Their Rez didn’t have reliable internet and wouldn’t for several years after that. All of the studying they had done for the SATs to even be able to go to college had been done the old-fashioned way. By checking test prep books out from the library that already had all the sample tests either filled in or torn out.
Rowan traced the edges of the hat down to cup Juniper’s face.
“I think you look kind of hot in my hat.”
“I think you think I look hot all the time.”
“Caught me.” Rowan giggled as she threw her hands in the air in mock surrender.
Juniper caught her hands and watched Rowan’s eyes widen as she quickly wrapped them around her waist. They had spent the last ten minutes making out and yet she was still tentative about taking anything without permission first.
“I think you’ve been staring at me all summer.” She paused and lowered her tone. “Have you been checking me out, Birdsong?”
“I have,” Rowan admitted while a slow smirk formed on her face.
Juniper mirrored the smug energy of the smirk plastered across her shy best friend’s face by narrowing her eyes. Fuck, that was hot. And it made her want to check Rowan out too, again. Her eyes raked over the skin exposed around her bikini top, eyeing especially the new ways her lean upper body muscles rippled more pronounced under her skin. Where Juniper’s body was all boobs, hips, and ass, the curves of Rowan’s body were much different than the curves of her own. The rounded curve of the deltoids on her shoulders slicing diagonally into the rounded curve of her biceps. Fuck, that was hot too.
“Can we try something I always see in the movies?” Juniper asked.
“Anything.”
“Will you dip me and then kiss me? You look strong enough.”
Without answering, Rowan transitioned one arm from around her waist to behind her shoulders and swiveled to dip her in her arms. Juniper let out a shocked giggle that was met with a bright smile from Rowan as she leaned down to kiss her. Juniper happily curled one hand around Rowan’s shoulder and the other around her arm. She lifted her back up with ease.
“How was that?” Rowan asked honestly.
“Better than the movies.” Juniper stood on her tiptoes to kiss her again.
A little more emboldened, Rowan shoved her hands into the back pockets of Juniper’s shorts. Right as they were about to get carried away again, Juniper’s stomach rumbled loudly.
“I’ll make out with you all day and all night, but I need to eat first.”
Rowan removed a hand from her back pocket and double tapped the styrofoam cooler beside them. “Lucky for us, we have a whole feast worth of trout.”
“That sounds like something my grandfather would say,” Juniper teased.
Rowan shrugged and smiled.
On the drive to Rowan’s house, Juniper leaned over to grab Rowan’s hand and threaded their fingers together. Her cheeks burned from more than the sun as she turned her face to watch the sunset roll along the horizon through the passenger-side window.
After they made quick work of unloading the truck, they settled into their normal routine of taking care of each other, a couple of kids mostly left to fend for themselves; or how they had always done it, to fend together. Juniper stayed inside Rowan’s house to get the batter ready and oil heating up in the cast iron skillet while Rowan cleaned and gutted the fish outside. Juniper put their favorite Rihanna CD into the boombox to play while she got everything going. When Rowan tapped the back screen door with her foot, Juniper bounded over to open it and let her in. Rowan balanced the tray on one hand and waved her free hand covered in gunk in Juniper’s face.
“Fish guts.”
“Gross! Wash your hands!”
Juniper flipped the water faucet on to let the warm water stream out so Rowan didn’t have to touch the handle with her nasty hands. Rowan scrubbed her hands then settled her hip into the counter to watch Juniper batter the filets she’d made out of the trout and fry them up. Juniper had already opened a can of corn and dumped it into a small pot on the back burnerwith her own special blend of seasonings.
“How do you always make canned vegetables taste so good?” Rowan asked.
“Desperation.” Juniper dramatically rolled her eyes.
They both laughed, but it was true. If that’s the only kind of food on your Rez, you find a way to doctor it up. And Juniper had a lot of experience cooking for all of her younger siblings and cousins. After the third toddler she helped raise by virtue of being the oldest girl in the family, she was close to an expert. If she could get a toddler to eat a vegetable, she could get anyone to eat a vegetable.
Rowan reached up to rummage around a cabinet over their heads. Juniper wasn’t sure why she felt the need to hide her secret stash of snacks — she was an only child. It wasn’t like the free for all of four kids living at her trailer, not even counting the cousin or two that always wound up finding their way there too. Sharing two bedrooms was the least difficult part. Sharing snacks, or not sharing snacks – that was an outright battle. She watched Rowan procure a rolled up bag of hot fries from deep in the back of the cabinet. She opened the bag and pulled one out.
“Hot fry?” She asked.
