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“But you have to admit it was a scintillating lecture!” Webby insisted as they got into line at Starbills, their favorite campus coffeehouse.
“Obviously, but I thought the evidence provided for his wild claims was weak at best,” Huey retorted. “A good story is still just a story without proof.”
They continued to debate the hypothesis the visiting lecturer had floated during their anthropology class as they waited in line. It slowly moved forward, but Webby was too focused on their lively debate to take in much of their surroundings. After all, they were at Starbills and it really didn’t change that much from day to day. When they got to the front of the line Huey placed his order. A moment later he twisted Webby around to face the counter so that she’d stop talking about pottery shards and order as well.
“What can I get you?” asked the most beautiful creature Webby had ever seen, who was tapping black painted nails on the counter while waiting for a response. Unfortunately, Webby’s mind had gone completely blank.
“What’s your middle name?” Webby asked, saying the first thing that popped into her mind. The barista slowly blinked eye shadow covered lashes as Webby realized what she had just said. She flushed and opened her bill to apologize, but nothing came out.
“It’s unpronounceable by mortal tongue, which is why people tend to use my first name,” the barista smoothly said, tapping a nametag pinned to her apron. Lena. “So what can I get you?”
Webby could never remember afterward what she said next, but she must have garbled out an order of some sort because Lena raised an eyebrow and punched something into her register. She took Huey’s offered card—he always paid for coffee after Thursday lectures, while Webby paid on Tuesdays—and swiped it. Once he had returned his credit card to his wallet Huey gently nudged Webby away from the front of the line.
In the back of her mind Webby was grateful Huey was the triplet along for the ride when she met the most attactive person on earth because he wouldn’t give her a hard time about it, but mostly she was dealing with her brain sending out a critical error message. It needed to reboot. She couldn’t stop staring at her.
“You okay, buddy?” Huey asked gently after giving her some time to stare in silence. Webby shook her head, spat out a syllable, and then cleared her throat.
“I think so?” Webby frowned, brow wrinkling in thought. “I just wasn’t expecting to meet—”
“Huey! Webby!” Lena shouted, placing two steaming cups on the counter. Hearing her say her name may or may not have broken Webby’s brain again. She silently accepted her drink. While Webby knew she drank it sitting next to Huey outside, she never could remember what was in that cup.
The next several visits to the Starbills went better, but Webby still found herself spitting out a random question instead of her order when Lena was at the register. After the third time it happened Lena smirked like she thought Webby was doing it intentionally, but continued to answer her questions.
-
“What’s your favorite word?”
“I don’t have a favorite word, but I like saying paprika. Snickerdoodle is fun as well, though the cookies are kinda shit.”
Webby left with a caramel macchiato.
-
“Do you hate your job?”
“Ah yeah? But capitalism’s a bitch and I like having an apartment more than I hate working, so…” Lena trailed off with a shrug.
Webby got a fruity green tea that day.
-
“Do you fall in love too easily?”
Lena smirked as Webby’s jaw dropped because that was not the question she had meant to ask.
This time Lena handed her a hot chocolate with a heart floating on top.
Webby tried not to read too much into it. She was notoriously bad at reading people, past experience had proven that to disastrous effect, and she shouldn’t be projecting what she wanted onto someone else. Especially when Lena was working a customer service job and couldn’t easily tell her to get lost. Webby needed to get a grip and make sure her questions, since Lena seemed willing to answer them, didn’t get any more inappropriate. So far all she had accomplished was showing Lena how big her crush was, which seemed to be ignorable for etiquette’s sake.
Lena was so cool and pretty and not the sort of person who’d ever want to hang out with Webby, much less date her. She was hip and artistic, both things no one would ever ascribe to Webby, and seemed like the sort who’d get personal invitations to every party on the scene. Webby didn’t have the faintest idea how to attract the attention of a girl like that, not unless she completely changed who she was, which was impossible. She couldn’t change who she was if she tried. Not even if she wanted to, which on a whole, she didn’t want to because she was Webbigail Vanderquack. She was brilliant, could literally kick ass, and generally considered herself pretty awesome, even if that didn’t translate well into getting along with her peers. Webby didn’t even need to get on with most of her peers, after all she had some friends, but she really wanted to get on with Lena.
