Hold Me While You Wait

15|known you for the last time

known you for the last time

The detrimented garden made Elis feel pitiful of her life whenever she'd look at it. And it was always in her line of sight because it was what her bedroom balcony overlooked. So after a few days of hearing the mythology stories from her mother, and alone on one gloriously hot afternoon, Elis became determined to start fixing the garden.

She had not seen Gray since the night of their intimacy, but Elis overheard her mother on a call with aunt Lauren saying that they'd be coming over to see the new and upgraded version of their living room.

Elis stood under the scortching sun, dressed in her least beloved clothes and wearing her dad's work boots. She didn't think of what she'd do to bring the damaged garden back to life, but digging out the dead plants and flowers sounded like a good first step.

Mrs Collins's plan to renovate the lake house gave Elis less reminiscence of Bryson whenever she'd walk around. Mrs Collins wasn't looking to erase her daughter's memory completely off her twin brother, but she wanted her to stop hurting because being reminded of him always did.

She'd been in her room for the last couple of days, the curly haired girl reading some of the Egyptian mythology her mother told her to. Little to say of that experience, Elis felt that she couldn't read anymore of it, and on the second day she tossed the old book somewhere under her bed, looking to forget about it for a while.

She didn't want to read more of the power struggle of Horus and Set, where Set uses seduction and something as vulnerable as intimacy to prove his superiority. The thought of even using someone in their most susceptible state for personal benefit sickened Elis, it sickened her because she felt that she was the same as Set. That the lust she felt for Gray could've come with the selfishness of Set, but instead of it being for power and superiority, it was Elis's distraction from her unweaving melancholy.

But somehow, even after telling herself not to, the curly-haired girl reached under her bed to retrieve the book on the third day.

She turned to the page where she'd left of, seeing herself more in the seduction scheming, until the fourth day where Elis shut the book close and stared blankly at the wall. She didn't read again after that. She hated mythology. She hated the stories. She hated herself, yet she couldn't stop thinking of tracing her lips down Gray's perfect tan skin

And so she thought she'd take a swim in the lake after a few hours of work in the garden.

The sun began to go down. The heat was being returned back to space, and Elis was tired. It wasn't just that of physical exhaustion, but that from her uncontrollable mind too. But it was when she felt a soft hand on her shoulder, that Elis turned around in flabbergast.

The ginger girl swam in front of her, trying to maintain a smile on her terrified face, and Elis understood why.

She was deep in the lake where Elis was, and so the curly haired girl reached out to hold the smaller girl by her waist.

Gray was still a little afraid of being so deep in the lake, even when Elis held her close.

Gray didn't particularly like swimming when she didn't know how to, but she trusted Elis, especially when the taller girl leaned in to leave a small kiss on the ginger girl's plump lips.

"Better now?" The taller girl remarked. "I could let you go," she playfully threatened. "That's what you'd get for sneaking up on me."

"I didn't sneak up on you. I missed you," the sincerity of Gray's reply made Elis smile, unintentionally so. It felt comforting, in some sort of way, knowing that someone missed her and they so openly confessed it.

"I haven't seen you in a week," the ginger girl added.

"I thought you wouldn't show here anytime soon," Elis replied.

"Why'd you think that?"

"Because of the other night. I thought you wouldn't come back here when you left me in my sleep."

"I had to go Elis," the smaller girl sighed. "Aunt Lauren was going to realize I wasn't home."

"But you're here now. And I'm holding you like this, right here."

"Aunt Lauren's inside."

"But they could just walk out and see us. What difference would it make?"

"All the difference," Gray replied. "I don't want to lie to her. And now that I am it's better she doesn't know about it. Right?"

"I don't know, Gray," she shrugged. "It's not my choice to make."

"And if it's not then stop trying to make me feel guilty about leaving that night."

"I didn't want to make you feel guilty. I wanted to know the reason to why you didn't even wake me up to let me kiss you one last time before you left and I didn't see you for the next five days."

"Look," Gray stopped to sigh. "I loved the other night, okay?" The shorter girl wrapped her arms around Elis's shoulders. "And I'm glad it happened."

Elis exhaled, shakily, pulling Gray's body closer to hers as she looked to close the distance between the two.

"So will you be here?" Her voice was like a hungry whisper. "Tonight?"

Gray slightly pulled back, glancing over her shoulder before looking back at Elis. "I don't know..."

"Please?"

"Elis..."

Elis leaned in to kiss her, a single kiss that lingered long as both their lips begged not to part.

"I'll do anything," the taller girl pleaded, resting her forehead against that of Gray.

"Okay," the shorter girl breathed, leaning in to kiss Elis for the third time that afternoon. She couldn't get enough of Elis, the girl who stumbled into her life to question her very own existence and everything to do with what she thought normal was. Gray couldn't get enough of her.