After All These Years

Chapter 3: After All These Years

"It's Joan's birthday today. I thought I told you that over the phone last week?" Yes, her mom had probably told Gigi about it over the phone last week, but the truth was that those days Gigi had a lot of things on her mind and listening to her mom, unfortunately, was not one of them.

Was she ready to see Liz again? Absolutely no. She needed days of preparation for that, not just ten minutes.

Gigi had recurring fantasies about seeing Liz again. She enjoyed making up scenarios in her head about how it was going to be once she saw her person again. In some of them, she just ignored Liz and pretended to not know her so she would believe Gigi is a badass, and in others Gigi just cried in Liz's arms and begged her to take her back. None of them was going to happen that day.

The Monrae's house hadn't changed at all eighter. The place was way more calmed? than her house. They were no specific words to describe it, maybe 'special'. Not so well constructed and with bright green walls, that house had seen Gigi grow up as much as her own. It had a lovely and warming front yard full of flowers and little decorations, and a long brown entrance stairs.

With sweaty hands, Gigi managed to get out of the car. It all felt like a movie to her. A movie in which she did not want to act in.

She tried to come up with an excuse that was going to prevent her from going into that house but she could not come up with even one. Besides, her parents seemed to be in a good mood and she wasn't going to ruin that for anything in the world, they were even holding hands. It was the first day in a really long time in which they were not fighting.

Gigi's body froze when she saw Liz's mom quickly opening the front door and staring at her with excitement almost written all over her face. She, as Gigi's mom, had not aged a day.

Joan was a very good-looking woman on her late fifties with long black hair, a soft smile and the purest eyes Gigi had ever seen. Joan had always been like a second mother to Gigi. She was way less structured than Sarah and really open minded. She used to feel so comfortable around her. In fact, Joan was the first adult that knew about Gigi's sexuality, she was the first person, after Liz, who knew that Gigi was bisexual. Gigi knew that no matter what happened, Joan was going to be there with cookies and the words she needed to hear.

But time had passed by and she had also forgotten about her once she departed to LA and the fact that she had to deal with seeing her again was also nerve-wracking for Gigi.

"Hi auntie!" Was the first thing Gigi said and she felt really dumb. That was the first thing she could come up with after not seeing her for years? She immediately regretted not thinking about an excuse to leave some seconds ago.

"Hi Geeg, you look beautiful! I missed you so much." Joan finally hugged Gigi and she felt calmed, if she hugged her everything would be fine. "Come in, guys. We are all hanging out in the back"

Making her way through the house, Gigi saw her face in multiple photos hanging from the walls. One of them was the first time Gigi and Liz went camping and the other was one of them while they were asleep on the sofa placed on Liz's living room when they were fourteen. Nostalgia immediately started kicking in on Gigi's mind. She wished she could get in and jump into one of those old pictures and just be fourteen again. The blonde was definitely not ready to see her old friend again, not at all.

Liz's house could have all the imperfections but one perfect thing was its backyard. In that occasion it was perfectly organized and even had fully decorated and luxurious tables all over the place and white balloons hanging from each seat. Gigi's first thought was that Liz probably hated all of that.

Liz had always been a free soul. Not only because of the way she was raised, she simply was a free soul by nature. Gigi could almost call Liz a hippie. She loved art, she was always dressed with floral dresses and her life philosophy was 'you only live once' although that hadn't been like that forever.

When Gigi and Liz turned thirteen, they decided to try new styles until they find their own. They wore all black clothes for a week, then they tried vintage clothes and the following day they dressed as cheerleaders. Until by the end of the month, Liz stuck with her hippie phase and Gigi was a person who really cared about high fashion.

Joan guided the Geffrey's to their table and Gigi sat down carefully, as if she felt like that by sitting down she was finally giving up on the last hopes she had of leaving that place. It was all getting more real every time and she was less than ready for what she was about to experience.

Her parents ordered a glass of wine as soon as they could and did not talk to her at all. The energy around Gigi, however, was a positive one, there was happy music playing and kids running around with smiles on their faces, Gigi almost forgot she was about to see Liz.

However, what she did not forget was that she was seeing many familiar faces and that they were staring back at her, like if she truly was the devil. What if they knew what she had done? Was it really that bad? She felt like she was always under their radar and that made her feel completely uncomfortable.

"Gigi?" Someone asked and the blonde girl turned around. Her four friends were staring at her with big smiles on their faces. Jayla, Wanda, Nicky and Alma appeared in front of Gigi's eyes and she almost shrieked with excitement.