1.10 Bella Who?

Previously...

As Primrose gets older, both Tilly and Amelia's friend Laura starts to get anxious to have kids of their own. Amelia of course is the shoulder to cry on when it doesn't "happen", but she is also the first to know when Tilly finally comes with the good news that she is pregnant! In the Sterling household, however, things are not as peachy. Primrose starts asking for a sibling, but Amelia refuses. It eventually estranges them from each other completely and while Amelia mourns over it, Primrose starts to enjoy rebelling against her mother.

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Years passed, bringing sorrow, anger, happiness and every other normal human emotion, to the little family. Mort marveled at the fact that he was still alive, quite well and could go about his life much the way he had always done, despite his old age. He still went to work and he still made sure that his family – his number one priority – was safe and happy. Mort was convinced that his little Prim was what kept him young. “But she's not so little anymore” he thought with a sting in his heart as he looked at her dancing and enjoying herself in the garden on her fifteenth birthday.

He saw a young woman now, not a little girl. Her ballet shoes and tutu were long gone. The music box he had once given her that she had guarded as if it was a golden treasure, was stowed away at the back of a closet with the rest of her now useless “childrens toys”. Primrose and her friends didn't play tag anymore, they practiced putting on make-up and plucking their eyebrows. And her sense of style... Well, he had to admit he didn't understand it. But he was proud of her that she was confident enough to be herself.

After the party guests had left, the father and daughter bumped into each other in the garage. Mort was going to the laundry room while Primrose was just about to go to bed. They looked at each other for a moment.

“I'm very proud of you, Prim.” He said earnestly. She looked up at him, tears filling her eyes. How much she loved him. She could always count on her daddy to have her best interest in mind. And he was proud of her. It meant so much to her. They hugged in silence for a long time, both knowing that there would never be anything that could break their bond.

“Hey, I'll help you with the laundry.” Primrose said and went to ransack the baskets around the house as well as snatch several barely dirty towels from their hangers. She liked doing the laundry, so much in fact that she often overdid it, throwing things in that hadn't even been used since their last wash. She actually liked most types of cleaning and tidying up, to her parents great delight, so they took the good with the bad and didn't complain when clothes only a few months after purchase were losing their color and shape due to over-washing.

Primrose had also taken to the hot tub, with such enthusiasm that her parents often had to drag her out of it late in the evenings in fear of her falling asleep and turning into a prune.

In short, the young woman loved cleanliness and abhorred dirt and muck. The only exception to the rule was paints, for she was still an avid artist, spending many hours a week in front of her easel.

In school Primrose was doing fine. She wasn't a straight A student but she could work hard when she had a mind to, and to help her were several clever friends who always willingly lent a hand when she was struggling. The most recent of these acquaintances was the mysterious Bella Bachelor who had just moved to town with her family.

On Bella's first day at school it had seemed to Primrose as if this new, apparently confident but silent girl had set her eye on Primrose from the start. She had even sat down next to her at lunch, a bold move some might say, but very natural to Bella as it would turn out. Now they were very close and even though Primrose felt that there were many things she didn't know about her friend, she knew instinctively that she would always be there in an hour of need.

“Ugh, this is a nightmare! How does Mr. Lucas expect us to learn all this in a week? Aren't we allowed to have lives any more?” Primrose groaned as she was sitting at Bella's, studying for an upcoming maths test.

Bella, who was sitting next to her and struggling almost as hard, looked up only for a second.

“Guess not.” She said doggedly and went back to the problem at hand. They were silent for a few minutes.

“Would you like to stay for dinner?” Bella asked casually and Primrose said yes very quickly. The delicious smell of mince pie had reached her nostrils from the kitchen and although her mother was a good cook, Primrose felt that a little variation was just what her taste buds needed. Besides, with a little luck Bella's older brother Michael would have dinner with them and he was serious eye candy, in Primrose's opinion at least. The dinner didn't quite turn out as she had anticipated, though. Granted, Michael did show up and he sat quietly at the table while the rest of the family conversed, a behavior that Primrose had witnessed a couple of times before.

She watched him absentmindedly when suddenly the words of Bella's mother probed her consciousness.

“Oh, Bella, your old girlfriend called. Miriam. She wanted to know... if you had a new girlfriend.”

The words were startling for several reasons, the most acute being that Primrose had never heard Bella talk about her love life, and certainly never let slip that she liked girls.

“Mother!” Bella exclaimed indignantly. “Ria would never ask you anything like that, you listened to my voice mail again!”

For a moment Primrose thought that a row would ensue, but Michael unexpectedly caught the two women off guard, effectively breaking them out of their incipient fight with the words:

“Well, do you?"

