20//Rose- June 3, 1843, Colorado

“She’s such a bitch,” I growled, folding my arms; Jennifer nodded aggressively, Mingan was telling us what my mother had said to him yesterday, I was furious with her. Lydia was laying in my lap, playing with a daisy in between her fingers and finally handing it to me as a gift. 

“What’s her problem anyway?” mumbled Jules, who was leaning on Mingan’s shoulder, 

“She’s an entitled white woman, that’s her problem,” Jen answered for me, “it’s a fucking miracle she raised a homosexual, isn’t that right, Rosie?” she grinned at me, I smirked back and we all laughed. 

“Ring-around-the-rosies, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down,” hummed Lydia, I gave her a small kiss on her nose to which she pecked my lips softly. 

“What do you see in boys anyway, Jules?” expressed Lydia, not looking away from me, we all chuckled at her, “aren’t women great, Billy?” she asked, to which Jen looked thoroughly uncomfortable.

“Not Rose,” she shrugged, trying to avoid the question. I felt bad for Jennifer. After a while of conversation and occasional kissing we went to eat lunch. We went separate ways, I said a desperate, dramatic goodbye to Lyds, we kept running back to each other and promised that we’d never forget the other.

“We’ll meet here again in like an hour!” shouted Jules, we laughed but didn’t separate.

“Love you, sugar,”

“Love you too, angelcakes,” I gave her butterfly kisses and we finally went our actual separate ways. We ate in silence, occasionally listening to father saying something to Miles, but other than that, we just ate as fast as possible. 

“You know I fell yesterday, but y’all were too busy I assume; nobody even noticed,” Jen showed me her leg, it was scraped all down her calf, she was wearing short pants that showed off the scrape well. 

“I’m sorry, Jen,” I patted her on the back, she just rolled her eyes; I attacked her in a hug, she hugged me back and buried her face in my neck. 

“You smell nice, are you wearing perfume?” 

“I probably smell of Lydia,” I chuckled, Jen wrinkled her nose in disgust and brushed off her tunic, I pouted. We heard Jules calling us over and ran to them. 

“Oh, how many summers and winters have I not seen my lover!” exclaimed Lydia, pulling me into a dip and kissing me, to which everyone scoffed loudly; I giggled into her lips.

“You two are unbearable,” Mingan rolled his eyes,

“Oh, because you two never touch each other in any way, you stay five meters apart at all times,” I joked, wrapping my arms around Lydia from behind, Jules rubbed the crook of his neck, containing a smirk, Lydia lifted me up in the air as if she were carrying a sack of potatoes, I screamed while laughing uncontrollably while she giggled and spun me around. Jen went to talk to the boys instead of dealing with us. 

***

“I can’t believe they’re making us stay here all day,” Jen complained. We were stranded in our wagon all by ourselves since Drew and Miles’ friends weren’t the Driscoll’s and Millagan’s. It was unimaginably boring, Jen just slept the entire time; she was knocked out cold and I tried to wake her on multiple occasions but it was as if she was dead.

Lydia ran up to our wagon and walked at the same speed as us, I looked out at her, she gave me a quick kiss before I saw my mother and retracted from the opening, seeing a shadow of my mother smacking Lydia away, making me furious. I huffed angrily, Jen slipped into my arms. I smiled at her, running my fingers through her chestnut colored hair. She always tried to keep it long but mother cut it as well as Drew’s and Miles’. She refused to cut my hair, claiming it preserved my ‘femininity’ whatever that meant, I doubted that my hair made me any less of a girl. Even though it made me smile to think that if I were a man I could marry Lydia someday and have my own children. I despised the idea of being perceived as a girl anyway, it seemed strange that people treated me differently because I dressed in a way that showed I have a… you get what I mean. 

I could say with complete certainty that Lydia gave me more pleasure than my second cousin ever could. Sadly, I wouldn’t see Lydia ever again, I’d get married to Benjamin and that would be the end of my free life. I supposed that I’d have children, I’d love to have a child called Alex. Or maybe Taylor. Or they could be twins, I supposed I had a good chance of having twins since I had uncles that were twins on my father’s side. But the only happiness I could see from children is only if I had them with Lydia…

Rose Driscoll as she was formally known, at eighteen years, lost her husband under mysterious circumstances and lived the rest of her days with her two children, Alex and Taylor and her supposed ‘close friend’ Lydia Driscoll, they’d invite Lydia’s family for christmas and Rose’s twin sister, Jennifer as well as Lydia’s brother’s ‘close friend’s family, the Millaray’s. Although they were both women, Rose and Lydia shared a bed and Rose’s children called Lydia their second mother.