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Lesbian Romance and Lesbian Love
Laura has spent her entire life up until this point eager to see what the summer before college has in store for her. The tales from the older brothers and sisters of her friends and the teenagers in TV shows and movies all had her convinced that it was going to be the best three months of her life.
The reality, she finds, is sadly different. It feels less like fun and freedom than a headfirst plunge into the icy waters of adulthood with a life jacket that kept threatening to slip off.
Between the anxiety about her looming move to college, a monotonous job and dealing with her cynical father, the entire first month is dull and colorless.
It’s an otherwise unremarkable shift at the diner when she meets Olivia, and the blur of her summer turns into a whirlwind, filled with all the excitement and adventures that she’d been so sure it would be.
All too soon, though, the summer ends and the new couple find themselves tested by the effects of long distance and the stresses of college. Only time will tell whether their fledgling relationship will survive the separation and their new environments but they’re determined to stick it out.
The Little Things
The summer after high school felt less like freedom to Laura and more like a sudden freefall into the world of being an adult. Her after school job at the diner went from three nights after school to five days a week of long shifts. The shock was enough to have her dead on her feet most of the time. It wasn’t such a big deal to her as it might have been to someone who had a more active social life but Laura had never been very social.
The two friends she considered close enough to spend time with outside of school were both off on their adventures, starting gap years early. That left her to work and try not to die of boredom before she had to leave for college.
The job at the diner wasn’t her favorite thing in the world but it was familiar and most days she didn’t mind it. The chaos and activity of the popular breakfast and burger stop kept her on her toes, and she always enjoyed the brief visits she had with people she already knew, the people she came to know, and all the perfect strangers passing through town with interesting stories to tell.
It was a slow Wednesday night, that brief lull between taco burger Tuesdays and all you can eat fish and chips Thursdays. Laura was wrapping the silverware in napkins, cursing the self-adhesives on the paper rings that wrapped the middle of the bundle. Still with half an ear on the rest of the dinner, she heard the distinctive sound of an empty coffee cup hitting a thickly lacquered table and hurried over with a steaming fresh pot to offer a refill.
The girl at the table was somewhere around Laura’s age and accepted a refill with an easy smile. “Could I get some more cream, please?” she asked, holding up the empty saucer. Their eyes met as Laura’s fingers brushed the other girl’s. The gaze held for a few seconds and Laura felt her stomach swoop in a sudden, twisting somersault.
“Yeah, sure, no problem,” Laura finally said breathlessly. “Uh, half and half? Oh, we have hazelnut or French vanilla ones too if they’re more your thing?”
“A few of each?” the girl asked, and Laura agreed, smiling brightly. She didn’t notice the way the girl looked at her as she walked back behind the counter to fetch the creamers.
Olivia, as Laura found out, was indeed her age, and had gone to school across the city. They talked for over an hour after Laura moved the bin of silverware and all of the wrapping necessities closer to Olivia’s table. There were only two other patrons in the diner that night, so Laura was able to maintain the conversation between refills and dessert runs.
