Today wasn’t a good day at all.

Starting from the less bad, the sun was blazing hot today, but no surprises there, it was already mid-June. I guess the surprise might be that I was numbering that factor last.

The second less bad was, I could tell I’d be cramping up. Was it solely due to stress, or was it due to that time of the month approaching? Maybe both.

The why I was stressing was what came after. Today, for the final thirty per cent of my PE grade, I had to run the mile in ten minutes.

If only it were stretching like last year...

And while it wasn’t really a mile since the number of laps we had to run around the track amounted to twelve hundred metres instead of the sixteen hundred and something, it was still too much for me, especially in this weather.

The “cherry on top” was the fact that Abby wasn’t here with me and that she stayed home due to a fever and her legs hurting. Her sister assured me she’d look after her and that what Abby was having were growing pains and fever, but I was still anxious to return home, Sophie being there to look after my girlfriend or not.

Not even Mathilda’s banter was able to settle my mind longer than a few brief moments, and she, along with the boys, was doing her best to keep me as calm as possible.

As soon as I was done with my evaluation, I’d be going home. PE was the only thing we were being evaluated on and my attendance had been flawless this past year. And could anyone get mad at me for skipping the rest of today’s classes when it’s the end of the school year?

“Violet? Violet, it’s our turn now.”

I looked up from my feet to face the person who was calling me. Vanessa stood a few steps away from where I sat, looking a bit awkward as she appeared to be waiting for me. It was so odd to see her being the person who came for me that I only snapped back to reality when Mathilda tapped my shoulder and told me to do my best.

“R-right. Thanks,” I staggered as I got up from the spot under the shade to follow Vanessa. Thanks for coming to get me too, I told her when I got to her side.

“Hmm... Abby isn’t coming today?” she asked, sounding as awkward as she was looking.

“Yeah... She’s sick...”

“...Hmm... that sucks...”

It’s been so long since I had such a stilted conversation. When talking with Abby and my friends, I could talk naturally, so I always forget how hard it is for me to speak with people outside my circle.

That same fact allowed me to better understand Vanessa right now. I n her own way, she was trying to say she was sorry to hear about Abby. I just wished she had phrased it in a way that allowed me to thank her. I still could, but I worried she’d take it as me being sarcastic.

“Ready!”

That didn’t matter, I had to focus in running.

“Set!”

Once I was done here, I’d excuse myself and go home to Abby.

“Go!”

But perhaps I should stop somewhere to buy her a treat? Maybe a jelly-filled donut? Her favourites were a bit out of the way, but her cheery smile would make it more than worth it. Oh, and I should bring something for Sophie too. As a thanks. Her tastes were approximated to mine, so the coffee-filled ones should be a good pick. And since I was headed that way... with the weekend starting tomorrow, why not get a few more treats? Puddings, ice-cream... stuff that feels good to eat cold to combat the heat. I’d have to hurry though, otherwise, they could melt before I got home.

Maybe I should buy some cake too. Abby talked about having some with ice-cream. Hmm, no, it’d be better if I baked the cake instead. A sponge cake. I’d just have to buy yeast on one of my stops. Maybe some lemons too to add a bit of zest to the dough. That’d make it taste more like Summer. As for how it’d pair up with what flavour of ice-cream, perhaps—

“—et! Miss Violet!”

“Violet, stop!” Vanessa shouted.

“H-huh!? Am I done?” I panted as I walked to a halt.

“And at a record time too,” our teacher told me as he wrote down my time. “Eight minutes and twelve seconds. I don’t know what you had for breakfast today, but maybe you should make it a staple of your diet. With how long your legs are—”

“Teach’, that’s sexual harassment,” Mathilda said as she walked past her.

Our teacher made a confused statement about being a woman too. Honestly, I was past caring about any of that, even if it had been a man making that comment. Right now, all I wanted to know was if I could go home to take care of Abby.

“Doesn’t she have her parents to take care of her?”

