Page 63 of Serpentine Valentine
I wasn’t even entirely sure she would say we were friends, though Ihoped we were more.
The thought of leaving made my stomach cramp so badly, I winced and pressed the soreness with my fist. Real life awaited me outside of Charity Lane. My mother’s disapproval. The whispers of my connection with Lex on campus and questions I didn’t have the answers to.
I thought I was ready to come out. No matter what happened with Lex, I felt safe saying I was bisexual with a large bent toward women over men. But I didn’t know how to cast myself in relationship to Lex.
All I knew was that I wanted to do this again.
The sex, but also spending the night, next time preferably without her having to take care of my stupidly drunk self.
Even more than that, I wanted to hang out with her. I wanted the opportunity to peel back more of those mysterious layers and have the honor of knowing the true Alexandra Gorgon. Not the one campus thought they knew, not even the one Lex pretended so often to be.
The real girl I’d held in my arms as she sobbed after we’d had sex the first time. The girl who’d been broken apart by experiencing sex in a good way after what that monster Dylan Morgan had done to her. She hadn’t told me it was her first time since the incident, but she didn’t have to, and it honored me that she trusted me enough to go there with me.
I wanted to know that girl.
I wanted to cherish her and protect her.
I wanted to love her.
And honestly, I was already more than halfway there.
So I took a deep breath and blew it out between my lips loudly before I opened the fridge to check if the Gorgons had buttermilk.
Forty minutes later, creaking footsteps alerted me to the first Gorgon girl coming down the stairs. A moment later, Effie appeared in the wide doorframe, looking absolutely gorgeous even though it was obvious she’d just woken up. Her curvy body was obscured in an oversized black teethat read “Sapphic Society.” Her gold-kissed Afro was flattened slightly on one side, and her eyes were squinty as she peered at me for a long minute.
I flipped a heart-shaped pancake over in the pan without breaking eye contact with her.
Finally, she blinked and shuffled in fuzzy black slippers over to the dining table to scroll through her phone.
Five minutes later, loud stomping on the stairs heralded Grace, who bumped into the wall when she tried to turn into the kitchen. Her eyes were mostly closed as she moved to a cabinet to grab a mug. When she turned to go to the coffee pot, her gaze must have snagged on me because she froze comically.
“Huh?” she grunted, trying to widen her eyes by stretching her whole face.
“Good morning,” I said with a cheery wave.
“Oh my God, what is that?” Grace muttered in horror.
“A morning person,” Effie said from the dining room table without looking over at us.
“I’ve never seen one before.” Grace shuffled closer to peer at me, and then, not happy with the results, she moved even closer and poked me.
“Did you have a good sleep?” I asked through my laughter.
Grace glared at me. “What’s that racket?”
“You mean the music?”
“Yeah, that. It’s too early for noise.”
I laughed again. “I don’t think it’s ever too early for Taylor Swift.”
“She’s got you there, Grace Face,” Effie rejoined. “Stop bitching and bring me a coffee.”
Grace continued to blink at me dumbly, so I helped her by planting my hands on her shoulders and turning her toward the coffee pot. She grunted, in thanks or annoyance I wasn’t sure, and helped herself to thefresh pot.
She’d only just sat down when Juno arrived silently in the doorway. Unlike her sisters, she looked a bit more put together with her blond hair in a neat braid and her trim body in a matching floral satin camisole set.
“Good,” she said on a nod as she picked a huge black mug from the cabinet and poured herself some coffee. “It’s only right you make us breakfast after you kept us up half the night.”
