KarMel Scholarship 2006
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Best Fictional Story “Return to Me” By
Gretchen Riehm - MN |
Desciption of Submission: “This short story is fiction, and I think
it reflects the reality of the homosexual lifestyle, the fear that straight people
feel when confronted with something that they consider abnormal. But eventually the person will win them over,
because really, we just want to love and be loved, like everyone else.” -
Gretchen
Why Karen and Melody Liked
It: We liked the twist of
the one girl not initially accepting the feelings
of the other girl, which seems more realistic.
The door
opened slowly and a look of shock came over her face. "Oh,
hi."
I laughed. "'Oh,
hi'? That's all you can say to me? Your best friend you haven't seen in
three years?" She nodded wordlessly and opened the door wider. I brushed
past her, catching her shoulder a bit.
Alicia smiled at me, unsure, and
asked, "When did you get back in town?"
"A couple
days ago. I didn't know if you'd want to see me…" I trailed off at
this, not sure if I should bring up the subject, but realizing too late I
already had.
Alicia turned away and looked into
the kitchen, where I could see her mom slumped over a cup of coffee. I bounced
over to greet the woman who used to be my second mother. "Hey,
Mary Ann!" I exclaimed excitedly.
The platinum-blonde woman looked up
with a start. I grinned. Ever the morning person, Mary Ann was. I watched as
her face broke into an ecstatic grin. "Joy!" she squealed and flung
her arms around me. "Oh my God you've grown up! And you look so mature!
What did you do to your hair?" She babbled happily away as Alicia stood in
the background, rolling her eyes. I smiled at my friend as I talked with her
mom.
"Do you want to know the whole
chronology of what I did to my hair, or just what it is currently? Because I don't even remember myself." We laughed. For
your information, my hair was bright red (and I mean bright) with my natural curls showing through. Sometimes I would
straighten it, but that morning I had remembered how much Alicia adored my
curls and left them.
Mary Ann and I chatted animatedly for a few minutes – "catching
up" as she called it – but then she looked over at Alicia still standing
in the doorway and stopped. "Well, I'm sure you and Alicia have a lot to
catch up on too, so I'll let you go. But how long are you back for?"
"I transferred to the
University here, so I'm looking around for an apartment, actually." Mary
Ann squealed.
"Oh, well, make sure it's not
too far away from us!" She sighed. "I missed you so much, and your mother…" She sniffled. "Bless her
soul; she was the best woman I've ever met."
I nodded and smiled, then turned
away and grimaced to Alicia, who smiled weakly back. Let's just say my mother
and I didn't always agree about – certain things. Alicia led me through the living
room again, towards her room, but I stopped when I saw the wall.
"Alicia…" I breathed. "Did you draw those?" There were
three art pieces on the wall: an oil pastel garden landscape, a pencil sketch
of the city streets, and another oil pastel of two little girls chattering
animatedly over a tea party.
Alicia came to stand beside me.
"Yes, I drew them. I'm doing a double major of art and English
literature." This surprised me. Alicia never was overly ambitious – though
she did love both art and English, so I guess it shouldn't have.
"You're going to have your
hands full with that," I commented, still mesmerized by the tea party. The
two little girls looked eerily familiar – that's when it hit me. It was one of
Alicia's memories. A memory of me.
I tore my eyes away and smiled sadly
at my high school best friend. What had happened…? No, I knew very well what
had happened. And from the looks of things, Alicia was remembering what had
happened, as well. Her forehead was drawn, her pretty green eyes looked far
away, and she looked incredibly small and lost. That scared me. Alicia was
never lost. Before I knew what I was doing, I was hugging her. At first she
went stiff, but then relaxed against me until we were both clinging to each
other. No words needed to be spoken. It was okay. We had forgiven each other,
finally.
I felt Alicia grin, then giggle, and
then I started giggling too. We both were laughing our asses off and gasping
for breath within ten seconds. Alicia caught her breath first, and I saw her grin
evilly before she pounced on me. "Noooooo!"
I gasped as she tackled and started tickling me. I squealed and squirmed and
tried to get away but Alicia is a lot stronger than she looks, and I get pretty
helpless when I'm being tickled (that's just between you and me, ok?). I
managed to escape by grabbing her wrists and rolling sideways, out of her
reach. I let go quickly and ran through the living room and kitchen until I
reached the den, where I jumped over the back of the couch and hid behind it,
waiting to ambush her. The lights were off, and my black-clad body had the
perfect camouflage.
