July of 2013

 

The days, the hours; down to the minutes to the seconds, fly by much quicker than they have anywhere else.

Brooklyn Kelly's house is peaceful.

She knew that already, of course. Having been to sleep over many times, Miki is very familiar with this home. But ‘living’ in it is a different story. Miki gets to experience the Kelly’s daily routine, their activities; she gets to join them on adventures, go with them to places her own family would never even have a passing thought about going to.

Staying with them feels like a game changer. She feels at ease. Maybe it’s from hanging out with her best friend all the time, but she’s genuinely happy here. Miki helps Brooke with her chores and they don’t even feel like chores. Everything is so much fun- maybe she’s crazy.

 

After Karen Kelly had came to Brent’s run down and shitty apartment, she forced Miki to pack up all her things. The drive to the Kelly’s trailer was tense and quiet. Miki was scared but also a little relieved. Brooke kept throwing her mixed glances; worry, angry, sad, happy. It was confusing her.

When they got to the house, they let Miki take a much needed shower. After she was done, Karen sat her down in the small but cozy living room and coaxed her softly into explaining what was going on. For some reason, it was easy to spill her guts out. Karen made her feel safe- the Kelly’s did. She avoided Brooke’s line of sight- could see her best friend getting upset from the corner of her eye. Karen’s expression contorted into worry but it was not disappointment or anger like her own parents would have had.

They tried to contact Camilla and Bentley but they could not get a hold of the two. Miki explained they were on a long business trip, so Karen told her she could stay with them for a while. Miki was so happy. After the conversation, Brooke took her down the small hallway that's only filled with her room and the guest bathroom, a small linen closet at the end. They went into Brooke’s familiar bedroom, it was quiet between them as Miki had put her suitcase by the door. Brooke sat down onto her desk chair, her expression had been conflicted.

”Why didn’t you just come to me?” Brooke turned to her and she just looked sad. It made Miki’s chest swirl with emotions and her nose start to sting. It had become so hard to breathe all of a sudden. Brooke continued after a breath. ”You know we would have helped you. I would do anything for you.”

Miki stood there, tense and upset. She had sniffled and her throat closed on a sob. The emotions from the past two weeks bubbling over. ”I don’t want us to keep stuff like that from each other.” Brooke all but mutters, sadly, and Miki had just broke down, moving over across the room and sat down on Brooke’s bed- her face buried in her hands.

”I’m sorry.” She stuttered out, wiping the tears away as fast as they had been falling. ”I really just didn’t want to get you involved. Or-or..” Her breathing shuddered, lip wobbled on a whimper, “or upset you.”

Brooke had gotten up and went over to Miki’s side, sitting down on her own bed and wrapping her best friend up in a hug. After Miki started crying, Brooke just couldn’t find it in herself to be mad anymore. She told Miki to never do something like this again, to which Miki nodded into the crook of her neck. Karen left soon after, still going to work even if she was a few hours late.

 

-

 

“Miki! Get off of me!” Brooke squeals from the floor as she tries to knock Miki, who is sitting on top of her, off. Their hands are clasped together in an unfair struggle. Miki had been trying to help Brooke with summer homework, to which Brooke was getting annoyed at her for being a know it all. It started with throwing crumpled pieces of paper, then erasers and pencils, till they started shoving each other which evolved into play wrestling. It’s a week into July, fourth of July already passed and the girls played with sparklers in the backyard of the Kelly’s trailer. There’s still been no word from Miki’s parents, which worries her only slightly.

A cackle sounds out around the room from Miki as she pins her best friend down to the floor, clenching her thighs tightly around the shorter girl’s hips so she cant move away anywhere. Brooke groans out, looking around them before detaching her right hand from Miki’s left- reaching up to grab a stray pillow that’s close to the edge of her bed. Miki notices- but doesn’t have enough time to move out of the way as a huge purple pillow comes barreling into the side of her head.

“Ack!” Miki chokes out a yelp as she tumbles off of Brooke and falls to the floor beside her. It’s Brooke’s turn to laugh out loud, victorious as she quickly scrambles to her feet.

“That was so unfair…” Miki pouts, pushing herself up with two hands into a sitting position. She gazes up at the girl standing over her.

“All is fair in love and war.” Brooke speaks down to her with a winning smile The poetic words cause a humorous grin to pull at the corners of Miki’s lips before she starts laughing. Brooke chuckles. Miki can’t help the blush that comes to her cheeks at the word ‘love’ though.

“Girls!” A voice calls from down the hall, slightly muffled, “Are you done playing around? Would you like to come have some dinner before it’s cold?” Karen asks as the two girls rush to poke their heads out from the bedroom door.

“Dinner is done?” Miki asks with wide blue eyes.

“Yes! I’ve been calling for you two. It sure is rowdy in there.” Karen teases with an affectionate shake of her head. There’s a cheer from Miki as the two girls tumble down the hallway with no time to spare right into the kitchen; they take a seat at the old cicular wooden table pushed almost to the corner of the room- right in front of the door to the backyard.

“I’m starving.” Miki moans out, slumping in her chair as if her body is melting. Brooke leans over the table with a hand under her chin.

“We literally just had a whole bag of chips like-” Brooke cranes her head to look at the time that’s glowing over on the kitchen stove, “barely an hour ago.”

“That was then, this is now.” Miki waves her off, “I’m so starved I might wither away, right here in your kitchen. In this very chair. You’ll have to clean up the ashes of my body once I disintegrate.” Brooke rolls her eyes at the dramatic tone.

“Well we wouldn’t want that to happen, would we?” Karen asks in a light tone, bringing over two plates for the girls and setting them down in front of each one. Miki cheers again, grabbing the fork before it has even hit the table and digging in. Brooke scrunches her nose a little at the scene in front of her but Karen just laughs fondly.

“Slow down there, tiger! The food isn’t going anywhere.” Karen turns to go back to get herself a plate, leaving Miki a pat on the head which causes Miki to slow down her feasting with a dust of red on her cheeks. Brooke gives a warm smile at the exchange. There’s mini chicken tacos with salad and pasta on the menu and Miki had already slurped up all the angel hair noodles that were on her plate. The redhead stands up to put her legs on her chair so she can sit on her knees, reaching across the table to try and snag some of Brooke’s off of her plate. The girl gasps at the thievery and tries to swat Miki’s hand away. Karen eyes the two teens from her place in the kitchen with a gentle expression.

“Quit it!” Brooke snips, using her fork to battle with Miki’s own. Miki starts cackling in an evil manner at their forks hitting each other. “Fork fight!” Miki spouts the words out through her laughs. Karen walks over to the table and sets her own plate with a glass of wine next to it, just to unwind for the night.

“Miki, dear, you know there’s enough to go around for everyone?” The woman chuckles while sitting down. It distracts Miki for a second and Brooke takes the opening to jab her boney hand with the fork and Miki retracts in defeat. Brooke sticks her tongue out at Miki. Karen almost shakes her head at the two of them, “There’s still some on the stove, sweetie, if you want more.”

The girl whoops and throws herself off the chair to go grab the pot from the stove. Miki carries it over to the table and uses her own fork to pull the noodles out to plop onto her plate. She sets it down on the table, not bothering to take it back to the stove. No one cares. Miki sits back down in the wooden chair with crisscrossed legs.

