Bette coughed and looked away – she just had to. How was she supposed to stand the sight of a bikini-clad Tina covered in glistening water droplets?

“Just a book,” she mumbled.

Tina sat down next to her and Bette used all her power not to move to the right just a little bit. The blonde dried her hands with a small towel she had brought and took the book out of Bette’s hands. The brunette didn’t protest. How could she? This was quite possibly the happiest moment of her life.

“Mrs Dalloway,” Tina read out loud. She looked at Bette and the brunette was momentarily lost in those beautiful hazel eyes. “You going to take the AP Lit course next year?”

Bette had no idea what all this was about, but she decided that she would just go along with it. Tina wasn’t one of those bitches who faked interest and were only mocking you, but you couldn’t even accuse them of doing that because they pretended to only play nice and then they accused you of being stuck up.

“Yeah,” she answered simply. What was she supposed to say? She had so many things to say, but all of them had to be left unsaid. For years, she had fantasised about a real conversation with Christina Mary Kennard. It had played out in her head, she had rehearsed the words again and again. And now all she could say was “yeah”.

“Great, me too,” Tina smiled cheerily.

Bette couldn’t help but to look up. She could just stop herself from asking ‘you?’ incredilously. She didn’t mean to be rude, but it just came as a real surprise as Tina had never really shown any interest in the subject – not in any subject, came to think of it. Okay, Bette wasn’t in Eng. lit. with Tina, but she was rather positive that she knew Tina pretty well.

“What’s that look supposed to mean?” Tina asked, feigning hurt.

Great, so she had noticed. And what was up with the playful attitude? As if they had been friends for years and this was how they acted around each other.

“I just… well… damn, please don’t get me wrong, I just… I didn’t know you were into English Literature.”