Abby and Violet (Yuri Light Novel)

I wasn’t expecting it, but Violet looked excited about going camping with her friends. Every so often, as we made our way to the meeting spot, I’d catch her squirm in place, fighting back a smile. It was heart-warming to see I, and I didn’t tease about it before, but now that we were sat on a picnic at the zone where the trail started, I couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Excited, are we?” I chuckled, Violet snapping back to reality with her cheeks flaring up a bit.

“A-a bit I guess,” she told me as she again shifted in place, trying to act cool.

“You’re going to love it!” I told her for who knows what time. “Marshmallows, starry sky, friends sat around the campfire, lots of fun.”

She smiled at me while supporting her head in one hand.

“No running water, no AC, going to bed feeling all grubby.”

That wasn’t a complaint, but her remembering all the previous teasing I did once I had found out the camping spot and our little group decided on a day to go camping.

“You could wash up your body with wet wipes before going to bed,” I joked.

“What am I, a cat?”

“You certainly bend around like one.”

She scoffed and looked away, back to the trail we’d be taking once our friends arrived.

The last bit of our talk made me think about the big surprise I had planned out for her. You see, I had found a nice little hidden spot, about two or three minutes of walking, away from what would be our campsite. I did think about showing it to the rest of the group, but… a romantic little tryst with my wifey sounded better. Maybe in the morning I’d show them the spot, pretending that Violet and I found it the night before.

While thinking about this, a car drove into the small, and until then empty, parking spot that could maybe fit three cars, four at most. I didn’t pay much attention to it until the people inside stepped out of the car and I heard a familiar voice.

On the driver’s side was my ex-therapist, her red hair and smile the same as always. I didn’t even have any time to think about or even register the emotion of seeing her again after so long as from the other side popped up someone I hadn’t seen for a long time too: my mum.

“This is where you decided it’d do me good to visit?” my mum asked, her voice sounding sceptical.

“Yup!” my therapist said. “You spend all the time cooped up Elly! Just breathe in this fresh air!”

They are friends!?

It sure sounded like it, and it was impossible for her to not having realised that me and her were mum and daughter due to how similar we were.

“Abby,” Violet called out in a low tone, as if she was afraid anyone but me would hear.

I looked at her to let her know with a silent look that I was fine before looking back at them. Mum and I locked eyes as she turned around to look behind her.

It was a very strange thing, seeing my mum going pale and wide-eyed, as if fear gripped her being, while I felt strangely calm. Or maybe I was too overwhelmed to feel anything.

“Hi there,” I greeted, my voice leaving my body without me having much of an input into it.

“H-hi,” she greeted back, finally moving her body.

Then, she turned around and told my ex-therapist—Francine—that she was headed on the opposite trail Violet and I sat at the entrance of, her friend hurrying up to follow her, giving me a brief smile and wave.

“You ok honey?” Violet asked.

I looked at her, processing what went on and how I felt about it.

“That was… weird, wasn’t it?” I said, finding it even weirder that I was so calm about it. I was upset, don’t get me wrong. I certainly could do without having seen her at the start of my day, but on the other hand, I felt like I’d be over it as soon as our friends were with us.

“Weird is one way to put it.”

“Yeah… she looked different, didn’t she?”

“Did she?” Violet wondered with a scow. “Sorry, to me, she looked the same as any other time I saw her.”

No, she definitely was different, and I don’t mean just the fact that she looked scared when she saw me.

She looked paler to begin with, even before she realised I was there. She seemed to have lost weight too, as her cheeks were a bit sunk. A big tell was also how her eyes had dark circles under them. Looking back at it, I think her hair was also kinda dull compared to how shiny and well-kept it had always been.

“I think she might be really feeling the pressure from my dad’s business rivalling hers,” I said, looking back to the trail she and her friend disappeared into. “Kinda pitiful, don’t you think?”

“…More like deserved,” Violet grumbled.

I smiled at Violet. She could be so vindictive towards people who hurt me. It was sweet in a way, hence me smiling at her, but it was also a bit sad that she held onto grudges like that.

“…What?”

“Just thinking that sometimes you might love me a bit too much,” I said, deciding to tease her.

“No I don’t!” she mumbled as she turned all shades of red, making me laugh.

A few minutes later, our friends finally arrived, brought by Mathew’s Dad. The three stepped out of his patrol car, Mathilda hopping over to the driver’s side to give him a kiss and thank her uncle for giving them a ride. He waved and smiled at us before he drove off. We never really talked, but he looked like a very nice guy, very tall too judging by the fact that he couldn’t wear his hat inside the car without crooking his neck. Maybe a bit too thin to be a cop though, but I’ve only ever seen him at a distance or inside his car. Mathew seemed to be more “proportional” than his father, if that makes sense.

“Are you camping, or are you moving into the woods?” Violet asked as she saw the boys carrying a stupid amount of stuff.

“Let me guess,” I said, pointing at the bags. “There’s a projector and a white screen amongst those.”

“Yup,” Stephen said, adjusting the way a strap dug into his shoulder.

“Come on!” Mathilda huffed. “Am I the only one who has ever wanted an open-air cinema session?”

No one answered, we just looked at one another, letting that be our words.

Violet was the first to speak then, asking if Mathilda had brought any horror movies, clearly worried that I’d get scared of watching one and then she’d have to come with me if I needed to pee in the middle of the night. I protested that, but Violet ignored my huffing and puffing, giving me only a brief glance. I saw the corner of her mouth twitch, amused by my reaction but knowing better than to show it, otherwise we’d be there for longer.

“Does Nosferatu: a Symphony of Darkness count?”

“Hmm… I think Abby should be fine watching that.”

