracie sat down opposite him in the boys' room. Marco was sitting in bed with his headphones on, so they had as much privacy as you could get in a house full of teenagers, "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to hurt you."
"I know, so why did you do it, Danny?"
He sat up straight, "It's just, well I've been hurt by lies before, and I couldn't sit there and watch you do the same thing to someone else."
"I get that, but I wasn't trying to use him, and I never wanted to lie, I just liked him," Gracie explained.
"I know that now, I'm so sorry," when he looked up, it was obvious he'd been crying.
"I forgive you, Danny," Gracie hugged her foster brother, "Just, try not to out me to anyone else, okay?" She laughed, she didn't care that the Tuckers knew, they wouldn't mind at all. "It doesn't matter anymore anyway, he'll probably never talk to me again."
After saying goodnight to the boys, Gracie went to Riley and Maia's room and sat down beside Maia, "What did moms say? Are you grounded?" Riley asked.
"Yeah, a week."
"Then why are you smiling like the Cheshire Cat?" Maia laughed.
"Because this is the first time I've gotten a punishment that didn't involve being starved, locked in, or beaten up," she laughed, "I love it here."
"You were smiling when you came home too," Riley joined the girls on Maia's bed, "Kind of weird considering you were in a pretty bad mood when you left, did you talk to Jason?"
Gracie was taken back to the conversations she'd shared with Jason, she was reminded of the kind of guy that he was, and she suddenly felt guilty, "Uh, no. I didn't," her smile had disappeared. When she left, she was certain that Jason was done with her, but now that she was thinking about him, she felt terrible for going to see Rachel.
"Gracie, are you okay?" Maia took the younger girl's hand.
"I think I messed up," Gracie spoke quietly, almost hoping the Tucker sisters didn't hear her, "I thought, after what happened at dinner, I was so sure that Jason would want nothing to do with me. But he's such a good guy, I think if I explained it he would understand, he's been so kind to me" she rambled, "What have I done?" Her mood had been bouncing back and forth all evening.
"What do you mean?" Riley asked, snapping into big sister mode, "Talk to us, Gracie."
"I went for a walk by myself, that's true, but I met up with someone and... we kissed," she whispered. Riley sighed slightly and exchanged a look with her sister, proving that what she did was awful. "How could I do that?" Gracie flopped back on the bed.
Maia pulled her sister back up, "No, G, it's okay! You made a mistake, the best of us do, you have to stop being so hard on yourself!"
It wasn't that simple though, this was the second time she'd accidentally cheated on someone."How have I managed to make the same mistake twice?" She asked herself. "What do I do now?" She begged for advice.
"First of all, no more tears," Riley dried Gracie's cheeks with her sleeve, "Second, just talk to him. He felt really bad when you stormed out at dinner."
"He felt bad?"
"He said it was his fault that you felt like you couldn't talk to him about it," Maia said, and Gracie blushed. "Seems like he likes you."
"But why? I've only known him for like a week." It didn't make sense, Jason didn't know Gracie, at least not the way that Rachel did. How could he think any of this was his fault?
"Well, is it true?" Maia asked, "Are you gay?"
Gracie hesitated, not a doubt in her mind that she could fall in love with Rachel, but the lingering thought of the boy who charmed his way to her side kept her on the fence.
"I don't know, all I know is that I liked him and I like someone else too. A girl," she admitted and saw no judgment in the eyes of her foster sisters. "Rachel-" Gracie stopped herself realizing it might have been better to keep her name secret.
"Where did you meet her?" Riley asked.
She couldn't tell them how she met Rachel, they might tell Stella and Lilah and they could stop her from seeing her. "An old foster home, we kept in touch and I just sort of fell for her. That hasn't changed, but now... Jason. I've just proved Danny right."
"Gracie," Maia furrowed her brow, veering away from her usual playful attitude, "It's not about Danny. This is about you. What do you want? Who do you want?" Maia asked.
To Gracie, it was much more complicated than just knowing, "I don't know."
"Then weigh out the pros and cons," Riley said. She was more of a data-based thinker than Maia, who believed in true love and destiny.
"Screw that," Maia interjected, "You can't make these decisions based on statistics. It's about that feeling you get when you're with them. Who makes you feel dizzy when you think about them? Who makes your heart race and your palms get clammy?"
"Well, I thought me and Jason clicked, especially when I thought I'd lost my chance with Rachel. But then she kissed me, on the beach, and she's just special." She was lost in her thoughts until she noticed her foster sisters smiling at her.
"I think you have your answer," Riley said. And Gracie smiled too, hoping she'd made the right choice.
It took hours for Gracie to finally fall asleep that night, she'd have to face Jason at school tomorrow. Marco said that before Jason left, he kept asking if Marco would text him when she got home, he needed to know she was safe. He had texted her too, asking to talk, but she couldn't do this with a screen between them.
That wasn't the only thing keeping her up, she was texting Rachel all night. They couldn't seem to think of anything else but each other. If it was at all possible, they seemed to be getting closer and closer with every message, and Gracie couldn't imagine going back to being with Jason the way she was with Rachel.
