meet me at midnight
Mia was still at Emily’s a couple days after that kiss, still trying to take everything in, she loved Jen, more than words could even bother to describe. She was 31 by now, it had been a year since the divorce and she was still deeply in love with Jen. She met Jen at 23 and once they got together her life changed. Jen had been in love with Mia since high school, so had Mia, Jen had just turned 32 and it was the first year she didn’t wake up next to Mia telling her happy birthday. It hurt. On Mia’s birthday she expected Jen to be next to her, but she wasn’t. After the divorce and losing the baby, Mia dyed her hair with pink highlights, started drinking and partying more. But she got a back tattoo saying Lily Mae on her because that’s what they were going to name her. Even knowing then it was too early to tell. They just knew.
That night Mia stood on the balcony, looking down at the city, but everything came back to her in a split second. Jen and Mia used to be enemies in high school, not knowing exactly what to do with the feelings they had for each other. So they drag raced, Mia won of course which just made the tensions higher. But eventually Mia had to come to terms with her own sexuality, she was a lesbian, and so was Jen, but with them not knowing how to deal with compulsory heterosexuality, they had a few bad relationships, they tried to be their friends definition of normal, they were rich kids, so they were expected to be everything they weren’t. No matter what happened. Mia was also the party girl, the one who hadn’t found herself yet due to the fact her parents were never really there. But at one point during a football game, Mia and Jen made out behind the stands where their parents couldn’t see them, they really did love each other, even though they try to hide that. They snuck around for a majority of the time they were in high school. But eventually with them helping each other they came out to their parents, both of them crying in their moms arms. They could finally be themselves. No more hiding who they were. But them only being out to their parents but too afraid to be in a relationship with one another hurt, especially having their friends not know. Which was hard for them. They wanted to be like every other couple in that school. But couldn’t.
One night at one of the games, they admitted their feelings in front of everyone, and kissed in front of the entire school, in the rain. They didn’t care who saw, they loved each other. It didn’t matter anymore. After that they started dating, Jen asking Mia out, they spent the holidays together, summer, anything you could guess. They kissed at the lockers at school, spent Christmas together, they really did everything together, basically bound to one another. But eventually it rolled around time for them to go to college, so they broke up, that was the hardest thing they ever went through together, especially then.
By then, Mia was tearing up looking at the city, the cars, everything, Emily asked if she was okay, and Mia turned around, immediately hugging her, sobbing. ‘I still love her’ she said, holding Emily as tight as she could while crying. Emily rubbing her back to comfort her, ‘I know, now this is your chance, get her back’ Emily said, sweetly. Still holding her tightly.
Emily was close to Mia, because she used to be the same person she was back in high school, the party girl, even having a bit of a bad girl phase before she got pregnant with Jen. They both had a past. One they weren’t proud of. But that’s because they made mistakes that they weren’t proud of. They were someone they just weren’t. But their past doesn’t define them. It never will. Even when Mia was younger she wanted to be a mom but Jen and the boys meant more to her than she could have ever known, she wanted her family back. She wanted Emily to still be the mom she wished she had. Mia had to deal with her past with Jen, she didn’t know how to yet. Her past didn’t define her. It didn’t define any of them. It was up to them to accept that fact even if they didn’t want to. It made them who they are.