Chapter Text
Leighton lifted an eye open. The light was just starting to shine through the window as the sun began its climb into the morning sky. She snuggled into the soft pillow and closed her eyes again. The bed was comfy, and she’d spent the last several days lounging there until the late morning. She’d gone up to Tatum’s apartment at Essex four days after speaking to the older blonde on the phone from her bedroom in Southampton. Her parents didn’t seem to care that she wanted to go back to school a week early and Nico sure didn’t, so she packed a bag and lined up a car service to take her north. Despite Tatum being at practice or with her team most of the day, getting to spend the nights together had been totally worth it.
The last few days had followed a similar pattern. Tatum’s alarm would go off (early- way too early), and the blonde would quietly get up and get ready for the tennis team’s first training session of the day. Leighton would stay in place curled up under the covers, and she would occasionally sneak in glances at Tatum while she got dressed. She couldn’t help it. She appreciated just about every single tennis outfit that the other woman owned and there was something decidedly sexy about the tight ponytails that she pulled her hair into. Tatum made a green smoothie every morning before she left, and while her dedication to it was admirable, Leighton still had zero desire to try one. Once the blender stopped rattling and the front door closed, she would typically fall right back asleep.
Eventually, she rolled over peaked at her phone. She noted that it was just slightly after 10am and getting to the point where she just felt plain lazy not getting out of bed. It was odd, even when Tatum wasn’t in the bed with her, she still liked being there. The bed actually smelled like the other woman, and it made Leighton cringe to think that she was actually sappy enough to like that.
She made her way from the bedroom and into the main area of Tatum’s apartment. The space was nice. It wasn’t huge by any means. Most of the off campus apartments close to Essex were pretty standard, but her furniture and decor were curated in a way that gave the space a stylish and classy feel. She particularly liked the living room, which had a pretty light blue couch in the center that brought out the blue hues in Tatum’s eyes when she sat on it. Aside from the style, the couch was extremely comfortable too. Leighton should know- she’d had her back pressed into it several in the last few days.
She made herself some coffee and a light breakfast, then spent the morning browsing the internet for items that she and Kimberley would need for their dorm room. Her philosophy was the more that she purchased, the better, given the stylistic choices she’d seen so far from Kimberley. Last year had been different. She’d spent all summer planning her suite with Esme and Francesca. After the dumb bitches had blindsighted her and left her with strangers, the only part of her dorm space that Leighton had been able to decorate to her taste was the little corner near her bed. This year would be different. Thankfully, she was going to be living with a real friend.
A few minutes after noon, she heard the front door unlock and she turned around as Tatum walked in through it. She was juggling a tennis bag and what looked like a small bag of takeout food in her arms.
“Hey,” Leighton tilted her head curiously. The older blonde typically didn’t come back until around dinnertime, so this was new.
Tatum dropped her tennis bag and walked toward the kitchen counter. “Hey,” she returned. “I brought lunch. I literally could not do another meal at the dining hall.”
Leighton got up from her spot on the couch and walked towards the kitchen to see what she brought. The blonde lifted several items from the bag and glanced at Leighton. “Salad or wrap?” She asked.
Leighton smiled. That was nice of Tatum to think of her. She glanced at the items, and figured that she should probably stick with the salad since unlike Tatum, she hadn’t spent her morning burning calories and doing cardio. “The salad looks good,” she nodded.
“Perfect,” Tatum reached for the wrap and immediately ripped the paper opened. “I’m starving.”
Leighton watched her with a little amused smile as she immediately tore into it.
“Mmm,” Tatum let out a satisfied little moan. “This is my favorite wrap they make.”
Leighton glanced at the item. It looked like it was stuffed with chicken, apples, maybe some arugula. It actually did look good, but she was more interested in an innuendo. Because seriously, how did Tatum manage to make eating a wrap look sexy? “Keep making sounds like that and you’re going to wind up being late for your next practice,” she told the blonde with a suggestive smirk.
Tatum finally looked up from her lunch. She gave a look that was half-smile, half-smirk, but all dimpled grin at the idea of their lunch turning into a hook up.
The idea wasn’t totally out of left field. In the few days since Leighton had arrived back in Vermont, they’d had more hookups than she could count.
“As enticing as that sounds, Coach wants us back from lunch sooner than usual today,” Tatum finally said. “We have some team activity tonight so she’s letting us out of afternoon practice early. She wants us to like bond with the new freshmen or whatever,” the older blonde gave an annoyed look and an eye roll.
“Bond with the freshmen,” Leighton narrowed her eyes. “Should I be concerned?”
