THIRD TIME LUCKY
first time
Tamsin was running late. Lauren beat her fountain pen on her notebook, trying not to glance at her watch again. She'd texted Tamsin earlier that day, but the blonde was willful and annoyingly bad at texting, despite Lauren's best efforts to hint at the fact she really appreciated it when people replied once in a while.
The door at the front of the lecture hall opened and the professor stepped in, holding the door for one last straggling student. Tamsin ducked in and caught Lauren's eye with a wry grin.
"and you doubted me," she sighed with a shake of her head, sliding into the seat next to Lauren.
"I had reason to," Lauren pointed out, shifting her arm to allow Tamsin to settle in the chair.
"No you -" a hush filled the lecture hall as the professor cleared his throat and a PowerPoint flickered on to the screen. Tamsin lowered her voice to a low mutter. "No you didn't," she whispered.
"Really?!" Lauren whispered back as the professor began outlining the content of the next hour of introductory chemistry. "Where were you on Monday? And on Friday last week?"
"Oh I was busy," Tamsin brushed the accusation off as she shifted in her chair, finding the best angle to lean back. Lauren looked up from her notebook and narrowed her eyes at Tamsin.
"Sleeping does not classify as busy," she retorted. Tamsin chuckled.
"Depends on your definition of sleep," She agreed, cocking an eyebrow at Lauren. Lauren just rolled her eyes and turned back to her notes. She was alarmed to see the professor had already moved to the second slide - her notes for the first slide were incomplete. Tamsin watched Lauren's flustered estimation of how much she missed as she left several lines free.
"Do you wanna know what I was actually doing on Monday?" Tamsin asked, raising an eyebrow. Lauren's forehead furrowed.
"No," She replied without looking up from her furious scribbling. Tamsin sighed, a combination of annoyance and boredom making her lean forward and put her hand on Lauren's notepad, stopping her from writing anymore.
"You do know this lecture is recorded, right?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at Lauren. Lauren pushed at Tamsin's hand impatiently while she made her whispered reply.
"Yes, but if I am here anyway then I might as well listen, now stop being a dick and let me take notes." Tamsin rolled her eyes, but she let Lauren take notes again, watching her calligraphic handwriting blooming across the page. She settled into her seat and tried to pay attention, but the flow of Lauren's hair and her nervous little lip biting were far more interesting than the atomic formulas that Professor Paverati was balancing at the front of the class.
"Stop staring at me," Lauren made a face at Tamsin. Tamsin snorted and flicked one of the pens across her hand deftly.
"I wasn't," she replied casually. Lauren shook her head, as if to chase Tamsin's intrusive presence out of her thoughts and tried to concentrate on the lecture again. Tamsin wasn't very compliant though.
"I did this in High School," Tamsin complained. Lauren shot her daggers.
"Sure you did," she snapped in reply. The blonde's swaggering confidence irked her in some unexplainable way. Tamsin just grinned. Lauren continued scribbling down every word their professor spoke, her fountain pen scratching against the page.
Tamsin contemplated the lecture and then sighed dramatically. "Have you started the assignment yet?" she whispered at Lauren. Lauren gave her a scathing look.
"Of course I have," she clarified with a smirk. "He gave it to us on Monday."
"And it's not due until next week!" Tamsin agreed, her voice rising so that the people sitting down the row from them cast them a scathing look. Lauren lowered her voice to an almost inaudible whisper again.
"I'm not going to help you do this the night before," She clarified; "Last time was the exception."
"I don't need your help," Tamsin agreed dismissively.
The night before the assignment was due Tamsin was cursing her own arrogance as she sat in the library, chewing her biro in frustration. She had been too proud to ask Lauren for help, and all her other friends proved useless: "I'm premed, Tam Tam. I have no fucking clue what you're talking about," Kasey had said with an eye roll.
"It's chemistry!" Tamsin had protested.
"Yeah: I haven't done chemistry since like, first year." Kasey rolled her eyes. "Go ask your geeky friend who looks so nice in her lab coat."
"Ugh, shut up." And with that Tamsin had left for the library, where she was now hoping that staring at a single piece of paper could magically make the solutions appear in her head.
"There you are." Lauren appeared at the edge of Tamsin's vision, carrying two carefully balanced cups of Tim Hortons coffee. "I brought you a hot chocolate: by the look of your answer sheet I inferred correctly that we would be here a long time."
Tamsin quickly tried to cover her empty sheet. "How did you know I'd be in the library?" She demanded. Lauren gave her a deadpan look. "Okay, fine, but how did you know I'd be on the sixth floor?!" Tamsin demanded, shifting in her chair. Lauren grinned and showed Tamsin her phone which displayed one of Tamsin's tweets she'd written 10 mins ago. It was a rather scathing comment on the 'couple on the 6th floor', who she believed should just shut the fuck up.
