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It’s become a ritual; every Friday night they sleep over Amber’s house, watch movies, and drink. Liv and Mindy always fight over what movie to watch. Tara and Amber always sneak off to make out.
Amber and Tara have been “unofficially” dating for about a month now and have yet to tell their friends anything. They’ve always had a flirty nature to them so they haven’t changed the way they act around their friends too much. They try to keep their hands to themselves around their friends but after 3 glasses of wine Amber can’t seem to keep her hands off Tara.
“Stop.” Tara whispers as she lets out a soft giggle. Amber’s hand is resting on her thigh and her pinky is reaching under the hem of her shorts.
Amber keeps her head facing straight on to the tv and keeps inching her pinky further under the shorts. The lights from the shitty thriller movie that Liv picked out flicker off Amber’s face and Tara can’t help but notice how pretty she is. Despite how pretty she looks, Liv or Mindy could turn around any second and see her hands up Tara’s shorts so she lightly smacks her hand and removes it with her own.
Amber intertwines her hand with Tara’s and leans over to whisper, “Let’s go.”
Tara laughs and playfully nudges her shoulder.
“Guys I'm gonna go get more wine from the basement.” Amber says as she gets up from her spot on the couch. “Tara come with me, yeah?”
They try their best to be as unsuspicious as possible but how many excuses can they come up with for being away for so long. Luckily for them, Liv and Mindy are always too drunk to notice them sneaking away.
Tara follows her and their giggles echo from the hallway. But this time Mindy has only had 1 glass of wine.
10 minutes have passed since Tara and Amber left so Mindy decides to call them out on it. “They’re banging.” She blurts out and she reaches for the half empty wine bottle on the coffee table.
“Huh?” Liv innocently asks as she continues to eat her popcorn keeping her attention on the movie.
“Amber and Tara. They’re fucking for sure.” Mindy casually tells Liv while pouring herself another glass.
Mindy knows Liv wasn’t paying attention to her the first time she said it since her head spins with her eyes wide open. “Oh my god!” She laughs, obviously tipsy. “Why do you think that?”
“Um, hello? Do you not have eyes? It's like so obvious. They give eachother goo-goo eyes all the time and they sneak off like every single time we all hang out.” Mindy says all this so nonchalantly. “Just watch them when they come back.”
“I never really noticed.” Liv admits still in shock.
And almost as if it's on cue, the two in question show up with swollen lips, messed up hair, and wine-less. Liv watches them as they go back to their seats with an awkward tension in the air and this time, she notices.
-
They’re walking side by side up the garage way of the Meeks-Martin house to Chad’s party.
Their hands brush up against each other the entire walk in such a calculated way that shows they were doing it on purpose. Before they enter the garage into the house, Tara grabs Amber's hand and pulls them off to the side.
“Give me a kiss before we go.” She pouts looking up into Amber’s eyes. Her hands reach up to her neck and she lets them rest there.
“Mmmmm I don’t know.” Amber says in a playful tone and puts her hands on the shorter girl's waist.
Tara puts on a fake mad face and scoffs and tries to walk off but Amber pulls her back by her jean’s belt loop. She places her lips on Tara’s and moves her hands to cup her face.
The kiss starts to heat up and Tara’s hands start to roam under Amber’s shirt but before they could go any higher, Amber pulls away. “Let’s go in.” She breathes out with a small smirk on her face knowing Tara wants more.
That’s what Tara likes about Amber, she keeps her on her toes. She likes lots of things about Amber. She likes how Amber is closed off to everyone but her, like she’s only hers. She likes how she sneaks in little pecks while all their friends walk ahead of them. She likes how she holds her hand under the table when they all go out to eat. She likes how she whispers in her ear how pretty she is in the midst of their friends having conversations. And she loves how jealous she gets.
So as they walk into the party and Wes’ eyes light up when he sees Tara, Tara knows she’s in for a fun night.
“You guys came! I didn’t think you were going to come, where were you?.” Wes says pulling in Tara for a side hug.