Or so I thought. In three years, I
had forgotten that the den had two
doors: one off the hallway and one off Alicia’s room. I heard a slight creak
behind me, and turned just as Alicia swooped down on me.
"AAAAAIIIIIII!!" she gave an almighty war-cry, and flattened me.
I lay
silent in mock-defeat for a couple seconds, then reached my hands up to spin
her off me – she saw it coming and pinned my arms by my sides. In the dim light
from the hallway, I could see her face floating above me with a very, very smug
grin on it. "Mwahahaha,"
she laughed darkly and evilly. I smothered a giggle and tried to go along with
the game. "I've got you, my pretty, and your little dog too…" she
cackled, then trailed off. Saying in a normal voice, "Okay, well, maybe
you don't have a dog, but I've got you, still!"
I nodded gravely, then said in the
small, scared princess voice, "Oh, Evil Wicked Witch, what are you going
to do with me? I've always been a good girl, done my chores and homework
without complaint –" she snorted at this – "well, mostly," I
amended. "But please, oh please
Miss Wicked Witch, I just want to go home to my family!"
She tilted her head, 'considering'
this, then sighed theatrically. "Your innocent
goodness has melted the ice around my heart! It's grown three sizes this
day!"
"Um, I think that's The Grinch,
Alicia," I commented.
"Oh. Right.
Well, whatever!" she said triumphantly. I noticed a truly disturbing gleam
in her eyes this time, and I suddenly realized that she had been sitting on top
of me quite comfortably for the past three minutes. I was made aware of her
warm weight on my stomach, the way her hands still lightly gripped my wrists
against my sides, her eyes locking with mine…
No no no no NO! My mind
screamed at me as her face hovered over mine. What about last time? You don't want to have to go through that again…
But quite clearly my body was not listening to a thing my mind was saying to
me. Neither, it appeared, was Alicia's. Her mouth descended slowly towards
mine, our eyes still locked until I closed mine and arched up towards her.
The
first touch was electric, just as it had been three years ago. Our lips molded
together and moved with each other. We knew each other so well it didn't matter
we hadn't seen each other in three years. Didn't matter that last time we saw
each other she was screaming at me and I ran away with tears pouring down my
face. Didn't matter that her mom was in the next room… I stopped thinking as
her tongue brushed against my lips, and I let my own tongue out to play. I
tried to lift my hands to her face, to draw her closer, but her grip tightened
on them and she grinned against my mouth. "Naughty, naughty…" she
whispered, then delved her tongue into my mouth,
running it along my teeth until I whimpered when she pulled suddenly away. I
opened my eyes and looked up at her, dazed.
Alicia was breathing heavily and
when I met her gaze I saw pure desire in them. To say I was surprised was a bit
of an understatement. "As I recall," I commented between shallow
breaths, "last time this occurred you didn't like it nearly as much."
She rolled her eyes. "I liked
it just as much; I just wasn't as willing to admit it. I've changed a bit since
you left, Joy."
I snickered. "A
bit?"
"Okay, a lot." She
grinned. "But you can't deny you like it."
"I would never do that."
"Good." She leaned down to
me again, but I stopped her. "Um, isn't your mom right over there?" I
asked, jerking my head towards the kitchen.
"No. Didn't you hear her leave?
She said she was going to the grocery store and to run a few errands,
and that we could help ourselves to whatever we wanted…" she trailed off
suggestively with the last comment.
"Oh and I'm sure that's what she
meant, too," I commented dryly.
Alicia
tilted her head thoughtfully. "Well, no, she actually said we could help
ourselves to whatever we wanted from the kitchen. But you were in the kitchen."
"So were you."
"Wow. Imagine that."
I giggled as she leaned down again
to kiss me. This time she let go of my left arm so she could trail her hand
through my hair. "You know I always loved your hair," she whispered
against my lips.
"Mmm…why do you think…I wore it
curly…and down…today…" I pointed out between kisses.
"You evil
girl. You planned on seducing
me," she said without much vice in her voice. In answer I slipped my thigh
between her legs and used my free hand to run over her back and up her spine.
She shivered and moaned. "Maybe we should…move this somewhere more…
comfortable," she gasped.
She dragged me up from the floor and
led me towards her door. I ran my hand over her ass and she jumped a bit.
"Joy!" she exclaimed, pretending to be scandalized. I just grinned as
I pulled her flush against me and stuck my tongue out at her…albeit, in her
mouth. But it was in the way. It was!
