Iolanthi – said Eye-lan-the

Chapter 4 – Movie Night

"Come here Iolanthi," I clicked my fingers at the ginger kitten and it rolled over and mewed at me. Lissa had named her after a dog she'd once owned. I thought it was a bit weird, naming a cat after a dog that had died of cancer but Lissa had started calling her that and Iolanthi didn't seem very desperate to give up her new name so it stuck.

"She won't come, you know that," Lissa was putting up her platinum blonde hair to keep it out of her face. We were going shopping and the kitten was stuck behind the fridge. Or, at least I assumed she was stuck because she wasn't coming out.

"Iolanthi come here right now," I demanded, pointing at the ground in front of me. Another meow answered my orders and she reached out a little paw toward me. "Aha!" I cried in victory. I leaned forward and grabbed her small paw, dragging her along the ground toward me and throwing her into my arms.

"You've got her?"

"Yeah," I cuddled the kitten as I stood up and pushed the fridge back into place. "Does that teach you to go behind fridges?" I asked. "Don't do that again. I don't like you but I don't want to fish your dead body out from behind the fridge okay?"

"She loves you," Lissa kissed the dusty kitten's head. "She just says she doesn't."

"I don't love you so don't let that go to your head," I warned the cat. She rolled over in my arms and launched off me, landing on the marble counter top.

Lissa laughed. "She understands everything you say you know," she told me, "Be nice to her or she'll hate you."

"She doesn't hate me. Do you kebab?"

"Don't say things like that to her," Lissa nudged me. "Are you ready to go?"

"Hell yeah," I grabbed the keys and ran to the door. "Let's go shopping!"

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I stalked across the shop, steamrolling through the crowd to reach Lissa. She was holding a shirt up against herself and examining her reflection in the mirror. Naturally it was a boring blouse that did nothing for her almost washboard chest but what I was holding would soon fix that.

"Here," I thrust the padded bra towards her and she froze.

"What are you doing Rose?" she was blushing profusely. I rolled my eyes at her.

"Come on Liss, it's just a bra," I shook the hanger it was attached to.

Lissa had a morbid fear of bra shopping. You'd think that she'd had some scarring experience, like a really ugly guy walking in on her while she was trying one on or something but really she just thought it was embarrassing.

"It's a bra, Rose," she glanced around furtively, as though to make sure that none of the surrounding women had seen her near the piece of fabric.

"Well, duh."

"Rose!" she hissed at me. "I hate bra shopping. And I don't need a padded bra," her face had gone a darker shade of pink as she said it.

"Come on Liss, I promise if it doesn't make your boobs look bigger then I'll never hand you a bra again," as I offered the deal I knew she would take it. Lissa would grasp at anything just to keep me from giving her lingerie.

"Deal," she stuck out her hand and we shook on it. I beamed at her and led her to the dressing rooms, swinging the bra in one hand.

"Stop it Rose, people are watching," Lissa was glancing around nervously. As far as I could tell there was no one here that was watching us. We were in the women's section after all, not many guys offered to go clothes shopping with their girlfriends.

I sighed and stopped swinging the hanger anyway. It would do no good for me if I made her even more edgy. We arrived at the dressing rooms and I handed her the bra which she held like a nuclear bomb detonator before I pushed her inside.

"Rose, it has frills!" she hissed through the curtain.

"You have amazing skills of observation Liss," I retorted. "Put the damn bra on."

"I hate you, you know."

"I know," I studied my nails as I waited. "I could get you a black lace one to try on," I offered. "You don't have any special occasion underwear."

"Keep your voice down Rose! And that status is not about to change!"

I laughed and leaned back against the wall. "Really Lissa, it's a mall. You're supposed to buy stuff."

"But when you buy bra's you aren't supposed to scream it to the world," she sighed. "Okay, it's on."

Lissa stepped out of the dressing room, with the boring blouse on. I studied her critically.

"It works," I said slowly. "As well as can be expected."

