Chapter Text
Present, Minnesota
Toni sighs contently, settling into the corner of her L-shaped sofa, an impulse purchase by Regan the previous weekend. Toni had initially protested, stating the $1,000 would be much better use staying in their savings account to contribute toward a more stable future together, but it never took long for Toni to give into Regan’s pleas.
It’s a stormy night, something unusual for May, even in Minnesota. Toni begins to relax, finding solace in the sound of the rain gently pelting against her living room window, and the odd strong gust of wind rustling the curtains.
This is a typical Friday night for Toni. Since Regan had started her new job last month, she’s been stuck working the “rookie shifts”, the unsociable hours that the longer-standing employees have earned the authority to avoid. Toni doesn’t mind the arrangement, however, having recently learned what it means to enjoy one’s own company.
She’s happy. For the first time in her life, she feels like she has a stable home, one that can’t get ripped out from beneath her. She’s settled, and that’s exactly what she believes she wants.
“I just don’t get it. How have you gone from being my hot, always-up-for-a-good-time best friend to some unrecognizable boring-ass housewife in the span of 6 months?” Fatin sighs from the other end of the Facetime call, tossing the phone on her bed to free her hands and continue doing her make up. “It’s a Friday night, you wet wipe; every other 24-year-old in the country is either going out or wishing they were.”
Toni rolls her eyes playfully as she listens to Fatin’s lecture. This has become a weekly occurrence: Fatin wants to go out, Toni wants to stay in, and so they both sit on Facetime listening to Fatin recall all of the fun times they used to have together.
“Just because I don’t want to go out and watch you hit on chicks all night doesn’t make me a wet wipe, you know,” Toni teases.
“Maybe not necessarily,” Fatin retorts, picking up the phone to look at Toni, “but it does make you a shitty best friend. I can’t believe you’ve gone off to get wifed up while we’re in our prime.” She shakes her head in disappointment.
Toni laughs at the ridiculousness of her exaggeration. “We’ve only been back together for nine months, Fatin; you haven’t married me off just yet.” She smiles to herself, imagining the chaos Fatin would cause at her wedding if she ever did pursue that avenue.
“Nine months together, six months living together… Going by the lesbian timescale you two should be settled with two kids by now…” Fatin states, winking at Toni through the camera. Before Toni has a chance to respond, Fatin interjects, “Anyways, this girl needs to get a drink ASAP before you bore me to death. Catch you later, dinosaur.” She blows a kiss at Toni.
“Make good choices!” Toni laughs, pressing the hang up button.
Suddenly her living room is filled with silence again, just her, the rain, and the faint sound of cars in the distance. Toni sighs, reaching for the tv remote to put on the next episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Sipping a glass of red wine, she tries to focus on the screen, but she can’t help but let her mind wander back in time. She hasn’t changed that much since moving in with Regan, has she?
Past, 2020, California
“This one’s for you, Marty B!” Toni shouts cockily, holding a cup of beer in her hand as she points across the room at her best friend situated over on the couch. Picking up the ping-pong ball with one hand and taking a swig of beer with the other, Toni swiftly tosses the ball across the table, hardly taking a second to gauge her aim. The ball swishes into the cup, resulting in a cheer erupting from behind her before she’s quickly pulled into a hug from her teammates.
“I fuckin’ love you, Shalifoe; always coming through when I need you!” Fatin exclaims, grabbing her two cheeks and pressing a firm kiss to her forehead.
Toni laughs as Dot places a hand on her shoulder, smiling at her like a proud mother. “This is why we keep you around, dude.”
From the other end of the table, Toni hears their friends Leah and Linh bickering over the game. “These two always take beer pong way too seriously,” she thinks to herself.
“Stop crying and drink up, bitches!” Fatin taunts them from across the table. Toni raises her glass in solitude, taking a big gulp of beer.
Toni smiles to herself when she’s finished. The first house party of the semester had been a success. Looking around the room, she thinks about how life couldn’t be more perfect: senior year at the University of San Diego, lined up to be drafted into the WNBA the following fall, and a new flat with her favorite people - Martha, Fatin and Dot.
