Hey there.
This is a little something I started some time ago and hid in the depth of my computer and now I felt like finishing it. It's nothing amazing but it loosened my fingers and brain to continue writing on my other stories. So, see this as a commercial break. Let me know what you think.
Here we go. Thank you FreeingTheWriterWithin :D
-I don't own anything but the context of this story-
Dachgeflüster
Bo POV
"Would you mind not smoking in front of my window, please?"
When a shy female voice came out of nowhere, Bo startled and almost slipped off of the small steel steps firmly mounted on the right side of the dormer window up to the smokestack. All the shingle had been removed yesterday and she had made sure that everything was in order for the next steps.
"Woah!"
Bo was sitting on the roof of some of one of the houses she worked on. She needed a break. It was just one of those days, when she had known before even getting out of bed, that she would hate the world by the end of it more than she usually did.
Her body ached from the work week's tortures. The coffee shop at the end of the road had closed for renovations and her car, her beloved Camero, gave up on her two blocks away from her destination yesterday. So she had to get here by bus today. The sky was covered in a thick gray mess of rain clouds and if the faucet would have opened up and the water would have run down on her, it would have rounded up an imperfect Thursday just perfectly.
Yeah, just one of those days.
"Excuse me? Did you not hear me?"
Collecting herself she looked up and met a pair of hazel brown orbs. A blonde woman protruding her head outside the gasp of the window next to the brunette. Holding the cigarette waiting to be lit between thumb and forefinger Bo had been sitting on the roof. In her head, she already called it a day and it hadn't even been close to four pm yet.
"No, uh, yes. I mean, I heard you."
The blonde kept a sharp eye on the roofer's hand holding the tobacco stick.
"So?"
Bo quit smoking five months ago. It had been one of the best things she had ever decided to do. Her lungs caught more air in one breath than she had ever thought they had ever been capable of and her body felt more vital.
Five hell-like months. Five months of cursing and nervousness and a lot of chocolate eating to overcome that permanent longing for just one tiny little drag. Five months of silent prayers to Baby-Jesus and Teenage-Jesus and every state of Jesuses and only about three weeks ago she had started to become comfortable again. She even began to dislike the smell of standing next to people smoking.
But today, it was one of those days, that made one forget all their good intensions but instead embrace and hug their bad habits all over again. Old buddies. Old times.
Bo sighed and shook her head slightly.
"Maybe you could just close the window for, let's say, seven minutes?"
"No."
"No?"
"No!"
"Why not?"
Stunned, Bo watched the blonde's face. They were talking about seven minutes not the end of time.
"I'm working in here."
"It's an attic."
The woman in front of her shrugged. "So?"
"What's there to work on in an attic?"
The former softness of those light brown eyes turned into something darker. Something Bo knew all too well. A mix of frustration and anger. She had suffered through a lot of emotions the last couple of months.
Five months to be exact.
"That's none of your business and maybe you should work, too, instead of trying to kill yourself, that is! You know that smoking harms you and others around you seriously?"
"Did you just quote one of those ridiculous warnings on the cigarette packs?"
"Everybody knows that! And, and, and just because some wise human being wrote it down on a cigarette pack doesn't mean they own that line now!"
The brunette didn't even know her name and that woman already pissed her off. Immensely. Who was she to tell Bo what to do or not to do? If she wanted to she could smoke fifteen cigarettes all at once, while dancing around that chimney up there, yelling 'Sing Hallelujah'.
Her own fucking business.
"Okay, Blondie, listen..."
"Excuse me?"
Now she was deaf, or what?
"I said, 'okay, Blondie'."
"Yes, I heard that."
"Then why are you interrupting me? That's kinda rude, you know?"
Bo leaned forward and rested her forearms on her knees. Maybe that day wouldn't be that bad after all. Maybe she could have some fun with that nag peeking out of the skylight. Working as a roofer was hard enough and most of the time she was preoccupied with fighting against her male co-worker's lousy jokes. It wasn't quite the job women chose to work in often.
"You're calling me names. I think that is worth the word rude!"
"It's not calling names, it's an observation. You are blonde, aren't you?"
