Walking from the bus stop a little bit down the road from the gate, Adam was listening to his CD player. He smiled and waved to the guard as he walked inside. When he finally made the long trek on foot to his friend’s house, he slipped off his headphones and came around to the side the door was on.
Kim noticed Adam and waved down to him. “Hey!”
Anya saw Adam as an opportunity. “Hey, Adam. Is the garage door still up?”
The young man walked around the corner of the building to see. “Yeah. Why?”
“Why don’t you go ahead and come through the garage,” the keyboard player insisted.
Before anyone could object, Adam shrugged his shoulders and walked in and alongside the Suburban that was parked there. When he passed the driver’s side window he swore he saw something moving inside the vehicle and leaned in toward the tinted glass to get a better look.
“Holy shit,” he whispered to himself when he realized he was witnessing one of his best friends making out with her girlfriend. He knew he shouldn’t be watching, but something kept him frozen in place and staring with an open mouth.
Tara was starting to realize what a good idea Willow had when the redhead’s lips began trailing kisses from her mouth up to her ear. When Willow started sucking on the lobe, Tara turned her head slightly to allow greater access. She flickered her eyes open for just a second, but it was long enough for her to notice Adam’s face pressed up against the window gaping back at her. Her eyes instantly flew open.
Simultaneously, Adam and Tara jumped and screamed.
“What?” Willow yelled as she pulled back to see what the problem was. She turned in the direction Tara was staring and saw Adam outside the window with a shocked look on his face. She screamed and jumped back as well, slamming herself into the steering wheel and causing the horn to blow.
“I’m gonna go!” Adam yelled, pointing in the direction of the door into the house. He quickly scurried through it.
“Oh. My. God.” Tara couldn’t pry her eyes away from where her friend had just been standing.
Willow rubbed at her back and groaned. Where she’d made contact with the steering wheel was hurting.
The pained sound from the redhead was cause for concern from Tara and she turned her head to her girlfriend. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Willow muttered, still rubbing her back with one hand.
“Here.” Tara moved her hands around to the spot the redhead was rubbing and took over.
Willow relaxed into the massaging touch. “That was embarrassing,” she said a moment later with her eyes closed.
“Just slightly,” Tara agreed, a bit sarcastic. She thought about what they’d been doing and grinned. “You’re quite inventive though,” she said, referring to the fact that Willow was on her lap.
Willow grinned as well and opened her eyes to look into Tara’s.
They stared at each other with goofy smiles on their faces for a while before Tara spoke up. “We should probably go upstairs now,” she whispered.
“Probably,” the redhead agreed in her own quiet voice. She held Tara’s neck and leaned down, intent on placing one last soft kiss on the blonde’s lips. When she pulled back, she looked in Tara’s eyes once more. What she saw was breathtaking. It was something she’d noticed before but never on such a grand scale. She saw softness, warmth, caring, safety, and so many other things that made her feel good and fuzzy all over.
Before Willow knew it, she was opening her mouth. “I lo….” Her eyes widened as her ears registered what she was saying. “I left my curling iron on at home!” she quickly blurted out as she mentally beat herself up for what she’d almost said. Stupid, stupid, stupid! You almost said I love you? Where’d that come from? And she heard you slip. Shit! You’re going to freak her out!
The slip had been covered so quickly that Tara hadn’t been able to really register it. She looked at Willow strangely though for what she’d exclaimed. “Okay,” she said questioningly. She had no idea what made the redhead think about that. “Doesn’t it have an automatic shut off thing though?” she asked.
“Oh yeah,” Willow said sheepishly. “My bad. No worries.” She breathed a sigh of relief knowing Tara hadn’t caught her slipup. “So we should go now.” She fumbled for the door handle and pulled, causing the door to open.
Tara helped the redhead carefully slide out of the vehicle then exited as well. She followed Willow, who had quickly walked around to the back of the SUV to retrieve the beer they’d bought for their friends.
Willow needed a few deep breaths and to clear her head. She didn’t get the opportunity though with Tara so close behind her. Wordlessly, she opened the back of the vehicle and pulled out the two cases of beer they’d bought, allowing Tara to close the doors.
“I can take one of those. You don’t have to carry them both,” Tara offered.
“I’ve got it,” Willow said quickly. She nervously smiled at the blonde. “Lead the way.”
Tara quirked an eyebrow but consented. She opened the door to the house and let Willow through before reaching up to press the button to close up the garage and walking inside behind the redhead.