"Stalker." Lauren chuckled at the accusation, her hair falling forward as she pocketed her phone.
"Stalker I may be, but I'm your favorite stalker," She agreed, pushing back her hair with a grin. Tamsin just rolled her eyes and sipped from her hot chocolate. She made a face.
"Lauren, you gave me your coffee," she complained, handing the coffee back to Lauren and taking the unopened cup out of Lauren's hands. Lauren chuckled.
"I am sorry, your highness…" Tamsin leaned back in her chair and sighed dramatically.
"You've finished the assignment, haven't you?" She asked. Lauren grinned and nodded.
"Yup and I handed it in to Professor Paverati this morning."
"Just so I wouldn't be able to copy you?"
"Just so I could help you learn it, yes."
"Lauren, you suck." Tamsin clarified, though she was grinning at Lauren. Lauren chuckled.
"You'll thank me come finals," she assured her friend before she leaned forward and picked the assignment sheet up. She looked around at the otherwise bare desk. "Tamsin, you don't even have the textbook," she pointed out in exasperation. "How are you going to do questions 3 to 5?!"
"I was going to cross that bridge when I got to it…" Tamsin trailed off with a shrug. "What! That textbook was like 1 billion dollars: do I look like I can afford that?!" Lauren rolled her eyes and grabbed Tamsin's hand.
"Come on," she commanded, dragging the reluctant slacker into the stacks. "There are textbooks here!"
a second too late
Lauren was angry. She was seething. As Professor Rogers' youngest biophysical lab assistant, she had spent the last three weeks trying to play catch up with the fourth year and graduate students she worked alongside: learning how to construct the microscopes, sorting the samples and the shelves and clearly making the biggest possible effort. And yet, today, that idiot graduate student, Taft, had claimed all credit.
"What the hell?" She demanded as they stepped out of the lab. He just smirked at her and shrugged out of his lab coat, hanging it in his locker.
"You're lower down on the food chain, darling. I would recommend you man up a bit." Lauren stared at him, fuming, unable to express her anger in words.
"I- No- You-" He just rolled his eyes.
"This is why you're not going to succeed, Laurel."
"Lauren," She corrected him. He rolled his eyes and slammed his metal locker closed with a jrring clang that made Lauren jump.
"It's really not important." He left and Lauren just stood there, fuming. Sliding her phone out of her pocket, she saw a text from Tamsin.
"working in the library again. May or may not be in need of your help?" She wanted to growl in exasperation: why did no one understand: she wasn't good at Chemistry naturally, but unlike Tamsin she didn't tune out every lecture, or unlike Taft she didn't take credit for other people's work. She was honest and worked hard: was it so unreasonable to expect, for once, someone should understand her for that.
And yet, Tamsin must be desperate if she'd texted her. Lauren sighed dramatically and then yanked open her own locker, throwing in her lab coat in a moment of pure frustration and childish rebellion that she would later regret.
Fifteen minutes, Lauren arrived in the library, her anger and annoyance twisting like a knife in her side as she went in search of Tamsin. She walked up the stairs, trying to calm the anger inside her, to bottle it, to stop it from surfacing again. It calmed to a simmer, but an ever present simmer that wore at her nerves and made her infinitely tired.
Tamsin jumped up in relief when Lauren joined on her on the fifth floor (despite the fact that the couple that had bothered so much a fortnight ago seemed to have followed her downstairs, making for an entertaining game of shooting daggers at them). Lauren, glancing at the desk and rolling her eyes, motions for Tamsin to follow her into the stacks again so she can show her (again) where the book was.
Tamsin grabbed Lauren's arm as they entered the stacks, making the annoyed blond stop. "What?" Lauren demanded, trying, and failing, to keep her annoyance out of her voice.
"Are you okay?" Tamsin asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "You look annoyed…"
"I am annoyed." Lauren turned away and continued walking down the stacks. She breathed out slowly, trying to control her anger. She heard Tamsin follow her quickly.
"You didn't have to come…" Tamsin grumbled behind Lauren. Lauren stopped and spun around to confront Tamsin in annoyance. She was surprised by the proximity of the taller blonde, but didn't step back, deciding that proximity would help her point.
"I came because you asked me to, now quit whining about it," Lauren replied with a glare. Tamsin stared at her in surprise for a second: it was the first time she had truly seen Lauren angry at something. Lauren was the type to internalize anger, rather than act on it. But Tamsin decided she really liked it when Lauren did.
