Abby and Violet (Yuri Light Novel)

Before I knew it, we were at the verge of her birthday, and not all that far from us celebrating a year of knowing each other. It was hard to believe it, but we were already in April, and there were only three more months before we’d have our first Summer Holiday together.

“Haah, almost a year and still no progress,” I thought as I prepared my breakfast after having taking a shower.

Maybe I was being too pessimistic, it had been four months, after all, but while Violet and I were more and more touchy-feely with each other, I hardly called that progress. With us being the way we were, how could I tell anyway?

“Straight people have it easy,” I grumbled, after having taken a taste of my drink. “Akh!  Bitter!”

Of course it was bitter, I had just brewed coffee.

“Hi sweety,” my father greeted while yawning.

“Made you coffee,” I told him, my face still all twisted.

“How did you know I was in the mood for one?” he asked, looking very happy for having it. I guessed Stan wasn’t the only father who got all sentimental when their daughter does something nice. Although I hadn’t done it for him, I just absent-mindedly brewed coffee like if Violet had stayed the night. “Mmh, it’s perfect, thanks!”

They do say there are mistakes that come as a good thing.

“What are your plans for the day? Are you going to spend it with Violet?”

“Hmm… maybe not. I’d say it’s a good idea to sometimes have a day spent apart from each other. What do you think?”

“I mean, I don’t see it as a bad thing per se, but I also don’t think it’s a bad idea to take a day to dedicate to yourself.”

“Actually… I was thinking about spending it with you? It’s been a while.”

“Oh sweety, I’d love to, but I’ve got work to do.”

“…I see… There’s no helping it them.”

My father scratched his early morning stubble as he frowned.

“I know!” he said, slapping the table. “I’ll take a page from Stan’s book and work from home today.”

“But won’t… she cause you trouble?”

My father thought very carefully about how he’d respond to that.

“It will be fine as long as I finish all my work of the day.”

“Then… hehe, ok. I was always curious to know what exactly you do.”

We sat together, like two peas in a pod, him with a laptop on his lap and me carefully observing him.

He began by checking his email box, checking a lot of mail and making some sort of schedule as he read them. Once that was taken care of, he started checking what his employees had done and submitted for approval. One of them caught my eye.

“Is that papa Stan’s work?”

“Mh-hmm… what do you think?”

He let me scroll and explore a website Stan had designed for a restaurant.

“I think it’s good. Easy to navigate, not too word-dense and with a nice selection of pictures.”

“Then, how about this one?”

It was another one made by Stan, and also a great job. And then another. And another. And an email apologising about not being able to deliver yet another one. All delivered on the same day.

“Haah, like daughter, like father,” I grumbled. “Don’t they know any restrain?”

“What bothers me the most is that he’s forced to work this much because Elena refuses to pay him the same she pays other employees and won’t give him a raise despite him being one of our best workers.”

“…Is it because of me?”

He gave me a sympathetic look as he patted my knees.

“No, it’s because he works from home. According to her, he’s not committed enough to his job. It has been an issue for years.”

“Right, and being so dedicated to it really did her… sorry.”

“Don’t be. In fact, maybe we should talk about it. In fact… yeah, I think today is just as a good time as ever.”

He moved the laptop over the coffee table and left the living room towards the bedrooms and office. A little while later he came back with a bunch of papers.

“Real talk now. Are you feeling comfortable for it?”

I gave him a not, feeling intimidated by his serious tone.

“Don’t worry, I think it will be good news for you. So… I’ll start by asking you not to get mad at Violet.”

“H-Huh? What does she have to do with this conversation?”

“Everything since she was the spark that started it all. To put it bluntly, she… she told us about your nightmares.”

“Oh… she did, huh?”

“…Are you all right?”

I wasn’t. I was feeling betrayed as I had believed she was keeping them a secret, but was in fact tattling to our parents.

“She did it because she was worried.”

“I know that! She still shouldn’t have told you!”

“Did you tell her to keep it secret?”

“Well… no, but—”

“She was guilt ridden when she told us about it, but she did it anyway because she believed that would be the best way to help you.”

