One Day At A Time

Chapter Twenty-One: Valentine's Day

January slowly comes to a close as today is Rose's favorite day of the year, Valentine's Day.

They are the self-proclaimed, "Not-Evil Queen Of Hearts", with their love of pink and all things heart-shaped.

Though, this year's Valentine's Day is a little different, because it's the first year where Lilly doesn't have to try and find a Valentine's Day gift that practically has, "I'm in love with you" written across it in big, bold rainbow letters.

It's different for Ava, too.
It's the first year where she's looked for a gift that says, "I'm in love with you" on it.

She walked up and down the local gift shop's isles over and over again until she found something that got her message across the best it could.

While Ava and Lilly bought each other more special Valentine's Day gifts, everyone in the friend group bought each other their favorite candy in heart-shaped boxes.

Though, the two girls show their gifts in private.

In private is almost Lilly's car that sits in Ava's driveway after school, but when Lilly reaches for her backpack, Ava tells her,
"You could- we could go inside for a bit, if you wanted to."

It's a new thing, a thing Ava has never offered before.
They hang out after school when it's planned ahead of time, but this is impromptu.

Ava doesn't like impromptu things, which intrigues Lilly as to why she's offering something new and unplanned right now.

"Really? We didn't plan to hang out today."
Ava looks away from Lilly for a brief second, thinking.
"I know, but I don't want to give you your gift in your car." She looks back at Lilly and stutters out, "I didn't mean for that to, to sound rude, but I, um, I hope you understand what I mean."

Truth be told, she wants to tell Lilly about how she feels.
It seems perfect in her mind.

She has a sweet, sentimental gift ready to go and two pages are on her desk-

The pages are just... on the desk, out in the open.
Ava doesn't want Lilly to find them, she wants to show them to her on her own terms.

"It's okay. I get what you mean." Lilly says.
The way Lilly looks at her is enough to make Ava slightly calm down and not spiral into the possible outcomes of Lilly finding the pages without any context as to what they are.

The two of them step out of Lilly's car and head into the house, where Ava walks a little too fast down the hall and into her room.

She walks to her desk, setting a notebook on top of the pieces of paper that contain every single feeling she has about Lilly Miller.

Lilly sets her backpack down on the floor next to Ava's bed, asking,
"Ava, are you okay?"
Ava turns around and looks at her, nodding her head.
"Mhm. I'm all good." She replies, trying to calm her racing heart down.

Lilly shrugs it off and pulls her gift bag out of her backpack.
Ava grabs her gift from her desk and takes a seat in front of Lilly on the bed.

Her worry is replaced with eagerness as Lilly hands her gift over with a smile.
"It's not much, but I hope you like it."

Ava hastily takes the pieces of tissue paper out of the bag, pulling out a small brown teddy bear with the words, "Hug Me!" written across the red heart in the middle of its chest.

She grins at it, then hugs it.
"I love it!" She says after a moment. "Thank you! Can I hug you?"

Ava's grinning happily and asking for a hug, like her bear.
Lilly tells her,
"Yep!" and pulls her in close. "I'm glad you like it."

When Ava pushes Lilly's gift towards her a minute later, the thought of showing her the pages she wrote comes into her mind.

Lilly struggling to open her complexly-wrapped present shakes her out of her internal debate on what to do with the pages.

After some groaning and frustration, Lilly gets the present open.
All of her struggling to open it was worth it.

In her hands is a wooden picture frame that has, "I Love You To The Moon and Back" printed across it with gray stars painted all over it.

The picture in the frame is one of the pictures Donna took on Halloween, the one of just Ava and Lilly, with their arms slung over each other's shoulders, smiling widely with excitement.

The strings in Lilly's heart are pulled hard.
She can't help but grin ear-to-ear.

"Oh my god. It's great! I love it!" She exclaims.

Ava grins back at her, enthusiastically telling her,
"I'm so happy that you love it!"

Lilly gently sets the picture frame down on the bed and pulls Ava in for another hug, squeezing her tighter than their hug from a few minutes ago.

Before she lets her go, she tells her,
"It's the best present I've ever gotten."

A grand statement, a really grand statement that fills Ava's heart up with joy.

All of the joy in her heart puts words on the tip of her tongue.
Words that she wants to say, simple words that she wants to scream out loud.

But she stays calm when Lilly lets go of her.

It's when Lilly leaves a half hour later, where her calmness turns into something else that she doesn't know the name of.

They do their long goodbye hug, then Ava watches Lilly walk out of her bedroom with the picture frame in her hands.

She looks out her bedroom window, seeing Lilly shutting her car door.

She goes to her desk, then runs outside, her heart pounding with impulsivity and love, lots and lots of love.

Lilly looks at her through her car window and rolls it down.
"What're you doing?"
"Here's your... other present." Ava pants, quickly handing her the two pieces of paper.

Before Lilly can ask what they are, Ava sprints away from the car into her house.

Ava had done it.
The two pages are in Lilly's hands.