“They are working,” I said.

“Alone, huh? Still, I don’t see why her girlfriend needs to skip class to—”

“A-Abby and I are... engaged.”

Our teacher widened her eyes as she stared at me, incredulous about our engagement. I looked around to see how many people had heard and saw that Vanessa had also heard me, holding a similar expression in her face as our teacher.

I need to cool down my head.

I was making decisions too rashly. I needed to slow down my decision making.

“Well then... erm, you may go.”

Just not right now. With her permission to go home, I bid the teacher and my friends goodbye with promises that I’d text the latter with updates about Abby’s health.

In the changing room, I was reminded again of how much I missed having Abby with me. My shirt was soaked in sweat form the run and sticking to my skin, making an easy task unbelievably difficult without her help.

“Violet! Teach’ says...” I heard Mathilda say as her voice and hurried steps approached. I couldn’t see her because I had my face covered, but still turned towards her. “Need a hand?”

“N-no!” I said, not wanting some other person that wasn’t Abby undress me and touch my sweaty clothes.

“Oh, don’t be difficult!” she laughed, grabbing the wet clothes by the waist and wanking them up, managing to peel them off and making us come to face to face as it cleared my head. Her cheeks turned a bit red as she saw me flushed and her eyes moved about in their sockets. Lucky for her, they never shifted down towards my chest, otherwise a slap would be in order. I can now see why you said no, she said as she stepped back. After some time that we took to cool down, Mathilda said she might consider stop making jokes of joining in on us. Now that I wasn’t as angry and embarrassed, I told her I’d be thankful for that, but her helping me hadn’t been that much of a big deal after all.

“I still feel like apologising to Abby,” Mathilda hummed. “Will you tell her about this? Oh, and before I forget, the teacher asked me to tell you to tell Abby that she can make the run next class she comes to.”

“...I’ll tell her that you told me that the teacher told you to tell me to tell her that,” I said as a joke to ease the mood. It did get a chuckle out of Mathilda, so I’ll mark it as a success. “As to whether I'll tell her or not about you helping me undress... I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but I’ll tell her anyway...”

“...Otherwise, it’ll feel like a big deal?”

I think that was a good way to put it, yes.

At this point in the conversation, I was ready to go, but I was curious, so I asked if she was going to tell Stephen about it too.

“Hmm... I think he’ll just think it was kinda hot,” she chuckled with a shrug. “I mean, it kinda was, but...”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

And just like that, she was back to making dirty jokes. What a hopeless girl she was.

Abby, Mathilda—and Sophie too to a certain extent, I seemed to attract a certain type of person, and if the saying “birds of a feather flock together” has any truth to it...

“B-before you go... I’d like to ask you something.”

“...What?” I asked, suspicious about her sudden shift into shyness.

“Can we meet this weekend? Just us girls?”

Abby and I hadn’t made any plans yet, and we were done with tests that required studying, so we had our schedule completely free and no reason to refuse her. I didn’t think Abby would kick a fuss about what had happened, but in case she did, us three meeting alone could also be a good idea. I was still in a hurry, so I didn’t ask what she wanted to meet us about, figuring that I could ask once we text each other to plan an hour and day.

“Violet? What are you doing back home so early?” Sophie asked when I walked inside the apartment. As I headed to the kitchen, I told Sophie I skipped class after having finished my evaluation, but she didn’t take it well at all. “No! Violet, you don’t do that! I told you I’d look after Abby so you could go to school and not worry!”

“I know that, but—”

“But nothing! Violet, I was expecting more from you! I thought you were more responsible than this!”

“It’s the end of the school year, so who cares!?”

“I care! I care because right now you have a lot of safety nets! In the future, do you think you’ll be allowed to skip work if Abby is just lightly sick like she is today?”

“...I might become a housewife so—”

“You ‘might’ become! What if you don’t? What if you choose a different path to your future?”

“I-I’ll deal with that then!”