“By not keeping it a secret!?”

“Abby, what I have here is what we all believe is an answer to one of your deepest fears.”

“…Which is?”

“According to this document here—still to be signed between me and Stan until you give us your opinion—makes it so that if something happens that makes it impossible for me to look after you, turns Stan into your legal guardian until you’re of legal age, or decide to go live with your sister if you two so choose.”

“…W-what?”

“…With this document, you’re completely free from your mother ever laying her hands on you again.”

That was… I had never even dared to think about that, but now that I heard it all… my god, I was terrified of the idea without ever realising it. Was that why I’d sometimes have a nightmare of her dragging me back into that house? It made sense now. It made scaringly good sense.

“So… if you were to die… I’d be living with Stan and Violet?”

“If you so choose that instead of your sister. We figured it was the better choice for you since you have those two here and your sister still needs to figure out her live after university. Other than those two, there are no other good choices.”

I curled up, hugging my knees. It was all so overwhelming, but I was also feeling very… secure. Safe. Almost like when Violet held me.

“…Do I need to sign it too?” I asked in half a voice.

“Since you’re already sixteen, I guess you should. I’ll ask my lawyer to add that line to it.”

“…Thanks. And, erm… thanks dad.”

I had never known him as so reliable. He truly was. And he tried to be better each day.

We were waiting for our lunch to be delivered when there was a knock on the door. Not enough time had passed for it to be our food delivery, so I was thinking it was Violet who had decided to pop up for some reason. It’d completely unannounced and out of character, but she had been acting strangely lately, so it wasn’t all that impossible of an occurrence.

“Hi there,” the young woman at the door greeted.

“Sis!” I shouted, launching on her.

My sister twirled me in the air as we laughed.

“My, how much you’ve grown!” she said, giving me a good look up and down.

“Not really. I’m only about two more centimetres taller than when you left,” I told her, tapping the top of my head. “You must be misremembering it.”

“I guess that must be it. I was sure you were more of a shortcake.”

“Who are you calling shortcake!?”

“And what’s wrong with that!?  Way I see it, it makes all the goodness more concentrated.”

“Pfft, ah-haha! When you put it that way…”

“Sophia? I was expecting you arriving tomorrow.”

“You mean you knew she was coming!?”

“Of course I knew. I needed to figure out were she’d be sleeping.”

“With me!” I told him before turning to my big sis. “Right? You’ll be sleeping with me for good time’s sake, right?”

“Fufu, I guess I’ll have to. At least tonight I’ll have.”

“Not just tonight, ALL the nights you’re staying!”

“Fufu, as needy as ever, hmm? We’ll see. Now, where’s the food? I’m starving!”

Violet would steal glances on occasion at me, curious as to why I was in such good mood on our way to math class.

“All right, I’ll bite. What’s going on?” she asked when she realised I wasn’t going to tell her until she questioned me.

“Hehe, you see, my big sis came for a visit.”

“Your big sister? Ah! I remember you talking about her once or twice. She’s in uni, right?”

“Yup! Came to spend the holidays with me. Well, me and dad, but I like to think it’s mostly me.”

She chuckled and shook her head as she took out her books and pencil case.

“…When do I introduce you to her?”

“Huh!?”

“You don’t want to?”

Her face twisted and turned as she pondered how to respond.

“It’s not that I don’t want to… It just leaves me very anxious.”

“Come on,” I giggled while rubbing shoulders with her. “She’s just like me, only taller. And curvaceous. A bit more serious too. Anyway, if you can deal with me, you two will get along just fine. In fact, it’s me who should be anxious from introducing you two.”

“That so? Why?”

“You might like her better.”

I was joking, and she knew it, but she still took my words very seriously.

“Abby… that’s never going to happen.”

“Aren’t you the sweet talker.”

“…I mean it.”

“I know,” I told her, giving her the best smile I could pull off. “I know.”

I was just depressed her “like” would never equate to my “like”.

◊◊◊

Abby was completely crestfallen from me telling her I’d have to work on my birthday. That’d mean we’d have barely any time to do any sort of celebration together. And with her staying at her place to make up from the time she spent apart from her sister, we wouldn’t even have our morning time.

