#jaida x jan | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

artificialqueens · 2 years

Text

Get Rid of All Your Sorrows in the Summer City (Jankie, Lemyanka, Halldoll, Crygi) - Mar

A/N: Part of the Jankie parenthood universe. Set after Nicky leaves. Can be read on ao3.

Summary: The family goes to the beach to get some rest, solve some things, lick their wounds.

***

“Alright!” Jan claps. “Everybody ready?”

She surveys the row of people in Jackie’s living room, all weighted down with various travel bags and rucksacks.

“Not yet,” says Jaida, focused on slathering sunscreen on —two very disgruntled— Gigi and Crystal. “Y’all ain’t getting skin cancer on my watch,” she says, moving to pat the leftover sunscreen on Lemon’s cheeks until Lemon swats her away.

While Jan gets them all in a little duck row to leave, Jackie goes around the house one last time, ticking off her mental checklist. Windows shut, lights off, Jan’s contact solution and the blanket Gigi needs to sleep when they have nightmares.

“Wallets, IDs, car keys, house keys, everybody has their luggage?” She receives a chorus of yes. “Perfect, I guess all we’re missing is—”

“Beach time!” shouts Priyanka as she enters the house, already clad in a bikini top and giant sun hat. The kids squeal and run to her, and Priyanka has to drop her bag to catch them mid-jump. “Let’s go, then, come on!” she says, leaving as quickly as she entered.

“Okay, I’ll lock up here,” says Jackie as she hands Jan the car keys. “Everyone, get in the car.”

“Shotgun!” Jaida yells.

“No!” Lemon screams and runs out the door after her.

Jan clicks the car open and follows her sisters, watching them wrestle to get in the front seat. Lemon is half inside the car, half on the sidewalk, pushing Jaida’s face away as Jaida tries to pull Lemon out by the arm.

“Get. Out,” mumbles Jaida from behind Lemon’s hand. “I called shotgun!”

“Be faster, then!”

“Both of you, get out,” Jackie commands. They stop struggling. “Jan gets shotgun.”

Sulking, Jaida and Lemon get in the middle seat of the van.

“Yes, guys, don’t be childish,” says Jan smuggly, sitting in the passenger seat. Hiding her face from Jackie, she sticks her tongue out at her sisters.

Despite the early hour, the car buzzes with energy. Encouraged by Priyanka, the kids go through every car trip song in the first fifteen minutes, and then rope everyone in a long game of I Spy.

They barely get on the highway before Gigi announces she has to pee.

Jackie glances at her kid in the rearview mirror.

“You couldn't think of that before we left the house?”

Gigi grins and shakes their head.

“I have to go too,” Crystal says.

“Me too, actually.”

“Yeah, same.”

Jackie sighs.

She gets off the highway.

Jackie sets them loose in the parking lot of a gas station and tells them to be back in fifteen. Jan promises coffee and pastries and leaves her with a kiss.

They have two and a half hours of driving ahead. Jackie walks around the parking lot and stretches every muscle, gearing up.

The sun is just now starting to warm up the morning. It is horrendously early. The sisters are fine, obviously, and the kids are too excited to complain, but Jackie’s freelancer circadian rhythm is struggling.

Twenty minutes later, everyone comes back, arms laden with snacks. Jan hands Jackie her coffee and watches her drain it, desperate for more energy.

“Want me to drive for a bit?” Jan offers.

“I’m good.”

With a satisfied sigh, Jackie throws the empty cup in the trash and tells everyone to get in.

The kids have renewed energy and demand car games. Jaida teaches them the alphabet game, and they make use of their newly acquired knowledge of letters to find them in the signs they see along the way. Around the letter R, they both fall asleep.

The ride gets a little more quiet from then on. They make a brief stop so Priyanka can dislodge herself from under Gigi’s head and move to the middle seat, where she can participate in their conversations without waking up the kids. Jackie glances at the rearview mirror and bites back a smile. The middle seat is crowded, and it’s funny to watch Lemon fake nonchalance about the way Priyanka is completely pressed against her body.

Jackie wonders how long that will take. The flirt-fighting has been going on for a while. It’s very clear they like each other; Priyanka’s not subtle at all, and Lemon never tried to hide it.

And still, for whatever reason, they seem to be at an impasse.

Jan thinks Priyanka will break first, but Jackie’s not so sure. She has known her for years, and has seen the worst of her stubbornness.

Either way, it’s entertaining. Their whole friend group has been watching Priyanka deny there is anything going on while she looks at Lemon like she’s two seconds from pinning her down on the nearest surface and— okay, no, Jackie doesn’t want to think about her best friend and her sort-of-little-sister like that. Jackie needs that train of thought wiped from her mind, so she's very grateful for Jan’s attempt to oh-so-casually change the current playlist, and the commotion it brings.

“Hey!” Jaida yells immediately once she sees what her sister is doing. “No showtunes in the car, you know how that ends. Give me the phone.”

Jan huffs and passes her phone to Jaida, who quickly switches playlists.

“How does it end?” asks Jackie, always curious about Jan’s past. Jaida and Lemon have been invaluable sources of endless anecdotes, and she loves any new piece, especially the ones that make Jan blush like she does now.

“‘Kay, so,” Lemon starts, scooting forward. “Jan had just gotten her license, and we were all so excited because now we could drive places without our parents—”

“—meaning they made me their personal chauffeur,” Jan clarifies.

“Hush, I’m telling the story. So Jan’s one rule was that the driver gets to choose the music.”

“Pretty basic rule,” Jan defends.

“You can imagine how much fun that was for us,” says Jaida. “She wouldn’t even let us talk when her favorites were playing.”

“So one day, she’s driving us to some birthday, or something.”

“Cousin Katie’s birthday.”

“Cousin Katie’s, yes. And Jan’s torturing us with her new Wicked CD.”

“Scream-singing the whole way, too. Windows down, hair flying everywhere, you get the picture.”

“Defying gravity starts playing and Jan tells us to shut up.”

“She sings the whole thing perfectly, getting more and more hype.”

“The high notes start. She’s so into it, she’s not even in the car anymore, she’s on a stage in her mind performing her heart out.”

“She starts screaming with her eyes closed and lets go of the wheel—”

“—and the car immediately runs up the sidewalk.”

“Into a tree.”

The girls pause their story because everyone is cackling by then, except Jan, who has her face buried in her hands.

“I was feeling the fantasy,” she mumbles.

“Were you all okay?” Priyanka says through the laughter, though with more alarm than warranted for a car crash that happened ten years ago.

“Yeah, we were all fine,” Lemon says, gently laying her hand on Priyakna’s knee.

“The car sure wasn’t,” Jaida says. “We get down, the whole left side of the hood is dented, the light fell off, everything.”

“Jan’s crying, thinking she’s gonna get shipped off to military school.”

“Lemon had to call mom and explain everything while I tried to convince Jan not to become a fugitive.”

Jackie knows about Teresa. She has heard the stories. She imagines having to tell the woman she crashed her car, and shivers.

“Was she angry?”

“She was worried, mostly,” Jaida says. “They rushed to pick us up, and mom kept us on the phone the whole time.”

“They found us and immediately started patting our skulls and limbs like they could find a fracture just from that.”

“But we were fine, and they calmed down.”

“And then,” Lemon says, her eyes lost in the distance. “Then came the nightmare.”