“But then, you two most likely will be alone! If you don’t learn how to deal with these kinds of situations now, can you really say for sure that you’ll deal with it well in the future?”

“...Are you going to tell dad?” I asked, thinking that dad might not be so forgiving if its Sophie who informs him of that.

Sophie’s face stiffened as she started to debate my question with herself. She planted her hands on her hips and shifted her body around as her lips twisted and turned.

The arguments Sophie rose were all good reasons for concern. On the other hand, if he sided with me, maybe that’d cause an argument between the two when they just started dating. Out of the two, them arguing was the worse outcome and all my fault.

“I really should,” she told me in a sharp exhale and crossing her arms. “I should, but... haah, just this once I won’t. But this better be the last time it happens, all right?”

“Thanks,” I meekly said. “Erm, I got you a donut on my way back.”

She stammered a thanks as she grabbed the small bag I was handing her.

What needed to be put in the fridge was already taken care of and I could finally go to Abby.

“Sis gave you a hard time, huh?” Abby said once she landed eyes on me.

“I deserved it,” was my answer before closing the door and coming to sit on the bed by Abby. “How do you feel?”

Abby told me she was still as hot as when I left, but her legs didn’t ache as much. She also said that she thought she had grown taller a bit too as she patted her own head.

I joked that I hoped that was just a feeling as I caressed her face, my thumb being caught in her mouth that she promptly startled nibbling.

While holding that hand to rub her face in, she asked me how was school. Only then did I feel any pride in having been able to complete the run so fast.

“So, let me get this straight, you run that fast because you were distracted thinking about stuff?”

“About you. I was thinking about you.”

“Hmm... maybe I should start getting sick when PE exams come rolling arou8nd.”

“Haah, please don’t. Sophie getting mad at me is something I don’t want to have a repeat.”

“...You think she was acting like a stepmother?”

“Like a... no. At least, I don’t think so. Do you?”

She shrugged and briefly reminded me that she had a bad mother before flopping on my lap to rub her face on my thighs. Even telling her not to do that until I at least took a shower wasn’t enough to stop her. She just paused to look at me very seriously for a second before carrying on with a wide grin.

Since she was so interested in doing that, I pulled her up and informed her I’d be heading to the shower.

“Me too! Me too!”

No, because her sister was still around. That much was evident when I stepped outside the bedroom and heard mumbling coming from the living room. Normally, I’d let it be, but I thought I had heard my name, so I stepped closer as quietly as possible.

Sophie sat on the couch with a small plate holding the donut I got her on the table. That was the thing she seemed to be talking to, but I couldn’t make sense of her words.

Abby then passed by me, sliding her hand along my waist as she made way to her sister and gave me a wink.

She sat by her sister while asking what was wrong. I was going to get back to my original plan, but Sophie answered Abby’s question with one of her own.

“Is Violet upset?”

I paused and decided to keep on listening in the conversation.

“Don’t think too much about it, she understands why you got mad.”

“Still... I feel like I overstepped. I don’t want her to think that I’m trying to boss her around just because me and her dad are dating.”

Abby giggled and tapped her sister shoulder, telling her sister to just talk to me once I was done showering.

It had little to do with anything, but it reminded me that I still had to tell Abby about Mathilda helping me take my t-shirt off.

♥♥♥

Violet’s soft thighs were the best pillow. Even better than her stomach. Depending on my mood, maybe slightly below her chest. Listening to her heartbeat was... hard to beat.

Right now, I was feeling like it, so I decided to ask Violet to lie down on her back.

“You’re upset after all, aren’t you?”

“I’m not,” I denied, nuzzling her chest and clutching her clothes.

I was feeling a bit robbed. I knew and understood that there wasn’t any reason for that, but... Mathilda saw Violet’s embarrassed face after taking her shirt off. Those were things that only I should be privy of. Mine, and mine alone. Even if she was only helping, maybe there could have been a different way to lend a hand.