Haah, I’ll miss our cuddling.

I’d be a whole week without it. If only I could flip the switch responsible for me liking that sort of thing now.

“With problems again?” Margaret asked me.

As was to be expected, the dining room of the restaurant had a whole lot of two people filling it up. Me and her.

“No, just inconveniences.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“…I’m turning sixteen this Wednesday and—”

“Wait, you’re only fifteen!?”

“Erm, yes.”

She hummed and nodded, apparently surprised by that revelation. Then…

“Hold on, if you’re fifteen, then you can’t be working here the way you’ve been this past year! It’s illegal!”

“It is!?”

She nodded and began explaining me how things worked. To sum it up, it was ok for me to work part-time during the summer, but once school started, I shouldn’t have worked at all. Ony after turning sixteen could I resume working, and even then, I was working more hours than permitted by law.

“You should talk with the manager,” she concluded.

“Erm, are you sure it’s how you told me?”

“Yes I am. I read through the code and even went through a friend of my ex-husband who’s a lawyer when my eldest son told me he wanted to work part-time at the place his crush worked.”

Teens in love are weird. That was the line of thinking in my head as I walked in my manager’s office, fully aware I’d be included in that group by default. And more precisely, I was thinking that maybe Abby would one day suggest that, probably half-jokingly.

“Ah, miss Evergreen. What can I do for you?”

I explained to him what I had been told in the best way I could. My nervousness was turning into indignation as the realisation that he had been aware of all of that throughout the whole time I had been working there settled in my mind.

“And how do you think we can resolve this issue?” he asked.

How indeed.

Three things I was sure of were the fact I was being paid less than I deserved, I had too many work hours that I could have as time off, and that he’d do his best for me to have none of that while trying to sell me the idea he was doing me a favour.

“Erm… for starters, could I have Wednesday off? It’s my birthday and erm, my friend wants to spend it with me.

He agreed to my request, luckily.

For now I’d back down, talk with my dad and Abby before making any decisions.

When I was done with work, I immediately called Abby with the news.

“Then, we can spend the afternoon of your birthday together after all?”

“Fufu, yes.”

“Yay!”

Always so excitable, that girl. And I don’t mean it as a complaint, quite the contrary.

“Would you mind if my sister joined us? At least for introductions?”

That… I’ll be honest and say it curbed my enthusiasm down. If we were to stay friends for the long term, I’d eventually have to meet her, but for now it was a level of stress I wasn’t too keen on. Not that I’d ever tell her that.

“Violet, if you’re not comfortable with it, you can just say it.”

She could see my trepidation, but that made me feel like I should try a bit harder. Besides, even if she said that I could say no to meeting her sister, her heart would still be hurt. I’d push through it again.

“Sorry for being so pushy. I know you hate meeting new people, but I really do believe you two will get along. And I’ll make up to you next time.”

“Make up to me?”

“Yeah. I don’t know how, but I promise I will! And if you think something up, just say it!”

I couldn’t think of anything to ask her for.

She helped me with house chores, keeping classmates away, studying and homework, cooking, and warmed me up when it got chilly.

“Come to think of it… it hasn’t been all that cold lately.”

Quite the opposite in fact. Some of our classmates were already going to the pool.

“Oh… maybe Abby wants to go there, but won’t because of me…”

Her skin was still sun-kissed, but considerably less than at the start of the schoolyear. With each month that passed, her skin was approaching the same colour than her tan lines, and thinking about it made me feel all the more responsible.

“…I’ll ask her to take me there.”

She had said on the new year that she wanted us to go too, but I had the feeling she wouldn’t come forth with the suggestion due to her reluctance to bother me. I mean, bother me in a way that isn’t teasing, of course. She was a mischievous little imp, after all.

“Look! There’s my sister!”

She grabbed my hand and pulled me after her, towards the person at the school gate.

