Across the Window
III
She finally got to lay down. Even though Cosima wasn't particularly active that day, she was tired. Not the I'm falling asleep and every muscle of my body aches, more the it was a nice day and now I'm in my bed; it's comfortable, warm and I feel relaxed and content, so I'm enjoying this. She closed her eyes and let her thoughts wander and enjoyed the silence.
From the house across, a blonde was trying to aim the best she could. Four little pebble rocks, that's all she managed to sneak up from the dark back yard. "Okay, here we go", she thought getting ready to shoot.
First throw. Not so bad, could aim a bit higher. No reaction, though.
Second throw. Cosima thought she heard something, but she decided to ignore.
Third throw. Okay, now she definitely heard something.
Fourth throw. "What the hell", she thought and pulled the sheets off dragging herself to the window. She opened it and looked out. It was dark and it seemed like no one was there.
"Psh, psh! Here!", blonde said in a low voice.
"Delphine?", Cosima thought it might be her, but she couldn't see clearly. She walked back into the room.
"Hey! No, no!", her voice raised as she saw the girl walking away.
"What are you doing?", brunette appeared back with her glasses on.
The edge of her lips slightly curved at the sigh of the girl. "Just wanted to say sorry I left so quickly before", she murmured.
"Oh, it's fine", she smiled assuring her, "No problem".
The blonde nodded smiling back. When silence filled the air, she realized she had nothing else to say, but she couldn't risk getting embarrassed again.
"Were you sleeping?", Delphine asked.
"Nope, no", she shook her head.
"No? Okay, wouldn't wanna know I woke you up"
"You didn't, it's okay", her lips formed a smile again as she looked at the girl standing outside in shorts and tank top, "Aren't you cold?"
"Hm, not really", she scrunched up her noise, "Canadian, you know"
"Right, you're from Canada"
"Yes, I realize I forgot to mention that"
"Is fine", Cosima waved it off, "We'll have time for catching up"
"Sure", her lips formed a smile at the thought of spending more time with the brunette.
Silence again.
"You probably wanna sleep now", blonde said.
"If you'd let me, yeah"
Delphine's expression turned serious instantly, "I thought it was okay", she said confusingly.
"It is. I'm kidding", brunette announced grinning at the girl. She felt kinda bad now that she saw how quickly her mood dropped.
"Ugh", she glared at her, "You've gotta stop that"
"Your face was priceless though", Cosima teased.
"I don't like you", Delphine tried hard to keep the seriousness.
"Oh, please", brunette was smiling widely, "I'm your new favorite person"
Delphine rolled her eyes at the statement, "Goodnight, Cosima", she said as walking back inside her house.
"Goodnight, Delphine", she replied still smiling as she watched the girl go.
"Please, it's not a problem. There's no need, really..", Cosima heard her mother speak to someone at the door as she strolled through the hall on her way to the kitchen, "Yes, tonight is great. We'll be there. Thank you!"
Dana closed the door and walked back to the kitchen to find her daughter with the bowl of cereal, "Morning, sunshine", she voiced, "Don't get yourself too stuffed with that, we have a dinner to catch with your French friend tonight", she smiled squeezing her shoulder as she walked by.
"W- what?", Cosima tried with full mouth, "And I thought they were Canadian", she contemplated after swallowing.
"Oh, well..", she brushed it off, "Mary seems nice and we haven't had a dinner night in a while. I'm excited, aren't you excited?", Dana forced enthusiastically.
"Ugh", Cosima whined visibly showing her the opposite, "I'll go get back to my stuff", she said sliding out of the chair.
She watched her daughter with a slight concern, "Hey..", she started, "Don't I even get a kiss good morning anymore?"
Doorbell filled the air over at the Cormier's house. Mary welcomed the guests and they followed her inside to the dinning room where the rest of the family was.
"I'm Dana, very nice to meet you!", Richard shook the woman's hand, "And this is my daughter Cosima", she put an arm around her.
"Ah, Delphine's new friend, right?", he grinned at her.
Cosima glanced at the blonde who was standing just a few steps away from her father, "That's right", she answered smiling politely.
"Well, have a sit, everybody", Mary announced, "You can take one next to Delphine", she spoke to Cosima, who nodded in response
"Hi", brunette said loudly enough only for Delphine to hear as she pulled her chair out to sit.
"Hey", she smiled moving her chair closer to the table as she too sat down.
Laughter was heard, vine poured and stories exchanged. Even though they've just met, adults easily got along. As a professor of medicine, psychiatrist and a surgeon, the trio found many topics to discuss. Besides having medicine in common, they had daughters of the same age to talk about.
"And then this little one's turn comes and she answers it all correctly, 10 seconds left before the end and everyone's already on their feet cheering and applauding", Dana proudly told the story of her daughter's competition.
"Woah", all the eyes were on Cosima, "Impressive", Richard complimented.
Cosima forced the polite smile in appreciation. She hated when her mother did this and she did it every time they met someone knew. She tried to understand her mother's need to brag about her, but she wished she wouldn't do it as often. Not long after she was in the spotlight, the adults found another topic to chat about. Cosima was listening to Mary talk about her patient when she felt something brush against her leg. She turned her head to the side to find Delphine looking at her.
