When Kaya Perry graduates college, the last place she wants to go back is Layton, the town that she left behind. She left that place with bad memories and no friends, so there is no way she's looking to go back. So it's really a bummer when the job...
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"Welcome to New York!" Lauren said, hugging Kaya. Olivia grabbed Kaya's bag before giving her a hug. "We're so happy you made it!"
Kaya laughed. "Glad I did too," she greeted, hugging Lauren back. It had felt like a long time since she'd seen her friends but it had only been a few months. Each woman spoke over the phone every day, having long conversations about anyone and anything. Olivia hadn't mentioned anything about Ty at any time, which Kaya had been thankful for.
After talking for a few more moments, the three decided that it was time to leave the airport and actually go back to Lauren and Olivia's apartment.
Their home was gorgeous. Olivia's uncle owned an apartment complex in Manhattan and the two had gotten a nice studio apartment that was only a couple thousand dollars a month. Lauren, though a minimalist at heart, had chosen to make the space feel homey, with warm colors, photos gracing the walls, a few plants, and a partition to separate the bedroom from the main area. Their kitchen was big by New York standards, and they were fortunate enough to have a washer/dryer combo come with the apartment.
"This place is gorgeous," Kaya said when she walked in. "There's so much space, so much sunlight..."
"It's great until you have to wake up in the morning," Olivia said. She put Kaya's bag by the door and stretched. "The sun hits us right in the face. I don't see how Lauren loves it."
Lauren stuck her tongue out at her girlfriend and Olivia kissed the top of the former's head. Kaya watched, feeling completely full of happiness to see that her two friends were happy as well.
"Anyway," Lauren said, piping up, "let's get dinner cooking. I know you're probably tired from the flight and Olivia wanted to show you Manhattan at night, but we need to get some food in you before deciding what we want to do. I was going to do something simple like burgers. You down?"
Kaya nodded, fighting a yawn, and Lauren shooed her into the bathroom so that she could take a hot shower.
And what a hot shower it was. Kaya could feel her muscles relaxing, all of her tension from the flight leaving as if it had never existed. She had checked in with her mother as soon as she had gotten out of the airport, had let Ximena and Santiago know that she was alive, and sent Ty a picture of the first Starbucks that she had seen. Her contracts had been fulfilled and so, for the next two weeks, she had nothing to worry about.
She smiled.
After the shower, she made her way out into the living room to find Lauren holding Olivia's waist from behind while Olivia seasoned and mixed together ground beef. They hadn't heard Kaya come out of the bathroom, and so they were still the picture of domestic bliss.
Lauren pressed a kiss to Olivia's cheek that the latter leaned into, clearly used to it, and played with a few strands of her girlfriend's hair. Olivia had a small smile on her face.
Making sure that her sound and flash were off, Kaya snuck a candid photo of the two before putting her phone away and knocking on the wall.
"What are you seasoning the burgers with?" Kaya asked. The two women looked up when she spoke and Lauren let go of Olivia to go hug her friend. Kaya accepted the hug with a smile.
"The usual," Olivia said, "but I'm adding chili flakes and liquid smoke."
"Cool," Kaya replied. "If you have some potatoes I can make homemade french fries."
"No, no, no," Lauren said, still holding on to Kaya's shoulders. "You're a guest, and we're going to treat you like one. Go sit and we'll do the work."
Kaya, still smiling, shook her head. She loved her friends.
"I can't believe that you've never thought that David Beckham was hot," Lauren said, after swallowing the rest of her burger. "I mean, I've known that I was gay since I was twelve but I knew that David Beckham was handsome even then."
Kaya rolled her eyes and held back a giggle. After the burgers and fries were done cooking the three women decided to eat on the living room floor rather than at the dining nook that Lauren had created out of an open space by the kitchen. To Kaya, this felt like the roommate experience she missed in college. She would have never imagined this, never imagined being friends with two women that were so authentically themselves, one of which was actually from the same place she was.
"White guys never did it for me," Olivia said, shrugging. "Give me Shemar Moore, Kelly Rowland, Lucy Liu, or nothing."
Kaya took a sip of her water—she had, for once, refused a glass of wine—and watched her two friends bicker. It was nice seeing them again and Kaya hadn't realized how much she had missed them. While Ty was fun to hang out with back at home, there was nothing like hanging out with other girls. With other girls, there was solidarity, brutal honesty, and a mutual appreciation of each other's traits without being catty. Hanging out with Ty always made her tense; she knew that everyone in Layton thought that they were sleeping together and had even banded against her, not even letting her apply for the simplest jobs.
Lauren and Olivia knew none of this; they all thought that the reason she hadn't gained a job in Layton was because of her mother's supposed "background." Ty, of course, knew about it and it pissed him off to no end. Kaya could only imagine how her two friends would react if they found out.
"And you?" Lauren asked, peering at Kaya. "Who would you pick—Shemar or David?"
Kaya pretended to think about it. "Shemar, for the win. David has always looked too old."
"Thank you!" Olivia said. "I mean, I can appreciate the looks of an older man, but David looks just like aged cheese to me." She rolled her eyes at Olivia's feigned gasp of shock. "Shemar is part Black and you know that we don't crack."
"And if we do," Kaya said, laughing, "it because we didn't stay in our lane and mind our own business."
Lauren was just quiet between the two of them, happy that Olivia and Kaya were gotten along. From what Lauren had told Kaya on their many phone calls, Olivia had told Lauren all about how the former had acted in high school. At first, Lauren had told Kaya that she wasn't sure if their relationship would make it. At the time, Lauren and Olivia had just gotten together and were starting to have some deep conversations—ones that included being part of the bullying, the LGBT community, interracial relationships, and how Olivia's family wasn't nearly as accepting as Lauren's.
Lauren wasn't a fan of bullying and wasn't the type to idly stand by. One of the more popular people in her high school, Lauren always stood up for the people who got bullied and couldn't stand to sit by and watch it happen. Though she'd graduated at the top of her class, she was constantly in trouble for getting into fights with other students because she refused to stand down. She almost didn't make it into college because of her permanent record.
When she found out that Olivia had been part of that crowd, she almost left her. It was only Olivia's promise to apologize and learn from her mistakes that kept the two of them together. And she made sure Olivia kept those promises; of course, it was up to Olivia to change herself, but with Lauren behind her Olivia at least had some support.
Kaya looked at the clock above their TV. "I think it's time for me to go to sleep," she said, setting her water down.
Lauren and Olivia agreed before setting up an air mattress that had been buried in their tiny closet. After they finished, the two wished Kaya good night and went to their bedrooms. As soon as Kaya's head touched the pillow she was out.
