The first thing that registered as her ex, Harper, walked out of the bathroom with someone who looked so painfully (and obviously) gay was "holy fuck the girl finally got over the comphet!". There was no way, that she would bring someone home, especially someone who just radiated lesbian, honestly, the blazer, the bob, the energy was there, and risk being associated with the girl who radiated lesbian, so she must have come out.
apparently not.
The blonde stumbled over her words and introduced herself as Abby, "The orphan roomate. A roomate whos orphaned-" And whew the girl was a horrible liar. She was tempted to smirk and say "Oh my god they were roomates." (she would surely get the reference), but she didn't.
Instead she smiled and gave her the best "I couldnt give two shits" look, and said "I'm just gonna..sneak right past you."
As she stepped into the washroom, she heard "Is that Riley, THE Riley?"
No shit sherlock, she was THE Riley.
The Riley who got outed. And was shamed for her "lifestyle." The Riley who left notes in lockers, only to have them be found by some cis straight white girl, who pressed the subject to Harper so much that she had "No choice" but to out her.
The Riley who had to hide herself from the pristine family of Harper Caldwell.
Christmas was a bitch.
________________________________________
a day later, (and about ten feet away, vertically,) She saw the girl, "Abby" again.
She tipped her glass up , albeit a little sarcastically, and smirked, receiving but a small smile in exchange. Huh. No Harper this time. She turned around mid "-that disease doesnt exist, buzzfeed is not accurate", to see Harper in the center of the room, trailed by her oh-so picture perfect parents.
Because as always, appearance came before everyone else, even girlfriends.
the temptation to run up to the blonde girl and tell her to "get away from this family, nothing ends well here." stung her in her chest. She wanted to tell her to run, wanted to say "I know how you feel.", wanted to tell the poor girl that she couldn't possibly take it personally if the family (and Harper) treated her like shit, because well..they treated her like shit too.
But she didn't. Instead, she was pulled back into the very riveting conversation and asked, yet again, "So what do these symptoms mean?"
Almost..an hour (??) later, she managed to slip away from her mothers so-called friends, before she told them to shove their homophobic, bigoted sentiments right up their asses. Being told that her lifestyle was weird and disgusting was getting really old, really fast.
And in record time, (and maybe after bumping into a few people from high school who she particularly hated), she found the girlfriend again.
Standing on the porch, talking into a phone. "Harper's going to tell her parents everything right after the holidays.”
Poor girl. The chances of Harper not slipping up, and/or Abby surviving the next few days of parties were very slim.
She waited for a few minutes, hoping the cider mug in her hand wouldn't cool off too soon, as it was the only thing keeping her fingers from freezing off. Abby continued arguing with whoever was on the other end of the call, and eventually slipped the phone into her pocket. She crossed her arms.
So she turned the corner towards her and held her mug tightly in fear of dropping it. "Hows it going?"
The girl grimaced. "Great."
Small talk, her specialty. "I was just taking a break from diagnosing everyones mystery illnesses."
She chuckled. Good.
Riley chose her next words very, very, carefully. "Hey, I wasn't trying to..eavesdrop, or anything, I was out there before you came out." and wow great choice of words, Riley. "You didn't see me, but, um...I can relate."
Abby blinked at her. "Like, to what?"
To being covered up, forced into a closet, being hmm, mistreated, by Harper Caldwell?
She tapped a finger on her mug nervously. With a shrug, she said; "Nothing." She shook her head quickly and cleared her throat. "..Nothing."
Then she sighed. "Okay. I'm gonna go back inside. I'm sure my mothers hairdresser wants to show me her wierd finger again. So.."
Real smooth, Riley. In an attempt to save herself, she gestured to her jacket and said "I like your jacket."
And then she scampered away.
Through the glass doors, across the room, and straight to wherever she could find alcohol. Downing three glasses of strawberry champagne, and finishing her mug of hot chocolate.
Mhm, great skills with the ladies. And well- It wasn't even like Abby was an option, for anything
first of all, she was dating Harper, so obviously..No. Just..No. Second, she was almost definetly in love with Harper (poor thing.), and third, she was NOT going to be the homewrecker lesbian. Seemed more like Harper was wrecking it, but..No.
