Abby and Violet (Yuri Light Novel)

The very early hours of the morning were marked by a buzzing followed by a groan that got me awake. Then, my face was hugged tightly against her chest, my girlfriend not ready to leave the comfort of our bed and my body.

“Don’t fall asleep babe, or you’ll be late on your first day,” I told her, wiggling myself free from her arms and legs. “You agreed to helping with breakfasts and housekeeping at Mrs. Fletcher’s, remember?”

I awaited to see her response, if any. What came of her was a deep inhale and something akin to a bear growing after being woken up. She then, and I mean literally, rolled out of bed, over me and out the other side, her body hitting the floor with a thud.

“Are you ok?” I asked her, leaning over the edge.

She mumbled her answer as she hoisted herself up and began walking away as she rubbed the part of her hip that had smacked the floor. It was amazing how, despite the sudden drop and impact, her system was still barely operating.

Unless… did she roll out of bed on purpose?

When she walked up against the wall, what was painfully obvious became even more so: I had to get up and make sure she didn’t do anything stupid in her haze, like trying to brush her teeth with Dad’s razor blade or something. More realistically speaking, I’d be mostly needed to make sure she didn’t fall asleep sat on the loo or took ten times as long doing something.

Splashing her face with some cool water seemed to help, so that was the first thing I did once I got her inside the bathroom. She blinked with her eyes half-closed at me, wondering what was going on.

“You’ve accepted a job serving breakfasts at Mrs. Fletcher,” I reminded her. “It’s six in the morning right now and you’ve got half an hour to get out of here and an hour to get there on foot.”

She shut her eyes, taking the information in while I got her mouth open and placed her toothbrush in it. She began brushing her teeth, so I moved over to brushing her hair to tame the mess. Things started moving along after that, Violet seemingly managing to will herself awake enough so that she could operate at a very basic level, me only having to give her a little nudge here and there when she started slowing down. With our combined efforts, we managed getting her at the front door of the building in a bit less than the established thirty minutes. She was still looking like she got stolen from bed too early—which she technically was, but that’s doesn’t matter here, but hopefully, the one hour walk through town and then up the hill that led to Mrs. Fletcher’s place would pump enough blood around her body to rouse her up.

“Seriously Abby, thank you so much,” she told me for the tenth time as we bid farewell to one another, Violet giving my cheek a kiss. “You’re a life saver.”

“I’m also the source of many of your troubles,” I joked back. Well, half-joked. I was pretty sure Violet was taking jobs for something related with me, I just wasn’t yet sure what it could be.

“Meh, it evens out at the end,” she replied with a shrug.

“Oi! You’re supposed to say that I bring more good than bad!”

She laughed, something I haven’t heard for the past week. In fact, this was probably the most cheerful interaction we had since Sophie’s recital. Things between us have been… not exactly bad… “Strained”, perhaps?

“…Abby?”

“Yeah?”

Violet stared at me, her brow slightly furrowing as she weighted her words. Just when I thought the awkwardness between us had vanished, there she was, being awkward again. She likely had the same thought I did just now and got self-conscious about it.

“…Take care in the woods, ok?”

I thanked her worry and we parted ways after that, Violet headed one way while I was headed towards the closes bus station to catch the first one to the place where a hiking trail begins. Violet had her work while I had my own, and that was finding the perfect camping spot for us and our friends.

Being away from Violet seemed to be helping me think more clearly about the past week.

How should I put it?

It’s not that Violet had been acting coldly towards me. “Awkward” isn’t the right word either despite having used it before to describe our earlier interaction. I mean, she did get awkward, but that was a result of the rest of her behaviour towards me.

I think “distant” is the best word to describe how she’s been most of the time. Not out of anger or hurt, at least not after the first couple of days I’d say, but out of being lost in her own mind.

And speaking of being distant, I shouldn’t stray too far away from the trail.

That thought occurred to me as I hopped out of the bus and the smell of pine needles and damp earth filled my nose. The thought wasn’t because I was afraid I’d get lost in the woods. First of all, I have my cell phone with a full battery and the signal is strong everywhere in these woods. Second of all, since our town is surrounded by hills, I only have to walk downhill and eventually I’ll be back to civilization. Thirdly and finally, I’d only be walking around the woods for a few hours. Violet’s shift started at seven-thirty and lasted four hours, so someone needed to be home to make lunch. My bus ride took about twenty-five minutes, so let’s round up my coming and going to an hour so that I have time to get from the bus stop to her place. That left me with an hour and a half to do some exploring at most. In other words, I was mixing my scouting mission with doing a jog in the woods in the early morning, which is quite nice on many different levels.