-
It turned out that Webby’s motor mouth ran unfettered whenever she ran into Lena no matter the location. This was determined when she unexpectedly bumped into her just outside of a LGBTQA+ social in Finch Hall. Webby had shown up because the fliers she had seen about the event had promised social change, friendship, and ice cream. She wasn’t certain how a student organization could reasonably promise the first two, but was pretty confident that they could at least deliver on the third promise. Webby was so focused on these three things and double-checking the flyer to ensure she ended up in the right place that she crashed into the familiar figure.
“Woah!” Lena yelped, throwing her free hand against the wall to avoid toppling over. Her other clutched a phone that she had been avidly staring into before the collision.
“Lena?” Webby squeaked. “I’m so sorry!”
“It’s cool,” Lena said, straightening a little once she was sure of her footing and running a hand through her dyed locks. She stared at Webby for a moment before smiling, “Webby, right?”
“Do you like kissing girls?” Webby blurted out before clapping a hand over her bill. That was exactly the sort of question she had just promised herself that she would not ask her crush.
Lena laughed and weakly waved a hand at the rainbow decorations for the social as she pocketed her phone. “It depends on the girl.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that,” Webby mumbled her apology. She looked down at her feet and wondered if this meant she had crossed a big enough line that she wouldn’t be allowed to go to her usual coffee shop anymore. “I’ll leave now.”
“Hey wait, you came for the social, right? I was supposed to come with a friend, but she just bailed on me.” Lena offered her a hand and a smile. “Do you want to go in with me? I always feel really lame walking in on my own.”
“Sure!” Webby latched onto the outstretched hand. The flyer had offered friendship, but she hadn’t expected the potential with Lena of all people.
“Great.”
As they walked into the atrium where the social was occurring a fair number of birds and beasts looked up. Everyone seemed to be staring. Immediately Webby felt self-conscious in her preppy pink polo with matching hair bow and her Oxford blue sweater vest. She looked simultaneously like she was trying too hard and wholly out of place in a social setting, especially when contrasted with Lena’s striped sweater and tight black jeans. No one was going to want to socialize with the preppy nerd at the party. All the movies had made that abundantly clear. This was a very bad choice on her part; the flyer hadn’t said anything about public humiliation.
Just as Webby was about to wrench her rapidly perspiring hand from Lena’s to flee the hall, the taller bird slowed her stride until they were side by side and leaned down so that her bill was by Webby’s ear.
“People stare ‘cause we look so good together,” Lena whispered, which nearly caused Webby to stop and laugh hysterically because even she could recognize that for the lie it was. “Now what do you say we suss out that ice cream?”
“Yeah,” Webby agreed. She fidgeted with her vest’s hem. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
Surprisingly, the rest of the evening went well. They quickly found the ice cream bar, which was loaded with all sorts of frozen delights, including nondairy options. They both walked away with rocky road cones, which seemed to amuse Lena for some reason and that confused Webby because rocky road was awesome. She didn’t really get it when Lena later admitted she had pegged Webby for a vanilla type because you couldn’t tell someone’s favorite ice cream flavor just by looking at them. But that didn’t really matter since Lena stayed by her side for the entire social.
She talked to Webby like they were old friends instead of simply having twelve disastrous customer service encounters that Webby could recount from memory. Webby didn’t always totally get what Lena was talking about, but she always felt included, especially if she was making some sort of joke. Webby laughed a lot that night. More importantly, Lena laughed at her jokes and she seemed to know whenever Webby was trying to be funny.
“I’m not being too annoying, am I?” Webby asked near the end of the night. Lena had just finished a rambling story about the importance of the American hardcore scene in the development of indie labels and the modern touring circuits. Lena slow-blinked at her.
“That’s not a question I was expecting from you, Pink,” Lena said. She had started calling Webby ‘Pink’ over the course of the evening and Webby liked it. She had never had a nickname before—other than Webby, but that was more her real name than Webbigail was in a lot of ways. “I was expecting something more like ‘Do you think this building is structurally sound for an earthquake despite the fact Duckberg code doesn’t require it?’ Or maybe fishing for more personal information, like my shoe size or my preferred mouthwash brand.”
“I’m sorry!” Webby cringed.
“No worries, I wouldn’t answer if I wasn’t willing.”
“It’s just… you’ve laughed at all the right places!”
“So?”
