Stephen said he wasn’t sure if he should, but he still went ahead and asked Violet if she was feeling better.

“Y-yeah. Thanks for asking.”

She wasn’t better. I could tell not only because I could see right through her but also from the way she hunched as she gripped my arm against her and the occasional groan she’d let out. It didn’t feel like she was any better than how she was when I went to her room to pick her up for breakfast. When I got there, she was still in bed, all curled up, and with only the top of her head poking out. She was almost in tears when I uncovered her face. That was the worst I’ve ever seen her.

I promptly informed Miss Maple of Violet’s state, and even though both of us told her to stay in bed, Violet was adamant about going with us. It got our teacher so worried, she’d stuck to us the rest of the day. “A teacher shouldn’t leave a student that’s not feeling well alone,” she told us when we asked her why she was following our group. For someone named after a hardwood tree and tried to act like it, she was quite soft.

“Violet look! The plant fossils you wanted to see!” I pointed out to try and cheer her up.

Violet still had her face all twisted up and didn’t let go of my arm, but she now had a curious look as she admired the small slabs of stone with the imprint of what had once been a fern. She commented on how incredible it was that we could still see the veins of the leaves in such detail. She also added that she wouldn’t mind having one. With her birthday coming up in two weeks, I took note of that as a great idea. It certainly would make for a different gift.

“Hngh!” she groaned as she recoiled from the glass and curled over me.

“I really think you should have stayed back in the hotel,” our teacher told her as she gently rubbed her back. “You could have joined us for lunch.”

“No, if I stayed in bed, I’d be feeling a lot worse. At least this way I have something to distract me from the pain and company.”

Yeah, my Violet was super asocial about meeting other people, but that didn’t extend to the people she liked. Despite how uncomfortable it was for her to walk and stand when her internal bits were, as she says, “stabbing hot knives from within”, she was still enjoying the field trip as best as she could.

“Hehe, you’re so stubborn.”

“Shut up. It’s not like you’re not the same.”

While giggling and rubbing one of her hands, I noticed from the corner of my eye someone staring at us.

A bit further away was Vanessa, but she was alone again. The first time I saw her alone was during breakfast while her friends sat at a different table. The second time I noticed her was when we formed groups to explore the museum. She was gain in a different group than her friends. Now, she wasn’t even with that group.

“Humph, karma always pays its due,” Violet grumbled after my comment about Vanessa.

Miss Maple was more lenient than my girlfriend, saying she couldn’t let a student of hers wander around alone. Violet and I immediately knew what she meant by it and once she couldn’t hear us, Violet grumbled about having Vanessa tag along was at the top of the things she least needed right now.

“Karma always pays its due,” I told her, wanting Violet to let some of her grudge against that girl go. “Besides, see it was an opportunity to show her that we are just two normal girls who just so happen to date each other.”

“You’re too nice,” she argued under her breath as she pulled me closer.

Approaching our group with Vanessa following closely, Miss Maple asked if it was ok to have her join us. If she really cared about it, she’d have asked before she invited the girl. Even then, us saying anything other than ‘yes’ would still be impossible.

To my surprise, and even more so of Violet, Vanessa asked what was wrong with my girlfriend. She didn’t sound concerned at all, but the fact she looked genuinely curious caught both of us off-guard.

“Is it really that bad?” she asked once I explained to her what ailed Violet.

“It’s probably a lot worse than what I can put into words,” was what I told her, that line serving as a final point to that conversation. Or rather, for all conversations as she kept to herself the rest of the time we spent at the museum. You could almost forget there was any bad blood between her and us. That peace carried on all the way from us seeing the last exhibit up to when we all sat at a table in a fast food restaurant for lunch. Amusingly, when asked if she wasn’t going to sit with the other teachers, Miss Maple got a bit flustered. She offered the same excuse as when we asked why she was tagging along at the museum, but it sounded more like she enjoyed our company more than that of her co-workers.

“Violet, you should eat the burger too,” I told her after seeing her pretend to be eating for the past five minutes she sat at the table.

“I will, I will. Just give me a minute.”

I kept staring at her, putting pressure. Once I saw her take a bite and start chewing, I let her be. I understood she was feeling queasy, but she needed to eat now more than ever.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“It’s kinda refreshing seeing the roles reversed,” Mathilda joked.

I’d agree with her were the circumstances surrounding our change of roles different.

I was thinking about my retort as I chewed, but the ringtone I had for my sister interrupted my line of thought.

I thought she was asking if we were having lunch or something like that but discovered that it was actually a picture of some clothes she had picked and her asking if the outfit was ok.

I thought it was, but that depended on the context, something she didn’t tell in her text.

“Something casual, I guess...”

If that was the case, the sports jacket she had was perhaps a bit much. She had thought the same, but the dress she was planning on wearing had her shoulders exposed and as such, she wanted to go dressed a bit more modestly. A bit of an unneeded worry in my opinion, but ok, it’s her decision. Still, I couldn’t remember seeing anything in her wardrobe that could replace said jacket, so I turned to Violet for ideas.