“So, girls.” Karen says once they've settled down, grabbing their attention. Brooke looks up from her plate while Miki puts her elbows on the table top, “What is it, Ms. K?”

Brooke wrinkles her nose at the sound of that. Karen just gives an amused smile.

“My sister has invited us to come stay at her ranch for a week.” The woman brings her glass up to her lips to take a sip. Brooke’s eyebrows raise as she takes a bite of her taco. “Aunty Elaine?”

Karen gives her a nod, “Yes, she needs help with something and I figured it would be a fun summer trip for you girls!”

“A ranch?” Miki questions through a mouth full of taco and noodles. Brooke gives a hopeless look in her direction and Karen hands Miki a napkin.

“Yeah.” Brooke confirms, “My aunty lives on a big ranch with some farm animals.”

Miki swallows her food quickly, not chewing it fully. “Oh perfect, I’ll fit right in then!” She jokes, Brooke snorts. “Is it okay if I go with you guys though?”

Karen gives a noise of confirmation and Brooke just grumbles, “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“I’ve already talked to her and told her that Brooke has a friend staying with us for the summer, she said its fine. The property is pretty big, same goes for her house.”

“Ah, well.” Miki takes another bite of food and then points her fork at Brooke, “If there’s not enough room, Brooke can always sleep in the barn- there’s a barn right?”

Brooke gasps in offense, “Says you! I’m going to make you sleep outside now.” She grunts the words out, Karen laughs.

“I think we need to work on your house guest etiquette, Brookie.” Miki scolds teasingly and Brooke only scoffs with the roll of her eyes, “You’re hardly a guest anymore. You might as well just be part of this family already.”

She pauses after she says the words, her eyes going wide and face going red from the implication. Karen shoots her a knowing look, but pretends she didn’t hear anything and chuckles at the bickering. Miki is dumbfounded for a second before her entire face down to her shoulders goes flushed. She takes a big bite of her food to stuff her mouth, it doesn’t stop the fluttering in her heart and butterflies in her stomach. Miki’s mind starts racing a mile a minute. Marry Brooklyn Kelly. Sounds amazing to her.

“What do you girls think about going?” Karen cuts through the silence before it can become overwhelming. Both teens shake of the bashful feelings that were coursing through them, perking their heads back up to look at the woman.

“I wanna go, I haven’t seen Tucker in a while.” Brooke states, leaning her chin onto her hand as she sticks a fork full of lettuce into her mouth.

“Who’s Tucker?” Miki asks in interest, “Are you cheating on me?” Miki adds on- joking. The words make her want to frown as she says them, even though she is just messing around.

Brooke scoffs, pink coloring her cheeks again, “What? You’re crazy.” She lets Miki know through an eye roll, “Tucker is a horse at the ranch.”

Miki perks up, the weight trying to drag her lips down disappears as soon as it came. “A horse? What other animals are there?”

“There’s actually two horses.” Brooke corrects and then hums after.

“There’s a lot of chickens.” Karen says with a certain tone that shows she doesn’t necessarily enjoy the amount of chickens that there is. Brooke chuckles at her mom.

“Let’s see..” Brooke starts, tapping her middle finger against her cheek in thought. “Chickens, a few roosters, cows… uh-”

Miki cuts her off with excitement before she can finish, “Cows?! Like the black and white ones?” Karen chortles into her wine glass at the girl’s reaction.

“Yeah I think there’s one that had a black and white pattern… I mostly remember brown ones.” Brooke hums, a knowing smile coming to her face. Miki toothily grins,

“Well, now I definitely want to go! Count me in, one hundred percent!!” Miki gives the Kelly’s a thumbs up. Karen smiles in delight and Brooke continues eating the rest of her food that’s on her plate.

“Then it’s settled. We’ll be leaving on Tuesday, the ninth. That’s only about 2 days away, so I’d start packing.” Karen tells them, returning her attention to eating. “That’s so last minute.” Brooke tells her mom, Miki doesn’t say anything, too busy getting up to get a soda from their refrigerator as if it were her own.

“Sorry!” Karen apologizes to her daughter in earnest, “I wanted to tell you guys sooner, but I’ve been so busy at the hospital lately that I keep forgetting.” Brooke gives her mother a smile, letting her know it’s okay without saying anything. Miki finally finds a grape soda in the back of the fridge. Karen specifically bought a case for the girl- knowing it’s her favorite soda. The action made Miki almost want to cry. Karen Kelly is such a thoughtful woman. She pulls the can out and cracks it open and takes a generous swig.

“Well what are we waiting for then? Lets go start packing!” Miki says to Brooke, getting ready to run out of the kitchen and down the hallway but halts in the entry of the hall. “Thanks Ms. K, for the dinner!” And then she’s on her merry way, soda in hand- being careful not to spill it in her mad dash. The plate sitting on the table where Miki sat still has quite a bit of food on it, but she cleared the pot of pasta so no one says anything to her. Miki has made sure to say thank you after every meal Karen has made for them. The woman hs told her it isn’t necessary, but Miki is genuinely thankful for the food and for the two people themselves.

“Brooke!” Miki calls out from the girls room down the hallway, which causes Brooke to huff a laugh from her nose, “I’m coming!”

Before she goes down the hall to the girl beckoning her, Brooke picks up both of their plates and places them by the sink- cleaning off Miki’s plate by brushing it into the trash. Karen thanks the girl for the help and Brooke gives a loving smile back before making her way to her room less erratically than Miki did.

Upon entering the room, she almost kicks over Miki’s grape soda. Miki had put it on the floor next to her and Brooke almost has to parkour over it as she realizes her toe is about to run into the metallic item. “Jesus!” Brooke chokes out, grabbing at the door which pushes open more from her weight, almost causing her to topple backwards. She catches herself, but then loses her balance from the door still swinging- jumping over the can so she doesn’t run into it and then stumbling forward only to catch herself on the side of her desk. Miki is watching the scene unfold from where she sits on her knees on Brooke’s grayish blue carpet. There’s a beat of silence before she just barks out a string of laughs.

“What was that?!” Miki howls, holding her stomach as she nearly laughs herself into tears. Miki’s laughter is always contagious so Brooke ends up joining her. Their laughs only push one another to laugh harder and Brooke ends up on her own knees on the floor- the laughter making her body turn into jelly. Miki falls sideways, laying slightly curled and about to start hitting the floor with her fist as the giggles only intensify once Brooke falls.

“Oh my god.” Brooke wheezes out through her peals of laughter. She brings a hand up to wipe at her eyes, trying to catch her own breath. Miki’s own breaths are stuttering as she pushes herself back up into a sitting position. “Brooke…” Miki’s voice comes out high pitched from her laughing fit,

“You should totally try out for the Olympics.”

And then they both fall back into another wheezy laughing fit.

Eventually they finally get to packing. Brooke digs in her closet looking for her only suitcase, which only makes a mess because she throws all the stuff that’s in the way out onto the open floor. Miki chuckles as she pulls out one of the toys that ended up landing into her suitcase.

“Sorry Brooke, I think I’m a little old for toys. I’m going to pass on bringing this with us.”