So, “distant” without being “cold”.

I was back to thinking about the week we had.

The day after the recital, Violet didn’t seem much in the mood to talk with me, and I respected that. I did hide from her quite the big secret.

On the second day, her mood had improved, but she was starting to show her signs of shutting herself off from the world, wanting to just be left alone with her thoughts. That lasted for three days, Violet on occasion seemingly remembering that I existed. On those occasions, she gave me some attention, but her mind wandered off again before she even noticed.

On the fifth day, we made love when we had the house for ourselves and no chores to do. It was just one round, but it meant the world to me as she was the same gentle and attentive person that she is in those moments, making me feel absolutely sure that her love for me was still burning strong. She was back to being lost in thought as we cuddled afterwards though, but I fully know that this was just a phase. Not that I ever doubted her feelings for me, it’s just that I was a bit starved for attention, even if I fully understood why she wasn’t providing me with it and knowing that I could voice out my needs at any time.

The last couple of days had been more of the same, but now, it feels like she’s not just thinking about Sophie having a crush over her dad. Today and the next two, she had her work at Mrs. Fletcher’s B&B, and on Monday, she’ll have her first modelling session with Josephine.

Just how desperate was she for money?

To think that she’d accept an offer to have someone she didn’t know taking pictures of her in outfits she hasn’t even seen yet… it must be big, the thing she has in store for it.

I suspect that she wants to save money she has earned either for our engagement rings next year, or maybe even for a trip with just the two of us after we graduate high school.

Although I wouldn’t blame her if she decides to post-pone those to after we—or I, graduate from university.

After how I kept such a big secret away from her, I wouldn’t blame her.

◊◊◊

If you were to ask me if I ever thought that I’d be waiting tables again, I’d have said no, but here I was, doing exactly that. At least this time, the food was real food. I had seen the lady in the kitchen preparing the scrambled eggs, frying the bacon and the sausages, squeezing the oranges… it made me strangely proud to be serving those orders, perhaps due to how, at the Le Perrot, I felt nothing but shame serving what they called “food” there.

Honestly, the worst part was doing the housekeeping, particularly, doing the beds. You know, because I was touching the sheets that had strangers in them, and because people… do stuff in them? It gave me pause to think about Abby and I when we finally get to go on a couple’s trip one day in the future.

Still, most people that were staying at Mrs. Fletcher’s place were on the older side of the spectrum, middle-age and above, with just one young couple on their honeymoon there because she wanted to feel like a princess instead of toasting her body on some tropical beach. That didn’t seem to stop her from coming back looking like a blonde bipedal lobster from our local pools though.

I had briefly seen her when serving her breakfast, the sight of her brand-new wedding ring an irresistible call to my eyes. It was as though true to my hair colour I had turned into a raven or something. That ring got my mind preoccupied with my own future ring and Abby, a somewhat welcome distraction from the past week’s thoughts about Sophie potentially becoming Dad’s girlfriend and Abby having hidden Sophie’s crush over him from me.

Not that her liking him means that they’ll necessarily start dating…

Or that she’d ever voice out her feelings for him to him. In typical fashion, I was most likely making a storm out of a small droplet of water.

Still though… the thought of having a step-mother that is only six years my senior… shudder the thought.

“Oh my!” I heard Margaret whistle from behind me. “The bride is a freak! Just look at this!”

“Margaret! Stop playing with that!” I told her, my face flashing the same colour as the bit of private fabric she was waving around. “We’ve only got ten minutes per room, right?”

“Oh, relax, will you?” she laughed, casually tossing the underwear to a chair by the bed we were fixing up. “You’ve been looking sourer than a lemon all morning! And here I was all excited with working with you again…”

She meant it as a joke, but it hit me hard.

“I’m really sorry Margaret,” I told her in a low tone as I tucked my side of the sheet under the mattress. “I’ve been having a lot to think about recently… not that it excuses having shouted at you.”

She gave me her maternal smile as she told me that I hadn’t shouted at her. She then asked me if I wanted to vent out a bit since there wasn’t much else we could do while tidying up the room.

I considered it all for a minute. She knew me somewhat well in terms of my personality and stuff, not in a deep level though. That more or less gave me the willingness to open up with her about my most recent woe.