“I had never been yelled at like that in my life,” Jan says with a shudder. “You don’t wanna see mom angry.”

“I believe you,” Jackie says.

Meeting Jan’s parents is something she anticipates and fears in equal measure. She’s had success with both sisters, even if it took Lemon a minute to warm up, but parents are a different beast. She’s never done it, for one. Her only serious ex was deep inside the closet, and no one else ever reached that level of importance in her life.

Jackie looks at Jan, her purple swimsuit peeking out under her tank top, hair tangled from the wind and cheeks flushed from embarrassment, and she knows she would face anything for her. Even Teresa’s wrath.

“I thought mom would tear her vocal cords from yelling that much.”

“And dad was even worse,” Jan sighs. “He did that thing where he doesn’t yell, but you can tell how disappointed he is from one look.”

“Oh, I hate that,” Jaida says. “I got the look the only time I ever failed chemistry. Never again.”

“Hm,” Lemon says, thoughtfully. “Sounds awful.”

“Shut up—” “Shut the fuck up, Lemon,” her sister yell, making her snort with laughter.

“What? What’s up?” Priyanka asks.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Lemon is Little Miss Perfect.”

“She can do no wrong in our parents’ eyes, ‘cause she’s the princess of the house.”

“It’s your own fault,” Lemon said. “You two wore them down so much that by the time I started misbehaving, they were too tired to stop me.”

“They let her get away with everything, I swear,” says Jan.

“Everything! She didn’t have to sneak out of the house because our parents would drive her to every party, not even a curfew or nothing. They’d pick her up at any time in the car, with blankets and a snack.”

“Back in our day,” says Jan, pointing between herself and Jaida, “we had to climb down the roof under my bedroom window and pray the gutter didn’t collapse under our weight.”

“All that effort just to go to a party in someone’s dingy basement, to drink cheap beer and those nasty cocktails our friends invented.”

“Remember that Halloween party, when someone called the cops?”

“We were jumping over fences in high heels.”

“I lost a shoe and we both lost our purses.”

“That one was fun to explain to mom and dad,” Jaida laughs. “I can’t believe they didn’t buy ‘a man stole both our purses and Jan’s left shoe’.”

Jackie laughs along with everyone else, but then she glances at the rearview mirror. In the backseat, her child and their best friend sleep like two perfect angels. She fears what their teenage years will put her through.

With music and conversation, the trip goes by faster than expected. When they finally reach the town, Priyanka wakes up the kids.

“Look,” she whispers, “there’s the beach.”

Gigi and Crystal yawn and look out the window with sleepy eyes, but they perk up when they see it for the first time.

The big, wide sea, waiting for them.

“Can we go to the beach now, mom?”

“We’ll go in a minute, honey, we just have to drop everything off at the house first.”

The kids keep their eyes on the water the whole way to the house. It’s a small place right on the sand with three bedrooms, nothing fancy but big enough. They will just use it to shower and sleep anyways; the rest of their time will be spent at the beach or around town.

They drop their bags in the bedrooms, everyone claiming a bed and changing quickly to line by the door, where Jaida forces them all to get a new layer of sunscreen. With Jackie’s okay, they all run out the door.

Jan, Lemon and Jaida set up camp as Crystal and Gigi lead Jackie and Priyanka to the water. They squeal when the waves reach their feet, and they scramble back into the grown up’s arms yelling with excitement. Priyanka holds Crystal high on the water and threatens to throw her in, and Crystal laughs and squirms so much that Priyanka almost drops her for real.

Gigi is mesmerized in her mom’s arms, entranced by the waves, and Jackie is mesmerized looking at her child discover a piece of the world.

“Do you like it, honey?”

Gigi nods and rests against her mom’s chest.

“Can we live on the beach?”

Jackie inhales deeply, filling her lungs with sea salt.

A lifetime ago, she chose her career exactly for that reason. So she could pack up her things and go anywhere, any time.

Then Gigi came along, and moving became a bit more complicated, though not impossible. Over time, however, they got attached to their city, their friends, and now they had Jan, and Jan had her job and her family.

Still, nothing was set in stone.

“Maybe someday.”

Eventually, they all get in the water. They make a pact not to splash each other, which is honored for about two minutes before Priyanka starts doing karate chops on the water, spraying Lemon’s face. Lemon protests, but it loses weight with how much she’s giggling. Jan dares Jackie to swim further and further in, and they dive under waves until their companions are only distant voices. Jaida stays with the kids in the shallows, holding their hands to make them spin around, sand flying everywhere.

Around noon, Jan and Jackie herd everyone inside for lunch and try to calm down the kids enough for a nap. Even all of their excitement can’t compete with the exhaustion of a morning spent at the beach, and they’re asleep in minutes.

At four, when the sun is more merciful, they go down to the beach again. The kids head straight for the water with Jan, Priyanka and Jaida, but Jackie sits down to read under an umbrella and Lemon does the same in a towel under the sun. They can’t focus for long. Their eyes are called to the water.

Jan and Priyanka are swinging Crystal over the waves, helping her jump when one gets too close. Gigi has discovered that the sea erases her footprints, so she makes paths on the sand and is delighted everytime she looks back and sees there’s nothing left. Jaida joins Gigi for a while, but soon enough, she starts walking along the water, far away from the rest.

“Time for her daily mourning session,” says Lemon, watching her sister walk away.

Jackie smiles at the concern in Lemon’s voice, noticeable even through the joke.

“She just misses Nicky, is all.”

“I know.”

Lemon watches Jaida for a while, then goes back to reading her book and staring at Priyanka.

Jaida is not alone. Jackie misses her too. She wished Nicky a safe trip before she left, and that was the last time they spoke. In her mind, Jackie’s been repeating to herself that Nicky needs some time to get adjusted to being back in France, but that excuse gets weaker every day and Jackie still won’t text her.

In a selfish, childish way, Jackie is angry. The rational side of her brain knows that Nicky’s her own woman, free to go wherever and build the best life she can. But she misses her friend, and when Gigi asks sadly if aunt Nicky will stay away forever, rationality flies out the window.

The move hit them all harder than expected. After so much change, their group had found its footing, and Nicky was a crucial part of it. Now everything’s off kilter, and they don’t know how long it will take for things to feel stable again.

Jackie wants to ask Lemon if she’s heard when Nicky will come back, or if she will come back at all, but she has a feeling that Lemon doesn’t know either. The person most likely to know is Jaida, and no one dares to ask her.

After some time, Jan drags herself out of the water, away from the three fireballs of energy still going strong.

“Tag in,” she tells Lemon as she points back with her thumb.

Lemon whines, but she still gets up and goes to help Priyanka with the kids. Jan wastes no time to plop down on her towel.

“They’re gonna sleep well tonight,” Jackie observes, watching the kids still jumping around with intact energy.

“We all will,” Jan mumbles against the towel.

“Really? You’re not gonna spend any time with me tonight?” Jackie smiles.

Jan sits up and looks at Jackie, squinting through the sunlight.

“Hm. Maybe. What are you suggesting?”

“That we break in the bed.” Jackie leans over the armrest of her beach chair and slides two fingers under the strap of Jan’s bikini top. “And that you keep this on.” She snaps the strap against Jan’s skin.

Jan bites her lip, leaning forward to kiss Jackie, as languidly as the warm summer day demands.

A blood curdling scream cuts the air.

Their eyes fly to the water, but Gigi and Crystal are safe on the shore.

