it's harder to see you're not mine [malvie]

PART 2: CATastrophic;

It has been a while since Ben had somehow found his way into Evie's apartment. But when he did Mal heard that loud and clear.

It was around 1 am and she was lying in her bed finishing her book. She couldn't remember opening the balcony door and even thinking of a way for the furry animal to snuck into the other girls' apartment.

Mal put down her book after she heard the scream from the other side of the wall. She waited a few seconds before looking around for Ben. When she realized he is probably not there, she jumped from her bed mumbling under her breath. Shit!

The blond ran through the balcony door, which was slightly open, and burst into her neighbor's living room. It was dark and Mal stumbled a few times almost falling on the ground before finding a night lamp and turning it on.

She looked around the unknown place trying to find the disturbance.

"Evie? Are you okay?" she asked loudly after a few seconds.

Silence.

Mal walked further into the apartment. The layout was almost the same as hers so it wasn't so hard to navigate in the dark.

"Evie?" she tried again while walking slowly into the corridor.

"Fuck, Mal is that you?!" returned the other woman. Mal has never heard Evie swear.

"Yes, are you okay?"

"Yeah, no...Can you come into the bathroom, please?" the muffled voice asked.

Mal walked to the barely closed door that she guessed is the bathroom. A yellowish light was streaming through the crack. She pushed the door open and walked in.

Picture this.

Evie's shower curtain was half torn to the ground; most of the water in the bathtub was outside of it, on the floor; Ben was completely wet and was standing in the corner of the bathtub trembling.

Mal was in horror. She turned to the other woman in the room; Evie was looking at Ben in shock and was squeezing her towel to her chest.

"Holy shit," exclaimed Mal, who was left with no words. "What happened?"

"Well, I was taking a bath," started Evie. "And suddenly he appeared and torn the curtain and and and scared the shit out of me! I thought there was someone in the house and so I attacked him. Well, he didn't like that and started running around until eventually he just fell into the water and scared me even more. So I jumped out and got most of the water in the drain. He wouldn't let me pick him up so I just let him sit there." explained Evie gesturing at everything while talking.

"Ben! What the fuck?!" Mal scolded her cat while picking up a towel she noticed nearby. "I am sorry about that, I don't even know how he got here in the first place." she apologized.

The blond-haired woman walked to the animal and picked him up with the towel. "You are all wet buddy. You gonna catch a cold and sneeze in my face all week." she talked to the cat in her embrace while he was trying to escape, furiously meowing in the process.

"It's okay, he just really scared me." returned Evie.

Mal was struggling to hold Ben in her arms as he wiggled around trying to escape. He meowed loudly a few times until eventually giving up and resting in her embrace. Then Mal finally looked at Evie with another apologetic expression.

Evie started exiting the bathroom after taking care of the mess and exchanging a few more words with Mal about the situation. The most important thing was that both Ben and Evie were fine. That was until Mal walked after Evie and noticed the large red scratch mark on the back of the shoulder that disappeared under the towel.

"Holy mother of fuck!" she exclaimed making Evie turn around with a worried expression.

"What?"

"Fuck, are you okay?" Mal asked instead, putting the cat on the couch and walking to Evie's side to examine the wound.

"Ah!" Evie hissed in pain when Mal's fingers touched the injured area.

"Ben got you good. It's just a scratch but it will be sore for a few days, it's not deep," observed the shorter girl, moving the dark hair so she can take a better look at the red scratch mark.

"I haven't even noticed the mild pain until now," told Evie, turning to Mal with a small smile on her lips.

"Well, everything was pretty eventful," laughed Mal. Her green eyes dropped to Evie's big smile and then went lower, to her sharp jawline; her long neck; her perfect collarbone; and lower until reaching the top of the towel wrapped around her naked body.

She looked away quickly, feeling ashamed for her blunt staring. A light blush appeared on her cheeks as she faked a cough. Her eyes find her sleeping, wet cat instead. Mal was unsure if Evie coughed on her shameless gaze, but if she did - she said nothing.

"We should be going. My apologies again for the mess. I will pay for the casualties tomorrow if that is okay," said Mal and picked up the sleeping Ben so she can carry him to her apartment. She turned around to look at Evie. This time when her eyes met Evie's her heart leaped to her throat. The taller woman was looking at her which such intensity; her lips pushed in a flat line; her eyebrows slightly closer to each other; her brown eyes were no longer filled with the playfulness of their conversation but were somehow darker than before.

"Yeah," Evie breathed and turned around adding, "Not a big deal, do not worry about money, there is no need for that."

Mal said nothing, not wanting to argue with the other woman. The pressure in the room suddenly felt unbearable. She wasn't even sure what shifted so quickly and changed the light conversation they had before. Instead, she walked out of the balcony [because it was faster than walking out of the apartment and then into hers] from where she emerged earlier and returned to her bedroom.

She put her cat in her bed and sat next to him. Ben looked at her with sleepy eyes and yawned.

"You are such an idiot,"

The next morning everything was normal again when Mal met Evie in front of her apartment's door. Both of them walk out for work. They laughed about the last night's adventures and Evie's slight injury. Evie assured her that she was alright attempting to make Mal not worry so much.

In the elevator, they argued for a while but Mal insisted on paying for the ruined bathroom curtain. The taller woman refused multiple times. Eventually, Evie gave up and in front of their apartment building, Mal wrote her a check, just before they parted ways.

Mal felt satisfied that after all, she won the argument and that there was no tension this time.