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Aurora sent a quick message to the group chat before she got up to leave, wishing she hadn’t spent that extra ten pounds of interest in her account on a new top and had saved it to spend on drink instead. It had been a dumb idea anyway, one of those things you think are funny when you’re drunk but question more and more as the days go on.
When five-drinks-in Aurora from December had filled in her blind date application on Instagram and put the most dramatic answers she could think of, it was quite funny. It was even funnier when she found out she actually had a date a month later.
And when they asked if she was free at the end of Feb? Well, she couldn’t turn down the chance to wear a low cut top and let someone fill her with drinks all evening so she wouldn’t have to buy anything for pres before a night out in town.
Completely sober Aurora in February, however, didn’t have the same mindset, having spent the last fifteen minutes sat like a lemon waiting for whoever the idiots at the Students Union had decided was her perfect match. Completely sober Aurora was ready to buy a box of cigarettes and a whole bag of Percy Pigs before she fell through the ground with annoyance at being stood up.
Maybe even two bags.
Her phone pinged with a reply before she made it to the door, looking down to read it and feeling her body smack into something freakishly tall.
“Excuse me?”
Or rather, someone freakishly tall.
Her body stopped in its tracks the second she heard that voice, that soft accent she’d have recognised anywhere.
It took her a second to look up and, despite being well aware of the way time worked, she was almost surprised to see the grown-up girl in front of her. Truthfully she’d stalked Tayce on Instagram more times than she could count on her fingers, scrolling past each photo wondering what would happen if her finger ever slipped and liked one by mistake. So she knew what she looked like now, knew that her cheekbones jutted out from her face and her hair was so long it touched the small of her back.
But it was still weird to see that Tayce in front of her. Ridiculously gorgeous Tayce that should have been posing on the cover of a magazine, not in the back alley behind the pub. The Tayce from Instagram who Aurora sometimes pictured when she sketched out designs for her portfolio, oranges and whites that she knew she’d never have been able to pull off herself.
Because that voice she heard had belonged to sixteen-year-old Tayce who wore silver barrettes in her hair and always got in trouble for wearing too much eyeliner.
To the Tayce she hadn’t seen in years.
“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.” Aurora met her eyes, letting her phone thud back into her bag without a care in the world that it had no screen protector and she’d already smashed three times that year. “Hi.”
“Why hello to you, too.” Tayce looked her up and down, a grin on her face and a slight shake in her head that terrified and overjoyed Aurora all at the same time.
“Long time no see.”
“Four years.”
“I hardly recognise you without that slit in your eyebrow.” Tayce pointed a painted nail to Aurora's brow as she spoke, turning her cheeks a reddy-pink that she certainly couldn’t pass off as a result of shitty lighting.
“I figured it was best left in 2016. Locked far far away in an undisclosed location with chokers and bomber jackets and whatever the hell those biker jeans were.” Aurora heard Tayce give out a chuckle at the joke and all she felt her cheeks turn even warmer.
“I always thought it was cute.”
If Aurora hadn’t waited four years for this moment she’d have let the ground swallow her up right then and there.
The world around them went silent for a moment, a thousand unspoken words dancing in the space between the two of them. Two different sides of the same story began to spark, a story cut short of that satisfying ending where they merged together and everything would make sense. Photographs developing in a darkroom that they’d imagined so differently in their minds.
Aurora could have sworn she caught a glimpse of some of them in Tayce’s eyes, her final year of school flashing by in the silence, too fast to let her go back and change any of it like she’d always wanted.
Aurora really could have used that drink.
“What brings you here then? She asked, clinging onto any conversation she could.
“London or this restaurant?”
“This restaurant.”
Aurora had told the truth but couldn’t deny that the other question was lingering in the shadows behind. She remembered the first time she realised that Tayce was there, living, breathing (and according to her Instagram profile, thriving) in the same city as her - a picture of her in a swanky bar in the West having sent Aurora into so many spirals she couldn’t see straight. Literally.
She’d taken a gap year by the looks of things, which didn’t surprise Aurora one bit. Because Tayce is Tayce and of course she spent a year working part-time and pissing around before going to Uni. Which, if judged by Aurora’s standards, was at least better than spending a year doing one of those ridiculous white saviour schemes that half of their year had seemed to embark on after leaving school.
She’d never have admitted it to a soul - maybe not even to herself - but Aurora had always kind of known that Tayce was above the rest of their year. That she wouldn’t spend the rest of her life buying ugly and plain handbags for far too much money on Daddy’s credit card like some of their fellow students.
Maybe that was what had scared Aurora so much.
That or the big, fat, Alexandra Burke style elephant in the room which crushed her chest at night and watched as she took the pain out on anyone else who crossed her path.
“I’m on a blind date, actually,” Tayce replied, raising a brow that transported Aurora right back into a sea of plaid skirts and squeaky chairs and the smell of whiteboard pens that everyone treated as their own personal stash of crack (somehow Tayce had always managed to beat her in grabbing the only blue one, that raised brow, a face of victory). “I was fifteen minutes late thanks to the tube. Twenty now that I’ve bumped into you.”
Aurora didn’t really believe in fate.
But what she did believe was that only the idiot in front of her would have also written that her ideal night in consisted of watching Project Runway and making fun of the shitty designs. Or that her goal in life was to marry a rich man and extort the fuck out of him before running off to a lesbian colony. Or any answer absurd enough to match the ones written by five-drinks-in Aurora from December.
And that was kind of magic in itself.
“That’s funny because I was just starting to think I’d been stood up by mine.” Aurora watched as the dots connected in Tayce’s mind, joining up to make a face rather priceless.
“That’s weird, isn’t it?” Tayce moved a step closer. “Maybe I’ll just have to bin mine off completely to catch up with your sorry self then.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Aurora held a hand out to the other girl, ready to put down, flip and reverse every single desire to be spoiled that she’d had going into the date. “Now what can I get you to drink?”
***
Aurora would have been lying if she said she’d never been late to school a few times.
It was never anything excessive, just a few minutes here and there whenever she messed up a bit of her eyeliner and had to make the other side thicker to match. Then the original side again. And then back to the other side. Then back to the first one. And so on and so on until she had to wipe the entire thing off and spend the speed-walk to school getting her shoes absolutely soaked in mud through the not-so-short short cut everyone had designated as a new smoking area when the school had installed cameras behind the art block bins.
If she’d had the time she might have stopped for one but she couldn’t afford to be even later when head girl campaigns were starting up. A few minutes shouldn’t have hurt her though, she wasn’t late enough that she had to go to the office and ask to be let in because the gates were closed like Bim always had to do (Aurora knew whenever she caught sight of her friend's bright yellow hair at the intersection of their walks to school she’d left the house far too late and had to start running).