There were a few, long seconds of silence before Bella answered.

“No.” And that was that. As the dishes were carried out to the kitchen the two young women remained at the table, very uncomfortably looking in different directions.

It was clear that Bella had not wanted Primrose to know, and now that the cat was out of the bag it seemed she had no desire to talk to her. With a heavy heart Primrose went home and got to bed. Despite her best efforts she didn't get any more studying done that evening. She just couldn't stop thinking of Bella and this new discovery.

On the following Saturday, after a few awkward days in school where the two girls had both avoided each other, Primrose's heart leapt as she saw Bella's name on the display on her cell phone.

“Primrose Sterling!” She answered almost breathlessly even though she had only been taking the trash out when her phone started buzzing, and shouldn't have been out of breath at all.

“Hey, it's Bella...” She heard the faint voice say on the other end. “I'm sorry about the last few days. I'm sorry it got so awkward. It was totally my faul-”, but she didn't get to finish, as Primrose started speaking over her voice.

“No, no it's alright, really. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” There was a silence.

“You didn't.” Primrose didn't know what to think. Or what to say. But Bella spoke first.

“Actually, I'd like to talk to you. In person, you know. Can I come over? I really want to see you.” The last sentence had been blurted out, as it seemed, without really thinking. Primrose's cheeks flushed and her fingers trembled over her lips.

“Oh-okay, sure, you can come over whenever you want. I'll be here.” They hung up. Dumbstruck, she stood staring at the white picket fence for a while. Forbidden, exhilarating, lustful thoughts swirled around in her head. At length she decided that some painting would calm her nerves and she got to work with an unusual fervor, even for her.

About an hour late she could hear footsteps on slippery flagstones followed by a gate opening and closing by a gentle hand.

The feet took a few steps more on the hard stones before falling silent onto cold, slightly wet grass. In a few moments the warmth of Bella's body stirred the invisible field around Primrose, her personal body zone. She could feel it even though she hadn't actually been touched. Slowly she turned around, trying to force her expression into mild delight; no anticipation, no over-excitement and above all no desire could she allow to seep through to Bella's consciousness. She soon perceived, however, that Bella's face was full of badly concealed emotion.

She looked at Primrose as if she was a rare butterfly; yearning to touch but afraid to hurt or scare her off. Or was she just imagining things in the gloomy evening light? Bella stared down at the ground determinedly, as if gathering courage, then she looked up, straight into Primrose's eyes.

“Prim. I really like you. I didn't realize it at first, I guess I just didn't want to. Put then the other day, when my mom said that thing... About Ria. My old girlfriend. I mean, I know it was kinda shitty of me not to have told you myself, but I guess I was afraid of what you would think of me. But then, when you suddenly knew. All these feelings started surfacing, it was like my entire picture of you, in my mind, you know, changed. That's why I've been avoiding you. I'm sorry. I needed some time to think.” Primrose stood dumbfounded. But Bella wasn't finished. She had rehearsed this speech, Primrose could tell, and by the resolute look on her face it didn't seem to be over just yet.

“I don't know how you feel about this stuff. You told me you've never been with anyone. So... Umh...” Her voice was becoming softer and less audible by the second. She was loosing her nerve. “So uhm, I was thinking that maybe... I mean, you can't know until you've tried, right?” For the first time since she had started speaking, a smile curled her lips. A sheepish smile. Primrose was astonished, but not completely caught off guard. For days she had been thinking about all of this, and she couldn't deny even to herself that thoughts and fantasies of this kind had been dominating her mind since she heard Bella's mother utter those words.

“Okay.” That was all she could say. She knew it was lame, her inner demons screamed in her head to come up with something, anything, else to say. But Bella seemed relieved.

“Really?” Her fingers touched Primrose's bare shoulder softly, trailing up to caress the nape of her neck.

It sent shivers of delight through her body. Wow. Was this what love felt like?

The newly upgraded relationship between Primrose and Bella was exhilarating, mind-blowing and full of passion. Primrose rapidly experienced her first cuddle, her first kiss, her first make out session... And her first skinny dip.

Keeping it a secret from her parents made it all the more exciting. They still went over to each others' houses, where they would play innocent whenever people were around, and leap into each others arms the second they were alone. But more and more often they would meet in public places, at times when Primrose's parents surely wouldn't be out and about.

She didn't know how to tell them. Bella, on the other hand, didn't care if her parents found out, they already knew that she was a lesbian.

One afternoon when they were messing around in the pool Bella caught Primrose completely off guard with the question:

“Do you want to go to prom with me?”

