STORM

-twenty-eight-

Gabriella was startled awake when she heard keys clattering from the hallway. Realizing she was very much naked and sleeping on Storm's chest, she scrambled up to put something on. This awakened Storm who went to get dressed as well, changing into something of Gabriella's. They must have been asleep for at least an hour.

"Are you home, Gabi?" Her ma called out.

She considered pretending she wasn't but promptly decided against it.

"Yeah, I'm home," she shouted back.

A knock on the door followed by her ma asking if she could come in came quickly. They were thankfully now fully clothed and looking fairly put together, so Gabriella went to unlock the door and told her she could come in.

"Is-" her ma didn't get further than that before she noticed Storm. "Oh, Storm. You're here. Lovely to see you. Everything okay with you then?"

"Yeah, everything is fine."

"Good, good." Her ma glanced between them suspiciously. "I will leave you to it...then. I'm making something to eat, it'll be ready in an hour or so."

She backed out and shut the door behind her. Gabriella buried her face in her hands and groaned, almost certain her ma knew something had gone down. Well, someone. As the supportive girlfriend she was, Storm patted her on the back.

"It's fine, Gabi. I bet she didn't suspect anything," Storm said, quite obviously lying to make Gabriella feel better, which earned her a glare.

"Shut up, you barely seem bothered."

"It's not like she caught us naked. Also, maybe I just don't have any shame."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "I hate you."

With a cheeky smile, Storm bopped her nose and grabbed her face, smooshing it. "You know that's a lie, Gabi Dabi."

"Gabi Dabi?"

She shrugged and let go of Gabriella's face, instead sliding an arm around her face. The move made Gabriella's stomach fill with butterflies, as if they weren't just much, much closer than that.

"I couldn't think of anything else to rhyme with, sue me."

"It's okay, not everyone can be as creative as me," Gabriella teased.

Storm raised a challenging eyebrow. "Oh? Show me some of that creativity then. Rhyme my name."

She scrunched her face, her mind suddenly going blank. Slapping her shoulder playfully, she told her, "that's not fair, you're putting me on the spot! I can't think under pressure."

Laughing, Storm pecked her on the cheek. Gabriella's lips turned up into a smile. Even pretending, Gabriella couldn't be frustrated with her when she did that. Affectionate Storm was probably her favorite version of her.

"Oh, I just suddenly remembered that I'm not sure if I told you about meeting a friend of Alana's the other day," Storm said all of a sudden.

Gabriella shook her head. "Not that I recall."

"Yeah, well we decided to meet for a coffee some day along with Alana. She seemed really nice."

Only Alana, Storm, and some stranger? Gabriella had mixed feelings about that. As much as she trusted Storm, her hanging around her exes so often still bothered her. However, they'd already discussed this before, so Gabriella felt it was unnecessary to bring it up again. She could bury down her feelings for now. Yes, she could do that. Couldn't she?

"Oh? Cool."

She frowned. "You don't seem so happy about the idea."

Gabriella almost, almost, scoffed. "What? Do you want me to jump up and down and squeal about it? Of course, I'm not ecstatic that you're fucking obsessed with your exes. Would you be if I became all buddy-buddy with my exes?"