French Vanilla Flavor Binge: We Are Golden
Title: We Are Golden
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: French vanilla flavor binge, malt (Summer Challenge 262: One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. - Alexander Fleming), pocky chain, cookie crumbs (of Make New Friends and Keep The Old.
Word Count: 1500
Rating: PG.
Summary: Gina and Olivia's friendship: the college years.
Notes: For my race with Sara.
1. déjà vu
Someone is shouting her name.
For a moment Olivia ignores it. She loves to dance so much, and she gets to do it so rarely, and Jake is really good at it, so she doesn't want to stop. Besides, for all she knows it's some other Olivia being shouted at. This is a pretty crowded club for all that it sucks.
Then Jake spins her around and she catches a flash of pale blonde hair in the corner of her eye, stops dancing on the spot. Could it be...
It is, it is Gina, and life couldn't get more perfect.
7. au naturel
Gina is more than a little embarrassed to be caught so off guard, but her new roommate seems even more embarrassed, shifting from foot to foot and avoiding her eyes. She doesn't seem to have much stuff, either, just a couple of suitcases and a backpack.
She talks with half her attention and watches Olivia Marhenke with the rest, carefully. Someone fucked her up, she decides, and badly, and for a long time; she can't even accept that...
"People don't like me," Olivia says, and Gina's brain stops.
Well, she thinks, when she can think again.
She'll soon change that.
10. naïveté
At first Gina thinks that for all her roommate's flinching fears of the world, Olivia is rather naïve. She certainly gives that impression, with her wide blue eyes and round cheeks. She's-- sweet. Gentle. Innocent.
Then, a few weeks into the school year, Gina wakes up and Olivia is crying in her sleep. Gina can't wake her.
When she asks, the next morning, Olivia turns those blue eyes on her, and they are suddenly far, far too old. "I don't want to talk about it," she says.
Gina lets it go.
And she never thinks of Olivia as innocent again.
14. encore
Olivia has a beautiful voice. That's the first thing Gina notices.
The second thing is that she's singing in the shower, for the first time that Gina can remember. She's heard Olivia sing in choir, and a couple times when she went to get her from the practice rooms, but never casually, never in the shower like this, echoing off the tiles and through the closed door of the bathroom they share with the next room.
When Olivia comes out, toweling her hair, she's smiling.
Gina doesn't comment, though she'd like to applaud. She just hopes this happens more often.
8. en garde
Olivia knows very well what India is doing. Her mother did the same thing.
Unfortunately Gina can't or won't or simply doesn't want to see what's happening here, how she's being used. Olivia can't tell her directly; the few indirect hints she managed got such a bad reaction she's afraid to try.
There's one thing she can do. She corners India after class.
"Hey," she says. "You're dating my roommate, right?"
"Right," India says, sounding bored.
Olivia smiles. "I know you'll be kind to her," she says. "Or else, there's me."
Maybe she's learned something from her mother after all.
9. façade
Olivia is not okay, and Gina knows it.
She's trying to hide it. She's pretty good at hiding it, actually; as far as Gina knows no one else has noticed. But Gina can see the subtle way her friend's hands shake, the way her lower lip trembles, and she rubs her eyes so much Gina knows she's trying to hide tears she can't stop.
"Olivia," she says, and her roommate jerks, looks up at her with wide eyes. Gina sits down beside her, puts her arm around her. "It's okay. I'm here."
Olivia lets herself crumble, and Gina feels-- trusted.
2. faux pas
Gina snaps her phone shut, says "God, my mother," and mentally apologizes for taking the Lord's name in vain.
Olivia doesn't look up from her textbook. "Is she being overprotective again?"
"No," she says, and flops onto her bed. "Just controlling. Ugh. What assignments are due, what grades did I get, what did I eat for dinner... it's like I never moved out of the house. You're so lucky yours aren't like that."
Olivia goes still, so still that Gina knows she's made a mistake long before her friend says, very quietly, "You're lucky yours talk to you at all."