She was taller than me by about half the difference between me and her sister, meaning I reached around her nose hight. Funny how the two sisters diverged so much in that department. Her hair was long and of a slightly darker shade than Abby’s and about half as long as mine, tied into a high ponytail. She clearly was Abby’s elder sister as her face was almost the same, the main two differences being her more serious—but still friendly—air and her hazel eyes not having the same green specks her sister’s had upon closer inspection. She had achieved a perfect balance of make-up and leaving it as natural as possible.

What got me the most intimidated in a way was her body. She clearly had a large chest under the white flowing shirt she had that mostly hid her figure unless she raised her arms for some reason, along with shapely legs and hips hugged by tight white jeans. When I saw she was wearing some slightly high-heeled shoes, I didn’t feel any better knowing our height difference was about half of what I originally thought.

“So you’re Violet,” she said, pushing her sister to the side, Abby refusing to let go of her waist. “I’m Sophia, but you can call me Sophie. Nice to meet you in person.”

She smiled just like Abby did. That was such a source of relief.

I shook the hand she was offering me, noticing how sweaty mine was when we made contact, sending me back to the pit the previous realisation got me out of.

“V-Violet Evergreen… nice meeting you,” I squeaked.

She wasn’t smiling anymore, but studying my face instead. I squeaked again when I felt her touch my face without notice.

“Ah! Sorry. I reached out without thinking,” she told me, taking her hand back and retreating a step.

“N-n-no, erm, I…”

Abby saw I was barely holding it together and approached me, holding my face between her hands.

“Calm down, you silly girl. It’s just my sister. She won’t bite.”

I knew that, but I had backed myself into a corner thinking that I had to cause a good impression on her. Since I was failing so spectacularly, you can guess how I was feeling.

“Humph,” she huffed, seeing her words not having any calming effect.

She turned and pressed her back against me. I didn’t care that people were seeing it—that also including her sister—and I held Abby like I would if we were behind closed doors.

“Sorry sis,” she said, putting her hands over mine. “She overthought so much about making a good impression on you that she’s now overwhelmed. Could you give us a moment?”

“Erm, sure. I’ll be waiting at that bench over there.”

“…”

“…”

“…I’m sorry,” I finally said, hiding my face in her hair.

“Haah, I already expected you’d do something like this. Actually, no. Somehow, you managed to surpass anything I’d come up with.”

“…I’m so sorry…”

“…Hey, look where my sis sat. Does it ring you any bells?”

I peaked, trying not to be too obvious.

“Erm… was it at that bench that we had our first proper conversation?”

“Hehe, I wouldn’t call it proper, but yeah. You came running after me because I forgot to check my score on the exam.”

“Yeah…”

“What was your first impression of me, I wonder.”

“…I didn’t really like you back then.”

“Pfft, ah-haha! But you like me now, right?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Lots?”

“…Yeah.”

“Hehe, see? First impressions aren’t everything, right?”

“…Right.”

I took the chance of having my face obscured the way it was to deliver a smooch to the crown of her head.

“Ah, I felt that!” she said, swaying side to side. “Can I get another one for good luck.”

“…”

“…Hehe.”

I’d have given her many more if we weren’t in public.

Right… we are in public.

Remembering that, I let her lose, but she refused to let go one of my hands.

“Wanna hold hands?” she asked me, not in a teasing way, but in a concerned way.

“…What about your sister?”

“She won’t mind,” she said with a shrug. “We’ll be sleeping together tonight too.”

“…Ok.”

“…Hehe, someone’s jelly.”

“I’m—”

“I can read you like an open book,” she joked, poking my face. “Don’t be. Because…”

She glanced at her sister before pulling me down by the tie. With her lips close to my ear she whispered, “she’s not as calming as you, and we can’t cuddle at all because she moves too much.”

I was completely red-faced from that, but also for some reason—my jealousy—super smug towards Sophie.

“Hehe, that’s more like it!” she laughed, seeing my face. “Shall we go then?”

“…Hmm… let’s go.”

Talking with Sophie after that was a lot more manageable. She was like her sister described; like her, only more serious, so in other words, a lot easier to handle. I still preferred Abby, for some masochistic reason.

We got into a café and the elder sister excused herself to go to the bathroom.

