Page 78 of Rumor Has It

“Right,” Becky tried again. “It’s like this. When we were about your age, we went to a soccer camp together.”

Barbara’s jaw dropped. “No.” She was fully riveted.

“Yeah,” Wren said, setting the plate down in front of Becky and dropping into the seat across from her. “We were actually a year younger than you.”

“Did y’all hook up?” Barbara asked.

Wren blushed, but she nodded.

“Fully?” Barbara asked, her voice raising an octave.

“Jesus,” Wren said, wiping her face with her hands. “Yes, but don’t tell Dad that.”

“And you’ve been giving me so much shit about making it to second base with James!” Barbara looked fully pissed.

“Well, yeah. My heart got broken right after, and I’m trying to keep that from happening to you,” Wren said, exasperated. She froze, but the words were already out, hanging over the table.

“Oh,” Barbara said softly, looking between them. “That makes sense. You would have stayed together if something hadn’t happened, duh.”

Becky pointedly stared at the food in front of her. They’d talked about all of this before. They’d apologized. She’d apologized. Wren had forgiven her. She’d forgiven herself. They were trying again. She took a deep breath. They could power through this. “I think—and I haven’t been here for whatever Wren has been saying. I think, if I may guess, that Wren is probably trying to warn you that teenagers might not be the best at communicating.”

She forced herself to smile and look up at Barbara. “I sure wasn’t. It’s my fault that we didn’t work out then. We’re both trying really hard to do it a bit better this time.”

Wren smiled at her from across the table, nodding a few times in agreement. “You’re my baby sister. And I know that you’re seventeen and fully capable of making smart decisions—you’re a helluva lot smarter than I was at that age but,”—Wren sighed. “Look. James is a boy. And while I did make questionable choices then, I didn’t have to worry about things like teen pregnancy.”

“That’s fair. You lesbians are lucky on that front,” Barbara said.

Becky snorted out a laugh at that. “Sorry,” she said. “You’re right, though.”

“I didn’t mean to interrupt your story,” Barbara said. “What happened next?”

“You mean after I screwed everything up?” Becky asked.

Wren flinched. “More bad,” she summarized.

Becky nodded. “Yeah. Let’s fast forward through college.”

“We got thrown back together and forced to be roommates,” Wren said. “And Andy was…”

“Always a bitch?” Barbara supplied.

Wren shrugged. “I mean, yeah. So, we finally broke up and um”—Wren paused, frowning. “Actually, I don’t really think you’re allowed to hear this story.”

Becky almost choked on her pad-see-ew after that.

“What?” Barbara asked. “Why? It was just about to get good.”

“No. I think that all that matters is that we’ve worked through our differences and are giving things an honest try,” Wren said, blushing furiously.

“You two just started hooking up again, didn’t you?” Barbara asked, rolling her eyes.

“Well,” Wren said, sinking in her seat a little bit.

Barbara sighed. “Have you even asked her to be your girlfriend yet?”

“I mean, we’re exclusive,” Wren said, defensively. “It’s complicated, okay?”

“Boys are easier,” Barbara concluded. She turned her full attention to Becky. “Do you want to play Settlers of Catan? It’s the only board game Wren owns, but you need three people to play it.”