The girl in mention peaks her head out from the closet to look at what Miki’s talking about, and then gives Miki an incredulous look. “Are you sure about that?” and Miki snorts.
“Are you calling me a child?” She inquires as Brooke goes back to digging. It turns out Brooke is the type of person to clean her room by shoving everything into the closet. She told Miki that she did it once and never got around to organizing all the stuff she threw in there, so from there on it only got worse. The suitcase she’s trying to get to is in the back, laid flat, covered by various clothes, toys, and useless items. She can’t get it from the other side because her dresser is in the way of the left sliding door of the closet.

“Because you’re right if you are.” Miki jests and Brooke laughs and then lets out a noise of accomplishment. “I found it!” There’s clattering as Brooke yanks it out from under a pile and then backs out of the closet fully- almost tripping on some of the stuff scattered on the floor.

“Well it’s about damn time!” Miki cheers with her. Once Brooke drops the suitcase down above Miki’s the two kind of just stare around at the mess. Miki looks up to gauge Brooke’s reaction; pursed lips and furrowed eyebrows. She lets out a laugh, which makes her friend look at her. Miki starts shoving whats next to her over towards the open closet door, “Back in you go!!”

The simple action causes Brooke to laugh and start picking up stuff to throw back in as well. I mean, no one’s perfect.

 

It took them a little over an hour to get everything together, so it leaves them with a whole day to think about anything they’ve forgotten. They leave their necessities out; toothbrushes and hair brushes, along with stuff alike. After packing, they got ready for bed. Miki had finished her grape soda during the time they were packing so she had taken it out to the kitchen and put it in the recycling bag. The trailer was silent and dark, the only light coming from the nightlights they have in the hallway and in the kitchen. Miki noticed a candle still burning in the living room so she went over and blew it out- making the room more dark. It wasn’t an eerie dark that her own house has at night, it was comfortable. She felt like she knew exactly where she was and she felt safe. Although she bumped into the chair that sits adjacent to the couch and nearly tripped.

That’s where the two girls are now, in bed. Miki and Brooke have always shared a bed during sleep overs, it just came naturally to them. Neither saw anything wrong with it. Miki especially loved it because it gave her an excuse to cuddle the other girl- it felt like it was the closest she was ever going to get and it made the feelings inside her burn brighter. Brooke never seemed to mind and even cuddled back.

“They used to have a bull.” Brooke blurts out of nowhere as she’s adjusting the blanket that covers her, quickly adding on for clarification, “At my aunties.”

Miki perks up, she’s laying on her side facing Brooke- she uses her hand from her elbow to prop her head up. “A bull!? What… used to?” Miki whines the words out, “No fair. I want to see a bull. What happened to it?”

Brooke smiles, “Yeah, I thought you might.” She takes a breath. “He got too violent with the other animals on the farm so they re-homed him.”

“Not cool.” Miki pouts, putting her arm down and flops her head to lay back on the pillow beneath her. Brooke chuckles at her childish response and then she points out, “You kind of remind me of him.”

“Better than a monkey.” Miki counters, staring at the dark of the ceiling, “And I am a Taurus so you aren’t too far off.” Brooke’s smile stays on her face as a calm silence washes over them. She starts falling into a daze, about to fall asleep before Miki blurts out;

“We need to buy you some glow stars.”

Brooke startles only slightly, pulled from her almost asleep state, She doesn’t open her eyes though. “What?” She mumbles.

Miki rolls closer, putting an arm over Brooke. “For your ceiling. It’s so plain up there.” She’s talking about the ceiling. Brooke lets out a sleepy laugh, putting her hand over Miki’s that is on her.

“Yeah, yeah. Okay, sure. We’ll go buy some tomorrow.” Miki lets out a hushed ‘sweet!’ under her breath and then the two of them fall asleep for the night.

 

The next morning Miki gets up first and throws some clothes on, excitement flowing through her veins. Apparently Brooke doesn’t wake up fast enough, even though it’s only half past ten in the morning, and Miki takes it upon herself to wake her up. Not before admiring Brooke’s sleeping form. She looks so at peace, her dark eyelashes resting down elegantly. Miki rubs a finger over Brooke’s cheek. She is so adorable. Her eyes trail down her features to her lips, Miki almost has it in her to lean over and peck a kiss- but she stops herself by thinking how wrong that would be, especially for Brooke.

“Come onnnn…” The redhead eventually drawls out from where she sits on her knees by Brooke’s bedside. She’s nudging the raven haired girl at her arm. Brooke groans in annoyance, wanting to stay asleep for just a little while longer. She tightens the blanket around her and pulls it up higher.

“Brookie…” Miki pouts, resting her head on her arm right on the mattresses’ edge. Brooke sleepily whines, blinking an eye open to look at the culprit of her interrupted dream. She shoots a tired glare.

“What do you want Miki?” Brooke groans out after staring at Miki for a couple seconds in silence. She brings a hand up to rub at her tired eyes.

“You’ve been asleep for like forever.” Miki grunts, not moving away even now that Brooke is awake. Brooke leans up onto her elbows and looks across the room at her alarm clock. 10:52 a.m.

“It’s only barely eleven!” She exclaims as she throws herself back. “It’s summer break. Why are you up so early?” There’s accusation in the tone of her voice.

“I’ve been up for so long that I had a cup of coffee with your mother before she went to work today.” Brooke just gapes at the girl. It was Sunday, her mother had taken one last shift before they go to her aunt Elaine’s. “Are you serious?” She asks her, not an actual question- it’s more in complaint.

Miki perks her head and nods vigorously. “It was very domestic.” Brooke cracks a smile at that. A moment passes between the two and Miki doesn’t leave.

“Alright, Jesus.” Brooke finally breathes out, sitting up and pushing the blanket away from her, swinging her legs off the side of the bed- which finally gets Miki to move and jump up to her feet.

“Yes!” Miki cheers, “Get dressed. We’re gonna go out today.” Brooke gives her a questioning look but Miki just ignores the look in favor or ushering the girl to her dresser to get out clothes. The girl groans at Miki’s persistence.

“Okay! Quit pushing me around.”

 

Due to Miki’s inpatients, the girl grabs random clothes to throw on. She ends up with her tan and black color block hoodie with some baggy blue jeans. Brooke combs through her bed head as fast as she can and then brushes her teeth- all while Miki is buzzing around her. The taller girl must have had a ton of coffee- she is bugging out, hopping from one foot to the other making the plaid backpack bounce and rustle at the actions. It seems like she needs to keep moving. It makes her only slightly suspicious. Brooke knows she’s tried to snort cocaine now and with that knowledge she starts to keep a closer eye on Miki’s sudden crazy behavior.

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Miki chants as Brooke is slipping her own shoe’s on, just a simple pair of black sneakers. “Chill out!” Brooke snips as she ties the last knot on her shoe. “I haven’t seen you this obnoxious in a while, everything okay?”

“I am not obnoxious!” Miki defends but she has a huge smirk pulling at her lips. She’s joking and doesn’t answer the question at hand. Brooke rolls her eyes as she stands up, making her way towards the front door. “Okay then, let’s go.”

They head to the store. There’s one a couple blocks away from Brooke’s trailer park. Miki keeps chatting about random stuff the entire way there; the literal meaning of talking someones ear off. Eventually she pulls out a cigarette from her bag and lights it up. Brooke doesn’t say anything about it, it’s better than cocaine.