“Enough with treating me like a baby, babe! Jeez, have some faith in me!”

“Pfft, fufu! I do, I really do!” she laughed as she reached out to caress my puffed-out cheeks.

Mathew interrupted our talk to ask for us to get a move on as the bags were kinda heavy. Violet and I were getting up and gathering our stuff when Mathilda approached Violet while holding what I thought were two cards and a black marker.

“Before we start walking, could I ask you a favour?” she said, hopping in place as she looked at Violet.

Violet looked at her and how nervous she looked, her eyes squinting. She let out a drawn out “ok” as she crossed her arms in front of her.

“Thanks, but first… promise me that you won’t get mad.”

“Asking me that will only make me madder if I do get mad,” Violet sighed. “Just get on with it already.”

“…Could you sign these?” Mathilda asked, extending what turned out to be two pictures of Violet’s modelling session. “My sister pestered Josephine until she relented. The one with you in the denim mini-skirt is hers while mine is the other one.”

“Urgh, of course she did,” Violet grumbled as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine, but I’m writing whatever I want in them.”

Violet took the pictures and the marker. On the back of Mathilda’s—the one where Violet was dressed in a high school uniform inspired outfit with a gothic hint to it, one of my favourites—she wrote “To my annoying friend Mathilda”, while on Claire’s she wrote “To the absolute menace Claire”.

It got me thinking that I should ask her to also sign my favourite picture—or pictures—of her. You see, I had the full album. Girlfriend privileges are a great thing to have.

“…You too?” Violet grumbled as she saw my thinking smirk while handing the signed photos to a very thankful and amused Mathilda who giggled as she read what Violet wrote. The boys tried to take a peek, but she quickly clutched the pictures to her chest to hide them.

“Girlfriend privileges?” I cheekily asked Violet, bumping my hip on her side.

She rolled her eyes and shook her head as she took my hand. Even with that reaction, I knew she’d play along, assuming I didn’t forget about it once we got back home from our camping trip.

Our walk to the camping spot was a bit of a long one, about thirty minutes going mostly uphill. I was in the lead, Violet mostly by my side all the time. I took the opportunity to think back on my plans for later tonight, the memory of meeting my Mum long gone.

It was when I was offering my hand to help Violet go up a slope when I noticed her chewing on a candy bar, something we hadn’t packed.

“Watcha got there?” I asked as I pulled by her free hand.

“Stephen brought some protein bars for us to make up all the walking,” she told me, reaching out to her bag. She pulled out another bar that she offered me. “They are quite good, especially since they have less than a gram of sugar per bar.”

“Hmm, they probably have sugar alcohols or something like that,” I said as I unwrapped mine.

“Sugar alcohols?” Violet repeated between chewing. “What’s that?”

“It’s a sweetener,” I said, taking a bite. It was sweet, but not too sweet, and very, very dense. It had a very familiar taste of chocolate even though I was sure I never had this brand before. “If I remember correctly, if your body isn’t used to it, they make you toot.”

Violet stopped chewing and looked at me, trying to see if I was joking. I was dead serious though, so she looked back at the bar as her face began turning even redder than exertion already did.

“Just one bar should be fine though,” I told her. “It can also just be stevia extract they use.”

“Oh, ok,” she said, sounding a bit relieved, but not by much. “I think Mathilda already had two though.”

I turned around after commenting that we might get fireworks in our tent tonight to ask Stephen if he knew if it was stevia or sugar alcohols that were used as sweetener in the bars.

“It’s stevia extract,” he confirmed. “My Mum prohibited me from getting any that has sugar alcohol in them ever again.”

I was a bit curious to hear the story behind it, but Mathilda had me beat, asking him if he got drunk from having too many bars one time. He simply said that wasn’t it and that even he was having a hard time sharing the same room with himself that day.

After that, we finally reached the spot. It was a small clearing, the trees forming somewhat of a circle. There was a flat rock that we turned into a table once the boys placed one log on each side so we could sit. They then dug a small pit so we could make a fire later but that for now was where we placed our camping stove. Violet and I were doing the cooking—just some rice with veggies from a bag and canned tuna—while the boys mounted our tents.

“Can I help with something?” Mathilda asked. Violet and I were sure she’d be fixing her projector and screen but the desperation of her voice told us everything we needed to know: she wanted to show off some girly skills to Stephen, or at the very least, she wanted to brag to him that she did something he was eating. It was super sweet, but the thing is, Violet and I were cooking something stupid simple, so there wasn’t much, if anything one of us could do while the other cooked, let alone the three of us. The veggies were sauteed, the rice was cooking and only needed supervision of someone, and the tuna would be added at the very end together with the vegetables to warm up, so… yeah.

“Sorry Mathilda,” I began. “I’m mostly just standing around, looking busy.”

“Yeah, erm, this really is a job for a single person, so… sorry,” Violet concluded.

We did suggest her to go help the boys so she could chat with Stephen and show that she’s feminine but capable however, that kinda lifting up her mood.

“Honestly, that girl watches too many movies,” Violet whispered as she leaned over the pot to check the rice.

“Hehe! Don’t be like that!” I whispered back. “You’ve got to admit, going out camping with your crush or loved one does have a lot of romantic appeal to it, doesn’t it?”

Violet looked at me, slightly pursing her lips. Her cheeks again turned a shade redder as she likely started imagining scenarios, at least a few of them stuff I had planned out for us that she wasn’t aware of yet.

“Well, it does have a certain appeal, I guess.”

I chirped a laugh and snuggled up to her despite the heat that we were feeling from the weather and being close to an open flame.

This camping trip was going to be one we’d never forget.