Gold Skies

Twenty-five

LENA's POV

    "Good morning," I received Stef's text the day after she treated me like shit. And even though she said she was sorry, I still felt... insecure. Which was by far the worst feeling I'd felt in a relationship. Relationship?

    I replied. "Morning." I drank my strawberry shake as I got ready to go running.

   "I'm playing at the tennis courts with my friends, if you wanna come and meet them. And see me 😅" she said.

    "I'm busy this morning," I said. And I was. I had some running to do and definitely some studying too.

    She texted again. "Look if this is about yesterday I said I was sorry. And I am. So please don't treat me like this because I really really like you, Lena."

    I could picture her typing this, drinking some water and holding her racket. Like she does everything else in her life: naturally. Because acting the way she acted is common for her. Typical Stef, breaking girls' hearts and fixing the problem whenever she's up for it.

    I decided not to say anything else. I put on my sneakers and left, saying goodbye to Joey. As I was about to leave, I received another text from Stef - a big one.

   "I freaked out if you must know. Because I fucking like you. A lot." She texted again.

    I sighed and my heart melted because I did like her, I really liked her too. Why did this have to be so damn hard? Why was she so difficult?

    "Text me the address. I'll think about it," I said, finally giving in.

    When I received the text with the address, I went running for half an hour and then headed to the tennis courts only to find Stef dripping in sweat as she served. Her hair pulled back in a sexy ponytail, very much unlike anything I'd ever seen.

    She glanced at me and quickly did a perfect backhand, winking at me in the process. After that, it was declared that she had won and she came and talked to me.

    "Hey," she smiled, grabbing a drink from her water bottle. "Glad you came."

    "Yep. You are a great tennis player, by the way," I pointed out.

    Stef laughed. "Thank you, don't I know it."

    I smiled and we stared at each other in complete silence until she came up with something to say.

    "So, uh, shall we get going? I was kinda hoping we could uh, go to the movies and all that." She said, drinking more water and pulling her hair out of her ponytail.

    I was completely and utterly taken aback. "Do you wanna go to the movies like that?"

    Stef grinned. "Well, no. I thought you could come with me to my place so I could shower and then we could go." 

    "Ok. I'll meet you there then." I said.

    Stef shook her head. "Let's go together. Do you not want to? You can drive, if you-" she started rambling and I could sense she was a bit nervous.

    I laughed at her nervousness and cut her off with a kiss. "My car's here. So I'll meet you there. Okay?"

   "Right... yeah. Sounds good," she said, all embarrassed.

    I laughed at her one more time and headed to my car. I said "hi" to her friends, but didn't bother to say anything else. She didn't introduce me, and frankly, what was I going to say? They seemed nice anyway.

    When I got to her place, her car was already parked and she was getting out of it while I parked my car. I got out of the car and she came towards me and kissed me softly. "Hi," she said.

    I smiled. "Hey there."

    Stef grabbed her stuff from the car and I helped her carry her racket inside, along with her bag and everything else.

    She opened the door and dropped her keys on the counter, as I asked her where to put the racket.

    "What are you doing here?" I heard her ask, and just then did I realize she was talking to a woman who was sitting on her couch, reading a magazine. She looked somewhat powerful and incredibly presumptuous.

    The woman stood up and stared at me. "And who's this? The girl of the week?"

    "Mother, I'm not going to ask you again. Either tell me what you're doing here or get the fuck out." Stef said, boiling with anger.

    Mother? Huh. Not a very nice woman.

    "I'm Lena Adams," I said, holding out my hand for her to shake.

    She looked at my hand and dismissed me entirely. "Well, Stefanie. This is a conversation between mother and daughter, so maybe Lena can see herself out."

    I felt extremely uncomfortable and there was nothing I wanted more than to get out of there.

    "Lena stays. You leave," she said, dropping her bag on the chair. "If you wanted to talk to me, mother to daughter, you'd have to be a mother first."

    Stef's mother stood up from the couch and made her way out. "Tomorrow then. Call me and we'll talk."

    Stef shut the door and sat down on the couch immediately. "Fuck!"

    "Do you want me to leave?" I asked, learning to respect her boundaries.

    Stef shook her head. "No."

    "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked gently, sitting down next to her.

    "Nope. Definitely not. I'm gonna shower so we don't miss that movie."

    "We don't have to-" I insisted.

    Stef shook her head. "I want to," she kissed my forehead and made her way to the bathroom.

    About twenty minutes later, Stef got out of the bathroom, hair washed, face cleaned, but red cheeks and nose. She'd been crying.

    "Are you ok?" I asked, standing up to look closely at her.

    She nodded. "Yeah- Well, I mean... Not really," she laughed. "My mother's a bitch. But I just wanna forget that. So let's go!"

    I wiped away a single tear that dropped down her face and she kissed me softly, tenderly. "Thank you," she said.

AN: sorry for the delay! Hope you enjoy anyway!