Toni’s taken out of her thoughts by Fatin dragging her to the side of the room. “Hot chick alert,” she whispers, nodding her head toward the kitchen counter. Toni turns to follow her eyeline as Fatin continues, “Blondes aren’t my thing, but judging by your track record, she seems just like your type.”
Toni laughs, turning back to Fatin. “If by track record you mean that one blonde girl I drunkenly hooked up with last semester, then your statement would be correct. Check your sources; she isn’t my type.”
Fatin lightly slaps the side of her arm. “Are you joking? She’s got a whole ‘vanilla but definitely feisty in the bedroom’ vibe. What’s not to love?”
Toni sighs, trying to keep the tone light and ignore the frustration building in her mind. “Fatin, I’m over Regan. Stop trying to pawn me off on every possible suitor. I’m not interested in trying to hook up with the most stereotypical straight girl I’ve ever seen.” Toni glances to the kitchen area again and thinks to herself, “Yeah, definitely straight.”
-
The night continues as usual, beer pong turns into Never Have I Ever, and Never Have I Ever turns into Truth or Dare.
By the time they’re playing Truth or Dare, many of the party guests have disappeared, either due to tiredness, drunkenness, or a mixture of the two.
The remaining twenty or so guests sit in a circle on the floor as Dot kneels in the center above Leah’s bare stomach, having just been dared to take a body shot. Fatin’s cheering her on, while some of the boys whistle.
After the laughter from the ordeal settles, it’s suddenly Fatin’s turn to ask a question. Toni’s anxious, waiting for her best friend to inevitably use her power to force her into doing something stupid. She waits nervously as Fatin looks around the room, contemplating her next move. All of a sudden, a smirk begins to form on her lips.
“Blondie,” she says, pointing at the same girl they’d been discussing a few hours prior.
“Me?” she asks, shocked at the unexpected interaction.
“Yes, you!” Fatin replies in a giddy voice. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” Toni answers for her in her own thoughts, knowing this basic bitch wouldn’t have the guts to choose dare in a room full strangers.
“Dare,” the blonde replies, as if not at all bothered by the prospect of what’s to come.
“Interesting,” Toni whispers to herself, slightly embarrassed by her incorrect assumption.
“I dare you… to kiss the hottest person in this room,” Fatin says mischievously.
Toni rolls her eyes as the blonde looks around the room. “My bets are on basic white boy number 3,” she whispers to Martha, surveying the array of frat boys readying themselves to be chosen.
Toni’s so caught up in her own thoughts that she hasn’t noticed the blonde has gotten up and is walking in her direction. Before she can process the situation, the girl is kneeling in front of Toni on the floor. “May I?” she asks quietly.
Toni’s whole body goes numb, as if she’s imagining the whole encounter. She’s too overwhelmed to find the strength to say anything, so she simply nods.
The blonde readjusts herself so that she’s kneeling closer to Toni. She places her left hand on Toni’s shoulder, while her right comes around to gently hold the back of Toni’s neck. Before Toni can process anything further, the blonde’s lips collide with hers. The kiss is different that she would have assumed: the blonde kisses her gently once, pulling away for a slight second to take a small breath before crashing their lips together a second time. She moves her lips with force, readjusting herself after the third kiss to pour more passion into her lips.
Just as Toni’s brain stops short-circuiting and she begins to kiss back, she hears the other boys in the room whistling, with one shouting, “Get a room!” The blonde bites her lip as she withdraws from the last kiss, and if Toni weren’t in a room with twenty other people, she definitely would have moaned at the gesture.
Before she knows it, the blonde’s turning away and returning to her spot on the other side of the room.
Once Toni regains her composure, she looks at Fatin, who mouths “I told you so” before giving her a wink. Toni glances over at the blonde, but it’s clear that she’s looking everywhere in the room but back at Toni.
-
The game finishes shortly afterward. Toni hasn’t been paying much attention from that moment onwards, unable to get the feeling of the blonde’s lips on hers off of her mind. She goes to the bathroom to try snap out of it. It had only been a few kisses, but the feel of those nails digging into the back of her neck and the little bite on her lips indicate to Toni that the girl had wanted more. Involuntarily, Fatin’s comment replays in her mind: “You need to get laid, Toni.”