“We’re going to buy glow stars. Remember last night when I brought them up? We’re gonna get them today. To put them up in your room before we leave. We should also buy some for the road trip tomorrow. It’s gonna be a blast.” Miki’s words keep stumbling out, sometimes muffled by the cigarette between her lips.

“How far do you think my aunt lives?” Brooke questions with a laugh. Miki shrugs. “I don’t know, I mean, I’ve never seen a ranch in Downersgrove, have you?

Brooke shakes her head slightly, scuffing her shoe’s on the gravelly road. “She lives in Morris, it’s only a thirty minute drive at most.”

Miki’s demeanor deflates at this, turning the dramatics on. “Agh! Noo.” She whines out around her cigarette as she takes another drag. Brooke chuckles. Miki leaves the cigarette between her lips at the corner and shoves her hands into her pockets for a short amount of time. “I was hoping we could do all those dumb road games and then eat a bunch of snacks in the backseat before we get bored and pass out.”

“Maybe one day we can go on a road trip together. Not this time though.”

 

The cool air from that blows from the store as soon as they walk in is a relief, it’s boiling outside and Brooke is starting to regret wearing a hoodie, but Miki is dressed in a black long sleeved shirt so at least she’s not the only crazy person. They look high and low for these damn stickers, but can’t find them. Miki is convinced they would be in the craft section- and Brooke doesn’t know why because clearly they would be with the children’s toys. To which Miki counters that assumption with, “Well, adults would like glow in the dark stars too.”

Brooke rolls her eyes.

Eventually they find them in the ‘as seen on television isle’, and they both laugh because it makes no sense and they never have seen them on the TV. The pack comes with little moon crescents along with different size stars. With the acquired item, they start weaving there way through aisles looking for anything that catches their eye. The two end up in the cosmetics department, to which Miki stops and points out hair dye.

“Brooke, come here!” She calls over her best friend who was in the make-up aisle on the other side of the shelf. Brooke makes her way around and stalks up to the girl with some make-up products in hand. “What’s up?” Brooke asks in concern, as if somethings wrong. Miki’s hand flies out and points to the colorful boxes in front of them,

“Lets dye your hair!”

Brooke blanches, “What? Why?” She uses her green eyes to survey all the boxes. She isn’t one hundred percent opposed to the idea, but it’s so random that it caught her off guard.

“You’ll look even cuter with a colorful head, c’monn…” Miki starts to beg her, “Pick a color that would match my hair.”

“I definitely do not want red hair.” Brooke chuckles, bending over to get a closer look at the products. She doesn’t even know if her mom would approve of it. Miki calls out from behind her, “What’s wrong with having red hair? I thought you liked my hair?”

Brooke ignores her in favor of picking up a box of blue dye, it’s a darker shade of blue. Brooke kind of likes it. “Wont we also need to bleach my hair?” Brooke questions, standing up with the box- which Miki snatches from her hand to get a good look at, she holds it up next to Brooke’s head. Miki makes some hums of consideration before finally,

“You’re going to look so good in this color! Perfect choice, I wouldn’t have picked a better one myself.” The box get handed back to Brooke- who has an amused expression.

There’s a hum, “Yeah we’re gonna have to bleach that pretty dark hair of yours.” Miki turns on her heel to look for a box of bleach. “Don’t worry, hair dresser Miki at your service.”

“I’m going to go bald.” Brooke jokes out, half a jest and half true fear. Miki laughs, and it sounds a little too evil.

 

-

When they got back to the trailer they waited for Brooke’s mom, who was home early since she took an early shift, and they were ready to beg on their knees her for her blessing to change Brooke’s hair color but the woman was so passive about it. She just said,

”Well, you’re in high school now. I don’t see why not. What color are you wanting?” Her voice had been so happy and warm, genuinely interested. Karen even offered her help, but Miki insisted she wanted to do it- which made Brooke a little worried.

 

While the bleach is sitting in Brooke’s black hair, the two of them work on sticking the glow stars to Brooke’s bedroom ceiling. Miki is currently standing on the top of Brooke’s dresser that they pushed over closer to the middle of the room. Brooke is standing under her with a towel around her shoulder, so the bleach doesn’t get on her cami shirt, reaching up at Miki’s legs so she doesn’t fall and break her neck.

 

“Hand me one of the moons.” Miki says, a hand planted to the ceiling as she’s leaned over. Brooke is terrified that Miki is about to fall off, but the girl doesn’t budge. She reaches down by Miki’s foot on top of the wooden surface to pull a crescent moon out of the plastic bag.

“Be careful.” Brooke warns sternly while she puts a piece of tack onto the back of the moon before handing the piece of plastic up to Miki’s free hand. “It’s fine.” Miki tells her, leaning forward even more. Her red hair falls to the weight of gravity around her face. She brings her foot over on the edge of the dresser. Brooke almost screeches as she puts a hand at Miki’s ankle so she doesn’t slip off. The redhead presses the moon onto the ceiling then slowly pushes herself back to stand straight up- although she has to be hunched over or else her head will go through Brooke’s ceiling. She claps her hands together, throwing a dorky smile down to Brooke- who’s hair is already starting to lighten. She almost snorts out a laugh at how it looks. “All done.” She says.

Brooke moves her gaze to stare at the yellow stars stuck to her ceiling, Miki nudges her shoulder with her foot. “Okay, move, I’m gonna jump down.”

She steps back but throws Miki a concerned glance none the less. The lanky girl plummets herself to the ground- it isn’t that far of a jump. The room shakes a little with the impact of Miki hitting the floor. They busy themselves with pushing the dresser back to where it was in front of one of the closet doors and setting Brooke’s small TV back on top of it. Miki stalks off after to go get a soda and Brooke just stands and admires the pieces of plastic with a smile. Just like the ones in Miki’s room. She feels so happy, there’s a warmth spreading through her chest.

Miki comes back in with a loud burp from the carbonation of her grape soda. Brooke wonders how she hasn’t gotten sick of those yet.

“’Scuse me.” Miki says, as if anyone cares, and Brooke laughs at the fake mannerisms.

“I can’t wait to see them in the dark!” She exclaims, excited. Miki agrees, “They’re gonna look perfect!” She takes another sip of soda, slurping.

 

They busy themselves with random stuff to pass time until the timer on Brooke’s phone dings- signaling it’s time to wash her hair out. Miki’s buzzing in excitement as she helps the shorter girl rinse the bleach from her hair in the tub. Brooke look so weird with bleaches hair. They had gotten the harshest bleach, but there was still a few dark spots in her hair. It doesn’t matter though because the blue they picked out wasn’t a bright one.

Brooke grabs the hair dryer from her mother’s bathroom, trying to be quick so her mother doesn’t see her. She doesn’t want Karen to see until the final result- which she hope Miki doesn’t butcher.

Returning to her bathroom, Miki has already opened the hair dye box and is mixing the two solutions together. Brooke smiles and plugs in the blow dryer and starts drying her hair. Which she also thinks looks so alien on her. Brooke knows now that she can’t pull off being a blonde and notes it for her future self. Not that she ever had any inkling to do anything like that. Her hair dried rather quickly and Miki rushes to put the towel back around her neck. She’s jittery with excitement as if it was her own hair she was dyeing. It makes Brooke smile.