"Okay, okay," Lissa blushed and glanced around. "I get it; I don't have curves like you do. My boobs will never look big. Can I get changed now?"

"Yeah, sure," I gestured to the changing rooms and Lissa dove back inside. "You're not getting that blouse," I called in to her.

"Why not? I like it!" she protested.

"Because it's boring and it doesn't compliment you. We'll have to find something else. Something more form fitting. You're applying for a job down at that club aren't you?"

"That's more your thing Rose," Lissa re-emerged looking slightly worried. "You can do clubs, I can't."

"You can do library's, I can't. Yet, I still went in there."

Lissa laughed. "And came back out again in three hours."

"Whatever," I led her back to the clothes. "The point is I gave it a shot."

"Why don't we just swap jobs?"

I shrugged. "Doesn't bother me at all. But first," I grinned. "first I dare you to spend three hours in the club flirting."

Lissa grinned in return. "Only if you spend three hours in the library, reading."

I groaned. "Reading?"

"And getting along with everyone inside. No bitching, no snapping, no punching, kicking or screaming," Lissa counted the no-go's off on her fingers. "And you have to help whoever asks for help."

"I can't. They fired me," I informed her smugly.

"I'll talk to the owner," Lissa said flippantly. Lissa always convinced people. She was very good at it, so good that I had more than once suggested sales was her true calling.

"Alright. But when you flirt I'll have to be there."

"And when you're being nice and reading and all that I'll be standing by with a camera."

"No fair! I get a camera too! You'd better be careful though," I grinned as a new devilish plan came to me. "You're twenty first birthday is only four months away. I've invited all our old friends and their parents," I hadn't actually, but it would serve my purposes. "Oh! And I get to dress you the day you work."

Lissa grimaced but shook my offered hand. "Alright then. When are we going to do this?"

I paused as I flipped through the shirts. "When you get the job?" I suggested. "And you will get the job," I told her before she could say something negative. "You'll wear this bra and…" I flipped faster. "This shirt!" I brought out a low cut peach shirt and held it against her. Lissa didn't exactly have the boobs to hold up some other options and this short – and slightly revealing – shirt had frilly shoulder straps that would be decorative and supportive. "Perfect," I muttered.

"No it's not!" the blood had drained from Lissa's face as she stared at me in horror.

I glared at her. "You aren't going back on our deal are you? The deal was I get to dress you. We agreed about twenty seconds ago. Have you forgotten?"

Lissa sighed dramatically. "Okay, I'll wear it."

"Good," I had an armful of shirts. "Let's go try this stuff on!"

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Three hours later we left the mall and walked home. We pretty much walked everywhere but considering our building was practically on top of the mall driving would be even more pointless than usual. It was about five thirty when we finally staggered into the lobby.

Lissa and I went up in the elevator laden with bags and when we stepped of on the sixth floor one of our neighbours was locking his door.

"Is that Rose and Lissa in there?" Adrian chuckled. "I think I'd have to swim through all of that to find you."

"Hello Adrian," Lissa greeted. "Where are you going?"

"Just to get something to eat. Would you ladies care to join me?"

"We're a little busy Adrian," I mentioned. "Could you open our door for us?" I stuck the key through the pile of bags and felt Adrian take it off me.

"Anything to help," he sang.

Lissa and I struggled through the door and threw all our things down on the couch. Iolanthi was already there of course, purring and weaving between my legs.

"Talk to her," I gestured to Lissa. "She loves you."

Adrian was still standing at our door, watching in amusement as we tried to disentangle ourselves from the millions of shopping bags.

"Adrian, where are you going for dinner?" Lissa asked, brushing the last of the bags off her arms.

Adrian shrugged. "There's always some restaurant open."

Lissa smiled. "Would you like to have dinner with us?"

I was holding a cat in my left hand, three bags in my right and my purse was between my teeth so I had no time to protest or run over there and shake some sense into her.

"I'd love to," Adrian grinned.

