Could You Bottle It Up? by elisabeth_grace
Title: Could You Bottle It Up?
Author: elisabeth_grace
Pairing: Mallory/Abby
Rating: PG
Summary: Mallory sees Abby again at the triplets' graduation party
A/N: Written for coffeecommunity, who requested the pairing, Mallory's large family, and Mallory coming out to at least one person.
The sun beat down relentlessly, making the day unbearably hot, and Mallory ducked out of the way of the triplets and their friends, whose football game had taken up the back yard, and sat on the top step of the back porch, pulling her legs in to her chest to keep her body in the shade.
Claire slammed the French door closed as she stormed out of the house with Jamie Newton hot on her tail.
“No, Jamie,” she said, turning to him and putting her hand on her hip, “You don’t understand. You are only in sixth grade; I can’t go to the movies with you. I am a lot more mature than you. When you are in seventh grade, you’ll understand.”
It was all Mallory could do to stifle her laughter. Claire was wearing some of Margo’s eye shadow and blush, and the way that her face was painted reminded Mallory a lot of the way Claudia had worn make up when they had all been in The Babysitters Club.
Mallory heard voices behind her, and she turned around to find Byron and Charlotte Johansson deep in conversation on the porch swing. Byron’s long leg pushed off the ground and kept the swing swaying, and the way that he looked into Charlotte’s eyes made Mallory smile. Who would have known that Byron would be the first of the triplets to get a serious girlfriend? But this was the triplets’ graduation party, and from the way that Charlotte held Byron’s hand, Mallory knew that they were already anticipating the separation that they would endure when Byron left for college.
“It’s weird to be all together like this again, isn’t it?” asked Abby, sitting next to Mallory on the top step.
Mallory self-consciously pushed her hair back from her face and smiled at Abby. She was suddenly glad that she had taken the time to straighten her hair today. She had changed a lot from the frizzy redheaded kid in glasses that Abby would remember. Remembering what she had been like and realizing what she was now made Mallory feel oddly alluring.
“It is. I can’t believe they’re so grown up,” murmured Mallory, looking across the yard as her former babysitting charges and fellow babysitters mingled. There were a few adults present, but the babysitters themselves were adults now, and Mallory was having trouble adjusting to the new dynamics. She had been at boarding school, then at college, so she had missed the change. When had everybody grown up?
“So how is college?” asked Abby, leaning back on her elbows and stretching out her tan legs. She was toned from playing soccer at Syracuse University, and the way that her shorts and the hem of her tank top rode up to expose more skin made Mallory’s breath catch. Had Abby always been so beautiful?
“It’s good,” said Mallory. “I really love it. I’m learning so much.”
“You’re in Massachusetts, right?” asked Abby.
“Yeah. I’m at Mount Holyoke College studying English.”
Abby frowned. “Oh, that’s an all girls’ school, right? How are you taking that?”
“I like it,” said Mallory. “No testosterone to mess with.”
“But no boyfriend, either,” said Abby casually, watching Claudia and the boyfriend who had come home with her to so that they wouldn’t have to spend the summer apart.
Mallory shrugged. “I don’t mind it.”
Something in Mallory’s tone made Abby look at her more closely, and Mallory immediately blushed. She may have outgrown her ugly duckling stage, but her red hair still gave her the whitest skin of anybody that she knew, and Abby’s knowing smile grew when she saw Mallory’s pink cheeks.
“Oh,” said Abby, nodding. “Oh. I get it. So you’re-”
Mallory pressed her finger to Abby’s lips impulsively.
“Please, Abby, not here,” she begged, glancing around at her family and friends. Vanessa balanced on the porch railing behind them with a book in her hands, and she was easily within earshot of the conversation. The thought of inadvertently coming out to her family made Mallory’s pulse race and caused her to become light-headed.
“Are you okay?” asked Abby, putting her hand on Mallory’s knee. “You don’t look so good.”
“I’ll be fine,” Mallory assured her, struggling to smile. “Just, do you want to go inside? It’s so hot out here. Maybe if we went to my bedroom-”
Mallory broke off suddenly, realizing what she was saying. She blushed even more, and Abby just grinned and helped her to her feet.
“Sure. We’ll go to your room. I haven’t been in your house in ages. Do you and Vanessa still share?”
Abby wrapped her arm around Mallory’s shoulders as they climbed the stairs, and Mallory leaned into her gratefully. It felt nice to have Abby touch her like this, maybe nicer than she was willing to admit.
“I do share a room with Vanessa,” said Mallory, pushing open the door and ushering Abby inside, “But I’m not here much, so she’s kind of taken over the space.”