She breathed a sigh of relief once she was inside, letting her feet work double-time as she dashed the empty corridors to her locker. Or, lockers rather - the girl in the locker above had some sort of punk rock epiphany and walked out of school mid-exam never to return again earlier that year. It was sad and all but Aurora figured it wouldn’t have killed anyone to slide her a DM to ask for the code and before she knew it she had enough space to store her files as well as a lifetime supply of every Charlie, Victoria Secret and So…? spray known to man (plus a bottle of Marc Jacobs Daisy that belonged to her mother hidden away at the back. It had all of about three squirts left and there was no way on God’s earth she was gonna let Tia use them all up).
Only when she made it there she was greeted instead by a big black bin liner on the floor and a pair of patent leather boots that certainly did not meet their uniform requirements only inches from stepping on it and smashing poor Daisy into smithereens.
“Excuse me, that’s my locker.” She tapped the girl on the shoulder, doing a double-take as she turned around and widened the prettiest eyes Aurora had probably ever seen.
And Aurora practically prided herself on knowing pretty people.
“I think the bag on the floor says otherwise.” The girl tapped it with her foot, distracting Aurora from what she was saying with an accent that took her a second to properly place - West Country?
“I’m not being funny, but I don’t even know who you are.” Aurora looked down at the coloured line on the girl’s blazer to figure out what year group she was in (something which she’d learned to do at the first sign of conflict after an unfortunate incident with a short sixth-former she’d assumed was her junior). They went through the colours of the rainbow and Aurora was surprised when she saw it was blue, the same as her own. New kid? That made sense. “It’s my locker.”
“And who are you, the Queen of Sheeba?”
The accent caught her off guard, finally registering in Aurora’s mind and bringing her back to marathons of Gavin and Stacey at Bim’s house where they’d argued about whether it was sexy or not.
Aurora had been ready to die on the hill that it was that night but wasn’t as sure when it belonged to the tall girl who had, by the looks of it, already torn down the polaroids of herself, Bim, Tia and Tina at a field sesh earlier that year that Aurora had stuck inside with blu tack.
“I’ll be your worst nightmare if you don’t put my stuff back.” Aurora straightened her back to try and get closer to the other girl’s height. “You can have the bottom one?”
It didn’t work.
“You’re a funny one, aren’t you.” The girl grinned at her, clearly unphased by Aurora’s attempt to assert authority.
And Aurora couldn’t quite figure out what it was, but something about that turned the bones inside of her body brittle and shook her to her very core.
It was terrifying.
Even more than the footsteps coming her way - the familiar squeak a noise that lent itself only to bad things; the confiscation of her eyebrow pencils, the detention slips for loitering in the corridors and, of course, the whole reason why those cameras got installed behind the art bins in the first place.
There went her clean slate, out of the window with her self-esteem, ability to remain cool, calm or collected and the polaroids from her locker that were being crumpled into oblivion as they spoke.
“What time do you call this? Setting a bad example for your new peer already, Aurora?” The head stopped in front of them.
Aurora considered using the new girl as an excuse but thought better of it once she saw the look on her face. A look Aurora couldn’t quite peg down to one thought process but could recognise as being nowhere near ‘I’ve got your back.’
She didn’t want to take the risk.
And she certainly didn’t want to owe Miss. Tall, Dark and Handsome any favours.
“I’ll be on my way.” Aurora squatted down quickly and popped the code in the bottom locker, her blood reaching boiling point in her veins when the other girl nudged her with her knee and almost sent her arse over tit onto the linoleum.
“You ought to be. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your head girl campaign, your name will be off there in a second if you’re found loitering again.”
“It won’t happen again.”
“Good.” The head gave a sceptical eye as Aurora pulled out her files and shoved the bag in with complete disregard to the five minutes she’d spent fuming about the safety of its contents. “And pull your skirt down while you’re at it, you’re at school, not a knocking shop.”
Aurora stood up and tugged at the waistband, pretending to be surprised that it didn’t reach her knees.
Pretending like she hadn’t spent her Wednesday evening the week before sewing a whole new hem into the bottom with the soaps on in the background. She didn’t know if she was more proud that she’d managed to pull it off so well or that her Nan believed she was working on her GCSE textiles project, considering that she was actually making a dress for her 6-month-old nephew that looked nothing like her school uniform (she was adamant he’d be a girl when they’d done the written aspect of the coursework in year 10 and she wasn’t going to let a silly thing like gender stop her from delivering on the fabulous plans she had made).
“Head girl?” The girl raised a brow to Aurora once the head had left, pulling a face that made her want to throw away everything she knew about being on top for one second and just laugh. A face that, although she had no idea at the time, would become the biggest bane of her life.
And also maybe the thing that saved it.
“Hopefully, yeah,” Aurora replied, wondering why she was bothering telling this to the girl who had stolen her locker and left her down in the dust (both figuratively and literally speaking)
The girl whose name she hadn’t even bothered to ask.
“Good to know.” The girl turned on her heel, pushing her hair to her back as she walked away, leaving Aurora alone with what appeared to be the completely wrong files in her hands and a beating in her chest that stayed there all day.
In fact, it didn’t go until she bid farewell to Bim on the walk home and let her legs carry her to the kids' play park, the gravel there indented with a thousand of her footprints and the back of the slide full with the names of pretty much every kid in town. It was only then when she remembered just how easy things were when she was twelve; how playing on the swings was never a competition, never underlined with something to prove and how the biggest thing she had to deal with was keeping the dumb secrets her friends told her between spins on the roundabout. Only then that her chest stopped beating and her body let her remember what it was like to walk without weights in your shoes.
To walk like it was easy.
***
“How spicy are the patatas bravas?” Aurora pointed to the menu and gave the waiter her best ‘please be honest with me’ pout.
“They’re up there,” he replied, prompting Aurora to immediately scan the tapas list for something else, having war flashbacks to her first-ever visit to Nando’s where Tia swapped the sticks in their food and she had to order a glass of milk her throat burned so much (six years later she’d now learned the art of ordering Mango and Lime and passing it off as a choice based on flavour rather than spice to avoid looking like a giant pussy).
“She’ll have them.” Tayce piped in before Aurora had a chance to pick something else. “And some Padron peppers too, actually.”
“Are you trying to kill me?” Aurora asked once he had run through their choices and left, going to take a sip from her daiquiri and missing the straw by a good few centimetres.
It wasn’t her fault her eyes were glued to something else.