"Wanna go to my room?, Delphine whispered.
"Um..", she glanced at blonde's mother then back at her. She wanted to hear the rest of the story, but looking at the girl next to her who was waiting for an answer, she thought "Screw it".
"Yeah, let's go", Cosima responded.
And quickly they were off walking upstairs to blonde's room.
"Alice in Wonderland Syndrome", Delphine said as she closed the door.
"What?", brunette asked.
"The thing my mom was talking about", she started, "It's a condition where person's sense of size, time, perspective is distorted. Her patient felt as if certain parts of his body were bigger than they actually were, which made him have panic attacks. It's bad"
"Oh.. I've never heard of it before", Cosima replied, "Okay"
"You seemed like you wanted to hear the rest, so..", she sat down on the bed.
"Yeah", her lips formed a smile as she held a look on the girl, "Thanks", she took a step towards the blonde and sat next to her.
They felt silent for a moment. Delphine heard the brunette sigh and looked up to see her looking at the window.
"So, this is where you creep on me from", she faced the blonde smiling at her.
"Oh, shut up", Delphine chuckled and playfully pushed the girl in front of her.
No words again. Every now and then they'd become silent, but it wasn't the awkward kind of silent, at least not all the time. And even though they didn't know much about each other, they did enjoy each other's presence.
The laughter that erupted from the downstairs broke the peaceful surroundings they were in.
"Wow, they really like each other", Cosima made a remark.
"Yeah, they certainly seem to"
"Oh, man, you know what that means", the blonde furrowed her eyebrows questionably, "Means I'll be forced to spend more time with you", Cosima joked again.
"Ugh", Delphine groaned rolling her eyes, "I'm gonna kill you"
Cosima chuckled in response.
"Uh, is that a plasma ball?", brunette asked when she spotted the globe on the desk.
"Yeah, it is", she glanced at where the other girl was looking.
"Wanna turn it on?", she pursed her lips.
"Do I have a choice?", blonde shook her head as she got up to plug it in.
Cosima quickly stepped towards it, instantly putting her hand over the ball, "Aah", she sighed with pleasure watching the electric arc. Delphine smiled at the scene before switching the lights off. Brunette was smiling widely as the other girl walked over to her. She slowly placed her hand on the ball next to Cosima's and heard her chuckle with excitement as the electric arc concentrated in the spot below her hand. Delphine looked up at Cosima, light from the ball was glowing against her face and she couldn't help but keep a gaze on her.
"What?", brunette let a low giggle when she noticed she was being watched.
"Nothing", she said taking one last look at the girl before moving her eyes on the ball.
Cosima eyed the blonde and gently placed her hand on top of hers, "What are you doing?", Delphine asked as she watched the girl reach for the switch.
"Just don't move your hand yet", she said barely squeezing it. The ball was off, "Okay, move it now", she let her hand free, "Touch the ball again", Delphine was confused, but before deciding what to do she felt fingers wrap around her wrist and her hand was back on the ball. Electric bolts flashed up and she gasped in surprise. "Now clap your hands", this time she decided to trust her. With every clap more electric bolts ran through the ball. She grinned at Cosima who smiled back. Soon there was no more electricity and they found themselves in complete darkness.
"Okay, didn't think that through", Cosima announced receiving a chuckle in return.
"Don't move, I'll handle it", blonde said as she stepped back with her arms outstretched. She walked slowly reaching out for any object to navigate or hold onto if she started falling. Her hand brushed against something that felt like a clothing texture, "Was that..?", she stopped for a second contemplating if it was other girl's chest she just ran her hands over.
"Yup, you sure are handling it", Cosima joked.
Suddenly the light filled the air, except it was not Delphine's doing, but her father's, "All alright here?", he asked turning the lights on.
"Yeah, we were just playing with the", Delphine stuttered, "the thing, the b-"
"The plasma ball", Cosima helped out.
"Okay", he nodded somewhat unconvinced with the story, "Well, Cosima, your mother's waiting for you downstairs"
"Just take those two from the back seat", Dana told her daughter as she carried the groceries inside the house. Cosima was about to do the same before she spotted the blonde near.
"That was a really nice trick you did last night", Delphine remarked.
"Yeah", Cosima smiled, "I have a few more of those"
"You do?", blonde raised her eyebrows questionably.
"Yes and by the time I'm done I'll have you swooning", her lips curved into a playful smirk.
Delphine felt the redness creep over her cheeks, "Right", she bit her lower lip holding back the smile that threatened to appear.
"You coming?", Dana shouted from the house.
"Gotta get these inside", Cosima said breaking the eye contact and slightly lifting the bags for the blonde to see.
"Oh, yeah", she nodded, "Okay"
"Cosima", Delphine called out just as they parted. Brunette turned back around, having gained her attention, she continued, "My dad has this thing tomorrow at the University, something about gene therapy. You wanna come along?"
"Sure", she nodded.
Delphine smiled, "Great, I'll see you then"
"Yeah, see you", Cosima smiled back.