Bo pointed at the woman's hair, with her cigarette-hand. She had only smoked with her right hand ever since. It felt weird to switch to the other one. She had tried and then forgot about the smoldering durry and burnt her forehead when she was about to scratch an itch once. A small round scar she tried to hide behind her hair next on the side of her head was a steady reminder.
"Well, yes, but..."
"See? Observation."
Bo leaned backwards again. Proud of her calmness. She had a lack of patience ever since her little anti-smoking-project had started. The blonde rolled her eyes and Bo found that kind of cute. The brunette had gotten on her nerves, Bo could sense that.
"Okay, ciggy-churl, now would you mind..."
She nodded at the brunette's right hand. With an extra gesture of dislike of eye rolling, head dipping and heavy sighing, Bo opened the box and put the fag back to its siblings. When she looked back at the blonde Bo lost her delight in teasing that woman any further. What was the point in that anyway?
"Happy now?"
The blonde nodded.
"Thank you."
When she was about to duck her head back inside the room, Bo felt the urge to keep on that little small talk. Somehow it was nice. The brunette must have some serious oxygen overdose. She stopped trying 'nice' ever after her last love turned out to be an affair hidden from some wife and two kids in some suburb house with a dog too small to even be called like that.
"You know? Those bifters weren't cheap."
The blonde head came up again.
"And do you know, that your lungs look like coal mine within less than a few days of consuming?"
Bo had to smile. A real one, she hadn't felt like smiling for some time.
"Yes, I know. I've quit five months ago."
Suddenly she felt weak, pathetic for having a bit of a relapse. Buying the cigarette pack at the kiosk had been strange and felt wrong but she managed to push it aside. But now, with that woman staring at her and lecturing her about the danger she had known of since Kindergarten -who hadn't had that talk with their parents about smoking- it all came back full force.
"Wow. That is a long time. You made it to one hundred forty days. Plus minus. That is great. Is that your first one?"
Bo nodded feebly not looking up.
"You know, the first deprivation lasts from day one to three or four. The nicotine is out of your system by then and the receptors of your brain are free to select endorphin again. The next couple of days you are on some kind of a high, because of the thought, that you made it. That you actually stopped.
Then you get into a phase of sadness. Mainly because there is still not enough endorphin to push you on. But that time doesn't last long. Maybe five days give or take."
Bo watched the woman in front of her with amusement. She had shut off her concentration to actually listen to those words the blonde spread out around her, talking a mile a minute.
She just sat and stared. Air seemed to be off relevance for that encyclopedia. Bo was wondering whether that woman needed to breathe in at some point or not.
"... well, and you made it through the most critical phase. Around day thirty. You might have felt all mighty and above the substance and that is the dangerous part. But you made it through all that and that is awesome. The next weeks were less hard I assume, but all those rituals a smoker had, they're still present and jangling to be heard."
Holding her head in her palms, elbows resting on her knees, Bo could only focus on the sound of the voice babbling in her hears. Like unfamiliar folklore she had to get used to but couldn't stop the growing excitement of the strange rhyme and intonation.
"...and after that you had to suffer through another boost, which started somewhere between day sixty and day one hundred sixty. That's because your body recognizes the lack of nor-nicotine up to then. It stays in your system for much longer than nicotine. You're going through a second deprivation. That lasted around three to four days. A lot of people start smoking again around day eighty to one hundred. So basically, you are in a really sensible state right now. Don't stop. You did well and I can only imagine the struggles you've been through to get to that point."
The blonde rumbled and was throwing all those facts into the roofer's face with so much dedication, so much passion, that the brunette thought she would start singing instead of talking any minute. Like in those Disney movies when the protagonist wanted to make a point. Flying birds and humming fish and stuff.
She was talking with her whole body and using her hands a lot to underline some parts of her statements. Bo was wondering when the woman had pushed the skylight all the way up, to sit on the frame, facing the brunette.
The blonde must have sensed the brunette's wide-eyed ogling at some point when she stopped with a chuckle and her cheeks turning a light red.
"I'm sorry, I- I kinda geeked out."
"No...uh."
Bo shook her head to gather her thoughts. Her mind a million miles away just by looking at the embarrassed girlish behavior of the stranger facing her.
Adorable.