“And none of the times I wasn’t joking!” Webby threw her hands up in the air. “Nobody ever always knows when I’m joking or when I’m not, not even the triplets and I’ve known them since I was twelve. It’s like you’re reading my mind! Wait, are you reading my mind? What am I thinking right now?”
“Now that’s a Webby question,” Lena chuckled. She licked her current ice cream cone. Webby’s brain blanked momentarily, but she didn’t lose her train of thought. “No, I can’t read your mind.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Pink.” Lena sighed and twisted a little under Webby’s intense gaze. “Your interests are more eclectic, but your sense of humor is like an overenthusiastic version of my sister’s. I know when she’s joking, so it’s not been that hard to tell when you are. Besides, it’s not like you’ve been lining up any curve balls for me to deal with tonight, a pun’s a pun wherever you are.”
“So, you’d be willing to hang out with me again?”
“Why not?”
Webby went home with a tummy ache from eating way too much ice cream, but it was worth it.
The next time she went to Starbills she got a coffee cup with a number written on its side instead of her name. She tried to return the cup, since it obviously wasn’t her order, when Lena slapped a hand to her own forehead and explained she was trying to give Webby her number. She made a point to save the number to her phone.
Months passed and they spent a lot of time together. Webby continued to ask surprising questions, which Lena never failed to answer. Often Lena would bring her coffee when they met after her shift and they’d swap stories about Webby’s classes and the indie rock scene over takeout. Sometimes they’d share stories about their respective unusual childhoods. Webby’s favorite nights were the ones where they’d stay up late watching movies in Lena’s studio apartment, lose track of the time, and not finish until after the busses had stopped running so she’d have to spend the night. Webby felt a little bad that she could technically set an alarm on her phone to remind her when she was about to miss the last bus, but hadn’t done so. However, Lena was far more tech savvy than she’d ever be and as long as she hadn’t made that suggestion or expressed visible annoyance about Webby staying over, Webby figured she could keep not doing that.
Because one of the biggest things about their sleepovers was that Webby got to sleep next to her. The first time Webby had missed the bus was a genuine accident. She’d apologetically asked if she could spend the night instead of calling for a cab and Lena had simply made an amused snort before tossing her a spare shirt to sleep in. Initially Webby had thought she’d spend the night on the couch or floor, both perfectly reasonable sleeping arrangements under the circumstances, but Lena crooked an eyebrow and asked why she wasn’t getting into bed. Webby had scampered in as fast as she could. These days Webby usually brought along PJs and a spare set of clothes when she went to watch movies at Lena’s place. She wasn’t certain if Lena had noticed though; she hadn’t said anything about it.
Still the guilt of her deception plagued her. After all, she shouldn’t be undeservedly basking in the warmth Lena radiated. Most of the time she could ignore the guilt, snuggle up to her friend, and get a good night’s sleep. Tonight however, somnolence eluded her. Webby kept twisting around under the sheets trying to find a position that wouldn’t remind her that she could have taken the bus home. Even if she was the one who’d make breakfast in the morning Lena didn’t need her imposing herself on her nearly every week. Webby shouldn’t be taking advantage of her like this.
“Why can’t you sleep, Pink?” Lena groaned. She shifted and the room was briefly illuminated by her phone screen. “It’s 3:13 AM on a Sunday. Go to sleep Webby.”
“I can’t!” Webby cried. “My guilty conscience won’t let me sleep!”
“What could you possibly feel guilty about? Aren’t you like, the goodiest goody two shoes to ever shoe?”
“I’ve been taking advantage of you!”
“Oh?” Lena shifted again and groaned. “In what way?”
“I’ve been intentionally missing the last bus so I can stay the night.”
“Yeah and?”
“And that’s a deception! I’ve been making you host me when there was no real reason to and… and… and that’s wrong!“
“You weren’t fooling anyone and if you can’t pull off a deception, is there any reason to feel guilty about it?” Lena asked.
“But…” Webby began then immediately trailed off because she didn’t have another argument at the ready.
“Even if you errantly kick in your sleep when you stay over, the pancakes you make the morning after more than make up for it.” Lena reached out and eventually found the top of Webby’s head. She ruffled her hair and Webby leaned into the touch. “Like, not to sound skeevy, but I like having you in my bed.”
“You do?”
“Yeah Pink, most people like it when their girlfriends spend the night and once a week isn’t unreasonable.”
“We’re dating?” Webby squawked in surprise. The hand that had been massaging her scalp immediately retracted.