In the water, however, Lemon sinks Priyanka under the surface and then tries to swim away from the retaliation, but Priyanka resurfaces and grabs her legs to drag her down.

“No, no, no—” is the last thing they hear before Lemon is underwater.

Priyanka’s triumph lasts for a microsecond and then she falls like someone took her out at the knees.

“I never thought I’d have more kids, let alone two twenty year olds,” Jackie says.

“They’re mentally five, put together.”

They watch Crystal and Gigi peacefully build sandcastles. They either don’t notice or don’t care that the waves still reach them and bring down their creations again and again.

“You don’t want more kids?” asks Jan, eyes still on the shore.

Jackie bites her cheek.

It’s time.

She takes a moment, and says the words that have been running through her mind for weeks.

“I’ve thought about it,” she starts, closing the book on her lap. “Once I felt settled with Gigi, I thought, maybe it’s time for another kid. It sounds like the next logical step, doesn’t it? But…” Jackie pauses, looking at Gigi. They’re handing shells to Crystal to decorate the castle. “I really like our life as it is.”

Jan doesn’t say anything. She just rests her chin on her arm on the chair, and listens.

“I don’t want to divide my attention with another kid, when I could focus it all on Gigi. And I know people think only children are selfish or spoiled, but this isn’t the case. Gigi grew up with children, she has friends she sees everyday, she’s well socialized. She doesn’t need to live with other kids to learn from them, you know?”

“She’s a perfect kid,” Jan says with sincerity, smiling fondly in their direction. “Gigi doesn’t strike me as the sibling type, either. They’ve never mentioned wanting siblings, at least.”

Jan watches the kids. They’ve abandoned their castles and are digging a giant hole in the sand, for an unclear purpose.

Jackie watches Jan. She takes her hand and interlaces their fingers, steading herself.

“Do you… do you want more kids?”

Jan smiles at the word ‘more’. She considers the question, not for the first time.

“I always thought I would, because I come from a big family. And I can’t imagine my life without my sisters, but that’s because I have them. And if you wanna talk socialization, or whatever, even with two sisters I was really shy growing up, but Jaida and Lemon weren’t. That kind of thing is very hit or miss, there is no guarantee of anything.” Jan uncrosses her legs and sits up straighter. “Besides, we get along, but I know plenty of siblings who hate each other.”

“Do you?”

“Did I tell you I have an uncle I’ve never met? We don’t even know why, Mom just refuses to talk about him. All I know is they haven’t spoken since before my mom had me.”

The strong grip on Jan’s hand has relaxed. Jackie lays back on her chair.

“Were you stressing about this?” asks Jan.

“No… A little? I didn’t know how to bring it up, but I knew I’d have to sooner or later.” Jackie swallows hard. “I was worried that… that our answers wouldn’t match.”

Jan stands up and sits on Jackie’s lap, taking her face in her hands to kiss her.

“For the record?” Jan says. “I like our life too.”

Jackie’s smile is so beautiful that Jan needs to kiss it a hundred more times.

________________________________________________________________________

The after effects of a beach day are felt by them all.

Gigi and Crystal are a bit grumpy. They get into an argument over what cartoon to watch, so Jackie takes the remote away from them and takes them to their room for a quick nap before dinner. Lemon enjoys having the TV for herself for all of two minutes, before she falls asleep on the couch.

Jan keeps yawning as she makes dinner, and even the hurricanes that are Priyanka and Jaida sit down in silence, scrolling their phones.

The kids wake up ravenous. Dinner is a simple affair, and it’s gone in ten minutes. In a much better mood, Gigi and Crystal finally agree on a movie and spread out on the couch, already sleepy again.

The other kids, however, are back in full force. Jaida, Lemon and Priyanka have decided to go out and they start downing Red Bulls the minute dinner is over, while Jaida Googles every bar and club nearby.

Makeup bags and potential outfits take over their bedroom and spread out to the living room as skirts, heels and can-I-borrow-yours fly across the house. Jackie and Jan watch the chaos unfold from the couch, amused, each with a child’s head on their lap, stroking their hair.

“Do you miss it?” Jackie whispers to Jan as they watch the other girls get ready together.

Jan smiles at her.

“Do you?”

“Fair point.”

Priyanka claims the shower first and disappears in the bathroom. Lemon volunteers to do the dishes for what may be the first time in her life, and Jackie sees why when they hear a yelp from the shower when Lemon turns on the faucet. She giggles and Jaida drags her out of the kitchen.

“It’s like watching kindergarteners with a crush,” Jan says, so done with her sister’s antics.

“You’re doing a disservice to kindergarteners everywhere. Especially these two,” says Jackie, looking at the kids on their laps, who are starting to wake up more with the general mayhem. “They’re married and everything.”

The girls get ready in a cloud of perfume and blush, running back and forth from the living room to the bedrooms to the bathroom. Now fully awake, Gigi and Crystal follow the whirlwind, fascinated with the ritual and begging to be part of it. Gigi teeters around in Jaida’s high heels and Crystal sits down for Priyanka to draw hearts of eyeliner on her cheeks. Lemon straightens her own hair and gets Jackie’s permission to do a few light curls on Gigi’s. Someone’s phone is blasting a going out playlist and Jaida dances around with Crystal on her hip, making her laugh wildly with every spin.

Jan takes control of the music and curls up with Jackie on the empty couch, while her sisters pose for her and ask a million things.

“Jan, can I borrow your blue halter top?”

“Jan, this jacket or this one?”

“Jan, can you do my eyebrows? I can never do them like you.”

Jackie sees that Jan is having fun. Her big heart always gets joy from her sisters’ happiness, but still, there is a hint of sadness in her.

When everyone is almost ready, Priyanka goes to the room to get her jacket and purse.

Jaida peeks down the hallway to make sure the coast is clear and immediately corrals Lemon.

“So?” she says.

Lemon doesn’t look away from her hand mirror.

“So what?”

“Don’t ‘so what’ me, are you gonna do something or not?”

Lemon rolls her eyes and pockets the mirror.

“Shouldn’t you be worried about getting laid yourself? It’s been like a month.”

Jan recoils at her sister’s bluntness. That’s a topic they just don’t touch. Jaida frowns and tenses up, but Priyanka enters the room just then, struggling to get her jacket on.

“What are we talking about?” she says.

The three sisters freeze.

“Jaida getting laid,” Jakies says smoothly.

“Fuck yeah! We’re getting you a little somethin’ somethin’,” says Priyanka, waggling her eyebrows and bumping her hip with Jaida’s. It gets her laughing, and any tension leaves the room.

“Everybody ready? I’ll call a cab.”

“It’s four blocks, you bum. We’re walking there.”

Loudly and chaotically, they all get their things and do last-second touch ups. Lemon and Jaida leave loud kisses on Jan’s cheeks, lipstick marks and all. The girls yell their goodbyes, and they’re out the door.

The house is quiet.

For about a minute, before Gigi trips in their heels and lands on their butt. Crystal rushes to their aid but they giggle and get up, unharmed.

“I think it’s bedtime for us, guys,” Jan says, standing up and stretching. She holds her hand to Jackie and helps her up.

They wash the makeup off Crystal’s face and convince Gigi to get down from the heels. Teeth brushed, PJs on, they set the kids down in the queen bed they are sharing, and read them a story until their eyes close.

