One Day At A Time

Chapter Twenty-Six: Day One

When the two of them let go of each other for a short while, they're hearts are still pounding with euphoric joy.

For once in her life, Ava likes change.
She likes the newness of it, the potential it has.
That in it of itself makes her happy, the fact that she's okay with something brand new.

Lilly looks past Ava and looks at the window.
It's dark outside, she will have to go home soon.

This makes Lilly's smile falter, which concerns Ava as she quickly asks,
"What's wrong?"
"I have to go home." Lilly sighs. "I don't want to, though. I really don't want to go right now."
"I don't want you to go, either."

Out of all the times for Lilly to go home, this would be the worst one.
She just became Ava's girlfriend, she should be with her and revel in it.

Ava stands up with a determined look in her eyes.
"I'll be right back."

Before Lilly can ask where she's going, Ava is out the door, heading into the living room.

Donna is on the couch, flipping through channels on the TV.
"Hey, Mom?" Ava starts. Donna turns her head and smiles softly.
"Hey, hun. Is Lilly still here?" She asks.
"That's what I wanted to ask you, sort of. Can Lilly stay over? I, I know we didn't plan it, but, but I'm having a lot of fun and we really don't want to stop."

Donna nods her head.
"She can stay over. It's fine with me. Just, do me a favor and tell the little devils that you're having her over, okay?"

Ava smiles happily.
"Thank you."
She walks off and knocks softly on Anne and Andy's bedroom door.

She has to tell them that Lilly is here, because she's never had an impromptu sleepover and she knows that if she doesn't tell them, her siblings will be asking questions about how Lilly got here tomorrow morning.

"What?" The twins both shout from the other side of the door.
"Can I come in, guys?"

After a moment of mumbling between the two kids, Anne shouts,
"Yeah! Come in!"

They're on the floor in front of their TV, mashing buttons on their Xbox controllers sporadically.

Neither of them pause the game.
"What do you want?" Andy asks quickly.
"Lilly's sleeping over. I just wanted to tell you guys that. That's all."

That, apparently, is worthy of pausing the game, because Anne pauses it and looks up at her sister, despite Andy's loud groan.
"Mom said you guys were just hanging out."
"I know, but I changed my mind. We're having a sleepover now."

Anne continues to look up at Ava, confusion all over her face.
"Who are you and what have you done to my sister?" She questions jokingly.

Ava smiles and exclaims,
"Nothing happened to me!"

While that is technically a lie, she doesn't want to explain that Lilly is staying over, because they're girlfriends now and it would be just wrong to send Lilly home after something so new and big like that happened.

"Okay, if you're sure." Anne says, smiling, too. "Have a good sleepover!"

Ava leaves the room and heads right for her bedroom.

"Is your mom okay with it?" Lilly asks from the floor in front of the TV.
"Yes. The twins are, too."
"I'm glad they all are."

Sitting together, there's a new kind of space between them, space that's made of giddiness and excited, pounding hearts.

But as the night goes on, there is no physical space between them.

A little after midnight, they move to Ava's bed and are laying close together, whispering to each other quietly under the faint glow of Ava's night-light.

She sleeps with a night-light at sixteen years old, a thing that Andy sometimes teases her for, despite the fact that he has the exact same night-light in his room.

Ava is looking into Lilly's deep blue eyes and Lilly is looking right back into Ava's lighter blue ones.

"I'm so happy, Lilly.." Ava thinks out loud.
Lilly chuckles faintly at the abruptness of it.
"I'm happy, too."

Ava's face feels warm and her heart is thumping joyously as she thinks out loud again.

"You're the best person I've ever met."
Lilly's heart swells in her chest at that.
It swells so much, so happily and brightly and quickly.

She can't help herself, she really can't help herself when she leans the slightest bit closer towards Ava and kisses her right then and there.

It's their first kiss as girlfriends and that change in context, the context of being more-than-friends, makes both Ava's and Lilly's heart explode over and over again.

Though it isn't the only kiss they share that night, it definitely isn't.

When the two of them finally go to sleep a little past one-thirty in the morning, a simple thought pops into Ava's mind.

The week after Valentine's Day was one of the best days she has ever had.