Maybe she does, and maybe this is her opportunity.
Splashing water on her face, she decides she’ll return to the living room, put on her confident face, and invite the girl back to her apartment. Walking back into the living room, however, Toni’s plan falls apart; the blonde is nowhere to be seen.
-
Following on from that night, the first few weeks of the semester had gone just as Toni had hoped her senior year would. Weekdays had been spent at practice and going out for food with her teammates, while weekends had been reserved for parties and trips to the bar every Friday and Saturday. Sundays became her favorite part of her week, dubbed ‘family day’ by Fatin. Each Sunday Martha would get up early and go to the bakery to pick the gang up some breakfast, then they would all gather in the living room of their apartment to try cure their hangovers with croissants and muffins, debriefing the events that had occurred over the weekend. As the weeks had gone on, the searing kiss from the hot blonde had just become a distant memory in Toni’s mind.
-
“Friendcest! You guys need to chill out; we were drunk and horny. Nothing more to it.” Fatin insists, huffing as she takes a sip of her iced coffee. “Friends hook up all the time. I think you’re just jealous I got laid.”
“I swear to god, if this affects the dynamic of our friendship group, I will personally take it upon myself to cock-block you for the rest of my life,” Dot warns, pointing at her with a semi-serious face.
Fatin laughs. “Okay, chill out pussy patrol; nothing will come of it. Ask Leah herself if you don’t believe me.”
Thankfully, she’d been right. It became a reoccurring theme over the next few months: Leah and Fatin would avoid the topic entirely when sober, yet every weekend, as soon as they became drunk enough for it to be socially acceptable, they would fall into each other, inevitably dipping out to find somewhere to hook up.
-
“You guys, I have made the executive decision to move family day to Saturday this week, and instead of it being a hungover food fest, we’re getting drunk,” Fatin declares, having gathered her housemates in the living room as though she’d been planning to make a ground-breaking announcement.
First to speak up is Martha. “But why? I had planned on inviting Marcus over for a movie night while you guys were out on Saturday night.” She seems slightly embarrassed that her plan’s been exposed.
Toni plonks down on the couch, wrapping an arm around Martha’s shoulders. “I’m with Marty on this one. Why do we have to stay at home on a Saturday night together? We spend all week together, and as much as I love you, my social meter needs a break from you guys.” Toni squeezes Martha as though to indicate that she’s an exception to the rule.
“Well,” Fatin says as she begins pacing across the living room, “I thought we could extend the family for the evening… You know, sort of like invite the in-laws?”
Dot pipes up, very clearly against the idea, “Extend? Extend to whom? Since when do we have in-laws? I like our family just fine.”
Fatin stops, looking at them all with a slightly pleading look. “Well, I’ve been spending a lot of time at Leah’s lately, and her housemates are the literal best: so much fun, such good energy, and I just feel like they would be a good addition to our squad. You know, maybe adding some step-sisters to the family wouldn’t hurt?”
After a bit of bickering and protests, mainly from Toni, that this convergence is unnecessary, it’s agreed that Leah and her housemates will come over for drinks on Saturday night.
-
Saturday night comes around quickly. It’s 7pm and Toni, Dot and Martha are all standing around the kitchen island drinking a glass of Fatin’s ‘signature homemade punch’, which simply consists of half a bottle of vodka, half a bottle of rum, and whatever juices had been on the clearance aisle in Walmart that week.
Toni takes a tip, wincing at the strength of the alcohol burning a path down her throat. “Go easy on that,” Dot warns, placing a hand on her back. “We don’t want your drunken ass embarrassing us all in front of the new besties, now, do we?” Toni laughs and takes another big sip, hoping to take the nervous edge off at the thought of meeting new people tonight.
Leah has always been a slightly more distant member of their friend group, often coming to parties, but had never seemed to be around unless drunk, or, as of lately, if she’s sleeping over in their flat after a night with Fatin.
“Rachel, Nora and Shelby,” Martha recites, as though studying for a test.
