Saturday, February 4th

167.)

Saturday was jam packed with plans. We were doing lunch with Lin, then dinner with Becky. On top of all that, my mom thought we could start the day off with a nice breakfast. I was going to be so full by the end of the day.

"I'm getting lunch in like, an hour," I told her. "Don't fill me up with pancakes."

"They're crêpes," my mom corrected me, like I didn't know what a crêpe was. And putting fruit on it did not make it a crêpe.

"You just want to hang out with Blossom," I said, picking up a cut strawberry.

"Is it a crime to have breakfast with my daughter's girlfriend?" she asked.

"It should be," I sighed.

My mom and Blossom got along just fine. Sure, my mom could sometimes be, well... a mom. And Blossom was sometimes, well... Blossom. But neither of those two facts seemed to bother either of them. More than anything, I was anxious about what Blossom was going to wear. It was snowing again.

"Hey, Mom? You remember when we used to bake cookies in the middle of the night?"

"Yeah, I remember," my mom said cheerily, sliding the too-fat crêpes off the skillet with a spatula. She layered them on a plate.

"Why did we do that?" I asked.

"Hm, well... sometimes you had trouble sleeping. Especially if something big was going on at school the next day. A big presentation, or a project, or you had to do your mile run in gym class. Stuff like that. You'd come into my room and lay with me."

"I remember that," I said. Everything felt more comfortable when she was around.

"But it never helped you get to sleep," my mom went on. "You'd just lay there and stare at the ceiling all night. So I started getting up with you and making cookies."

"Why cookies?" I asked.

"That's what my mom used to do with me when I couldn't sleep," she shrugged. "We would go to the kitchen and measure out all the ingredients. When you're a kid, that stuff takes a lot of focus. You don't want to put in too much or too little of something, you know?"

"Huh..." I didn't remember that part. Nowadays, whenever I baked, measuring things was second nature. It was so routine, like driving a car.

"Then, when the cookies were in the oven, we sat down and drank tea while we waited. You usually fell asleep on the couch before the cookies were done."

I didn't remember that part either. Probably because I fell asleep.

"Did we ever talk about anything?" I asked. "Like, school or whatever?"

"Not until the next day," she said, drizzling chocolate sauce on the pancakes. "Before school, I asked how you were doing. Most of the time, you felt better. On the days you didn't, I let you stay home and called in sick for you."

Oh yeah. I had more missed classes than anyone else in my middle school, but I always had good grades and I never felt very behind. My mom would go through my homework with me and help me catch up on anything I didn't understand. It wasn't until high school when my test anxiety started to get bad. By then, I was too grown up to wake up my mom in the middle of the night.

Did she tell me that? Or did I make up that rule on my own?

I was pulled out of my introspection by the ringing of the doorbell. I left the kitchen to let Blossom in.

It was snowing outside, and Blossom Brixley was no slave to the cultural and fashionable norms of cold weather dressing. However, she was also a very astute young woman and didn't want her girlfriend's mom to think she was stupid, obstinate, or forgetful. So when Amy opened the door to her house, she was greeted by Blossom in perhaps the most sensible ensemble she'd ever worn.

Mostly.

She was wearing brown furry boots that came up to just below her knees, paired with thick, cream-colored woolen socks that came to just above her knees, a blue skirt that still made sure to leave a good few inches of thigh exposed, and an oversized cashmere cardigan that came down over her hands, with holes for the thumbs. Her hair was in low pigtails, and her ears were covered in large fluffy earmuffs that matched the soft blue of her skirt and scarf. She definitely looked a lot more suited for the cold weather, but in a "this is what TV says cute girls wear in the cold" kind of way and not a "this is actually practical" way.

Still, it was something.

"Hey cupcake!"

There was no hope of getting Blossom to stop saying "cupcake" in front of my mom. I was already dreading the inevitable glances from Lin. And trying to curb her into using my name instead would only elicit an "Amy", which wasn't much better. She just had to cutify me.

"You look nice," I said, an understatement as usual. "And you're dressed like a normal person."

"I dressed appropriately for the weather, thank you very much," she said, stepping inside. "My goodness it's warm in here though."

I was starting to think Blossom had adapted to the winter, like a wolf growing a thicker coat. I was suddenly very curious how she felt about hot summers. I knew she liked tanning.

"My mom made pancakes," I said, offering to take her scarf and her earmuffs as she undressed herself.

Blossom wound up stripping off her earmuffs, her scarf, and her cardigan. Underneath she wore a top that showed off her belly button and the shiny diamond piercing within. When Amy looked at her skeptically, she puffed out her cheeks.

"I dressed warm! We're inside now! Did you mention pancakes?"

