I was te and practically flying when I left my house. Mum had given me a very hard time st night and sleep didn’t come ease because of that, so I had decided to skip the morning csses like I usually did in these cases, but hearing my phone buzz and reading her first ever text after a long time asking if I wasn’t going to school were enough to give me a boost. Having someone worry about you is a nice feeling, isn’t it? I’d be sure to tease Violet about it.

  That had been the pn, but when I saw my mark sitting alone right before coming inside the cssroom, I noticed someone was going to talk with her.

  She never interacted with others unless strictly needed, or if spoken first, normally being dragged to whatever conversation I was having with somebody else. People tended to leave her be when I was around, luckily for her. Not to brag, but I think people saw me as some kind of css mascot. This moment would be one in which she wouldn’t have my support, so I wanted to see how well she’d manage it.

  “Good morning Violet.”

  “Oh, good morning, erm…”

  Off to a bad start. She clearly recognised who Mathilda was, but she couldn’t even begin to fathom that girl’s name.

  Mathilda kept smiling amicably, unaware that pause was Violet stressing over her name and not just a normal shy hesitation.

  “Erm… Abby should arrive any moment now…”

  “Oh, that’s ok. I wanted to talk with both of you, but you can just tell her all about it once she arrives.”

  Violet didn’t like it one bit, shifting uncomfortably in her seat and almost spotting me when she gnced at the door. Good thing I had cat-like reflexes.

  “Ok… what is it you want to talk about?”

  “You see, we’re pnning on having a css Christmas dinner the weekend our winter holidays begin. Would you like to come?”

  That was a somewhat loaded question. To her anyway. It would be a pain having to deal with so many people. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure she could deal with that. One on one conversations? Sure, she could handle it now, I mean, she was just having one. Social events, however? Most likely not. But on the other hand, she clearly wanted to go. It sounded like it would be a good experience for her to go through. And I could practically hear her thoughts as she looked up to Mathilda. “Most likely, Abby will be there too, so I won’t have to deal with all the anxiety alone. Yeah, it won’t be so bad,” or something like that.

  Me being there or not hinged on my mum’s humour when I asked her about it, so ultimately, Violet going or not was up to me, huh? Ok. Just for her, this time alone I’d try extra hard to get on mum’s good graces. It shouldn’t be that hard, though. Dad has been more assertive about me tely. I just hoped me bringing this subject up didn’t bring about another fight between the two.

  “To tell you the truth, I might be working then, but I think I’d like to go.”

  Her answer was a misstep which costed her thirty more seconds of conversation she almost dealt with the usual Violet fashion: monosylbic answers whenever possible and by reflex. I say almost because she was being a bit more eloquent than what I was expecting from her posture.

  Mathilda eventually had her curiosity satisfied and went to her desk while Violet sighed her soul out and slumped her head and shoulders. Poor thing, she really was at her limit.

  “Mumma Abby is very proud of Violet,” I chirped while resting my hands on her stiff shoulders. Since my hands were already there, I started to give her shoulders a massage.

  “Hi, Abby. Why do you say that?” she asked, looking up to me confused and eyes semi-closed. I was expecting her telling me to stop, but… maybe massages were the way for her to let me touch her more freely?

  “I heard it all from the very start. You did well, holding a conversation with Mathilda without me around,” I said with a very pleased smile. “Have you two ever talked before?”

  “Nope. First time.”

  Her voice was a bit moany, and she was moving her body in a way that told me she was enjoying a lot the shoulder rub I was providing her, despite also being a bit embarrassed.

  “Oh, really?” I said with a wry smile, now applying a bit more force on my squeeze, both of us delighted for different reasons and a low squeaky moan coming out of her. “Now I’m a bit jealous.”

  “What!? Why?”

  “I mean, it took me weeks for you to talk to me like that. How am I to feel seeing you talking so easily with some other girl?”

  She could clearly see I was merely joking, but she still took my words to heart. She was too serious, that girl.

  Her face turned a bright red as she was looking at me while thinking.

  Hehe, she’s thinking it’s thanks to me, isn’t she?

  “You’re welcome, but it’s also thanks to your efforts.”

  I thought her previous colour was her maximum red, but it wasn’t as it turns out. And I was spot on the money this time too.

  Ah-haah, she’s too funny and cute. I want to mess with her even more.

  Our math teacher didn’t think the same and told me and her to stop and sit down quiet.

  “Tsk.”

  “Hmm?”

  Had I just heard Violet click her tongue? Violet, who was always so polite and correct?

  She looked a bit annoyed as she rotated one arm at a time with a hand on the shoulder. Did she perhaps want more of it?

