This Way Comes (Lesbian)

Coralen

It took Laura a good six seconds to react. Her throat suddenly felt tight and her mouth dry. Her heart was beating its way out of her body and her brain couldn't come up with an answer that was anywhere near coherent. How long had it been since she'd seen Coralen for the last time? How long since she'd heard her voice? In those six seconds, Laura remembered everything she'd lived with her. The laughs, the phone conversations up until late in the middle of the night, the movies, the walks on the beach.

After those six seconds it took Laura to come up with a response, she'd remember that there's a reason why people say you don't forget your first love.

"Hey!" she finally said, "It's been such a long time!"

"I know," Coralen replied.

Laura stood up and Coralen hugged her for what seemed way too long to Colbie. However, what annoyed the writer the most, was that Laura had completely forgotten Colbie was there. If it hasn't been because Coralen asked, "Who's your friend?" Laura would've never noticed.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry. She's Colbie, she's my—my... uh, a friend."

Coralen, with a politeness that bothered Colbie, said "Nice to meet you, Colbie. I'm Coralen Lawton."

As Colbie was never good at acting angry or making sure people could tell what she was feeling, she simply stood up and shook Coralen's hand with the same awkwardness that she used to do everything she wasn't comfortable with. "Yeah, uh, nice to meet you, too. Laura's talked about you."

Immediately after saying that, Colbie closed her eyes regretting mentioning something that could be interpreted so wrongly. Luckily for her, Coralen turned to Laura and said, "How many lies have you told her about me?"

"Only good things," Laura said. They talked to each other as if time hadn't gone by. As if they'd only stopped seeing each other for a week or so. "Hey, wanna sit with us?"

Coralen looked around at her group and considered it, but decided against it. "No, thanks. I'm here with my friends and I don't want to impose. But it was so great seeing you, Laura."

As Coralen moved with her friends to a table a few feet away, Ivan and Dunlop came back. "Was that Coralen Lawton?" Ivan asked. "She's hotter in real life."

God, Colbie thought, is every manager in the industry a dick? Well, he'd fixed everything for Laura and was making sure she'd meet her publicist the next day to work out all the details regarding the interviews and the ads for the movie, so she couldn't complain too much. Her career also depended on the success of the movie.

However, after Coralen moved to another table, it was like Laura wasn't there with her anymore. She would look at Coralen every thirty seconds or so and couldn't keep track of what Dunlop and Ivan were discussing. How could she be so invested in someone she hadn't seen in eleven years? Had Coralen been so important to her that after so many years, she would still be so clearly hooked up on her?

Colbie began to feel something she knew all too well when it came to Laura. Jealousy. She'd felt it when Laura started spending more time with Kathy than with her, and she was feeling it now. She hated how Laura had the attention span of a goldfish and how often she made Colbie feel like she wasn't all that important. At the end of the night, when everyone was a little bit drunk, but not enough so that they couldn't get up the next day, they decided to leave. Before exiting the bar, Laura went up to Coralen, said goodbye, and kissed on the cheek.

When Ivan and Dunlop stopped the cab to head back to the hotel, Laura told them they could go ahead since Colbie and she needed to talk. The two men were about to nod, but Colbie answered, "I don't think there's anything to talk about," before getting in the car.