3. c'est la vie
It's their first spring break together, and Gina is taking Olivia home. On the drive down she warns her friend not to talk about girlfriends. "I'm not out to them yet."
And Olivia, innocent Olivia, looks up at her with puzzled eyes and asks, "Why not?"
Why not. Catholicism, a hysterical mother, a conservative father-- so many reasons why not it's easier to ask why she would be. But she won't be that rude to Olivia, who asks from love.
The question is, which reason to give.
"Because of everything," Gina says, at last. To her relief, Olivia accepts it.
13. touché
Olivia doesn't know what they were fighting about.
Something silly and inconsequential, probably; it's finals season and tempers run high. She has juries to pass, Gina has papers to write, the pair of them are overstressed and overtired. It happens.
All she knows is that suddenly they were yelling. Then just as suddenly Gina clearly can't think of anything in reply to whatever Olivia said-- she screws up her face, and snaps, "Your mom!"
And just as suddenly they're laughing so hard they have to hold on to each other to stand up.
She's never had a friend like this.
4. coup de grâce
Alex tried to be kind, and she honestly has a point. It isn't fair to Alex or to any girlfriend that Gina might have, to constantly be referred to as a friend, to be kept so forcefully a secret from anyone who might know her parents.
It isn't that Alex doesn't love her. It's just that she can't take the secrecy.
And it isn't that Gina didn't love Alex. It's just that she can't let go of that secret.
Thank God for Olivia, her best friend who asks no questions, only puts her arms around Gina and lets her cry.
11. laissez-faire
For someone so firmly determined to stay in the closet, Gina has quite a lot of dates. Some of them don't go anywhere-- Gina comes back complaining of foul breath or leering eyes or an inability to listen, and Olivia never hears of the girl again. Some of them go nowhere fast-- India comes to mind.
And then there's people like Alex and Lily. Long-term girlfriends, Gina hopeful and whistling, and Olivia somehow sure that none of them will last. She's right far too often for her to be comfortable.
In the end, when asked, she just declines to comment.
12. rendezvous
Olivia's really tired after practice, and she wants nothing better than to eat dinner and fall into bed. But she promised Gina she'd meet her at some club, so with a sigh she gets dressed and heads out.
When she finally gets inside, Gina is lounging against the bar, surrounded by guys. To any other eyes, she'd look languid and content-- to Olivia, she looks desperate.
"Hey, honey," Olivia says, loudly, and elbows her way through the guys. "Sorry I'm late."
"That's all right," Gina replies, and as the guys drift away, she whispers, "Thanks."
Worth the exhaustion, Olivia thinks.
5. crème de la crème
"I," Gina says, one drunken night just before graduation, "am going to be a poet."
Olivia giggles into her own glass. It's Sprite, since alcohol mixes badly with her various medications, but it's two AM and she's tired enough that she feels kind of drunk anyway. "A poet? You'd starve."
"Says the music major," Gina says, laughing herself. "I'm going to be the best poet. And you'll take Carnegie Hall by storm."
"That's right," Olivia says. "We'll be the best in the world at what we do. And we'll be friends forever."
"I'll drink to that," Gina says, and does.
6. bon voyage
"Well," Gina says. She looks practically perfect in her cap and gown, the motorboard at just the right angle over her braided golden hair, and the gown, despite being designed to be ugly, somehow sets off the paleness of her skin and the length of her legs.
Beside her, Olivia feels squat and ugly. But she'd rather feel squat and ugly every day of her life than lose someone else.
Not that she has a choice.
"Well," she replies, quietly.
"Good luck," Gina says.
"Good luck," Olivia replies.
She's glad they didn't hug. If they'd hugged, she definitely would've cried.
15. voilà
It was kind of eclipsed by meeting Ivy the same night, but after Gina gets over her gorgeous-girl haze, she can't believe how good it feels to be around Olivia again. She'd known that she missed Olivia, but she thought it was part of a greater longing for college. Now she knows it was for Olivia herself, for her round cheerful face and those deceptively innocent blue eyes, for her kindness and her strength and her comfortable, wordless acceptance.
Gina doesn't know why they fell out of touch after college. But she does know she'll never let it happen again.