“Me? Never.” Tayce beamed and lit up the entire room - Aurora thought she’d be perfect in the winter months when the days were short and it was dark outside before Tipping Point had even finished. A walking and talking beacon of light that put the London skyline to shame.
Not that she was a simp for her or anything like that.
God forbid.
“I dunno, I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing was just some scheme you set up to finally get one over on me.”
“First of all, I got plenty over you in school so don’t try and play it off like I didn’t.” Tayce pointed a finger at her and Aurora couldn’t help but agree. “And second, I just wanted you to stop acting like goddamn Miss Perfect for a second and let yourself have fun.”
She had a point to be fair, thinking of how she immediately threw away the idea of ordering anything with garlic or fish the second her eyes scanned the menu.
“I’m not Miss Perfect, I can be rough around the edges.”
“Sure, sure.”
“I’m not!” Aurora pleaded, thinking about what would happen if she made her way to the other side of the table and kissed Tayce till her lipstick smudged around her face and then didn’t even bother to wipe it. What would happen if she grabbed her hand and pulled her into the nearest club to drink straight from the pitcher and dance like the absolute nut job she was inside. “Maybe in school, but I’m not now.”
“I kinda saw through that act anyway.” Tayce’s beam moulded into a knowing smirk and Aurora decided it would be perfect for the summer too; cool, slick and so fucking carefree.
“You saw through everything.”
And it was true. Looking back, there must have been some people who thought she was gay; she was way too defensive whenever the topic came up, she had an eyebrow slit and her favourite member of One Direction was Louis for goodness sake.
But she meant more than that, Tayce saw through it all. The jokes about boys and the projection of her own insecurities onto others. The thick layers of foundation and holier than thou walk. She saw the good, the bad and the ugly. But also maybe the beautiful too. And that was something, despite how she acted, that Aurora could never see herself no matter how many times she wiped the smudges from her mirror.
The food soon arrived and the conversation trickled its way from the becks and streams of their hometown right down to the big River Thames (you could see it from the restaurant if you looked hard enough, glistening in the distance through the big glass panes. But Aurora wasn’t really looking outside).
Aurora had spent years wondering what would have happened if they’d rode it together, Tayce sitting shotgun and skipping all her clubland classix on the AUX, stopping at the services for fast food and as many energy drinks as she could fit in her bag. She wondered what it would have been like if Tayce didn’t take that diversion, that fatal right turn that left Aurora with that wondering and that wondering only.
Perhaps it was good that they hadn’t. If they had then maybe she wouldn’t have been there at the restaurant, laughing as Tayce told stories of Wales and her gap year and the first time she realised how expensive drinks were in London. She wouldn’t have been able to tell Tayce about her psycho upstairs neighbour from first-year who called the building managers because she was singing too loud at 2 pm but never seemed to blink an eye at their huge afters.
“I saw you once, you know,” Tayce spoke between bites, alternating between her own tapas and Aurora’s that they’d quickly deemed too much for her to handle.
“I’m sure you did, yeah.” Aurora brushed her off, ready for Tayce to make some sort of joke about a trip she took to London Zoo or Madame Tussauds after already commenting on Aurora’s lips.
“It’s true! On a night out.” Her eyes widened, reaching her hand over and placing it on Aurora’s arm. “You were wearing a little black dress with some silver boots and a beret and I thought ooh there's my homegirl - she looks camp as a row of tents!”
“Well you have to sometimes or else they ‘guest list’ you ‘round here.” Aurora laughed, remembering the outfit but not the night, a hundred from the past year all blurring into one. “How come you didn’t come and say hello then?”
Tayce raised her brow and for someone who’d never been the best at reading people’s emotions, Aurora knew the answer immediately.
“Fuck sake.”
“Yeah, you were rather occupied by the looks of it.”
“You should have dragged me away,” Aurora replied, curious as to what would have happened if she had. Knowing herself (and also knowing herself drunk) she figured she’d have either jumped her or jumped on her.
Most likely the latter if she realised who it was fast enough.
“I dunno, I was just happy to see you being yourself I think. Didn’t wanna ruin that.” Tayce smiled. “Besides, it could have been your girlfriend or something for all I knew.”
“Probably someone I met that night if we’re being honest.” Aurora laughed; the closest she’d even been to having a relationship was with a girl from the Tesco checkout who used to “forget” to scan things for her and then text her asking to come round when she was horny. And that wasn’t very close at all considering she turned out to have a boyfriend.
The only thing Aurora had ever been loyal to was Marks and Spencers (and even that wasn’t by choice thanks to Tesco girl).
It didn’t bother her though. Things had just never felt right enough to commit herself to someone.
“Living up to that nickname finally?” Tayce laughed at her own joke and Aurora couldn’t even fault her, remembering the first-day Tayce had ever called her it as if it had only been that morning.
Maybe, during all the times that Tayce had lingered at the back of her brain - hidden behind conversations about P.E. or what she used to order in the school canteen, the main character in the stories she would retell to herself late at night, worried she might have made them all up - just maybe, she was there for Tayce too.
It was a daring thought but one she stole nonetheless.
“As if you even remember that.” Aurora gave a disapproving head shake, hiding the joy she felt inside.
“Of course I do. How could I not?”
She’d always kinda figured that Tayce was her one that got away.
But until that moment she’d never really realised that perhaps she was a part of Tayce’s story just the same.
***
“Morning sunshine.”
Aurora didn’t have to look to know who the voice belonged to, keeping her eyes straight ahead even once Tayce had pulled up the chair right next to her and took a seat.
She’d clearly just come back from filming her head girl campaign video and despite the fact that a) she’d only been there for three months and b) Aurora was pretty sure she was only doing it to miss lessons, Tayce was starting to become a frontrunner.
Of course, she was popular; she had gorgeous hair, a gorgeous face and a gorgeous accent to match. It was no wonder people were starting to seem adamant they were voting for Tayce (especially considering the cool posters she’d made which had been stuck all around school - even on Aurora’s locker which seemed like a direct threat considering it was on the ground and constantly covered by Tayce’s long legs anyway). Her points were excellent too, which is what annoyed Aurora the most out of everything. Even if people didn’t like Tayce, they certainly wanted to be able to go to town on their free periods like she’d ridiculously promised on those posters.
“Pussy got your tongue?” She piped up again and Aurora started to choke on her water, earning a dirty look from the librarian at the other end of the room.
There went another vote for Tayce.
“We’re in a library. You’re not supposed to talk.” Aurora tried to concentrate on the screen in front of her but couldn’t, the numbers all merging into one another.
Could she get away with saying the website crashed if she didn’t get it done before the end of the day?