Upstairs, Adam practically ran onto the deck with his face completely red.
“What’s wrong?” Anya asked as if she had no idea.
This only served to make Adam’s face a brighter red.
There were a lot of glares being thrown in Anya’s direction.
“That wasn’t very nice,” Kim spoke up.
“Oh come on. Everyone was curious. You just didn’t want to say,” Anya defended herself.
“You knew?” Adam asked the keyboard player incredulously. When Anya merely shrugged he went on. “I just witnessed my best friend and her girlfriend going at it and you knew?”
“They were having sex in the garage?” Buffy blurted out in shock. She’d seen Willow and Tara in the kitchen and figured they had just been making with the kissing downstairs. That thought was a cute one, but a visual of them having sex was far from cute. It entered into icky ‘don’t think about your best friend like that’ territory.
“No they weren’t having sex!” Adam shouted. “They were just making out like their lives depended on it.”
“Then what are you so worked up about?” Anya questioned the young man.
“How about we just stop talking about this?” Ross suggested, not feeling right about discussing the private life of one of his friends in such a way.
“Good plan,” Adam agreed.
Most of the people in the large group had been keeping their mouths shut, not wanting to get involved, but they all nodded their heads or shouted out in agreement.
“You guys are no fun,” Anya complained.
Everyone went back about their business of talking amongst themselves and soaking up the last bits of the sun’s rays from above. After a short time, the sound of the garage door going down could be heard, and soon after, Willow walked out onto the deck followed closely by Tara. The redhead placed the beer she was carrying off to one side so anyone who wanted some could have at it.
Willow spotted a fresh pitcher of margaritas and poured herself one before quickly scurrying off to slide into a seat next to Buffy. She needed to distance herself from Tara and think a little bit. She took three big gulps of the frozen drink and almost immediately grabbed her head in pain.
“Brain freeze?” Buffy asked, looking curiously at her friend. She wasn’t sure what to say to Willow and chose not to bring up the topic of what she and Tara had been doing downstairs.
The redhead nodded, her face still contorted with the sudden ache.
“Frozen drinks are not made for shots,” Liam pointed out, trying to sound wise, but he ended up laughing at himself. He’d been drinking most of the day, and was finding the smallest things to be funny.
Tara watched as Willow hurried off and tried to follow, but Anya was there blocking her path.
“Maybe next time instead of staying in the garage, you two can go up to Make Out Point for a little privacy,” Anya teased, before walking off and leaving Tara standing there gaping. She wasn’t trying to be rude with all her comments, but she really liked how flustered everyone got when she said something outrageous.
Adam walked over where Tara was standing and grabbed a carrot stick from the tray on the table beside her. “Hey,” he said nervously, beginning to nibble on the vegetable.
“Hey,” she replied back, a slight blush coloring her cheeks. She’d have to be completely delusional not to realize everyone would notice her and Willow’s absence and figure things out, but she certainly hadn’t been expecting someone to walk by and witness what they’d been doing, especially not Adam.
“So…” the young man trailed off, not quite sure what to say. There was an uncomfortable pause before he decided to just move things on and just talk about something, anything. “So I met a girl today.” He reached for another carrot stick.
Adam’s comment was an incredible ice breaker and Tara momentarily forgot her embarrassment. “Adam, that’s great! How? When? Where?” She began to bombard him with questions.
He grinned widely at his friend’s reaction. “Food first. Details in a minute,” he said, reaching for a plate to fill with food because he hadn’t eaten since before work.
The plate was quickly covered, and the two friends walked over to sit beside each other amongst everyone else.
“Okay,” Adam started, obviously a little giddy. “So I’m on the bus over here listening to my headphones minding my own business, and there’s this girl next to me listening to headphones too.”
“Was she cute?” Tara interrupted, completely excited. Adam was one of her best friends and almost like a little brother to her. She knew he’d been girlfriend-less for a while and was extremely happy at the idea of him meeting someone. It was similar to how he had felt knowing she had met Willow.
“Definitely cute,” Adam replied. “And she looked really familiar at first, but I couldn’t quite place it. Anyway, she sort of smiled at me, and I smiled back.”
At this point, the rest of the group had quieted down and was listening in on the conversation.
“Out of nowhere, she unhooks her headphones from her CD player and hands it to me,” he went on. “I didn’t know what she was doing at first, but figured it out and handed her my CD player.”