Tatum let out a little laugh. “I don’t have a thing for freshmen if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“Mhm,” Leighton kept the bit going. She wasn’t serious. She had to work her butt off to land Tatum in the first place, and it hadn’t been her being a freshman that won the older woman over.
Tatum briefly abandoned her wrap and walked towards her bedroom, shedding her tank top along the way. A drawer opened and she grabbed a fresh outfit out for afternoon training. “No need to be concerned. There are no hot lesbian freshmen on our team this year.” After putting on the fresh shirt, she walked back in to the room and picked her wrap up and continue where she’d left off.
Leighton took a moment to give the new outfit a once over. “I don’t think that they need to be gay when you’re showing up to practice looking like that.” It wasn’t the first time that Leighton had just outright admitted how hot she thought Tatum looked in her tennis clothes.
The older blonde looked up and met her eyes. They shared a laugh and she shook her head at Leighton’s antics. Things had been good the last few days. Light. Easy. Fun. Sexy. Leighton would be totally fine if school never started and they continued living every day this way.
“Any big plans this afternoon?” Tatum asked.
Leighton nodded. “I think I’m going to Uber downtown and get some things. I ordered most of what I want for the dorm, but there’s a few more random things I can pick up.” It’s not like she would be caught dead shopping at Target for a rug or something, but she wanted to grab some little items, like a bag of coffee from the shop on Main was was ten times better than Sips.
“Want to borrow my car?” Tatum offered.
Leighton gave her an amused look in response.
“What?” The older blonde pushed her brows together.
“It’s cute that you think I have a driver’s license,” Leighton laughed.
Tatum blinked at her. “I’m sorry… what?”
Leighton shrugged, unbothered by the other blonde’s apparent shock.
“Why don’t you have a license?” Tatum pressed.
“Why drive when I can be driven?” She flipped back.
Tatum’s mouth opened like she was about to say something, but nothing came out. Instead, she tilted her head to the side and let out a laugh on huff.
Leighton kind of loved when she made Tatum speechless. She gave a pleased-with-herself smile from across the counter. It was nice to be unapologetic about being spoiled.
Tatum shook her head and reset her face. “Well would you like to be driven downtown? I can drop you off and then I guess you could Uber back.”
“That would be perfect actually,” Leighton nodded. See? Who needs a license when you have someone willing to be your chauffeur?
Tatum dropped Leighton off before she went to her afternoon practice set. The blonde wandered around downtown and poked in and out of shops for several hours. The small area was far from a shopping mecca, but there were a few stores worth stopping in to look around. It was also nice to get outside and stretch her legs. Since Tatum had mentioned that team bonding included dinner, Leighton grabbed some takeout too while she was out before finally Ubering home.
She didn’t assume that team bonding would take all night, but when 10:30 hit and Tatum still wasn’t home, so decided to just go lay down. It wasn’t like she didn’t think that she couldn’t text the older woman. She knew that she could, but she didn’t want to be needy.
She woke up some time later when the other side of the bed dipped down. Tatum inched across the mattress and pressed her body into Leighton’s, slightly rousing her from her sleep. Tatum slid her arm around Leighton’s body and pulled her close into her. Leighton felt herself smile. This had started back at Tatum’s house on Long Island a few weeks ago. Neither one of them had pushed to cuddle in bed before that, but something had shifted in their relationship that weekend and it had only increased since then. They’d spent every night curled around each other in Tatum’s bed since Leighton had got back to Vermont. Leighton leaned back into her to bask in the warmth of her body. Tatum tightened her hold and nuzzled her neck slightly while letting out a little “mmm” against her skin. Leighton really liked this cuddly version of Tatum. It was very girlfriend-like for someone who claimed to not want to put a label on their relationship. It was intimate and it gave Leighton further confidence that things were good between them, label or not.
“What time is it?” Leighton asked, voice somewhat hoarse from sleep.
“11:30,” Tatum answered in her own low voice.
That was late. Part of their routine the last few days had been getting to bed early enough that Tatum was getting enough sleep for morning practices. That 5:30am alarm was going to come quick.
Tatum spoke again, as if she was reading Leighton’s thoughts. “Coach pushed practice time back an hour and a half for us tomorrow,” she explained.
“That’s nice,” Leighton yawned slightly. “You’re two episodes behind me on Love is Blind now, though.” She smirked into her pillow, knowing that the older blonde would be annoyed that she watched episodes of a show they had been watching together without her.
“Ugh,” Tatum scoffed. The air tickled Leighton’s neck.
“Maybe if you’re nice to me, I’ll rewatch them with you.”
“I think I can do that,” Tatum tightened her grip again. They bother drifted off to sleep after that.