“You weren’t acting like that when we were in here during English yesterday. I swear your head was all the way up Euan Grayson’s arsehole. He must have been telling some bloody funny jokes the way you were giggling.”
“You’ve been hanging out with Lawrence too much.” Aurora rolled her eyes at the comment, despite knowing fine well that was exactly what she’d been doing. “And I think I’m allowed to speak to whoever I want to.”
They’d spent the last few weekends running into the footballers at the park and Tia and Tina had already gotten with two of them each. Sure, Bim hadn’t either but Aurora couldn’t help but feel funny about the whole thing like her friends were racing ahead of her in this dumb race that she hadn’t even wanted to take part in.
So she’d started doing what she knew how to do best and apparently that was flirting - if the race was for flirting, then she’d certainly be at the front. She was flirting so much that she’d now heard three different rumours about who she’d had sex with and where. So much that someone had written her phone number on the back of the girl’s toilets with something dirty next to it - someone else (Bim?) had scribbled it out with blue marker and for that she was grateful.
But how grateful could you really be when you were perpetuating the rumours all on your own?
“You’re right.” Tayce held her hands up, leaning over and pointing to Aurora’s screen. “Also we’ve already done this homework before, you just gotta press submit and it’ll give you your score from last time.”
Aurora pressed the button and of course, Tayce was right.
Of course , she was.
“Dunno why none of my actual friends felt the need to tell me that before you.” Aurora watched the smug grin form on Tayce’s face.
Sometimes she thought she’d do absolutely anything to wipe that grin off.
“Guessing your head was too far up Euan Grayson’s arsehole for them to reach you?”
“Goodbye Tayce.”
“I’ll see you in P.E,” Tayce whisper-shouted after her as she left, making Aurora all the more tempted to forge a note from her Nan then and there so she wouldn’t have to go.
She didn’t in the end, the reminder that they were finally getting to play netball after countless weeks of rounders enough to sway her into staying. A decision which she regretted later once Cherry demanded to be centre for their team and she was stuck as measly goal defence marking, you guessed it, her ever-present rival who was far too fucking tall for her to ever snatch the ball from.
“Go on lass!” Lawrence shouted from the side as Tayce scored her fifth goal of the game.
Aurora rolled her eyes, if she did ever get a chance to touch the ball she couldn’t promise that it wouldn’t accidentally make its way over to the bench to shut her up for two seconds. She’d be doing the world, more specifically everyone’s ears, a favour after all.
“Can you just pack it in for like five seconds please,” Aurora muttered as they made their way back to starting positions, the next centre pass delayed by Tia who had decided to kick the ball across the room to Bim and nearly beheaded their teacher in the process.
Normally she’d be listening to her friend getting told off and sniggering but having a nemesis was starting to be a full-time job for Aurora that couldn’t be dropped even in the most light-hearted of times.
“Only five?” Tayce played with her lashes, pushing them up with the side of her finger to make sure they still had volume (Aurora hadn’t worn any that day and made a mental note to get up ten minutes early the next day to make sure she had a pair on). “You’d think you’d be able to last a bit longer than that by now, wouldn’t you.”
Aurora never knew if Tayce’s game plan was to make her blush but if it was she always managed to do a pretty good job at it.
“You’re disgusting.”
“Who, me? I was talking about how long you can keep the ball.” She feigned a face of innocence and lifted a hand to her chest. “No wonder you’re shite you’ve got your mind in the gutter when it should be on the game.”
“You know what you’re doing.”
Aurora watched as Cherry and Tia made it back to the circle, waiting for the teacher to blow the whistle at any second.
“I’ll give you three,” Tayce spoke so quietly Aurora wasn’t even sure she’d heard her properly. “Then I’ll carry on whooping your arse.”
And she did, as a matter of fact, whoop Aurora’s arse. Not just for that lesson but practically every single one of the term. Even on the occasion that they were on the same team (which hardly ever happened as Tayce was practically always team captain and would pick pretty much anyone over her every single time) then Tayce would still manage to get one over on her; catching the ball after Aurora’s missed shots and getting it in perfectly instead of giving her a second chance, pretending like she was going to pass to someone else and then throwing a sly bounce pass to Aurora who would inevitably miss it and get so frustrated her hair would start to defy the hours she’d spent straightening it and frizz up.
It didn’t just happen in netball either, the rivalry still going strong when they moved onto table tennis.
Aurora couldn’t count the number of balls she’d whacked all the way to the other side of the hall in her attempts to beat Tayce.
They even managed to get competitive when the teacher was ill and the supply decided the best form of exercise they could all get would be watching Just Dance videos on YouTube for half an hour. Aurora was determined for them to pick her suggestions over the ones Tayce had given (like the fact she’d done it a few times at Tina’s house would be a huge advantage over Tayce anyway, who danced like she was a member of the Pussycat Dolls).
Aurora hated that fucking part right there.
The next time they had supply she was one-hundred and ten per cent ‘doing a Lawrence’ - a trick which consisted of popping into one of the toilet cubicles in the changing rooms whilst everyone left so you could get locked in there for an hour and miss the entirety of P.E. She figured an hour with Lawrence’s jokes was worth it if it meant she missed Tayce making fun of her for not being able to arch her back properly during the dances.
“Are you lot coming to the sesh tonight?” Ellie made small talk once they’d left the changing rooms.
“Yeah, we’re gonna get the bus through at seven.”
Aurora was about to tell her she already had a bottle of Cactus Jacks ready and waiting for it until they passed the student elections display and the words slipped right from her open jaw and onto the floor below.
Because there, written right across the head girl poster she’d spent an entire week's worth of soap omnibus drawing, was a cruel nickname in red pen.
She stayed silent as she walked towards it, hesitant to rip it down as if it might just burn the skin on her fingers.
It didn’t take long for a crowd to gather, the rest of the P.E. class following suit and stopping next to the poster. Aurora could hear the snickers behind her already, the whispers that she somehow managed to hear louder than screams.
Before she hadn’t really cared, she figured there were worse things people could say about her than being a slag. Things she told herself before she fell asleep at night that were way harsher than anything anyone else could say.
But that time was different.
That time it stung.
“Just ignore ‘em.” Bim was by her side before she’d even noticed, ripping the poster off the display and handing it to Aurora. “Someone obvs has nothing better to do with their time.”
“Something like that.” She turned to face the rest of the class and it didn’t take long to meet Tayce’s eyes, inches above everyone else and watching Aurora with a silent stare she wished to god she was able to read.
“You want me to bray someone up?”