“What was she listening to?” Mandy asked from a few feet away where she was sitting on the ground at Ross’s feet.
“It was this band I’d never heard before. Really dark, depressing, and amazing. Piano, cello. I loved it. She told me later it was this band from Chicago called The Digital Kill.”
Everyone turned to either Kim or Tara and both confirmed they’d never heard of the band.
“Long story short, she was in my Contemporary Art class last semester. She gave me the CD she was listening to and her number before getting off the bus,” Adam finished.
A resounding chorus of aww’s shot up from most of the women present as well as Michael.
“So what CD were you listening to?” Jeremy asked from where he was sitting next to Kim.
“The Head Of Femur album,” Adam replied.
“You listen to some fruity stuff, man,” Jeremy commented with a quirked eyebrow, earning a slight shrug from Adam.
Conversation sparked all around about how some of the different couples among them had met. Sachiko teased Ro with their meeting in high school during one of the Saturday classes they took with other Japanese students. He’d been playing around with his mechanical pencil, like he always played around with things, and broke it. As Sachiko said, because he was a ‘stupid boy’ she’d had to reach across to his desk and put it back together for him because he seemed at a loss for how to do it himself.
“It’s so funny when you do stupid things right in front of someone you’ve just met and you end up getting together and falling in love,” Ross remarked.
“Sounds familiar to a certain blonde running into someone’s table at a coffee shop,” Adam teased, poking Tara for good measure.
Tara looked up and caught eyes with Willow who was staring back at her. She grinned shyly even as she thought sadly, Except she could probably never fall in love with me if she really knew me.
Willow could see the slight blush that crept up on Tara’s face across the space dividing them even in the dwindling light of the day. The cute little Tara-grin melted her and caused her to smile herself. I’m in love with Tara, she finally decided as she continued looking at the blonde. Now I just have to find the perfect way to tell her and hope I don’t scare her.
The last bit of light in the sky faded out leaving the deck barely illuminated by the artificial glow coming from inside through the glass doors. Tara stood from where she was still seated with Adam and went to retrieve a few candles to improve visibility. As she walked past Willow, who was still sitting by Buffy and Liam, she brushed a hand over the redhead’s arm and smiled.
“Hey,” Willow said softly, looking up and smiling back at the blonde.
Tara continued her trek to the door, and though she hadn’t been asked to, Willow stood and followed. She figured she’d spent enough time away from her girlfriend.
Once inside, Tara began gathering a collection of various pillar candles and a box of matches.
“Here, let me help,” Willow said taking some of the items out of Tara’s hands.
“Thanks,” the blonde replied. She paused for a moment and turned to fully face Willow. “Are you okay?” Ever since they’d come upstairs from the garage it seemed like the redhead was acting a little funny. She’d remained firmly planted next to Buffy, and though she’d smiled a few times at Tara, she’d made no real effort to talk to the blonde. Tara worried maybe something was wrong.
“Yeah, I’m good. Why?” Willow knew she’d been distancing herself as she was unsure of how exactly she should act considering her latest revelation.
“You’ve just seemed a little avoidy,” Tara mentioned, searching Willow’s eyes for some sort of clue.
“Avoidy?” Willow questioned even though she knew it was true. When Tara nodded she tried to explain. “It’s just with the thing, and the downstairs, and Adam, and the stuff.” She attempted to get her point across without divulging too much information.
Tara giggled at the redhead’s incoherent explanation. Willow was too cute sometimes, and she decided not to press the issue figuring nothing major was going on. “Okay.”
The two gathered up the candles and went back outside. They placed the pillars in various locations to allow a slight glow around the deck. They didn’t want it to be too bright considering there were going to be fireworks on the other side of the lake behind the house soon, and it would probably be prettier in near darkness.
After lighting the last candle, Tara sat down in one of the more open areas of the deck and leaned against the wall of her home. Willow soon followed and slid down, seating herself between Tara’s legs so she could use the blonde as a backrest.
Everyone else settled in as well and got ready for the fireworks. It wasn’t very long before the sky was being lit up in various explosions of different colors. No one really spoke as they soaked in the comfort of being surrounded with partners and friends and enjoyed the show across the water before them.
Tara gently tightened the grip she had around Willow and attempted to pull the redhead closer, but there already wasn’t any space left between them. Willow smiled and leaned her head back to rest it on the blonde’s shoulder.