“That’s it,” Fatin states. “Rachel’s a boss, kinda like Toni but more charming.” She turns to Toni with a playful wink. Toni gives her the middle finger and continues chatting to Dot. “Nora is Rachel’s sister. I’ve only met her once, but she seems sweet. Shelby is the only one I haven’t met, but from what Leah has said, she seems to be a bit of a fun sponge. Drink every time she talks about her boring-ass boyfriend or mentions the church,” Fatin says, rolling her eyes at the thought. “But we couldn’t exclude her.”
“Church?” Toni asks, placing her drink down on the counter as though suddenly very interested.
“Yes, church,” Fatin confirms. “But don’t worry, not homophobic. I already did a background check to ensure you two didn’t end up in a brawl.”
“Hm, church and not-homophobic don’t go hand-in-hand in my experience. I’ll believe it when I see it,” Toni dismisses, suddenly a lot less eager to meet the newbies.
As if right on cue, the buzzer of their apartment rings, indicated their guests have arrived.
Fatin runs over to the door, opening it to eagerly invite them in.
Leah walks in first, greeting Fatin with a friendly, slightly awkward kiss on the cheek. She’s followed by Rachel and Nora, who politely wave and introduce themselves to the women standing in the kitchen. Lastly, in walks the remaining woman, sporting blonde hair and a bright smile that could only have been produced in the South. She waves. “Hey y’all, thanks for invitin’ us over.”
Toni’s world stops momentarily, her mind casting back to the frat party all those months ago, Fatin’s “hot chick alert” ringing in her ears.
There’s no way the girl who’d lived rent free in Toni’s brain for months after a simple kiss is standing in her apartment. She concludes that they must just look alike, but judging by the look of shock on Fatin’s face she isn’t the only one coming to this realization.
When Fatin composes herself and glances at Toni with raised eyebrows, her question’s answered.
The hot blonde is in her apartment, and the hot blonde has a name.
“I’m Shelby.”
Present, Minnesota
After three episodes of hospital drama and half a bottle of wine, Toni’s ready to call it a night. The storm has picked up, with the gentle sound of rain on her window becoming aggressive, and despite the heat Toni’s forced to close her window for fear of her curtains being ripped off the rail from the wind.
She switches off the TV and places her wine glass in the sink before heading to the bathroom to get ready for bed.
After brushing her teeth and doing her skin routine, she changes into an oversized t-shirt and underwear, before hopping into bed. The coldness of the mattress shocks her, but it’s a welcome relief from the heat of the air in her bedroom. Despite being alone in the double bed, she stays to her “side”, never journeying to Regan’s edge of the frame.
She looks at the time on her phone: 12:22am. Regan should be home in just a few hours, her shift scheduled to finish at 3am.
Toni scrolls through Instagram for a while, trying to distract herself from the racket being caused by the weather. She watches all of her friend’s stories: some out in bars, some at home with friends, some even abroad on vacation. Despite being slightly envious us all the fun people appear to be having online, she reminds herself that she would much rather be in her home, in her bed, waiting for her girlfriend to come back.
Toni’s eyelids begin to get heavy, with the promise of sleep drawing ever close.
*Knock, knock, knock*
Toni sits up fearfully in her bed. Had she been asleep? Had she dreamt that knock? Who could possibly be knocking on her door at this hour? She can feel her heartbeat in her stomach, adrenaline running through her veins and her brain racing through all the possibilities.
Fatin is still out, as she just posted on her Instagram story, Leah also in the picture.
Dot is at home in her flat with a fever.
Rachel and Nora are in New York visiting family.
Martha lives a 4-hour drive away.
There is no one else who knows where Toni lives, therefore she must have dreamt it.
Coming to this conclusion, Toni begins to lay back down, when her world is shaken again by the gentle knocking against her front door.
Toni gets up out of bed this time, too preoccupied to put on pants as she walks to the door.
She stops at the door, too nervous to open it and find out what lies on the other side. Until she hears quiet whimpering: what sounds like a woman crying.
She takes a deep breath, places her hand on the doorknob and turns. She slowly opens the door to reveal the person waiting outside.
“Shelby?”