The sudden buzzing sound woke her up instantly; she had always been a light sleeper. The first thing Darlene realised was that she was warm, comfortably so. Somebody was lying on top of her; one of their arms was laced around the hacker's waist, and their legs were positioned on top of hers, in a very monopolising manner. It felt safe, it felt right, and it was exactly what wasn't supposed to happen. As she rubbed her eyes, Darlene slid her arm away from Angela's back. It had been lying at that little spot at the bottom of one's back that screams intimacy.
Darlene almost had a stroke when she felt the blonde shoot up from her spot. Somebody was in pretty deep, she thought to herself.
"Wha-" Angela didn't finish that word, as she realised that by violently raising herself up from her sleeping position, she had successfully managed to straddle the other woman, and had both of her extended arms that supported her weight on either side of Darlene's shoulders, effectively blocking her from getting up.
A small smile appeared on the brunette's lips.
"Oh, so you're into this kind of stuff, huh?"
Darlene had never seen somebody stumble that rapidly out of bed before. As Angela started collecting her stuff, the brunette lazily lifted her own body from the couch. As she stretched her arms, she let out an annoyed groan. Her back was hurting. Fuck the couch.
As she turned around, Darlene had to stop herself from giggling. Angela was looking at her reflection using the brunette's majestic wall mirror that was shaped like an explosion of hearts. She was holding the hem of her t-shirt and seemed utterly terrified at the thought of going to work in the same clothes as the ones she had slept in. This girl had clearly never come into contact with the hacker world.
"Hey, you can take one of my shirts, y'know."
The relief in the blonde's face was so stupidly adorable that Darlene made the mental promise to stop being nice to people. Since when did she start doing that again anyway? A short glance at her wardrobe, and Darlene knew exactly what she was going to so willingly lend out to the woman.
"Hey Ange, why do you keep readjusting your jacket? It's as if you were embarrassed by that t-shirt I gave you."
It was early in the morning and the subway faintly smelled of sweat and various intoxicating substances, including lavender. Angela sighed in a "don't play coy" tone that certainly did not cause Darlene to have a little internal reaction. Then, she moved her arm away from her chest, an arm that had been perfectly positioned to hide the black t-shirt that read "RUN DMC" in big letters.
"You enjoy embarrassing me, don't you?"
Darlene allowed her face to quirk into a large smile, but said nothing.
"What have I done to you to deserve this?" Angela's gaze was intense, piercing and frankly, Darlene felt as if there was something more hidden in her eyes.
As the doors opened and more people stepped inside, the women were forced to move closer in the already tightly packed subway. The brunette made sure to take this opportunity to stand illegally close to Angela.
What had gotten Darlene into hacking was the undeniably satisfying rush of accomplishment. The rush of bypassing firewalls, figuring out how to crack the uncrackable, how to destroy the indestructible. She had always been an energetic child, one that wanted to lead and was good at it. But growing up in a bad neighbourhood and having a pull towards disrespecting the law led to many bad confrontations. At some point during her particularly hard teenage period, the young girl discovered hacking. It felt safer than the real world, almost welcoming, and just as rewarding. Most importantly, hacking was merciful; if she didn't do a certain manipulation right the first time, she could always reboot the virtual machine and restart the simulation. Assembly code and rap basically saved her life.
However, as she stood there in front of a blonde with a perfect appearance, if you didn't count the t-shirt and the small bags under her eyes, Darlene could not help but feel the same rush as she experienced while running in the streets; sometimes to escape a bully, other times to remember what it had felt like to do so. The woman knew she was making all the wrong choices, as she was basically violating a dozen of her self-imposed rules that have allowed her to make it this far. Yet, Darlene couldn't give less of a fuck.
"The question is, what will you do to deserve this?" The hacker's intensity matched that of Angela's, and for a brief moment, they were not in a cramped wagon, but somewhere else, possibly in an alternate world, with only the two of them and no fourth dimension.
When the doors opened again, Darlene stepped out without a goodbye; there was no need for one, as they would meet again very soon. That t-shirt was one of her favourites.
