Maraschino

Maraschino
Chapter 7

Autumn told them everything, from the day it started in the school hallway to the day it ended at Jackson Quincy’s graduation party. She told them everything that happened in between and she told them about how she spent her first year of university completely celibate, waiting for him to contact him. She told them how her first date with Grant occurred three days after she had heard from her sister, April, that Dominick had been back from Europe for nearly six months. She told them everything and then she stopped, waiting for one of them to speak, noisily stirring her tea.

“Do you have real sugar?” Autumn looked up at Lucy, the five of them crowded around her tiny coffee table, some of them sitting knee to knee on her couch.

“No, I have high sugar levels and that’s why I use Equal.” Autumn snorted, hiding a smile behind her tea cup as Tara frowned over at Lucy. Autumn understood that look, Lucy had her hair teased high and was dressed in electric blue leggings and a loose Poison t-shirt, the neck cut open to allow her shoulders to be exposed.

“Luce, what the fuck are you wearing?” Tara asked, causing both Abigail and Mel to laugh.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” Lucy responded, glancing over at Tara. Tara had her long legs stretched out before her, a tiny mini skirt barely covering the tops of her thighs. Her grey shirt was formfitting, tight across her chest and low at the front.

“Don’t fucking swear at me.” Tara retorted.

“You two are ridiculous.” Abigail said with a sigh, reaching out to pat Autumn’s knee.

“I’m confused.” Mel announced as Autumn took a long sip of her tea.

“Sorry, I’ll dumb it down a little for you. Tara and Lucy are being silly.” Abigail intoned slowly.

“So you and Dominick hooked up multiple times,” Mel said, pausing to lick her spoon clean, “But he was dating some girl you hated but you didn’t know and now they have a kid.”

“Yes.” Autumn confirmed, reaching forward for one of the cookies she had baked that morning.

“Oh, okay then.” Mel said with a thoughtful expression. Lucy frowned over at Mel, shaking her head.

“I swear to God Mel, you are the world’s biggest drip.” Lucy said, reaching up to fluff up her hair.

“Do you love him?” Mel asked, ignoring Lucy. Autumn bit her lip, conscious of the girls watching her. She wasn’t sure how to answer and she passed the time by smoothing her hand down over her tummy. She was having difficulty sorting her thoughts and she tried to calm her swirling emotions so she could get herself sorted.

“I’m not sure. I was only seventeen.” Autumn answered eventually, the words surprising even her.

“Could you love him?” Mel’s eyes didn’t waver from hers and Autumn took a deep breath.

“It would be very easy.” Autumn answered softly, reaching up to fiddle with the ends of her hair.

“And Grant do you love him?” Mel was asking all the questions that Autumn had been avoiding asking herself and Autumn looked away, conscious of the silence in the room.

“I care about him.” Autumn picked her answer carefully, they were great girls but they were also friends with Grant and to the best of her knowledge they all liked him.

“That’s not an answer.” Lucy jumped in.

“Yes, I think I do.” Autumn muttered, raising her cup to her lips to take a drink. She had told Grant she had loved him many times but it was always in response to his statement.

“Does it hurt to think of life without Grant?” Lucy asked. Autumn looked up startled, tucking her hair behind her ears as she tried to focus her thoughts.

“Does it hurt you physically to think of never having him in your life again?” Lucy clarified. Autumn hesitated, looking down into her tea cup, taking in the milky liquid and the fine gold rim of the pretty flowered cup her sister had given her.

“I think I would manage.” Autumn felt tears sting her eyes and she reached up to brush at her eyes. Tara wrapped her arm around her shoulders and Abigail passed her a handful of tissues.

“I’m sorry, Autumn. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Lucy looked upset herself and Autumn shook her head, dabbing at her eyes.

“It’s alright.” Autumn waved her hand through the air, as if shooing something away.

There was silence for a couple moments, Autumn’s courage bolstered by the comforting squeeze Tara gave her while Abigail patted her knee.

“No matter what happens, we’ll always be here for you.” Mel said, smiling broadly. Tara sighed and muttered something under breath that the other girls couldn’t hear.

“Sorry, but this has got to be said. Are you going to go downstairs and climb onto a car and start dancing?” Tara asked Lucy as Mel frowned.

“What is it nineteen eighty seven?” Abigail asked from beside Autumn.

“White Snake called, they want their hair back.” Autumn joined in.

“How did this suddenly become about me?” Lucy asked, shrugging as she reached for a cookie, setting her coffee cup down on the coffee table, pushing aside the canister that held the sugar.

“I’ve talked enough for today.” Autumn said firmly, her spirits uplifted, smoothing her skirt over her knees as she set her tea cup down on top of a stack of bridal magazines she had been looking through with her sister.

“So, what are you going to do?” Mel asked, peering at Autumn over the rim of her tea cup.

