Chloe
I woke up, feeling the absence of Irene beside me. We had only shared a bed for two nights in a row, and not many more times in the last four years, but I already missed her company. I was a bit disappointed she didn’t feel the same way, but I accepted it anyway, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.

I crawled out of bed, thinking about the morning. I knew Irene would want to sleep in, so it would be a while before she needed breakfast, although we had no food to cook with yet. I walked out to the kitchen, contemplating what to do about it, when a loud banging sound came from the door.

“Shoot,” I cursed. I really hope whoever this was didn’t wake up Irene, she needed her sleep today.

I walked over to the front door and opened it to reveal mine and Irene’s moms standing outside, both of them wearing straw hats, sunglasses, and matching Hawaiian shirts.

“Mom? Clementine?” I’d called Irene’s mom by her first name for forever, and these days it just felt natural.

They both smiled at me, pulling me into a big hug.

Clementine pulled out of the hug first, “You didn’t think we would send our babies off on their own did you? Of course we’re joining you.”

“Don’t worry we’ll still give you guys your alone time, we just wanted to spend more time with you and figured this would be perfect,” Mom smiled reassuringly.

I smiled, happy to see them but also slightly disappointed I wouldn’t be alone with Irene, “Irene’s still asleep, why don’t we bring your stuff in as quietly as we can. We didn’t know you were coming so we took separate bedrooms, I’m not sure which one you guys want.”

They shared a look. Mom turned towards me, “Don’t worry, you guys can take the master bed. We’re in the same house so just keep that in mind,” she gave me a pointed look.

“Okay, no late night parties got it,” I assured, helping them carry their suitcases to the bottom of the staircase where they’d wait until Irene awoke.

They decided to go grocery shopping for us, and I declined going with them, wanting to wait for Irene.

I sat on one of the couches, messaging Lillian on my phone to check on her and aimlessly scrolling through baking ideas on Pinterest for a while.

Eventually I heard steps and sat up to see Irene walk down the staircase in an oversized t-shirt and athletic shorts.

She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking at the pile of our parents’ suitcases. “What’s all this? Who was at the door?”

I set my phone down, seeing that Lily assured me she wasn’t sick, “Apparently our moms are staying here too, they just left to get groceries.”

She shook her head confusedly, walking over to sit in an armchair next to me, “I guess that means we’re staying in the same bedroom together, huh.”

I nodded, trying to not look too excited about it. While we could each stay with our respective moms, both pairs had always preferred it this way, at least once me and Irene were old enough to sleep on our own. “Yeah, they gave us the master, want my help moving your stuff?”

She declined and I instead moved the bags our moms left up the stairs while Irene got her things situated in our bedroom.

Soon after we finished moving things around I heard my mom enter the front, carrying a couple paper shopping bags.

Irene greeted our moms, helping them with the bags, and getting the same group hug I’d gotten earlier.

Once we got everything put away, Irene and I sat down on the couch, taking turns telling them about each of our final semesters of college and our trip here, leaving out the weird conversation about our relationship. I still didn’t get Irene’s embarrassment at putting words to our feelings, but I knew that was between us.

And apparently, they already knew Irene was gay. I guess they all thought I’d known already and never bothered to say it out loud, I knew I’d definitely remember if someone told me. I still didn’t get the whole ‘knowing someone’s sexuality from looking at them’, that seemed kind of weird to me. Am I supposed to judge people based on how they dressed? Whatever, I knew now.

They told us they had reservations for a nice dinner the day after tomorrow, but we would mostly be free to do what we wanted together. I was glad I had some nicer dresses to choose from in my suitcase, and I was excited to see what Irene would wear; she always looked great in whatever she chose.

They went off to go walk down the beach together, leaving with another pointed comment from my mom about not being too loud, this time directed at Irene.

“Don’t you think it seemed like they were up to something?” I asked her as we walked the short distance back to our bedroom.

“Hmm, yea, there’s something up. Why didn’t they just tell us they were coming?”