Mallory briefly considered turning around the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door as she kicked it closed, then decided that to do so would be too childish. Besides, she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. The last thing she wanted was for her parents to suspect her motives for being alone with girls.
Abby pushed aside a paperback and sat on the edge of the bed, grabbing Vanessa’s stuffed rabbit and twisting its ears together.
“So, what were you saying before?”
Mallory stood before Abby and twisted her hands together, feeling as if she was standing in front of a firing squad. She had never said the words aloud before, though she was by no means lacking experience with other girls, and she had always assumed that she would grow up and move away before she told anybody that she preferred girls to boys. She had thought that boys were stupid in middle school, and she still thought so now, but that didn’t mean that she wanted her family to know. But something in Abby’s eyes made Mallory want to tell her. Abby looked as if she would understand.
“I’m, um, a lesbian,” said Mallory quietly, squeezing her knuckles so hard that they popped.
A grin spread across Abby’s face. “Ah-hah! I was right.”
Mallory frowned. “You were right? You mean you knew?”
Abby tossed her curls over her shoulder, “Of course I knew. I can tell these things.”
“But how?”
“I have an excellent gaydar,” said Abby, pointedly looking at Mallory’s body, “And let me just tell you, you pinged right away.”
Mallory looked down at her khaki shorts and camisole, then looked at Abby.
“I dress like a lesbian?” she asked.
“No,” said Abby, shaking her head, “But you are gorgeous. Do you have a girlfriend?”
“I, I-” stuttered Mallory.
“Aw, I’m sorry,” said Abby quickly.
“No!” exclaimed Mallory. “I mean, I went to boarding school. I’ve kissed girls. I just don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Prove it,” said Abby with a glint in her eye.
“Prove what?” asked Mallory.
“Prove that you can kiss a girl,” said Abby.
Mallory shook her head. “No.”
“I dare you.”
Mallory squared her jaw, then shrugged.
“Fine,” she said, stepping to the edge of the bed and leaning her knee between Abby’s thighs. She wrapped one arm around her shoulders, splaying her fingers across Abby’s back, and threaded the others into Abby’s curls. By the time that she kissed her, Abby’s mouth was already open, and Mallory ran her tongue across Abby’s bottom lip before sliding it into her mouth.
“Oh!”
Mallory and Abby jerked apart to find Vanessa standing in the doorway, her mouth open.
“You could have knocked,” growled Mallory before her embarrassment could render her speechless.
“I live here too, you know,” Vanessa shot back. “Besides, I already knew that you were a lesbian.”
“What?” asked Mallory and Abby in unison.
“Your sixth grade journal,” said Vanessa nonchalantly, leaning against the doorframe. “You left it here when you went to boarding school.
“But I didn’t even know in middle school!” exclaimed Mallory.
“You said that you hated boys,” said Vanessa practically, “And you’ve never been one to change your mind.”
At Mallory’s horrified look, Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Relax, Mal, it’s not like I’m going to tell anyone. I already would have done so if that was my intention.”
“You mean you don’t care?”
“I support the Sapphic sisterhood,” said Vanessa, coming into the room and picking up a notebook from her desk. “It’s all so modern and open-minded. So I’ll just leave you two to your exploration.”
With that, Vanessa left and closed the door behind her, and Mallory sank onto the bed next to Abby.
“Oh my god,” she said, shaking her head in shock. “I have just been outed to my sister.”
Abby, meanwhile, just touched her lips and said, “You really don’t have a girlfriend?”
Mallory blinked in confusion. “No. Why?”
“Because you sure can kiss,” said Abby, grinning.
Mallory was beginning to think that, if she blushed any more, her face would catch on fire.
“I told you, boarding school.”
Abby stood up and threw Vanessa’s stuffed bunny back onto the bed.
“Well, maybe if you’re not busy some time, we could go out to dinner. We could catch up and, you know…”
Mallory smiled back at Abby. “You know, I’d like that.”
“Cool,” said Abby. “Well, I promised Anna that I’d come to see her quartet tonight, so I’d better go. I’ll see you around.”
Impulsively, Mallory stood up and grabbed Abby’s hand, pulling her closer. She stood on tiptoe and kissed Abby again, then let her go and opened the door for her.
“Yeah, I’ll see you around.”
Abby coughed once, though Mallory didn’t think that it was from her allergies, and slowly backed away from the room. When she was out of sight, Mallory fell back onto the bed and stuffed a pillow over her head before giggles overtook her.
She had a date with Abby. Who would have thought? Maybe growing up wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.
