Jessica Jung grabbed Tiffany by the hips and threw her onto the bed. The brunette followed her, pinning her down and mashing their lips together with mad hunger. Tiffany fought back the urge to moan as this stranger - this brown-haired beauty whose name she barely knew - a wanton tongue into , pressing against hers, wrestling it, dominating it. Breath came harsh and ragged as she was made a slave to Jessica’s ministrations. Whispers, scented with jasmine and rosewater, tickled her ears as commanding hands stripped her of her clothes. Slats of silvery moonlight d at their forms, twin sinners in the midnight darkness, touching and tasting and feeling. Tiffany’s stimuli-bombarded nerves screamed in pleasure. The brunette’s lips were moving away from Tiffany’s; they were at her neck now, biting, , leaving furious crimson marks, marks that would have to be covered later, marks that Tiffany would run her fingers over reminiscently in the coming days. The lips continued to travel downwards, expelling their warm breaths like gusts of summer air, their wet surfaces cradling and caressing every part of Tiffany’s body that they came in contact with. They were moving again, further, and the brunette was giggling now as she approached the space that Tiffany wanted her to be, a melodic noise that was drowned out by the helpless girl’s shameless gasp of-

    Tiffany awoke, greeted by the dark of her room. Beads of needled sweat pricked at her forehead and armpits. She sat up and swallowed the lump of wind in the throat before checking her phone. “2:47 am” the big white letters read. With a sigh, she rested her head on the pillow again, attempting to push the memories of her dream away. Her brain was fully alert and unwilling to return to slumbering. She shut her eyes and found that the wild images of her dream played like projected videos in that black in-between space of her lids. Every ounce of her willpower was dedicated to resisting the rising heat in her belly. She tossed and turned for forty-five minutes before giving in.

    A good effort, the sultry voice of the brunette echoed through her thoughts as Tiffany made her way to the bathroom for a long, hot shower, But you never had a chance to begin with.

***

    Tiffany awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. She rolled out of bed at five forty-five, just as she did every school day, and brushed her teeth. She had her own bathroom connected to her bedroom, which made preparing herself in the morning convenient. Both spaces were outfitted with a sleek, muted-hued decor peppered with flashes of pinks and yellows that gave them a breathing sort of vibrance. There was an inherent womanly aura to the place, an adult vibe that the seventeen-year old had created through her personal taste in decoration. It reflected the whims of a pragmatist who wasn’t adverse to adding a bit of flavor here and there, should space allow it.

    For the first time in awhile, Tiffany forgoed her morning shower in lieu of a quick face wash and moisturization before applying her makeup. She’d showered less than three hours ago anyway, and she wasn’t one to sweat much in her sleep (barring unwanted, intrusive dreams). Similar to the hours she spent awake before bed the previous night, she replayed the events that occurred at Balboa Island as she mindlessly went about her morning routine.

    The past few weeks with Taeyeon had only served to strengthen the attraction that Tiffany had towards her (if that was even possible). Their friendship was set in stone now, evident enough to the entire school that other students had begun to wonder about this diminutive little blonde who always tagged alongside the head cheerleader. They drove to school together, sat together during classes and lunch, and, after last night, they hung out outside of school. The whole situation probably came as a huge anomaly to the student body: just who the hell was this Kim Taeyeon, and why did Tiffany take such a liking to her?

    The black-haired girl gave her reflection a bitter smile.

    There was a nagging part of her that wondered if anyone had suspicions about her uality, if people were questioning why she’d never had a boyfriend, and seemed to stay exclusively near women when most girls her age were borderline boy-crazed. Maybe they thought these things, but she was sure the conclusion that she was a lesbian hadn’t crossed their minds. If it did, she’d have heard about it. Lucky for her that no one had seen her out with Taeyeon last night.

    Tiffany released a sigh as she headed down the flights of wooden stairs to the first floor of her home. The house had an open floor plan; its empty halls echoed with her footfalls, their finely adorned nooks and crannies rebounding every minor sound into a droning presence that rang out in the cool California morning.