The next day, Tatum was up and out before 8am. Leighton had plans to go to campus as well. She’d received her textbook lists for most of her classes and figured that she could go to the bookstore to beat the rush and get what she needed. Thankfully, campus was a reasonable walking distance from the apartment, so she wouldn’t have to Uber.
She threw her AirPods in her ears and started the twenty minute walk. It was actually her first time since being back in Vermont that she had set foot on Essex’s campus and she felt a warm feeling in her chest almost immediately. She thought back to exactly a year ago when her father drove her all the way from Manhattan to Essex. The four and a half hour drive hadn’t been terrible, per se. Her father’s genuine excitement had rubbed off on her as he raved about the New England trees, the New England air, the New England everything. She wouldn’t say that she was obsessed with New England in the way that he was, but as she looked at the green trees and stone buildings that adorned Essex’s campus, she felt an undeniable sense of home.
So much had happened since that day last year. She’d ditched Esme and Francesca (or rather, technically she was ditched by those bitches, but there was no way that she was going to actually admit that). She had met her roommates, here real friends, Bela, Whitney, and Kimberley. She’d had a meltdown, was forced to volunteer at the Women’s Center as a result of said meltdown. Met Alicia, dated Alicia, and then gotten her heart broken by Alicia. She finally came out to her friends and then the whole campus. She met Tatum. She came out to her Dad. She dated and broke up with Alicia for a second time. She found an academic path that she actually excelled at and was weirdly proud of. There had genuinely been so much change in a relatively short amount of time. When she actually thought about that, it made her head spin a little, but yet she still felt a sense of calm as she walked through campus. The change had been good. It had lead to growth. And she felt pretty happy with the way that her life was going now.
Several minutes into her walk, she looked up and saw the one place that had been such a major catalyst to her change. The Women’s Center was just as she left it. The brownstone building that had been allocated for the center was unassuming, but Leighton knew first hand how important the work done inside that door was. She was excited to get to work this year and help not just queer women, but every woman on campus and off who could benefit from their work.
She would be lying of course if she said that a little part of her wasn’t nervous to get back in there. She and Alicia were cordial, but they hadn’t spoken since July when Alicia’s text had almost derailed her relationship with Tatum for a second time. She knew that Alicia was mature. She wasn’t likely to make things weird for Leighton in any way. Leighton was pretty sure that they could be friends. She was ready to finally try the whole ‘staying friends with exes’ thing that she’d heard so many other gay women talk about. She wasn’t worried about her feelings coming back, not really anyway. They’d tried a real relationship and found that they didn’t work together. Plus, she had moved on with Tatum- for real this time. Whatever they were doing now had so much more substance than back in the spring.
She wondered if she was supposed to disclose her new relationship to Alicia. She’d done that last time. The two had even met at that awful fundraiser that she and Tatum had fought at. Later on, when she was dating Alicia, the small brunette hadn’t really held back her opinion of Tatum. She thought that the blonde was shallow and bitchy. Leighton had pointed out that she’d acted similar during her first few weeks at the Women’s Center, but Alicia had proudly told her that she’d grown, and she wasn’t like that anymore. Leighton knew that Tatum’s behavior that night wasn’t totally indicative of who she was, but there was no way Alicia would know or see that. She just hoped that there wouldn’t be any drama. She really wanted this to work. She wanted both parts of her life to coexist.
She wasn’t naive, though. She knew that there was a possibility that Alicia wouldn’t approve of Tatum as her girlfriend. If that happened, she could probably live with it… but what if Tatum couldn’t handle her time at the center and, by association, Alicia? The older blonde hadn’t mentioned a single thing since their argument back in New York. Was she over it? Leighton hoped so.
As she kept walking, she caught herself walking in the opposite direction of the bookstore. Her feet had somehow, consciously or unconsciously, taken her in the direction of the athletic fields. The tennis courts were the first athletic facility in the large area. She scanned the court from the hill that overlooked them and saw Tatum toss the ball up and deliver a perfect serve over the net. She moved aside as the next teammate replicated the action. Leighton realized that they must be practicing thier serves today. She pulled out her cellphone and snapped a quick picture of the courts. She sat down on a bench and sent the photo to Tatum, following it up with a message. I might be biased, but you’re definitely serving more than just aces over there. She hit send and smirked down at the message on the screen for several moments. She felt quite proud of that one if she did say so herself.
Her phone buzzed in her hand at a response in the message box. Meet me at the locker room entrance?