"I mean, yes, you kinda did, but... How- How do you know all these things? Have you been there, too?"
"God, no! I hate smoking. It's disgusting and you smell like an ashtray and taste like a..."
The blonde stopped abruptly when they made eye contact.
"Sorry."
"No, it's okay. You're actually right. And you kind of saved me, because I was just about to light up the cigarette. You do have a good nose."
The blonde shrugged. They shared a moment just looking into each other's eyes.
"Hey Bo! Bo!"
The brunette rolled her eyes. Great timing.
"What Rodriguez?"
One of her co-workers, Rodriguez, was yelling again. He had a voice like a loudhailer. He worked on the front exterior wall of the house and was standing on the street. But that didn't matter shit, he could be heard from one end of the street to the other anyway, regardless of where he was.
"Move your sweet, lazy ass down here! Your slate delivery arrived."
"Great."
She should have been glad for that delivery, because she had waited the whole morning, doing nothing but sitting on that roof and trying to not follow that urge to open the pack of Lucky's, drowning in self-pity. Yes, that worked out well. But now, she wanted nothing more than to talk a bit more with this beautiful woman she was all too curious of getting to know everything about.
"I think you have to go, Bo."
She couldn't describe the feeling rushing through her belly when she heard the blonde saying her name with that look she had in her eyes.
"Y-yes, I think so."
Bo stood up, brushing her hands on her working pants. Hesitating, she stepped forward but stopped on the scaffold.
"It was nice talking to you", the brunette said before she turned around again.
She didn't have an excuse to keep the conversation up any longer, so she slammed her shoulders down. Her luck seemed to be out of town doing family business these days.
To repeat that line again: One of those days.
"Oh, hey, Bo!", the blonde spoke up and when Bo turned back around she found her still sitting on the frame of the window.
"Yes?"
"Your cigarettes."
Bo blinked.
"What's with them?"
"Give me the pack."
The blonde extended her left hand.
"What?"
"Give it to me."
Bo shook her head. This woman was something else.
"I thought you said, you don't do smoking."
The blonde smiled one of those sincere smiles that left Bo's chest confused and her head all light.
"Yes, that's what I said. Now, give it to me."
Looking at the woman's waving outstretched hand, Bo needed a second to think but came up with nothing. When that girl wanted to start smoking now, that would be fine with her. Pulling the pack of Lucky's out of her left trouser pocket she placed it in the other woman's palm.
The blonde turned and was about to get back inside.
"Hey, what are you doing? You're steeling my big box? You know that I know where you live, right?"
The brunette was surprised when she heard the light tone in her own voice and the feeling of that big fat grin on her lips. The attic-woman made her way back into the room she had come out before. When she turned back around, Bo met that smile and look on the blonde's face yet again.
"Ha, no not steeling. Just... capturing. I'm actually helping here."
"How does that help anyone?"
"Well, I keep them with me so that you won't abash to smoke when you feel the need to do."
Bo chuckled and the smiling blonde winked at her.
"You do realize that I could just buy a new one?"
Tipping on her chin the woman considered carefully, while weighing her head slowly from one side to the other. With a light nod, she spoke up again: "Yes, you're right. You could. But you would have to get into a shop and maybe that is a hindrance and you think about it twice. Anyway, if you feel the need for a smoke, you know where I live, right?"
With a last perk of her left eyebrow and a wave with the hand holding the cigarettes the blonde closed the window and vanished inside the room.
Bo shook her head, laughing lightly before she headed back down to Rodriguez, who stood next to the entrance sipping some coke light while scratching is belly. No, this picture was far away from the Coca Cola light commercial. Hundreds of miles far away.
–
The next day the sun was shining heavily and warm on the brunette's skin. At some point, she doffed her pullover and knotted it around her hip. In just her tank top, she continued to work on the roof. Sweat formed on her toned arms. She could really use a break right now.
But more so she really wanted to see that blonde woman again. And she really really wanted to have a smoke. Just because, well, the sun was shining, the roof was basically melting under her working shoes, she was thirsty and just... because. It was complicated to describe her inner rebellion in that moment.
"Do you use protection?"