No.
________________________________________
After an hour trying to pick out a gift for the white elephant party, and many, many minutes pondering why it was called the "white elephant party, she ran into Abby in town, across the cinema and not three blocks from her favorite gay bar. She'd heard about the "shoplifting" incident, from her mother, who'd told the tale with a scandalous expression. So she picked up her pace, and walked further to meet her.
"Hey." Abby said. The poor thing had tears in her eyes, and two hands shoved into her pockets.
"We meet again." She eyed her curiously, trying to read the expression on her face because oh joy she'd developed that skill in high school, when it came to trying to figure out if someone was going to call her a slur and beat her up, or strike up conversation.
"Yeah." Abby whispered, biting her lip.
"No Harper?" Riley inquired, because bringing up her ex girlfriend with the ex girlfriends current girlfriend was such a great idea.
Abby sniffled a little. "No, she's um..with her family. I'm gonna meet up with her in a bit." Abby gestured to the bag in Rileys hand, evidently trying to change the subject. "What'd you get?"
"Oh, I cant tell you, because its for the white elephant party." She said with a tiniest bit of sarcasm in her voice because who the hell actually liked those stupid events?
Abby sighed. "Oh, your'e going to that too?"
She snorted. "Oh yeah. Yeah, My family goes every year. Its um, god..its the best party of the year."
That got a smile on the other girls face, as she looked down and laughed.
"You know, I-I'm glad I ran into you, 'cause I'm having this thing where if I stick my finger in my eye, it, like, really hurts."
Riley tried to keep the most deadpan expression possible. Doctor humor. "Yeah, I mean thats a classic case of, um..contact stupiditis. Um, because its a stupid thing to do. Once you get to the finger poking stage, youre pretty much dead."
And Abby sighed again. "I'd really like to drink some alcohol. Do you know where I could do that?"
She spent not a millisecond pondering wether she should get the girlfriend drunk, or let her..wallow.
"Yes." She nodded
And before she knew it, they were in "The Oxwood" bar, going over the topic of Abbys new record as a felon.
"Did you steal it?"
"No. And, I still dont have a white elephant gift, to top it all off."
"You've gotta get one."
"I will help you with this." Riley reassured her. Her sympathy ran high, since honestly, girl needed a break. "I know alot of places that aren't..malls."
Abby nodded at her. "That would be great."
and when does christmas come? And when does christmas leave?
Riley's eyes shifted from Abby, to the stage, where two singers were performing some holiday jingle.
it comes but never goes
She smiled and shrugged at Abby, who was now staring at the floor. And then she looked up at her and leaned closer on her elbows.
"what did you mean last night when you said you could relate?"
Oh fuck.
"That was just a comment based on an assumption I was making about you and Harper."
Abby cleared her throat and nodded. "I think it was probably an accurate..assumption."
Oh fuck
"you dont have to talk to me about this stuff. I know its wierd, like-"
And yeah, maybe it was a bit weird to talk to your ex girlfriends girlfriend about her, but Riley needed to know the exact narrative that Harper had told this girl.
"So, what has she told you?" She tilted her head.
"That you dated in highschool. That you were her first girlfriend. Thats..about it. Is there more?"
She nodded. Yeah, that checked. First girlfriend, high school, bla bla bla. "Mhm. Yeah, a little." Abby stuck her tongue into her cheek, looking down at the table. "I mean.."
fuck this was gonna be difficult to tell without making Harper seem like a total bitch. (not that she wasn't, but demonizing the girl infront of the girlfriend was a bad idea."
Riley paused. "..Yeah. Yeah, growing up we were totally inseperable, We were best friends. And then, freshman year, we became more than friends." She stammered a little bit. The nerves and alcohol in her system weren't helping. "We started dating. But nobody knew that, obviously. And we would like, leave these little love letters..in-in eachothers lockers. And one day, one of Harpers friends found one of the letters, and she asked Harper w-what it was about,"
And she outed her. In simple words, she outed her. "She basically said that I am gay, and that I wouldnt leave her alone. And then with in a couple of days, like, everybody in the school found out, and everybody was so, so, awful to me."