“She could just have pulled the back clear,” I grumbled.

“Fufu, so, you are upset after all.”

“Why are you laughing?!”

“Because it’s so unlike you!” she giggled again. “And wasn’t it you who also got all giggly when it was me getting jealous?”

“...I’m still miffed about Mathilda.”

She rolled to be on top and gave me a very nice, tight hug, while telling me this was something exclusive for me.

She said that, but Violet had also allowed Mathilda to rest her head on her legs. That didn’t bother me then, but now, I was wondering how much of the things that were only done between us two would start spilling over to our circle of friends.

“Then, what do you want to do?” she asked, now sitting on my belly and combing my hair.

I didn’t know, but my hands still landed on her chest before I signalled that I wanted to sit up too. I had my ear pressed to Violet’s chest as I kept playing with it, Violet holding me close. Her heart was now beating a bit faster.

“Better?” she asked as she hugged my head.

“...Ask me in five minutes,” I grumbled back.

She laughed, but stopped once I lifted her shirt and tried to stuff myself under it too.

“Abby! Abby, it’ll stretch!”

“I want a couples’ shirt,” I said, putting the shirt back down to be able to see her face.

She thought I was talking about a matching shirt, but no, that wasn’t it. I wanted a shirt we’d be both wearing. One shirt, two bodies. No idea if that’s a thing, but after searching about it on my phone, I wasn’t surprised to find out that it indeed was something that existed.

“You want one of those?” Violet asked, sounding doubtful about it.

Maybe not now that it was Summer, but for Winter? It sounded promising.

She didn’t sound convinced by that, so I asked what exactly was putting her off the idea.

“How exactly do we pick a size?” she asked. “And will this really make you feel better?”

“...I just want to do something with you that nobody else ever would.”

She laughed again and took my phone away. I wasn’t understanding why she asked if I was feeling better about my fever, but once she started caressing my back and kissing my neck between whispering sweet nothings, I had no doubts what she was planning.

“Gee, I’m not that easy. Eek!”

She tumbled us with her on top and pinched my cheek. She told me she didn’t think that, but she knew that the best way for me to cheer up is to be pampered.

I couldn’t deny that, nor her advances.

“Wanna mark your territory?” she asked uncovering her shoulder and showing me the tan lone from her bikini strap.

I made sure the hickey I was leaving there was one that’d only fade in at least two-days' time.

“How about we get matching tattoos?” I asked as I inspected my work.

“T-that’s a bit, erm...”

“Pfft, hehe! I’m kidding, silly.”

“I-I see... So, no tattooing on my body ‘Property of Abigail Evergreen’ or something like that?”

“Pfft ah-haha! How about ‘In Case of Found, Please Return to the Following Adress’?”

She laughed together with me before kissing me. Then, we started making out. After that...

“Feeling better?” she asked.

I was feeling peppier, but having made love with a fever made me feel dizzy and uncomfortably hot now. Staying home, although boring and a bit lonely, had been the right choice. With how hot it was outside, I could have collapsed and given everybody a scare, Violet above all.

I had forgotten about Mathilda too, or at least I had until Violet grabbed her phone to check for texts on her way to grab me a wet towel to cool me off and said that she had sent one asking how I was doing.

My resentment towards Mathilda was mostly gone. I’d still like to talk to her about it, but not in an argumentative way. I had been “stolen” of something, but Mathilda was likely feeling bad about it too.

No shouting, no accusing, nothing like that. I just wanted to ask her not to do that again and to think before doing that kind of stuff. I saw no problem with her jokes, but only if they stayed verbal. That will be what we’ll talk about.

“Cuddles!” I whined when I saw that Violet wasn’t going to get in bed with me again.

“Didn’t you say you were feeling uncomfortably hot?”

“Not being cuddled is worse!”

“Pfft, fufu! So needy,” Violet teased as she took her side by me.

The love she put in holding me was something nobody would ever get to feel. That was mine, and mine alone, forever more.