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: French vanilla flavor binge, malt (Summer Challenge 262: One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. - Alexander Fleming), pocky chain, cookie crumbs (of Make New Friends and Keep The Old.
Word Count: 1500
Rating: PG.
Summary: Gina and Olivia's friendship: the college years.
Notes: For my race with Sara.
1. déjà vu
Someone is shouting her name.
For a moment Olivia ignores it. She loves to dance so much, and she gets to do it so rarely, and Jake is really good at it, so she doesn't want to stop. Besides, for all she knows it's some other Olivia being shouted at. This is a pretty crowded club for all that it sucks.
Then Jake spins her around and she catches a flash of pale blonde hair in the corner of her eye, stops dancing on the spot. Could it be...
It is, it is Gina, and life couldn't get more perfect.
7. au naturel
Gina is more than a little embarrassed to be caught so off guard, but her new roommate seems even more embarrassed, shifting from foot to foot and avoiding her eyes. She doesn't seem to have much stuff, either, just a couple of suitcases and a backpack.
She talks with half her attention and watches Olivia Marhenke with the rest, carefully. Someone fucked her up, she decides, and badly, and for a long time; she can't even accept that...
"People don't like me," Olivia says, and Gina's brain stops.
Well, she thinks, when she can think again.
She'll soon change that.
10. naïveté
At first Gina thinks that for all her roommate's flinching fears of the world, Olivia is rather naïve. She certainly gives that impression, with her wide blue eyes and round cheeks. She's-- sweet. Gentle. Innocent.
Then, a few weeks into the school year, Gina wakes up and Olivia is crying in her sleep. Gina can't wake her.
When she asks, the next morning, Olivia turns those blue eyes on her, and they are suddenly far, far too old. "I don't want to talk about it," she says.
Gina lets it go.
And she never thinks of Olivia as innocent again.
14. encore
Olivia has a beautiful voice. That's the first thing Gina notices.
The second thing is that she's singing in the shower, for the first time that Gina can remember. She's heard Olivia sing in choir, and a couple times when she went to get her from the practice rooms, but never casually, never in the shower like this, echoing off the tiles and through the closed door of the bathroom they share with the next room.
When Olivia comes out, toweling her hair, she's smiling.
Gina doesn't comment, though she'd like to applaud. She just hopes this happens more often.
8. en garde
Olivia knows very well what India is doing. Her mother did the same thing.
Unfortunately Gina can't or won't or simply doesn't want to see what's happening here, how she's being used. Olivia can't tell her directly; the few indirect hints she managed got such a bad reaction she's afraid to try.
There's one thing she can do. She corners India after class.
"Hey," she says. "You're dating my roommate, right?"
"Right," India says, sounding bored.
Olivia smiles. "I know you'll be kind to her," she says. "Or else, there's me."
Maybe she's learned something from her mother after all.
9. façade
Olivia is not okay, and Gina knows it.
She's trying to hide it. She's pretty good at hiding it, actually; as far as Gina knows no one else has noticed. But Gina can see the subtle way her friend's hands shake, the way her lower lip trembles, and she rubs her eyes so much Gina knows she's trying to hide tears she can't stop.
"Olivia," she says, and her roommate jerks, looks up at her with wide eyes. Gina sits down beside her, puts her arm around her. "It's okay. I'm here."
Olivia lets herself crumble, and Gina feels-- trusted.
2. faux pas
Gina snaps her phone shut, says "God, my mother," and mentally apologizes for taking the Lord's name in vain.
Olivia doesn't look up from her textbook. "Is she being overprotective again?"
"No," she says, and flops onto her bed. "Just controlling. Ugh. What assignments are due, what grades did I get, what did I eat for dinner... it's like I never moved out of the house. You're so lucky yours aren't like that."
Olivia goes still, so still that Gina knows she's made a mistake long before her friend says, very quietly, "You're lucky yours talk to you at all."
3. c'est la vie
It's their first spring break together, and Gina is taking Olivia home. On the drive down she warns her friend not to talk about girlfriends. "I'm not out to them yet."
