"Stop laughing." Gail grumbled. It was the only words she had spoken in the last fifteen minutes. Embarrassment and frustration had made her mute. As usual, Holly could not be bothered to let the situation faze her. She was still her same silly, unflappable self. The fact that she did not bother to even act bothered pissed Gail off even more.
"I can't exactly control my laughter, Gail." Holly really was doing her best to keep her amusement under control but their dilemma, coupled with that adorable pout Gail adorned, was making it impossible for her to keep all of her amusement at bay. And she honestly was trying, for Gail's sake.
"I think you're lying." Gail grumbled some more, folding her arms across her chest.
"What else should I do? Let me know how to make this better and I will." Holly noticed the little twinkle in Gail's eye, even though the darkness of her bedroom. That twinkle spelled trouble and Holly planned to quell it before Gail could follow through. "Within reason." She added, effectively dimming that twinkle.
"Fine." Gail seemed to be fighting a war in her head. It took a few minutes for her to sigh heavily and mumble something into her own chest.
"I'm gonna need you to speak up a little." Holly soothed. "I can't help if I can't hear you."
"Probably because you're old."
"I'm only a few years older than you." Holly was slightly offended. She would not stand to be called old for the millionth time, this night. "And if I'm so old, why do you want to sleep with me so badly?"
"Whoa," Holly had struck a nerve in Gail, pulling her out of her cranky/shy funk. "Who says I want to sleep with you?"
"Are you serious?" Holly gestured to their naked bodies, covered by thin sheets, her Queen sized bed with rumpled bedding and at their general location, in her bedroom. "Just a wild guess."
"Fine," Gail huffed. "Maybe I do want to sleep with you, but who said anything about badly?"
"Uh, how about 'I want you so bad right now, Holly." Holly parroted Gail's words from fifteen minutes prior, when they were kissing and shedding clothes. "Remember that?"
"Using my words against me? That's low, Stewart."
"Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law." Holly beamed. She loved their banter more than almost anything.
"Are you impersonating an officer, Holly? Maybe you're old enough to remember when that was legal but, it's not anymore."
"You just called me old for like the tenth time, today." Holly retorted. How was she the bad guy in all of this?
"Which is less than the thirteen times I called you old, yesterday." Gail pointed out. She wasn't exactly lying.
"It's only 10'oclock and quite frankly, I believe in you." Holly said it with more sincerity and less venom than she meant to add. It was an argument after all, a silly one , but an argument nonetheless.
Gail blushed at the comment. She was still mad at Holly, for something petty, that really wasn't her fault but the sincerity in the statement made her feel pretty damn good. Hopefully the darkness of the room concealed her rosy cheeks. She turned her back to Holly, for good measure. There is no way to win an argument when you're blushing at stupid comments. Holly was sure to call her adorable and that just would not do.
"Gail?" Holly reached for her bare arm, afraid she had crossed some ridiculous line. "Are we still arguing?" She asked timidly.
"Yes." Gail didn't bother to shrug off Holly's hand. "Did your old lady memory forget?"
"Eleven."
"Gail sighed once again, completely annoyed at what she was about to say. "I asked you to hold me." Gail swallowed the lump in her throat. "When you asked what I wanted, I asked you to hold me.
Holly didn't need to be told twice, she wrapped her hand firmly around Gail's bicep and began pulling the woman across the bed, by her arm. When she was close enough, Holly wrapped and arm around her shoulders, flipped her so that Gail's back was facing her front and pulled Gail fully against her own chest. The movement left Gail fully tangled in the sheets and posed at a surprisingly comfortable if not strange position. It looked more like an awkward, naked, half-nelson but Holly had fulfilled the request.
"You really can't do anything like a normal human being, can you?" Gail asked. She was desperately trying to hold in the laugh that was rapidly bubbling up. Holly was just so Holly sometimes and it made Gail happy.
"Where's the fun in that?" Holly was fully aware of Gail's amusement. She made sure to be extra Holly sometimes, just to make Gail laugh. After countless dates with people that just didn't get her, Holly loved that simply being herself made someone else happy.
"I do want to sleep with you." Gail mumbled into the pillow. "Badly." She said loud enough for Holly to hear her but quiet enough to pretend that she wasn't the one relenting.
"I know." Holly smiled and smoothed down Gail's hair. It was sticking up at odd angles after the static it had collected since they made it to the bed. The short hair really did suit her, especially after she had gotten it professionally cut and not the haphazard, mid-crisis clean-up job Holly had done on it.
"I'm sorry I...you know." Gail couldn't say it. It was too embarrassing.
"Honey," Holly tightened her arms around Gail's frame. "You don't need to be sorry. You just got a little too excited. If anything, I'll take it as a compliment." Holly smiled against her shoulder.
"This never happens." Gail pleaded to save her ego. "I'm gonna last so long, next time, that your arms fall off. So don't go getting full of yourself."
"I'm sure you will, sweetie. Maybe I'll even get to touch you next time."
"Stop being a dick!" Gail whined and fought to pull herself out of Holly's grip. Unfortunately for her, Holly has some weird nerd strength and her fight is in vain.
"Gail, I'm kidding. Actually, I'm not kidding I actually do want to touch you but, we can go as fast or slow as you want. We'll keep at it and then, at some point, you won't lose it anytime my thigh brushes against you. Practice makes perfect and all that jazz.
"That was a weird pep talk." Gail stopped fighting the embrace. "But I'm into it."
"If it makes you feel any better." Holly closed her eyes before she divulged a bit of her embarrassing history. "The first time I touched a boob, other than my own, in a sexual way, I cried. And I don't mean those little tears that slip out against your will, but you can control them. I'm talking full on sobbing, complete with the hiccupping and runny nose. The girl laughed at me and literally ran from my dorm topless."
"At least I managed to touch your boob without an emotional breakdown." Gail mused. This isn't nearly as bad as that. She just finished a little prematurely.
Holly untangle herself from Gail and the sheets. She sat up and padded over to her bedroom door.
"I'm gonna go get us some ice cream and the then we can try this again."
"Get ready for your arms to fall off." Gail called after her retreating form.
Round two.