Her scalps was itchy from the bleach, so when Miki starts running her hands- which are bare- through her hair she sighs in relief. Miki’s long nails feel good as she rubs in the dye. Brooke can tell Miki is taking her time and trying to get every strand, she watches through the mirror as Miki purses her lips in concentration. It almost makes her laugh, but mostly makes her cheeks heat. Miki is extremely good looking. Her nose is sloped perfectly, she has high cheekbones which are very prominent- complimenting her lanky and scrawny figure. Her eyes are like the ocean, or maybe like the sky and her freckles compliment them. The red locks of hair fall perfectly around her- strands in the front framing her face. Brooke has always loves Miki’s vibrant long hair, it reminds her of a lions mane.

Brooke flushes further as she catches herself checking her best friend out and forces herself to look away. Something inside of her tells her that she isn’t wrong, Miki is a genuinely good looking person. Nothing wrong with thinking your friend is pretty… very pretty… even if it does stir some odd feeling inside of you- that’s normal, right? She pushes the thoughts away and relaxes to the feeling of Miki’s nimble fingers in her hair.

“Okay… Okay. I think you’re good.” Miki says, reaching over to grab the instruction paper off the counter with her hands that are covered in the dark dye. Brooke frets she’s going to get the dye everywhere. The girl holds the paper up in front of her face, then flipping it around trying to locate the English directions. “So about forty to forty-five minutes?”

“Why are you saying that as a question?” Brooke sighs, “Wash your hands.” She demands and turns the sink on, reaching over to grab the soap dispenser and holds it up- urging Miki to cup her hands out so she doesn’t have to touch anything. The girl grins and rubs the suds together and into her skin, which turn from white to black. Miki puts them under the running water, scrubbing away. Brooke busies herself with using a wet washcloth to wipe off the drips that got onto her arms and neck.

 

The smell of dinner wafts through the tiny apartment making both of their stomachs growl. “How much longerrr.” Brooke whines from her seat at the table, Miki across from her with her third soda of the day. Brooke wonders if the teenager ever drinks water. Miki had told her that her parents rarely ever bought sugary drinks. She watches the girl bring the soda up to her face, Miki’s hands are stained dark. “It’s starting to get itchy again.”

“Beauty is pain, dah’lin.” Miki states in an odd tone of voice, rocking the chair back onto its back legs with the push of her foot against one of the legs of the table. The chair creaks in protest. Karen is in her own room packing her stuff for the trip the next day. “No pain no gain.” Miki adds on after a sip of her soda and it causes Brooke to roll her eyes and get up to check the timer they set on her phone- which is on the counter.

“There’s only three minutes left. Let’s go wash it out now.” The soon to be blue headed girl leaves no room to argue. Miki’s chair slams on the floor as she stops rocking it back- jumping from the seat and rushing after Brooke down the short hallway.

Washing out Brooke’s hair is a repeated process of when they washed the bleach out, although it’s messier this time. The water running off of Brooke’s hair is dark and darkening the white tub around her. Miki lathers her locks with the conditioner that came in the dye box, instructing Brooke to keep her eyes closed so nothing gets inside of them. They have to towel down the floor afterwards, but it doesn’t matter.

Miki leaves to go change into her pajamas while Brooke dries her hair. Since she still only has the clothes she packed for ‘going to her grandparents’, she’s been using some of Brookes. Miki’s lucky she’s so scrawny or they wouldn’t fit. The pants make her look like she is waiting for a flood. Miki puts on one of Brooke’s hoodie’s, an army green one, with some black shorts- she leaves her mismatched socks on.

While she’s tugging the shorts on, which are slightly loose around the waist because her hips are a little smaller than Brooke’s own- who has a pear shaped body type where as Miki is more of a string bean, Brooke pushes open the room to her door, towel that has been around her neck for the past few hours gone. She has a few stains of dark dye on her forehead and jaw. Miki’s heart starts racing when she turns her head around and gets a good look at Brooke’s new hair do.

“Oh my god!” She cries out, turning her body around and rushes to start messing with it. Brooke blushes and tries to back away from the attack but Miki grabs her shoulders- only to start grabbing random pieces of Brooke’s new blue hair. It’s patchy in some parts, and her roots still look a little black. But it’s new and it looks good. Miki’s heart is racing on affection, a toothy grin on her face. Brooke has to look up at Miki, who’s several inches taller than her. The height difference only makes her more flustered.

“Cute, cute, cute!” Miki chants in awe, planting a million little kisses- playfully- to Brooke’s cheeks, “Little Brookie!” Miki squeals and starts to ruffle the top of Brooke’s head. Brooke reaches up to swat Miki’s hands away from her, also reaching up to wipe the spit Miki left on her cheek. “Quit it! I just brushed it.”

Miki laughs, trying to reach through Brooke’s hand barrier, “You look like a little blueberry!”

The random comparison makes Brooke bark out a laugh, finally getting Miki to drop her hands down. Brooke notices what Miki’s wearing and a grin tugs the corner of her lips. “So, do you want to be the strawberry to my blueberry?”

The laugh coming from Miki’s lips gets caught in her throat and chokes her a second and then when Brooke gives her a worried gaze she falls into laughing between coughs.

“Well if I was the strawberry to your blackberry a couple hours ago, of course I’m going to become the strawberry to your blueberry.” Miki states and Brooke snorts, muttering something about how that doesn’t make complete sense. Karen’s head pokes into the room.

“Do you guys want some-” Brooke’s mother cuts herself off, “Oh sweetie!” Brooke turns around in a spin. “It looks so cute on you! Blue definitely is your color.”

Brooke’s expression is bashful from her mothers affection, Miki grins at the two. “I like it.” Karen tells her daughter, holding a kitchen spoon in her right hand.

“Thank you.” Brooke smiles and Karen returns it. “Are you two hungry? And are you all packed for tomorrow?”

Both girls give their confirmations to both questions and race to the kitchen.

 

-

 

On July 9th, 2013, the two girls plus one woman set off in Karen’s car, making their way to Brooke’s aunty Elaine’s house- which is on a ranch. Miki was sad the day before to find out the drive is short and only into the town of Morris, which south-west of Downersgrove. It’s a thirty minute drive, forty at the most if traffic is bad. Miki tries to make the most of the trip, forcing Brooke to play red car blue car with her; due to the color of their hair now. Brooke had laughed and agreed.

Brooke then easily won, because there was only three red cars they saw and over six blue cars. Miki pouted the rest of the drive there until Karen announced that they were almost there. Brooke would compare driving a long distance with Miki was like driving around with your dog.

When they finally arrived around noon, they parked outside of the house, which was luckily in the front. There’s two nearly identical black and white border collies barking at them from their confinement behind the chain link fence that encloses the pastures of their ranch. Miki hops out of the car and runs over to the dogs.

“Hi there.” She says to them as she crouches down to their level, trying to stick her hand through the thin holes in the fence. Brooke stalks up behind her- leaning over with her hands on her knees, “That’s Ace and Duke.” Brooke tells her, giving her affectionate hellos to the dogs, who have stopped barking in favor of the attention.

“Which is which?” Miki asks, grabbing onto the twisted metal, rocking on her heels as gravel crunches underneath her converse. Miki left behind her normal mary-jane shoes in favor for some normal beat up high tops since they are going to be on a farm and her mother would kill her if she ruined the expensive pair she got for Christmas.