“Hmm... tell her to go to our closet and grab my teal coat. The one that’s chest-high?”

“Ah, that one! It has gotten warmer, so I moved it to the drawers by the window.”

My sister asked if it was ok for her to go through our stuff. Jokingly, I asked if she was afraid of finding naughty stuff hidden away but got no answer, sadly enough. Since I couldn’t see her face, the least she could do was a witty comeback or something.

Putting my phone away, I looked up and saw our homeroom teacher staring at us with one of the most serious expressions I had ever seen.

“Just now, it sounded like you two live together,” she said.

I realised then that we had gotten too comfortable and careless. Not that I found it to be bad, but keeping it a secret could probably save us some hassles and even mean comments. To make matters worse, Vanessa was also eating with us and had heard it all.

“We do live together.”

The one answering was Violet and using her “I have no patience for this” tone. She didn’t even look away from her plate as she spoke those short words.

“Well, if your parents are ok with it,” Miss Maple said, having gotten the message loud and clear.

Vanessa on the other hand kept her eyes on us. She looked completely lost, not able to understand what she had just heard. Exchanging a look with her made me finally understand her. It wasn’t that she thought we were disgusting or nasty, but that she couldn’t understand that Violet and I could be in love and in a relationship.

With that realisation, I offered her a smile. I wanted Vanessa to understand that, at least now, I had no ill feelings towards her.

Violet would be a whole other can of worms though. I’ve never asked, but once we got home, I’d bring Marcus up in conversation to see if she still would sooner wrang his neck over shaking hands with him.

After lunch, we had two hours of free time to do anything we wanted to until it was time to get on the bus and go home. Since Violet was in no shape to be walking around, we all sat under a nice shade talking about what we liked best in this field trip while watching the hustling and bustling of the city folk. I took the opportunity to have Violet lay belly up so I could massage her stomach and give her the kind of relief pain meds were failing to provide.

“Have you figured out what university you’ll be attending?” she asked me rather abruptly.

“Babe, it’s still too soon to worry about that.”

“I don’t think so,” she counterargued. “We’ll have to start searching for a place and packing our stuff.”

“Hehe, time sure flies, huh?”

“I’m being serious here.”

No, she was being too serious. For one, just because I picked a place, that didn’t mean I’d get accepted into it. I mean, with my grades I’d most likely be, but... you get the point.

Not wanting to argue with her, I asked why she was bringing that subject up.

Looking away towards the people walking by and the traffic, she told me a bit shyly that she most likely wouldn’t like it if the place we moved to was as busy as this town.

“Pfft, hehe. I’ll start looking for a good university in the countryside then.”

Just a quick thought on it made me also prefer it over a big city. Better air to breathe during my morning runs, less traffic to make Violet worry over me getting run over, going on picnics together to places that are far calmer than where we sat, not bumping into people as we walk around the streets, stuff like that. There could possibly be less stuff to do or see in comparison like cinemas and shops, but life is all about checks and balances. To gain something you need to give something back and it’s up to us to decide if it is worth it or not. A peaceful life with Violet where we are both comfortable and happy was worth many, many small sacrifices.

Just one more summer, huh?

It was a bit sad how fast time went by. Until I met Violet, it was painfully slow. A snail going through thick molasses was ten times faster than the speed clocks ticked back then. As soon as I met Violet, time started speeding up. At this rate, we’ll both be two wrinkly old ladies in a retirement home looking back into this moment in time and commenting on how nice it was and how young we were the next time I wake up. If we both live to be eighty, that’d mean we only spent sixty-five years together. I wanted more. I wanted more, but I couldn’t get it, so what else could I do?

“I haven’t told you today that I love you, have I?”

“W-why are you bringing that up now?”

“The mood feels right for it, doesn’t it?” I answered with a smile and a shrug.

“...I love you too honey,” she mumbled, looking completely red.

We did it again. We showed our true colours to our friends, our teacher, and to Vanessa. They were all at earshot distance, we knew that, and we still got too lost in our world to remember their presence until after we said all that embarrassing stuff.

Well, no matter. The best they could do was grind their teeth in envy.

Violet decided to sit up and kiss my face before taking out from her bag a bunch of paper and a pen. She started scribbling something.

“The report?” I asked.

“Yup.”

“...Feeling better, I assume?”

“...”

She kissed my face again, letting her lips linger on my cheek a bit longer before saying that she was indeed feeling better and thanking me for it.

Since that was the case, I too was feeling better and leaned on her, giving my input as she wrote the first draft of her report until it was time to go back home.

Despite how messed up she felt, she still seemed to deeply enjoy her first ever—and perhaps last—school trip. That made me happy, and the fact that she shared that experience with me made me even happier. Maybe next time we go somewhere on a trip will be as a honeymoon? Only time could tell, and despite my earlier thoughts on the matter, that time couldn’t come fast enough.