Katya POV-
I'm running later to school than usual but I guess compared to most people that's early. Even though I couldn't sleep last night I'm still a morning person. The halls are still mostly clear, a few underclassman sit against their lockers, some are asleep. The cafeteria isn't open yet so instead of sitting on chairs we have to line the edges of the hallways. My locker is at the front of the senior hallway, Trixie's is at the back near the exit door. I wouldn't typically notice what was going on down there as there's a 90 degree turn in the middle completely blocking it from view. However today I can hear something going on back there. Usually when I get here the senior hallway is empty because we all drive ourselves. Our hallway doesn't get crowded until 2 minutes to class time. Normally I'd mind my own business but knowing Trixie's locker is down that way makes me nervous. She wouldn't be here this early right?
Peering around the corner, I don't see what I expected. There's a small group of boys that I don't know, younger than I am by then looks of it. They've surrounded someone, each spitting insults as they come to their minds. What they're saying doesn't even make sense. "What are you doing?" I find myself saying before I think.
They all turn to glare at me. "Nothing. None of your business."
I shrug, pretending to be unfazed, which I mostly am. "No. What are you doing?"
One of them laughs and starts sprinting down the hall before I can say anything else. The rest follow him, turning the corner, yelling all the way down the hallway. After a moment it's silent again. Trixie stands there, looking more annoyed than anything. "Have I ever told you how much I hate sophomore boys?" She remarks.
A smile finds its way to my lips. "You alright?" I ask.
She nods. "I don't really give a shit right now. I have bigger things in life to worry about than sophomores telling me I'm gay. I mean." She laughs a bit. "It's not like I don't already know that. I don't need them to tell me."
Okay, confirmation. Maybe not in the way we all wanted it, but we did get it. Is fate real? I think it must be. "Want to go grab tea before school starts? Why are you so early today?"
"My grandma insisted on dropping me off because of the rain and she had to go to work early." She replies. "Yeah let's get tea."
I smile and we start off down the hallway. I tell her about how my mom wasn't really mad and how I couldn't sleep at all last night. She's talking back and laughing but I can tell she's tired, I bet she didn't sleep either.
The little school store just opened so there's a couple of people getting breakfast and such. We pull two bottles of tea from the mini fridge and I grab a red bull for later. We pay and head to our usual lunch table in the cafeteria. "How are you so energetic in the morning." Trixie asks, rubbing her eyes.
I shrug. "Morning person."
She laughs at me as I point to myself. "You're so annoying." I smile at her and her little dimples appear under her lip. God her dimples are cute. "Wanna come over after school?" She asks. "If you want to."
"Yeah of course I want to." I reply and she blushes a bit.
******
I don't see Trixie at lunch because I have to get math help from a teacher. When I see her in English her face lights up. She goes to sit in her spot in the front, brushing her pink hair behind her ears, straightening out her glasses. She's such a little dork.
The entire class is boring and I find myself staring Trixie, glad that she sits in front of me so that she doesn't notice my stares. Every once in a while she adjusts her glasses again, I think more out of habit than actually needing them adjusted. She must not think the lesson is boring because she looks incredibly absorbed in everything being said. The class feels like it drones on forever and I can't wait to go to her house. Finally the bell rings.
Trixie basically runs out of her seat to me, throwing her bag over her shoulder on the way. She's practically skipping next to me. "What are you so excited about?" I tease.
"You're coming over." She replies. I asked so I could hear her say it.
"You're an idiot." I laugh. "Come on, I need to grab my stuff before we go."
She follows me to my locker and then we head outside. Her house is just past the park. As we walk I light a cigarette. She scrunches her nose at the smoke. "Sorry." I say but she nudges me affectionately.
"I don't mind that much."
"Ah good."
When we get to her house I put out the cigarette in her driveway and she leads me to the door. "My grandma won't be home for a few hours so we have the house to ourselves."
She doesn't tell me to but I take off my shoes at the door like she does and leave my bag next to them. Trixie leads me to her bedroom. Unsurprisingly it has 3 pink walls and one white one. It's pretty small but it's cozy. Her bed is in the corner, there's stuffed animals sat infront of her pillow. She sits on floor and I sit across from her. "What do you want to do?" She asks me.