Jan and Jackie stay with them for a moment, one on each side of the kids, to make sure they’re really asleep.

Jan’s fingers find Gigi’s hair again, threading it softly away from their face. She traces their forehead, their nose, and smiles when their eyelids flutter.

��I do miss it, sometimes,” she whispers. Jackie finds her eyes in the dim light. “Getting ready with them, more than clubbing. We still do it sometimes, but it’s a rare treat more than a weekly thing. I don’t know,” Jan shakes her head a little, hair falling on her face. “We learned to do everything together, you know what I mean? Jaida and I bought our first lipglosses together, went to our first club together, did horrible things to our eyebrows together. Then we taught Lemon how to paint her nails and walk in heels. We learned to dye our hair in the kitchen sink, we even got our first tattoos together. To see them do those things without me feels… weird.”

There’s a familiar guilt bubbling in Jackie’s stomach. Jan gives her a small smile.

“So yes, I do miss it, I won’t lie. When we started dating, I knew I would be giving up some things, but— Jackie.” Jan’s hand finds Jackie’s over the comforter. “I came into this with eyes open. And I don’t regret it, not even a little bit. I need you to understand this: I’m not losing anything.” She squeezes Jackie’s hand. “We have both made our choices.”

Her smile is genuine, and it calms down the gnawing in Jackie’s stomach.

When both kids are breathing evenly, the women sneak out to their own bedroom.

They fall to bed with kisses and wandering hands, but sleep claims them both soon enough. They stay intertwined until morning.

________________________________________________________________________

Any lingering regret Jan may have had for not going out vanishes the next morning, as she and Jackie walk cheerfully around the park, while Lemon and Jaida drag behind them with giant sunglasses, giant cups of coffee and the hangover of a lifetime.

Priyanka fared much better, and thank God, because Gigi and Crystal keep pulling her towards every loud and flashing game in the park. It leaves Jan and Jackie free to walk hand in hand, feeding cotton candy to each other and enjoying the general honeymoon feeling they’ve had since they got to the beach.

“Gross,” Lemon mumbles behind them after they share a particularly long kiss.

Unbothered, Jan licks sugar from Jackie’s lips.

“What you have is envy,” says Jackie.

“What I have is nausea.”

“You’re just pissy because you chickened out last night and didn’t kiss Priyanka,” Jaida mumbles.

“Oh, I’m sorry for being considerate and not abandoning you in the club!” Lemon says.

“Stop yelling,” Jaida hisses, touching the iced coffee cup to her temple. “And that is a damn lie. You’re just a little chicken,” Jaida teases, pushing Lemon’s shoulder.

“Ugh, don’t touch me, I’m gonna puke,” Lemon says and stops dead in her tracks to steady herself. She leaves with Jaida to go find a table to sit at until they feel like humans again.

Jan spots a ferris wheel and steals Jackie away, after making sure that Priyanka can handle the kids by herself.

Crystal and Gigi take Priyanka all over the park, and finally stop in front of the haunted house.

“Pri, can we go in? Please, please, please?” Gigi begs.

“I don’t know. It looks actually scary,” Priyanka says, eyeing the flashing lights and clouds of smoke that filter out through the open doors of the house.

“It’s very kid friendly until nine,” says the man cutting tickets at the entrance. “That’s when the teenagers show up and we kick it up a notch, but for now, they can handle it.”

Priyanka looks at the house, looks at the kids, looks at the house again.

“Can I get three tickets?”

The kids run inside giggling, each holding one of Priyanka’s hands. When the door closes and they are submerged in darkness, they quiet down.

It’s been a while since Priyanka’s been in one of these, but she knows enough to expect the ghost that jumps out from around the corner.

For the kids, it’s a new experience.

Crystal screams and Gigi lets go of Priyanka’s hand to cover her eyes. Priyanka fumbles in the darkness for Gigi, lest she loses them in the worst possible place, and she’s about to drag both kids outside when Crystal starts laughing.

“Boo!” she yells at Gigi, and they uncover their eyes. “I’m the scariest monster in here!”

Gigi starts laughing at Crystal, and they both make ghostly wails loud enough to drown out the ones playing on the speakers above.

They rush ahead, leaving Priyanka to scamper after them.

The hallways are covered in spider webs, shadows crawl up the walls and every other floorboards creeks. A witch pops up and cackles, and Gigi mimics her laugh. A giant werewolf slashes the air in front of them with its giant claws, but Crystal jumps forward and growls at it.

Priyanka is having a field day. None of the monsters know what to do with the little humans terrorizing their castle.

Right before the exit, they face the final monster. A rotting zombie comes at them moaning and groaning, but the kids jump at him with their little arms raised and yell so loudly that the zombie falls back. Priyanka laughs so hard that she can barely apologize to the guy in the costume.

They leave the house laughing, Crystal and Gigi still jumping around and growling. Priyanka rewards their bravery (and her own) with caramel apples.

________________________________________________________________________

“So why didn’t you kiss Priyanka last night?”

Jaida is almost horizontal on a park bench resting her back on the table, slurping the last of her iced coffee.

Next to her, Lemon is slumped on the table. She lifts her head and her sunglasses are crooked, her hair spiked in every direction.

“I told you—”

“You didn’t want to leave me alone, I know. Cute. What about when I was dancing with that girl, the tall one? I was gone for a full hour.”

Lemon rubs her eyes under the sunglasses.

“I don’t know. It didn’t feel like the right moment.”

“You waiting for trumpets, or something? There are no right moments, you make them.”

“Fuck off with that Disney rhethoric, you know what I mean. We were drunk at a club, it wasn’t the right time to like, open my heart, or whatever.”

“Your heart?” says Jaida, digging her elbows on the table to lift herself up. “Who said heart?”

Lemon starts swirling the straw inside her empty coffee cup.

“I actually like her,” she finally says. “In a really annoying, ‘let’s go on dates and hold hands’ kind of way. Which is annoying. She’s so annoying.”

Jaida smiles at her sister, who won’t meet her eyes, and softens her voice.

“Does she know?”

“I don’t think so. She thinks I’m just bothering her because I want to jump her bones, which I do—”

“Gross.”

“—but it’s more than that. But she doesn’t take me seriously.”

Endeared as Jaida is by her little sister’s pout, somebody needs to talk some sense into her.

“I think that’s because you’ve been doing the adult version of pulling on her pigtails at recess.”

“She bullies me too!” Lemon defends herself. “That’s just how we communicate.”

“And how’s that working out for you?”

“I don’t know, how’s long distance working out for you?"

The cup in Jaida’s hand crinkles, and Lemon knows she’s gone too far.

“Low blow, Lemon,” Jaida says with a terse voice, getting up.

“I’m sorry,” Lemon says, grabbing Jaida’s wrist before she can leave. “You’re right, that was totally uncalled for. And a bitch move.”

“A real bitch move,” says Jaida. She sits back down.

Lemon pushes her sunglasses up into her hair and squints in the sunlight, trying to get used to it.

“You’ve been talking to her, right?”

Jaida nods.

“Everyday since she left. Since the plane, really.”

“And… and is she, like—”

“I don’t know when she’ll be back.”

The ‘if’ hangs in the air between them.

Jaida’s posture gets tense, and Lemon regrets the whole conversation. At least now she has an answer about Nicky, even if it’s not the one she wanted.

“She had to leave,” Jaida says after a moment. “It’s not the same as your thing.”