  “Erm… t-thanks for the rub…” she hushed with flushed cheeks.

  Yup, she did. She acted cold and all that, but she could also be totally adorable too.

  “Hehe, any time.”

  I kept the talk about the that Christmas dinner reserved for when we sat together for lunch. Today my parents wouldn’t be around, so we were eating at my pce.

  I don’t think Violet would ever admit it, but she was starting to enjoy having me around to the point that, when left alone at school, she’d get lonely.

  “Not wanting to rain on your parade Violet but are you really all right with that Christmas dinner?” she asked as she gulped her lunch.

  “Yeah… I think so…” she said in a coy way. “I mean, you will be there… right?”

  That was still a maybe, and we couldn’t just chat with each other all the time. We would at some point have to talk with other people.

  “That’s ok. It’s enough for me to know you’re…”

  I leaned over the table with a teasing smile while she shyly peeked at me from the other side.

  “Come on, Violet, you can’t just tease me like that,” I hummed.

  “You already know what I meant!”

  “No, I don’t! You didn’t finish what you were saying.”

  “Yes, you do!”

  “Tell me or I’ll strip and tch on to you!”

  “Pease don’t! You might catch a cold.”

  “Oh, Violet! My health is what worries you in that situation?”

  “It’s the main one!”

  “Hehe. I have such a nice friend.”

  She couldn’t come up with something, so we just sat there staring at each other. Violet beet red and me with a blissful expression of amusement.

  Hehe, she really is fun to mess with. And so cute when she blushes. Haah…

  However, that was enough for now. Anymore, and her head would blow up from all the blood rushing to it.

  I was still worried about her in a social event.

  “Why? I want to go, you will be there, so what’s to worry about?”

  “For starters, I can totally see you forcing yourself to endure it and end up wrecked.”

  She stiffened in her seat, disarmed by my spot-on comment.

  There was a way to resolve the issue, however. One I knew she’d follow through, being the way she is.

  “Promise me this: If things start to be too much for you, we’re to get out of there. And just to be clear, I’ll drag you out if I see you are reaching a breaking point. I just don’t want to force you.”

  “Ok, I can agree to that.”

  It really was the best solution after all. She would have some peace of mind, and so would I.

  There was still another issue for us to go through.

  It was a party, and it was at night, so it would end quite te, meaning there was a chance she’d have no bus to go home afterwards.

  “Well, now that it’s winter, the st one is at nine thirty,” she told me when I asked when the st one was.

  Yeah, there was no way diner would end before that. Depending on where it was going to take pce, there was only one solution: she’d stay the night here, at my pce.

  Wait, nine-thirty?

  “How are you going home after work?”

  “I just walk. They now let me leave before ten, so I get home no ter than a quarter to eleven.”

  “That’s so te! Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  “It’s no big deal, Abby.”

  It was! She has been walking home alone at night! If she had told me about that, I would have left Violet sleep here since her workpce is practically a stone’s throw away.

  “In that case I’d practically be living here during the week.”

  “I wouldn’t mind. No, wait… I actually would.”

  It’d be a huge problem, sneaking her in and out of the house without mum noticing. If only she was more receptive of Violet.

  “…”

  Violet was reading my mind, no doubts about it. It was written all over her face.

  “No need to feel down Violet,” I told her with a hand wave. “If pushes come to shoves, I’ll just deal with that woman.”

  “Has she… commented about us?”

  Recently I just zoned out whenever she went on one of her tirades, so yeah, likely. But again, I told Violet not to worry about it.

  “Yeah, but…”

  “No buts. I might not remember all our talks, but I hold dear to our promise.”

  “I see,” she said as she went red once more, probably remembering that night.

  My god, I was so cringe!

  “Anyway, if it ends after that hour, let’s sleep here,” I said to move along with the conversation. “You can go home in the morning.”

  “But what about—”

  “Again, I’ll deal with her if she starts splitting hairs.”

  I was scared of mum—rather, I was terrified of her, but imagining Violet walking halfway across town, te at night, alone… the thought that something bad happened to Violet, that scared me more.

  She nodded, seeing there was no point in arguing with me.

  We could now finish eating in peace and have some fun. I had lots of ideas, so I asked her how she wanted to spend the rest of the lunch break.

  Her answer, however, was the antithesis of fun.

  “Studying? We still have two weeks until exam season and you’re already worrying over it?”

  “Not everyone can study three days before a test and still get an almost perfect score.”

  She said that, but her grades were the third best in css.

  “They are!? Impossible! You have to be joking.”

  “Nope, I’ve checked it, and I’m dead serious.”