“Well… I recently found out that Abby had been hiding a secret from me,” I began. “Not like I expect her to share everything with me, but… this one was about something that could affect me… in a way.”

“And you’re mad with her about it?” she asked me, passing me the pillow covers before moving to the ensuite toilet, leaving me to finish up the bed.

“Mad? Hmm… I don’t think so,” I told her. “Frankly, I don’t think I’m hurt anymore about it… I do get why she didn’t tell me right away… there are… complications. She wanted to be sure of the facts before bringing it up with me. She’s been dragging her feet about that though, which is super annoying, but that’s just how Abby is. If she thinks she might hurt someone else’s feelings, she suddenly becomes… restrained.”

I saw Margaret peek out of the bathroom door to show that she was listening before she asked what was bothering me so much about it after all. She then hit the nail square in the head, making me realise why I’ve been thinking about it so much.

“It’s just… I know all this and yet I keep locking in on these thoughts all the time,” I told her. “I end up completely neglecting her because I get lost in my head and meanwhile, Abby is left thinking that I might still be mad at her for having kept it a secret from me. I do try giving her attention when I catch myself doing that, but I just end up getting lost in thoughts again.”

“You always were that type of girl after all,” she told me from somewhere I couldn’t see.

“I know why she hid it from me. I understand that, and I can forgive her because of that. I end up becoming annoyed at myself for still thinking about the secret in and of itself. And it’s something that is completely out of my control, the secret I mean, so it’s not like me thinking about it helps in any way. I just keep going on, and on, and on about it in my head, Abby sat by me, while I completely ignore her instead of talking like we always do, and it’d be so much easier if—”

“Violet, breath for a second,” Margaret laughed, her head popping into frame again. “If your head works like the way you’re talking right now, good God, if it’s not chaotic, then I don’t know what to call it.”

I did some breathing exercises to calm down as we regrouped at our trolley.

“You know, if you’re having a hard time putting it into words,” she began before we left the room. “You could always do something nice for her, like a gift or even better, a simple act of care.”

A present, or… an act of care…

I was reminded of the foot massage I had planned on giving Abby the night of Sophie’s recital. I had been so tired and stressed out about the secret that I completely forgot about it. It’d have been inappropriate then, but now that Abby is out in the woods, walking on uneven terrain and I wanted to show her that I still deeply cared for her and didn’t hold hard feelings over her keeping secrets? That sounded like a good way to start things up. I could tell her that, for the rest of the day, I’d be her personal butler or something. I’m sure Abby will have a million requests after a whole week of neglect, so she’ll certainly keep me too busy to think about stupid stuff. It will be good for the two of us since Abby gets pampered, I get to pamper her—which always helps me relax, and hopefully, a day of doing only that will help me break the cycle of overthinking.

“Thanks Margaret,” I told her, feeling a lot lighter now in my chest. “I think I’ll do what you just said.”

After Abby got her own key to my place, the very rare, almost never, chance of me forgetting my key stopped being a problem at all since Abby was almost always with me when I went outside.

Today however wasn’t such a day, so, after taking the entire walk back home getting a headache from the intense sun, cicadas, and mulling over and over how to talk with Abby upon my arrival, I was left with the embarrassment of having to call her to see if she was already home and could open the door for me. Unfortunately, as humanly smart as Oliver could be—what with him seemingly able to turn of the television, knocking on doors and saying the odd human word—he was still, as far as we were aware at least, unable to open doors. Then again, Oliver was a lazy cat who had us to open doors for him, so maybe it’s not that he doesn’t know how to open them, but a case of…

…You’re thinking nonsense, Violet Evergreen.

Either due to an imminent sunstroke, or dreading taking the necessary step, but it didn’t matter once I hit the call button. Just as I had thought, Abby was with her noise cancelling earphones on, listening to music on her phone, so it really would have been useless knocking.

“Hi there,” she chirped, making way for me to get inside and out of the sun. “Oliver warned me of your arrival even before you called.”

“Did he now?” I said as I gave his head a scratch. He did that thing cats do that they arch their whole bodies so us humans scratch them from heat to tail. He then stood with his butt towards me, enjoying a rubbing at the base of his tale. That always made him lick his shoulders for some reason.

I then looked at Abby. She was going back to the kitchen, telling me lunch was going to be baked salmon and potatoes and that I could shower in the meantime. I immediately grabbed her wrist, not thinking much about it. I just didn’t want us to go our separate ways, even if we were at home.

