"Laura you were the saddest song in the shape of a woman. I thought you were beautiful, but I wept with your movements. I hope you are laughing now from that place of the carpet" - Laura Laurent

-

I had been staring at Sophia's facial expression for the past twenty minutes of this drive, and it's looked anything but happy. She's gone from nervous to angry, and we've finally landed on agitated. However, this was Sophia; agitation wasn't just agitation. She was probably feeling a million other emotions underneath that all lead her to be pissed about whatever was on her mind.

"What's wrong Sophia?" I eventually asked with a sigh, turning to face her.

"What are you talking about?" She hummed without looking away from the road.

I didn't even have to say anything. Sophia could tell by the silence and look on my face that I wasn't buying it.

"You and Marisol used to be together," She muttered, tapping her finger on the steering wheel. "Why would I be excited about you seeing her?"

Sophia was technically wrong; I am not and was never with Marisol. And even though I've told her that a dozen times, it hasn't clicked with her yet. I could understand her point though; Sophia broke up with Chris weeks ago, and she still seems untouchable because of him.

"Because Marisol is a nice person, and she has been good to me - the best to me. And I haven't seen her in weeks. Even if I had seen her, it was never like that. She was never my girlfriend." I swore, giving her a pleading look from across the console.

Sophia's facial expression stayed the same, but I saw the muscles of her jaw loosen and her hands release their death grip on the steering wheel. It wasn't as much progress as I wanted to make, but at least Sophia won't strangle Marisol when she walks through the door.

We arrived at Bailey's Glass 10 minutes later, Sophia's car pulling into the paved parking lot. Sophia shut off the ignition, and then we went through the process of getting me and my crutches out of the car.

"Do you see her?" Sophia asked as we crossed the parking lot to the cafe. I scanned all of the present cars, before shaking my head.

"No, but she'll be here," I reassured her, walking through the door and crossing the threshold of air conditioning. Marisol believed in being fashionably late, no matter what the occasion. As far as she's concerned, her presence is a gift and we should be lucky she's showing up at all.

Marisol also believed in sitting in the section of any restaurant that has the least amount of people. It was the product of paranoia and being naturally inverted.

I lead Sophia to Marisol and I's favorite spot in the cafe. We took our seats, Sophia's back to the door while I faced it. Sophia's leg rocked underneath the table as her eyes darted back and forth.

"I'm going to go get something." She informed me, standing up from her seat and pointing towards the counter. "Do you want anything?"

After I shook my head at her, Sophia nodded before quickly escaping to the line. Sophia's nerves were almost contagious, and I could feel the growing panic underneath my skin. I had to make sure and stay calm though because we couldn't have a table of three freaked-out gays.

Marisol's panic would be the worst to handle because there's no real way to gauge it. It hides underneath her skin and festers into something ugly in her lungs. I'd never even know she was freaking out if it weren't for the way her nose twitches, even when she's smirking at you.

And there's no way that Sophia's bouncy personality mixed with her jealous girlfriend vibes isn't going to freak Marisol out. It was my job to keep everyone calm and collective so that we could make it out of the coffee shop alive.

"Avery what do they put in these things?! I'm having an explosion of happiness in my mouth right now!" Sophia exclaimed, making me jump in my seat a little.

I pulled myself out of my head to look up and see Sophia standing in front of me, gripping a half-eaten muffin in her hand, of which the other half was currently falling and crumbling out of her mouth.

I am so screwed.

"It's sugar, something you definitely do not need. Right now or ever." I scolded gently, reaching to take pastry from her.

Sophia all but hissed at me, as she coddled the muffin to her chest. She pushed her chair back and away from me, so there was no possible way for me to get it now without getting up and grabbing my crutches. Even then, she would probably still outrun me easily.

"I'm not five. I am perfectly capable of handling my sugar." Sophia defended before messily stuffing more food into her mouth. If anything proving my point.

"I disagree," I drawled drawing out the I. "The FDA should ban Seth and you from consuming foods with a sugar content over-"

I fell quiet when someone came through the door and began walking towards Sophia and I's table. Sophia noticed my change in expression and turned in her chair to look behind her.

"Dios mío," Marisol muttered once she was close enough, taking off her sunglasses. "They got you good this time around huh?"

Mildly offended, my mouth fell open in shock, but it soon fell into a smile. Weeks of not seeing each other and the first thing she has to say to me is an insult. For me though, it was clear that it was just a joke.

I could see the worry in her eyes that was hiding behind her bangs. Underneath her tattered shirt, I knew from experience that her stomach was tight with stress. The hands stuffed in the pockets of her tight black jeans were clenched together, trying not to punch anything.

"And it seems like you forgot the memo that it's 90 degrees outside. The leather jacket Mari? Really?" I asked in an exasperated tone, leaning my chin on the flat of my knuckles.

Marisol began to laugh, before her famous smirk set on her face. Her laughter eventually died off, and then her eyes fell on Sophia, searching her considerably.

"And you must be Sophia?" Marisol wondered aloud, stepping closer to the table.

Sophia turned to face Marisol completely and stuck out her hand for her to shake.

"It's nice to meet you, Marisol. Avery has told me so many nice things about you." Sophia spoke in a proper tone.

At that, Marisol couldn't hold back her laughter. She doubled over, gripping onto the chair in front of her for support.

Luckily Sophia didn't look too offended. If anything she was confused as to what was happening in front of her. I wanted to be angry at Marisol for being so impolite, but I couldn't bring myself to it. Marisol's smile was rare and beautiful, and I didn't want to interrupt the sight.