She looked back towards the courts and noticed that the drill had ended. Most of the girls were standing at their bags drinking water while some of the coaches instructed the few others who likely needed extra help. She could see Tatum, but she doubted that the other woman could see her. She assumed that photo must have given her location away. She shoved her phone in her purse and walked the path to the shared athletic facility where the locker rooms and coaches offices were. She obviously wasn’t too busy to say hi.
When she got close, she saw Tatum waiting for her outside of the door, holding a big water bottle. “You’re a little far from the bookstore.” Her lips curved into a full dimpled smile.
“I took a detour,” Leighton smirked. “Wanted to stretch my legs.”
“Mhm,” Tatum nodded along as if she knew the excuse was a total lie. She used her keycard and opened the door, holding it opened for Leighton to walk in.
Tatum walked over to a big water fountain, and Leighton followed her lead, watching on as she refilled her bottle.
“How’s practice?” Leighton asked.
Tatum looked up. “I think everyone is a little bit tired from getting home so late last night.”
“What were you guys doing anyway?” Leighton asked.
“Watching some dumb move,” Tatum rolled her eyes. “I honestly wasn’t paying attention. I would have just left, but none of the other upperclassmen did, and I didn’t want to look like a bitch.”
Leighton walked over to her and raised a brow jokingly. “Would not have been very captain-y of you,” she said.
“And it was even more annoying because it meant that we didn’t get to do anything last night,” Tatum continued.
“Do you mean do things like watch those episodes of Love is Blind or like…”
“No,” Tatum shook her head. She took another step closer to Leighton and now she was all up in her personal space. “Other things,” she said pointedly.
Leighton smirked. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what those other things were. She reached a hand out and trailed her fingertips up the blonde’s bare thigh and thought for maybe the millionth time how much she fucking loved tennis skirts. It was becoming a problem. Or maybe not. Maybe it was actually a solution. She squeezed the top of Tatum’s thigh and leaned in to press her lips into the other woman’s.
Tatum smiled against her lips. After a moment, she sat down her water bottle and put both of her hands on Leighton’s cheeks so that she could deepen the kiss.
“Mmm,” Leighton heard herself groan into the other woman’s mouth. She hadn’t been expecting a midday make out session and wondered why this was the first time in the several days of being back that she’d ventured over to the tennis courts if this was what had been waiting for her here this whole time.
Tatum dropped one of her hands to Leighton’s hip and guided her back several steps around a corner that led to the bathrooms.
They broke the kiss briefly, as Tatum reached for the handicap stall door and swung it opened before tugging them both inside. The kissing resumed the second the door was closed and if Leighton was with literally anyone besides Tatum, she’d probably baulk at the idea of a bathroom hookup. But then again she’d done this plenty of times as a teenager and this bathroom was considerably nicer than some of the bar bathrooms she’d settled for in the past. And the person was better than any random she’d been with. That part was important too.
Leighton moved her hand back to Tatum’s thigh and continued its trajectory further north underneath her skirt. Tatum broke the kiss and let out a series of pleased giggles when Leighton’s hand made it to the fabric of her underwear.
“Aren’t these skirts supposed to have like spandex built in?” Leighton wondered.
“Some do,” Tatum nodded with another light laugh.
Just not the one’s that Tatum wore… apparently.
“Are you complaining?” Tatum asked. Her voice was notably lower and definitely a touch more seductive.
The tone sent a jolt to Leighton’s core. She ran her fingers back and forth over top of the fabric between Tatum’s legs. She could feel the heat radiating and knew that the other woman was turned on too. She wanted to feel more. It brought her back to that day outside of Tatum’s pool house in the summer. The weather hadn’t been the only thing that was hot that day.
She pushed the underwear aside and slid two of the fingers through Tatum’s folds, causing the other woman to let out a breathy moan against Leighton’s lips.
“Shh,” Leighton giggled slightly at the response. She hadn’t seen anyone else in the locker room, but that didn’t mean that they could just act like they were in Tatum’s bedroom earlier.
The kissing resumed and Leighton let her fingers continue to explore. Tatum was already so wet and they slid back and forth with ease. Tatum reached her own hand out and found the waistband of Leighton’s linen pants. She yanked her even closer and then pushed her hand underneath where she cupped Leighton’s already throbbing core.
Leighton broke the kiss and let out a puff of air because fuck, that felt amazing. She pushed against the other woman to get some friction and then connected their lips again. She took her two fingers and teased Tatum’s entrance briefly before pushing inside of her. She pumped in and out several times and continued to push her body against Tatum’s hand. She could feel her own heat pooling and knew that she was just as soaked. They repeated the motions for several minutes. Occasionally, Leighton let out a rough breath, and she tried to swallow all of the little whines that Tatum was letting out into her mouth.
