STORM

-twenty-six-

A week had passed since they ran into Eiji. Storm had been meaning to talk to him, but he'd failed to answer her calls or texts. She'd considered going to his apartment, but decided against it. Maybe he needed to come to her on his terms. If that didn't work, she would resort to visiting him.

However, she pushed that to the back of her mind for now. Gabriella and her moms were coming over soon. May was babbling about how excited she was while running around the kitchen cooking lasagna. Both her daughters were helping her out. As sisters do, Faye was teasing Storm about her girlfriend, to which Storm smacked the back of her head and grumbled. Their mom was too busy dancing and twirling around to scold them.

"I had a client come in today and demand a full face glam makeup look for 5 bucks," Storm recounted while helping layer the lasagna.

"Geez, what happened?" Her mom asked.

"Obviously I said I couldn't do that for just 5 dollars. She started yelling at me that I was overpricing and it was ridiculous to charge so much for a little makeup. Naturally, I was offended but remained professional. Long story short, she eventually caved in and left when I refused to do it for so cheap."

Faye scoffed. "The audacity of some people"

"Literally. After that, though, I had a really sweet girl come in. But guess the crazy thing?"

"What?" May inquired, invested.

"You know Alana?"

"Yeah, your first girlfriend," her mom confirmed. "Sweet girl, that one."

"Turns out, this girl was one of her close friends."

"How did you discover that?" Faye asked, raising a questioning eyebrow.

After the rude lady had left, Storm remembered being in a bad mood when this nice girl entered. She must have noticed something was off because she asked and urged Storm to tell her about it when she told her what happened. That was how their conversation started, then they started talking about what she needed the makeup look for. It had turned out she was hosting a birthday party for her best friend's 20th. Storm asked her more for it and when she mentioned her name it clicked. Eventually, they ended up exchanging numbers and promised to all meet for coffee someday. Storm retold the story to her sister and mom.

"You know, I could never be friends with my ex. I don't get how you do it," her mom told them.

"I've noticed," Storm retorted.

May smacked her lips together. "Okay, first of all, rude. It's not bad I just can't relate."

"Sorry. But I guess there's just never been any bad blood. I haven't had a relationship that ended because we disliked each other. With Echo, we were friends before. We just weren't a good fit. I didn't want to lose one of my best friends because of that. So we agreed to be friends. It was a bit awkward in the beginning, but since then, we've never had any issues and the feelings are gone."

"That's mature," Faye said, sprinkling some cheese on the lasagna.

"It is. But enough of exes. Gabriella, Leona, and Freya will be here soon. I want to hear more about her and less about past girlfriends," May told her, putting the dish in the oven and shutting it.

Things had been going well. Storm had taken her on multiple trips the past few days when they had time. None of them had been as adrenaline-kicking as the bungee jumping one. Storm thought she should probably give her a break from almost heart attacks. She liked Gabriella so much it was starting to get ridiculous. Her voice was enough to bring a flutter of butterflies in her stomach. She was in deep and it hadn't even been that long. Storm had never had such intense feelings before, it was frightening yet exhilarating. They saw each other yesterday, yet Storm was already missing her.