"It's nice to see you, Blossom," my mom said, plating the table with sprinkles and other things more designed for ice cream sundaes than pancakes.

"Thank you for having me," Blossom said gratefully. We both took seats at the table and my mom did the same.

"So what are your plans today?" she asked, even though I'd told her already. She was asking Blossom this time.

"We're touching circles - we're doing lunch with Amy's bestie, and then dinner with my bestie. So it's basically like a meeting of the UN, but slightly more important."

My mom laughed at that. Blossom was smart, and jokes like that earned her a lot of points. But that was just part of how Blossom was.

"So you're getting lunch with Lin," she repeated. "Are you nervous about that?"

"Well, I don't know how much Amy told you, but I am a bit of a socialite. Intimidating social engagements aren't anything new to me. So naturally, when it comes to meeting my girlfriend's best friend for the first time, I am absolutely terrified. But Amy said that Lin only eats girlfriends-who-don't-measure-up on Wednesdays and so I'm hoping the fact that today is a Saturday will be some protection."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," my mom said comfortingly. She was always a comforting person, but she also wasn't wrong. She'd known Lin for a while, and she knew the kind of person Lin was.

"What about your best friend?" my mom asked. "Tell me about her."

"Becks? Well, she's definitely one of the best gift-givers I've ever met. She's thoughtful, and bright, and always thinking like five steps ahead. She was a cheerleader, just like me, and we have a lot of similar high school vibes that we bonded over. She's super clever too, and she's super loyal. All that good stuff you could ask for in a bestie, right?"

Wisely, perhaps, Blossom elected to leave out the part about Becky being a little bit in love with her.

"It sounds like you have a really great friend there," my mom smiled. "And you sound like a great friend to her too."

Blossom gave a little embarrassed wave and started to eat her pancakes, which my mom incorrectly corrected as crêpes. They talked a little bit about school and Blossom's career plans. She also had a lot of questions about sororities, because she had never belonged to one. Blossom said that I should pledge, which I immediately shut down.

All in all, breakfast was a hit. There was only one problem.

"I ate way too much," Blossom said, climbing into the driver's seat of her car. "Now Lin is going to think I'm one of those 'girls who don't eat anything' types."

"Just tell her that my mom made you crêpes, and she'll understand." I buckled myself into the passenger seat and checked my phone. Lin was on her way to the diner.

During the car ride, Blossom went through several questions and often repeated them.

"Is there anything that I should avoid talking about?"

"Does she have any trauma triggers?"

"What have you told her about me?"

"Does she hate me because of our past?"

"What's her favorite food?"

"Do you think she'll like me?"

Clearly, Blossom was nervous. But nervous didn't mean she didn't want to be doing this. More so, Blossom wanted to make a good impression, because there was nothing she could imagine worse than dating someone and having their best friend think you're not good enough.

"You're really overthinking this," I sighed. Still, I almost never saw Blossom's insecure side. It was a little endearing. And with today's outfit, she almost struck me as a normal person.

"I just want her to like me," Blossom said.

"She will. She's easy-going. That's part of why we are friends." Lin's casualness was the perfect complement to my dismissiveness. Whenever we would get into deep talks, we acted like we were trying to math out a geometry problem.

"I'm not as sure as you are, but then again I've never met this woman." For a girl who went to countless social gatherings and could navigate through just about any social encounter, Blossom's anxiety was certainly telling.

"Doesn't she get pissy at you for spending every weekend with me, the way Becky used to? And still kind of does, but not as much nowadays?"

"Not really," I shrugged. "She tutors on the weekends, and she does raids in her Final Fantasy game. I admit, we haven't been hanging out as much... but she hasn't said anything about it."

"Do you think she's the type to?"

"Probably not," I admitted. Maybe I should ask her, just to be sure.

Blossom and I pulled into the parking lot of a diner, a place where Lin and I would get lunch sometimes. Lin had the home field advantage, if that mattered at all. I knew dinner with Blossom and Becky was a lot fancier.

Lin had already secured us a table in the mostly empty diner. A booth by the windows. She waved me over and got up to say hello.

"Hey Lin. This is Blossom. My, uh. Girlfriend." That word was still weird to me. "Blossom, my best friend Lin."

"Nice to finally meet you," Lin said with a smile. She was underdressed, as anyone at a diner at two in the afternoon should be. She was also dwarfed by Blossom, who was almost an entire foot taller. My mind immediately leapt to Blossom picking up Lin and setting her on her hip, discreetly checking her diaper with a finger in her legband.

Thankfully, that didn't happen.

"And you, too, Lin! I've heard fantastic things from my cupcake about you. Are we a hugger?"

