Elise's Path

"I've always wanted to learn how to make cocktails!" I admit, following Anya. We'd left Kara, Henry and Scarlet to play Beer Pong while we put some drinks together.

Anya lays out a few different bottles and a couple of fruits on the counter. "Well, don't get too excited, it's not gonna be a whole mixology course or anything." Anya tempers my expectations. She hands me a lime and directs me to slice it. I'd better be careful, I don't think this dress would mix with citrus juice. "You look amazing by the way, you dressing to impress the missus?" She asks.

Only every day of my life.

"She always looks so stunning, even when she doesn't try. It's hard to keep up." I admit. "I used to be so confident, no matter what. Any problem, I could deal with, any injustice I could solve... Now she kind of just makes me melt." I think out loud.

"I know what you mean, it was the same when I met Jessie." Anya reassures me. "When I met her it was... I dunno, like everything suddenly made sense, now I couldn't use ignorance as an excuse. It was scary."

Well, thankfully someone gets it, I didn't want to mention it to Scarlet, she'd think she'd done something wrong. "So, I'm not a crazy person, good to know!" I joke. I have a bad habit of that. Jokes instead of dealing with my issues. Still, it's worked for me so far.

Anya chuckles at my thought. "Nah girl, you're as sane as they come." She explains. Well, I wouldn't say that, I have a history of doing some pretty weird stuff. Not that I can blame her for know knowing- "You are in love though, which I guess some would consider worse." She adds with a chuckle.

I'm.

In.

What?

No, no, no. No. It's been a couple of weeks, I'd have to be some kind of obsessive stalker to feel like that already. We like each other, and we're attracted to each other, and that's that, right? It's easy.

"I'm... I mean I don't..."I try to correct her. "We haven't..." I stumble again, not even able to cut a lime at this stage. Anya looks at me with a knowing smile.

"Sweetheart, you don't have to say something to feel it, and it's obvious. In both of you." She states in a soothing tone.

"It's just... It hasn't been that long and I've... Before Scarlet I never even thought I liked girls." I stammer. Why can't I get my thoughts together? Too much wine. Maybe these cocktails were a bad idea.

Anya puts her hand on my shoulder. "And now you're feeling a lot, guess what? I was the same way." Oh yeah, she was with Jasper before Jessie, huh? "Thing is, if you let fear overwhelm you then that's all you'll get. Love doesn't have a timeline."

I listen intently, I know she's right, but what if i say it and it really is too soon? Or she doesn't feel the same? Do we break up? I can't do that. "Even so, a couple of weeks is too soon." I reinforce.

Anya looks at me with suspicion. "Okay, but that's bullshit. You look me in the eye, and tell me you didn't know you felt that way the first day you met her." She demands. The first day... Meeting in class, punching Amanda, following her home, shouting at her mother, comforting her in her room.

Hugging her as Papa came to pick me up.

Wanting to never let go.

I feel the same way every time I touch her.

"I... Cant..." Are the only words I can muster.

"And I'm willing to bet if I asked her the same question she'd react the same way. You kids can't communicate for shit." Anya observes, beginning to shake the mixer she brought.

It can't be that easy. I meet Scarlet, I kiss Scarlet, we get together, we have sex, we fall in love? I guess I always thought some winged messenger would appear and tell me it was now love. Or there's be some dramatic argument. This just feels... Peaceful.

"I have to tell her, don't I?" I ask Anya.

"You don't have to do a thing. but I'm going to spoil the ending for you. She already knows, and she already feels the same. The only difference is if she realises it or not." She advises, beginning to pour the contents of the shaker into several glasses.

Scarlet... Loves me?

And I love her?

I'm in love with a girl... Who loves me.

It feels so alien. Like an article I'd read in a newspaper in Paris. Like it makes perfect sense to anyone else, but for me? No, it just doesn't sync up. Yet it's real. I can't deny it. It's in my breath, it's in my veins, it's on my skin.

And it makes me happy.

"I know you're going through an epiphany right now, but I'm gonna need those lime slices for the glass dressing." Anya snaps me out of my thought. I pass them to Anya who cuts into the side of each of them and places them strategically on the rim of each glass. "Here's to love." She states, handing me a glass and raising her own.

"Amour." I answer, clinking my glass to hers. I don't have a choice. I have to tell Scarlet. Now.

Sadly, my urgency is interrupted by a knock at the door. We're not expecting anyone else.

Are we?