The next morning, after only a few hours of sleep, Gracie woke up exhausted. She ate breakfast with everyone, like normal, and no one mentioned the dramatics of the night before.
She watched the Tucker kids bicker and joke with each other on the drive to school, and couldn't help but feel slightly left out. She knew they weren't doing it on purpose, they always went out of their way to include her, but she was never going to be a real part of their family and it stung, so she excluded herself instead.
Gracie was the last to get out of Lilah's minivan, and the first person she saw was Jason. He was standing at the bench that overlooked the ocean, holding a bunch of flowers, looking right at her. Her heart started racing, her hands pulled at her sleeves for something to do. Gracie turned to her oldest foster sister, panicking.
"It's okay, just talk to him. You've got this," she gave Gracie a gentle nudge in his direction.
She walked to him slowly, making no sudden movements and hoping the ground would swallow her, but after a few moments, she stood in front of him, "Hi," she said sheepishly.
"Hey," he replied. He still looked at her the same way he had before last night, but she couldn't quite meet his gaze.
"I'm sorry about everything. I don't know what's going on with me right now."
Jason took a few steps closer to Gracie and handed her the flowers, "You don't have to explain anything to me, all is forgiven and forgotten," he kissed her on the cheek.
"But-"
"Look," he stopped her, "You like me, right?" He asked, but he already knew the answer.
"Well, yeah, but Jason-"
"Good, I like you too," he cut her off again.
She tried again, "Jason, it's not-"
"So let's just forget all about it. And happy birthday." He kissed her on the cheek.
Gracie knew he would change his mind if she told him about Rachel, but he seemed so happy, so she didn't say a word about it, mostly because he hadn't given her the chance. He was such a good guy and she couldn't bring herself to hurt him, at least not right away. There wouldn't be any harm in letting him be happy for one more day.
For the rest of the school day, Jason walked Gracie to and from all of her classes. After seeing them hold hands, Danny had started asking questions, but after their almost-argument last night, he didn't pry too much. The real problem would be explaining it to Riley and Maia. Throughout the day, as Jason doted on her more and more, Gracie decided it would be best if she just ended things with him at lunchtime.
She wanted to be with Rachel, as far as she was concerned, Rachel and she were officially girlfriends now. And she had let Jason kiss her all day, she mostly gave him the cheek, but he was just so sweet that she got swept up in it.
When lunch finally rolled around, Gracie went to meet Jason on the beach just like they had planned, when she arrived she saw the elaborate picnic he had prepared.
"What's all this for?" She sat down opposite him.
"Your birthday," Jason smiled and poured lemonade into a plastic champagne flute, "I know you said you didn't want a big fuss, but I couldn't help it. I just want you to love your birthday," Jason kissed her, again.
She had every intention to break it off with Jason, and then he showed her the cake. In blue frosting, it read: "Happy Birthday Gracie! Will you be my girlfriend?" They hadn't even been on a real date yet and Jason liked her enough to ask something so important. He trusted her, and she couldn't let him down now.
"Oh my God," Gracie didn't know what else to say, so she smiled.
"So, will you?" Jason twiddled his thumbs, anticipating her response. Gracie wondered how it could be possible for him to be nervous around her when all he did was make her feel confident.
The answer in Gracie's mind was obvious; no. She was already someone else's girlfriend, someone whose trust she'd broken once before. She couldn't say yes to Jason, but she did.
After school, Gracie dodged Jason's request to walk her home, saying she'd promised her oldest foster sister that she'd hang out with her. To her surprise, the lie was strengthened when Riley came over to them and told Gracie that they had to run an errand for Stella and Lilah, who were working late again. She let Jason kiss her on the cheek before getting on the bus with Riley.
"Please don't ask about Jason, I don't want to talk about it right now," she stared out of the window, "So, what do your moms want us to do?" She asked.
"Uh, just get some groceries and stuff," Riley said, "They're going to be home late tonight so I said we'd be on dinner duty," Riley was looking out of the bus window, seemingly distracted by something.
"Wait, isn't the grocery store the other way?" Gracie noticed that they had gotten on the wrong bus.
"Huh, I guess you're right," Riley was acting strange.
The girls got off the bus at the nearest stop and had to wait twenty minutes for another one to come that would take them to the store. Riley spent those twenty minutes on her phone, normally Gracie would have started a conversation but she didn't want to risk having to talk about Jason or Rachel.
Once their bus arrived at the store, Riley started going on about a shopping list and then had Gracie dig through her backpack while she was on the phone with someone, she wouldn't say who. Another twenty minutes passed, so Riley decided to go into the store without a list and insisted that Gracie wait outside.
She could see through the window that her foster sister was walking around the store painfully slowly, by the time she finally got out of the store and they got the bus home, they had been out for an hour and a half.
When they got through the front door, all the lights were turned off, but there was a warm glow coming from the backyard, "Uh, where is everyone?"
Riley ignored her and walked straight through to the backyard. Gracie followed, and as she got closer, she started to realize what was going on. A banner hung between two trees confirmed her suspicions, this was a surprise party.
The people gathered in the backyard shouted, "Happy birthday!"