One Day At A Time

Chapter Twenty-Four: Chilly Saturday Mornings

With the bitter cold winds of Winter whipping outside, Ava, Lilly, Lucas, and Rose are all in Ava's bedroom, taking turns at playing, "Minecraft" mini-games a week after the, in Lilly's opinion, life-changing Valentine's Day.

When it's Rose's turn to play against Lilly, they hear Lucas snort from behind them.

They look up and over their shoulder from the floor, mouthing,
"What?"
Lucas nods towards Ava.

Lilly is focused on setting up the next mini-game and Ava is sitting close to her on the floor in front of the bed, looking at her with a look of plain old love in her eyes.

Rose turns around and smiles softly at Lucas.
They get what he's laughing at.

Ava and Lilly haven't talked about their next step or if there is a next step in the first place, but Lucas and Rose want them to just get on with it!

"Can you two quit making googly eyes at each other?" Lucas asks, starling them both.
"We're not- we aren't making googly eyes!" Ava defends quickly.
"Are you sure? Because the way you look at Lilly is exactly what googly eyes look like." Lucas teases.

There's a new kind of tension between Ava and Lilly, it's what the googly eyes are for.

Lilly doesn't know how to talk to Ava about the thing she wrote on Valentine's Day and Ava doesn't know how to ask what their next step is.

So, it's caused for a lot of lingering glances and giddy smiles and, as Lucas puts it, googly eyes.

They all take their turns playing against each other for a second round, when Lucas suddenly throws the controller.
"Son of a bitch! How do you always beat me?" He asks Ava.
"I don't know. Maybe I'm better at it than you." She answers cockily.

After Lucas demands a rematch and Ava beats him again, Lilly goes against her.

"What do I get if I win?" Lilly asks her, smiling.
Ava leans over to her and whispers something incoherent to the rest of the group.
Lilly's smile grows wider as she declares,
"Well then, prepare to lose!"

Lucas looks at Rose again, mouthing,
"What do you think she said?"
Rose looks at him for a minute, trying to figure what he said.

When they figure it out, they shrug their shoulders and mouth back,
"A hug, maybe?"

Mouthing things as opposed to actually saying them gets frustrating at a point, so Lucas leans down and whispers to them,
"Lilly seems a little too happy about a hug."

He sits up on Ava's bed, abruptly asking,
"Hey, Lilly, what are you gonna win if you beat her?"

Ava looks at Lilly, non-verbally asking her whether or not she's allowed to say it.

Ava has announced every other time they've kissed, so this time isn't much different.
Lilly nods.

A giddy grin comes onto Ava's face and Lilly eyes are glued to it.

"I'm gonna kiss her!"

Rose and Lucas both look at each other for a second and Lucas wheezes slightly.
"Is that just a casual thing now? Y'all just... make out whenever?"

"We've never made out." Ava says quickly.
"You're too literal, you know that?" Lucas says.

If anyone else ever said it, Ava would be self conscious, but she knows he's teasing her.

"I know." She sighs, then looks at Lilly for a second. "But, but yeah. I guess it is just... a casual thing, right?"

Lilly nods her head.
The casualness of it, though it's not completely in the context she wants it to be, is something that she quite likes.

She likes that she can kiss Ava whenever she wants and there's no issue with it.

Maybe the context can be what she wants sooner rather than later.