Tatum adjusted her hand slightly, so that her fingers were pressing right up against Leighton’s clit. The younger blonde felt her stomach tighten up right as the motion pushed her over the edge. She broke the kiss and let out a series of harsh shakey breaths into Tatum’s collarbone as she rode the orgasm out.
It took a second to get her bearings again, but once she did she concentrated on her own work. She sped up the movements and curled her fingers inside of the other woman. About a minute later, Tatum let out a little cry, and Leighton had to use her other hand to cover the other woman’s mouth to prevent any more sounds from coming out when she came swiftly after that.
Tatum let her head fall back against the wall. She was still breathing heavy and looked like she was in a state of bliss. She opened her eyes and made eye contact with Leighton. Her mouth curved into a smirk and she bit her lip slightly.
Leighton had a similar look on her face. She was pleased with herself and didn’t really care if her expression basically spelled that out.
The older blonde adjusted her skirt back into place so that it didn’t look obvious as to what she’d just been doing. “I need to get back out there,” she whispered.
Leighton nodded. She leaned in for one last kiss and opened up the stall door again. They walked out of the bathroom area and shared a quiet laugh at the sheer idea that they’d just hooked up in a bathroom in the middle of one of Tatum’s practices. When they rounded the corner they looked up and noted two figures about ten feet away staring them down.
Whitney and Willow were both dressed in their soccer practice clothes, and each had an expression on their face that told Leighton that they’d at least heard something.
Tatum looked back and forth between the three girls. It was about as close to awkward as Leighton had ever seen her, but she still kept her cool. She pushed her lips together and sheepishly walked past them to continue on to the exit, leaving Leighton alone with two of her friends.
Whitney and Willow watched Tatum leave. The second the door closed, Whitney snapped her head towards Leighton with an eyebrow arched pointedly. “Are you fucking kidding me?” She asked rhetorically. “When did you even get back to school?”
“Uhh… like four days ago,” Leighton answered.
Willow watched on with her brows raised, looking mildly amused by the whole situation.
“You seriously can’t quit that girl” Whitney laughed, though her expression still remained incredulous. “I guess she wasn’t on a brunch date with someone else after all then.” Whitney asked, referencing Leighton’s mid-Summer freak out that Tatum was seeing other people.
“Um, no, she was not. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t act all crazy and argue with her about it on a balcony on the Upper West Side though,” Leighton divulged.
“You are crazy,” Whitney agreed with a nod.
“I thought I told you that twincest was a phrase,” Willow stressed.
“Would you move on from your look-a-like if she was that hot,” Leighton raised a brow.
Willow tilted her head. “I think I should take offense to that, but I’m feeling too impressed right now in this moment to do so.”
“But seriously,” Whitney pointed a finger. “You cannot be fucking your doppelbänger in our locker room.”
“It’s your locker room?” Leighton prodded.
Whitney clicked her tongue. “You know Essex doesn’t allocate enough funding to women’s sports that we have our own.”
“However,” Willow interjected, “this is a safe space meant for serious athletic training. Not whatever the hell you two were up to in here.”
Leighton let out a sheepish laugh and shook her head. Hopefully her friends hadn’t heard too much.
“We have to go but… text me,” Whitney eyed her. “I think we have some catching up to do.”
“I will,” Leighton nodded.
She watched them walk away and then let herself out of the athletic facility that she was definitely not supposed to have access to. She eventually made it to the bookstore and then headed back to Tatum’s apartment.
The whole event came up again later that night while she and Tatum were eating dinner.
“Do you think your soccer friends were onto us earlier?” Tatum asked. She had just sat down on the couch across from Leighton. They were eating pasta, or ‘carb loading’ as Tatum called it. The older blonde had made it instead of them ordering in, so it was actually kind of a treat.
Leighton tilted her head and pushed her brows together in a no-bullshit look.
Tatum grimaced. “Did they hear anything?”
She asked.
“I didn’t ask for details,” she shook her head. “But I’m pretty sure you got me banned from the women’s athletic facility.”
Tatum let out a little chuckle. “I’m surprised you weren’t already banned honestly.”
Leighton’s mouth dropped in faux outrage at the comment. She reached forward and pushed at Tatum’s shoulder. “This is 100% your fault. You and those freaking skirts you wear,” she gave a little laugh.
“Riiight,” Tatum narrowed her eyes jokingly. “Because I’m sure if I switched to leggings you would start saying no to me. I saw you eyeing me up during Pilates class last year.”
