Lucy and Grace // on hold

seven

Grace couldn't sleep after the party. She told herself it was because she had had too many sugary drinks before going to bed, but who was she kidding? She knew it was because she had just spent the whole evening talking with Lucy. Lucy, who had arrived looking like a princess in that sparkly grey skirt and her hair piled up on her looking so soft and so touchable, it taken all of Grace's willpower to not just reach out and touch the curls and run her hands through her hair.

Grace kept replaying their conversations over and over again in her head. She kept circling back to when she had told Lucy about her ex-girlfriend, and what Lucy had said in return.

"Oh, I've never dated a girl before. I had a few boyfriends in the past but that's it." Grace had said.

These two sentences haunted Grace. What had she meant by that? Maybe she was bi? Maybe she had just been too uncomfortable to tell Grace she was straight after she had told her that she was gay? Did she mean she wasn't into girls?

Grace woke up frustrated the following morning, and with a pounding hangover. She groaned at the bright midmorning sunlight streaming in through the window and wished that she had remembered to close her curtains before she fell asleep the night before. She fumbled around blindly for her phone and sent a text to Lucy before rolling over and pulling the duvet up over her eyes. Begrudgingly, Grace pulled herself out of bed and into the kitchen, where Jasper was already sat at the table, nursing a mug of coffee and eating a piece of leftover pizza. Arisa looked remarkably relaxed well rested, which Grace scowled at. Curse the youth and their inability to get hangovers.

Arisa looked up as Grace entered and folded her arms across her chest. "Why didn't you introduce me to the girl you've been crushing on last night? Jasper just told me she was there."

"Traitor." Grace said in Jasper's direction, but without any malice. Jasper shrugged.

"I'm just preparing Arisa for you talking about nothing but Lucy for the rest of the week."

"Well? I'm all ears." Arisa said. Stood up, she was taller than Grace, and she looked down at her like she was a disappointed parent finding out their child hadn't done their homework.

"I mean, you kind of did meet her." Arisa's eyebrows shot up.

"Really? When? Who?"

"Lucy. I think she accidentally spilt some your drink soon after she arrived."

"Oh, her. I think I saw you two talking together on the sofa at some point." Arisa pondered for a moment. "She seemed kinda quiet for your tastes. Does she know that you're gay?"

"Yeah, I told her that I'm gay last night." Arisa smiled at her older sister.

"Hey good on you! Now all you have to do is ask her out on a date. Ooh! Are there any fancy places nearby? I would suggest that drive in cinema nearby but its way too cold for that at the moment; its April for god's sake."

Grace shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I would, but I don't really know if she's at all interested in girls?"

Both Jasper and Arisa looked deadpan at Grace.

"You don't know yet? Haven't you asked her?"

"No! It felt kind of rude... besides, when I told her I used to have a girlfriend she said that she's only ever dated guys before so ..." Grace trailed off, unsure as to what else to say in her defence. Arisa rolled her eyes heavenward.

"God, you're even worse than Cass. I had to suffer through two months of those two trying to figure out that they liked each other." Noticing the looks of confusion from Grace and Jasper she waved her hand dismissively. "The captain of the girl's rugby team and the head girl at my school just got together, but they took ages to figure out that the other liked them and wasn't just being polite." She rolled her eyes. "They're a cute couple but my god is Cass oblivious." She looked at Grace pointedly. "You better not be as bad as her." Grace held her hands up.

"I'll do my best; I can't make any promises though."

Lucy did not wake up with a hangover. She did wake up to a text from Grace though.

Grace: morning! hope your hangover isn't as bad as mine.

Grace: in all seriousness tho, I hope u had a good time last night

Lucy smiled at her phone and looked at the timestamp. It had been sent over an hour ago. Not wanting to keep Grace waiting, she sent her reply.

Me: nah, I don't really get hangovers. I didn't drink as much as you did tho :P

A few minutes later her phone buzzed with Grace's reply.

Grace: not fair ☹ im very jealous

Lucy grinned. Sabrina decided to make herself known at this point, flinging Lucy's door open dramatically.

"Good morning sleepyhead!"

"Morning Sabrina."

"I'm just gonna cut right to the chase: I want to know everything that happened last night. I saw you and Grace talking to each other all night. Surely you guys talked about something productive?" Lucy shrugged.

"Kind of? I don't really remember that much to be honest; it was just lots of talking about nothing you know? It was nice though." She thought for a moment. "Oh! Grace did mention her girlfriend though, so there was that. I guess I know she's a lesbian. She said something about never having dated men before." Lucy sighed. "It's a shame that she has a girlfriend though."

Sabrina frowned. "It's kind of weird that she hadn't mentioned her girlfriend before now. And why did she invite you for lunch the other day? That's not really the sort of thing you do if you have a girlfriend."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "That wasn't exactly a date. It was just lunch between friends; Jasper was there the whole time. We were just getting to know each other." Sabrina was no longer paying attention and was tapping away furiously on her phone.

"What's this girl's name again?"

"Arisa Sato... why?"

"I'm going to stalk her on Instagram for you."

"No!" Lucy cried, and tried to bat the phone out of Sabrina's hands, but she held it just out of Lucy's reach.

"Found her!" She said, triumphant. "She's on private, but I'm sure she'll accept, since I already follow Jasper."

"Since when?"

"Since last night. Me and Jasper bonded while you two were being dull talking all evening, we were playing a giant game of twister." Lucy laughed at that. "What? We were very drunk at that point. Jasper's a lot of fun though. I like them a lot."

Sabrina's phone pinged quietly and the pair of them looked down at the screen eagerly.

Instagram: arisa.sato accepted your follow request

//

phew, its finally up! a bit filler-y, but necessary!

i worked the night shift all of last week which is why this is late, it really took it out of me. i really like this story and where its going tho! (just a heads up, it will be quite a bit shorter than Sealed with a Kiss was!)

feel free to ask me about anything btw! im very friendly and love talking about my characters

h.