Lemon bites her tongue and just nods.

“It’s not,” Jaida insists. “You’re not being honest because, I don’t know why, honestly, ‘cause Priyanka clearly likes you, even if she pretends she doesn’t. The girl’s an open book.”

Lemon smiles at that.

“But Nicky had to leave,” Jaida repeats like a mantra. “It was a good opportunity, one she’d waited for her whole life. I couldn’t keep her tied here sewing children’s costumes just so I could have her at my beck and call. That would be…”

“Selfish,” Lemon finishes. Jaida nods. “And that’s not you. But it’s also not the full truth, right?”

Jaida glares at the ground.

“I know Nicky,” Lemon says. “She would’ve stayed for you. Happily. But you didn’t let her make that choice. You practically packed her bags for her.”

“And what would you have done, Lemon?” Jaida retorts. “If you were in my position, if Priyanka had some incredible job offer across the fucking sea that she was willing to sacrifice to be with you. Could you live with that?”

“It is so not the same! Pri and I aren’t even dating.”

Jaida squints at her.

“You’re right, you’re not dating Priyanka, which is what we were talking about. Stop changing the subject, I hate it when you do that.”

Lemon laughs at being caught, and wonders if she should drop the subject altogether.

For how talkative and sociable she is, Jaida rarely talks about the big stuff. She’s a chatterbox with good deflection skills, quick to shift the focus from herself to others, and Lemon only notices because she does the same. They leave the feelings talk to Jan. God knows she has enough for the three of them.

Lemon basks in the sunlight. Even through the hangover, she can see that it’s a really beautiful morning. Warm and sunny, perfect for going to the beach later like they planned. Lemon puts her sunglasses back on, and gets her words in order.

“She’s my friend.”

Jaida turns to look at her.

“Pri, I mean. She’s my friend, and I don’t have a lot of those.” Lemon digs her heel in the grass under the table. “If we date and it goes up in flames, we wouldn’t have that anymore.”

“Why do you jump straight to the worst case scenario?”

Lemon stares at Jaida.

“I’m serious. I know I’m not exactly a success story right now, but look at Jan. She got herself a wife and a kid. That could be you!”

“Ew, why would you say that to me?” Lemon says, scrunching her nose to make Jaida laugh. “Plus, I don’t know,” she shrugs, twisting around on the bench to sit like Jaida, her back to the table. “Our lives are so entangled, we have the same friends. A breakup would get messy.”

“Yeah,” Jaida sighs. “I know.”

Nicky’s move affected everyone. The whole city feels duller without Nicky taking them all to some underground bar, or niche art gallery or exclusive wine tasting slash build-your-own-furniture event that only Nicky could find.

Everybody feels her absence: she is missed by the kids, she is missed at the studio, there is a glaringly empty seat at Jackie’s table when they get together. And Jaida…

Lemon’s heart aches when she thinks back to that first week, when Jaida locked herself in her room for days, barely eating and missing work. It got bleak. Jan and herself had to force Jaida out of bed, followed by days of overseeing her eating habits, making her get dressed and go out, and not leaving her alone for long.

Lemon had seen her sister in bad states before. Sick, exhausted, heartbroken. But she had never seen her give up.

It took many tears and many sleepless nights to bring Jaida back to some semblance of normalcy. They can only hope the worst has passed.

“Your turn,” Lemon says, throwing her empty cup into a garbage can.

“Huh?”

“I opened up and got all vulnerable, now you go. Why is Nicky across the Atlantic right now?”

Jaida shifts in her seat.

“Can we leave this for when I’m less hungover?”

“If you don’t start talking, I’ll scream in your ear at the top of my lungs.”

“Fine,” Jaida relents, shuddering. She’s silent for a few moments. Groups of people stroll by with the carefree air of summer days. “I can’t give her what she wants.”

Lemon frowns.

“What do you mean?”

“You know, for the future. We want different things.”

“What does she want?”

“The typical stuff,” Jaida says with a dismissive wave of the hand.”

“But like, what is that? Have you even asked her?”

“She wants what everybody wants, Lemon,” Jaida snaps. “She wants to get married and get a house, and probably have kids, and a girlfriend who won’t leave for months on tour.”

Jaida sees Lemon’s expression and steadies herself.

“If I’d made her stay…” Jaida continues, quieter this time. “If I asked her to stay, I would owe her too much. I would have to stay more often, for her, and I can’t do that. We shouldn’t have to give up on our careers just to be together.”

Lemon blinks at her. She looks over Jaida’s back, hoping Jan will show up to deal with this topic that Lemon doesn’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole. Jaida’s mommy issues are way above her paygrade.

When Jan doesn’t magically materialize by their side to save the day, however, Lemon has to do her best.

“Have you asked her?” she repeats.

Jaida’s lips tighten into a thin line.

“No.”

Lemon smiles at Jaida and bumps her shoulder, trying to dissolve some of the heaviness between them.

“Where do you get off preaching openness and communication, then?”

“I’m gonna play the ‘big sister’ card and tell you to do as I say, not as I do.”

Lemon laughs and lets the subject drop. She got some wheels turning in Jaida’s brain, and that’s enough for now. They couldn’t keep talking either way, because a minute later, Priyanka and the kids join their table.

“Well, these little monsters terrorized the haunted house,” says Priyanka with a proud smile, sitting with Gigi while Crystal climbs Jaida’s lap. “I hope you two had fun, because they’ll never let us back in there,” she tells the kids.

“Pity, you would have made such a good swamp monster,” Lemon says.

Priyanka smirks.

“Hey, Crys? Show Lemon your growl.”

Crystal roars loudly in Lemon’s ear until it makes her slump face down on the table.

“Oof, not so loud, baby,” whines Jaida, the unfortunate casualty. “Aunty Jai is not feeling so good.”

Jaida glares at Priyanka, who has the decency to look apologetic. Then, she starts playing with Lemon’s hair until the girl lifts her head from the table, and Jaida can’t be mad anymore.

________________________________________________________________________

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Jackie’s eyes snap away from her laptop to the bedroom door, where Jan stands with her arms crossed and her sternest look.

If Jan learned that from Teresa, Jackie may have to postpone the meet-the-parents for some time. Like forever.

“Just sending an email,” she squeaks out. Although, why is she acting like a scolded child? She’s an adult with a job. “A work email,” she says, sitting up straighter on the bed, defiant.

From Jan’s look, it’s the wrong move.

Slowly, Jan walks to the bed. Jackie gulps. Jan takes the laptop and moves it to the bedside table.

“Wait—”

“There are no work emails on vacation,” Jan says, claiming the space on Jackie’s lap.

“But I—”

The protests drown in a fervent kiss that pulls moans from Jackie’s lips. Jan swallows them gladly as she tangles her hands in Jackie’s hair, pulling and messing it up. She sits her full weight on Jackie’s lap and Jackie grabs greedy handfuls of her thighs, her ass, bringing her imposible closer.

Jan pulls back just enough that she’s still sharing Jackie’s ragged breaths.

“No work on vacation.”

“Okay,” Jackie agrees, already chasing Jan’s lips again and why was she arguing at all?

The lingering warmth of the afternoon comes in through the open window. Jan’s weight is heat on Jackie’s thighs, her center is fire against her belly and Jackie needs to feel more of her skin. She tugs at the hem of her shirt until it disappears somewhere on the floor.