“I’m good.” Aurora gripped so hard on the paper that her nails poked through, pulling the tears from her eyes and infusing them into anger instead. “Look, I can’t be arsed for chem. Think I’m gonna go see the nurse and tell her I’ve got a migraine. I’ll see you tonight though?”
“As long as you’re good.” Bim rubbed her hand on Aurora’s arm before moving along.
Aurora didn’t know why her feet took her the way they did, further and further outside till she could feel the mud squelching under her feet and the rain hitting the trees above, all the way past the tennis court then the football pitch then the music block until she was as far away from the main building and that stupid display board as she could be.
She pulled a cigarette and a lighter from the side-pocket of her bag and cursed to herself when the rain was just a touch too heavy to light it, puddles from the bench just soaking through her skirt.
She looked down at the poster on her lap, the ink now swirling together in one big mess and wondered if she’d have better luck setting that alight instead.
It didn’t take long until she heard someone else’s shoes in the mud too - too scared to look up in case whoever it was could see that hint of red in her eyes or the way her eyeliner smudged and think she was a crybaby.
Until the other person sighed and Aurora didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the fact she recognised it so well.
“Here.” Tayce perched next to her on the bench.
Aurora stayed silent - watching out the corner of her eye as the other girl took off her blazer and held it above her own head, Tayce leaving her forearms bare to all elements where the sleeves of her shirt were just too short to cover them. “Light your cig.”
Aurora did as she was told and soon the end started to flicker, pulling it to her mouth and breathing in until she could feel the smoke deep in her chest.
“I didn’t do it if that’s what you’re thinking.” Tayce pulled a cigarette from her bag, gesturing for Aurora to pass the lighter.
Aurora almost didn’t want to believe her.
She thought about how easy it would have been to call her a liar right then and there, stomping back into school to the nurse's office and taking her lighter with her. How easy it would be to blame Tayce and be angry at her instead of herself.
Only this time she just couldn’t.
There was only so long she could last taking the insecurities from inside of herself and pushing them out onto other people.
Onto Tayce.
And when Tayce sat there letting her hair go frizzy in the rain holding her blazer over Aurora’s head - Aurora just didn’t have it in her to take the easy route.
“I believe you.” She handed Tayce the lighter, moving closer so that the blazer could cover both of their heads. “I bet you were thinking it though.”
“Sorry to burst your bubble but I’ve got better things to spend my time thinking about than you, kid.”
Aurora could have laughed thinking about how many hours of the day she spent obsessing over Tayce if she wasn’t too preoccupied with how nice she was being (and perhaps also how close they were sitting).
“Look.” Tayce pointed to the poster in Aurora's hand, now disintegrated and full of holes. “If people are gonna try and upset you by calling you a dumb nickname then you just gotta embrace it and then it won’t hurt anymore. Take all the power yourself or some bullshit, yeah?”
Aurora didn’t know if she was talking about the nickname anymore or not, her heart racing in her chest in a way it hadn’t done since the day that they met and Tayce stole her locker.
“You want me to start calling myself A’Whora?”
“If you don’t then I will.” Tayce gave her famous brow lift and Aurora felt the rest of the world disintegrate around them like the poster. “And you know everyone will follow suit if I start doing it.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Aurora took another drag. “Besides I bet you’ve already said it a hundred times with your little gang.”
“Nope. Not once."
“You’re a liar.”
“It’s true...at least until right now.” Tayce dropped her cigarette on the floor and crushed it with the heel of her shoe. “Because I’ll see you later at the field sesh, A’Whora .”
***
The sky was dark before Aurora even realised, dinner slipping into dessert (a limoncello cheesecake for herself and tiramisu for Tayce) and then to drinks just as quickly.
They’d both laughed when the waiter had asked if they wanted any hot drinks, telling him to bring a round of shots and another couple cocktails instead - which only seemed to make the time go even faster if Aurora was being honest.
“So when did you come out then?” Tayce asked once they’d swapped their drinks around, something which Aurora was persistent on doing mostly so Tayce could try how nice her own was rather than the other way round.
“Not that long after you left.” Aurora took a sip and smiled through the sour pain as if she wasn’t longing to have her pink glass of sugar back. “I told Bim first before everyone else. It was weird because I obviously always knew they’d understand and wouldn’t judge - they were always just so out and proud and I felt like I owed them. But it was kinda like once I told someone then I was also telling myself. Which I had never managed to really do until...”
“Me?” Tayce must have read the look in her eye and pushed the glass back over. “Have this shit back.”
“Yeah, if I’m being honest.” Aurora laughed. “I dunno how long it would have taken if I hadn’t have met you.”
“I’m sure you’d have found another dashing individual to torture eventually. I bet they’d have caused you a lot less stress too, you wouldn’t have as many wrinkles.”
“I don’t have wrinkles!” Aurora gasped, pulling out her phone for the first time all night to reassure her tipsy self that Tayce was only kidding, noticing only then that pres had already kicked off in her flat and she’d missed several phone calls. “Shit.”
“Do you need to go?” Tayce asked, her wide eyes instantly throwing Aurora back into a memory of the last time she’d seen Tayce, those eyes so big and bold as she’d walked away and left Aurora wiping her own with the sleeve of a green hoodie, the goodbye she’d always wished was a see you later .
Maybe now it was.
She considered asking Tayce if she wanted to join her flat but thought better of it instantly. She’d waited four years for this moment, secrets she’d kept locked away for half a decade slipping out so easily like Tayce’s smile was the passcode.
Four years ago Tayce had lifted a weight from her shoulders and let her walk above ground like everyone else. And she never really had the chance to hang onto that feeling.
Aurora never really had a chance to hang on last time.
She wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.
“Nah.” She sent a quick message to the group chat telling them to go without her - almost laughing at the realisation that her last message was her saying she was on her way back. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Sounds good to me.”
So they carried on how they were, Aurora continuing the discussion about her coming out and turning the colour of a strawberry when she had to relive the moment her Nan had done a google search on lesbians and asked her who Ruby Rose was. Tayce told her own story too, pulling the waiter over for another drink before she started so Aurora already knew she’d end off in a fit of giggles before Tayce had even started (which was completely true, cracking up almost immediately once Tayce started talking about someone at her sixth form in Wales who genuinely refused to believe she was a lesbian because she had long hair).
They talked about school and how many people turned out to be gay too. Aurora nearly died thinking about how terrified she was of Lawrence making fun of her when she had turned out to be the bendiest ruler of them all.
Tayce still kept in touch with them all apparently, not as much as Aurora did with Bim, Tia and Tina but she guessed that was understandable given that Tayce left town a whole two years before the rest of them, saying it had always been hard to keep friendships when you moved around as much as she did - the conversation that had remained unspoken throughout the night finally rearing its ugly head.