And Olivia, innocent Olivia, looks up at her with puzzled eyes and asks, "Why not?"
Why not. Catholicism, a hysterical mother, a conservative father-- so many reasons why not it's easier to ask why she would be. But she won't be that rude to Olivia, who asks from love.
The question is, which reason to give.
"Because of everything," Gina says, at last. To her relief, Olivia accepts it.
13. touché
Olivia doesn't know what they were fighting about.
Something silly and inconsequential, probably; it's finals season and tempers run high. She has juries to pass, Gina has papers to write, the pair of them are overstressed and overtired. It happens.
All she knows is that suddenly they were yelling. Then just as suddenly Gina clearly can't think of anything in reply to whatever Olivia said-- she screws up her face, and snaps, "Your mom!"
And just as suddenly they're laughing so hard they have to hold on to each other to stand up.
She's never had a friend like this.
4. coup de grâce
Alex tried to be kind, and she honestly has a point. It isn't fair to Alex or to any girlfriend that Gina might have, to constantly be referred to as a friend, to be kept so forcefully a secret from anyone who might know her parents.
It isn't that Alex doesn't love her. It's just that she can't take the secrecy.
And it isn't that Gina didn't love Alex. It's just that she can't let go of that secret.
Thank God for Olivia, her best friend who asks no questions, only puts her arms around Gina and lets her cry.
11. laissez-faire
For someone so firmly determined to stay in the closet, Gina has quite a lot of dates. Some of them don't go anywhere-- Gina comes back complaining of foul breath or leering eyes or an inability to listen, and Olivia never hears of the girl again. Some of them go nowhere fast-- India comes to mind.
And then there's people like Alex and Lily. Long-term girlfriends, Gina hopeful and whistling, and Olivia somehow sure that none of them will last. She's right far too often for her to be comfortable.
In the end, when asked, she just declines to comment.
12. rendezvous
Olivia's really tired after practice, and she wants nothing better than to eat dinner and fall into bed. But she promised Gina she'd meet her at some club, so with a sigh she gets dressed and heads out.
When she finally gets inside, Gina is lounging against the bar, surrounded by guys. To any other eyes, she'd look languid and content-- to Olivia, she looks desperate.
"Hey, honey," Olivia says, loudly, and elbows her way through the guys. "Sorry I'm late."
"That's all right," Gina replies, and as the guys drift away, she whispers, "Thanks."
Worth the exhaustion, Olivia thinks.
5. crème de la crème
"I," Gina says, one drunken night just before graduation, "am going to be a poet."
Olivia giggles into her own glass. It's Sprite, since alcohol mixes badly with her various medications, but it's two AM and she's tired enough that she feels kind of drunk anyway. "A poet? You'd starve."
"Says the music major," Gina says, laughing herself. "I'm going to be the best poet. And you'll take Carnegie Hall by storm."
"That's right," Olivia says. "We'll be the best in the world at what we do. And we'll be friends forever."
"I'll drink to that," Gina says, and does.
6. bon voyage
"Well," Gina says. She looks practically perfect in her cap and gown, the motorboard at just the right angle over her braided golden hair, and the gown, despite being designed to be ugly, somehow sets off the paleness of her skin and the length of her legs.
Beside her, Olivia feels squat and ugly. But she'd rather feel squat and ugly every day of her life than lose someone else.
Not that she has a choice.
"Well," she replies, quietly.
"Good luck," Gina says.
"Good luck," Olivia replies.
She's glad they didn't hug. If they'd hugged, she definitely would've cried.
15. voilà
It was kind of eclipsed by meeting Ivy the same night, but after Gina gets over her gorgeous-girl haze, she can't believe how good it feels to be around Olivia again. She'd known that she missed Olivia, but she thought it was part of a greater longing for college. Now she knows it was for Olivia herself, for her round cheerful face and those deceptively innocent blue eyes, for her kindness and her strength and her comfortable, wordless acceptance.
Gina doesn't know why they fell out of touch after college. But she does know she'll never let it happen again.