    In the kitchen, there was half a cup of still-warm coffee, brewed by her mother, who’d left for work at four o’clock that morning. Her father was on another of his business trips and hadn’t been in the state for the past four days. He didn’t say when he’d be back, but Tiffany reckoned that it would be at least a week before she saw the stern man swagger his way through the front door again. She went about making herself a breakfast of oatmeal and scrambled egg whites, indulging in the sweetness of a few fresh strawberries as she did so. In between tending to her cooking meal, she paused to sip coconut-flavored (but black, always black) coffee while staring out her back door at the wide, dew-speckled expanse of her backyard in contemplative silence. It was in these tiny “in-betweens” that she scanned and rescanned her recent interactions with Taeyeon, honing in on certain moments and playing them out in her head, analyzing, robot-like and meticulous in her search.

    Tiffany recognized the building between her and her new friend, felt it as well as she’d felt the comforting headrest of Taeyeon’s shoulder last night at the boardwalk. Things were coming to a between them, rapidly so, and in ways that Tiffany herself hadn’t been able to anticipate. She wasn’t a stranger to fantasy - her mid-lecture musings on a few of her classmates’ bodies proved that - but the situation had extended beyond theoretical territory. There was no denying that Taeyeon felt something towards her, something that superseded basic friendship. It could be anything from amusement to attraction; was Tiffany a fun plaything to flirt around with, or a serious suitor that she was ruminating on the potential of?

    As the cheerleader ate, the plates clinking and silverware ringing against her kitchen counter, she thought that it was more the latter. Taeyeon didn’t seem like the type to play around with people in such a manner (unlike a certain other girl Tiffany had known), but she also had never addressed the topic of her uality. She’d never stated whether she was into boys or girls. Could this mean that she too harbored a miniscule, homoual secret of her own?

The thought alone made Tiffany’s heart cartwheel with excitement. She tried to keep such high hopes in check, for they would only lead to painful downfalls in the end, but she was unable to. She was, after all, almost positive that she was falling in love.

***

    Tiffany spent the entirety of her hour-long AP bio lecture studying hard, taking mental notes and keeping track of the important things that would be on the exam later. These ranged from the length of Taeyeon’s hair to the smell of Taeyeon’s perfume to the curve of Taeyeon’s crossed legs. She paid close attention to the blonde’s mannerisms, to the way she bit at the end of her pencil as she thought and the way she swayed her pretty little feet back and forth as she listened. Tiffany had perfected the fine art of shameless ogling by this point, and knew how to adjust her hair and position her body in order to make it appear as though she were staring at the board, or off into space, or at the blank notebook before her - anywhere but at Taeyeon’s body. Today’s round of studying was the worst she’d experienced in awhile. Was it the exceptionally tight blouse Taeyeon wore today, the white one that showed a bit of the outline of her bra? Or was it the way she greeted Tiffany this morning, sliding into the car and giving her a long, sideways hug that pressed those perky mounds up against her arm?

    “I had such a fun time with you last night. We should hang out again soon.”

    Taeyeon had spoken while still hugging Tiffany, near-whispering into the younger girl’s ear, and it was all she could do to not shiver in lust.

    We should hang out again soon, Tiffany had thought to herself, Alone, in my room, on my bed, .

    They’d driven to school, discussing the events of the previous night with couple-like fondness, the kind of talk that was jocular and light and put both participants in a giggly, happy mood. The afterglow still coursed through them both, even during second period classes, and they texted jokes back and forth, holding back their mirth, unwilling to make eye contact for fear of breaking out into full laughter.

    Toward the end of the period, Mr. Daniels was at last able to capture the classes waning attention by announcing the assignment of a partner project. To (most of) the students’ evident glee, they were able to choose which partners they worked with. At this revelation, Taeyeon and Tiffany’s eyes flitted over to one another. It was fleeting but obvious, and twin smiles spread across their lips. Without thought, Tiffany placed her hand on Taeyeon’s, rubbing the bony prominences of her knuckles for a few seconds and stoking her wrist in a meaningful, brief gesture.

    Taeyeon blushed.

***

    “So, I say we start working on that project as soon as possible,” Tiffany recommended as they walked to lunch together, elbows interlocked as they half-skipped through the halls, “Maybe this weekend, if you’re up for it?”

    “Yeah, I should be free,” Taeyeon replied in that shy, low voice of hers, a blessing to the younger girl, as she was forced to lean in closer to her friend’s face to hear, “I bet we can finish it all in one day, if we really dedicate ourselves to it.”

    “I think so, too. If only because your geniusness will make it super easy.”

    Taeyeon rolled her e