Thanks for giving Lily and AJ's story a chance to steal your heart! If you're looking for a quickie, this one might not be for you. These two are going to make you wait, but once they get going, they get GOING. The payoff is worth the burn.
Content Warning: A transphobic tertiary character participates in a brief discussion about gender identity.
The Tuesday Before Thanksgiving
Lily
Not for the first time that day, Lily Duval deeply regretted her decision to travel by air during the week of Thanksgiving. The airport was busier than she'd ever seen it and there was absolutely no chance that she was going to find a seat to wait for her flight, let alone a seat with an outlet so she could charge her phone. The battery was getting low while her sister, Violet, vented to her about the inconveniences of being a parent.
"Hold on, I need to buy one of those portable chargers before my phone dies," Lily said without waiting for Violet to respond. She held her phone close to the sensor to complete the transaction and retrieved the very expensive battery from the vending machine.
"Okay, all good, continue," Lily said as she connected her phone to the charger.
"I forgot where I was," Violet responded, sounding a bit exasperated.
"That took like two seconds!" Lily defended.
"It's really not important anyway, I was just looking forward to Friendsgiving and now I'm going to have to stay home with a snotty, miserable toddler," Violet lamented. "Anyway," she continued, "did you find out who is going to your reunion?"
Lily hadn't gone to the ten-year reunion and she really hadn't intended to go to the twenty-year reunion. But with her upcoming move to Pennsylvania, she figured it would be nice to reconnect with a few people. For at least the next year, she was going to be living about an hour outside of the small, South Jersey town she'd grown up in.
She hadn't exactly volunteered to be the one to oversee the expansion, but when it was offered to her as an opportunity to do something new in a new place, she jumped on it. Lately, her life had been feeling a bit stale. She was comfortable, but also a little bored. She had no complaints, but she also didn't feel like she had anything to be really excited about. Maybe getting away from the dreary Seattle weather for a little while would do her some good.
"I have no idea who is going to be there," Lily said as she found an open spot on the wall by her gate to prop herself up for the next twenty minutes. "Obviously, Tom Moran because he organized it. And I think he married Melissa Flanders, so I assume she'll be there. I haven't talked to The Jens since college when we actually kept in touch and I don't use social media, so your guess is as good as mine. Maybe better."
"Are you sure you want to go?" Violet asked with genuine concern in her voice. "There's a reason why you haven't kept in touch with people from high school, right? Otherwise you would have kept in touch with them."
"I don't know, at least a few people had to have turned out decent, right? They can't
all
still be the same assholes they were twenty years ago," Lily said, a lot less sure of her words now than she had been two months ago when she'd RSVPed to the event.
"I guess. I didn't go to mine, I assume that they
are
all the same assholes," Violet said, huffing a single laugh. "Is there anyone you definitely don't want to see?"
Lily didn't have any terrible high school experiences. She wasn't out in high school so she wasn't bullied for her sexuality. She was pretty, so she was invited to all of the parties and had plenty of friends. She didn't have any regrets about her teenage years, save for the mistake with Aster Jones after Toni Jackson's graduation party. But Violet didn't know about that.
She wasn't sure if she wanted to see AJ. She hadn't thought about them in a few years. Not since her brother, Corey, texted her to say that AJ had come out as agender. It was huge news in the small town and Corey thought Lily would want to know. In fact, he thought that any time he heard any queer news, she would want to talk about. It was both endearing and a little annoying. Queer was part of Lily's identity, but not her
entire
identity.
Still, she appreciated him sharing the news with her because it gave her an opportunity to talk to her brother about it. Her family was more progressive and liberal than most, even in the 90s when she and her siblings were growing up, but her brother had never left their hometown and didn't have a lot of exposure to the LGBTQIA+ community aside from her. To his credit, he wanted to understand and just didn't know where to start.
"I don't think there's anyone I don't want to see," Lily told her sister. "I got along with everyone."
"Yes, I know. So popular. And so pretty. If only mom and dad had named you Jennifer, you could have been the fourth Jen," Violet teased, referring to Lily's three best friends in high school, Jennifer Bowers, Jennifer Farmer, and Jennifer Hoover. They went by Jennifer, Jennie, and Jen, respectively. The oversaturation of Jennifers was not uncommon in a group born in the 80s.
Lily laughed. "My friends and I call a group of loud, straight women hosting a bachelorette party at a gay bar a 'gaggle of Jennifers'."
"I'd say that's messed up, but I do think that 'a Jennifer' will be the Millennial version of 'a Karen' in a couple of years," Violet said before yelling to one of her kids to leave the cat alone. There were too many kids and too many cats in that house - three of each. "I have to go. Are you visiting dad tomorrow?"
"Since mom still refuses to be in the same room as him, yes,"Lily confirmed.
"Are you going to... you know..." Violet trailed off quietly.
"Smoke weed with our father? Yes. I most definitely am," Lily laughed.