Amber stares and feels like she’s about to combust.
She’s learned to keep her words to herself for Tara’s sake but she can’t help herself this time. “God forbid you’re not able to stare at Tara from a distance like a creep for one night.”
“Amber.” Tara glanced at her with a look that said, “keep it civil”, and then turned back to talk to Wes. “Yeah no we wouldn’t miss it! When did you get here? Are you having fun?”
Tara and Wes continue to conversate over the heavy music and Amber quickly grows tired of it and walks away in a jealous fit. Tara knows the effect she has on her and some fucked up part of her likes to let the jealousy linger so she doesn’t chase after her.
Chad, Liv, and Mindy were all watching this interaction from across the room. Liv, having no sense of control, told Chad that she thinks Amber and Tara are dating who then went back and told Mindy.
“10 bucks says that Tara chases after her right now.” Chad says with his arm around Liv.
“I mean, how dumb can Wes be.” Liv chuckles.
Tara keeps looking off to the distance as Wes keeps talking her ear off, scanning the room for her currently pissed girl.
“You literally had no clue until last night.” Mindy shoots back to Liv. They all see Amber approaching them and quickly disperse into an entirely different conversation.
The tall girl practically stomps up to them and grabs the vodka bottle on the kitchen counter. “I need a drink.”
“Hi to you too.” Mindy retorts, Amber rolls her eyes and waves to her as she takes a shot of the vodka.
Tara, still stuck in a conversation with Wes, decides it’s finally time to go chase Amber after she downs her fifth shot. “Sorry, I'll be right back.” She smiles at him knowing she won’t be.
Tara walks up to her friends and stands right next to Amber as she greets them all. Amber doesn’t turn to look at her and keeps her attention on Liv who is talking about god knows what.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m perfect.” Amber tries her hardest to look un-bothered and fake a smile but her bitch face won’t budge.
“You’re mad.” Tara rests her chin on the side of her arm and looks up at her. Amber steps to the side to get Tara off her and she walks away to the backyard. The shorter girl follows after her while calling her name.
The picture of this scene doesn’t even cross either of their minds or they would notice how much of a typical couple they were being. That was the moment that solidified their relationship to their friends.
Tara quickly fixes all the damage she did with her baby I’m sorry’s and you’re the only for me’s and in 10 minutes they walk back laughing in the direction of the bathroom.
As soon as they close the door behind them Tara perches herself up onto the sink and grabs Amber’s hand to bring her in between her legs.
“You know sometimes I think you talk to him on purpose to piss me off.”
“Maybe, you’re hot when you’re jealous.” And she really is so she continues. “Or maybe I just have fun talking to him.”
“More fun than with me?”
“How fun are you?”
“Not as fun as him.” Amber stares into Tara’s eyes as her fingers make their way into the back of her neck and into her hair. “How much do you like him?”
“Not as much as I like you.”
“So you like him?” The tension between them increases and they’re getting closer and closer with every sentence.
“I like you.” Tara knows she could push this little act more but she thinks she's already done enough damage for one night as is, so she lets the girl have her way. Tara brings the taller girl closer as she wraps her legs around her.
The space between them closes and Tara can taste the liquor on Amber’s tongue. The kiss is passionate and slow and Tara can’t help but let out a small moan. Amber moves her hand to her neck and begins to trail kisses down. She nips at the sensitive spots and hears the shorter girl’s small moans and smiles in satisfaction. With her free hand, she unbuttons the top buttons of the smaller girls shirt and slips her hand in.
“Amber.” Tara whimpers and cups her face to bring her back up to kiss her. Breathy moans escape both their mouths.
“Let’s go home.” Amber whispers against her lips.
“We just got here.”
“Please.” She gives her a peck. “Or the car.” She moves her mouth back down to her neck and continues to suck on the same spot that was already turning red.
“Okay.” Tara smiles and bites her lip. Amber pulls her down from the sink so fast and practically sends the door flying as she opens it.
