Chapter 3
After breakfast, the girls reluctantly parted ways for class.
There were many stolen glances and shared smiles throughout school, but the girls just wanted to be back together.
Josie spent her day freaking out, debating whether or not she might actually have a shot with Hope.
Hope wasn’t with Landon. Hope wasn’t straight. And now, for a second time, Hope has unmistakably smiled when Josie admitted to crushing on her.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, right?
Maybe Hope was just smiling because she felt awkward about all of this. Hope was probably acting completely normal and friendly, Josie was just projecting all of this ambiguous more-than-friends stuff onto her because she wanted it so badly.
That had to be it. Josie needed to be more careful. She couldn’t let herself get so delusional about things like this. Hope was her friend and could never become anything more. She needed to get her head on straight.
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Meanwhile, Hope spent the entire day over-the-moon. Josie liked her. Josie. Liked. Her.
When her and Alaric were meeting that morning, as they usually did on days that they didn’t train together, he seemed to notice that something was up.
“You seem awfully cheery today.” He observed. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean what’s going on? Nothing’s going on. Why would something be going on? I’m not acting weird. This is my normal amount of cheeriness.” Hope rambled, doing a terrible job at deflecting.
Alaric leaned back in his chair, raising a suspicious eyebrow and smirking slightly, but ultimately dropping the subject.
After their classes ended, Hope approached Josie in the hallway. “Would you want to do a movie night with me tonight?” Hope blurted out.
Josie’s heart leaped, and she had to remind herself for the millionth time that it wasn’t like that.
“Yeah, sure.” Josie agreed.
“Okay! Cool! Perfect! Great!” Hope said, blushing at her own extremely enthusiastic response. Josie couldn’t help but smile, Hope was just so adorable.
“Meet me in my room after dinner.” Hope added on.
“Okay. I’ll see you then.” Josie said, trying to hide just how excited she was to spend more time with Hope.
“Okay.” Hope said, her brows furrowing slightly like she was trying to make a decision, then pressing a quick kiss to Josie’s cheek. “Bye.”
Josie just stood there as Hope walked away, a smile spreading across her face and bringing her hand to her face where Hope had kissed her.
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When Josie arrived at her room that night, Hope already had her laptop set up with Netflix ready to go, and both girls had changed into their pajamas.
“What do you wanna watch?” Hope asked as the girls sat on her bed.
“I’m fine with anything.” Josie replied. “Surprise me.” Hope pondered it for a minute, then settled on The Mummy.
“It feels appropriate considering what happened last weekend.” Hope joked. They settled next to each other on the bed, Josie’s head on Hope’s shoulder so she had a clearer view of the laptop that was resting on Hope’s stomach.
Hope was enjoying the movie so far, though she couldn’t help but notice the way Josie jumped and flinched at certain scenes. At one particularly gruesome scene, Josie inhaled sharply and buried her face in Hope’s neck. Hope wrapped one arm around the brunette and stroked her hair gently with her other hand.
“Hey.” Hope whispered gently, “Do you want to watch something else?” She felt Josie nod against her. She exited out of the movie and moved the laptop onto the bedside table next to her, then moved her head back slightly so that she could see Josie’s face. She cupped her face, brushing her thumb back and forth on Josie’s jawline. “Are you okay?”
Josie nodded slightly. “Do you want to go get some snacks?” Hope followed up. Josie’s face broke into a smile.
“Yeah.” The two of them clambered out of bed and slipped their shoes on, making their way down to the school’s kitchen.
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Josie saw Hope make her way to the pantry to grab candy and popcorn, and decided to check the fridge for cookie dough. She decided on sugar cookies and grabbed a roll of Pillsbury dough.
She grabbed a knife and a baking sheet, and carefully sliced off 10 disks of dough, spacing them out on the tray and putting it in the oven.
Hope dumped an armful of candy and popcorn on the counter and made her way over to Josie, who was sitting on the island, waiting for the cookies to bake. Josie felt Hope place her hands on her knees, then gently move them apart so she could stand closer to the girl. Hope smiled at her, and she realized that she was holding her breath.
“I’m sorry I picked such a scary movie.” Hope whispered.
“It’s okay. As long as I have you, I’ll always feel safe.” Josie admitted.
Hope looked down and blushed, then brought her eyes back up to meet Josie’s. She took one final step towards Josie, sliding her hands from her knees to the tops of her thighs and placing them on her waist. Her breath hitched at Hope’s touch. Hope leaned towards her, so close that Josie felt her breath on her lips. Their noses brushed together, and Josie was just about to close the distance between them when she heard, “OH MY GOD, I KNEW IT!”
The girls jumped apart and whipped around to see Lizzie standing in the doorway with a huge grin on her face.
“Lizzieeeeeeee” Josie groaned, cursing her sister for interrupting the moment she’d been waiting for since she was 14.
“Sorry. Sorry! I’m leaving now! Continue!” Lizzie yelled over her shoulder as she ran from the kitchen.
Josie looked back to Hope, who looked at the floor giggling and blushing. She looked back to Hope, and the girls just started laughing hysterically.
They heard a high pitched beeping behind them, and Josie pulled the cookies out of the oven.
“Cookies!” Hope exclaimed. “Ohhhh my god you’re amazing!” Josie just smiled to herself at Hope’s excitement as she transferred the cookies onto a plate. Josie heard rummaging behind her, then turned to see Hope holding a container of frosting and a shaker of sprinkles. Josie stepped aside to let Hope decorate the cookies, and went to examine the other snacks that Hope had gathered. She heard giggling come from behind her, and turned to see Hope, face lit up like a 5 year old’s on Christmas morning, shaking sprinkles onto a cookie. Josie watched the adorable scene unfold for a moment, then crossed the kitchen to Hope. She wrapped her arms around the shorter girl’s waist from behind and rested her chin on her shoulder.
“I love seeing you laugh like this, Hope.” Josie murmured into her ear, pressing a lingering kiss to Hope’s neck. The tribrid blushed furiously, biting her lower lip.
“The cookies are ready.” Hope awkwardly blurted out. Josie couldn’t help but feel like she had accomplished something huge, seeing Hope so flustered.
“Back to your room?” Josie asked, using an ever-so-slightly suggestive tone that made Hope squirm.
“Yeah. My room.”