"I couldn't say it. Little ears all around," Violet whispered. "Will you Facetime me
after
you smoke? I want to live vicariously through you and I've never smoked weed with dad. Please. I need this," she whined.
"Dad and I mostly just watch old westerns when we smoke together. We're not that entertaining," Lily said.
"Pleeeeaaassseeee," Violet begged.
Lily rolled her eyes, even though her sister couldn't see her. "Fine. I will Facetime you so you can watch us watch TV."
"Love you, sis!"
"Love you too. Hug those kids for me."
AJ
Aster Jones, better known to their players as Coach AJ and to their friends and family as just AJ, cleared the whiteboard that they'd been using for their meeting with the Girls Varsity Basketball team. They'd been coaching the team for the last ten years, following almost ten years as an assistant coach with their hometown high school. They'd accepted the Head Coach position at the rival school after being denied the job at their alma mater for reasons that had nothing to do with their performance. They were the clear choice and everyone knew it - the administrators, the athletic director, and the parents.
But when Coach Booker left to accept a job coaching at the growing college a few towns over, the parents started a campaign to prevent AJ from being offered the job.
AJ kept their personal life private for the most part. They'd always presented masculine, so people tended to draw their own conclusions, but they were careful not to go on dates with women at any restaurants in town. They'd also made sure they were seen on a date with a man at least once every few months.
That had always been the unspoken rule in the tiny suburb about a half hour east of Philadelphia - everyone had a fairly good idea of who might be gay, but no one talked about it. The idea, as it had been explained to AJ by their dad when they were figuring out their sexuality, was to "live and let live"; if AJ didn't flaunt it, no one would make a fuss over it. Their dad knew first hand what it was like to know people were whispering his back about his sexuality and he didn't want that for his child.
AJ heeded his warnings for years, but progress with LGBTQIA+ rights was being made when they were in their twenties and they started being a little more open about their sexuality. They still kept their feelings about their gender to themself, but they worried a little less about how they dressed and stopped the performative dates with men. From there, the town drew its own conclusions. For the most part, AJ didn't mind that people were analyzing their sexuality behind their back. It was almost a relief that they didn't have to hide it but that they also didn't have to come out to the town.
As soon as Coach Booker accepted the job at the college, the whispers got louder. It was one thing to have a queer assistance coach, but they drew the line at head coach. They claimed that, as head coach, AJ could influence the girls to be lesbians. It was an outrageous accusation, but it was a concept that most of the town accepted as a logical result. They truly believed that being around queer people could make someone who had no romantic or sexual attraction to the same sex suddenly become a horny, devil-worshipping homosexual.
In reality, the most that AJ's presence in their players' lives would have done was help a player who was struggling with understanding their sexual or gender identity to feel less like different. But most of the parents didn't see that as a positive influence.
Though they claimed to have no problem with AJ's sexuality, the fervor with which they campaigned against them being offered the head coach job said otherwise. They said AJ was too young for the job, which didn't make sense because Coach Booker had been a year younger when she was offered the job. They claimed that AJ was too friendly with the players and wouldn't be able to command their attention. But the reason had always been clear to AJ - the parents in their small home town didn't want a lesbian being the head coach of the Girls Basketball team.
Setting aside the fact that AJ did not identify as a lesbian, the idea that AJ was the first queer person to coach at that school was laughable. In fact, AJ's mentor and role model, Coach Booker, was definitely a lesbian. They had been sure of it long before they saw her profile on a sapphic dating app.
The issue wasn't that AJ was queer. The issue was that AJ was, as one parent said a little too loudly within earshot of the other assistant coach,
obviously
queer. While they couldn't be fired or denied a job based on their sexual orientation alone, the athletic director told them he couldn't offer them the Head Coach job without the support of the parents. He said he didn't want to put AJ in a position where they had to put up with those parents, but AJ understood the real reason. They were seen as a liability.
When the athletic director for their rivals, The Comets, called AJ a few days later, they took the job without hesitation. They loved their players and they loved their hometown, despite its issues, but they deserved a head coach job. They could have stayed and continued as an assistant, but they didn't want to be somewhere they clearly weren't wanted. So they left and took the other assistant coach at the time, Keisha Williams, with them.
"Are you coming out tomorrow night?" Keisha asked as she packed her whistle and clipboard into her bag. Keisha always liked to look the part, even when they were just meeting with the team and not on the court.
"I've been outfor years," AJ teased.
"Will you ever not make that joke?" Keisha asked, feigning annoyance.
"Probably not," AJ said with a smile. "But yes, I will go to the stupid bar with you to support you on your annual quest to make out with Brian Davis."
"You hate going to the bar and seeing people we went to high school with, but you are going to your reunion on Friday night. How does that work?" Keisha asked.
"Melissa helped Tom organize it, I have to go," AJ explained. "She's one of very few people who actually wanted to stay friends with me when I hit those awkward years. And she's one of three people in my class that I've kept in touch with over the years. The other two are because of you," AJ said, referring to Keisha's two best friends.