Marisol took heaved in a great gulp of air after she concluded her laughing fit. She straightened her back, giving Sophia a twisted up smile.

"Then Avery has been lying to you because there is nothing nice about me." Marisol declared, crossing her arms over her chest. I shot her a look, and she shook her head back at me. "It's true, and you know it. What's the last nice thing I've done?"

My mouth gaped wordlessly, offended by her self-deprecation. Marisol is an amazing and good human being; I wouldn't be friends with her if she wasn't. But finding the evidence to support that is a rad difficult.

The last thing she did for someone was graffiti their car, without their consent. The last thing she gave somebody was a black eye. The last thing she said to someone before speaking with us would probably be censored on most TV shows.

"You bought me a cookie." I eventually came up with, my voice as weak as my answer.

"That was five months ago. Thank you for proving my point." Marisol corrected with a triumphant smirk.

Throughout this entire exchange, Sophia had been quiet. But at Marisol's last quip, she burst into relievingly hearty laughter. I glanced back towards Marisol to see her reaction to the outburst and found nothing but amusement.

As comforting as this whole situation was, it was just proof that I obviously had a very eclectic taste in women, to say the least. What exactly does that say about me?

"She's funny Avery. Why on Earth haven't I met her before?" Sophia mused, turning towards me.

I turned my head to face her, ready to give her a flat and unamused response, but then our eyes caught each other and all of my words died at the base of my throat.

In all honesty, there's nothing special about Sophia's eyes. They were these warm, hazel spheres that probably millions of other people on this earth shared. But the funny thing was that they stopped me in my tracks, without fail, every time they met mine.

I firmly believed that it was because Sophia was magic. Only Sophia could bring my heart to near combustion and let it fall back into rhythm as gentle as she does with just a single gaze. Only she could have my blood racing marathon speeds without moving a single muscle.

It's things like that that made me feel a little less embarrassed about how hard I fell for Sophia. With the sorcery she's got flying through her body, it was practically inevitable for me to fall in love with her.

There was nothing to do but stare at each other since I had failed to respond. Luckily Sophia was just as okay as I was with just getting lost in each other. Eventually, peripheral objects faded, and the conversations hovering around us became less and less audible.

"You two are cute together," Marisol commented uncharacteristically quiet from across the table.

It slowly brought Sophia and me out of our haze. All I could manage to do was tilt my head, as I tried to decipher the look on Marisol's face. There was a hint of fragility glossed over her eyes right now that was reserved for certain occasions, and a public coffee shop was not one of them.

Sophia chuckled quietly, raising her drink to her lips. "Well, you can thank me for that, because if it were up to Avery, we'd still be literally sitting in a closet." She remarked with a roll of her eyes.

I was too busy trying to decipher the desire in Marisol's eyes to laugh at Sophia's comment. I knew better to assume that it was directed towards Sophia or me; Marisol isn't the type to fall for someone after 30 minutes, and I knew very well where her feelings for me stood.

It was deeper than that. Marisol wasn't paying attention to Sophia or me. She was more focused on the intimate, lack of space between the both of us. Her eyes had followed Sophia's finger on its slow journey to resting on my wrist. She was watching the way we looked at each other every time the other laughed.

Marisol was admiring our relationship.

And it was puzzling because Marisol told me very many times, that the list of things that she will not do is very, very short. But the one thing that will always remain on that list is dating. To this day, I don't understand her reasoning behind it. I made the mistake of asking once, and then never questioned it again.

"Mari?" I called out quietly into the darkness, shifting onto my side so that I could face her. Marisol had a rule about us not looking at each other while we were in bed together. I usually followed it, but I felt like this conversation was too important to not look at her.

"¿Sí hermosa?" She answered, turning to face me as well. Her Spanish took a few of my nerves away, as the warm feeling ran through my chest. It was a beautiful language and Marisol didn't speak to me in it often.

"How come you don't have a girlfriend?" I asked quietly, but not quietly enough to where she couldn't hear me because I could see her expression immediately fall cold.

It seemed like a valid enough question to ask. Marisol is an amazing human being. She's funny, loyal, and beautiful. She always knows how to make me have a good time, even when I really don't want to. She is an extremely strong-willed person, and I honestly believed that she could make it through anything and everything. There was only one little problem stopping me from asking her to be my girlfriend.

She's not Sophia.

"I don't want to really talk about this Ave." She dismissed in a whisper, returning back to her previous position.

My eyebrows knitted in confusion before I moved to close the distance between us. I rested my head on her chest and wrapped an arm around her waist. She relaxed slightly and wrapped both of her arms around me. Maybe I was using Marisol's fondness of cuddling against her; sue me.

"Why not?" I asked, persistence in my tone and I immediately felt her go tense under me.

"Avery." She spoke in a warning hum, loosening her hold on me. I tilted my head up at her confused, watching her gaze at the ceiling.

"Marisol I'm just-"

"No Avery!" She shouted, pushing me away from her. My heartbeat jumped underneath my skin as I watched her jump up from my bed and storm towards my balcony.

"Marisol wait!" I pleaded from my spot on the bed, but she just ignored me and snatched her cigarettes from her jean pocket before slamming the door behind her.

The memory would always stay burned in my memory. I know that I will never love her the way I do Sophia, but she will always be extremely important to me. I always offer to help her, but unless it's helping her get more cigarettes or destroying someone else's property, she wants no parts in it. Getting her to stop smoking or her parents to accept her sexuality? Out of the question.

Marisol Vega is my lesbian, nicotine-addicted, beautiful, troubled mess.