Cassis James:
"Kiss me," she says, her hand touching my cheek, ever so soft. Her semi-masked face lingers close to mine, and my world becomes a haze as I gaze into her alluringly innocent blue eyes. The beautiful woman, dressed in lingerie and heels, leads me away from the pole I had cornered her against, pulling me by the hand into the dizzy crowd. My body touches hers as I stay close to her, molding to her.
She turns to face me, tossing her arms over my shoulders. She moves with me to the fuzzy music, our bodies synchronized. I dip my head in, tilting it, going in for a kiss.
"Kiss me," she says. Her happy, seductive lips turn desperate as my head tries to find the right angle, missing her perfect lips each time. Her eyes plead with me, like two ponds in a desert begging for rain.
"Cassis, please.." she begs, her voice becoming a whimper. The crowd blurs, non-existent between us. My lips miss hers. "Kiss me," she pleads. "Tell me you love me."
Concentrating, frustrated, I try to kiss her. I try.
I fail.
No words can be spoken, for I seem to have lost the knowledge of how to voice words. Her mask comes loose in her hand, but I cannot see her face. The mask, dark and elegant, is pushed onto my face, my eyes blocked by a hand. I raise my own to move it, but only get my hands stuck in front of my face. I feel her leave, and I catch mere glimpses of her retreating figure, naked to the world. Her bare legs move further, wobbling as she leaves what is now the dance studio.
"Wait!" I call, tearing my hands away from my face. I am too late; her back is turned to me, her body in the doorway.
Arizona envelopes the girl in her arms, her gaze upon me in warning. Her face becomes Avery Michaels's, and she kisses the girl I do not know, but know that I love.
"I love you," I whisper after the faceless girl, sad as I drift awake with the scent of strawberries and vanilla under my nose.
Natalia Parker:
Curled up into a small ball on the couch, I feel Cassis move behind me. "I love you," She says, her voice sad and distant, as if she were saying it while coming out of a dream. Slowly, I pull up from the couch. Glancing back, I tilt my head, watching the blonde's sad face.
"Who were you dreaming about?"
Her face twitches, followed by her two icy spheres making themselves visible. They flit over my face, quickly, then settle in on my own blue eyes. Her lips part as she inhales softly, though audibly, but instead of speaking, she catches her lower lip between her teeth.
"I don't know who sh-" Her eyes drop for a moment, and as they raise again, I notice a slight flush to her cheeks. "I don't know."
"Whoever it was, you must actually love them," I stretch my legs out, before slipping off the couch. "My mother always says when you dream, your true feelings are expressed about a person."
The blonde dancer sits up slowly, ruffling her golden locks sleepily. Looking up at me, she asks, "Have you ever... been in love with someone you shouldn't?"
Staring down at Cassis, I chew on the inside of my cheek. Of course I have, and I'm staring right at her. "I'm afraid not." I answer, afraid of further questioning if I had said yes.
"Well.." Cassis glances down, crossing her forearms and resting them upon her knees. "Say you did. What would you do?"
Twirling around slowly, pretending to think about the question, I purse my lips. "I suppose I would confide in that person, after some time. I would let myself get comfortable with being friends before attempting any moves."
"What if... Say you have a boyfriend, already. And the person you.. you love can't love you in return?"
Narrowing my eyes, I contemplate the answer. "..Why wouldn't they be able to love you in return?"
"They just.. Because it's wrong, and you can't be together," Cassis says, trying to come up with a reason.
"I don't think it is wrong to love anyone." I shrug, hoping that Cassis would one day understand my love for her, if I told her.
She looks up at me, her face resting in her hand. Her eyes are sad and wishful, until she closes them. "If only everyone felt that way, love."
Arizona:
"So... You guys skipped class, together."
My blonde best friend picks up her Chemistry textbook, holding it in her arms with her notebook. She faces forward, hiding her face from me behind her hair. "Yes."
I wait for her to elaborate, walking with her out of the classroom. ".....And?"
"And nothing. We fell asleep in the dance office."
"That's it?" I ask, gaping at her in disbelief. "No making out, no hot s-"
"Will you shut up? I'm trying not to let the whole world know I'm... You know." I open my mouth, but she cuts me off again. "Don't say it here! God, woman. You make me want to smack you, sometimes," Cassis tells me hushedly, her anxiety clear as day.
