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Alyssa Greene wakes to a small sound plinking incessantly against her window.
Frowning, she goes over to it to look outside, and she gives a soft laugh as she pulls it open. “What are you doing?” she asks as loudly as she dares, giving Emma Nolan an affectionate grin.
Emma freezes, her arm back mid-throw, and drops the pebbles in her hands. “Hi.”
“Hi. It’s three in the morning. What are you doing?”
“I, uh…” Emma pauses, like she’s forgotten what she’s there to do. “Oh!” She takes a paper airplane out of her backpack and sticks her tongue out to the side while she concentrates, aiming at Alyssa’s window.
The paper airplane bops off of the siding under the window, skids down the roof, just misses the gutter, and spirals to the ground.
“Shit,” Emma mutters. She retrieves it as Alyssa giggles, smooths the nose back out, and tries again.
This time, Alyssa catches it before it can veer off course, and she unfolds it to read the message scrawled on the paper.
Will you be my girlfriend?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
Alyssa smiles and grabs a pen from her desk, marking an X next to Yes. She leans out the window as she refolds the airplane. “You needed an answer right now?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” Emma replies sheepishly, sticking her hands in her pockets as she kicks at the grass.
“Hopefully this helps.” Alyssa tosses the plane back down, covering her mouth to keep herself from laughing when it smacks Emma right in the face.
Emma grumbles a little as she opens it, then freezes when she reads it.
Then reads it again.
Then reads it again.
“Do you need some help?” Alyssa offers.
“You…” Emma looks up at her. “You mean it?”
“That I’d help you? Sure.”
Emma rolls her eyes and sighs. “No, I mean-”
“Yes, Emma. I meant to check yes.”
“Oh.” Emma grins, the crooked, cute grin that Alyssa fell in love with when they were children. “Okay. Okay. Uhm. I, uh. Dinner. No, I can’t take you out for dinner, your mom will find out. Lunch? I can take you to lunch?”
Alyssa’s cheeks start to hurt from trying not to laugh as Emma rambles. “Lunch sounds nice.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Sure.”
“Where would you-”
“Em.”
“Huh?”
“Can we text about it in the morning? Like, the awake hours of the morning?”
Emma looks around, then glances at her watch and winces. “Right. Right. Shit. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Alyssa grins. “It was important.”
“Yeah,” Emma says, giving her a look that’s a little dopey.
“Goodnight, Emma.”
“Goodnight, Alyssa.”
As Alyssa closes her window, she sees Emma take a long look down at the note again, then carefully fold it up and put it back in her backpack before starting the walk back home.
In her long-documented history of bad ideas, this is probably the worst idea.
Emma stands on top of a stone planter, wobbling as she tries to keep her balance in the pouring rain, and jumps, gritting her teeth as the gutter makes a loud clattering sound under her weight. She pulls herself up in a struggle, muttering under her breath, until she’s fully on the small section of roof in front of Alyssa’s window. She crawls over to it and knocks softly, then just a little more loudly.
She sees Alyssa’s face through the glass, shocked, moments before the window opens. “What on Earth are you doing?” Alyssa asks.
“I had to see you,” Emma says weakly.
“You… What if I wasn’t home?”
It wasn’t really something she had thought about, but Emma just shrugs. “I would’ve just stayed here. It’s comfortable.”
It’s not.
“If my mom sees you, you’re dead,” Alyssa hisses. “You have to go.”
“Not yet. Are you okay? We haven’t talked, a-and… I know you don’t want anybody to see you with me now that people know what I am. Which is fine, I mean, I don’t want you to get your life fucked up either, but it sucks because I don’t get to talk to you anymore, and I just get worried about you, and-”
Alyssa’s eyes soften, and she reaches out the window to rest her palm against Emma’s cheek, a movement that silences the other girl. “What we both are,” she says gently. “Believe me, Emma, I’d choose you over their bullshit any day. But my mom… I don’t know what she’d do if she knew.”
Emma leans into Alyssa’s touch. “I get that,” she whispers.
“I’m okay, Em. I’d be better if I got to see my girlfriend more often. But for now, I’ll take whatever time with her I can get. Even if it’s dangerous stunts in a rainstorm.”
Emma chuckles and bows her head. “Sorry.”
“It’s alright. You’re cute when you’re weird. Luckily for me, you’re weird all the time.”
“Hey!” Emma frowns at her, a frown that disappears when Alyssa leans through the window and sneaks a quick kiss.
“Baby, believe me, I appreciate you stopping by, but you’re going to get pneumonia if you stick around, and I can’t let you in.”
Emma shivers. “Fair. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”
Alyssa nods. “Look at me, and when I look at you, remember that no matter what, you’re still mine, okay? We belong to each other.”
“You checked yes,” Emma says with a grin.
Alyssa laughs. “Exactly.”
A college application that she doesn’t want to fill out sits open on her computer as she hears a faint knocking sound on her window.
Alyssa pushes back from her desk and glances at it with a frown, getting up to open it and squint at Emma.
“This is getting to be a ha- What happened to you?”
“Fight with my dad,” Emma mutters as she half-climbs, half-falls into Alyssa’s room. She stands up and brushes herself off, ignoring her split lip and the bruise forming on her cheek.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I’ll go over there and punch him right back myself.”
“I think I broke his nose right before he threw me out,” Emma says, oddly cheerful in a way that Alyssa is pretty sure is covering up shock.
Alyssa grabs her by her flannel and sits her down in her desk chair. “What happened?”
“They were willing to tolerate housing me as a lesbian, at least through high school, but then I told them that I didn’t want to go to college, at least not yet, and my dad basically said that if I had to fill out and personally pay for at least ten applications by the end of the week. I told him I wouldn’t, and things got ugly.”
