Emily really hadn't expected anything unusual to happen the weekend before she left for college with Tabitha. There were no plans, but if there had been they would have been fairly self-explanatory. Sex, drugs, parties, etc. The usual last summer home before all hell broke loose and she'd actually have to start paying attention to professors and lectures and all of that fun stuff.
Ever since Tabitha had moved in with Becky Emily had spent most of her free time there hanging out, getting high and learning to love the taste and feel of Tabitha's body. She didn't need to learn too much. It just seemed to come naturally.
She used to wonder why it seemed so normal, but she'd finally given up worrying about it after awhile. If it felt good and she liked doing it why should she let it bother her?
She still worried about her parents finding out, but not because she was scared of what her parents might think anymore. Now she was more worried about what they might do. Her uncle was on the board of trustees at the university she and Tabitha would be attending and her father was head of the alumni committee. Neither were what Emily would've called socially liberated. In fact, her entire family had a certain conservative edge. Their collective views on homosexuality weren't exactly modern.
Emily knew they wouldn't do anything to her. She was part of the family. At most they'd encourage her to go to counseling and try to convince her that it was all just a phase. It was Tabitha that she worried about. At the very least they'd split them up. At worst they'd find a way to make Tabitha's scholarship vanish into thin air.
It hurt to think her own family members capable of such cruelty, but she knew them well enough to know that it was at least possible. Her father was a loving family man who treated his wife and children like they were made of gold. Others didn't get that same respect. She still remembered when her father's best friend and business partner was caught embezzling from the company accounts. By the time her father's lawyers were done with him he was broke and broken. They'd known each other since they were kids.
Still it was hard not to tell her family even though she knew they wouldn't approve. It was almost like she was lying to them by not telling them that she was bisexual and quite possibly gay. She rarely kept secrets from them. They even knew about her drug use. The only advice they'd given to her was to get it out of her system soon, because that kind of stuff wouldn't cut it in the real world.
Of course, that was her mother. She'd never actually told her father even though she knew he knew. He just pretended not to and she let him.
But none of that was the problem now. Her parents were safely ignorant and in a few days she and Tabitha would be home free and sharing a dorm room trying their absolute best to keep their hands off of each other long enough to study, get to class and, once soccer season started, for Tabitha to get to practice and games. It would be a challenge, but Emily was sure she could handle it once it all became routine.
The problem now was that on the eve of this life changing event Tabitha was at work pulling a double instead of being at home where she should've been getting fucked up and making out with her girlfriend. Even worse, she'd be doing the same thing tomorrow and inbetween the only thing she'd be doing was sleeping. No sex, no fun, no anything.
The kicker was that it was all by choice. She didn't have to be working on her last weekend of freedom. She wanted to.
When Tabitha had told her about it Emily had flipped. Tabitha had good reasons, but Emily wasn't in the mood to hear them. It was their first big fight since their relationship began and like most first big fights it was irrational, loud and happened out of nowhere.
"Damn it, Emily," Tabitha had yelled near the end of the argument, "I need the money, okay? I don't want to miss the party, but unlike you I don't have an Uncle who's helping me get a job in town when we get to school. I'm…"
"What do you mean by that?" Emily interrupted angrily, "Am I some kind of spoiled rich brat just because my uncle is helping me get a fucking job?"
"That's not what I'm saying," Tabitha was flustered, "I'm saying that unlike you I have to find a job and until I do I won't be making any money. I can't transfer to the store there because they have everyone they need. I'll need to find a whole new job. How many times do I have to say that? I don't want to miss the party, but I can't afford not to, okay?"
"Why couldn't you have just done this earlier?" Emily came back only mildly appeased by Tabitha's logic, "We've been planning this for a week and you just decided like last night that you were going to do this. Becky took the weekend off just so she…"
"I don't care, okay?" it was Tabitha's turn to interrupt. It was getting late and they'd gone back and forth like that for an hour. "Fuck Becky! Fuck everyone! I need the fucking money! I know I should've thought of this earlier and I'm fucking sorry, but I didn't and now I need to do it. I want to party, too. I just can't."
"How can you even say that?" Becky countered angrily, "Fuck Becky? She's your friend."
"That's not what I meant, okay?" Tabitha came back in a frustrated voice, "I really don't want to do this, but I have to. I know we had plans and I'm sorry, but I have to do this. I'm sorry, Emily, but I can't help it."
"I still don't know why you didn't do this earlier if you knew you needed the money," Emily continued even though she was beginning to weaken. The silliness of it all was beginning to get to her.
"Because I didn't know I needed to," Tabitha replied sitting down on the bed next to Emily placing a hand on her knee, "I was going to borrow it off of my mom, but…"
Suddenly Emily understood. After that last night at Tabitha's house there was no way Tabitha was going to be able borrow money off of her mother. They hadn't even spoken since she'd caught them together in Tabitha's bed and kicked Tabitha out.
That pretty much ended the argument right then and there. Emily still wasn't happy, but she couldn't complain anymore. They talked some more and Emily apologized for overreacting. They ended up making love slowly until they both fell asleep reasonably satisfied with the result of their first real fight.
When Emily awoke the next morning Tabitha had already left for work and Becky was already up and about smoking pot in the living room while drawing dark pictures in her sketchpad. Emily didn't even have to round the corner to the living room to know that. It's what Becky did every morning when she didn't have to work. Besides she could hear the bong bubbling over the soft music and smell the skunky odor in the air.
"Morning, sleepyhead," Becky said with a smile as Emily entered the living room and sat down on the other end of the couch that Becky currently occupied. "How was the fight last night?"
"Ugh," Emily responded as she wiped the sleep from her eyes and frowned, "You heard that?"
"Yeah, " Becky chuckled as she began to pack a bowl breaking the weed up on her sketchpad as she sat cross-legged on the couch, "It's kind of hard not to in this junky old house. So Tabby can't make it to the party, huh?"
"No," Emily answered sedately still struggling to wake up, "She has to work."
"That sucks," Becky responded still hard at work, "you still going to that party tonight?"