“It’s so beautiful,” Tara whispered, talking about all the colors dancing in the night sky.
“Yeah, it is,” Willow whispered back. She wasn’t referring to the fireworks.
Tara glanced down to see Willow staring up at her. The redhead didn’t have to say anything, but Tara caught her meaning.
Cloaked somewhat by the darkness, the two met halfway in a slow, soft kiss. They relaxed back into each other and continued watching as the last of the fireworks went off.
After the sky had dimmed, everyone remained quiet and still, not willing to break the tranquility around them.
A few moments later, Kim effectively shattered the peacefulness surrounding everyone by slamming her beer bottle down on the wooden armrest of the chair she was sitting in, sloshing a little of the liquid down the bottle’s neck. Everybody jumped and turned to see what the problem was.
“I’m starting a record label!” Kim exclaimed.
It was a completely random comment. No one knew what to say and just stared at her.
“Huh?” Adam spoke up. It was the only thing he could manage.
“I’m starting a record label. Right here and now,” Kim explained.
“O-kay,” Adam said slowly, soaking in the new information and wondering if Kim had drank a little too much beer.
“And what are you going to call your record label, honey,” Jeremy asked, leaning over toward Kim from his seat that rested next to hers.
“Eight Reales Records,” Kim replied.
“Eight what now?” Ro asked.
“Eight reales,” Kim said. “From back with the pirates. It was a money thing. You know, pieces of eight?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Ro said.
“Oh, pirates. Like that Johnny Depp movie. He’s so sexy,” Buffy let slip, then cringed when she realized she’d said it out loud. “But not as sexy as you,” she reassured Liam who was looking at her oddly.
“I get what you’re saying,” Willow said. She remembered a lecture from one of her history classes in college about Spanish colonization in the Americas. “But why that?” she asked, not understanding the tie-in.
“Kim’s deduced she must have been a pirate in a former life,” Tara explained from behind the redhead.
“Oh,” Willow simply replied, still not really getting it, but deciding to go along anyway.
“Yeah, so I figured Eight Reales is kind of piratey, and it sounds cool,” Kim clarified before taking a drink of her beer.
“One thing though, hon,” Jeremy began. “After investing in the record store, you’re kind of broke.”
Kim lowered the bottle from her lips and stared blankly ahead for a second. “Well fuck,” she said disappointedly. With a moment of thought, she looked at everyone brightly. “Who wants to give me some money?” she asked cheerily.
A lot of people wouldn’t make eye contact with Kim for a moment. Most of them were broke themselves and couldn’t afford to put up money for that kind of project. A reply came from a very unexpected place.
“I’ll do it,” Willow said, shocking everyone.
“Will, what do you know about the music industry?” Buffy asked, unsure of what her friend might be agreeing to.
“I don’t know,” the redhead admitted. “What kind of stuff would it entail?” she asked Kim.
“I was thinking about doing a few compilations and seeing about signing some local bands,” Kim explained. “Nothing really huge. I’m not thinking Virgin or any other corporate giant.”
“Thank god for that,” Jeremy muttered, earning a few mumbling agreements from others in the group. The general consensus among them all was that the smaller labels were better and the giant companies were more interested in money than anything.
“Sounds easy enough,” Willow said. “Count me in.”
“Will, are you sure you want to do it? It might not be all that easy,” Tara questioned from behind the redhead.
“It’s an experience. It’ll be fun,” Willow reasoned.
“You’re girlfriend’s cool, Tare,” Kim said, lifting her beer bottle back to her lips.
“Hold up,” Anya interrupted. “Like Buffy said, what do you know about this kind of thing? I say we give you a little test.”
“What kind of test?” Kim asked, not sure where Anya was going.
“Top five comps and the labels who released them,” the keyboard player offered.
“Uhh…” Willow was a little less than confident she could pull that one off. “I can maybe tell you what the CDs look like, but I’m not sure about titles and labels for all of them,” she admitted. She’d been listening to a lot of Tara’s CDs for the past months and had her own collection to choose from, but she wasn’t sure she could fulfill the list. It was actually the first time anyone in the group of Tara’s friends had asked her for a Top Five list, and she felt a little nervous.
“Tara can help,” Anya agreed. “But she can’t make suggestions. She can only help clarify your choices.” She reached into her purse which sat at her feet and pulled out a small pad of paper and a fluffy pink pen and tossed them to the redhead.
“O-okay.” Willow caught the objects and opened the notepad.
