Asymptote (bxb)

Chapter 17: Trying

"Bailey and Cian sitting in a tree, K-I-"

            "Shut the ever-loving shit up, Gemma," I scowled, shoving my phone back into my pocket out of embarrassment. I went back to spreading jam on my toast as Gemma smirked back at me over her tea.

The weekend had been a dream. Cian had woken me up with lunch after I feel asleep during our movie Saturday, and he had lit a fire in the fireplace for us to eat in front of. It felt surreal. Just the way he looked at me was enough to give me butterflies. After lunch we had played a few rounds of FIFA in which I had my ass brutally handed to me, we had another steamy make out session, and then he dropped me back at home.

Then Sunday, I had decided since I had so much late schoolwork piling up, that I would go to Carol's to work on it, full well knowing that Cian would be working. Seeing his eyes light up when he saw me made me feel warm, it made me feel wanted. He brought over my coffee from memory, and we shared flirty looks and comments throughout his shift. When he was done, we took a walk until our feet were freezing, and then we sat in his car to warm up. We played a clean version of 20 questions, laughing over our most embarrassing stories, sharing our regrets, hopes and dreams. It was all so normal and I was loving normal.

I didn't want to come off needy, spending every day either seeing Cian or talking to Cian, but it just made me stupid happy.

"Bailey, language," my mother warned.

"But she's harassing me!" I exclaimed with annoyance, letting my butter knife fall to the plate.

"She's not wrong," my mother laughed to herself with a small snort, "I saw you both in the car. K-I-S-S-I-"

I had always expected more questions when I came out, or in this case, when I was caught. But I think my supposed closet was more like a plastic bag. I hadn't tried very hard to hide it, and Mom's reaction was what I had always expected; uncaring. Now I felt silly that I didn't have the chance to have the official conversation with her first.

"Okay, okay, I get it." I held my hands up as if to say that I surrender while my face flushed redder than my hair. Gemma burst into laughter.

"Have you talked to your friend that came by the other night? Miles?" My mother asked and I stiffed.

"I don't want to talk about that," I said plainly, and my mother didn't dare to poke at it. Gemma raised an inquisitive eyebrow but kept quiet. We sat in silence as I swallowed down my toast with my coffee.

Another thought I was avoiding aside from Miles, was that applications for university were due by 1st of December, now midway through November and still with no idea what I was doing, I was beyond stressed. But somehow, the stress of everything else seemed to take priority in my mind.

"Well, you two better get going. It's supposed to thunderstorm, and I don't want you driving through that, Bailey," my mother said. I rolled my eyes behind her back but nodded. If she knew everything I did, driving through a thunderstorm would be bottom of her list of worries.

"I call aux!" Gemma called out, grabbing her bag and heading for the door. I dropped my dishes into the sink and groaned aloud. Although I secretly liked Gemma's music, I would never admit to it.

Gemma may have beat me to the car, but I made sure she was locked outside of it until I had already seated myself in the car. It drove her crazier than anything, and it was my small form of microaggression.

Before she had a chance to put on her obnoxiously loud music, I decided to venture into yet another conversation I was dreading.

"Can we talk about what happened the other night?" I asked.