Graceless (Grace Notes #2)

“It’s just through there.” He cocked his head toward a path between the trees, lit up by the moonlight. Lane looked at Cassidy again. She didn’t seem at all fazed by being out in the middle of nowhere in the dark. She was a country girl, after all. Lane, on the other hand, wasn’t entirely convinced this wasn’t creepy as fuck. Burt, however, was already pulling out one of the hefty novels that always accompanied him and resting back in the driver’s seat, so Lane, having already had Cassidy take control over the situation once already, made a point of leading the way.

The pathway was dim, but opened up on the other side of the trees into a tall grassy paddock lit up by the bright moonlight.

“Oh!” Cassidy arrived beside them, where Lane had stopped to stare. A few meters away stood some kind of tall metal tower. It was clearly built for function, not for aesthetics, but what function Lane wasn’t sure. A long metal ladder started about a foot off the ground and led up into the distance.

“Not scared of heights are you?” Lane looked at Cassidy and she scoffed. She grabbed hold of the ladder and climbed ahead. Lane gave it long enough to make sure they weren’t right under her dress as she moved up the rungs, then followed after her. As they stepped off the top, their breath caught.

Beyond the metal platform, spread the moonlit fields into the distance, and beyond that, a perfect view of the Nashville skyline lit up before them.

“Oh my god,” Cassie whispered, delight sparking off her. “It’s beautiful.”

Lane suddenly felt like maybe the night wasn’t totally ruined after all. They spread out the picnic rug and the two of them sat side-by-side, gazing out at the view.

“Damn,” they said after a while. “We totally should have brought wine up here.”

“Next time,” Cassidy said. “You can bring Mia up here and impress her with your romantic knowledge of the countryside.” Her voice was teasing and Lane rolled their eyes.

“Yeah, yeah.” They smiled, but honestly, Lane was secretly stoked that Cassidy was getting to see this with them. It beat a seedy bar off of Honky Tonk Avenue any day. They sat in silence for a while, listening to the quiet sounds of the country night, the occasional swoosh of a car on the highway beyond.

“Do you always date girls?” Cassidy asked out of nowhere. Lane looked at her. She seemed interested in the answer.

“Mostly,” they said. “Depends on your definition, I guess. I like feminine people, but I don’t really care how they identify.”

“So boys or girls or anyone, as long as they’re feminine?”

“Kind of? It works out as mostly girls, but theoretically, I’m open to anyone. Except cis het guys really.”

“Because they’re not usually feminine?”

“They’re not usually,” Lane agreed. “But I’m so masc these days they’re not likely to be attracted to me anyway. Besides, they’re pretty much all socialized to think they should always be in charge, and I’m not into that either.”

“You like to be in charge?” Cassidy’s voice got softer and, for some reason, Lane’s stomach flipped.

“Yeah, a little,” they admitted. Cassidy was quiet for a while. Lane kept their eyes on the view, but at least half their brain was taken up by Cassidy beside them, inexplicably exploring Lane’s sexual preferences.

“Have you slept with a lot of girls?” she asked a moment later.

Lane gazed up at the sky.

“Yeah,” they said simply. “Quite a few.”

“I’ve only slept with one person,” Cassidy confessed. “I dated him for nine months and we had sex a bunch of times. But it never got any better.”

Lane looked at her now. She was studying the skyline, but she was frowning a little. She looked like she was revealing a deep, dark secret. Lane remembered she was from a conservative church-going family and figured that to Cassidy, maybe that’s exactly what it was.

“What did you guys do?” they asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this confession. Cassidy blanched.

“What do you mean, what did we do?”

“What kind of sex did you have?” Lane pressed.

“The sex kind!” Cassidy looked at them incredulously.

“So…basic heterosexual penetration,” Lane confirmed.

“That’s what I said.” Cassidy looked like she was regretting the entire conversation already.

“Did you do anything else? Like at all?”