“Is that why you didn’t keep in touch with me too?” She asked as they made their way back outside, several dirty looks from the serving staff letting them know they’d well overstayed their welcome. “Cause of the distance?”
She could tell it took Tayce off guard, the other girl pulling a box of cigarettes from her bag and leaning against the street's railings before replying.
“Kind of I guess. I’d just had it happen so many times, I’d make friends with someone and then leave as if I’d never been there. I was never permanent, you know?”
Aurora figured it was best to let her go on, fighting every urge she had to butt in and tell Tayce about how, alongside the joy she’d felt about finally being herself, there was always a sprinkle of hurt linked with memories of Tayce whenever she thought about the messages she’d sent that were left unopened.
“I know I could have messaged but I didn’t know where it would even lead, I didn’t know what we were or what I was. I’d slowly drifted apart from so many friends and I just couldn’t do it again. At least not with you.”
“I get it.” Aurora motioned for Tayce to pass the cigarette over and took a drag. “Too stubborn for your own good.”
“You’re right. And I’m sorry too, I was a lot less mature than I thought I was."
“I forgive you.” Aurora broke into a smile, pretending not to notice when Tayce slipped her free arm around her shoulder, slotting into it like it was the most natural thing in the world. “But can you just say it again, please? Let me get a recording or something? Sixteen-year-old me is quaking inside that you just admitted I was right.”
“Don’t push your luck, missy.” Tayce nudged her shoulder, clearly underestimating the strength of the cocktails they just necked as Aurora lost her balance (not that she wouldn’t have reacted the same sober, a lifetime's worth of scars on her knees enough proof that she should be banned from walking without a zimmer frame). “C’mon, I’ll walk you home.”
It was only a couple stops on the tube and she’d already reached the maximum amount you could spend in a day so it wasn’t like it would cost any extra to take it home, but Aurora figured she’d been honest enough for the evening when it came to saying that out loud.
“Oooh, can we get chips on the way?” Aurora beamed, partly because she’d never been able to walk past the Pizza Shop at the end of her road late without popping in for some scran and partly because she’d do anything to tell the sun (or whatever it was that controlled time - she’d spent most of GCSE physics trying to stop staring at a certain someone whose legs used to dangle from the stool like a supermodel so it could have been a wizard for all she knew) to fuck off so she could spend as much time with Tayce as possible.
“I’ve just eaten all of your tapas for you!” Tayce laughed, linking her arm into Aurora’s and starting the, hopefully long, journey back home.
“I’ll let you get curry sauce instead of garlic,” Aurora replied, deeming the loss on her part a fair enough compromise (it wasn’t like any of the chip shops in London did them the proper way with gravy anyway).
“How’d you know how I like my chips?”
“Because…” Aurora paused to emphasize her point, knowing fine well that this was something she wouldn’t normally admit to remembering out loud but not even caring. “You ate them like that the night you kissed me.”
“Fair enough. Guess we can’t go against tradition then, can we?”
***
The sun was bright in the sky, something which Aurora was normally a big fan of - having decided early on in her teen years not to trust anyone who said their favourite season was autumn or winter (they were either vampires or just really really dull).
Only she wasn’t a fan that day, the heat having permeated through the dirty glass windows of the bus so that she’d practically sweated her entire face of foundation off by the time they got to their stop - Tia’s suggestion of necking some of their cider as a way of cooling down cracked with fundamental flaws they pretended not to see.
Aurora felt a bit dribble down her chin and started to wonder why she’d even bothered trying to look nice (metaphorically at least, the actual reason sat on a rock at the old quarry, waving her hands in the air with the biggest smile in the world).
At least she’d used her last few squirts of that Marc Jacobs perfume that had been lonely in her tiny locker all year to mask the public transport smell.
The celebrations seemed to have already started once they arrived; the majority of their year spread around the place, a shitty speaker blasting Rihanna and an ever shittier bonfire full of peoples workbooks and past papers. Aurora didn’t bring her own, something inside of her unwilling to throw away all the pages she’d spent hours Tippex-ing and re-writing just in case they’d come in handy sometime.
Everyone seemed rather drunk too; Aurora figured that most were just exaggerating, acting like one sip of Dark Fruits was the equivalent of eighty lines of coke, but she wasn’t going to extend that statement to include the entirety of their year group, the way Lawrence shouted upon their arrival making that clear, to say the least.
“How’s it hanging ladies?” She took turns in pulling each member of their group into a hug, the closest Aurora had ever been to Lawrence in their five years of schooling (and thanks to the touch of WKD she spilt down Aurora’s back as she did so, probably the closest she ever would be). “Did you absolutely fuck up that last exam too?”
“Oh, unbelievably.” Aurora scoffed, any hope she had already gone after she broke the number one post-exam rule by looking on Twitter and seeing that everyone else got completely different answers.
“Well, let’s celebrate then!” Lawrence motioned to the crowd.
And celebrate they did.
Aurora laughed her arse off once her friends started their own dance-off, Tia trying so hard to outdo Tina’s moves that she tore a giant hole in the armpit of her bodysuit which she begged Aurora to fix like she was some sort of sewing fairy who carried a needle and thread with her everywhere she went.
She chatted to Ellie too, who was clearly a sad drunk, telling Aurora how scared she was that Lawrence was moving to an independent sixth-form instead of carrying on like the rest of them. Aurora told her that Lawrence wouldn’t survive five minutes without a trip to Maccys with her girls and Ellie told her she wasn’t such a sour cow after all (a statement which she took back a whole two minutes later after Pippa from their textiles showed up wearing the exact same red cardigan as Aurora and she just couldn’t hide the disgust in her face).
Half of the group went to the takeaway but Aurora couldn’t be bothered, shoving a five-pound note in Bim’s hand and telling them to grab her a pepperoni pizza - she didn’t fancy having the whole thing to herself but Tina and Tia were already sharing and she knew Bim wouldn’t want anything to do with the greasy cheese and pepperoni.
A fact that became abundantly clear when the group arrived back and it was instead Tayce who came and held the pizza out to her.
“For you.” She held it out, plopping her own bag of chips on the grass next to Aurora and taking a seat.
“How do I know it’s not been poisoned?” Aurora opened it up and shot a glance back to Tayce. “This your way of making sure you win head girl?”
Aurora watched Tayce’s face turn slightly, her smile present like always but with something a little sour seeping through.
She regretted the joke immediately, thinking back to the day all those months ago when Tayce had found her outside along with all the amazing speeches she’d made.