Leighton sighed. She was pretty sure that Tatum could wear a cardboard box and she’d still be into her- and that was saying something because she put a lot of stock in to fashion. She was in way too fucking deep with this girl. “Do you know how embarrassing it is for your friends to call you out on having public sex?” She asked.
“Not the public sex part, but I did get called out by Kate two days ago about that hickey you left on my thigh,” Tatum arched a brow.
“I’m not sure why Kate was eyeing up your thigh in the first place,” Leighton lifted her own brow right back.
Tatum chuckled and shook her head at the comment. Kate was very straight and they both knew that. “Anyway, Whitney wasn’t too pissed, was she?” She redirected.
“No,” Leighton shrugged. “I think that she was more mad that I didn’t tell her I was in town.”
“You didn’t tell her you were here?” The blonde’s brows furrowed.
“No,” Leighton shook head. “I thought that would have brought on a bunch of questions.”
Tatum just looked further confused at the response.
“Like about us and what we’re doing,” Leighton clarified. “You said you didn’t want to label things, so…”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think that meant keeping it a secret that we’re together,” Tatum responded. Her tone was still confused, if not a little agitated.
Leighton’s eyes widened. She’d been through this before and no, that wasn’t what she wanted either.
“I mean, Kate knows that we were dating,” Tatum continued. “I told her on the drive up here.”
“I’m glad you did,” Leighton told her.
“Okay, what am I missing then?”
Leighton sighed. “I mean, Whitney knew that we were seeing each other over the summer. I’m just not really sure what I would be updating her on.”
“That we’re dating,” Tatum told her as if it was totally obvious. “That we’re exclusive. I mean that’s what we said we wanted to do right?”
“Yeah, I’m just not really sure what makes that different than being an official couple,” Leighton told her. It was something that had been on her mind since their conversation on the boat. If they were dating and they were exclusive, what exactly was the difference?
Her comment made Tatum stop in her tracks. She pushed her lips together, and while it looked like there there was plenty on her mind, nothing was coming out of her mouth.
Leighton could see that she was going to need to push a little bit hard if she wanted an answer. The thing was, it wasn’t like she wasn’t happy. She definitely was. Getting that confirmation that they both wanted to keep seeing each other, only each other, when they went back to Essex was exactly what Leighton had wanted. There was something that she couldn’t quite figure out, though, and now seemed like the first reasonable opportunity to voice it. “Is there something holding you back from wanting to make things official?” She asked.
Tatum held her gaze for a brief moment before shaking her head and looking towards the floor. “It’s the beginning of a new year,” she gave a little shrug. “I’m sure you want to go out with your friends. I might be busy with tennis. I think it makes the most sense to just see how things go,” her voice had dropped to a noticeably quieter tone.
Leighton kept her eyes on her. She felt her own head shake slightly. Neither of those two reasons seemed major to her. “Come on, I’m not that obsessed with going to Theta parties,” she told Tatum with a little smile on her face. “They’re basically all the same by this point.” And anyway if the question was whether or not she wanted to dress up for Theta’s Heaven and Hell party or spend the night with Tatum, she knew which she’d rather choose.
Tatum gave a brief smile in return. “Or like, what if you have a hot grad student TA for one of your classes?”
Leighton let out a full laugh at that. “I don’t think there’s a single hot person besides me that’s ever taken Complex Analysis.”
“I’m just saying,” Tatum redirected. “We don’t know what will happen this year.”
“Right,” Leighton nodded and arched a brow. “You could have a breakdown and decide to get bangs or something and I might not be attracted to you anymore. What then?”
Tatum scoffed. “Please, I’ve never had a bad haircut in my life.”
“Tatum,” Leighton looked at her seriously. “I don’t think this is about your tennis schedule or some non-existent TA.”
Tatum’s eyes met hers, but she didn’t confirm or deny Leighton’s statement.
Leighton sighed to herself. She was giving Tatum every opportunity to speak up, but the other woman wasn’t budging. God damnit… she fought the urge to roll her eyes. Why did she have to fall for the one person that was possibly more stubborn than her.
They stayed at an impasse for several moments. Just as Leighton was about to move on and just eat her freaking pasta, Tatum finally spoke up. “I mean… when do you start back up at the Women’s Center?”
Leighton blinked. “When classes start… why?” She answered slowly.
Tatum gave a light shrug. “I was just wondering…”
Right….
Similar to how Tatum was able to recognize Leighton’s bullshit, she was starting to get a handle on when Tatum was bullshitting her too. She wanted to call her out on it, but talking about it might mean fighting about it, and she really wasn’t ready to rip off that bandaid again. Not yet, anyway. Instead, she opted to pick up the remote and offered to rewatch the episodes of their tv show that she’d watched without Tatum last night. It earned a smile from the other woman and they both went back to eating their dinner in peace. Leighton reminded herself that things were good and she was really happy. There was no sense picking a fight tonight. They could cross that bridge another day.
