Texas, October 2017
We'd become fast friends, Skye and I. Either she was in my dorm room, or I was at her apartment on campus when we were free. Today was one of those days.
Her upstairs apartment had a balcony outside. We were sat in the two patio chairs, both with a textbook and notebook in our laps.
"Do you think she knows we're here?" Skye asked. I looked over at her and saw she was looking straight ahead at the apartment building in front of us. On the balcony right across, a blonde girl was doing the downward dog on a yoga mat. "I guess we should stop looking at her."
That was the first time I'd spared the other girl a glance. I hadn't known that we weren't alone. The last month, I seemed to only notice Skye.
"We can go inside if you want," I suggested. "I don't think I can read another word of this Philosophy textbook.
"You sure you don't want to stay out here and enjoy the view?" Skye said as she gathered her things and stood up
With my brows furrowed, I frowned at her in confusion. "No. I told you I'm sick of staring at my textbook."
Her shoulders seemed to sag in relief and she stood from her chair, patting the top of my head as she passed by. "Good. Let's head inside and eat. I'll need to leave soon and head to the venue to start decorating. "
I'd agreed to attend the event her sorority was hosting tonight. "What time should I be there?"
"Nine."
She looked over at the other balcony one last time with what looked to be a scowl before heading inside.
I got up to follow her to the kitchen and she was pulling ingredients from her fridge. If I needed another reason to be over here, it was for the access to an actual kitchen. Not the common room on my floor that contained a table, microwave and a sink.
"Chop the tomatoes for the salad?" She half asked half ordered.
I wasn't going to object. Not if she was feeding me.
With both of us working on it, it didn't take long for us to have seared salmon and a side salad finished. We grabbed a seat at the table and started to eat.
She was quiet as we ate, which wasn't like her.
"Skye, what's wrong?" I took a bite of my salad, then reached out and gently stabbed the top of her hand with my fork.
"Nothing's wrong."
Her lips pursed into a slight pout as she looked over at me. I wanted to kiss her right then. I'd wanted to kiss her so many times since I've met her, but I'd somehow landed myself into the role of her friend. I was still working on breaking out of that.
"Are you sure?" I prodded again.
"Do you ever think.." she trailed off, stabbing a chunk of lettuce. "Nevermind." She shoved the bite into her mouth, chewing. "I always get a little stressed out on days we have to host an event.
My head nodded in sympathy. "I can come if you need another set of hands."
"We can get it done. Us Alpha Sigma ladies are tough."
"You're bloody right they are," I said, finally getting a grin out of her.
*****
When I heard "Paint Party" I hadn't known what to expect. All I knew for sure was that I was to wear a plain white t-shirt, per Skye, and bottoms I didn't mind ruining.
Walking into the venue, I was surprised. All of the walls and the floor were covered in white paper. It was lit up with neon blue and purple lights, still keeping the place fairly dark, but the people stood out against the lights in their white attire. I wondered briefly if Louis was here. I'd never seen him in any bright colors.
Moving through the partygoers dancing to the music already playing, I looked for Skye. I found her tucked near the front near five large plastic storage boxes. She was bent over digging around in whatever was inside of them. Somehow, even in her white shirt, denim shorts, and white converse, she stood out despite being dressed like everyone else. She looked up when she saw me approach, and smiled, straightening up.
"You're here."
"I am. When do we get to painting? I forgot my paintbrush."
She snorted and gently punched my arm. "Goofball."
"This isn't me being silly this time. I really have no idea what to do here." I waved my arm around, gesturing to the set up around us.
She leaned down and plucked a tube of paint from one of the buckets, unscrewing the lid. She squeezed a dollop of neon green paint onto the pad of her middle finger. "The paint glows in the dark. When we start, everyone will grab some tubes of paint and go wild, dancing and smattering each other with paint." She moved her hand towards my face, her middle finger swiping a cold, horizontal line of paint against my cheek underneath my eye. She repeated her steps on the other side and smiled wide at me once she was satisfied.