Aurora wanted to win more than anything. But if she didn't? She knew it would still be well deserved.
They had another week until the results were announced, which seemed a little stupid considering the school year was over for them but Aurora understood their reasoning, knowing fine well that she wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on a single exam if she’d found out who got the role before they happened.
At least this way she had a whole summer before sixth form to either wallow or prepare without it distracting from her studies.
“I think you’ve already poisoned yourself enough with that shit.” Tayce pointed to the cider and Aurora couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’ll give you that one.” Aurora took a big bite, the joints in her body starting to relax as she let herself lull into the laughter and music.
The sound of summer.
The sweet hum of optimism that they had a whole ten weeks to enjoy for themselves before starting their A-Levels.
A feeling that made her heart beat even faster than the dumb song that was playing when she was sitting alone with Tayce.
It didn’t take long for the whole group to gather again once everyone had finished their food, a big pile of rubbish heaped by the side of the quarry that made Aurora incredibly terrified of being arrested.
Because that’s what the police would be concerned about over the tens of sixteen-year-olds drunk in a dangerous place…
Of course, she forgot about that anxiety quickly once a bottle was thrust in the middle of the circle and a much bigger, scarier one worked its way through her body till she felt hollowed out.
So she played the game on autopilot, sitting and laughing as it landed on other people, cheering when it was her friends and even giving Tia a cheeky smack on the bum as she went up to get with the boy she’d been messaging for the past month.
Only it wasn’t really her.
Just the shell of a girl trying so fucking hard to survive until her friends got too drunk and she could use them as an excuse to go home and bury herself in her duvet like it would block out the whole world.
Just a girl trying really hard to forget about the other girl sitting next to her, whose long hair tumbled down her back as she moved to the middle of the circle to spin the bottle, someone else running a hand over it as she leaned in for a kiss.
Tayce had been Aurora’s rival since the first day she stepped foot in her school. But she wanted nothing more at that moment to go and slap the dickhead who thought he could touch her hair without permission.
In fact, it bothered her so much that she completely forgot it was her turn next until Tayce was walking back towards her, her eyes wide as they made contact.
Fuck .
She was holding the bottle like it was a death warrant, dirty and brown in her hand until it wasn’t anymore, slipping from Tayce’s grasp onto the rocky ground below with a smash.
“Oh, shit. Sorry.” Tayce squatted down quickly and started to pick up the big pieces, shooting a glance in Aurora’s direction that reminded her how to breathe.
“Well done Tayce, fuck the game up for all of us, why don’t ya.” Lawrence joked from the side, starting a flow of conversation around the circle that blurred into the background for Aurora.
Because all she could focus on was Tayce and the look behind her eyes as she scooped up the glass and went to dump it with the rest of the rubbish.
Aurora didn’t know what made her get up and help but she did it anyway, running over to the pile and opening up a pizza box for Tayce to drop the glass into whilst the others carried on with their games.
“Thanks.” Tayce smiled as she did it, the air around them thick with unspoken words despite the ruckus only meters away.
“It’s alright,” Aurora replied, pushing the words out as best as she could to try and let Tayce know what she really wanted to say, the thing that her brain just wouldn’t let her release (‘ It should be me that’s thanking you. You didn’t have to do that for me. ’)
“Giving you a run for your money as the clumsy one, ey?” Tayce rolled her eyes a little and Aurora imagined what her response just might have been (‘ It’s okay. I know how you’re feeling .’)
She tried to respond but the words from her chest were still being fought by the ones from her brain, leaving her with nothing but a big mess in her throat so tangled it just seemed better to say nothing at all.
To think everyone called her gobby.
And then their eyes met again and Aurora panicked, looking down at the glass where she was pulled out of the moment by the sight of Tayce’s hand.
“You’ve cut yourself.” Aurora grabbed her wrist gently, examining the cut across Tayce’s palm, spilling with blood and drowning Aurora in the guilt she was already feeling for the whole thing.
“Bugger.” Tayce winced as she went to touch it with her other hand.
Aurora took off her cardigan quickly and started to wrap it around, again and again until Tayce said she couldn’t feel it and Aurora squeezed it just to make sure, making Tayce sit down and take a swig of her sugary Lucozade so she didn’t feel faint.
“You’ll look daft but you won’t get any of this dirt and shit in it.” Aurora let go of her hand and pretended not to feel the burn as Tayce let it rest on her knee.
“I feel bad, you’ve ruined your cardie now.”
“It’s fine. It were only from Primark and Pippa stole the look anyway.”
“Between me and you...” Tayce leaned in to whisper despite the fact there was no one around. “You wore it better anyway.”
“Well, now you can.” Aurora gestured to the makeshift bandage, trying her best to distract Tayce from the fact her cheeks were probably the same colour as it after that compliment.
But once again, she just wished she’d said something else.
“I think I need a walk. You wanna get out of here?”
“Sure, yeah.” Aurora grabbed her bag, dropping a text to her group chat before leaving with Tayce ( ‘I want nothing more’ ).
And so they walked wherever their feet took them, step by step until the sun had set in the sky. She didn’t know if it was the drink, the night or just the summer air but Aurora spoke to her like she’d never spoken to her before, stories about her Nan and her sister slipping out of her mouth on every corner they turned. There was silence too but for once it wasn’t awkward, a comfortable silence that made Aurora start to feel the layers of earth underneath the pavement. It was the first and maybe only night ever that she really felt like she was walking on top of the world, on top of everything all the way down to the people in New Zealand with their honey and wine and great lofty peaks (she’d always been quite good at Geography - for starters, Tayce wasn’t in her class to distract her but she also found something kinda neat about rivers and stuff, the way some of them managed to swirl their way through so many places and make them close even if they seemed far).
They stopped once they made it to the kids' park, Aurora letting Tayce give her a hand over the brick wall as they scrambled down to the bottom. Aurora shined her torch to find the place where her name was written on the back of the slide and wished she had a pen so she could write Tayce’s on too.
“You must be freezing.” Tayce reached out to touch Aurora’s arm, the pair of them perched on the edge of the climbing frame, Aurora’s legs too short to rest on the little grips like Tayce’s were.
“I’m fine.” Aurora lied through her teeth, putting on her best act at being a strong and tough Northerner (which she certainly was compared to Tayce) who never felt the cold. “And I don’t fancy putting my bloody cardigan back on.”
But just like everything else, Tayce managed to see through it.
It was a special power that had frightened Aurora when they first met; the idea that Tayce could see through her so clear and transparent was absolutely terrifying.