Brooke hums in consideration as she looks over the two dogs, only to huff through a small laugh, “I honestly don’t remember.” Miki snorts back, returning to talking in a baby voice towards the animals. Soon after Karen calls for them to come back and help with their luggage.

The house is more than an average one. It is a ranch house after all. It’s on a platform and it has four bedrooms plus three baths- one being part of the master bedroom. Brooke starts to give Miki a tour while her mom goes and greets her sister. They enter the house in a small foyer that has one door to enter the room on the left, which is closed but Brooke explains it’s some kind of office. When the two go further in they enter the living room which has a huge fireplace- that rivals Miki’s own- and a sliding glass door that leads out to the porch. The walls are white with an oak wooden accent, it’s like that everywhere. Brooke takes her right and they hit the corner hallway that has two rooms and one of the bathrooms between them with a closet next to it,- to the left of that hub of rooms there’s another hallways which leads past a closet and then past the master bedroom. At the very end there’s an enclosed screen porch room that is on the right side of the backyard. It even has a door to go out onto the patio- which is huge. Brooke tells Miki that her mom and her aunty like to sit and drink wine out here, just to hang out and not get attacked by bugs. Apparently there’s quite a bit of flies because of the animals and greenery.

They go back to the living room and go right- well now straight- which takes them into the kitchen and dining area. The dining area has floor to ceiling windows that look out into the backyard- which is basically the entirety of the ranch. It’s vast and green and Miki can see a few barn houses and pens a bit into the distance. Miki grins in excitement as Brooke pulls her hand, dragging her into the hallway between the end of the kitchen and start of the dining area where there is another room and bathroom, they are across from each other with a laundry room next to the bathroom.

“This is the room we’ll be staying in.” Brooke explains as she opens the door on their right at the end of the hall. They step into the pretty big room which also has windows facing out into the ranch. There’s a double bed, a desk with a chair, a big white circle rug on the wooden floor, a dresser next to the closet doors and a shelf with decor on it. Miki’s eyes sparkle as she takes in the room. The quality of this house rivals her own, but it’s so much better and feels more homey.

“Brooke, honey! Come say hello to your aunt!” Karen’s voice calls out from somewhere in the house. Miki and Brooke share a look. They have to grab their luggage from the front door anyways, so they make their way out of the room. Karen and Elaine are in the living room, sitting on the couch already.

“Hi sweetie.” Elaine comments to Brooke, getting up and meeting her half way to trap her in a hug. Brooke doesn’t seem bothered by it and brings her own arms up to reciprocate. “Hi aunty, how have you been?”

“I’ve been good dear. Look at you!” She pulls back but keeps her hands on Brooke’s arms- Elaine is slightly taller. “You’ve gotten so big! How is high school treating you?” Before Brooke can reply to her aunt’s question, Elaine notices Miki standing a few steps behind Brooke.

“Oh!” She lets go of her niece. “You must be Miki!” Her expression turns a little sheepish. Miki gives a toothy grin,

“The one and only.”

Brooke smiles at the asinine response. “It’s good to have you! Please, make yourself at home.” Miki nods at the woman’s kind words. Then Elaine calls out, “Grace! Stop holing yourself up in your room and come say hello to your family!”

Miki and Brooke share a look and Miki chuckles which then causes Brooke to bring a hand up to laugh behind. There’s the sound of a door opening and then a girl with dark brown hair pulled up into a pony tail comes rounding the right side of the room.

“Hey aunt Karen, Brooke.” Grace Thompson speaks with a tone of disinterest as she comes and plops herself down on one of the adjacent chairs that are on both sides of the couch. Grace has the surname of her father, where as her mother Elaine Kelly had changed hers back after her now ex-husband, Matthew Thompson, divorced. Grace turns her attention to her phone, she didn’t even seem to notice Miki in the room at all.

“We’re going to go get unpacked.” Brooke tells her aunt and mother, who nod and immerse themselves into conversation immediately. She grabs Miki’s hand and drags her to the foyer to grab their suitcases.

“When was the last time you were here?” Miki asks in interest as they roll their luggage into the bedroom. Brooke hums and closes the door behind them.

“Two or so years. We try to come every summer, but some stuff has been getting in the way recently.” Brooke explains as she lifts her suitcase up onto the bed and zips it open. “Like we didn’t come last summer, or the one before that.”

“Oh.” Miki huffs, getting on the floor to open her own suitcase. Brooke takes the top drawers of the dresser and Miki takes the bottom half. “So this is where you ditched me for that one summer in middle school. I can see the appeal.” She jests, Brooke laughs.

“I wanted to invite you…” Brooke trails off, “But you hadn’t invited me over to your house so I was a little bitter- Oh and also,” She pauses for a second, “Aunty Elaine was having problems with her marriage.”

“That blows.” Miki adds as she finishes shoving in her clothes in the door, Brooke gives her a disapproving glance as she folds a pair of her own pants. “You should fold your clothes, you know.”

“Nah, it’s fine.”

Brooke rolls her eyes.

 

-

 

The days start to fly by, which makes Miki only a little sad. For the first day, she sat with everyone while they all caught up. Brooke had apologized, worried that it was boring for Miki but it was actually fun for her to hear everyone’s stories. Grace is a bit of a snob though and Miki didn’t like the way she would talk to Brooke. It was almost like every time Brooke went to speak, Grace would talk over her- or at least disregard what she did have to say. She was really starting to get on Miki’s nerves and it had only been a day.

Though Miki was questioning herself why she was feeling so protective over Brooke, but then she remembered her feelings for the girl and it made sense. Then again, feelings or not, Brooke is her best friend- absolutely no one is allowed to treat her that way. Brooke doesn’t deserve it, she never will.

Luckily for them, Grace was pretty reserved- well- unconcerned is more like it. She made it seem like she had bigger and better things to be doing. It made Miki want to scoff and roll her eyes all the time. Grace was the same age as Brooke- older by a month. She would be turning sixteen first during next month yet she acted like the youngest. Her attitude was off the rails and when she was on the phone it only got worse. Grace Thompson was cocky.

On the third day of being there, they were finally able to go out on the ranch. The day before, they were out all day and then went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant. Miki doesn’t know what the occasion was but she wasn’t going to pass up having good food.

“Come on, come on!” Miki rambles in an impatient tone. She’s jumping in place right by the slider. It’s dusk outside so that it wont be too hot for them outside. “I’ve been waiting for nearly three whole days to go out there.”

“Take a chill pill, would you?” Brooke asks from the floor where she is tying her shoes. Miki stops jumping in place. She’s wearing her converse, black distressed mid-thigh shorts, and a cropped white shirt with her black and blue zip up hanging off of her. She also has the ring Brooke got her on her ring finger- she hasn't taken it off since. Brooke herself is wearing her own sneakers, a black short sleeved v-neck, and baggy deep blue pants. Brooke puts her hand out and Miki grabs it eagerly to help her up.

Once she opens the doors the dogs come rounding the corner. One of them jumps up Miki’s leg.

“Hi!” She says to him in excitement, “So did you figure out who’s who?” Miki asks Brooke with her hands around the collie’s face- scratching through the fur.