"Thank you," Tamsin replied quietly, licking her lips. Lauren stared at her, taken aback, before suddenly realising her thoughts as she reached for Tamsin's head, slipping a hand through her hair, and kissed her. Tamsin gasped in surprised, but was quick to react, returning fiercely as she ran her tongue along the bottom of Lauren's lip, her own hand coming to cup Lauren's neck to pull her closer. Lauren realised quickly that this kiss was quickly getting out of hand, but she was angry and Tamsin tasted nice, so she ignored the feeling and pressed her lips harder to Tamsin's. The taller woman shifted, pushing Lauren against the stacks. The books dug into Lauren's back, but she really didn't care as her hands trailed down Tamsin's back. Lauren gasped slightly as Tamsin tugged lightly at the bottom of Lauren's lip, biting and sucking, eliciting a quiet moan from Lauren. Immediately she pushed Tamsin off her.
"We're in the library!" Lauren hissed, glancing down the aisles, blushing madly. Tamsin raised an eyebrow at her, coming to stand provocatively close to Lauren again.
"You're the one who initiated the kiss!" She whispered back. Lauren opened her mouth, trying to come up with a good response. Tamsin smirked at her.
"The textbook is behind you," Lauren whispered back, lacking a better reply. Tamsin glanced at it and then back at Lauren, hesitating for a second.
She hesitated too long: Lauren sidestepped her, escaping the confinement imposed by Tamsin's body and grabbed the textbook. "You're homework assignment is not going to do itself," she whispered at Tamsin and returned to Tamsin's desk.
Tamsin spent the whole evening painfully aware of Lauren's proximity as Lauren made a conscious effort to avoid touching Tamsin all evening.
third time lucky
Wednesday nights usually found Lauren sitting in her apartment, working. She had just put on some rice to boil while she reviewed her introduction to microbiology textbook, her neat, colour-coded notes sitting next to her. She hummed tunelessly to herself, tapping on the table absently. A sharp knock on the door surprised Lauren. She checked her watch and her phone: neither gave any indication as to why anyone would come over. Potentially it was someone looking for Georgia?
Lauren hopped off the tall stool and went to open the door. "Georgia's not here right now," she said quickly, before being surprised by Tamsin standing on the door step with a bottle of white wine.
"Well, that's excellent news," Tamsin agreed, stepping into the small apartment. "I brought wine," she added.
"Hello Tamsin?" Lauren closed the door and then turned to raise an eyebrow at her friend. "How can I help you?"
"I finished the assignment! The assignment that's due on Friday! I finished it!" She grinned. Lauren chuckled, shaking her head.
"Literally a week before the semester ends, and you can finally do and assignment the night before its due. I would say I'm impressed but…" Lauren grinned at Tamsin, trying to hide the nagging sense of disappointment. She looked forward to the guarantee that Tamsin's inability to do the assignmenet before Thursday night represented.
"But what?"
"It's nearly the end of the semester!" Tamsin rolled her eyes.
"Better late than never," she said with a feral grin. Lauren shuddered despite of herself and her body seemed to catch fire, a tight tension building in her back. She closed the door decisively and walked to stand behind the counter, the cooling presence of the sharp wood in her back a reminder to breathe. Tamsin came behind her and put down the bottle, playfully pushing Lauren's out of the way as she reached for some glasses and handed one to Lauren.
"I do have wine glasses, you know," Lauren pointed out, accepting the half full glass with a cynical glance.
"Tonight is for celebration!" Tamsin disagreed, hoping up on to the counter and swinging her legs in exaggeration. Lauren rolled her eyes and stood to stand opposite Tamsin as she leaned against the island.
"You don't have class tomorrow?" Lauren asked with a raised eyebrow, taking a small sip.
"Nope, German was cancelled so I don't have anything until Physics at 1pm." Lauren huffed.
"Lucky devil," she muttered, thinking of the essay she had to edit for Biophysics at 830AM. "I have an essay for tomorrow…"
"Mh-hm," Tamsin hummed with a grin, emptying her glass of wine with two large gulps. Lauren frowned at her.
"Tamsin, what are you doing?" She asked, putting down her glass. Tamsin jumped down from her perch and carefully put her glass down.
"Drinking enough courage so I could do this," the word's tumbled out of Tamsin's mouth as she approached Lauren slowly. Lauren frowned.
"Tamsin?" She asked, confused. Tamsin kissed her: a light, almost chaste kiss. It wasn't until Lauren slid her hand into Tamsin's hair and crushed her lips to hers that Tamsin reacted. She moaned in surprise, stepping in to Lauren, pushing her against the counter. Lauren gasped, heat sinking into her groin as Tamsin's hands slid down her back: one snaked under her t-shirt, the cold hand eliciting an appreciative shiver as she other hitched up Lauren's thigh, sitting her half up on the counter and applying all the right pressure in the right places.