“Yea…” I agreed, thinking hard, “I feel like they were waiting for us to tell them something, but I don’t think we left anything out, did we?” Ugh, I didn’t like feeling like I was forgetting something.

“No…” she trailed off, “I can’t really think of anything we’d forgotten. I’m sure if it's important, they’ll just ask.”

We sat on the edge of the bed together, staring at the blank TV on the wall across from us, me sneezing as we sat down.

“Bless you,” she said absentmindedly, “So what now?”

I sniffled a bit, trying to not let my nose run, “Well there’s the beach, some hikes,” I looked over to the brochure on one of the night stands, “and there's kayaks to rent.”

She thought about it for a moment, “How about we take it easy today, get some food and just rest until dinner, maybe sit on the beach for a bit. We can go for a hike tomorrow if you’re interested.”

I nodded and leaned into her, feeling like we’d spent too much time apart, “That sounds good, I hope we feel up to hiking, the views around here are pretty pretty.” I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her down to lay on the bed. I let out a long exhale, my face in her neck, and I held her there as long as she would let me, before her stomach started to complain and we had to look for food.

Irene
After Chloe let me get out of our bed and she cooked us some scrambled eggs, we both got ready to sit out on the beach.

I got my bathing suit out, a simple black two-piece, and went to the bathroom to change before Chloe started changing, knowing she would do so regardless of if I was in the same room or not. I knew I could set stricter boundaries with her if that kind of stuff made me uncomfortable, but I didn’t want to hurt her by pushing her away, and it wasn’t like I didn’t like it, I just felt guilty about how it made me want more.

We finished changing and grabbed a beach towel each, and I carried a large umbrella the house had for guests to use out into the beach, setting up in between the water and our back porch that hung out over the sand.

The sand was warm but not hot, and there were few people around. The sky had just enough clouds to make the sun not oppressive, not that I wanted to leave the protection of our umbrella, and Chloe and I lay down on our fronts, lazily chatting about this and that.

She wore a white one-piece bathing suit, small blue and yellow flowers patterned across the pale fabric. I looked as little as was logistically reasonable, but I still saw, and she was cute.

After we’d been laying there a while, a calm silence settled between us, the breathing of the ocean waves and the loud cries of birds periodically interrupting. A much more unwelcome interruption came when I heard a deep masculine voice call out in our direction.

“Hey ladies, what’s going on?”

I groaned in frustration and turned over, taking in the birdbrain that was somehow louder than the seagulls. There were two teenage boys together walking towards us from a dozen yards down the beach, and I didn’t care to figure out which one had actually spoken.

Chloe turned over as well, glaring at them, “What?” she let out an irritated tone.

I was surprised, Chloe almost never got mad, no matter the circumstances.

The kid on the left adopted an entirely unearned smirk, “Not you little girl, we’re talking to your older sister.”

I snorted. Ignoring the fact that they’d said ‘ladies’ and not ‘lady’, Chloe was actually a few months older than me, and we looked nothing alike. I was about to tell them off, involving lots of cursing and possibly threats of violence, when Chloe spoke again.

“Sorry boys she’s mine,” she wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled herself close to me in a clearly possessive move.

I flipped them off and they finally got the message, cursing and hurrying past us along the beach. Chloe and I grumbled at each other for a second, lamenting the loss of peace, before separating from each other and laying back down.

What was going on with Chloe though? I was quick to dismiss the whole incident with Lillian as a misunderstanding, I had assumed that she’d claimed me by accident, not even realizing her friend was trying to hit on me. This time though, it was pretty obvious she knew what was going on, and of all the things to say in response, she’d claimed me. It gave me a rush of happiness, and I wondered if she actually was gay and had feelings for me, and this was her way of expressing them. Maybe I could just ask her.

She abruptly sat up, going into a sneezing fit.

I sat up as well and looked at her, concerned, “Are you okay? You’re not catching something are you?”

She sniffled and shook her head, “It must be allergies or something, I can’t remember the last time I got sick.”

I wasn’t sure that’s how it worked, but I guess I’d take her word for it.

Chloe scooted over to me, leaning her head on my shoulder, and we both watched the waves in silence.