"I'm sorry. Thats..I'm sorry."
"Me too. The thing I can relate to is just..being in love with someone that is..too afraid, to show the world who they are."
Abby sighed and said nothing. Poor girl must be crushed she thought. "But that was a long time ago.", She tried her best to give what she hoped was a reassuring smile, but Abby just muttered "Yeah." halfheartedly.
Then, applause. The room erupted around them as the performers cried "Thank you! Thats enough. For this next song, we're gonna need a little help from you." the other chimed in, "we're gonan ask you a.." they shared a look, before saying "..question. And you, are going to..answer"
Abby smiled for what seemed the first time that night. Riley grinned right back her.
whos got a beard thats long and white?
She did her best to lighten the moon. "We're totally singing. Ready?"
Abby nodded.
who comes around on a special night?
"Santa comes around on a special night!" and oh god she definetly didn't sound her best, alcohol mixed with loud talking over the crowd made her voice hoarse.
"Special night."
"there you go! Special night,"
Riley grinned at her as Abby began bouncing her head to the song, singing "Beard thats white!"
must be santa,
Riley repeated after them, "Must be Santa!" while doing her own rendition of a head bop mixed with..whatever. "Saanta Claus!" She urged Abby on with finger guns,
And then Abby began frantically shaking her head. "No. No,"
"What?" She raised an eyebrow,
"Oh my god..No."
Then she looked up to the women approaching them, with the entire crowd egging them on.
"We're gonna get a little more intimate now."
"Yes!"
They stuck the mic in Abbys face, singing "Whos got boots and a suit of red?"
Abby chuckled, and Riley gave her an expression that she hoped screamed "Do it, you coward!"
come on, you wanna hear her sing, right?
Yeah! we wanna hear her sing!
Riley waved her hand and whisper-yelled "I'll help you."
whos got boots and a suit of red?
"Santas got boots and a suit of red." they said together. Riley lifted her hand to give her a high five.
Santas got a long cap on his head, on his head,
"On his head!" The crowd sang in unison.
And in that stupid, dumb lesbian cliche moment, where they sang along with the entire gay bar, drinking fucking beer, of all things, she felt the sudden urge to be closer to Abby. So she complied, crawled right over into the other side of the booth, and curled up next to her, still singing along.
Abby grinned at her, "Must be santa!"
must be santa
"Must be santa, san-taa-claus!"
As the music died down, her idle finger tapped against the rim of her glass, as Abbys phone lit up with a 'ding'
"Um. I should uh..close out. Ha-Harper texted me."
She slid out of the booth, and watched as Abby walked off, to probably waste her time trying to win back a girlfriend who was too infatuated with fucking Liam of all fucking people. But maybe christmas wasn't so bad.
until a man who looked like a frat boy wannabe, far too many years old to actually be a frat boy, slid into the booth, right across Riley, and said "So, you like girls? seems like we've got that in common."
Yeah, it was time to go.
"yep. girls, and ONLY girls. Goodbye." She deadpanned, grabbing her blazer and phone, before standing and turning right out the door.
what kind of sick fucking guy goes to a fucking gay bar to meet a girl?
________________________________________
Fucking, shitting..hell.
goddamnit who the fuck was calling her?
9:00 AM, and her goddamn phone was ringing. She rolled over to face the scratched up nightstand by her bed, and held her phone to her ear.
"hey, its Abby. Are you uh..doing anything today?"
She smiled to herself. Finally, an excuse to get away from her mothers friends. She stood from her bed and stretched, hugging the phone to her ear by with her shoulder.
"Good morning. And no, I have no plans. You got something in mind?"
"Yeah, I still dont have a white elephant gift and you mentioned something yesterday about knowing places that arent malls."
Of course the girl would remember what she'd said last night, half drunk.
"Uh huh..Yeah, I can help you out. Meet me in town? 9:30."
"Youre a fucking life saver Riley."
She rolled her eyes. "Well I'm a doctor, so I would hope so."
A laugh on the other side. "Uh huh. I'll see you then."
The line went silent with a beep. She tossed the phone onto her bed with a sigh. This could either be a really good idea, or a really bad one.