Abby sat by me and placed both elbows on the table, holding her head as she leaned towards me.

“My sister is super beautiful, isn’t she?”

“Y-yeah… she sure is.”

“Hehe, right? I wish one day I can be like her. And she’s super cool too, don’t you think?”

Something in what she said didn’t sit well with me at all.

“…I think you’re way cuter, though,” I blurted out as soon as I understood what had bothered me.

She got a blank expression and blinked a few times before having a giggling fit, her face turning completely red as she hid it on my armpit, one of her hands tapping me on the shoulder.

“That’s not what I asked,” I think is what she was laughing.

“Erm, what’s up with her?” her sister asked, seeing the show we were presenting to the world once she came back.

“She, erm… sometimes does this…”

And all the times it happened, I was the reason why.

“Huh… she always had the weirdest quirks.”

Her sister sat down and picked up the menu. After some time, she got fed up with Abby’s antic and called her out on that.

Abby uncovered her face, making an effort to stop. She also moved a leg over mine, sandwiching it in between mine and placed my arm around her shoulders.

I was now the one who was going to tell her off, but she had such a gleeful expression, my heart melted in an instant.

Ah, whatever. This is fine.

Her sister didn’t share our opinion on the matter though.

“…Aren’t you two too close?”

“Oh, shush sis. This is perfectly normal.”

“No, it is not. Sit properly.”

“Abby, let’s do as she says.”

“…Oh, ok.”

I was sneaky when I told her that. There was a hand of mine that might have held her knee in place as I spoke to her. With that bit of trickery I scored a few points in my favour to the eyes of her sister while still allowing Abby some skinship she was craving.

Using the hand supporting her face as cover, she gave me a quick grin as I crossed my legs over hers.

I was going to return the smile back involuntarily, but I had a bad feeling then. Her sister was glaring at us, or rather, at me. Were we caught? It didn’t seem like it. She couldn’t see under the table, nobody could. Not where we were sitting in relations to the floorplan and with the way tables were set. It was a dinner-styled café, so it had two heavily padded and comfortable red benches with a table in the middle that was covered by a checkered red and white towel.

I endured her stare for the whole meal, until we got up and Abby grabbed my hand again, walking me around the mall.

“Wanna go inside?” she asked me seemingly at random.

The store she had in mind was specialised in accessories.

“Abby, you don’t need to buy me a gift. I still haven’t gotten one for you yet too.”

“Then let’s pick something together and match!” she said, looking even more motivated. Come on, she insisted, dragging me inside.

The store had too much stuff for my overwhelmed brain to process.

Of note, the only thing it somehow registered were some tiaras and some rings and earrings of outlandish colours and shapes.

Abby suddenly stopped, and I bumped into her since I was bedazzled by so many shiny things.

“May I?” she asked.

I nodded, not aware of what it was she was asking permission for.

She moved her hands around my neck and I felt her fiddle with something before whatever it was tightened around my neck.

“It’s not too tight, is it?”

“N-no. What is it?”

“Ta-dah,” she sang, pointing at a mirror.

In it, I saw my bewildered face on top of a neck that had something new on it just below my vocal cords.

She had put on me a black choker, about as wide as my thumb and with a silver heart at the front.

“Do you like it?”

“Y-yeah.”

I genuinely liked it. I wasn’t sure I’d be bold enough to go around with it on, but I had also though the same about the strapless dress she had given me half a year ago, and I was rocking that dress quite confidently during the weekends as the weather grew warmer.

I looked around, searching for where the choker had come from. I saw variants of it, with a star, a moon, a teardrop, a skull, and so on, but if we were to truly match, there was only one choice, wasn’t there?

“Violet, you can pick a different design for me, I was kidding when I said we should match.”

“I know but… this one…”

“…Hehe, ok.”

She was beaming with so much happiness, it was making my heart hurt. It was amazing how she could make me feel that way. I never thought such thing was even possible.

“Hehe, does it look good on me?” she asked, hopping in place after taking a look at her reflexion.

“Mmh-hmm…”

“Hehe, then it’s settled,” she chimed, taking mine off. “I’ll go and pay for these.”