“What do you mean ‘what am I going to do?’ There’s nothing I can do.” Autumn returned.

“What, so you’re going to sit there and let him go?” Abigail asked, turning towards Autumn with a surprised look.

“Yes.” Autumn answered resolutely with a nod.

“Why?” Mel asked, frowning over at her.

“What can I do? I have Grant and besides he has his own life and he has a kid now. And he didn’t call like he said he would and I waited and I waited and I’m done waiting. He went his way, I’m going to have to go mine.” Autumn answered, her voice thick as she looked down at the floor, taking in the thread bare carpet, faded and beige beneath her feet.

“Do you and Grant have the same passion?” Mel asked quietly as Tara took a noisy sip of her tea.

“Pardon?” Autumn enquired politely as she inspected the plate of cookies before her. She knew that she shouldn’t have another one but a small one couldn’t hurt.

“When you kiss Grant does the rest of the world fall away?” Mel asked, looking away from the group as she stirred her tea. Autumn blinked over at her, surprised at the question. It seemed like a silly, romantic idea and Autumn liked to be practical and reasonable.

“The world doesn’t ‘fall away’ with Dominick either.” Autumn avoided, leaning forward for her tea cup, the warmth seeping through the ceramic cup. The fading sunlight shone in through the window, glancing off of Mel’s hair, brightening it to a coppery red.

“When he kisses you does your heart skip a beat? Do your legs wobble and do your knees knock and does everything feel just a little bit better?” Autumn looked down at her toes again, sipping at her rapidly cooling tea.

“Mel, don’t be ridiculous.” Tara objected, shifting on the couch beside her as Mel frowned over at them, her mouth pinched.

“It isn’t ridiculous.” Lucy said, her voice loud in the quiet room, “It’s tough sometimes, Penn can’t keep down a job, we want kids but we can’t afford them, god, we can barely afford our rent. And we fight all the time, about stupid stuff like money and the laundry and his smoking. We can’t pay rent and he spends eighty dollars a fortnight on a fucking carton of smokes. And then he kisses me or he takes my hand and suddenly I don’t care. Suddenly all of that doesn’t matter because I have Penn and that’s all I need.”

“He’s like your oxygen.” Abigail said wistfully, looking down into her cup as Lucy nodded, a faraway look in her eye. Autumn bit her lip, digging her teeth into the soft flesh as she sorted through her swirling thoughts and tried to calm her whirring brain.

“It’s different now,” Autumn argued, breaking the heavy silence that had enveloped the living room, “We’re older now and he has a child and we’re very different people than we were back then.”

“Who you were at seventeen is different than who you are now.” Tara acknowledged with a nod.

“You didn’t answer my question. What’s it like when you kiss him?” Mel asked, forging on with her line of questioning.

“It’s been a while, Mel, I don’t really remember.” Truthfully, all Autumn remembered was a scary consuming passion that she had been helpless, and unwilling, to fight. She frowned, unused to sounding like a maudlin Harlequin heroine.

“Then go downstairs and kiss him.” Abigail advised, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

“I nearly broke up with Grant for kissing a girl from work, it’d be kind of hypocritical for me to kiss Dominick.” Autumn pointed out, reaching up to press her hand to chest, her slender fingers slipping across the skin where her necklace normally was.

“Does Grant know?” Tara asked, turning to look at Autumn, wincing as she took a sip of her drink. Autumn’s tea had gone cold and she set it back down on the table, running her finger along the rim of the cup.

“About what?” Autumn asked, feigning ignorance.

“That the two of you dated.” Tara looked annoyed and Autumn sighed, her cheeks heating.

“We didn’t date. You know, it wasn’t like we were boyfriend and girlfriend we just fooled around.” She said, embarrassed.

“You should tell him.” Lucy said firmly as Mel nodded her agreement.

“Do I have to?” Autumn uncharacteristically whined, looking over at Abigail, the corners of her mouth turned down.

“He was honest with you about the girl from work.” Lucy pointed out and Autumn squirmed in her seat, ashamed at her whiny behaviour.

“I should tell him.” She said firmly.

“You should, before you decide anything about Dominick.” Tara patted her knee and the girls around them murmuring their agreement.

“There’s nothing to decide.” Autumn snapped, looking apologetic almost immediately.

“Even if there isn’t Grant needs to know that you two have a history.” Abigail said diplomatically.

“And whatever you decide you have us.” Mel added, smiling warmly as Lucy nodded.

“You guys are good friends.” Autumn said awkwardly, “I mean I never had close female friends around before and I’m glad to have you.”

“Oh Autumn!” Abigail threw an arm around her neck and pulled her close, hugging her tightly. Autumn bent her head, resting it in the crook of Abigail’s neck, struggling to formulate a speech to deliver to Grant. It wasn’t going to be easy but it had to be done.

~*~*~*~*~

Hey all

Sorry it's so late.