Bo flinched and almost lost her steady standing position on the part of the roof she was fixing. Her right hand had a tight grip on the hammer. As if it would have done anything to prevent her from falling. Her body was now covered in sweaty goosebumps. Turning around she found the woman from yesterday's encounter looking out of the open window.
"Man, you have to stop that sneaking up on me! You're gonna kill me or yourself. I am armed."
Holding the tool-weapon up she watched the blonde, who was just staring on the glistering bare upper arms of the roofer in front of her with her mouth slightly ajar. Smirking Bo flexed her biceps once. Seeing the gulping woman made her belly twist with satisfaction.
She still had it.
"I don't need protection."
"Huh?"
The blonde snapped out of whatever dreamland she might have been in and shook her head.
"Oh, but it is not to make fun of sunburn. Your skin is like an elephant."
"Sunb-, oh, that kind of protection. Yes, uhm, I- I put on some lotion at home."
Bo's face turned light red. Good thing that she could blame the weather and the work she did for her blushed cheeks.
"Also, did you just call my skin wrinkled and grey?"
The blonde's gaze dropped on something in the rainwater gutter, hiding her smiling face behind her long golden locks.
"No. It was a metaphor. Meaning your skin never forgets."
"Bo? Booo?"
Bo was just about to answer when that megaphone-voice interrupted the brunette's attempt to say anything else. That man just knew when to be a thorn in her side.
Rolling her eyes Bo wrapped her hammer-free hand around the metallic scaffold and lent over the edge to look down.
"God dammit Rodriguez, if you have something to say just get your godforsaken low dangling ass up here! I swear, if you don't stop yelling like some drunk bull, I'm gonna rip off those ba-"
Out of the corner of her eyes, Bo registered a wide eyed blonde. Her expression a mix of shock and astonishment. She had totally forgotten about her language.
"S-sorry, I..."
She could curse like a sailor and she needed to, to get at least a little bit of respect in that business. Especially when facing that group of ferrets that she called her co-workers.
"It's okay. I wouldn't have thought that your voice could sound like that."
"Like what?"
"The horn of a cruise liner. Deep, raucous and strident. When you talk to me it's- softer."
Bo looked down and shrugged. Her pants seemed pretty interesting all of a sudden. Was that ketchup or…?
"Well, you aren't a hyena called Ed. You have to be pretty clear with that bunch of scavenger down there or you won't get a tiny piece of the zebra."
"Boooo!"
Rodriguez only called twice for his co-workers. The third time he would be right next to them screaming in their ear and ask them if they lost their hearing. If they hadn't had by then, they would have afterwards. Bo rolled her eyes. She didn't want him up here and disturb her happy place.
"Sorry, I think I have to go. It was nice to see you again."
The blonde seemed disappointed but then she smiled that smile that made Bo's inside melt into something goo-like.
"Yes, yes it was and I don't want to keep you from doing your job, so, bye."
And she was gone, window closed and Bo? Bo wondered why she was still staring at the spot where the woman had just disappeared from.
–
Saturday morning came and went by and now it was nearly twelve o'clock. Bo was all wrapped up in her work and time had flown by faster than taking a long breath. Rodriguez brought her coffee around ten, all the way up from the street to the roof. He usually never came up there. The brunette wasn't quite sure what that had been all about, but she appreciated his gesture. It was the first time she had realized that day, that she hadn't seen the blonde woman so far.
Sighing and shaking her head, she wasn't sure about when her mind had drifted off, but since she took cognizance of the lack of smart-ass responses and most of all those hazel eyes watching her every move, she couldn't stop thinking about that mysterious woman.
Who was she? Where did she come from, other than out from an attic window? Why did she care whether Bo was hooked on cigarettes or not? What was her name? Bo didn't even know her name. All those 'W'- questions were flying across the front lobe of her brain.
"Hey Bo!"
So that man hadn't lost his touch. Bo looked down on the street from the stage of the scaffold she was standing on.
"What is it Rodriguez?"
Watching some of her other co-workers carrying material from the left to the right and cleaning up their working place, Rodriguez waved up to her.
"Hey, Bo! It is almost one. We're calling it a day. You wanna grab some lunch with the boys and me at Big Burger's?"