“What are you thinking?” Tara whispered into the redhead’s ear.
“I’m thinking I have no idea,” Willow answered in a hushed voice.
“You’ll be fine,” the blonde reassured. “What about that CD we were listening to in the car today?” she suggested.
“Oh yeah. The black and white on with the karate guys on it.” Willow realized that would probably be one of her choices. “What was it called again?” She poised the pen and got ready to write.
“Punk Rock Is Your Friend Volume Three, Kung Fu Records,” Tara replied. She giggled as Willow hurriedly wrote down the words.
“Okay, four to go,” the redhead pointed out. She thought for a moment. “Oh! That PETA one. What’s the label?”
“Umm.” Tara had to think about it. “Fat Wreck Chords,” she remembered.
They whispered between themselves for a few more minutes before Willow confidently handed the notebook and pen over to Mandy so it could be passed around to Anya.
Anya took the list and read aloud. “Punk Rock Is Your Friend Volume Three, Kung Fu Records. Liberation: Songs To Benefit PETA, Fat Wreck Chords. Another Year On The Streets, Vagrant Records.” She paused and looked at the redhead. “Pretty good so far.”
Willow smiled and sighed in relief.
Anya smiled as well and continued reading. “Punks Undercover, Cleopatra.” She paused. “Never heard of it, but okay. And finally…” She read the fifth choice and frowned. “Immediate disqualification.”
“Why?” Tara asked.
“You can’t have two comps from the same label. You have Fat Wreck Chords twice,” Anya explained.
“You never said I couldn’t do that,” Willow complained, knitting her brow in confusion.
“Well, that’s the rule, so make another choice.”
The redhead thought for a second. “Okay, Boys Lie, but I don’t know the label.”
“Lookout,” Tara supplied.
“You’re such a lesbian,” Anya muttered earning frowns from both Tara and Willow. “Anyway, I think she passes. Anyone disagree?”
No one said anything and a few people shook their heads, showing that they agreed with Anya.
“So we’re business partners?” Kim asked the redhead who nodded.
Tara wasn’t sure how she felt about her best friend and girlfriend getting involved in business together because a small part of her worried how things would work out if something went wrong with her relationship with Willow. Plus she worried that maybe Kim was being a little nonchalant about the endeavor and didn’t want Willow to waste her time and money. Sure Kim was one hundred percent there for the record store, but Tara wondered if her friend could handle so much at once. Nonetheless, Willow and Kim both seemed to be happy, so Tara was happy for them.
After a while people started to head home. Adam, Willow, Buffy, and Liam all remained and helped Tara clean up the mess. Despite wanting to stay, Willow decided she should probably head home.
“So I’ll leave my car here?” the redhead asked as they were getting ready to leave. She’d decided to go in the same car as Buffy since Liam seemed pretty out of it from the copious amounts of alcohol he’d had over the course of the day.
“Sure,” Tara agreed, as she pulled Willow into a warm hug and gave her a quick goodbye kiss.
“Do you want to come with us instead of having Tara take you home?” Buffy asked Adam who was gathering his things to go.
“That’d be great,” Adam said, looking to Tara for confirmation.
“Works for me,” Tara replied.
“Okay, we’re gone then,” Willow said, pulling out of Tara’s arms. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bye,” Tara said as she watched everyone file out of her home. She closed the door behind her and went to get ready for bed.
Willow followed the small group to Buffy’s car and they all climbed inside. She couldn’t wait to get home and talk about her discovery of the day with her best friend and try to figure out a way to tell Tara.
How can I say I love you back; you never made me happy. You’ve laid yourself to sleep; I never said this wouldn’t hurt. You gave up everything; I never said I’d give it back. I know you’ll never change; I won’t be good enough for you. I know, you’ll make it through; I’ll never be around to see.
Edited by: unionjill30 at: 10/29/03 2:11 pm
I'm first for feedback - back later for something valuable. 
,
That was a long update. It was so great. 
Awww, poor 
and 
Got caught making-out. 
Never fun. 
with the secrets. 
more. Update soon, please? 
. It gave me odd visuals. Poor fish though. Let’s not do that. I’m having a ‘Let’s save the animals’ moment right now I think. Could be ‘cause I’m working on a speech about vegetarianism/veganism for my speech class and I’ve visited the PETA website one to many times here in the past few days. Ah well. I’m glad the holiday thing was good. July 4th with friends is always a fun time. 
)