Two days later, Leighton walked up to a stately brick building on campus. She glanced at the Greek letters on top which read KBR. She had dreamed of being a member of Kappa for years. She wanted to be a member, and then the Social Chair, and then Rush Chair, and finish off as President, just like her mother had been when she was at Essex. She’d squeezed her mother’s Kappa pin in her hand at every rush event last fall for good luck, willing it to help her get into the sorority. When she called her mother to tell her that she’d gotten in, she’d never heard Mimi sound more excited in her life. She was proud of Leighton and in turn, Leighton was proud of herself.
She walked under the white marble columns and up to the front door, looking around briefly to double check that no one was around. She’d texted with Whitney just a few minutes ago and her friend had said that there were no Kappa girls on campus right now, but that didn’t mean that Leighton didn’t feel just a little bit uneasy. She juggled the smoothie tray that she was holding and moved it to one hand so that she could use her other hand to punch in the key code and gain access. The door opened right up for her. Leighton briefly wondered if maybe the organization should consider changing their code between semesters, but whatever, that wasn’t her problem. Not anymore anyway.
The house still smelled the same. It was clean and carried an oak-y smell from all of the historic wood that lined the interior. She climbed the staircase and walked down the long hallway to a room located in the east corner. A plate on the outside was inscribed Social Chair. It was originally supposed to be Leighton’s room this year. She had been thrilled when the Kappa girls had chanted their way through her dorm room to tell her the news. She’d drank champagne out of their giant trophy and accepted the position along with the room that came with it. Once the excitement wore off, though, she considered what it would be like to live in the Kappa house instead of with Bela, Kimberly, and Whitney. Her freshmen roommates had become her best friends. Despite their quirks, she actually liked living with them. She felt genuine friendship back from them and trusted them more than she’d ever trusted anyone. She couldn’t name one person in Kappa that she wanted to hold more than a five minute conversation with let alone actually open up to. She’d felt zero remorse when she left Kappa and officially de-pinned. It helped that her mother actually had her back for once, but even if she hadn’t, Leighton knew that the decision was best for her.
She knocked on the bedroom door several times and waited for its new occupant to open it for her. She heard some shuffling inside and Whitney appeared in the doorway a moment later.
“I come bearing gifts,” Leighton smiled and held up the tray that she’d been carrying with two smoothies in it.
“After traumatizing me this week with your locker room antics?” Whitney laughed.
“Mhm,” Leighton smiled and lifted the tray towards her.
Whitney inspected the smoothies and brightened up. “Oh! Is that the one with Açaí and Pomegranate?”
Leighton took it from the tray and held it out to her. “Chia too! Very healthy.” She nodded. She’d been living with an athlete for almost a week now, she knew the way to their hearts.
Whitney accepted the smoothie and walked into the room. Leighton took in the space as she followed her. She’d never actually gotten the chance to see the bedroom before. She’d just been told that it was one of the best rooms in the house. She glanced around the large room, and yeah, it was sick. Much better than what she was going to be moving into instead.
“Pretty nice, huh,” Whitney lifted a brow.
“It is,” Leighton agreed. “But then when I think about who would be living in this hallway with me it feels a lot less nice.”
“Not as bad as the person who I would have been living with,” Whitney snipped as she took a sip of her smoothie.
Well, it seemed like her friend was still holding a grudge. “I take it you haven’t spoken to Kimberly all summer?” Leighton asked.
“Nope,” Whitney shook her head.
Leighton silently reminded herself not to ever get on Whitney’s bad side. Thankfully she wasn’t planning on making out with anyone’s ex-boyfriend anytime soon. “How’s Jaydon?” She switched the topic to Whitney’s mother’s intern that the other woman had been crushing on all summer.
Whitney plopped down on her bed with an excited look on her face. “Okay I finally made a move,” she divulged.
“And?” Leighton asked as she took a seat at the bottom of the bed.
“We went on a date his last week in DC,” Whitney blushed a little. “We kissed.”
“No sex?” Leighton lifted a brow.
“No sex,” Whitney shook her head.
“You fucking prude,” Leighton laughed.
“Stop,” Whitney laughed and tossed a stuffed animal at her. “I think he’s going to try to come visit sometime this fall. We’ll see.”
“Damn, this is serious!”
Whitney shook her head. “It’s really not. It’s his last year at Rice, so we’ll see.”