Author: elisabeth_grace
Pairing: Mallory/Abby
Rating: PG
Summary: Mallory sees Abby again at the triplets' graduation party
A/N: Written for coffeecommunity, who requested the pairing, Mallory's large family, and Mallory coming out to at least one person.
The sun beat down relentlessly, making the day unbearably hot, and Mallory ducked out of the way of the triplets and their friends, whose football game had taken up the back yard, and sat on the top step of the back porch, pulling her legs in to her chest to keep her body in the shade.
Claire slammed the French door closed as she stormed out of the house with Jamie Newton hot on her tail.
“No, Jamie,” she said, turning to him and putting her hand on her hip, “You don’t understand. You are only in sixth grade; I can’t go to the movies with you. I am a lot more mature than you. When you are in seventh grade, you’ll understand.”
It was all Mallory could do to stifle her laughter. Claire was wearing some of Margo’s eye shadow and blush, and the way that her face was painted reminded Mallory a lot of the way Claudia had worn make up when they had all been in The Babysitters Club.
Mallory heard voices behind her, and she turned around to find Byron and Charlotte Johansson deep in conversation on the porch swing. Byron’s long leg pushed off the ground and kept the swing swaying, and the way that he looked into Charlotte’s eyes made Mallory smile. Who would have known that Byron would be the first of the triplets to get a serious girlfriend? But this was the triplets’ graduation party, and from the way that Charlotte held Byron’s hand, Mallory knew that they were already anticipating the separation that they would endure when Byron left for college.
“It’s weird to be all together like this again, isn’t it?” asked Abby, sitting next to Mallory on the top step.
Mallory self-consciously pushed her hair back from her face and smiled at Abby. She was suddenly glad that she had taken the time to straighten her hair today. She had changed a lot from the frizzy redheaded kid in glasses that Abby would remember. Remembering what she had been like and realizing what she was now made Mallory feel oddly alluring.
“It is. I can’t believe they’re so grown up,” murmured Mallory, looking across the yard as her former babysitting charges and fellow babysitters mingled. There were a few adults present, but the babysitters themselves were adults now, and Mallory was having trouble adjusting to the new dynamics. She had been at boarding school, then at college, so she had missed the change. When had everybody grown up?
“So how is college?” asked Abby, leaning back on her elbows and stretching out her tan legs. She was toned from playing soccer at Syracuse University, and the way that her shorts and the hem of her tank top rode up to expose more skin made Mallory’s breath catch. Had Abby always been so beautiful?
“It’s good,” said Mallory. “I really love it. I’m learning so much.”
“You’re in Massachusetts, right?” asked Abby.
“Yeah. I’m at Mount Holyoke College studying English.”
Abby frowned. “Oh, that’s an all girls’ school, right? How are you taking that?”
“I like it,” said Mallory. “No testosterone to mess with.”
“But no boyfriend, either,” said Abby casually, watching Claudia and the boyfriend who had come home with her to so that they wouldn’t have to spend the summer apart.
Mallory shrugged. “I don’t mind it.”
Something in Mallory’s tone made Abby look at her more closely, and Mallory immediately blushed. She may have outgrown her ugly duckling stage, but her red hair still gave her the whitest skin of anybody that she knew, and Abby’s knowing smile grew when she saw Mallory’s pink cheeks.
“Oh,” said Abby, nodding. “Oh. I get it. So you’re-”
Mallory pressed her finger to Abby’s lips impulsively.
“Please, Abby, not here,” she begged, glancing around at her family and friends. Vanessa balanced on the porch railing behind them with a book in her hands, and she was easily within earshot of the conversation. The thought of inadvertently coming out to her family made Mallory’s pulse race and caused her to become light-headed.
“Are you okay?” asked Abby, putting her hand on Mallory’s knee. “You don’t look so good.”
“I’ll be fine,” Mallory assured her, struggling to smile. “Just, do you want to go inside? It’s so hot out here. Maybe if we went to my bedroom-”
Mallory broke off suddenly, realizing what she was saying. She blushed even more, and Abby just grinned and helped her to her feet.
“Sure. We’ll go to your room. I haven’t been in your house in ages. Do you and Vanessa still share?”
Abby wrapped her arm around Mallory’s shoulders as they climbed the stairs, and Mallory leaned into her gratefully. It felt nice to have Abby touch her like this, maybe nicer than she was willing to admit.
“I do share a room with Vanessa,” said Mallory, pushing open the door and ushering Abby inside, “But I’m not here much, so she’s kind of taken over the space.”
