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“Jules, what are you getting for dinner?” Rose asked, across from Julika. They sat in a restaurant a few blocks from Julika’s house. Their first date.
Julika wasn’t sure how she had gotten the nerve to ask Rose but she had managed it. With a little help from Luka too.
“Probably pepperoni pizza or something,” Julika mumbled. Rose was the only one who could hear her mumbling. Whether it was because she had good ears or if she was the only one who bothered to listen, Julika loved her for it. It felt like their own secret language.
“Pizza sounds good,” Rose sat across the booth from her face in the menu. She was dressed so beautifully today, in a pink knee length dress with light makeup. “Do you want to split it?”
“Yeah that sounds good,” Julika said smiling.
“Do you remember our first date?” Rose asked, walking beside Julika. Rose’s hair had grown out into a bob with pink streaks.
Julika laughed, she now had a nose ring and her hair was cut to be like Rose’s was back then. The date had been exactly a year ago but it felt like so much longer. “Yeah we got a pizza.”
Julika smiled at the memory. The date had started so normal and had changed so fast.
“So Marinette said she would be here in a few minutes,” Rose said, checking her phone.
“What?” Julika asked, her eyes going wide.
“And Alex said they are a block away,” Rose said, typing something on her phone.
“What are they coming?” Julika asked, dread soaring into her stomach.
“Isn’t this a girls’ date?”
They were walking beside the water near Julika’s house. The water shone with the lights from the lamp posts. This date had been planned out for a few weeks and Julika felt like it would never happen.
“Why did everyone come again?” Rose asked, still lost in the memory of their first date.
“You invited them,” Julika said, nudging her. “I wanted it to be just you and me but it didn’t work out like that.”
“Well it’s still my favorite memory,” Rose said. Julika wrapped her arm around her pulling her close.
“Mine too.”
“Hey girls,” Alex said, sitting down next to Julika. Mylene sat down next to Rose.
Jukila couldn’t help but notice that it was going to be a tight squeeze if Alya and Marinette were going to sit in the booth with them.
A part of Julika was disappointed. Rose thought this was a girls hangout. Julika wasn’t going to make a scene or correct her. She would just have to deal. And it wasn’t that bad, girls hangouts were fun.
“So how have you two been?” Mylene asked.
“Fine,” Julika said, quietly.
“We’re here,” Marinette said, running into the restaurant. Alya ran in behind her, they slipped into the booths, still out of breath.
“Sorry Mari over here was stalking her boyfriend again,” Alya said, rolling her eyes. She was sitting next to Alex, which meant Julika was pressed against the edge of the seat.
“You would stalk Nino too if he had an abusive dad.”
Alya shrugged. “Anyway how have your love lives been?”
Everyone started chattering about their love lives. Mylene was about to celebrate her one year with Ivan and Alex was getting over some girl from the thirteenth century. But she didn’t expect Rose to say something.
“Well you know, I have some people I'm in the talking-to stage with,” Rose shrugged. “I’m not really looking for anything serious yet.”
Julika’s eyes watered, this date was a terrible idea. “I need to go to the bathroom,” she said, raising her voice to what the others would consider a normal volume but to her was like screaming.
The two girls moved and she ran out of the booth to the bathroom.
The lights of the street reflected in Rose’s eyes while they sat on a bench. “You’re beautiful,” Julika said quietly.
Rose leaned up and kissed her. She broke away only slightly to say, “you’re more beautiful than anything else I’ve ever seen in the world.”
“Jules what’s wrong?” Luka asked through the phone. She was crouched in a bathroom stall, not caring that the green dress she had picked out for the date was getting dirty.
“I’m not on a date,” she sobbed into the phone. “Rose invited all our friends and she doesn’t want a girlfriend.”
“Julika calm down,” Luka’s voice said through the phone. “Do you want me to come get you?”
Julika sobbed, her voice breaking into animal-like words. “Julika I’m going to take that as a yes. I’m coming now.”
“What about my friends?” She hiccuped out.
“I’ll tell them you got food poisoning or something and have to go home,” he said. Julika could hear his feet pounding on the concrete through the phone.
“Jules, are you in here?” A voice called from outside the bathroom stalls.
Julika didn’t even bother looking who it was, she knew that voice anywhere.
Rose.
“If the world ended right now I would want it to be like this,” Rose said, looking up at the sky. There were never stars in Paris due to all the light pollution but Rose still looked up there as if she could see through all the lights.
“How would you want it to end?”
“A meteor crashing onto Earth while I’m making out with you,” Rose said, leaning onto Julika.
“But it would have to be here?”
“Yes, because if it ended while we were indoors then we could possibly have someone distract us, or let have that moment of terror before we die. But if I kiss you out here then I die in an instant and I go to heaven with you.”
Julika laughed. “Well I guess we should kiss right now if a meteor or nuclear bomb decides to kill us.”
“Go away,” Julika sobbed into her hands.
“You’re upset.” Rose said to her stall. “Let me come in.”
“Just go away.”
“Did I do something wrong?” Rose asked, her voice cracking.
Another sob racked through Julika. “No, you could never do anything wrong, you're perfect.”
Rose climbed under the stall and hugged her. “Your makeup is running,” she said, wiping her eyes with the handkerchief Rose kept with her all the time.
“I don’t care,” Julika said, turning away.
“Why are you upset? Did someone say something?”
“No, I’m just stupid.”
Rose hugged her from behind. “You’re not stupid. Don’t let anyone, even your anxiety tell you that.”
“But I am dumb,” she said.
“What did you do that makes you dumb?”
“You thought this was a girl's date.”
“Was it a bestie date?”
“No, it was a romantic date. I like you Rose,” Julika began sobbing once more. “This just ruined our friendship.”
Rose took her face in her hands and leaned close to Julika. Then she kissed her.
As Julika leaned in to kiss Rose, she whispered, “You’re the love of my life.” Rose smiled and kissed her just like she had a year ago on their first date.