“We’re not?” Lena asked in the most timid voice Webby had ever heard her use.
“We could be!” Webby grasped blindly in the direction Lena’s hand had retreated. She first touched her bill and then slid her hand forward until she cupped her cheek. “I like you so much, but I had no idea you were interested! Why didn’t you try to kiss me or tell me?”
“I didn’t want to pressure you and I mean, I’m not great at verbal communication.” Lena shrugged. “I thought we had made things clear.”
“I’ve never had a female friend before. I don’t know what’s normal. I’m not normal.”
“You’re you. That’s way better than normal.”
Webby blinked rapidly. She was not about to start crying. It was Sunday, she could sleep in, and Lena liked her back. She was maybe already in a relationship. She wiped her cheeks and sniffed loudly. Then just as Lena started to ask her what was wrong she flung her arms around her and pulled Lena into a tight hug.
“Can I call you baby?” Webby whispered. Lena just laughed and then she finally kissed her.
The next morning Webby made banana pancakes. She had made various other types of pancakes in the past, but this week the only fruit she could find in the apartment were bananas, so banana pancakes it was. She hummed a little as she prepped them following Granny’s old recipe. It was a simple one, but Webby had a lot of sentiment attached to it. Lena flopped into a seat at the kitchen table and yawned widely. Webby beamed as she scraped the last pancake out of the pan and onto the stack.
“Morning!” Webby chirped as she set the heaping platter of pancakes in the center of the table. “I hope you’re hungry.”
Lena slow-blinked at the pancakes before groaning and letting her head drop to the tabletop. She must have still been really tired because she hadn’t bothered to put on any make up yet. Webby was pretty certain this was the first time she had seen her without eye shadow. Honestly, she had lovely eyelids.
“Is there coffee?”
“There’s a fresh pot percolating on the counter. Do you want me to bring you some?” Webby asked.
Lena didn’t verbally respond, but she thought she saw her nod, so Webby sprang up and poured a cup into Lena’s second favorite mug. It was a black one with a print of a deer skull with flowers growing out of the antler points. When she set it down next to her Lena wrapped a hand around the mug and took a slow pull. Once she had finished she laid her head back down on the table. Webby reached out and petted her hair.
“You must be really tired,” Webby eventually said.
“Yeah, sorry Pink,” Lena said, sitting upright. She yawned again and then smiled at her. Webby could feel butterflies fluttering in her stomach. “You know I need an absurd amount of sleep.”
“Mmm hmm,” Webby hummed, slipping into her own seat. She then scooted it closer to Lena. She just liked being close to her, that was all.
“You definitely outdid yourself this week,” Lena said, eyeing the pancakes. She took another sip of her coffee. “Also, I think you’ve gotten good enough making these you could join me at work. Want to be shift buddies? I could teach you how to do latte art.”
“You’re the only person I want to make coffee for,” Webby said. Lena snorted at that, but she wrapped the arm not clutching her coffee around Webby and pulled her in for a hug. She could feel her sniffing her hair, which of course made Webby panic a little because she hadn’t showered recently. “What do I smell like?”
“Safety and home,” Lena responded immediately. “Kinda banana-y too, but that’s not an inherent you scent. Now are we gonna eat or what?”
The only possible response to that was for Webby to shove an entire pancake into her mouth. At that Lena started giggling almost immediately and Webby quickly joined her, only choking a little before she managed to swallow the pancake. When they had gotten themselves under control Lena caught her chin gently.
“I really want to kiss you. I can do that now, right?” Lena asked. Webby stared back into her eyes and realized she wanted to have mornings like this forever. “You’re the best thing in my life, a literal ball of sunshine, and I don’t know how I ended up with you here, but please don’t go.”
“Never,” Webby promised.
This time she leaned in and kissed her. It was nicer than it had been last night. Kissing Lena made her feel all warm and tingly inside. They were going to make more mistakes and have more misunderstandings, which would be true in any relationship, but Webby was also aware that they were kind, patient ducks. She was determined to make this work and there was nothing a Vanderquack couldn’t accomplish if she set her mind to it. Once she pulled back Lena finally tried Webby’s banana pancakes and happily groaned in contentment. Webby beamed. It was hard to believe, but Lena wanted to be with her; she was just as crazy about her as she was about Lena, and Webby was never letting her go.