We walk along the hallway in a tense silence, until I say, "You feel guilty, don't you. About last night." Stopping at the fork where we part ways, I turn to her, though she keeps her eyes off of my face. "She was a virgin, too, you know."
"I know," she whispers, covering her face with a hand. "I fucked up, okay? I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have been so... so drunk."
"Well, obviously you were sober enough to remember it."
Her icy eyes finally meet mine. "She doesn't remember her own first time. She doesn't even know she isn't a virgin anymore," Cassis hisses frantically. "I fucked up, okay? And I can't even tell her because she'll hate me and I just... I don't want her to hate me, Arizona. I don't want her to hate me. I don't want her to know."
Cassis brings her hand to her forehead, mentally freaking out. "I'm ruined, if Michaels finds out."
"She won't," I assure her, wrapping her up in a best friend hug. Cassis hugs back, relaxing a little.
Pulling away, I say, "I'll see you in a few minutes, 'kay? I gotta swing by my locker first."
"Okay."
Catching Natalia in the empty hallway, again, I sneak up on her, grinning mischeviously. Getting up close behind her, I quickly wrap an arm around her waist, my other hand covering her mouth. Leaning into her ear, I say in a deep voice and a Russian-ish accent, "I have come to suck your blood." Giggling, I break away, letting her go in order to open my locker next to hers. "Your locker's so bare, man."
"There isn't much to put inside of it. All my stuff..it was kept in my dance locker back at school. But it was burned down, you know." Natalia says, looking into her locker. The look in her eyes seems like she isn't really seeing the locker, but looking far off.
Pulling out my dance clothes, I look at her. "Something eating you?"
"Just.." She frowns, her brow furrowing. "I can't remember a thing that happened last night. Not after the first drink."
Stripping out of my short, grey plaid skirt and white shirt, I tell her casually, "Cassis doesn't usually remember stuff, either." My legs slip into a pair of black dance shorts. "There was some kissing, but that's normal drunk stuff," I assure her, playing it down for Cassis's sake. "You just drank a lot for your weight, especially for a beginner."
Still shirtless, I reach into my locker to pull down a photo of Cassis and I smiling at the camera, our heads together. Placing a hand on Natalia's hip, I lean in to stick the photo on the inside of her locker's door. "There. Now your locker has pretty people in it. Everyone shall be jealous."
"Arizona?" Natalia squirms uncomfortably. "You do realize that you are stripping in the middle of a hall, right?"
Facing her with a devious grin, I pretend I'm about to pull my bra over my head. I laugh when she turns bright red, her hands going to her face. Dropping my hands, I put them through the arm holes of my tank top. "I do this all the time, Pretty Eyes."
"You are weird." She shakes her head, closing the locker.
Pulling the shirt over my head, I ask, "Hey, Natalia?" I pull my camera down from the shelf at the top of my locker and start flipping back through the photos. I skip over last nights, looking for the party pictures.
"Hmm?"
"The boy I like... He wants a threesome." I bite my lip, my eyes on the camera's preview screen. "I've never really... Like, it's something I've never done, and... I guess... I'm just wondering if it's a good idea."
Her face flushes as she scratches her head. "I wouldn't really know. I suppose if you want to try, then try."
"I dunno. Like, I love him and stuff, I just... I guess I'm nervous," I admit. I stop at the photo of the stripper I had kissed. "Think a stripper would go for it?"
Natalia shrugs her shoulders, "Depends on the stripper, I suppose."
"I met one at the party, briefly." I share the photo of the blonde bombshell with her. "I mean, we flirted, but, like, I don't know if... I don't know what that's supposed to mean, if it even means anything."
Again, she shrugs, "There is only one way to find out."
Looking down at the masked blonde in the photo, I think out loud to Natalia. "Think it would be weird if I went there? To the strip club, I mean. Cassis knows where it is; I could go with her, maybe." So long as I don't tell her the name of the boy, of course.
She stands there frozen. It takes a little time for her to answer, "If that is what you want. I mean they probably have a bunch of people asking them for things. It's a strip club."
I raise an eyebrow at her reaction, but say nothing about it. I close my locker. "Okay. Thanks, Pretty Eyes." I slip my arms around her for a hug. When I pull away, I press a quick kiss to her cheek, then start walking away towards the studio. "I had fun, last night," I call back to her before turning the corner.