Little did they know who was standing outside the bathroom waiting to use it. Wes’ face was as pale as a ghost at the scene of Tara’s neck filled with marks and Amber’s swollen lips a dark red.
“Oh Hi.” Tara says, still out of breath. She buttons up her shirt and Amber can’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, um, you can—Yeah it’s free to use.” Tara stutters over her words, nervous at the fact that this is the first time someone’s caught them (or so they think).
“Yup…thanks.” Wes awkwardly responds and looks over to Amber who has the biggest smile on her face. She grabs Tara’s hand and leads them downstairs.
“Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god.” Tara repeats
“He can finally stop being annoying now.”
Tara doesn’t think Amber fully understands what just happened because of the 6 shots she took earlier so she decides to spell it out for her. “He knows, everyone’s gonna know now!”
“We know!!” A drunk Liv appears behind them and hugs both of them. “And I am so happy for you guys! My best friends together!!!”
Amber turns to look at Mindy and Mindy shrugs and signals to Tara’s neck and mouths. “So obvious Freeman.”
Amber is too buzzed and too horny to deal with any of this so signals Tara to the door. As they walk out the door they hear Chad’s cheers of approval but choose to ignore it.
30 minutes have passed and the windows of Amber’s car are fogged up, Tara’s shirt is somewhere on the console, and Amber is ready to knock out. They lie in the backseat of the car with Amber resting her head on the shorter girl’s chest.
They’ve been fooling around for almost two months but nothings been official. Tara’s mind can’t help but wonder to the thought that Amber might just not like her enough for it to be official. She can fuck her in secret but she can’t hold her hand in public. The insecurity is slowly starting to kill her so before she loses the courage to do it, she decides to start the conversation.
“I like you.” Tara whispers as she looks down to Amber and plays with her hair. “A lot.” She adds on.
Amber swears she feels butterflies in her stomach when she hears that so she proceeds to leave a small peck on Tara’s neck. “I like you a lot too. So much.”
There’s so much more Amber wants to tell her, but she can’t. It’s too much. She wants to tell her how she’s liked her the minute she saw her. She wants to tell her how she feels more like herself around her than she does alone. She wants to tell her how when she’s around her it feels like she’s shut off from the entire world just so she can be only hers. But she won’t tell her so she sticks with “I like you a lot too.”
But there’s a certain comfortable silence between them that shows them that they more than just like each other. Both of them are afraid to move or say anything else at this moment so they don’t. They stay in silence and linger on the love between them.
Tara’s heart feels like it’s beating like a drum and she just hopes to god Amber doesn’t notice it. They’ve had intimate moments before, veryyy intimate, but this time it feels different.
Tara decides to break the silence when she realizes that “I like you too” wasn’t enough for her.
“But do you like—” She sighs thinking of how stupid and childish she’s about to sound. “Like are we dating?” She keeps her eyes looking at the ceiling of the car to avoid having to face Amber.
Amber quickly lifts her head off her chest and looks her in the face. She laughs, “Well duh.”
Slightly annoyed at the fact that she laughed at her, Tara keeps her eyes on anything but Amber and replies, “Well you never said anything so I just—”
“Will you be my girlfriend, Tara Carpenter?” Amber cuts her off and cups her face to look at her.
-
On Monday at school, the group of friends find Tara sitting on Amber’s lap at their table outside. Amber has her arms wrapped around her waist as she whispers into her girlfriend’s ear making her laugh.
They all approach the table and casually sit down. They don’t even acknowledge the fact that Amber and Tara are all over each other because of how obvious it was before. They start a random conversation about the mid-terms they’re all nervous for.
Wes walks up to sit at the table and still looks in utter shock like he didn’t catch them mid make-out session at the party Saturday. Maybe some part of Wes tried to delude himself into thinking he was just drunk and saw it all wrong, but here with Tara on top of Amber, it was clear as day.
Chad pats his back and whispers. “Get used to it dude.”