Brooke looks at both of the dogs as she closes the slider behind her. “Yeah, the one that’s mostly white is Duke and the other is Ace. Ace is the one jumping on you, he’s always been rowdy.”

Ace barks a little at the sound of his name. He’s fully black and has a strip of white going over his forehead from his snout. The white trails down his chest and stops from going completely under. Duke is the opposite; fully white but his ears are black and so is the tip of his tail.

“I want one.” Miki states as Ace jumps off of her and does a circle around her- his tail wagging so hard it smacks her leg a few times which just makes her bark out a laugh. Duke has stayed standing in one place, his tail also wagging as he pants at the two teens.

“You say that about Felix’s dog all the time too.” Brooke notes, patting Duke on the head who is satisfied by the small bit of attention and takes off out into the field ahead of them. They start to walk down the steps to head over to the barn and paddock.

“Well, yeah. ‘Cause I want a dog.” Miki whines, Ace trotting right beside her. Brooke laughs as she points to the dog, “Seems like Ace has taken a liking to you.”

Miki grins, “Good eye, I’ll dognap him and take him home with me.” Brooke laughs louder at the word ‘dognap’.

It’s getting dark so the solar lights Elaine has set out around the stable and barn area turn on. The sky is still lit up, but the sun is gone. A breeze blows by them. Miki has a pep in her step from excitement and Brooke is also thrilled to be seeing the horses again. She loves them. The girl used to come visit a lot more often as a kid and always hung around them and helped out. There’s two horses here, they’re both the breed of Akhal-Teke. There’s a stallion and a mare. The stallion is named Tucker and he’s completely black, his mane is shaved short. Mable, the mare, is a light palomino- her mane is longer than Tucker’s.

Miki’s hand bumps the back of Brooke’s which causes a jolt of electricity to run through her- making something bubble in her gut. Their knuckles barely brushed yet it was enough to cause sparks. She flushes and looks down at Brooke from the corner of her eye- the girl didn’t seem to notice. The event reminds Miki that she almost kissed Brooke, again, the first night they were here. They had been tugging the blanket back and forth- which turned into a game. The game of tug-o-war caused them to start play wrestling, but Miki had fallen forward and their faces were only a few inches apart. They could feel each others breath on one another’s face, that’s how close they were. Both girls had flushed but Miki didn’t move since she felt frozen from adrenaline. Miki swore she saw Brooke’s eyes jump down to her lips. She swears it on her life. Something had started pulling her in, it was like a magnet or something- and Brooke hadn’t pulled away. Miki backed out at the last second out of fear- but she can’t get the scene out of her head.

It was a lot different than when she’d have the urge to kiss Brooke when she was asleep, that's for sure.

They’re halfway to the stable when someone calls out to them. It was Elaine, “Brooke! Sweetie! Can you feed the horses for me while you guys are out there!?”

“Yeah sure!” Brooke calls back through her hands which she brought up to cup around her mouth. Miki found the action cute, she chuckled a little and then stopped. Everything Brooke did was becoming cute to her- and she’s noticed her feelings growing ever since she’s come to stay with the Kelly’s.

It scares her, she feels like she wont be able to hold herself back. Especially with how Brooke looks with her new hair. With the shade of blue it is- it reflects in her eyes making them a mix of blue and green- where as her black hair made them seem emerald. Fuck, Miki just wants to ravish her.

She chokes at the thought.

“Are you okay, Miki?” Brooke asks at the sudden coughing, putting a hand on her shoulder which only causes the girl’s face to heat more.

“I… I’m good.” Miki says, a small smile tugging her lips as she avoids Brooke’s eyes. The shorter girls expression knits, but she removes her hand and they go back to walking. The barn is just up head- so Miki takes it upon herself to start jogging over.

“Hey, wait for me!” Brooke calls out and starts running too. They enter the barn once they get up to the big red doors. Miki looks around in awe.

“I’ve never been inside one of these before.” She says in almost a whisper. “It’s so cool!” Brooke laughs at her honest reaction.

“The roof is so high- Wait, is that a loft up there?!”

“Yeah.” Brooke confirms as if it’s no big deal, looking up at the space above them.

“Holy shit, I thought those only existed in movies.”

Brooke chuckles, grabbing a barrel of hay and knocking it over to start rolling it across the place and out of the other door of the barn. She instructs Miki to do the same so the girl copies and follows suit. They roll the hay barrels out and into an open pasture once they’ve open the fence gate to the square area, two horses are already on their way. Trotting over, knowing what time it is.

“Oh my god! They’re huge!” Miki drops lets go of the barrel in surprise and jumps behind Brooke as the two gigantic animals round near them. Brooke cannot hold in her laughs as Miki cowers.

“Are you serious?” She asks through her giggles, Miki’s grip on the girl’s shirt tightens. “They aren’t going to hurt you. Look,” She gestures to the horses as they pass by and over to the messy grass spot that has stay hay all over it. “They’re just hungry.”

Miki blinks at Tucker and Mable, the horses are looking in their direction in expectance. She eases, standing up straight.

“Now help me lay this out.” Brooke requests, starting to rip hay from the hay bale and taking it over to place on the ground. Miki copies her- unsure of what she’s actually doing. Tucker moves in her way, so she tries to go around him. She’s about to go past his behind before Brooke grabs her arm and yanks her back. The black horse’s foot comes out and just barely misses her. Miki chokes out a gasp and the two stumble back.

“What was that?!” Miki exclaims, gripping her chest. “Jesus! Almost gave me a damn heart attack.”

“Idiot!” Brooke chastises, “Do you know nothing about horses? You should always approach from the side or front. Tucker doesn’t know you well enough for you to just waltz up behind him.”

Miki rolls her eyes at the scolding tone. “How was I supposed to know that?!” Miki decides she’s safer away from the two animals than up close with them. Brooke tells her to stand outside the gate, mostly out of fear of Miki not listening and getting kicked across the yard.

The girl has no complaints as she leans over the outside of the white fencing, watching Brooke feed the horse. She’s feeding Tucker out of her hands, picking up hay and letting him gnaw it from her grasp. A breeze blows by and ruffles her hair. Miki smiles at the expression she can see on Brooke’s face. It’s so gentle and loving. She looks so relaxed. Miki suddenly loses the sense of reality, losing focus on everything that’s around her. A wider smile breaks out on Brooke’s face as the horse nibbles her hand a little and she giggles. Miki’s heart races. Brooke is so adorable.

I love you. Miki thinks to herself when Brooke starts petting the sides of Tucker’s face. Then all of a sudden Brooke looks towards her.

“Aww, Miki, I love you too, what’s the occasion?”

The breath gets caught in Miki’s lungs and her heart nearly explodes, her eyes widen. Did I say that out loud?! Brooke is looking at her with expectance, a quirked eyebrow, from over the fence, but when Miki doesn’t reply right away she turns back to the horse. I said that out loud. Oh my god. Her face is blazing.

Miki stands in silence for a couple more seconds as everything registers, she’s so embarrassed that she said the words out loud- she must have been really lost while looking at Brooke. Then, all of a sudden, a feeling of desperation flows through her as the way Brooke replied to her sets in. It then turns into anger. She’s thought about confessing for a while, even attempted to go old school and make Brooke a mix tape of all her favorite songs to give to her as a confession- but never found the courage. Their friendship is too precious. The events of the other night flash into her mind, and she realizes there's a chance. The sudden need to get her real feelings out starts to ebb away at her insides.