Jackie leaves Jan’s lips for a second to drink her in, a soft beautiful the only thing she has time to say before kissing and licking new skin. Jan generously lets her have her way, for about two seconds. They have a miracle of a half hour in an empty house, and she has ideas. Ideas that don’t include letting Jackie anywhere near her laptop. She has a better use for her hands.

Jan likes her thighs bruised, she’s learned. When she walks, she carries the slight ache of Jackie’s thumbprints with her. Now Jackie spreads her open on the bed and digs into soft flesh, marking skin untouched by sunlight, paler than the rest of Jan’s summer tan. Jackie leaves her mark high enough to hide it from everyone’s eyes but theirs. Meticulous, careful, she soothes every bruise with her tongue.

“Jackie,” Jan whines when Jackie gets too lost in her thighs without moving higher.

“Yes?” Jackie asks, faking ignorance.

Jan simply lifts her hips, frustrated.

“Say what you need, baby,” Jackie says, smiling against Jan’s thigh. At her silence, she bites.

“Hmm, please,” Jan whimpers, hips lifting again until Jackie holds her down. “I— God.” She hooks her fingers under Jackie’s jaw and makes her look up. Jan’s big pleading eyes pierce through her. “Please eat me out?”

Jackie moans and takes Jan in her mouth. Her rewards are hands pulling her hair, nails scratching her shoulders and loud whines in her ears.

“More, please.”

Jackie replaces her tongue with her fingers to speak.

“My sweet girl, so polite.” Jan’s hips stutter at the praise. “So well behaved. How many do you need, baby?”

“T-two”

Jackie lowers her mouth again and slides two fingers inside her, smoothly.

“Did you feel how easy that was?” she teases.

“Hmm, Jackie, don’t be mean,” Jan says with a shy smile.

“I love that you get this wet for me,” Jackie tells her sincerely. “It makes me feel proud.”

“All yours,” Jan whispers, her hips canting up. “I’m all yours.”

Jackie loses any semblance of composure she had. Her rhythm gets messier, she goes harder and faster until Jan’s stomach tenses and her hand wraps around Jackie’s wrist.

Jackie stills her movements. Jan’s chest heaves as they both try to control their breathing. Jackie kisses her skin tenderly, waiting for her to come down.

The hands in Jackie’s hair loosen their grip. With a gentle tug, Jan calls her up.

“Hey,” Jan greets with the dreamy smile she gets after coming. It may be Jackie’s favorite part.

“Hey.”

Jackie kisses her forehead and grabs blindly for the sheets to cover them both.

Jan brings Jackie to rest on her chest. The only noise in the whole house is their breathing, in sync with the waves. Jan traces shapes on Jackie’s back, dipping under her shirt, making her shiver.

Evening falls around them. The sky glows orange and warm and the sound of the ocean calls them to sleep. The only thing keeping Jackie awake is Jan’s hand, lifting her shirt higher and higher.

“Should we go make dinner?” Jan says, one last half-hearted attempt at being responsible.

“Hm. Later,” says Jackie, stretching up and finally taking off her shirt. Jan looks at her like the first time, like every time. “We’re on vacation.”

Jan grins.

“You learn fast.”

________________________________________________________________________

That night, Jaida bans Jan from the kitchen. This is also Jan’s vacation, after all, and Jaida will make her relax if she has to twist her arm to do it. She orders Jan to grab some beers, sit with her girlfriend on the back porch table and let her handle things.

She enlists Lemon’s reluctant and Priyanka’s much more useful help, and between the three of them they manage to have four pizzas ready to be cooked in the outdoor grill.

It’s a clear night of bright stars and crisp, cold air. They light citronella candles that flicker in the dim light of the porch, and bring the chairs outside.

The kids set the table all on their own and only need to be told twice to stop running with knives. They set pillows on their chairs to reach the table and wait excitedly for the grownups to see how they made the table so pretty, with rows of seashells and napkins folded into abstract shapes that Crystal tells them are seagulls.

The grownups flatter and praise the kids’ work while filling their plates. It takes them both five seconds to get covered in sauce.

“What are we doing tomorrow?” Jackie asks the group once every plate is empty, as she dips a napkin in water to scrub Crystal’s cheeks.

“Oooh, I wanna take surfing lessons,” says Priyanka.

“In a day?” asks Jan. “You won’t even get to the water in one day.”

“What if I’m like, super good at it? It could be my hidden talent.”

“I vote we go see Priyanka eat shit on a surfboard,” says Lemon, raising her hand.

“Changed my mind,” Jan says, “that sounds fun.”

“You’re all such haters,” Priyanka frowns, crossing her arms.

Sitting sideways on the big porch couch she dragged to the table, with her legs swinging from the armrest, Jaida watches the back and forth. With a sly glance at Lemon, she holds up her phone and tries to sneak a picture of all of them.

“Who are you texting?” Lemon says immediately.

“Nobody, shut up,” Jaida says, focused on her phone.

“Tell her we say hi,” Jan chimes in with a kind smile.

Jaida returns it.

From: Jai

Pizza nuit!

Jai sent a picture

Jan dit bonjour

From: Nickyyy

Horrible. Google Translate again?

Je vous aime tous beaucoup

Gigi is about to drop their glass

Jaida rescues the glass on the edge of the table.

From: Jai

Nous t'aimons aussi

From: Nickyyy

Better ;)

________________________________________________________________________

Jackie never stops feeling impressed —and grateful— by how the kids pass out the second their heads touch the pillow after a long day at the beach. She barely gets through “once upon a time” and they are out.

She holds her own yawn as she climbs down the stairs to find everyone wide awake, bringing the plates and leftovers from dinner inside and talking loudly. Her chatterboxes don’t stop day or night.

Jackie thinks back to how quiet her life was not so long ago, the two-people house, her small but wonderful family with Gigi. And it was enough —Gigi would always be enough, but now Jan runs to kiss her on the stairs, leads her to the kitchen where Jaida hands her a bottle of the only beer Jackie likes and they fill the kitchen and the whole house with happy voices.

Jackie rests one arm around Jan’s shoulders and takes a swig of her beer, pressing the cold bottle on her heated temple. It’s been a long few days of pure sunshine.

“What do you think, babe?” Jan asks her, shifting to support more of Jackie’s weight.

“Hm?”

“I said we should walk on the beach!” says Jaida. “It’s gorgeous out and we’re leaving tomorrow.”

Jackie’s answer is cut off by a yawn that she tries to hide. It’s too early to be this tired. The sisters are perky as ever, and it makes Jackie feel… old.

“You should go without us, Jai,” Jan says, without taking her eyes off Jackie. “Someone should stay with the kids.”

“No, let’s go,” Jackie says. “We can leave for ten minutes. The kids’ room even faces the beach.”

Jan searches her face for insincerity, but finds nothing. She smiles.

“Okay.”

“Okay!”

Jaida hops off the counter and skips to the backdoor, the other two following suit, hand in hand. Jaida opens the door, steps outside and freezes.

Slowly, she steps back, closes the door again and turns to face Jan and Jackie.

She looks like she saw a ghost.

“Yeah, we can’t go outside,” she says.

“Why?”

“Because our little sister’s on the porch, straddling Priyanka.”

Jan’s hands fly to her mouth and she squeals.

“I don’t know if I’m more happy or grossed out.”