“Ah! W-wait!”

“You can settle down the bill afterwards. We need to talk, you and I.”

Her sister’s voice sounded a lot like her mother’s all of a sudden, sending chills down my spine.

“You two, you’re dating, aren’t you?”

“W-wha—? No!”

“Don’t lie to me! I saw how you two look at each other.”

I got what she meant, but we really weren’t like that. But how would I convince her with my poor communication skills?

I looked at where Abby went. Once I saw her hopping in place as she waited in line with one of the largest smiles I had ever seen, my heart sank.

“…And if we were, would it be that bad?” I asked her.

“Huh?”

“If your sister and I were… would it be bad?”

“…It’s not normal! You do realise that, don’t you?”

I had served gay couples. As far as I could tell, them liking people of the same sex didn’t make them all that different from “normal” people.

“Isn’t it like saying that people who don’t like chocolate aren’t normal?”

“It’s not the same thing! You can’t compare people liking chocolate with you liking girls! It’s moronic! It’s… nasty.”

“…It’s not just me we are talking, it’s your sister we are talking about too.”

“…”

I stepped away from her without telling her anything else. I walked up to Abby, and placed a hand over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry Abby. Something came up and I need to get going.”

“What? Did something happen?”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

“…If you say so… will you call me before you go to bed?”

“Sure thing.” I leaned down and gave her a very tender kiss on her cheek. “I had fun. And I’ll pay my share of the gifts.”

“Or you can just treat me to some candy later.”

“Fufu, ok.” I gave her a second kiss. “I’ll talk to you later.”

I walked away, only exchanging a glare with her sister, leaving the store feeling numb.

Once I got outside the mall, I took a deep breath before making my walk home. I could have taken the bus, but I was in need of catching some fresh air to clear my head.

There wasn’t much going on in it though, just three thoughts.

Her sister turned out to be a real problem, and I was worried she’d make Abby’s life harder than it already was instead of giving her support. There wasn’t much I could do except being present if Abby needed me, like I always did.

Abby had romantic feelings for me. How could I have not noticed that before? A stupid question with a simple answer. I was naïve. Ignorant of people’s relationships, so I could never had recognised the signs until Sophia called my attention to the way we looked at each other. And that brought me to the last point on my mind.

I liked Abby in a romantic way. With that, and only with that point, I was fine. Maybe that was the one that should be weighting more on me, but in fact, it made me feel strangely at peace. Like, maybe it justified the way I was so happy and excited having Abby around? It made me feel like it was “normal” for us to be so clingy to each other. Because it was normal.

Oh… what about our parent?

With the amount of time Abby and I spent together, surely they might have had suspicions of their own. Unless they excused it all to us being girls and best friends, but that was a bit of a stretch, wasn’t it?

Haah, things are going to get even more complicated, won’t they?

My feet guided me to the graveyard where my mum had been put to rest. I didn’t know if I had come to that place seeking guidance and support from a parent that at least couldn’t feel disappointment, or if it was mere happenstance.

I sat on the cold stone pavement in front of her grave, huddling my knees.

“Hi mum… can you promise me you won’t get mad if I tell you a secret? I mean… if there’s any sort of afterlife… you might already know… I’m gay… Remember Abby? I like her… I really like her, mum… are you disappointed…? I hope not… if you aren’t… I know it’s not your job, but… and even if you are… could you look over her…? Please? She… her mother is a cruel woman… her sister might be too… I don’t know if I can help her… how to help her… could you perhaps help her for me? She deserves it, you know? To be happy… to finally be happy…”

I didn’t know if my prayers reached her or any higher power. Like so many things in my life, it felt completely out of my reach. Still, I held on to my hopes of it not having all been in vain.

I stood up, and wiped a spot on the cold gravestone that I kissed.

“I’m sorry for visiting after so long with these news… I’ll try coming back with better ones next time… bye, mum. Rest well.”

Nothing more I could do about it except try not to get myself killed from the stress that was about to come. At least there would also be some good moments mixed in, right? I hoped so.