“Me? I mean... yeah, of course.” At first she had felt reluctant, but really, why wouldn't they go to prom together? They hadn't exactly guarded their secret at school. A few times they had even made out in the schoolyard and Primrose had relished in the silent attention they got from the nearby clique of boys who stared at them as if they were aliens popping down from the sky. 

Well, super hot, naked aliens, maybe.

For her prom outfit Primrose had decided on a cute, white dress with some sexy, black boots, but as she was walking down the sidewalk towards the school she felt very out of place.

She usually didn't care what people thought about her looks, but what would Bella think? Maybe she should have worn something more like an evening gown or something? Prom wasn't just any party after all. As the lights from the school came into view Primrose saw her girlfriend immediately. She was standing in the gloomy park on the other side of the street. And boy, did she look good. She was wearing a dark, red gown and her hair was in a messy up-do. Primrose's heart sank. In this dress, next to Bella, she would look just as much out of place as she felt. With faltering steps she came closer to Bella, who was looking her up and down with an appraising look.

“Wow. You look so freakin' hot!” she exclaimed and grabbed Primrose's hands.

She was relieved, and quickly returned the compliment, only changing the words “freakin' hot” to “incredibly beautiful”. Maybe it sounded cheesy, but it was completely true. And the prom was incredible too. No one seemed to take notice of the two of them holding hands, dancing and kissing throughout the night. But apparently some people had, because when it was time to announce the prom king and queen, Bella and Primrose seemed to be the only ones who were shocked when it was announced that the school would have two prom queens this year! In a daze Primrose stumbled out into the school yard and looked up at the sky with an amazed look.

“Maker, whoever you are, if you exist or whatever. If you do. Thank you for tonight.” She couldn't remember getting home. So when she heard the next day that someone had spiked the punch, she wasn't very surprised.

Even though Primrose had always been good at making and keeping friends, there was one person she had neglected for years, and she was starting to feel very bad about it, not even really knowing why they had drifted apart. That's why, one afternoon when she saw him sitting in the park with his books, she made herself go up to him.

She could see from a distance that he was studying for some kind of biology exam. Maybe that was why he was sitting by the pond. He looked at it every now and then, seemingly scrutinizing the blank surface.

“Hey you...” Primrose said softly as she stood behind him, looking out at the pond.

Deric started and spun around.

“Why did you sneak up on me like that?!” he growled and went back to his books without waiting for an answer or apology. Primrose took a deep breath. She knew that he had every right to be mad at her, but right now all she wanted was to keep ignoring him until the end of the world. With a great effort she stayed, and spoke up again.

“I'm sorry I startled you. I just wanted to say hi. It's been a while. How have you been?” Deric sighed and seemed to give up on the hope that she would leave him alone. He turned and stood up.

“I'm fine. And you're fine, I'm sure, with that girlfriend of yours and all your friends. We don't need to do this.”

Primrose was the one to be startled now. What did he mean? Her expression must have showed some of her confusion, because he went on in a tone that one might use to explain to a two year old why you can't eat candy every day.

“I think you have enough friends, you don't have any need for me. Why would you talk to me, I'm just that kid you played with when you were little. Right?” Primrose felt very offended, but these words had stirred a feeling of guilt in her as well.

“I don't know why I haven't talked to you much these last few years. But I'm sorry.”

With that she turned on her heel and went home. Tears were burning in her eyes, not so much because of Deric but because she had realized something about herself, something that she had been trying to suppress for a long time.

 

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This chapter was a struggle! I don't exactly know why, I just had so much of Bella and Prim and I couldn't really decide what would bring the story forward. But I hope you like it! The next chapter will be very much filled with emotion, so I think it's good that this one if kind of lighthearted. As always there are extras on the “What You Didn't See”-page. By the way, I've been thinking of changing the name of that page, it's such a mouthful. Any suggestions? “Extras” maybe...?

Also, sorry about the clothing inconsistency of Prim in the beginning of the episode, I had to go back and snap a shot that I'd missed, and I totally forgot to make sure she was wearing the same outfit.

And lastly, if you recognize some of the background characters in this chapter, they're from the Frascati Legacy, one of my absolute favorite legacy blogs which can be found at  http://frascatilegacy.wordpress.com/.

/Alexandra

I kinda dropped the ball on this one. I was supposed to put this into the last chapter, how Prim got a music box for her birthday, but I forgot! Instead, I had to mention it in passing in this episode, and so I thought I'd put some flash back images here on the very useful "What You Didn't See"-page. :D

I have no idea what happened right here, but the place suddenly seemed incredibly crowded!

Hot tubs are awesome!

"Oh, crap, what have I gotten myself into?"

Skinny dipping is fun and all, but maybe you should grab a towel before you get out, at least if your hot tub is on the top of a hill that people can see from miles away...

Weirdo face.