“Grossed out, for sure,” Jaida gags, rubbing her eyes.

“Let’s go through the front door,” Jackie whispers, trying to get them away unnoticed. “We can sneak around the house and still go to the beach.”

“Please,” Jaida shudders. “I need my eyes cleansed.”

It gets so cold by the sea once the sun goes down. Jaida’s a Fall girl, but when she’s at the beach she expects seventy five and above all day. That’s the fantasy.

Still, it’s their last day. She takes off her shoes and gets knee deep in the water.

Behind her, Jan and Jackie speak in soft voices, drowned out by the waves.

Jaida closes her eyes. The wind deafens her, the waves rise, she shivers. There’s a strong pull from the phone in her hand that hasn’t left her side since… since.

Nicky hates getting sand in her hair, but she still would’ve followed her to the water. She would have run after the kids until she collapsed, would have sunbathed with Lemon and cooked with Jan and shared one or two smokes with Jackie outside, late at night, watching the stars.

Her absence feels louder than ever.

There are so many things Jaida could say. I miss you is too personal. You’re missed, too detached.

Why does the moon look so shitty in pictures? is just right.

It’s four in the morning in France. Jaida still stares at their chat, waiting.

“I want to come here again, in the summer,” Jan says.

“I’m in,” says Jackie, hooking her chin on Jan’s shoulder as she hugs her waist. Her eyes are closing even as she speaks. “For longer. And maybe in a bigger house.”

“Completely,” says Jan. “The seven of us in that little shoebox for more than three days? Mama, armageddon.”

It warms Jaida’s heart. She’s invited, implicitly.

She pockets her phone.

They stare at the waves for a long time, in calm silence.

“I’m freezing,” Jaida says after a while, shivering and going back to the house.

They go quietly upstairs, but Jaida stops at the door of the bedroom she’s sharing with Lemon and Priyanka.

“Take our bed,” Jackie says before Jaida can voice her concerns.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, we can stay with the kids,” Jan says. “I noticed last night that their bed is bigger than ours. We got played.”

They bid Jaida goodnight and disappear in the bedroom.

Jaida is tired.

It was a long day, a long weekend really, and she is tired.

Jaida can’t sleep.

The bed is too big on all sides, too cold.

She used to have a queen bed at her parents’ house. Half the time, one or both of her sisters would sleep there after watching a movie or staying up talking, hiding their giggles on the pillows, trying not to wake up their parents.

Tonight, her sisters fall asleep in different beds. And Jaida is… fine. She’s fine. Hangover and all, she had a great day after a great night. It’s been a nice vacation with her favorite people, and she’s grateful, she really is.

She turns on one side, then the other. Her phone waits on the bedside table. She turns away from it and pulls the covers over her face.

From: Nickyyy

I think you just suck at taking pictures, because look at this sunrise:

Nickyyy sent you a picture

Going to work, Jai. Send my love to everyone!

________________________________________________________________________

The last day, like any last day, is melancholic. Crystal cries at the sea and tells it she will miss it, and Gigi won’t get out of the water until Jackie sets her foot down.

They stay at the beach until the last minute possible, meaning they have to rush home and finish packing in a hurry. If Jackie says so herself, she does a great job of tampering down her anxiety and not pestering everyone. Jan still squeezes her hand soothingly whenever they cross paths.

They finish quickly, even with the kids running around, even with Lemon and Priyanka busy giggling and doing googly eyes at each other. They’re packed inside the car before they know it.

“Say bye to the beach, guys.”

“Bye, beach!” the kids yell, waving with their bodies halfway out of the car window.

“See you in the summer,” says Jan, kissing Jackie’s hand as she starts the way home. “Right?”

“Yes,” says Jackie.

From the passenger seat, she can stare at Jan shamelessly, since her girl is focused on the road. She got a subtle tan and some freckles on her nose. She looks blonder. She looks perfect.

In the rearview mirror, she can see Lemon and Priyanka trying to teach Crystal the same game of hands but with slightly different rules, both arguing over which version is the “real” version. Gigi displays her new seashells to Jaida one by one with descriptions, and Jaida listens intently. Jan slides on her sunglasses and flicks on the radio, switching stations until everyone is content.

“Yes. We’ll be back.”

#rpdr fanfiction #jankie #lemon x priyanka #jaida x nicky #crygi #jackie cox #jan sport #jaida essence hall #lemon #priyanka #crystal methyd #gigi goode #fluff #angst #smut #jankie parenthood au #mar #concrit welcome

5 notes · View notes

artificialqueens · 2 years

Text

The Bloom Series: My My My! (Jan/Jaida) - Mac

AN: Updates will be INCREDIBLY sporadic but I hope you stick with me through it all. These girls have so many more stories to tell. All my love to Ella for betaing and being a gem!

(This is part of the sequel series to the Blue Neighborhood Series, so you should probably read that first because none of this is gonna make sense lol.)

Summary: Jan is feeling lonely and is home alone, so she invites Jaida over. Jan is ready to take their relationship to the next level, but things don't quite go to plan.

Jan’s eyes flitted around anxiously as she waited for the door in front of her to open.

She caught sight of her own house sitting stone-still and empty a few yards away. The darkness surrounding it and the cold she felt pricking at her skin caused her to shiver as she pushed away thoughts from the previous night.

Her parents and brother had gone off on college visits, making her promise the usual: no boys, no booze, no parties. Jan had nodded and smiled to herself secretly as she watched the car drive out of the neighborhood. At first she had been elated. An empty house with no one to monitor her whereabouts or actions? She had planned to make the most of the 72 hours. And she had given it a go. Starting from the top of Into The Woods and only breaking to chug some water after a particularly difficult riff. She was living the life.

However, that had gotten old rather quickly and she found herself bored. She flicked on the TV but soon abandoned that idea. She opened her phone and paused.

Jackie’s name was still at the top of her messages.

Jan: I’m sorry.

Jackie hadn’t spoken to her in a month.

Jan didn’t blame her.

She hated herself too.

As the day rolled into night, Jan began to feel less and less comfortable. How was it that she had spent her whole life in this house and hadn’t once heard the noises she heard it make before? Jan triple checked the door locks and laid in bed unsleeping for hours. She was just about to give up altogether when she noticed a light on next door.

If she squinted she could make out Jaida’s tall frame pacing back and forth in her bedroom. Jan smiled a bit to herself before pulling her phone back out.

Jan: Can’t sleep?

She saw the shadow pause its pacing turning to look at what no doubt was Jan’s message. Jan liked to imagine a smile on her face. In fact, she liked to imagine Jaida smiling most of the time.

The figure approached the window, pulling back the curtain to stare wide eyed at her neighbor. If Jan wasn’t hyped up on her own giddiness she might have seen the flash of relief on the older girl’s face.

Jaida: Nope

Jan: Bad dreams?

Jaida: Just can’t clear my head.

Jan: Wanna come over? My parents are out of town.

Jaida did a double take at her phone while Jan laughed.

Jaida: If I didn’t know any better, Mr. President, I’d say you were propositioning me.

Jan bit her lip as she typed a reply.

Jan: What if I am?

Jaida: You make a tempting offer. But I’ve gotta be up early for practice tomorrow.

Jan’s heart fell.

Jaida: But come over tomorrow night?

Jan: I’ll see you then.

Jan fell into a dreamless sleep, waking up feeling the kind of refreshed she hadn’t felt in years.