I shook off the rest of the bags and stepped up to the kitchen where Lissa was already whizzing around. Adrian and I joined in the cooking process. Well, Adrian did while I sat there and tried to do as little as possible. Adrian couldn't cook the same way Lissa could but at least he could shake a salt shaker without breaking out a disaster like me.

Adrian informed us of his day, which was only a bit more boring than ours. Apparently the landlord had flipped. It was all over a suitcase left on the third floor and he had evacuated everyone and waited around for an hour so that a bomb squad could declare it an ordinary suitcase filled with clothes. Our other next door neighbour had thrown her stereo out the window in a freak show attempt to tell the world about global warming then stripped off on her balcony. Another tenant had officially declared war on the rats that lived in his shoes, even though there was no evidence of rats. All in all it sounded like he'd had a stressful day.

When dinner was made we all sat around the kitchen counter and ate, deep in conversation. I found that I didn't really mind Adrian, it was just that he kept giving me weird looks. When dinner was over we cleaned up while still talking. I'd come to a few conclusions about Adrian. He was a playboy, a pervert and most probably a peeping tom. And he liked me.

"Let's watch a movie!" Lissa suggested. "How about… Prom Night: A Night To Die For? That's a great movie!"

I laughed. "Liss, you spent the entire movie with your face buried in your hands or clutching my arm and screaming!" Lissa loved horror films even though they gave her nightmares. I couldn't imagine what made her think that it would get any less scary but she always insisted.

"I haven't seen it," Adrian commented.

"I bought it before we moved here," Lissa said enthusiastically. "It was so scary. I'll go get it!"

She shot off into to her room and appeared a few moments later brandishing the movie and grinning.

"How about we watch Babe, Lissa?" I asked, smiling.

She scowled at me and put the DVD into the player. Lissa always cried during Babe. I had no idea why because she could watch a tragedy without batting an eyelash. The movie menu came up and Adrian and I drifted to the couch. When I sat down, Adrian sat down right next to me, to close for comfort.

I poked him in the shoulder and pushed him away with the tip of my finger. He leaned away but when I let go he leaned back in.

My eyes narrowed. "Piss off pervert," I hissed.

He threw a hand over his heart. "Pervert?! You obviously don't know me!"

"Exactly," I pried the arm he'd just flung over my shoulder away. "So stop putting the moves on me."

"You two are so funny," Lissa giggled from her spot on the floor.

"Funny or not," I shoved him away. "I'm not cuddling up with you Ivashkov."

He chuckled and crawled to the other end of the couch, eyeing me up, as if waiting for a good time to sneak over and start feeling me up. He watched me. I glared at him. And with that, the movie began.

Lissa seemed to be the only one watching. Through the whole two hours Adrian and I didn't look away from each other. He had a flirtatious smirk on his lips and I was alternating between deadly glares and cautious glances. I couldn't concentrate on the movie. I wouldn't allow myself to put down my guard. At any moment… at any moment at all he could come over here.

Every few seconds he would twitch, moving some part of is body – be it a finger of a toe – would move closer to me. When this happened I would shift uneasily until the space between us was the same as it was when the movie had started.

When finally the movie finished Lissa was shaking on the floor. I hadn't counted how many times she screamed when the murderer had jumped out of no where or the main character had found one of her friends dead.

"Wow that was tense," her voice was shaky. "Don't you guys think so?"

"Definitely," I was still watching Adrian. "And scary," I added. The time I had spent watching Adrian was tense and scary and Lissa hadn't specified which 'that' she was talking about so technically I was telling the truth.

"I rather liked it, but I think it could've been better," Adrian smirked at me from across the couch.

"No, I liked it just the way it was." With three feet between us.

Lissa looked back and forth between us and shrugged. "Come on guys, we all need to go to bed and sleep."

Adrian smirked and opened his mouth. I knew something inappropriate was going to come out of it so I took a course of action. I ran.

I slammed my door closed behind me and shouted out into the living room. "Goodnight!"

I sighed in relief and made my way to my bed. It looked ultra soft tonight and I collapsed onto it without thinking about getting changed.