"I'm not sure what there is."
Trixie shrugs. "Not a ton I must admit. There's board games?"
"Sure." I grin. "That works."
She grabs a few out of her closet and sets them on the floor between us. "Pick one."
I grab clue because it's the one on the top and we take out the pieces together. After a while we're hardly playing, mostly taking mindlessly. I don't have to think long and hard to answer Trixie. When I'm around her the words find themselves, tumbling out without effort. Even as we talk about the past, how much we don't like school. I tell her about my elementary school, how we went to church every day there. She seems surprised about that.
"How come you don't anymore?" She asks me.
"It never worked for me. I guess I'm still spiritual or something but church was never my thing."
Trixie nods. "It was never for me. We used to go for a while but it messed me up a little bit and I decided to stop going. But my mom didn't mind."
I wonder why she doesn't live with her mom. She talks of her fondly, but not like she's dead or anything. I don't ask.
"So why'd you transfer?" She says, taking her next turn in the game.
The words stop before they can reach my mouth. I have to think of a new response. The simplest one. "Oh I mean. It wasn't a good fit."
By the way she looks at me I think she can tell how uncomfortable I am so she doesn't ask anything else about that. I take my next turn and while she's taking hers I look around her room some more. There's so much stuff to look at and quite a bit of it looks like it was made by her. In the corner I notice her guitar which had little pink flowers painted under the bridge. Her eyes follow mine to look at it. "You should play for me." I say, raising an eyebrow. I mean it more in a teasing way, I know she wouldn't.
"Not in your wildest dreams would you find me playing guitar for someone alone."
"How come?" I say, poking her in the side.
She giggles at my touch and slaps my hand away. "I only play and sing in front of my teacher and at recital once a year."
"Unfair." I tell her.
Trixie adds. "There's only one video of it in the world and it's on my grandma's Facebook page."
My eyes widen. "No way."
"Yes way." She says smiling.
I grab my phone out of my back pocket and find Facebook on it immediately. I type in her last name and find her account. Searching through her list of friends I find her grandma's pretty quickly.
"What are you doing?" She laughs, crawling over the board game to peer over my shoulder. I hide the phone screen from her, pressing the request button.
"Requested." I say.
"Yeah right." She replies, grabbing her own phone. She pulls up her grandma's texts and begins to type as fast as she can. I steal her phone from her hands before she can send it. It sends her into a fit of laughter and she practically jumps on top of me to grab the phone. She grasps it for a moment but I pull it away and tap on voice text.
"Accept Katya's friend request on Facebook." I speak into the phone. We're flailing around so much I don't know what the text caught before I send it. She dives for her phone and catches my hands, nearly pinning me to the floor laughing.
My stomach hurts from laughing so hard. "Fine you win!" I declare. "Get off!"
She takes her phone from my hands but takes a moment before she moves off of me. Her face is right next to mind, so close I can see all the details of her features. She's even prettier close up. It almost looks like she's trying to kiss me, but I can't tell. I don't want to ruin it. I lean in anyways. She could close the gap if she wanted. Trixie doesn't, instead she moves off of me and returns to her side of the board to continue the game. "I didn't mean to make it weird." I tell her, my voice a little shaky.
"You didn't." She replies. "I don't mind." I wonder if she pulled away by chance or because she saw I wanted to kiss her. Either way she doesn't seem bothered. "Stop looking so depressed, you're about to win this stupid game."
I laugh at her, my body relaxing a bit. At least she isn't mad at me. We finish the game a few minutes later and hear the garage door open. Her grandma must be home. "How late is it?" I ask.
She checks the time. "5:32" Trixie tells me.
I frown. "I should probably get going, my moms making dinner tonight."
"I'll walk you to the door."
I grab my things and put my shoes back on before heading out the door. "Thanks!" I say, hopping off the ledge of the porch.
"See you tomorrow." Trixie replies, and I start up the street to get my car from the school.