#cherryrpg

Logan is 11 months and 4 days old when he meets Holly Wood for the first time.

Memories of his childhood are a hazy blur, but the blanks in the half-remembered moments are easily filled in by photos. There are few photos of him without Holly, their parents meticulously documenting every moment shared. There’s a photo of Logan on his third birthday—Holly at his side, giggling as he swipes frosting across her cheek. He doesn’t remember it at all, but it’s one of his favourite photos of them.

They grow older—Merrick carves herself a home in Holly’s heart, and Logan learns the meaning of brotherhood with Ethan—but they don’t grow apart. Logan is 12 years old and when the teacher asks the class where they see themselves ten years in the future, he answers wherever Holly is.

( Holly writes down medical school, and Logan sulks for a week. )

Logan is 13 years old when he kisses Holly for the first—and last—time. It’s the summer of 2014, and they’re in his backyard, by the poolside. He’s lying along the edge of the pool, one hand slung across his own abdomen, the other dangling off the edge. The pool water is warm where it grazes his fingertips, and he draws his hand slowly, deliberately across the surface. Holly’s sitting by his head, close enough that his hair brushes against her thighs, and even though she complains about it, she doesn’t move away.

In the mid-afternoon sun, Holly’s hair turns golden. He’s never really thought about kissing girls before, but he thinks he would like to.

“Can I kiss you?” he asks, the words slipping past his lips before he can stop them. He watches as surprise flickers across Holly’s expression, and feels a warmth in his chest that has nothing to do with the fact that he’s been lying in the sun for a good hour. “For science,” he adds.

Holly doesn’t say anything—not for a long while, long enough that he almost takes it back, pretends he was only joking—but eventually, she nods. So he does. Her lips are warm, and when Logan gets bold enough to press a little deeper, he tastes the cherry pop she’d had earlier. It’s his first kiss, and he wonder’s if it’s Holly’s too. 

He hopes it is. They’ve shared many firsts over the years—first steps, first words—it only makes sense that they’ll share this first, too.

“That was...” he says as he pulls away, and for a brief, crazy moment, finds himself thinking that Holly looks cute like this, hair slightly mussed, pink high on her cheekbones—although whether the flush is from the sun or his kiss, he can’t tell. “What did you think?”

There’s something that might be panic in her eyes, but he must be mistaken, because he blinks and she’s grinning at him again, easy as ever. “Like kissing my brother,” she says, and Logan doesn’t feel bad at all about pushing her into the pool for that.

Holly yells as she hits the water, and he’s mid-laughter when slender fingers wrap around both his ankles and yanks. Water shoots up his nose, and even though it burns, Logan can’t bring himself to be mad about it. Not when Holly’s laughter rings in his ears, delighted.

He never asks to kiss her again.

SOUNDTRACK.

FOURTH OF JULY // fall out boy ↪ i'll be as honest as you'll let me / i miss your early morning company / if you get me / you are my favourite ‘what if’ / you are my best ‘I'll never know’

SWEET CREATURE // harry styles ↪ sweet creature / had another talk about where it's going wrong / but we're still young / we don't know where we're going / but we know where we belong

HERE WITH ME // susie suh, robert koch ↪ calling your name in the midnight hour / reaching for you from the endless dream / so many miles between us now / but you are always here with me

MOONDUST // jaymes young ↪ i'm building this house on the moon / like a lost astronaut / lookin' at you like a star / from a place the world forgot / and there's nothing that i can do / except bury my love for you

OCEANS // seafret ↪ we hide our emotions / under the surface and try to pretend / but it feels like there's oceans / between you and me / i want you / and i always will

Lulu was ten years old, and the world was ending.

She woke up feeling the worst she ever had, earlier than she’d ever wake up of her own volition on a summer Sunday morning. For a while she couldn’t even process the physical pain in the wake of just how gross she felt on a base level. She dragged herself out of bed, on her way to wake Ethan and make him do something. A glance back at her bed, the flash of discoloration followed by a speedy run to the bathroom, eliminated that option completely from her mind. 

Ethan was everything Lulu needed him to be and more: brother, teacher, caregiver, friend. There were some things, though, that were just completely out of his wheelhouse, and Lulu could recognize that without having to ask. Not that she particularly wanted to ask him about this anyways. She didn’t want to ask anyone, didn’t want to have to deal with this and all of the completely humiliating implications but that wasn’t a choice. So.

So, she changed her clothes, took Ethan’s old rusty bike and rode to the only place familiar enough that she felt safe going to at a time like this.

“I need to talk to Holly,” Lulu said in a rush when Merrick opened the door. The blonde furrowed her eyebrows at this, clearly surprised, but didn’t comment, leading Lulu into the house by her hand. In that moment, Lulu loved her just a bit more for not asking questions. There wasn’t much she didn’t share with her best friend at this point, but the shame ripping through her belly was already a lot more than she thought she could bear. 

“Holly,” Merrick shouted, even as she took Lulu directly to Holly’s room. Holly was sitting cross legged on her bed, a pile of papers spread out around her. “Lu needs to talk to you.” Merrick looked at Lulu as she said it, obviously trying to sus out what prompted this. Lulu gave her a look back. Merrick, of course, seemed to understand, huffing a bit as she turned on her heel and left the room. Lulu shut the door behind her with her foot, crossing her arms as she faced Holly. The older girl looked more than a little confused, but welcoming in that way that way that only Holly could look. “What’s up, Lulu?”

Lulu rocked on her heels, trying get the words out. It wasn’t a big deal, she told herself. An obvious lie. At ten, it felt like the biggest deal. Maybe then it should’ve been a big deal to Holly too-- it was easy to forget that Holly was only a year older than Lulu. Nothing ever seemed like a big deal when it came to Holly, though, which is mostly why Lulu came to her. “I- um, I think I just got. You know.” She lifted a hand, vaguely gesturing around the front of her shorts. Holly raised her eyebrows, clearly not getting it. Lulu sighed, turning red. Maybe she shouldn’t have kicked Merrick out. Their nearly telepathic communication might’ve been useful at a time like this. “My period,” she muttered, eyes fixed firmly on the floor. Just saying it felt like dropping a nuclear bomb on herself. She was pretty sure if someone could die from embarrassment, she would have.

“Oh,” she heard, followed by the shuffling of Holly getting off the bed. “Come with me,” she said, placing a gentle arm on Lulu’s shoulder. 

Lulu followed her into the bathroom, relieved in the knowledge that she wouldn’t have to do much now. She was right. Holly sat with her on the edge of the bathtub and talked, and talked, it out with her. It wasn’t pleasant no matter how you sliced it, but Holly’s voice, under the matter of fact tone, was soothing enough to stop Lulu from feeling like she was vibrating out of her skin. That alone was a massive improvement from five minutes ago. 

And because it was Holly, after the painful parts, there were pancakes, and ice cream, and Lulu’s favorite cheerleading movies. Lulu didn’t even have to ask. That in itself gave her a warm feeling in her chest, a little overwhelming in its intensity. She blamed it completely on the hormones Holly told her about. 

The treats were enough to distract Merrick from asking what happened, for now, and enough to make Lulu feel like maybe the world wasn’t ending after all.