But she just accepted it now, knowing that every moment, every glance, every stuttered word during a game of netball was too much for her to hide.
Tayce had cracked her shell and although she’d realised it a little while ago, it was only at that moment in the park that Aurora realised it might actually have been a good thing.
“Take this.” Tayce pulled off the green hoodie she’d been wearing off and handed it to Aurora.
It smelt like expensive men's aftershave with a hint of bonfire, the sleeves so long on her arms that she could curl the end of the fabric around her fingertips.
“I need to tell you something.” Tayce looked her way, eyes glossy under the newly dark sky.
Aurora didn't know why she chose that moment to do it.
Maybe it was because she was a rude bitch.
Maybe it was because she wasn’t ever gonna let Tayce have one over on her
Maybe it was because, at that moment, Tayce had never felt safer to her.
Aurora didn’t know for sure.
But whatever it was made her bridge the gap between them, pushing through the streets and cities and stars worth of space and pressing her lips against Tayce’s.
Maybe her body was sick of the words she’d never managed to say for the past year. Maybe it felt how soft Tayce’s hoodie was on her skin and knew it was time to open up that box she’d kept shut and swallowed the key to a long time ago.
“Sorry.” She pulled away after a moment, her stomach doing frontdrops, backdrops, swivel hips and all the fucking moves in the syllabus. “I didn’t-”
Only she didn’t have the chance to explain.
Tayce leant over this time, pressing her lips on Aurora’s and scooping her hand on the other girl’s back. Aurora let her take the lead, her body leaning into Tayce until they felt like one.
She moved her hand onto Tayce’s cheek to make sure it was real.
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.” She whispered in between kisses, their faces only inches apart, Tayce’s hands now resting on the back of her head, touching her hair ever so gently.
“I kinda did.” Tayce grinned and it looked so much better from close up, Aurora beaming herself before Tayce pulled her into another kiss.
And they let time get the better of them, Aurora kissing Tayce like she’d been starved her whole life (perhaps she had).
She thought about the time Tina had gotten off with a lad in the year above during lunch and said it felt like he was stabbing her with his tongue. Tayce wasn’t like that, her kiss melting into Aurora like a glacier in the heat.
Maybe it was because she was a girl?
Tayce’s phone started to ring and they pulled apart. Aurora watched as she sucked in a deep breath before pulling it out of her bag.
She immediately wanted her closer again.
Her mind was still confused but she pushed it aside.
All she knew was that kissing Tayce was a lot better than not kissing Tayce.
And although it was definitely part of it, watching her face as she read the phone screen, Aurora knew it wasn’t just because she was a girl.
“Fuck sake.” She let it carry on ringing, throwing it back in her bag and straightening herself up. “I gotta go, I’m gonna get murdered. Actually murdered.”
Aurora pushed her hair back, watching for a moment as Tayce threw herself off the climbing frame, stopping to hold a hand out for Aurora.
“Can you meet me in the morning?” Tayce shouted back, already making her way home in the opposite direction. “Please? I really need to go but I can explain in the morning. Early.”
“Yeah.” She shouted back. “I’ll text you.”
Aurora checked the time on her phone, knowing fine well that she wouldn’t get a second of sleep until whenever “early” was, Tayce’s hoodie still hanging on her frame as she started the walk home.
She shone the torch of her phone on the pavement the whole way back, not even caring how many cracks or drains her feet walked over.
Because she might as well have been walking on air.
***
“It’s mad, isn’t it?” Aurora spoke up, the yellow street lights shining down on them like they were the only people in the world. “How they paired us up together for this thing, my first ever kiss, my first ever crush.”
“I dunno,” Tayce replied, the accent rolling off her tongue and bringing Aurora back to her hometown. If she closed her eyes and listened she could see it all, the school that used to be theirs, the little old church that had to hold a fundraiser for a new boiler every single year, the kid’s play park where she’d opened up her heart and felt it break into a thousand pieces only a few hours later, left in the gravel and bark to be trampled on by generations of drunk sixteen-year-olds to come.
“I think you're one of the most normal things I’ve found in this city for a long time,” Tayce carried on. “And it was gonna happen someday. I was sure of it, told you as much when I left.”
And she had, the words still so clear even in Aurora’s tipsy state.
“I’m moving back to Wales for sixth form.” Tayce had said, mascara from the night before smudged under the eyes. “Today. I tried to tell you last night but we got carried away.”
“I’ll find you at some point, yeah?” Tayce had joked, pulling Aurora into a hug to try and hush her.
“You told me I couldn’t get rid of you that easily.” Aurora laughed, looking at the Tayce next to her.
It was weird how different she was to the sixteen-year-old Tayce who’d pulled her from her shadows. But also how she was the same. She had the same eyes, the same smile and the same big and beating heart that seemed genuinely interested whenever Aurora spoke. But she was also an adult, mature. Her face was defined and she knew she couldn’t hide from her problems. This Tayce understood her mistakes and took ownership of them, no matter how stubborn she was about everything else in life.
The pair of them had taken the time to grow, to see the world, the good and the bad it held before they crossed paths again, two little streams from different sides of the country flowing into new and bigger spaces, racing their way down the country until it was time to converge, meeting in the middle of a big river with an even bigger city surrounding it.
“I did.” Tayce nodded, pulling her in tighter.
“You also said I should be grateful that you were letting me take the head girl win,” Aurora replied.
“You would have won it anyway.”
“I doubt it. I don’t know any fucker who’d vote me over you, wouldn’t have even blamed my best friends.”
“Well, I did.” Tayce stopped in her tracks, twirling Aurora’s body around so they were facing each other. “I voted for you.”
“Bullshit.” Aurora shook her head.
“C’mon, I was only running to piss you off anyway.” Tayce smiled. “You wanted it more and you deserved it more. So I voted for you.”
“I forgot how annoying you were.”
“But you’ve missed it?” Tayce leaned in so her forehead was almost touching Aurora’s, the music from a distant flat party vibrating in the background, an old throwback song that she hadn’t heard for a good four years.
But still somehow knew every lyric.
“A little bit,” she replied, swooping in to kiss Tayce before the other girl even had a chance (she wasn’t letting her have her way that easily).
And they carried on like that all the way home, stopping at each streetlight to kiss and dance before they finally made it to Aurora’s flat, stopping in the doorway to have one last goodnight kiss.
Aurora raced up the stairs the second she got in so she could wave goodbye from the window too, Tayce blowing a kiss up that Aurora wanted to catch and keep forever.
But it was okay that she didn’t.
Because she knew for sure this time that their goodbye was just a see you later .
And she’d find plenty more of those along the way.