Chapter 4
1037 Words
The men once again shook their heads.
Lea took a deep breath; she was about to head out into deeper water. "Kirsten: when you woke up this morning, were you dreaming about Gianna — or were you dreaming about me?"
Kirsten threw her hands over her face. Sean petted at her head, but Andy — mortified as he still clearly was — snickered. "She was moanin" your name, Lea-baby."
yourSean backhanded Andy none too gently, and then whispered to Kirsten, "I don"t blame you, Sis. I"ve dreamed about Lea here for years."
"Thank you," Lea said, choking a bit on a sudden upsurge of emotion. This was beyond complicated. But she needed to say the last bit. She reached out and urged her friend"s hands down from her face. "Kirsten, I need you to look at me, okay?"
beyondKirsten unwillingly lowered her hands as Sean continued to stroke her hair. She was once again crying, not that Lea blamed her. She looked as if she were waiting for Lea to scratch her eyes out, but she met Lea"s gaze.
"Thank you." Another upsurge. Another breath. "Kirsten, my BFF, I really, really don"t mind. You can dream about doing whatever you want to me. I"m... I"m honored, I guess."
Kirsten"s eyes widened.
Now it was Lea"s turn to reach out and take her friend"s hand. "Just so long as you understand I am not bisexual, and that it"s your brother and this eternal twelve-year-old —" She flicked her head toward Andy. "— that I am in love with and planning on spending the rest of my life with. Though God alone knows how that is going to work out. Okay, K?"
notthatKirsten shot her a bleary, off-center smile and nodded. "God. Now I feel twelve."
ISean kissed the top of his sister"s head. "Long as you don"t start sighing about Bobby Wang."
Bobby"Wong, shithead. His name was Bobby Wong. And if I hear that name again, I"m going to tell your fiancés here all about a certain Giselle —"
WongWong.fiancés"Yeah. No." Sean held up his hands in surrender, but he was grinning. "Listen, Sis, we"ll get a real breakfast together. Why don"t you go and clean off the plane dust."
Kirsten got up, gave her brother a hug back, and then shuffled off to the bathroom, while
When the door closed behind Kirsten, Lea turned to Sean, ready to tease him about this Giselle, whoever she was, but Sean was staring at Lea, his expression as serious as Lea could remember seeing it.
"What, Sean?"
He bit his lip, but his gaze remained knife-edged.
Suddenly nervous again, Lea frowned at him. "Sean?"
That night, after the boys had driven into work, Lea and Kirsten were on the pull-out watching Clueless, working on their second bottle of Pinot Gris, and getting very silly.
Clueless,"Gawd, I wanted those clothes when I was a kid," Kirsten tittered.
Snorting, Lea leaned against the body pillow she was propped up against and said, "You did have a thing for plaid when I met you."
Kirsten poked her. "And you had a thing for wearing all black."
you"I was in mourning for my life. I was unhappy." Lea tried to say it with a straight face, but couldn"t even begin to manage it.
"Yeah, right."
"I got over it. You never went through a goth phase?"
While Alicia Silverstone applied makeup in a mirror, Kirsten actually considered this. "Naw. Well, maybe for a week or two. To try to impress Bobby that Sean was teasing me about." She gave a nostalgic smirk.
"Bobby Wang?"
WangKirsten"s eyes narrowed. "Wong."
Wong.Lea grinned. "Same name, you know. Chinese doesn"t have a long A sound."
"Well, I know that now. When I was in eighth grade, all I knew was Bobby was cute, and always wore eyeliner and black Green Day shirts, and that Sean wouldn"t stop givin" me s**t about him."
now"How in the hell did you find a boy named Wong to get a crush on?"
"Hey! You"ve lived here. Atlanta ain"t San Fran, but it ain"t just black and white. First girl I ever wanted to kiss was Tracy Rodriguez." Kirsten"s eyes flicked to Lea and then back to the screen. "Guess I always kind of liked people who had more pigment than me. Which is, you know, anyone with any pigment at all."
"You have pigment. Just, you know, in spots." Lea almost touched a freckle on her friend"s arm — would have done it a year before — but instead fell back into watching the silly movie, watching Alicia Silverstone"s Cher banter with her black best friend Dionne. Who reminded Lea of a less curvy, younger Cherry. Cherry. "So Stacy Rodriguez. How old were you?"
"Gawd. Twelve, thirteen maybe? Freaked me the f**k out. I mean, it was okay that I thought she was cute, "cause, you know, she was, but I started having all of these thoughts, you know?"
wasthoughts"Yeah. I know. Being thirteen is hard for anyone." Lea looked at her friend. Kirsten was sitting with her knees pulled to her chest. Lea could ask about the first time Kirsten actually kissed a girl, or when Kirsten realized that she had a crush on Lea, but that was probably too direct. So she took a completely different tack. "So Sean. Who was this Giselle?"
anyoneThat got Kirsten to laugh. "Giselle Beauchamp!" She took a swig of wine. "So there I was, crushing on Tracy and Bobby, and Sean being an asshole about it — about Bobby, "cause I didn"t tell no one about Tracy, ever — and there"s this girl in his freshman class that he keeps talking about. And one night I"m coming back from the bathroom and I hear this, um, groaning from Sean"s bedroom; he"s moaning her name. Well, I thought, time for me to pay you back for all the Bobby Wang s**t. So I shove open his door and..." Kirsten laughed and turned bright red.
groaningWelltime for me to pay you back for all theshit.
- Writer