“No!” Miki practically shouts out, startling Brooke and Tucker. Brooke looks at her with wide green eyes and Miki suddenly feels like an idiot.

“No?-” Brooke barely gets the word out before Miki cuts her off.

“No.” Miki repeats and then stutters. “I mean, like. What I meant to say- shit.” Miki clenches her fists, hissing out the curse word at the end and scrunching her face up in frustration. Why aren’t the words coming out, damn it?! Whenever Miki pictured confessing in her head, it definitely didn’t go like this. She takes a glance at Brooke who just looks concerned at the pretzel of words Miki just presented to her. This feels like her only chance, it’s now or never. She tries again,

“I mean-!” The words die on the tip of her tongue again and Miki feels like pulling her hair out, she feels her face heat one million degrees hotter and brings a hand up to run through her hair as a breeze blows by and knocks some strands out of place. This should be easy, Miki’s not known for being shy or for being hesitant. She’s a loudmouth.

After a moment of silence, Brooke has walked a little closer to the fence- probably coming to see what wrong, trying to get closer to comfort Miki. Tucker trots over to the pile of hay that Mable is still grazing at. “You mean?” Brooke urges.

“I love you.” Miki states again, still not looking at Brooke’s face but she can see the confusion paint itself onto the girls expression from the side of her gaze.

“I heard you, I said ‘I love you too’ and ‘what’s the occasion?’ I was joking.” The way Brooke says it hits Miki with the sting of friend-zone. As the night falls further upon them, some crickets start to make noise in the distance. Miki almost, almost, wants to laugh. Or maybe cry. That hurt from a second ago feeds into her frustration from not being able to speak properly and bubbles into anger.

“No!” Miki exclaims again, practically hisses, “I love you.” She puts emphasis on the word, desperate to get the feeling across. She finally looks up at Brooke, who seems a little irritated at the tone of voice Miki just gave her. She brings her arms up to cross.

“Yeah, I know, I heard-” Brooke was scoffing the words out, before her eyes widened in shock and lips froze on a part mid-sentence. Brooke’s drops her arms. “Wait.” Brooke says. “You mean...”

“Yes!” Miki cries out. “I have feelings for you! I’m in love with you. I have been for a while and I-!” She cuts her floodgate of words off, of course now they decide to come peeling out- making herself look like a desperate fool. Not that she isn’t one. Brooke’s expression seems frozen on shock, but Miki see’s her bottom lip wobble and it makes her panic. It makes her feel awful. Miki doesn’t want to put pressure on Brooke, oh god- what if she’s just ruined their friendship?

“I just love you! You don’t have to say anything. I- I-” Miki starts to stutter, looking away from Brooke. She bites her lip as her words stop working again. “I just, I don’t-!”

Then all of a sudden her face is being crushed by Brooke’s hands and pulled in over the fence causing her to stumble forward. Miki’s lips hit Brooke’s and her stomach starts to swirl. Miki feels like she literally might have a heart attack on the spot, it’s beating so fast it hurts.

It doesn’t last long, Brooke pulls away but leaves her hands on Miki’s face. Her cheeks are burning red and her eyes are half closed on embarrassment. Miki’s mouth stays agape, eyes wide. Her brain isn’t processing what just happened.

“Does that give you an answer?” Brooke asks hesitantly, staring at Miki’s lips rather than her eyes. Miki almost chokes again at the simple action. “I…” Her own eyes flicker down to Brookes- the same ones she’s been staring at for the past few months with want, just longing to feel them once.

“I don’t know, I might need you to do it again.” Miki almost wants to laugh at her sly reply, but Brooke leans forward again and presses her lips against Miki’s; it’s more gentle this time and less frantic. Brooke’s hands slide down, one down to the crook of her neck and chin and the other going over her shoulder and curling around her in an almost hug, bringing her closer. Miki brings her own arms around Brooke, as best she can with a fence between them, and kisses back. They stay like that for a moment.

They pull apart a little but their faces stay very close. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long.” Miki whispers in admittance, staring deep into Brooke’s eyes, who gets flustered at the confession and looks away. Before she can respond, Miki continues.

“You know…” She starts off quietly, immersing Brooke into her words. She watches those green eyes flicker back to meet her own. “If I were a boy right now, I’d have a massive boner.”

Brooke groans loudly. “Are you serious?” She pulls back, getting ready to smack Miki on the arm- or anywhere really, but as soon as they are a good space away from each other, Tucker- who they hadn’t even realized came up to them, sticks his head between the two girls and snorts. Miki jumps back, mostly out of being startled, and the horse starts blowing raspberries.

Both Miki and Brooke look at each other in shock for a moment, and then back at the horse, before bursting out into a fit of giggles, laughing to the point of tears.

 

-

 

“How long have you known you had feelings for me?” Brooke asks. The two girls are back inside. It’s later on in the night- after they’ve had dinner. They’re laying on the double bed, both on their backs, staring up at the ceiling fan that hangs in the middle of the room.

It’s quiet for a moment before Miki speaks up and confesses, “Since the start of this school year.” Brooke lets out a puff of air she didn’t realize she was holding,

“Did anything happen to make you realize?”

Silence for a moment again and Brooke's thinking Miki is going to say no, or shrug it off- like she always does with questions that are too forward. But then there’s a quiet “Yeah…” In response.

This catches Brooke’s attention and the girl turns on her side to face Miki, propping herself up with her head in her hand and she stares down at her new girlfriend. Miki only looks at her for a split second before her face turns a little red and she looks back at the ceiling.

"Do you remember in Mrs. Pete's class, at the beginning of the year, when she paired everyone up for an assignment to," Miki brings her hands up and does air quotes, "’get to know each other?'"

Brooke chuckles at the air quotes, "Yeah, what about it?"

"Well.." Miki starts, blinking a few times. "You got paired up with this guy. Ryan, was it? I don’t know."

"Oh yeah!" Brooke cuts her off, her tone is a little too fond for Miki’s liking, "I remember him. Ryan Parker."

Brooke’s remembrance of the guys name cause Miki to scowl while she scoffs and Brooke only gives a look of amusement at the girls reaction. "Yeah. Ryan Parker.” Miki rolls her eyes, huffing a little, “Anyways... I got super jealous... and at first I only thought it was only because I wanted to be your partner," Miki mentions, closing her eyes for a moment, "but then he put his hand on your shoulder and he must have made a joke or something because you laughed… and I just… I got so mad. I just wanted to go over and punch him in his stupid, prepubescent, face."

Brooke chortles at the girls words. “Oh, my god. I remember now! You wouldn’t talk to me all day and when I tried to ask you what was wrong, you told me to go talk to my new best friend.” Brooke only starts laughing harder at the memory. Miki wants to grimace but the sound of Brooke’s laughs make a smile pull on her face and even starts to join in on the chuckles for a moment, before she asks,

“What about you?” It’s earnest, Miki finally tilts her head up to face Brooke’s that hangs over her own, if only slightly. Brooke stops laughing, looking down and into Miki’s eyes. “I…” She pauses for a second, seemingly breathless. A soft smile pulls onto her face. Brooke is looking at Miki with such a loving expression, it makes her heart flutter.

 

“I think I’ve always known.”