The week flew past, before any of the girls knew it, Saturday had arrived. They had done this every month for years, in fact probably since they had been Kelly’s age, but this time Anne was flustered. She wanted everything to go well, didn’t want her stupid friends to put their foot in it with Jo, she wanted everything to be perfect. She had tidied the loft room three times, tidied her bedroom too, she had vacuumed the whole house, to her mothers pleasure. She had harassed her father about pizza dough so much that he ended up making her do it. She had lit the outdoor pizza oven herself too, it was at least an hour early and wasting wood according to her father.

She stood in the kitchen, wringing her hands and wondering what she was missing.

“Honey, why don't you go collect Abby? You’ve got everything ready, relax for a bit.” Her mother said, rubbing her back.

Anne looked around the kitchen again, “Yeah, okay. She can tell me what I've forgotten.” she said and pulled on a hoodie.

“That's not what I meant and you know it.” her mum laughed as she left the house.

She walked slowly, knowing there was no rush as there were hours to go before people arrived. She secretly hoped that only Abby would sleep over this time, she knew that wouldn't happen though, the sleepovers were people's favourite part of the evening.

She walked past the perfectly manicured lawns, people had been out all day mowing them in the beautiful weather. She knew that because her neighbour had woken her with his petrol mower at an ungodly nine am, on a weekend! What did the man need a petrol mower for? He had about three square meters of lawn!

She passed a huge bush with beautiful big pink flowers and, after looking around furtively, stole one. That small act of theft ballooned as she walked down the street and she soon had almost a dozen flowers of all colours. She hadn't started out to steal all of them but they were all so pretty, and there were so many of them, no one would miss one. One elderly woman saw her carrying her little posie and snipped one of her own flowers and handed it to her with a smile. "It's a nice little collection, giving them to anyone special?" She asked.

"Erm, just a friend" she stammered, wondering how the old woman would react if she told her it was for her girlfriend. "Thank you, it's a beautiful flower."

"You're welcome dear, enjoy the lovely day." The old lady sent her off.

She arrived at Abby's house and knocked on the door, holding the flowers in both hands in front of her.

Abby's mum answered the door. "These are for Abby, do you have a vase?" She asked, holding out the little bouquet.

Mrs Rosenberg frowned, "it's not her birthday you know!" She said, accepting the flowers.

"I know but they were just so pretty." She said following her in.

Abby's dad was sitting at the table reading the paper with a cup of coffee. "Oops, found some pretty compost?" He joked, "morning Anne, fancy a coffee whilst you wait for Abby?"

"Em, sure. Thanks Mr Rosenberg." She answered, sitting down at the table. "Anything new in the world?" She asked, indicating the paper.

"There's a new jaguar that no one could ever afford. The middle east is in crisis, Americans are protesting, the royal family are squabbling." He finished fiddling with the espresso machine and retrieved the milk whilst the coffee poured. "So I guess nothing new. You aren't one of these people that insist on hot frothy milk are you?"

"No sir, I like it to cool the coffee so I can drink it." She responded.

Abby's mum placed a little vase with the flowers in the middle of the table. "I chopped the stems but I don't have anything to put in there to keep them fresh."

Anne fished a copper coin from her pocket, "I heard having a copper coin in there helps." And she dropped in the vase.

"I did hear that somewhere, interesting to test it out." She swept past and shouted up the stairs "Abby, don't keep your friend waiting."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Anne sipped her coffee, thanking Mr Rosenberg for it. It was strong and smooth, just how she liked it.

"Abby's been looking forward to this all week, she's more excited about movie night than I've seen her in years." He commented.

"Yeah, I'm excited too, it's Rocky Horror so it should be fun."

Mr Rosenberg's eyes narrowed. "Isn't that an R18 title?"

"It's M rated so 'Mature audiences sixteen and up'" Anne defended the choice before realising he was messing with her.

"Like we care! You watched Alien last year, it can't be worse than that!"

"No sexual content in that one dear." Mrs Rosenberg chipped in.

"You mean Ripley in her undies didn't count? I would say that was far hotter than Rocky's gold shorts!" They all chuckled and Abby mum said, "I will give you that one."

Abby appeared in a thunder of feet down the stairs, she was heavily laden with a backpack, bedroll and sleeping bag. "Hey, sorry I didn't hear you knock. Nice flowers mum."

"Anne brought those for you. Say thank you." Her mum instructed her.

She gave Anne a quick awkward hug, sleeping bag in one hand and bedroll in the other. "Thanks, I love them." She bent over and sniffed the flowers, "they smell wonderful."

"Right, got everything?" Her mum asked, "Toothbrush? Clean knickers?"

"MUM!"

"I will take that as a yes," her mum smiled, obviously winding up her daughter. "If Anne has finished her coffee you can bugger off. Your dad and I are going into town and then we have a party tonight so we won't be back until late. Be good. Don't get chucked out and no spiking the punch." She said ruffling Abby's hair whilst she couldn't defend herself.

Anne laughed and downed the last mouthful of coffee. "Come on, your parents obviously want some 'alone time'" she said, steering Abby out of the door by her backpack.

"Ew, TMI Anne!" She complained.

Anne laughed and took the sleeping bag from her friend. They walked back slowly, enjoying the sun and the relative privacy, not quite trusting it enough to walk hand in hand. They critiqued the lawn mowing and the choices of colour for people's flower beds as if they were olympic sports, very few getting over 7.5.

By the time they returned the fire needed more wood, her dad admittedly may have been right.

"Hi Jane," Abby greeted Anne's mum. Both of her parents liked the kids to use their first names, they claimed it made them feel less old.

"Abby, do me a favour and drag Anne up to her room, she's fretting." Abby gave Anne a devious looking grin. "Sure thing Jane."

She led Anne upstairs by the hand, once they were in the bedroom she stood with her back to the door with that same grin. "Now, what could we possibly do to pass the time?" She prowled round the bed, Anne backing away playfully, then she pounced and tackled Anne to the bed, she was just covering her neck and face with little kisses when the door opened and they jumped apart with guilty expressions on their faces.

It turned out to just be Kelly, though that may have been worse, "I knew it! When I heard mum say that I thought 'they're off to snog!' and you were too! Man you're so lucky." She jumped on the bed and said "don't let me stop you, carry on!"

"Kelly, we're not kissing with you here." She sat up properly. "Anyway, we were just messing around, we weren't kissing, not really."

"Not yet." Abby admitted.

"Jeez Anne, you're so lucky, you find out you like girls and two days later you're dating your best friend. How can't I have a best friend who's into girls!"

"What?" Abby said, looking confused between her and Anne.

"Oh wow, you didn't tell her? Damn I feel dumb now, I felt for sure she would tell her best friend."

Anne's face was beetroot again and she was avoiding eye contact.

"I think Anne wanted to let you tell me Kelly, so, how about you start from the top?"

Kelly shuffled closer so that she was facing Abby, who was still lounging sideways on the bed. "So, it began with my nosy sister reading my diary." She looked at Anne who was looking decidedly guilty.

"It turns out me admitting I like girls made her jealous and she decided to be cool like me." She tapped her lip with her index finger. "That's pretty much it. There was stuff about us both being perverts and stuff but, yeah, that's mainly it."

"Well, unfortunately I don't have much experience with lesbian relationships to offer you." Abby said, adopting her own thinking pose. "You could try Anne's personal wank advisor."

"Abby, shut up!" Anne said and hit her with a pillow.

"Sorry, I meant the only experienced lesbian either of us know, who just happened to recommend Anne go home for a wank." She ducked as the pillow slammed down on her head again.