Drizzle, Part 1
“Are you almost ready?” I heard him ask from the bottom of the stairs. I spread the ruby red lipstick across my pale lips while squinting in the mirror. I pressed my lips together to fully accent the color.
“Just about.” I replied, probably not loud enough as I fluffed up my curls. As I made the most unattractive faces in the mirror, I heard Drake tread up the stairs and slam open the door.
“Angie! It’s almost seven! We’ll be late!” He shouted. I batted my eyes one last time at the mirror, and shoved my lipstick back into my bag.
“Wow. You look like you’re trying to impress somebody.” He said, eyeing me up and down.
“Well, it is technically a double date. Although, I want to make it clear that I don’t approve of your constant attempts to set up your friend with all of your remaining single female relatives. She’s a person too, you know!” I said as I hurried down the stairs next to him. Ever since Drake’s good friend Joy told him she was a lesbian, he’s desperately been trying to find her a girlfriend. Since he has plenty of gay relatives, he’s been bombarding her with set-ups and blind dates. This is the first time we’ve done it double-date style, which would mean this is the first time I would be meeting her. This time, he’s setting her up with his first cousin, Melanie.
“Angie, on the same night the girl came out to me as gay, she practically also came out to me as sexually deprived. She hasn’t had a lover for a year!” He shamelessly replied. I decided on just rolling my eyes instead of engaging in a foolish and pointless argument.
We arrived at the restaurant barely on time, which of course was my fault. Joy was waiting in a booth with a slim blonde girl with her hair pulled back in a pony tail. Much to Drake’s disappointment, they didn’t seem to get along very well. Melanie was a vegetarian and only ordered a very small salad, while Joy ordered a sirloin steak. They didn’t talk to each other very much, either. Melanie also spent a lot of time on her cell phone. She was a doctor, and she was currently on call. She only spent half an hour with us before she had to leave us, and leave Joy all alone with a couple across from her.
“So…” Joy said after a period of uncomfortable silence as we waited for our desserts. It was hard to make small talk with only the three of us. We knew Joy probably didn’t feel good being the only single one there.
“Did you guys set a date yet?” She asked. Drake’s eyes lit up when he heard her ask. He loves talking about the wedding.
“Yes we did!” He said, brightly. “April 22nd.” Joy nodded in approval, and we fell into another silence. I caught myself staring at her lips. They were full and looked to be the same shade of red mine were. My focus was broken by a server placing three plates topped with chocolate cakes overflowing with fudge and an ice cream platter. Joy and I got the same thing. My fiance was the one with the ice cream platter. Our small talk only lasted for a little while before Joy revealed something to us.
“So, Drake, there’s something I need to ask you.” She began. She pressed her lips together, and brushed some of her chin-length, dark hair back behind her ear. I assumed these to be nervous habits.
“I was kicked out of my apartment.” She said, looking down. I could tell she was ashamed, and possibly blaming herself. Drake looked at her with remorse in his eyes. We found out that Joy’s landlord had been giving her a hard time for quite a while now, and he’s been finding any excuse whatsoever to get something against her so he could kick her out. When she got a cat, he finally found the excuse, and explained that he “just recently changed the policy on animals.” Even when she returned the small, defenseless furball, he wouldn’t let her stay.
“You could stay with us. Although, it won’t really be us, because I’m leaving tonight for Europe. It’s a business trip.” My fiance reassured her.
“So it would just be Angie and me?” She asked. Her voice sounded nervous, but her eyes remained comfortable.
“Yeah. Don’t wreck anything while I’m gone.” We all laughed, and then Drake excused himself for a quick visit to the bathroom. I couldn’t help myself then. I took in everything about Joy. Her raging red lips, her long, curved lashes, her sleek and straight black hair, her stunning blue eyes. She had a beautiful collarbone, even, and dainty, smooth hands. I noticed how her dress accented her soft curves and mile-long legs as well. It was a tight-fitted black dress with a scooped neck. She had a silver chain wrapped around her perfect neck with a sparkling pendant reading “Joy” in cursive. I didn’t realize how long I spent just staring at her, before she laughed nervously.
“What?” She asked, flashing me a blinding white smile, like a commercial for toothpaste.
“Nothing.” I said, also chuckling now. “You’re just beautiful.” I hadn’t realized what I said at first, but we both started to laugh nervously after it sloppily spilled out of my mouth. I looked down at my knuckles and moved my hands to the middle of the table. Joy was playing with her fingernails. Another nervous habit, I suppose, but she moved one of her hands closer to mine. I looked up at her, meeting her icy blues. Her lips had the smallest gap between them as I noticed her hands starting to shake ever so slightly. That’s when Drake came back to greet us without sitting back down, and we quickly retreated to the far back of our seats. He explained his flight was soon, and we all gathered ourselves outside to leave. We ran quickly, as it was pouring rain out.