As she looked into my face, wondering what was going on, I could see that she hadn’t showered yet either. She was still a bit sweaty and dusty, her floral and salty scent from her bathing products mixing in with those two and pine needles. She smelled even more of Summer than ever before.

“I’m not showering right now,” I told her, my voice coming off a bit more forceful than I had wanted, but I couldn’t really stop. “I’ll shower later, together with you.”

She looked at me, stunned for a second before letting out a soft laugh and her expression softening up.

“Ok then,” she hummed.

“And!” I said, words starting to spill out when before they all got stuck in my mind or throat. “I’m also giving your feet a massage!”

“My feet?” she chuckled.

“Yes, your feet,” I repeated, some semblance of shame returning to me but too late for me to stop. “Since you were walking around in the woods. They must be sore from walking on uneven terrain.”

“They really aren’t, but for argument’s sake, let’s say that they actually are.”

I got a bit awkward after that. I was wondering what to say next but a voice in my mind shouted at me to stop thinking and just act.

I pulled Abby into a tight hug. Maybe a bit too tight, but she didn’t complain. I then started voicing my thoughts as she looked up at me, finding the way I was acting very strange.

“Abby, listen… thing is… you know I’m not mad or hurt about you keeping Sophie’s crush a secret, right? I was at first, I admit that, but only for maybe the first two days. I understand you wanted to check with her first before bringing it up to me when there was a chance you misinterpreted what you’ve been seeing, and that this is Sophie’s possible first time liking someone. You also didn’t want to make it weird for me to be around your sister. Thing is, I also know how indecisive you can be in these things because you don’t want to… I don’t know, burden the others? I really get that, and that really isn’t why I’ve been… erm…”

“…Distant?”

“Yeah… yeah, I guess you could put it that way to be nice about it. Anyway, why I’ve been ‘distant’ as you put it is… well, you know, I’ve been thinking about the secret a lot, and that leaves me frustrated because I already know that you didn’t hide it from me without a good reason nor that I really have any say over Sophie’s feelings. It’s just… The more I think about it, the more frustrated I get, and the more I think about it as a result. And only today did I put two and two together and realised that was what was going on.”

Abby nodded, following along my thought process. She seemed like she was fully understanding my meaning, which is—if I’m allowed a bit of a self-brag, a show of progress on my part. Used to be that Abby understood me from intuition alone, not just simply because I “talked good”.

“So?” She asked me. “What’s your plan to stop it from happening?”

“Well…” I began. “It’s not exactly a plan to address it directly, just a symptom of it, and that hopefully cures the problem.”

“Which is?”

“…I want to take the rest of the day just to pamper you rotten. Starting with the shower, then the foot rub, a belly rub too after lunch now that I think about it, and anything else that comes to mind, both mine and yours.”

Abby let out a crystal-clear giggles, but her expression darkened a bit.

“As much as I’d love that, I don’t really deserve it,” she told me decisively. “Not after keeping a huge secret from you for months now. Although, on the other hand, I also know that one of the best—actually no, it’s the best way—for you to relax is to do exactly that, so… let’s see if we can find a compromise, shall we?”

We began what turned to be a lengthy negotiation that lasted all the way from us deciding to stop standing around the hallway and go take care of lunch together. That was a fun argument to have, Abby constantly saying I was trying to tip the tables too much in her favour, me grumbling that she was doing the same thing, but ultimately, we reached a conclusion that was as vague as someone saying they like blue in certain shades. We agreed that I’d be the more spoiled one for the day, but not what that actually meant is what I’m trying to say.

“So?” Abby chirped once we sat ourselves on the couch after filling our stomachs with delicious fish and potatoes. “What will your first request be?”

“Hmm… for starters, I want to give your belly that rub I’ve talked about before.”

“Babe!” she hummed as she moved her head over my lap. “There’s really no point in our compromise if you make your requests to be pampering me!”

“I don’t really know what to ask thought…”

“Hmm… what to ask…? How about a shoulder rub?”

I produced a long and loud “oh!” at the mention of that. After all the work today and tension during the week, a shoulder rub sounded divine… with some extras attached.

“Could you also give my calves a massage too?” I asked, feeling my face turning a bit red, but the need for her magic fingers was stronger. “And maybe also a massage to my thighs?”

“A full-body massage is what you mean, right?” Abby laughed. She paused to let out a silent little burp as my belly rub did its own magic. “Sure thing babe.”

Things could still get a bit weird between us in the next few days, but at least now both of us were working on it to return to normal. Our normal. And that’s all that matters.