Chapter Text
Cat was walking around the living room, two bobby pins hanging between her teeth, as she gathered her curls. She paced as she started on her ponytail. She was wearing a hot pink tank that was loose fitted, a little too big. It hung long at the sides. With her arms raised about her head, she could see her breasts quite clearly. Her black booty shorts peaked from under the just just enough for the edges to be visible. She gets the messy bun how she wants, and uses the bobby pins to clean things about a bit. Cat side eyes her wife, catching her wife staring at her with an almost missed smile dancing on her lips. Her eyes said it all, though. Her eyes were filled with love, adoration. Happiness and satisfaction. Her nose scrunched up. Sixteen years and Jade still looked at her like she was lucky.
"Why you staring at me like that, you weirdo?" She teased.
Jade's smile overtakes her face, "I was just thinking of the night we got married."
"Oh my God," Cat said, memories from that crazy night flooding back to her. Her face flushed, what a crazy night that had been. There's certain alcohol combinations from that night that she still won't touch. Thinking about the night they got married always makes her shudder. Especially when she thinks about what it was like to tell everyone. She still doesn't talk to her parents. She wasn't even invited to her brother's funeral, not that she's sure she would have gone. All things considered.
"You remember that?" She asks, her smile growing to an impossible width.
Cat could never forget it. Didn't matter how drunk they had both been that weekend. Cat remembers every last detail. She thinks about it often. She has regrets, if she were being honest. She would have never married another person. Not in this life nor the next. Not in any parallel universe. Jade West was her wife. That was always going to be that, but God, does she wish she had waited. The way they'd gotten married was stupid. They hadn't even been girlfriends yet. They were in a shit financial situation. She's ashamed to admit it, but Jade was technically still with Beck. If she could redo things, they would have been together. They would have been out of school. They would have money, been more established.
"God, don't," she says, shaking her head, coming close to her. Jade puts her hands on his hips and pulls her down. Cat puts her hands on her wife's shoulders, "I try not think about it."
Jade bounced her knees, bucking Cat forward a bit, "Aw, c'mon, it was a great night. It was the best night of my life."
"I love the outcome, I do, it's just," she sighed, "We did a bad, bad thing that night. I mean, that whole year, we were doing bad, bad things, and karma really hit."
"No, we didn't," Jade said, flippantly, but yes, they did. They so did. And, as far as the karma went, in the long run, they were better off.
"Jade, we were horrible, selfish people," Cat whispered, still with a bit a shame, "There's a reason we lost all our friends."
"We still have Andre, and realistically, he's the only person from the gang we would've ever stayed in touch with anyway."
Cat scoffed, "That's not the point," but with sixteen years of perspective, she knows she's right.
Jade pulls her close, "Baby, I don't regret a thing. Marrying you is my greatest accomplishment, and I truly don't give a fuck who I hurt to do it."
Cat rolled her eyes, but she kissed her wife anyway. It was fucked up, and yes, Jade had mostly matured, but she hadn't changed that much. This was her being sweet, and Cat would take it every time.
"If our marriage ends how it started," she mumbled against her lips before kissing her again, "I will kill you slowly and smile in my mugshot."
Jade believed her. Cat was still the same in a few ways, but she had changed a lot. And, even in some of the things that were actually the same, they had been so repressed in her youth that when they reared their head later in life, they felt new. Her violence was one of those things. Looking back, Jade knows it was always there. It was part of the attraction, but now, Cat didn't hide it. When it came out, she smiled and reveled in it a bit. It just didn't come out that often, but it was always frightening. Jade would never not be into it, though. She knows that she should not love that Cat means this, but it only makes her want to remove what little closing her wife is wearing and take her right there. But, the kids will be getting off the bus any time now and she can't be as spontaneous as she wants to be.
"Babygirl, I have not looked at another man or woman since we first hooked up." She says.
Cat rolls her eyes because she was still with Beck when they first had sex. She's sure Jade was still having sex with him. She doesn't like to think about it because she hated that back then and she still hates it today. Because she's never let herself whine about it, she has no idea that the last year of their relationship was Beck starting fights left and right because she refused to touch him. Once Jade had been with Cat, everything else felt gross. She just hadn't been able to fully accept her queerness, oddly enough so she clung to Beck until she couldn't anymore. As soon as her heart and mind had been on the same accord, she had been drunk and in the middle of the Say Yes Game with Cat, and took her chance: she married her.
"Hey," she bucks Cat, softly, again, "I'm serious. You've been my one and only since college."
Cat believes her deep down, "Whatever, I still hate to think about it, and you still owe me a proper wedding. We can afford a big one, now."
"Whatever you want, Babygirl." Jade said, before she started grinning mischievously, "What're we gonna tell our kids and grandkids?"
Cat went fully red all over and her ear burned. Her eyes nearly fell out of their sockets. She slapped her wife's shoulder.
"God, anything but what really happened."
Jade laughs, pulling her wife into her chest to settle. Obviously, she wouldn't tell the kids anything until they were adults, but she can't lie. The night they got hitched was just too good a story.