It was still raining when Joy and I got back to the house after dropping Drake off at the airport. I ran to the door and stumbled with the keys, and it was only after I opened the door that I noticed Joy was standing in the middle of the walkway looking up at the rain. She was giving the sky a very wide smile, and her hair and dress were sticking to her skin.
“What are you doing?” I asked, laughing at her. She answered me, but I couldn’t quite make it out. The rain was too loud.
“What?” I yelled again. She ran over to me and laid her soaking hand on my arm.
“I said, I love the rain.” She said, softly, and still smiling. “Come dance with me in it!” She quickly ran back into the rain and spun around. I laughed at her again for a moment before joining in. She grabbed my hands and we spun around in circles like children. I twirled her once or twice, and while attempting a third time, I slipped on the mud and fell right on my back. Joy toppled down next to me, her hand slapping me in the chest. It made a splashing sound from how wet we were, from head to toe. We couldn’t stop laughing when we had fallen.
“Angie?” She asked, once able to speak again. I turned to face her. She was already looking right at me. Her eyes were soft, and she was no longer smiling.
“How often do you do this?” She said so softly it sounded like a whisper. The rain softened with her voice and became just a drizzle.
“What, slip in the mud and fall on my ass?” We chuckled, but her smile disappeared in a short time and she became serious again.
“No.” She said. “Not that.” She was whispering now. My smile disappeared too as I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. She changed the subject to the drizzle and said we should go inside.
It was times like these I was glad our house was entirely made of hardwood flooring, because our muddy shoes and wet backs would have been too much for rugs. I plopped my purse onto the kitchen counter and tried to show Joy to the upstairs so we could both change, but she refused. She said that the best part of dancing in the rain was the mess. I obliged, and stayed downstairs to wash dishes, while she leaned against the counter across from me to take in her surroundings.
“You have such a beautiful home.” She said, tracing her fingers against the granite.
“Thank you. We just moved in recently, so I’m still in the process of falling in love with it.” I replied without looking up at her. I heard her shuffling around, and I tried to hurry with the dishes so as not to bore her much longer.
“Falling in love with it, that’s a long process.” I heard her from a different angle this time, but I couldn’t tell where she was. I just knew she was farther away.
“Do you know what’s cool about the kitchen? Turn the second lightswitch off. It’ll give it this really dim, but pretty glow.” She did as I told her. It only took about a second, so I assumed that she had been moving all the way back against the wall the entire time talking to me. Perhaps she wanted to explore the house more, or maybe she felt awkward being so close to me. I heard some shuffling again, as I tried to finish up the last two dishes.
“Doesn’t it look nice?” I asked. She didn’t answer me right away, and I heard a couple footsteps against the hardwood.
“It looks perfect.” She replied, from right behind me. I stopped washing the dishes as she slowly traced a hand around my waist. I ripped off my rubber gloves and spun around to face her. She was so close, even closer than I thought, and I thought she’d be close. I tried to say “What are you doing?” But I couldn’t speak. I could barely even move. She placed a hand on my face, and then slowly leaned in to kiss me. She held it there for only a moment. I had only a small taste, before she let go and dropped her hand to her side. I just stood there. I forgot how to move, yet I felt so relaxed. She pressed her lips together and looked down.
“I’m sorry.” She said quietly. I just looked at her for a minute in silence. I lost my voice. All I did was stand there and breathe heavily while listening to the loud pounding of my heart. She started to walk away, when I grabbed her hand in protest. I pulled her to me, and kissed her, but not nearly as softly as she kissed me. I held her there. I didn’t let her go for a while, and I never wanted to at all, but she pulled away. She looked at me, studied the look in my eyes to get the okay to keep going, and she kissed me again. Each kiss had more force, and came with more hand movements. She pressed me against the sink as she unbuttoned my blouse and let it carelessly hit the floor. It wasn’t long before I followed her example and lifted her small black dress over her head. Her body looked better than I had imagined it in the restaurant. She had beautiful curves and silky soft skin. I lifted her up by her legs and spun us around so I could gently but forcefully place her on the counter.
We never stopped kissing for a moment. We never thought of anything but each other. We were locked on each other like star-crossed lovers in their last moments together. I couldn’t bring myself to let my hands off her still wet skin, and I could feel that it was hard for her to pry hers out of my soaked curls. We only ever separated to link hands and swiftly make our way up the stairs.
To be continued.
-xLLSx-