Mallory briefly considered turning around the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door as she kicked it closed, then decided that to do so would be too childish. Besides, she didn’t want to draw attention to herself. The last thing she wanted was for her parents to suspect her motives for being alone with girls.
Abby pushed aside a paperback and sat on the edge of the bed, grabbing Vanessa’s stuffed rabbit and twisting its ears together.
“So, what were you saying before?”
Mallory stood before Abby and twisted her hands together, feeling as if she was standing in front of a firing squad. She had never said the words aloud before, though she was by no means lacking experience with other girls, and she had always assumed that she would grow up and move away before she told anybody that she preferred girls to boys. She had thought that boys were stupid in middle school, and she still thought so now, but that didn’t mean that she wanted her family to know. But something in Abby’s eyes made Mallory want to tell her. Abby looked as if she would understand.
“I’m, um, a lesbian,” said Mallory quietly, squeezing her knuckles so hard that they popped.
A grin spread across Abby’s face. “Ah-hah! I was right.”
Mallory frowned. “You were right? You mean you knew?”
Abby tossed her curls over her shoulder, “Of course I knew. I can tell these things.”
“But how?”
“I have an excellent gaydar,” said Abby, pointedly looking at Mallory’s body, “And let me just tell you, you pinged right away.”
Mallory looked down at her khaki shorts and camisole, then looked at Abby.
“I dress like a lesbian?” she asked.
“No,” said Abby, shaking her head, “But you are gorgeous. Do you have a girlfriend?”
“I, I-” stuttered Mallory.
“Aw, I’m sorry,” said Abby quickly.
“No!” exclaimed Mallory. “I mean, I went to boarding school. I’ve kissed girls. I just don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Prove it,” said Abby with a glint in her eye.
“Prove what?” asked Mallory.
“Prove that you can kiss a girl,” said Abby.
Mallory shook her head. “No.”
“I dare you.”
Mallory squared her jaw, then shrugged.
“Fine,” she said, stepping to the edge of the bed and leaning her knee between Abby’s thighs. She wrapped one arm around her shoulders, splaying her fingers across Abby’s back, and threaded the others into Abby’s curls. By the time that she kissed her, Abby’s mouth was already open, and Mallory ran her tongue across Abby’s bottom lip before sliding it into her mouth.
“Oh!”
Mallory and Abby jerked apart to find Vanessa standing in the doorway, her mouth open.
“You could have knocked,” growled Mallory before her embarrassment could render her speechless.
“I live here too, you know,” Vanessa shot back. “Besides, I already knew that you were a lesbian.”
“What?” asked Mallory and Abby in unison.
“Your sixth grade journal,” said Vanessa nonchalantly, leaning against the doorframe. “You left it here when you went to boarding school.
“But I didn’t even know in middle school!” exclaimed Mallory.
“You said that you hated boys,” said Vanessa practically, “And you’ve never been one to change your mind.”
At Mallory’s horrified look, Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Relax, Mal, it’s not like I’m going to tell anyone. I already would have done so if that was my intention.”
“You mean you don’t care?”
“I support the Sapphic sisterhood,” said Vanessa, coming into the room and picking up a notebook from her desk. “It’s all so modern and open-minded. So I’ll just leave you two to your exploration.”
With that, Vanessa left and closed the door behind her, and Mallory sank onto the bed next to Abby.
“Oh my god,” she said, shaking her head in shock. “I have just been outed to my sister.”
Abby, meanwhile, just touched her lips and said, “You really don’t have a girlfriend?”
Mallory blinked in confusion. “No. Why?”
“Because you sure can kiss,” said Abby, grinning.
Mallory was beginning to think that, if she blushed any more, her face would catch on fire.
“I told you, boarding school.”
Abby stood up and threw Vanessa’s stuffed bunny back onto the bed.
“Well, maybe if you’re not busy some time, we could go out to dinner. We could catch up and, you know…”
Mallory smiled back at Abby. “You know, I’d like that.”
“Cool,” said Abby. “Well, I promised Anna that I’d come to see her quartet tonight, so I’d better go. I’ll see you around.”
Impulsively, Mallory stood up and grabbed Abby’s hand, pulling her closer. She stood on tiptoe and kissed Abby again, then let her go and opened the door for her.
“Yeah, I’ll see you around.”
Abby coughed once, though Mallory didn’t think that it was from her allergies, and slowly backed away from the room. When she was out of sight, Mallory fell back onto the bed and stuffed a pillow over her head before giggles overtook her.
She had a date with Abby. Who would have thought? Maybe growing up wasn’t such a bad thing, after all.