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“I’m telling you something is wrong with Brandon and Callie,” Lena whispered to her wife while they walked through the front door.
They’d come home late from chaperoning the school dance to find the house dark and void of activity.
“Why? Because they didn’t want to go to the school dance?” Stef murmured, slipping off her heels to keep from making noise in case the kids were asleep. “After that last one, I don’t really blame them.”
Lena slipped off her heels and left them beside the door. “It’s more than that. They’ve been quiet and distant, particularly with each other. Anytime they interact, they’re very polite, at least a foot apart at all times, and always in common room spaces.”
“So you’re saying something is wrong, because they’re polite to each other?”
“All I’m saying is there is something different between them, and I’m wor–” Lena’s sentence trailed off at the sound of someone talking in the back yard.
Stef placed a single finger over her lips, signaling silence, and nodded her head towards the kitchen. With stockinged feet, they tip toed to the kitchen window.
Outside, they found Callie and Brandon laying on a blanket in the grass, staring up at the stars–Callie’s head resting on his shoulder. Despite it being night, they were easily seen, highlighted by the never ending glow of a populated neighborhood.
“Are we really not going to talk about this?” Callie spoke to the air.
“There’s nothing to talk about,” Brandon replied wearily.
Laced with sarcasm, she quipped, “Right. And what was the reason you didn’t want to go to the dance?”
“Didn’t feel like it.”
“Bull.”
Brandon sighed from what seemed like his whole body. “Fine, I didn’t feel like watching you go to the dance with someone else. What about you, huh?”
“Same,” she answered, defeated.
“You didn’t want to see yourself dancing with someone else?”
Stef and Lena could practically hear her eyeroll. “You’re hilarious.”
Callie leaned up onto her elbow and looked at Brandon. “Seriously, what are we going to do?”
He tipped his face toward her. “We do nothing. You live your life. I live mine. After this year, we go off to college as far away from each other as financially possible and move on.”
“And what? Never speak to each other ever again?” she scoffed.
“Well, we will have to come back for holidays.”
She poked him right in the chest. “That is the dumbest plan ever.”
Even as their hearts rattled in their ears and they white-knuckled grip the lip of the sink, Stef and Lena shared a brief smile.
“Well, it’s the best I have,” Brandon grumbled, audibly annoyed.
Callie laid back down on Brandon’s shoulder, placing her hand on his chest. After a moment of silence, he reached over and laced his fingers with hers.
“Or–” she offered with a hint of hope.
Another sigh fell from Brandon’s mouth, as if whatever plan she had couldn’t possibly bear fruit. “Or what?”
She turned flush against Brandon’s side, moving her head to right over his heart. “Or we could go to school very close to each other, but far away from here–like requires a plane ticket far away.”
He grew very still. “Like New York far away?”
Callie nodded her head. “And renting an apartment together would be far more cost effective than both of us living on campus.”
“They can’t fault us for wanting to be frugal,” he chuckled.
In a sing song voice, she added, “And how can they say it’s okay for us to live here together, but not there together? I mean this way, they know we’ll keep tabs on each other and not worry that we’re living with crazy roommates.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Just think, we’ll go where no one knows who we are, and we can just be.”
“And the distance means that none of the family can just pop up on us or expect us to come home very much,” he mused.
“And with part time jobs and internships–plus we’ll be renting an apartment which doesn’t go away just because we’re on break, we really will only be able to come home for brief periods of time,” Callie said matter-of-factly.
“Which means we will only have to pretend for what? A week tops each time we visit.” Brandon began to play with Callie’s hair, wrapping the strands around his fingers. “And for how long are we planning to keep this a secret?”
“Well, I imagine we’ll have to fess up when the wedding rolls around,” she replied in amusement.
He shook with laughter and kissed the top of her head. “That’s not necessarily true,” he countered, a smile in his voice. “If we eloped, then they wouldn’t have to know until our first born.”
She giggled. “And how can they be mad at us when we’re giving them a grandchild, right?”
Brandon shook his head, still snickering. “This has to be the craziest idea you’ve ever had.”
Callie sat up, shifted to her knees, and leaned over Brandon with one hand on each side of his head.
“Which would you prefer?” she reasoned, looking into his eyes. “Spending our senior year miserable, avoiding each other, and waiting out the year hoping that it will hurt less when we’re thousands of miles apart–oh and never talking to each other ever again, or enjoying our senior year, happily in love, knowing that we’re only a year away from getting what we want– each other.”
“So we’ll be in roughly the same position we’re now, just with a different outlook?”
“It’s called hope, Brandon Foster, and when did I get more of it than you?” she huffed. “And no, it won’t be the same. No moping, no avoiding each other– we just have to be careful not to give ourselves away. Which we’ve had quite a lot of practice at, only now it’s not with us also lying to each other about it.”
Brandon expelled a deep breath. “You do realize no one can know. If even one person finds out, the whole plan can blow up in our faces.”
She nodded. “You know what that means?”
He groaned.
“Yep. No making out. No, uh, special alone time. And all physical interactions have to appear friendly and nothing more,” she lamented.
“This is going to be the longest year of my life,” he sighed.
“All good things are worth waiting for,” she replied with a smile in her voice.
He reached up and cupped her face. “I think I’ve already proved that I’m willing to wait.”
In response, Callie leaned down and kissed him and kissed him–
“I feel like I should shoot them with the garden hose,” Stef murmured, eyes wide.
Lena turned away, hand cupped over her mouth, and fled back to the entryway, her eyes full of tears.
Stef followed her, pulling her into an embrace, and rocked her side to side.
“They’re–they never want to see us,” Lena sobbed. “We’re going to lose our children forever, because we– we–”
Tears silently leaked down Stef’s cheek, as she squeezed Lena tighter against her. “I didn’t know–” she gulped, “I didn’t know they felt this strongly.”
“What are we going to do? They’re our children. This is their home,” Lena whimpered.
Stef pulled away to look into her wife’s eyes, reaching up to wipe away her tears. “I don’t know, love, but we’ll figure something out. We won’t let them avoid home, avoid us, because they love each other.”
She gave Lena another gentle squeeze and guided her toward the stairs, while inside, her heart ached and helpless fear ran through her, because she knew there was no easy answer for this.