We stumbled awkwardly into her room
and she shut the door behind her, then broke away from
me. "Hold on," she said.
"Okay," I grinned, and
grabbed her again.
"Oh, haha.
I meant, wait a second. Do you know what you're doing? What we're getting
ourselves into?"
I sighed. Uh-oh.
Doubts time. "Alicia, I've been out as a lesbian for five years. You know
that. You think that entire time I spent pining over you? You should know better than that. When I
left, I tried to get you out of my mind, because I thought you didn't feel the
same way I did, and I didn't want to torture myself. I had quite a few
girlfriends in
By now we were sitting on her bed
and our wild desire had subsided somewhat. I could see her trying to process
this.
"What about you?" I
ventured. She didn't seem too deterred by the fact that I was a girl.
"Oh, I've known since a couple
months before you left. But, when you kissed me…I was still in somewhat of a
denial stage and I didn't like that I liked the way you were making me
feel."
I smiled somewhat bitterly,
remembering that day.
I
was sobbing by the time I got to Alicia's house. She opened the door, took one
look at me, and engulfed me in her arms. "I don't want to leave!" I
managed to say between sobs. She led me to her room and we sat down, my face
buried in her shoulder. She made comforting little noises and rubbed my back as
I cried.
"Ever
since Mom died, Dad can't stand being around here. He says it's for his job,
but I know he really just doesn't want to live here anymore. We're moving in two weeks…" I started
hiccupping as my tears slowly stopped. Alicia handed me a couple Kleenex, and I used them and crumpled them into the trash.
Breathing deeply, I managed to stop hiccupping and stared at my feet.
"What am I going to do in
Alicia
was still rubbing my back. It felt nice. "Well, it's only for one year.
Then you can come back and go to the University here, with me." I smiled.
"See? A smile!"
I rolled my eyes. "You are so corny,
'Licia."
"And
that's why you love me, darling," she shot back.
I
looked up. "Yeah…." Our eyes met, and before I knew what I was doing,
my lips were on hers and my hands were on her face. "I'm going to miss you
so much…" I mumbled, not realizing she'd gone stiff.
When
she didn't respond to my comment, I pulled away. I touched my lips, suddenly
noticing what I'd done. I'd never done that before. I was always careful to
respect Alicia. I glanced at her face, nervous to know what I'd see there.
Horror. Terror. Anger.
Uh-oh.
"WHAT
THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR!?!" she screamed, standing up violently.
I
was taken aback. I mean, yeah, I shouldn't have done it, but…it was just a
little kiss. Not like I raped her or something. "Woah, Alicia, I'm really
sorry. I'm just…really emotional right now; I didn't know what I was doing."
My eyes were wide at the look on her face. I had never seen Alicia that upset.
No, upset is an understatement. She was livid.
"Here
I am, trying to be a good friend and comfort you and say it's going to be ok,
and all you can do is make unwanted advances on
me?" She sounded slightly hysterical.
"Alicia,
it was just a kiss…" I hadn't really recuperated from crying to begin
with, and my voice became wobbly.
"Yeah,
maybe for a dyke like you," she said scathingly. "For normal people,
that was disgusting and gross and…ugh!" she shrieked.
"Oh,
so the truth comes out now, does it? You never accepted me. You were just
faking it! Behind my back, you were probably the one starting all those rumors
about me and Laura!" I was crying freely now. "I can't believe you! I
thought you were my best friend, but now I know the real truth, I guess…"
I ran out of the room with tears streaming down my face, I called a choked
good-bye to Mary Ann, and drove home as well as I could when I couldn’t see.
Two
weeks later, we moved away.
"…Joy?" I jerked back to
the present. Alicia's hand was on my thigh, and she was looking at me with
concern. "You ok? You really spaced out there."
"Yeah, sorry.
Just…remembering…" I sighed.
"Look, you know I never meant any
of that shit I said that day, right?" Alicia looked heartbroken at
remembering it. "If I could, I would have taken it all back. I was
just-" she sighed. "I was scared. Like I said, I was still in denial.
Now I know how much I truly do love you."
I laughed. "I love you
too." She grinned and captured my lips in the sweetest kiss I've ever had,
and I fell back on her bed, happy.
"Mmm…love you," Alicia
murmured as she ran her hands over my stomach afterwards. My fingers were
absently braiding little pieces of her hair and I sighed, pressing a chaste
kiss on her throat. There would be marks there tomorrow, I thought to myself,
grinning.
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