Water and Fire

Chapter 11

"What about this one?" Maria grabbed a shirt with a deep V-neck. "It would go great with your eyes." She smiled, but Lena licked her lips.

She knew that for humans this was not a big deal.

Everyone in her class was wearing V-necks, shorts, singlets or anything else that was showing a lot more skin than Lena was used to.

It wasn't that Lena was ashamed of her body. She had been told that she was pretty and she had been told that her future husband would be happy to be her soulmate. But from the moment she had gone to school, she had been taught that some things weren't for the world to see.

Among those things was the skin of her neck and her chest.

"Lena, if you want this thing with Brian to get past this flirting point, you really have to show him that you're willing to give him more." Maria rolled her eyes and placed the shirt in the basket she was holding.

"Who says I want this thing with Brian to go any further than this?" Lena swallowed and she felt her cheeks heating up.

Maria rolled her eyes once more and shook her head. "Lena, I don't know much about you, but every time you're near him and every time he's near you, it's like I don't even exist anymore." She didn't sound judging. She even smiled when she said the words.

"It's complicated, okay?" Lena tried to sound as nice as Maria sounded.

Maria couldn't know that Lena wasn't just a girl and that Brian wasn't just a boy. To Maria they were her roommates, laughing while they were doing the dishes, smiling when they met each other for breakfast.

"Is it complicated? Or do you make it complicated?" Maria cocked her head and she sounded serious. Without asking Lena she put some other shirts in her basket.

Lena sighed.

It was complicated. It was complicated because she was an angel and Brian was a demon. It was complicated because if he would manage to kiss her, to love her, she would lose everything while he would become a hero. It was complicated because therefore there was a part of Lena that could never fully trust him. It was complicated because giving in to the weird feeling he gave her, meant giving up everything she had ever worked for.

On some nights Lena had found herself dreaming about what could have been if they had both been human. She had not told Brian about it and she had for sure not told Maria about it. She had imagined how his lips would feel on hers. She had imagined how his hands would wander over her body. She had even imagined how it would feel to make love to him.

"I don't know much about love." Maria spoke softly, while she grabbed a few colored, short skirts. "I've had some short flings with boys at school and I do kiss strangers at parties." She cocked her head and she was heading towards the underwear. "But no one has ever looked at me like Brian looks at you." She sighed. "And I have never had the lights in my eyes like you have when you talk about him." She stood still in front of the bra's and hipsters.

"I really don't need that." Lena shook her head, but Maria ignored her completely.

"If a boy would look at me like that, I would never let him go again." Maria grabbed a bra and frowned her eyebrows. "What's your size?" She didn't wait for the answer and automatically grabbed a C cup.

"How do you know if a boy is mister right?" Lena knew how she would knew it. She would answer loads of questions, she would give a drop of blood and she would be matched with someone who would be perfect for her.

Maria shrugged her shoulders. She seemed lonely, a little afraid.

For the first time Lena realized that Maria didn't need a guardian angel or a corrupting demon.