The way she was looking at me, so close I could smell her, that same relentless feeling washed over me again. I wanted to kiss her so bad again, I damn near ached with the need.
"Here. Do mine." She handed me a different color of paint.
Taking the top off, I got a glob of glowing hot pink paint and leaned forward. I grabbed her face with my clean hand to steady her. "Where do you want it?"
"Put it wherever you want," she answered, her lashes fluttering closed. I raised my finger, drawing a pink heart on one of her cheeks. On the other, I hesitated before letting my finger draw the letter "H" on her other cheek.
"All done." I swiped my finger against my shirt to get the rest of the paint off and she opened her eyes, taking the tube of paint away from me.
"When the party starts, people won't be asking where you want the paint. It gets really messy really quick," she warned. "Hope you're ready for that."
"I can always grab you and use you as my human shield. That's my plan."
"If you do that, I'm turning against you and making sure to get you with every color of the rainbow." She arched a challenging brow at me as she giggled. She grabbed my wrist. "Let's grab a drink before they start passing out the paint. Here. Put yours in your pocket so you'll have them."
We shoved a tube into each of our pockets and then made our way towards the tables set up as a makeshift bar in the corner of the room. I wondered if anyone would accidentally ingest any paint with open drinks involved.
"Hey Troy," Skye greeted the guy working the "bar". "Two Electric Blue Margaritas."
I watched as the guy started mixing up our drinks. Finally, he was passing us two bright blue drinks that almost looked to be glowing themselves.
"This looks..fun," I said with a chuckle. Taking a sip, I found the drink sweet and admittedly, delicious.
"And delicious." Sky voices my thoughts. She shoves a five into the large jar labeled "Tips" on the table.
Her pink tongue poked out, lapping at the salt on the rim of her clear plastic cup before she took a sip. I watched in fascination, before I decided I should probably stop staring at her like I'd rather drink her than the concoction in my hand.
Forcing myself to look away, I watch as people are making their way to the paint buckets, gathering their ammo. When I turn back to Skye, she's still looking at me.
"Alright?" I asked taking a sip of my drink.
"Harry, I want to ask you something, but I'm afraid that it'll make things weird." Her gaze went to the floor.
"Weird how?"
"Like I might say something that makes you, not feel comfortable around me anymore. I don't want to do that. Your friendship is important to me. I don't want to mess it up."
Confusion muddled my head as I watched her. "Yours is important to me too, Skye. I don't think there's anyway you could mess that up. We're BFFS forever remember?" I lifted my arm, showing off the beaded bracelet bearing those letters that she had tied around my wrist one night when she and her roommate, Amber, had been making them for the other girls in her sorority.
Only theirs didn't say BFF. Only mine did.
"But what if I don't want to be BFFs anymore."
My heart got jammed in my throat at the implications of what that could mean. She looked up at me, her eyes unsure.
"What do you want me to be?" I cautiously leaned in closer to her. If she was giving an inch, I wanted to too. To let her know she didn't have to be nervous with me.
"Do you ever think about kissing me?" She asked.
"Everyday since I've met you."
Slowly, she leaned in closer to me too and our lips met. I wrapped my arm around her waist, resting my hand against her back and I felt her free hand go to the back of my neck. I'd wanted this for so long and it was finally happening. Sweeping my tongue against her bottom lip, she opened her mouth for me, letting me deepen the kiss.
She tasted sweet from the margarita and her tongue was slightly cold as it brushed against mine, kissing me in a way that made me feel she'd been thinking about kissing me for quite sometime too.
Tequila had never tasted as good as it did off of her lips and I drank her in.
Somewhere in the distance, the party must have started, but I couldn't pull away from her long enough to try to dodge any of the paint flying towards us.
It took me two washings to get all of the paint out of my hair, but it was worth it when the next day, I asked a much less colorful Skye to be my girl.