Intense became clear almost as soon as Ellie and Mia arrived.
Mia’s friends were lovely to Mia, and really lovely to Ellie, but constantly, endlessly horrible to each other.
They were Rose and Amanda, and they weren’t happy with one another at all. They disagreed on everything. Neither could do a single thing right, the way the other wanted it done. Every decision about what to pack was wrong, every question about what belonged to who was obvious, and stupid, and didn’t need asking. They had their first fight within two minutes of Ellie and Mia walking into the house, and didn’t stop again all afternoon.
It really was that sudden. Ellie and Mia had gone inside, and Mia said hi, this was Ellie and she was here to help. Rose asked if they wanted coffee, and Mia said yes, and it took as long as the coffee took to make for the fight to start.
As far as Ellie overhead, it was because Amanda didn’t want Rose using some particular mugs, because then those mugs would be wet when they got packed. And Rose didn’t think it mattered, because she could wrap the mugs in a tea-towel, and they were her mugs anyway, so how was it Amanda’s problem? Amanda started to answer, but Rose cut her off, and said Amanda was just being rude again, like she always was to their friends. And selfish, like she always had been as well. Then Amanda called Rose a bitch, and Rose said that was good, coming from her, and then they were talking in quiet, angry voices, going over all the problems they’d ever had, that were now breaking them up, while Mia and Ellie stood in the lounge, trying not to listen.
It took Ellie a moment to realize they were actually having a fight, despite the calm voices.
Ellie looked at Mia, and Mia just shrugged, and said, “This is normal.”
Ellie just said, “Oh.”
“Normal before this,” Mia said. “It’s just them.”
Ellie had no idea what to say.
“I’ll just get changed,” Mia said, loudly, to the kitchen door, and Rose called back, “Yep.”
And then kept telling Amanda how Amanda was completely self-absorbed and selfish.
Mia started towards the hall, obviously heading for a bathroom or spare room. Another room, Ellie thought, somewhere else.
A room that wasn’t this one.
“Hey,” Ellie said, and Mia looked back.
“Don’t leave me here alone with them,” Ellie said quietly, a little desperately. “Please.”
Mia grinned, and said, “Yeah, of course. Come on.”
There was a bathroom across the hall. A nice bathroom, filled with nice bathroom things.
Ellie wasn’t sure what she’d expected her first lesbian bathroom to look like. More like a man’s perhaps.
She looked around, and decided her own looked more like a man’s, because it had Mark’s razors and shampoo and stray hairs all over the place. Rose and Amanda’s looked like a nice bathroom, with a bath, and half-burned candles, and a lot of little bottles that were probably bath salts and oils which Ellie made herself not pry at.
Mia closed the door, while Ellie was looking around, and took off her shoes.
Mia had shorts too. She had shorts that looked about as sensible as Ellie’s, in the pocket of her hoodie. She took them out, and put them on the bench, and undid her jeans.
Ellie turned around.
She didn’t know why, since she wanted Mia, and Mia wanted her, but turning around seemed polite.
She turned, and saw Mia grinning as she did.
There was the sound of moving cloth from right behind Ellie.
Ellie had never realized how sensual the slithery sound of cloth sliding over skin could be, not until right then. There were rustles, and Mia’s breathing, and a sliding sound as Mia moved her foot, and Ellie wanted to turn around, she wanted to turn around a lot, but she didn’t.
She listened, and thought about cloth sliding over skin some more instead.
“Okay,” Mia said, after a moment.
Ellie turned around.
Mia had put on her shorts, and now she had her legs.
Her smooth, silky legs which she used to fuck people. Those legs were just bare, in front of Ellie, right there. An arm’s length away. Close enough to touch, if Ellie bent down a little.
Ellie stared.
She stared, and knew she was staring, but she couldn’t help herself. Somehow, in the past few days, she’d become obsessed with Mia’s legs.
And Mia just grinned. She stood there, seeming quite happy to let Ellie look.
For a moment, at least.
“Um,” Mia said. “Maybe we’d better get back out there.”
“Yeah,” Ellie said, and didn’t move.
“Are you okay?”
Ellie nodded, still staring.
Mia waved her hand in front of Ellie’s face. “You sure?”
Ellie blinked. “Yeah, I’m…”
“We should go back out. It’s kind of insensitive, us being in here, when they’re out there, breaking up…”
Ellie nodded.
“And I kind of wanted to be around to referee,” Mia said.
Ellie nodded again. “Yeah, of course.”
“I mean, unless you have a better idea for what we could do?”
Ellie looked at Mia for a moment, and decided she was teasing. She was grinning like she was teasing, and wasn’t getting all intense and starey like she did when she was about to do something to Ellie.
“No,” Ellie said, and Mia grinned some more, and opened the door. Ellie followed her back out into the lounge.
Rose and Amanda still seemed to be arguing about coffee mugs.
“We’re back,” Mia called, but the argument kept going.
“Don’t worry about coffee,” Mia shouted. “We’ll just start.”
The voices continued in the kitchen.
“Fuck,” Mia said, and looked at Ellie, and then around at the stacked, labelled boxes on the floor. “I guess we just start,” she said, and picked one up, and went over to the front door.
Ellie got one too, and followed her.
She wasn’t staying in the house by herself, no matter what.