“So, is your mom always like that with you?” Inquired Lily with a mix of curiosity and empathy for the poor tortured girl across from her.

“Well, she freaked out when she first discovered I way gay, you remember the story, she walked in on me and my first girlfriend…” Lily nodded, recalling the story quite clearly. She was a fiction writer and always delighted in hearing stories about Spencer’s past, especially the one’s involving Ashley.

“Then eventually she had begun to accept it. Then, my brother Clay got shot at the prom, as you know, then Glen went off to join the military and she kind of snapped. She decided she was going to cling to me and preen me into the perfect daughter, so… The whole gay thing has posed a problem with her since.”

Lily sighed, reaching across the table to rub the top of Spencer’s hand, smiling as she did so, “You poor thing. Anything I can do to help? She inquired, hand creeping further up her arm.

“Well, I’ve got a few ideas…” Spencer suggested with a widening grin.

“Spencer Carlin! Your mother would be ashamed!” Lily exclaimed in mock horror before both of them broke out into laughter, stopping only when their food orders arrived.

Ashley barely heard the name belted over the noise in the room, and for a moment she hadn’t even been sure she had heard it at all. Spencer Carlin? She glanced back to Kyla, checking her expression to see if she had heard it too, but finding no look of recognition. Silently she tipped her head in the direction she had thought she heard the noise come from, her eyes searching the crowd. Little did she know a large bulky man was blocking her view of the table, and after a moment of staring around the room she was satisfied that she was just crazy and returned to listening to whatever the hell Kyla had been talking about.

As the couple ate they exchanged easy conversation, their smiles never forced and laughter common. If you were depressed, you would probably find their happiness obnoxious. “God, I am sooo thirsty…” Hinted Spencer before taking a bite of food, smirking slightly into her plate.