“Jesus, Em,” Alyssa whispers, lifting Emma’s chin.
“Fuck him. I’m going to drive out to Colorado, where my grandmother lives. I’ll figure it out.”
Alyssa freezes. “You’re leaving?”
“Can’t exactly stay.”
Alyssa lowers her hand. “Oh.”
Emma pulls a piece of folded paper out of her pocket and hands it to her without a word.
When she unfolds it, Alyssa’s breath catches in her throat.
Will you leave with me?
[ ] Yes [ ] No
“Emma…” Alyssa whispers.
“You don’t have to say yes,” Emma says softly. “But I love you, Alyssa. I’d never go without at least offering to take you with me.”
“...You love me?”
Emma gives a shy nod.
Alyssa kisses her softly on the forehead. She picks up a pen and makes a check mark, then folds the paper up and puts it back into Emma’s pocket. “Help me pack some things?”
Emma just stares at her for a long moment, clearly dumbfounded, then beams.
Emma wakes in the driver’s seat of her pickup truck, disturbed by a tapping sound on her window.
She rubs at her eyes, confused, but pales when she sees Alyssa’s mother standing on the other side of the glass.
The part of her brain that makes bad decisions tempts her to just turn the car on and drive, but, instead, she glances at Alyssa, asleep in the passenger seat, and gets out of the truck.
“Mrs. Greene,” Emma mumbles, staring at the ground, her hands in her pockets. “How, uh… How did you…”
“Alyssa didn’t turn off Find My iPhone. Also, Emma, there’s only one road out of town. It wasn’t really that hard.” Mrs. Greene folds her arms across her chest, her voice scarily calm. “Do you want to tell me what exactly you two are thinking?”
“Uhm… Maybe Alyssa should…”
“I’m not asking Alyssa. I’m asking you.” Mrs. Greene swallows. “The note Alyssa left was pretty clear in her feelings. So I’d like to hear your side of this scheme.”
“I-I just… I had to leave, so… I figured my gran’s house would be the only place to go, and… I-I… Alyssa was…” Emma winces. “How much… do you…”
Mrs. Greene’s voice somehow gets even more scarily calm. “Alyssa’s note told me what you two have been doing.”
“...Right. Well. I-I. I don’t think I could do this without her, ma’am.”
“You’re seventeen. You two haven’t even graduated high school yet.”
A flash of anger flares in Emma’s chest, and she looks up. “How am I supposed to-”
Mrs. Greene’s eyes widen, and she sets a hand on Emma’s shoulder, her other hand catching her chin. “Sweetheart, what happened to you?”
She’s tired. She’s angry. Her Advil has worn off. And she’s had a long, long day.
Emma crumples, sobbing, her chest heaving as Mrs. Greene pulls her into a hug.
“Emma,” Mrs. Greene says, a bit more forceful. “Who did that to you?”
“My… My dad,” Emma mumbles. “He threw me out.”
Mrs. Greene just sighs and hugs her tighter. “Is that what this is about?”
Emma nods.
Mrs. Greene holds her, silent in the dark on the side of the road as Emma tries to regain her composure. After a long moment, she says, “Come on. Let’s get you both back to my house.”
“But-”
“No buts, Emma. The two of you can run off to Colorado when you’re eighteen and graduated. Come on. Let’s go.” Mrs. Greene gives her a ‘I mean it’ look, then heads back to her car.
Emma watches her for a moment, then gets back into the driver’s seat, wiping at her eyes with her sleeve.
Alyssa stretches, still half-asleep. “Mm. Wha’ ‘appn’d?”
“You know, baby,” Emma mutters as she checks the traffic and turns the truck around. “I’m not really sure.”
Alyssa runs into the guest room and jumps, landing squarely on Emma’s back.
“Ow,” Emma groans loudly. “Why.”
“My mom made pancakes.”
“I really appreciate it, but it’s Saturday, and you people have no concept of a weekend.”
Alyssa scoffs. “You’ve lived here for like a month, Nolan, how have you not gotten used to the new schedule yet?”
Emma glares at her, then partially buries her head under the pillow.
Alyssa grins and leans down, nipping the side of her neck.
Emma yelps and rolls over, knocking Alyssa over. Alyssa grabs Emma by the waist, dragging her with her, and they both tumble off the bed in a heap of limbs, sheets, and teenage idiocy.
“Are you awake now?” Alyssa asks from her spot pinned under Emma’s elbow.
“Unfortunately yes,” Emma groans.
“Girls!” Mrs. Greene’s voice yells from downstairs. “Come down for breakfast!”
Emma sighs, making no effort to let Alyssa up from the floor. “Your mom does make really good pancakes.”
“She does. We should go have some.” Alyssa pushes at her girlfriend. “Get up.”
“What if I want a nap before breakfast?”
“That’s called ‘sleeping’, and you already did it.”
“Hm.” Emma frowns. “I don’t like that.”
Alyssa tries to wiggle her way out, and Emma deliberately rolls more on top of her. “Okay, that’s cheating.”
“Nah.”
“If we don’t go downstairs, Mom will come up here and find us like this, and then we’re screwed.”
Emma sighs heavily and stands, taking the bedsheet with her. She makes the bed, still only wearing the t-shirt and boxer shorts she uses as pajamas, while Alyssa continues to lie on the floor, enjoying the view. Emma gives her a playful glare as she grabs a pair of sweatpants and puts them on. “Oh, yeah. And you’re being so subtle right now?”
Alyssa grins. “Is that a yes or no question?”