“Oh, uh, well I—we’ve—been back in town for some time and Maya has been helping here over the summer,” Maggie responded, and Lily exchanged a knowing look with Maya.
“Interesting, because the last time I remember you being here—” Mary started.
“I always liked it here,” Evan McAvoy chimed in. Lily’s ears perked up because she rarely heard him speak.
They made it to the grilling area. Diana had been sure to clean the outdoor furniture and set up couches and chairs, so they wouldn’t have to sit at the table the whole time while she was grilling.
“Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes! Feel free to grab some drinks and get comfortable, of course there’s plenty of cider,” Diana said from the grill.
“You ready to do this?” Lily said, once they were alone and the parents of the group, save for Diana, had walked over to the cooler for drinks. Lily could hear them making small talk.
“I mean, no? But I think we have to do it. It’s the end of July. We leave in two weeks, so even if there’s a fallout, it won’t be for long.”
“We can all run away together to the treehouse,” Lily said. She watched Maggie take an extra bottle of cider from the cooler and head towards Diana.
“Like I said earlier, we got you,” Maya said reassuringly. Lily wanted to pull Hanna into her arms but didn’t dare do so. It was clear she was nervous.
“Maybe a drink to take the edge off?” Hanna breathed out.
“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Maya said.
Lily agreed and was going to say something when she was distracted once again by Maggie and her mother. This time they seemed to be having a very fiery, whispered conversation.
What the fuck?
When her mother caught her staring, she turned to Maggie and said loudly, “Dinner is ready if y’all will take your seats.” She said it sweetly, but Lily knew her mother and heard the dismissal in her voice.
“Let’s do this,” Maya said, and Lily tabled the questions that were starting to bloom in her mind. She would get to those after.
36
HANNA
Hanna let out a shaky breath. Dinner had started and there was the expected small talk, Diana and her mother, Mary, doing most of the talking, though it did soundforced, and for whatever reason Maggie seemed subdued—all joking aside, maybe Maya and Lily were on to something?— and it was no surprise that her father wasn’t doing much talking. Hanna really thought he’d married her mother partially so he wouldn’t have to. Hanna thought Lily and Maya were quiet in solidarity.
Around the table, she and her parents were on one side, with Maggie, Maya, and Lily on the other and Diana at the head. Lily sat closest to her mother. There was no way to even reach out and touch one of her girls under the table for fear of accidentally reaching her foot out and touching Maggie.How mortifying that’d be.Then again, Hanna wasn’t sure she’d notice, as Maggie was staring down at her plate of untouched food. Hanna decided she wasn’t missing much. Diana was a vegetariananda bad cook — a lethal combination in the kitchen. Hanna shoved a piece of what looked like charred eggplant into her mouth and began to chew. Her mouth felt dry from nerves, and that only made thefood move around like sand paper. When she went to swallow she choked, and to quell her coughing fit she took a sip of her Blake Cider. The sip helped, but before she put the bottle down she thought,fuck it,and downed the rest of the relatively full bottle in a gulp.
The motion momentarily slowed her mother down from whatever she was going on with Diana about. “Hanna?” came her mother’s voice, and she could hear that she was taken aback a bit.
“Mom, Dad, I’m bi,” Hanna blurted out. From the corner of her eye, she saw Maggie's face jerk up and felt her gaze. The table went silent.
“I’m sorry?” her mother finally said.
Diana said, “Good for you, kid.”
“I’m bisexual. I like–men and women, and more?” Hanna didn’t know why she was asking a question.
The table was once again quiet.
Hanna looked up at her girlfriends without a clue what to do. She knew her face was crimson and air didn’t seem to quite make it to her lungs, even though she was taking deep and rapid breaths.
“Um, I’m pan, pansexual,” Maya announced to the table.
“All of the above, right on! I myself have been dabbling in my fluidity again recently,” Diana said to the whole table.
Lily turned to look at her mother, and then shook her head and looked back at Hanna.
Hanna couldn’t look away from Maya and Lily.