That was definitely a good early-meeting question to ask, because everyone hugged within the sorority. And Blossom was very affectionate with Amy as well. But when it came to meeting new people for the first time… well, it was always best to ask or else risk being too-handsy or too-standoffish.

"Uh, yeah alright."

Blossom gave Lin a hug, which was coming up on the total number of hugs Lin and I had ever shared. Lin gave me a look afterward, something that either said "oh, she's that kind of girl" or "did she call you cupcake?". I didn't want to address either one of those, so I took a seat and Blossom slid in next to me.

I passed Blossom a menu, but neither Lin nor I got one for ourselves. We already knew what we wanted.

"I've never eaten here before, do you have any recommendations? Lin? Cupcake? I don't wanna order that one thing nobody ever orders."

There wasn't any awkwardness to Blossom. Honestly, when it came to social awkwardness, she probably hadn't experienced that in years. But at the same time, her fluidity and comfort was different from both Amy and Lin, and that could have been seen as its own kind of awkwardness.

Lin gave me another look. Yeah, it was definitely the "cupcake" thing. I shrugged my shoulders at her, because I didn't have a good explanation. Blossom was just like that.

"Uh, pretty much any of the breakfast stuff is good," I said.

"Or the wraps," Lin added, who always got the same gyro every time.

"Well, maybe we could share something?" Blossom asked Amy. Then, to Lin: "Amy's mom made pancakes."

"Ah." Lin nodded in total understanding.

In the end, Blossom and I split an omelet.

"So, Amanda tells me a lot about you," Lin said to Blossom. "You're in a sorority, right? What's that like?"

"It's pretty great. It's like being a sitcom sometimes, and always having your own built-in social network. But it can also be pretty exhausting because there's a lot of expectation around the social profile of the sorority and on making sure there's always appeal to keep new members wanting to pledge. It's kind of like a family but also like a business. I'd say it's pretty rewarding, honestly. Like you know in those old movies where they show the lifestyles of rich people in the olden days, like in Victorian England and the like? Debutante Balls and all that junk? It's probably not that different."

Blossom took a sip of her DC from the straw, a maneuver she perfected where she did so without breaking eye contact.

"Have you ever thought about pledging?"

"Oh, no," Lin laughed. "I don't think sorority life is for me. Unless there's a video game sorority or something, like that house in Princess Jellyfish. I would probably fit in there just fine."

There was a blank stare on Blossom face for a moment before she cocked her head to one side and asked, simply;

"Amamizukan? Oh my days that takes me back years! I don't think I know of any sororities like that one, but to be honest I think there should be because there's definitely gamer boy frat houses and it's kind of sexist and antiquated that there's no sororities with the same."

"You watch anime?" Lin asked with a bit of surprise.

"Not so much anymore, but I loved that show when I was in middle school."

"What about Ouran?"

"Obviously."

"Sakura Trick?"

"That's the one with the lesbians that defy physics?" Blossom asked. "Yeah, I saw it."

"Kill la Kill?" Lin asked.

"That's kind of a fighty one, right? I don't watch a lot of fighty ones."

"It's worth it," Lin said. "Even with all the overt sexual stuff. And the animation is great."

"Do you just watch a ton of lesbian anime?" Blossom asked.

"Mmm... I think Tumblr pushed me out of my boylove phase. I'm a contrarian sometimes."

"I know exactly what you mean!" Blossom said, almost too loudly for a diner. "Now let's talk Homestuck."

By the time lunch came, I think Blossom was better friends with Lin than I was! Who would have guessed that the thing they would have in common was Tumblr. And I never saw a lot of Blossom's geeky middle-school girl side, so I was having a good time playing wallflower.

"It's just such a shame you can't really show it to anyone anymore because it's such a big ask and they took away all the video stuff and so like what's the point, right?"

"I so know what you mean," Lin lamented.

Blossom had gone through her entire DC during the conversation, and ordered a refill once the food was delivered. It wasn't like her to be so open about her interests from that period of her life, but Lin was in the same sphere as Amy and that made it seem okay to share.

"I like you, Lin. You're good people."

"Yeah, I think so too," Lin laughed.

Conversation slowed down a little while we ate. I watched Blossom interact with Lin, like it was so easy, so natural. They were total strangers half an hour ago. I wondered if I could act that way with Becky. Answer: absolutely not. Blossom was just a little more impressive than I thought.

"Next weekend, we could meet up at Amanda's and watch Promare," Lin said, as the three of us were walking out the door. Of course my house was the default; it always was.

"We usually do beach house stuff on the weekends," Blossom said apologetically.

"Oh, right. Hm. On a weekday then, like Wednesday or something."

Lin hugged Blossom goodbye, then gave me a hug too for whatever reason. Probably so it wasn't awkward that she was hugging Blossom. I promised to text her.