"Tamsin," Lauren whispered appreciatively as Tamsin's kisses trailed down her jaw and neck, her hips bucking as Tamsin bit just hard enough, soothing the spot with light sucking that made Lauren double over, her head resting on Tamsin's shoulder as she breathed heavily. Tamsin chuckled, biting again. Lauren moaned and returned the favour by biting Tamsin's shoulder through her t-shirt.
Tamsin hummed, bothered by all the clothing that stopped her pilgrimage down Lauren's body. Lauren seemed to be having the same thought as she tugged at Tamsin's t-shirt. "Get your t-shirt off," Lauren growled, the tone of command and desperation giving Tamsin chills as the taller woman shrugged out of her t-shirt before locking lips with Lauren again, fully pushing her up against the counter, equalizing their height.
"Your t-shirt is still on," Tamsin noted dryly (or tried to anyway: she was breathing very heavily…), both her hands now under Lauren's t-shirt.
"I'm not wearing a bra," Lauren admitted with a blush. Tamsin chuckled and just pushed up the t-shirt. Lauren lifted her arms and Tamsin threw the t-shirt on the ground, her hot mouth starting slowly on Lauren's collarbone, working her way down as Lauren's hands tangled themselves in her hair. She ran her teeth between the valley of Lauren's breasts and bit down on Lauren's flat stomach, purposefully ignoring Lauren's breasts.
Lauren whined quietly between her heavy breaths. "Quit teasing," she commanded and Tamsin chuckled, straightening up until she and Lauren were nose to nose.
"Say please?" Tamsin murmured.
"Tease," Lauren whispered back, her eyes flickering between Tamsin's eyes and her lips. Tamsin just grinned, her lips hovering over Lauren's, but when Lauren leaned forward to capture them, Tamsin evaded her. Lauren sighed dramatically, before glancing down between them. "Please?" She murmured, looking down demurely, her voice low and husky.
"Better," Tamsin agreed, meeting Lauren's lips in a hot frenzy, sucking on her bottom lip before she began the jouney down Lauren's body, this time taking care to reward Lauren with attention to her breasts. She sucked, and kissed, and licked, and Lauren's nipples were soon hard peaks under Tamsin's tongue, her chest flushing dark to match her cheeks as she moaned in approval.
While her mouth busied itself with Lauren's chest, Tamsin qucly stripped Lauren of her jeans, pushing Lauren's hips into the air for a second to slip them off and throw them next to their discarded t-shirts. Tamsin switched to the other breast before she fluttered her hands up and down Lauren's thighs. She trailed two fingers up the inside of one thigh, and then the other, as Lauren whined in impatience, writhing under Tamsin's expert hands.
Lauren slipped off the counter, pushing her body into Tamsin's taunt and unrelenting figure, trying to satisfy the pressure in her groin. Tamsin grinned, but complied, her hand quickly travelling down Lauren's body and slipping inside her pants and settling in the wetness between Lauren's thighs as Lauren gasped. "Tamsin, please," she beged as Tamsin's hand, a motion mirrored by her hips, began to move. Lauren gritted her teeth at the pleasure rising, fast and fierce. She gripped the granitite counter fiercely, as her hips pushed against Tamsin's hands and she whimpered Tamsin's name like a repeated mantra.
Tamsin grinned, a feral grin of success as Lauren's eyes fluttered shut and her mouth fell open, her muscles relaxing into the pleasure Tamsin's fingers evoked. Tamsin turned her head and sucked a kiss from Lauren's throat, pleased as it left a mark. The mixture of pleasure and the quick light, soothed pain of the bite, coupled with Tamsin's skilled fingers pushed Lauren over the edge into a silent climax as she leaned forward into Tamsin's body, her muscles failing her. Tamsin's strong arm wrapped around her hips and supported her, keeping her upright.
Lauren's eyes fluttered open with a sigh as she tried to compose herself. "Well, that was fun," She whispered, her face inches from Tamsin's, her warm breath tingling on Tamsin's cheek. Tamsin grinned, extracting her fingers from Lauren's warmth and bringing them up to her mouth to suck them clean. Lauren's pupils dilated as she watched, breath catching.
"Didn't you say you had an essay to do?" Tamsin offered, quirking up an eyebrow.
"I'll deal with it in the morning," Lauren breathed. "Have I ever shown you my bedroom?" Tamsin chuckled and let herself be lead into Lauren's bedroom, their clothes forgotten on the floor.
Lauren handed in the first draft of the paper after nearly over sleeping the class. She sat down next to her lab partner. "You look like you got no sleep at all, Lauren," the brunette commented. Lauren bit her lip and decided she would plead the fifth.