Marti had awoken from her best night's sleep since, well ever, to find she was alone in her room. This was not an unusual occurrence as regardless of how late she stayed up Savannah would wake up before the crack of dawn, and would have prayed, showered, dressed and had breakfast long before any of her other fellow Hellcats. But Marti would have thought that this would have been an exception, or that at least Savannah would wake her up so they could snuggle, and more importantly talk. Then again Marti was a pretty heavy sleeper so maybe Savannah tried and failed to wake her... no, it was far more likely the brunette just let her sleep which Marti appreciated. She was awake now though, and she wanted to see Savannah. She needed too.
So Marti went looking for Savannah. She ended up spending the entire day looking, the blonde becoming more frantic as every second ticked by.
Savannah wasn't at her parents' home, or in The RAT, or in Cheer Town, or anywhere at the University, or any church in the local area, Marti checking the last three places multiple times throughout the day.
She asked Dan if he knew where Savannah was, but he simply replied he didn't and then there was this long awkward pause between them. It was like he knew what Marti had done with Savannah barely an hour after Dan had broken up with her, which Marti had to admit wasn't exactly the actions of a good friend. It hadn't been her intention of course but that was a lame excuse and she was in no hurry to give it, or to discuss what was going on with her and Savannah with anyone except the cheerleader captain. So she had lamely excused herself, almost literally ran away from him and kept all her following conversations brief as she asked around to see if anyone knew where Savannah was. At least until she had talked to every member of the Hellcats except one.
At the end of the day, even though she really didn't want too, Marti knocked on Alice's door, barely waiting until it open before practically yelling, "Is she here?"
"Hello to you too." Alice smirked.
"Is she here?" Marti repeated firmly before adding, "Have you seen her? Do you know where she is?"
"Your girlfriend?" Alice questioned in a mocking tone, before quickly adding, "No. Haven't seen her. No one has. But I'm guessing you already knew that."
There was a moment of silence as Marti quietly acknowledged to herself that she was acting like a crazy person, and she really kind of hoped she was wrong because she didn't want Savannah to see her like this. Then she roughly shoved Alice out the way, entered the other Hellcat's room and frantically looked around.
Empty. Well, not empty but no Savannah... unless she was hiding.
Unable to stop herself Marti checked underneath the beds and in the closets before turning back to look at Alice, an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment flooding her body.
"Are you done?" Alice questioned dryly, and then when Marti didn't answer added, "So... you two did it, huh? Thank God. I was beginning to think you'd screwed it up."
"Right, everything's peachy." Marti snapped angrily, suddenly feeling like she needed to defend Savannah's honour, or at least her reputation, and adding in timid voice the blonde didn't really recognise as her own, "Besides we... we didn't..."
"Oh please, you might as well have 'I had sex' written all over your face." Alice smirked, "I mean, look at you. You're being so... obvious. It's kind of pathetic."
Marti was used to wanting to punch Alice, but at that moment the urge was overwhelming. She even stepped forwards to the point where she was right in Alice's face, and honestly she wasn't even sure why she stopped. After all this was all Alice's fault.
"If..." Marti began, not wanting to voice this insecurity out loud but feeling as if she needed too, "If you've just been messing with my head and... and Savannah really is straight and you made me do that to her you'll-
"Let's be clear." Alice snapped, "I didn't make you do anything. I just knocked some sense into you. And if you're still deluding yourself into believing that there's even the tiniest chance that the Queen of Queer Town Savannah Monroe is anything other than a total lesbo then you're both screwed."
"Then why isn't she here?" Marti asked, suddenly feeling like she was going to literally cry with frustration, "Why did she leave?"
"Because you let her." Alice shrugged, "What? Did you think this was going to be easy? Please, that girl and everyone around her have spent her entire life convincing her she's something she's not, and being anything else is unnatural and wrong, and what? One night with you is supposed to make all that go away? No. Like I said if you really want her, you're going to need to drag her kicking and screaming out of the closet. You're going to have to push her, scream at her, and make her hate you, and in the end even if you make her admit the truth she still might choose to live the life she's been living all her life because it's all she knows and it's safe. If you can suffer through all that melodrama go-ahead, she's all yours. No other girl is probably going to do it for her. I'm sure as hell not, and I don't see her family encouraging her sinful ways. So again, if you want to save her from herself, go ahead. Now get the hell out and never push me again. And don't come back here looking for another pep talk. I don't like you, and I don't want to be in the middle of this crap anymore."
Marti stared dumbfoundedly at the other cheerleader for a few minutes then asked softly, "But what if I can't find her?"
Alice rolled her eyes, "Please, where is she going to go? Her whole life is cheering so even if she's going to transfer she'll have to show up sooner or later."
"But-" Marti began to protest.
"Did I mention how I don't care?" Alice interrupted firmly, "Just get back to your room and wait for her. Hell, the bitch is probably already there."
*
Annoyingly Alice was proven right, although Marti was far more preoccupied by the heart wrenching sight of Savannah shoving her belongings into a suitcase.
When Marti opened the door Savannah stared over at her like a deer caught in the headlights for several long seconds, but then she quickly went back to what she was doing after softly mumbling, "Hey Marti."
"Hey." Marti mumbled back.
The blonde had been thinking about what she was going to say to this girl all day, had imagined this scenario over and over again in her head, and the best she could do was 'hey'. That was all she could get out, Marti just standing there dumbstruck as she watched Savannah run around the room like a frightened animal, grabbing whatever belonged to her and shoving it into a big suitcase. And it was shoving. The girl who had lectured Marti several times over the few weeks they'd known each other about the importance of properly folding away clothes and keeping everything nice and neat was desperately shoving her things into this case like her life depended on it, and it broke Marti's heart because she knew it was her fault.
She'd made Savannah afraid of her, afraid of herself, and whatever was going on between them. And Marti didn't blame Savannah, because it terrified the blonde to the point where she didn't think she could breathe. But as terrifying as it was Marti knew one thing with absolute clarity, she couldn't lose Savannah Monroe.
In some way, shape or form she needed this girl in her life, but in that moment she didn't want to settle for friendship. She just... needed her.
Quickly closing her case Savannah grabbed it by the handle, straightened up and finally turned to look at Marti.