The brunette smiled. As much as the two of them literally yelled at each other in the most figurative way possible, they came along pretty well and every now and then Bo heard him slap the rest of the team on the back of their heads when a filthy comment left their mouths.
"Yeah, I wouldn't miss hearing Earl burping the Radetzky March for nothing in the world."
Smiling, the black-haired man adjusted his baseball cap.
"Well, then you should stop polishing your nails up there and come back down here! We're leaving in ten minutes."
He grinned at Bo. Turning back around, the brunette was about to get her tools gathered up when his deep voice revved up again.
"Oh, and Bo?"
Looking over the rim of the steel frame, the brunette set one of her heavy working shoe covered feet on the first bar, leaning forward a bit more.
"What?"
"I just wanted you to know, Steve messed up the last spoke of the ladder. So, don't lacerate that beautiful cocktail dress of yours!"
"Shut up, old man, or my black stiletto heel will find its way to a place where the sun hasn't burned your skin yet!"
Laughing he waved one last time, before joining the rest of the team to clean up for the day.
Bo turned back around. Her eyes landed on the skylight, still closed. The humor from seconds ago left her chest with another sigh.
–
On Monday and Tuesday, a storm made it impossible for Bo to do much more than helping the guys further down at the front wall. As a roofer, she hadn't much knowledge of how to fix storefronts, but she was a fast learner. Rodriguez was a great teacher. He would never confess it and would deny every word about it, but he liked having Bo by his side and as his student. She could see it in the way he smiled at her.
He was that type of person who would curse and spit and show their sister's kids how to use Nivea-crème to paint beautiful pictures on mum's bathroom mirror.
On Wednesday, the brunette was able to continue to slate the roof. She had been off schedule and had to hurry to cover lost time. Fast and precise her hands moved along the wood. She was versed in laying shingles. Turning, twisting, fitting the black tile...
"You really know what you're doing there."
Frozen in her tracks with one shingle in the left hand the brunette smiled. That familiar female voice like a song in her ears. Smiling she bobbed up and down twice before she straightened up and slowly turned around to face the welcomed intruder sitting in their place on the frame of the wide-open window.
"Why thank you very much, I'm sure. I try to look as professional as possible."
"Well, it works. I do believe that you work here."
Finishing up the last shingle, Bo turned back around. Suddenly, the brunette lost her smile and dropped her gaze. Her work was done. The roof anew.
"Guess that's it?"
The blonde's soft voice spoke up. Bo searched the roof up and down. Trying to find something, anything to keep that place as her working place for just another day. When the women's eyes locked, there was an unspoken sadness between them.
"I think so, yes."
"You did a great job up here."
Bo forced a smile.
"So now you are an expert in tiling a roof?"
The blonde shook her head.
"No. I don't. And that wasn't what I meant."
Curious, Bo made her way from where she was standing towards the window.
"And what did you mean?"
The blonde waited until Bo stopped in front of her. She looked up to the brunette, grinning, before she turned around and climbed back into the attic. Still smiling at Bo, she stretched out her hand.
"Come in and I show you."
Bo didn't hesitate. She was more than curious by now. As well as thrilled. Her body was tickling and she felt a jolt of excitement she hadn't had felt in months now.
Bo took the offered hand in hers. Soft skin underneath her fingers and palm brought that smile back onto her face. The blonde helped her in, still holding hands when Bo's feet stood on the floor inside of the room.
Bo looked around. The attic wasn't as big as Bo would have guessed. Several lamps in the ceiling lit the room up in a warm and welcoming shine. The floor was covered in cork carpet and the walls were simply white. There wasn't much furniture. Only a chair and a desk.
"I just moved in a week ago and I haven't been able to set up this place the way I want it, yet. Right now, I live in two places."
Bo stared at the blonde's hand still holding hers. It didn't feel weird to interlace fingers with a person she barely knew. It felt welcoming and comforting and as if she had always held that very hand. Bo let her thumb stroke carefully over the blonde's warm skin. Before she knew what she was doing, the blonde stepped forward and dragged Bo with her to the desk.
Totally distracted by the touch of the other woman's flesh, Bo hadn't noticed the paper laying wildly on the wooden furniture.
"Wow. Did you make those?"