  “Well… if that’s the case, it’s because I study like crazy.”

  “I know. You make me study too.”

  “Right, well, I think we should study after we are done eating.”

  “Can’t you just say you want me to help you study?”

  “…Please help me study,” she sheepishly asked.

  With Violet asking me looking so shy, of course I’d help her. However, I had some requests before agreeing.

  “Whatever they are, please be reasonable.”

  During breaks, I wanted to use her p as a chair. And that immediately got a no.

  “But Violet! We only do a ten-minute break every time. So, pretty please?” I pleaded with my sweetest voice and begging eyes.

  “…Oh, ok.”

  “Yay! Will I also get it with your arms around me?”

  “…Maybe. If you behave.”

  I’d also be having a hug now. As to why, she asked, well that was…

  “Because I smell nice, yeah, yeah,” she interrupted as she opened up her arms. “Fine, but I want you clothed. Fully clothed.”

  She had predicted what joke I was going to fire next, but that didn’t stop me from making another.

  “Gee Violet. You make me sound like I’m promiscuous,” I snarked as I snuggled in her arms.

  “Now, why would I think that?”

  “…You smell so nice.”

  “Right, right.”

  Violet might have acted this way, but she clearly was starting to get fond of this kind of interaction. It was clear with the way she was holding me. It was so gentle and so comforting, my mind was going dull. I just wanted to stay like that for the rest of my life.

  I opened my eyes, and those warm feelings went cold when I saw my dad staring at us. If he was there, then mum could be with him. However, he then smiled, that fact alone letting me know we were still safe. I was now excited to introduce them, but how should I let Violet know my dad was in the same room as us?

  “Yes? You want me to hold you tighter?” she asked when I called out her name.

  “Yes please!” I said to her with a cheer, before resuming my previous tone. “But also, try not to freak out.”

  “…Why?” she asked, applying more force not because I asked, but because she was anticipating something bad.

  “Again, there is no reason to freak out but… my father has been looking at us quite amused for a while.”

  She didn’t react at the beginning, and had to apply some effort to rotate her body and head to look at the same direction I was looking.

  By the doorframe of the dining room, Violet saw a tall middle-aged man wearing a suit and tie. Despite his amused smile, she probably knew he would normally have a stern face from the times they met at the restaurant.

  “So, you are Violet? It’s nice to meet you. And please, don’t mind me. I only came for some papers.”

  “Ah, no. Sorry that you saw us like this. I’m Violet Evergreen,” she stuttered as she stood up and tried to push me away, to no avail. She was so weak, it was kinda pitiful.

  He told me to let Violet go so they could properly introduce themselves. I’ve already had my fair share of Violet’s cuddles, so I complied with his request.

  “As she told you, I’m her father, William Gardener,” he told her as they shook hands.

  “Nice to meet you. And… sorry for seeing that.”

  “No need to be shy.” He told her. Yeah, good luck with that. “It’s rare to see Abbigail so happy in the house, so I should be thanking you.”

  Now that he mentioned it… he was absolutely right. Ever since my sister went away to study at university, my life has been drab and grey at home all the time. Until now.

  “Do you two have time to be frolicking?”

  “Don’t worry dad. We still have an hour before css.”

  “Well, ok. You two behave now. I’ll go grab my papers and be off before Elisa starts calling me. See you at dinner.”

  “We will. Bye dad.”

  “Have a good day Mr. Gardener.”

  My dad stopped on his tracks and turned to look at Violet with a frown. “You are that waitress from Le Perrot, aren’t you? I almost didn’t recognise you in that uniform and with loose hair,” he told her, having finally remembered her.

  Violet nodded as she told him yes, she was indeed that waitress and thanked him for the very generous tips he had given her every time he dined at the restaurant.

  “It’s the least I can do after all you have to deal with. Sorry for my wife’s behaviour.”

  “It’s all right. She just wants the service that is to be expected from me after all.”

  He didn’t say a thing. He just stood there with a stern expression. When he finally moved, it was to talk to me.

  “Abbigail, sweety, if your mum gives you another hard time because of this girl and I’m not present, you come and tell me immediately.”

  I was eted for hearing him saying that. Violet and I had his approval for staying friends, and he’d even defend us against my mum. I was so relieved, my legs felt like about to give up.

  “Are you all right?” Violet asked as she held me by the shoulders, scared of how silent and pale I was after my dad left.

  “Yeah,” I said, tearing and choking up a bit. “I’m just so… relieved.”

  “Yeah… me too.”

  “Can we… cuddle before studying? I don’t think I can focus right now.”

  “Yeah…” she spoke softly as she pulled me in. “I think I would like that too.”