Love, Demi (lesbian story)

Photograph

Lia's POV

All day I couldn't leave the thought alone. Who was Sara Richardson? Where do I know the name Sara from? I couldn't shake the slight anxiety over the situation. So many questions just kept overlapping in my mind.
"Do you know anyone called Sara?" I asked Demi as we sat on the decking soaking up some sun.
"Sara? I don't know babe, why?" She asked.
"Oh nothing really...someone at work asked if I knew a Sara." I lied. The guilt shot through me quicker than all the questions. Why was my first instinct to lie about this to Demi? Why could I not talk to her about it?
"There's that woman at Boston's tattoo place called Sara, you know the one he interviewed on the day you got yours done? That was that Sara's design right?" Demi gestured to my hand. I ran my fingertips over the perfectly healed birds on the side of my hand. I nodded.
"Yeah, that's the only one. I doubt it's the same woman though." I shook off the topic, not wanting to show my real concern with it all.

*****
The day went by really quickly, we went through a hell of a lot of lemonade between the 7 of us, and we're all a few shades darker by sunset. Demi was complaining to everyone that she hadn't turned as dark as I had.
"I don't get it i'm hispanic too!" She complained. I laughed as she pouted, and I shook my head.
"Dems my mom was Spanish, I am actually half Spanish, you've got Irish in you too I'm surprised you haven't just burnt if I'm honest." I explained.
"But..you're so much darker than me now!" She pretended to cry. I pulled her into my side and held onto her hand.
"I'm sorry babe, maybe we can go and moon bathe, get you a little darker before tomorrow so we're even." I suggested. She hesitated, and didn't move, until she suddenly sprung forward to the door.
"RACE YOU TO THE WATER!" She shouted to me, making everyone else laugh too at her childish demeanor. I chased after her, and gestured for Maddie to come too, thinking it would be fun if the three of us were splashing about together. The sun was just about to set, so there was still a gorgeous glow outside.

Demi's POV

I ran down the beach to the shallow water, looking behind me every now and then to see if Lia and Maddie had caught up to me yet. They were getting closer each time I looked back, but didn't get me. When they eventually caught up, Lia immediately splashed me with water, and soaked my legs.
"Lia!" I shouted, and splashed her back. Maddie was laughing at us both, and kicking up her legs at us, somehow getting away with it. Lia and I continued to splash each other, Maddie joining in too, and soon enough all of us were drenched.
"Okay hold up, hold up!" Lia shouted above the laughing.
"How about we go sit on the rocks and watch the sunset, then we can dry off before the sun goes and it gets too cold." She suggested. Maddie and I caught our breaths and nodded.
"Let's go." I agreed, taking Maddie's hand and leading her to the rocks.
"I think I'm just gonna go back in and shower, I don't want mom to freak that I'm still out when it's dark and late." Maddie told us, actually being more mature out of two adults.
"Okay babe, we won't be long anyway." I replied, hugging her and kissing the top of her head.

I splashed the water with my feet as I watched Maddie run back up to the house, making sure she got back safe, even though it wasn't far. The sun was setting, and the sky was turning pink, looking like candy floss with the purple shaded clouds. The sun was barely visible, and it was getting darker, but I could still make out the perfect, soft edges of Lia's face, with her black square glasses propped on her nose. I all of a sudden felt so guilty about how I'd been treating her, for a long time now. Flashbacks of times I'd snapped at her completely unnecessarily, or blown her off without good reasoning, said something rude, all came back to me, and I felt the heaviness of guilt crawling up from the pit of my stomach, and clinging to my chest.
"I'm so sorry," I blurted out, without even thinking, or planning a reason why. Not that I needed to plan, I had plenty reasons.
"Why?" She asked me, her voice soft, hushed.
"I've been terrible to you, for ages, and you deserve so much more than that, like a lot more. I'm just so sorry." I said, feeling the urge to cry.
"Listen, neither of us have been great to each other, if you think about it. I've been hard on you too, pushing you to get over the paps when it's clearly not that easy, and I should've been more open minded about it. It's difficult, and you've had this since you were a kid, I don't need to make it worse-"
"Lia it's not you making it worse, it's just bad, there isn't anything good about paparazzi, and that's just that. What I don't want is another reason for them to be tracking me down and following me, and that's not your fault, I love you and I couldn't be happier, but right now, I'm not ready for people to be stalking me, it's just way too soon after I've come out of rehab, even though it's been like, 2 years." I tried to explain so she stopped thinking it was all her fault.
"Let's just, forget about it, and enjoy tonight, and tomorrow before we go home. Okay?" Lia asked me, resting her hand on my arms that were folded over my chest. I nodded and smiled.
"Yeah." I agreed. I let my arms drop and took her hand, and stepped forward.

We walked through the shallow water as it got darker, playfully splashing each other with water occasionally.
"Stop getting my clothes wet I'll get cold!" Lia moaned at me. I laughed and pulled her into my body, tugging on the bottom of her shirt.
"Guess we'll have to take it off then won't we." I winked at her. She bit her lip and pushed me away. I dropped my smile as something caught my attention out the corner of my eye.
"What's wrong?" Lia asked, immediately worried. I squinted my eyes and looked around. I couldn't see anything. Maybe I was paranoid.
"Nothing, sorry. I thought I saw something." I told her, trying to shake it off. She took my hands and pulled me into her, putting her arms round my waist.
"It's okay babe." She said. I smiled halfheartedly and nodded. She leaned her face closer to mine, and kissed my lips. Then I saw it.

*FLASH*

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