Absentmindedly, Bo let go of the blonde. She wiped off her hands on her pants and picked up one of the drawings from the pile on the desk. It was her Camero in black and white and in perfect detail.
"That is amazing."
The blonde took a step closer to take a look at the picture Bo held in her hand.
"You like it?"
Bo looked up.
"Yes."
"That's what I meant, when I said you did a great job. I was having some kind of, uhm, painter-blockade. But after our talk that other day it all came back to me. So, thanks. I guess I needed a break from all the moving and being in my head for too long."
She was close. That blonde. Very close. Her body. Her face. Bo could smell the scent of fruit shampoo in her hair and the feel of her shoulder against her own. Bo turned her head sideways and was staring at the other woman's lips. So close. So damn close.
"So, uhm, you paint?"
Bo tried to keep her head working. So that she wouldn't forget how to breath or to stand. Her hand that was holding the picture was shaking slightly.
"Uhm, it's more drawing than painting but, yes, I love drawing with a pencil."
"So, uh, you're an artist."
"One could call me that, yes."
Bo nodded. She was proud of herself that she even had been able to create a whole sentence. All she was thinking about was how close this other woman was. The roofer forced herself to turn her head back to the drawings on the desk. Her eyes scanned through pictures of Rodriguez and some other members of her team until they found a picture of herself hidden underneath. Bo placed the Camero back down and took hold of one corner of the picture and picked it up. It was herself holding her hammer up like she did this other day when she caught the blonde staring at her.
"That is me."
"Oh, uhm, yes. I guess it is."
"You guess? It surely is. This is my hammer."
Bo turned back to look at the artist. She found a blushing blonde next to her who stepped back one step and Bo already missed the contact.
"I like it."
The blonde cracked a smile.
"You do?"
Bo nodded.
"You can keep it. And the one with your car."
Bo looked back at the drawing in her hand and shook her head.
"No, I can't do that. They're yours and…!"
"Ah, come on. I have a great memory. I can draw a new one of y-…"
Bo smiled widely, placed the picture back on the desk and turned around fully to face the still blushing blonde.
"You can draw a new picture of me? Out of your memory? I guess you watched me closely to be able to bring it down on paper the way you did."
It was a statement that didn't need any further comments. The blonde went with her hand through her hair hectically. A nervous smile formed on her lips. Bo liked to see her react like she did. The brunette took a step closer. She reached out and grabbed the blonde's hand that was still running through her strands. Bo tried to lock gazes with the artist who was busy looking elsewhere.
"Hey, I like it. I like it a lot and I would love to have it, if you signed it for me."
Getting hold on a pencil, Bo had made out on the desk before she opened the blonde's hand and placed it in it. Taking a deep breath, the blonde soothed herself down enough to take the paper out of Bo's hands, place it on the desk and scratch the pen over it. When she was done she put the pen down and handed the drawing back to Bo.
"Lauren."
Bo read out loud.
"Yeah."
"It, uh, is a nice name. It suits you."
"Suits me?"
"Yes. You do look like a Lauren."
"How does a Lauren look like?"
Bo looked up from her gift.
"Like you."
"Uhm… Thank you?"
Bo grinned at Lauren.
"You're welcome."
They stared at each other. Eyes locked. Both a smile on their faces and a blush on their cheeks. Bo was about to say something when she felt a pair of lips on her own and a hand on either side of her face. The brunette was caught off guard and she couldn't move a muscle. As fast as it started it was over again and Lauren stared at Bo wide eyed. The blonde's hands let go of the brunette's face as if they touched the hot stove.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I did that. I was just… and you were so… and I totally embarrassed myself."
Bo was still processing when Lauren moved backwards and away from her. Shaking off the stone-like state Bo reached out, took hold of the blonde's hip and cheek and pulled her in again. A second before their lips met again the roofer stopped in tracks.
"I wasn't prepared."
Looking into those hazel eyes Bo's voice was barely a whisper. The smell of the blonde's shampoo filled the air around the roofer. With another intake of breath, she brushed her lips against Lauren's lips. It took the artist a second before she recovered from that first shock and when Bo finally felt the blonde in her arms lean in and relax under her touch, she kissed her fully and held her close.
-END-