“I think you have a thing for older guys,” Leighton teased. It was maybe toeing the line given Whitney’s disastrous affair with her soccer coach last year, but the other woman didn’t seem pissed.
Instead, Whitney was ready to give it right back to her. “I don’t think I’m think the only one. Are you gonna tell me how you went from full meltdown mode over Tatum to banging her in the locker room before the semester even starts? I assume you’ve been staying with her?”
Leighton let out a little laugh. She could feel her cheeks heating up and she tried to will herself to chill. “Things are good,” she nodded, keeping it brief.
“Yeah no shit, you two looked giddy as fuck the other day. So are you dating again now or what?”
Leighton shoved the straw to her smoothie up to her face and took a long sip. “Mhm,” she nodded.
“What the heck this is big news,” Whitney’s eyes got wide.
“It’s good,” Leighton repeated with a nod. “We um, we haven’t put a label on it, but we said that we don’t want to see other people… so that will prevent any future meltdowns if she decides to call a meal with a friend a date again.”
“So you’ve just been shacking up in her apartment like a regular house-hoe,” Whitney joked.
Leighton shook her head and let her eyes roll slightly. "It’s not just physical.” Though that part was admittedly very good. “Things definitely shifted towards the end of the summer. Plus ever since I got up her she’s been oddly… cuddly.”
“So why no label then?” Whitney asked.
It was a good question, considering Leighton had just recently brought it up to Tatum herself. “She told me that she wasn’t ready for that yet. I think there’s something holding her back,” Leighton divulged.
It wasn’t easy to talk about this. She wasn’t super used to just dishing on her personal life and by extension her relationships, mostly because before last year she hadn’t actually had a relationship with anyone before. It hadn’t worked out with Alicia, but Leighton felt like she had learned a lot from their time together. Tatum was different though. She didn’t want to fuck this up, so she wanted to be open with Whitney about what was going on. Despite her friend’s track record of unsuccessful relationships, that didn’t mean that her opinion couldn’t still be helpful.
“Don’t you think that’s kind of messed up?” Whitney asked. “Like she doesn’t want you to date other people, but isn’t willing to lock you down herself.”
Leighton twisted her lips. It wasn’t like that… not exactly. She had been fine with this arrangement when Tatum had told her at the end of the summer that she wanted to keep dating and be exclusive. Truth be told, she was fine now too, though their talk the previous night had been on her mind pretty much constantly. She wanted them to have a relationship with a good foundation, but she was worried that maybe they weren’t on the same page. She looked down at her hands and opened up to Whitney about it. “I think she’s worried about me going back to the Women’s Center,” she told her, picking at one of her nails slightly.
“Oh shit… so she doesn’t actually trust you,” Whitney deducted.
Leighton sighed. “I haven’t given her a reason not to,” she shrugged.
“Except you broke up with her the last time you went to the Women’s Center and saw your ex.”
The statement was blunt, but it wasn’t wrong either. Leighton shook her head. “I’m over Alicia. I’ve told Tatum that.”
“And then she saw a text from Alicia on your phone… what like a month ago?” Whitney pointed out.
“I literally let her read those messages!” Leighton argued. “Alicia was just asking when my classes were so that she could scheduling shifts at the Center.”
“I don’t think that knowing you have to interact with and see your ex several times a week is going to inspire confidence. I don’t think I could ever date Canaan again knowing that he works with Kim,” Whitney shrugged.
Leighton forced herself to take a deep breath so that she didn’t blow up on Whitney about how these two situations were not the same. (And also how she was already tired of hearing about this drama already.) “So what?” She asked. “You’re basically saying I’m fucked unless I quit the Women’s Center?”
“No…” Whitney shook her head. “I just think it’s going to be something that you two will have to figure out if you want this to actually work.”
“So what do I do?” Leighton huffed.
“Don’t fuck your ex,” Whitney told her.
“I don’t have any plans to do that.”
“Well start with that and go from there,” Whitney shrugged. “There’s not much more you can do unless you want to have a fight over it.”
“I definitely do not want to fight with her,” Leighton shook her head. “Last time we did I accused her of sleeping with her straight friend from high school.”
Whitney’s eyes got wide and she shook her head in disbelief. “And you wonder why you she doesn’t trust you?!”
Leighton just stared back at her and drank her smoothie.
“Just work on building trust. Don’t try to get with any other girls. Don’t accuse her of getting with any other girls,” Whitney directed.
She made it sound so easy and sensible, though Leighton knew that her friend was rarely sensible herself.
But she could try. She would try. If being monogamous and building trust was all that she needed to do, she could do that.