Stuck On You [Lesbian]

Chapter 15

Chris had to drag herself to get up that morning. She partied too late with a bunch of lesbians who were on a team that organized Wellington's Dyke March for the yearly Pride Parade and was still feeling depressed from the after-effects of all the alcohol she consumed. Although, she wasn't sure if it was the alcohol, or if it was the intimacy that happened between her and one of the organizers, Nancy, the night before. It was probably a mixture of both.

The words Nancy that had said while she came on Chris' hand was now etched into Chris' mind. Fuck me hard you dirty little chink. Too tired to respond, Chris finished her off and fell asleep. Now, the interactions of the previous night were haunting Chris. She wished she had just addressed it right then and there with the worthless piece of shit. It hurt to feel like she was being backstabbed by her own community. People from LGBT community were supposed to understand what it felt like to be a minority.

Despite the early morning, Chris was glad that she could just surround herself with like-minded people. It was a relief to be able to sink into Raine's warm hug when they initially met up to go and conduct an interview for their research project.

Their first participant lived in Wellington's Chinatown.

The streets reeked like sour milk and the sidewalks were stained with flattened pieces of rotten vegetables and fruits, but the hoards of black haired folk didn't seem to notice. They filled the streets with chatter in a variety of East Asian languages as small groups of them poured into all different directions. Contributing to the bustle were the cars that honked angrily at J-walkers; streetcars that screeched like nails being dragged down a chalkboard; and lines of vendors who broadcasted their products as if they were cheering for a football team.

Raine had forgotten how gross Chinatown smelled, but she did remember pieces of paper stapled with tons of undecipherable characters stapled to wooden telephone poles. While they were approaching the residence of their first interviewee, Raine looked over at Chris who didn't seem to be bothered by the smell of rotten garbage.

Meanwhile, Raine felt her body wanting to gag, so she scrunched her nose distastefully and muttered, "I forgot how nasty it smells here. Can't these people just clean up their neighbourhood?"

These people? Chris fought everything in her to not roll her eyes.

Chris looked at Raine and swallowed like she tasted something disgustingly bitter, "These people are my people and all of these smells you speak of? They're part of my culture."

Raine sensed hostility as they approached their destination, a small apartment building, "Well, it's my culture too, but I'm just saying..." Raine said defensively.

It wasn't not like Raine was trying to diss Chinese culture, it was just the fact that it really smelled bad. What's up her ass?

"Really? Why do you get a say all of a sudden?" Chris asked, her face was masked behind a wall of ambivalence.

Chris came stop and pulled Raine aside on the sidewalk, despite being only a few meters away from a decrepit apartment building that looked like it was going to collapse into itself.

As quick as the fire seemed to appear all over Chris' face, it disappeared and was replaced with a stoic look, "Funny you choose to care when it smells bad to you, but the rest of the time you're too busy pretending to be fully white and hiding that you're half Asian."

Chris was tired of hearing Raine's snide comments about Chinese culture. She was sick of the stereotypes that Raine pushed onto her. Yet at the same time, Chris had guessed that a lot of it came from Raine's own discomfort.