She was jolted out of her thoughts of the previous night as the door to Jaida’s house swung open suddenly. A frazzled looking Jaida with billows of smoke behind her gave a weak grin.

Jaida looked her up and down and straightened her posture, attempting nonchalance. “Hey.”

But Jan was too concerned with the mess going on behind the AllStar to pay much attention to her greeting. Before she could open her mouth, the smoke alarm went off, sending Jaida scittering back into the house in a flurry of long limbs and panic.

Jan followed her inside, covering her ears as the sound only amplified. Jaida frantically pulled a random kitchen utensil out of a drawer and began poking at the alarm manically.

“What happened?” Jan called over the sound of the alarm.

After a moment more of wild stabbing, the noise finally abated, leaving the two girls breathing heavily.

Jaida shot her an apologetic look as she opened the still smoking oven to reveal what appeared to be burnt to hell cookies.

Jadia sighed, placing the steaming tray on the stovetop. “I was trying to make snacks for us, but I swear this oven is fucking haunted.”

Jan picked up the box of cookie mix from the counter. “You literally just have to put them in the oven. How did you mess them up this bad?”

“I told you!” Jaida pointed wildly at the oven, long limbs flying out in random directions like those blow up things outside car dealerships. “Haunted.”

Jan just shook her head, a fond smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. “My parents left pizza money?” She offered.

Jaida gave a world-weary sigh. “Let’s do that.”

...

After devouring a large pizza between the two of them, trading easy conversation topics over the meal, Jaida motioned to the living room and entirely too big TV setup. They browsed the titles for an hour, insulting each other’s movie tastes as they went. Jan was still grappling with the devastating news that Jaida had never seen The Princess Bride when the AllStar finally made a choice.

“I still can’t believe you haven’t seen these before,” Jaida teased, poking at Jan’s side playfully.

Jan squealed, grabbing a pillow and thrusting it out like a makeshift shield to hide herself from the sudden onslaught. “Hey! Listen, I just never had time!”

Jaida rolled her eyes. “What, were you already juggling seventeen extracurriculars at the age of 6?”

“No!” Jan huffed, pulling the blanket closer to her body. “Only like four,” she mumbled.

Jaida fell back against their sorry excuse for a pillow fort in a frenzy of giggles. They were high and pitchy and she seemed unable to catch her breath.

Jan marveled at the sound.

She would never have expected the captain of the women’s varsity basketball team, local celebrity, and second hardest worker she knew, would have such a ridiculous laugh.

Jan felt the slightest bit privileged that she got the chance to witness the event. Jaida with no holds barred, sprawled out on the floor and giggling like a child at a fart joke.

But of course she would never say that, and she hid all her inner glee behind a huff. “Well what about you, Miss AllStar? I didn’t know you were such a nerd. I mean, Harry Potter? Really?”

Jaida sat up suddenly, expression mischievous. “I guess there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” she grinned, raising and lowering her eyebrows suggestively.

Jan groaned, dropping her head in her hands. “That was so bad.”

Jaida just shrugged. “You’re the one that blushed.”

“Did not!”

Jaida smirked and bit her tongue on a reply, turning her attention back to the screen.

Several hours and six movies later, Jaida had her arm wrapped around the student body president’s shoulders, fingers tracing lazy patterns over the exposed skin of her arm. Jan would be lying if she said it didn’t affect her. Sparks shooting out at every pass of skin.

As the screen darkened Jan noticed two of the main characters begin to embrace in a weird dream-vision type thing. The camera zoomed in on the act, both characters appearing almost naked.

Jaida removed her arm from around Jan’s shoulders and chuckled under her breath at the sudden awkwardness.

“What?”

Jaida shook her head, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth. “Nothing, just... this scene helped me realize I was gay.”

Jan looked at her curiously.

“I’d replay it over and over again just to see that glimpse of Hermionie’s bra.”

Jan hesitated a moment, blinking at her pointedly. “Wow, that’s really gay.”

The older girl chuckled. “You're one to talk, miss, ‘come over my parents aren’t home.’”

Jan shook her head, attempting to turn her attention back to the screen, but something kept nagging the back of her mind. Nerves rose in her throat as she turned to look at her counterpart.

“Hey, Jaida,” she practically whispered.

“Yeah?”

“You know how you said… you’d be cool if I wanted to… uh… experiment… with-with girls?”

Jaida took a noticeable breath in. “Y-yeah.”

“Do you think- I could- we could try now?” Jan looked up at her with wide eyes, searching and vulnerable.

Jaida looked back steadily, nodding slowly. “Yeah, ‘course. Only if you’re sure though.”

Jan nodded, unable to speak for fear of it coming out gibberish.

She turned her body toward the older girl, seeing Jaida staring at her expectantly. Jan didn’t hesitate, leaning in abruptly for a kiss. It happened so fast she didn’t get the angle right and their foreheads smacked together harshly.

“Fuck.”

“Sorry! Oh my god!”

“It’s okay, just… move slower. We’ve got time.”

Jan nodded again.

The second attempt went better. Their lips met gently as Jan set a slow pace. She felt them fall out of sync rather quickly so she pulled away. Not to be dissuaded by her own lack of experience she leaned back in to leave cautious open-mouthed kisses along Jaida’s neck.

They sounded weirdly loud in the quiet of the room.

Jan tried to ignore the embarrassment filling her gut and attempted to suck a bruise onto Jaida’s neck, only for the other girl to pull her head back gently.

“Ah, sorry, no marks. It wouldn’t look good. Ya know?” Jaida gave a half-hearted smile. “You get it right?”

Jan nodded weakly, thrown off her game she attempted to make a recovery sliding further down and getting her hands in on the action. Her hands found Jaida’s breasts through her t-shirt and attempted wide squeezing motions.

Jaida gasped loudly, but it wasn’t in pleasure. Jan tried the motion again resulting in Jaida giving a weak chuckle. “I don’t have a lot of feeling up there, sorry.”

Jan lifted her head. “Oh, yeah, okay.”

Jan continued her path down leaving kisses along Jaida’s toned stomach muscles and coming to a stop above her shorts. She looked up at Jaida for permission and received a nod in response.

She pulled Jaida’s pajama pants down a bit, revealing baby blue boyshorts. Jan would have laughed had she not been so humiliated already.

She paused then, the reality of what was happening hitting her square in the chest. She suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe, inhaling and exhaling faster and faster.

Jaida’s voice cut through the fog of worry in her mind. “How about we stop here for tonight?”

Jan felt white hot shame pool in her gut.

“Why? Am I really that bad?”

“No, Jan. God no. I just think you’re pushing yourself too hard. You don’t even know what you like for yourself.” Jaida cupped her face gently. “You don’t have to rush this. You aren’t less gay just because you haven’t slept with a woman.”

“Okay,” she said, not sounding it a bit.

“Plus, you gotta see how this movie ends.” Jaida’s half-hearted attempt to break the tension didn’t work. The shame and guilt and fear pulling Jan down seemed to swallow her whole. She tried to fight against it, clawing up her neck and throat, but she couldn’t.

They went back to silently watching the screen and Jan pulled out her phone, mind drifting to thoughts of Jackie.

#rpdr fanfiction #s12 #jaida essence hall #jan sport #jaida x jan #high school au #mild smut #mature #fluff #lesbian au #smut #bloom series #blue neighborhood series #mac

6 notes · View notes