The next day, Meenah was back in school, just like normal. Although when Aranea made her way over to sit next to her, she was a bit more quiet than usual, like something had been bothering her. Aranea was concerned.
"Hey Meenah. How are you feeling?" Aranea asked quietly. Meenah just shrugged, and turned more away from Aranea than she already was.
"Hey Araneo. I'm not really feelin too hot today." she said equally as quiet as Aranea. Aranea tried to scoot over toward Meenah to get a glance at why she was hiding her face. But Meenah just moved even further away from her.
"Meenah, please just hold still so I can-" Aranea said, but stopped in the middle of her sentence. She had finally had managed to get Meenah to turn around, but was shocked to discover that she had a black eye. A nasty looking one too.
"Woah, Meenah, are you okay?" Aranea asked. Meenah nodded.
"Just got roughed up a bit. Nothin to be concerned about." But Aranea was definitely concerned. However, she couldn't show her concern, as it might trigger suspicion in Meenah. So, she ignored it.
"Well alright. So, uh, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you Meenah..." Aranea started. Meenah was now curious. She looked at Aranea with an expectant gaze.
"Uh, I was wondering if I could stay over at your house for a little while this afternoon, since we are, you know, friends and all." she finished. Meenah could feel herself blush just a little bit. Nobody had ever asked to come over to her house, especially not a boy. And she was surprised this person had actually considered her a friend. The only friends she had ever had were Kankri's younger brother (for a little while at least), a girl named Latula, another girl named Damara, and Aranea. Well, she and Aranea technically never really hung out unless they happened to see each other and had no other friends around to talk to, but when they did talk, Meenah found their conversations to be an odd mixture of cool and irritating. Kind of like when she was with Araneo. Maybe this was why she liked Araneo so much. He reminded her of a lot of Aranea...
"Well Araneo, I'm not sure if ya can come over. I gotta check with mom first. But I'll get back to ya ASAP." she said as they bell rang, dismissing them for class.
Lunch time came around very quickly, and Aranea was the epitome of anxious. She waited in the hallway like normal, and it wasn't long before Meenah arrived, with a slight smile on her face.
"Mom said yeah." she simply stated. Aranea was overjoyed.
"That's awesome!"
Lunch time passed faster than the two would've liked, and Meenah found herself being just a little bit disappointed at her friend's leaving. Usually, she didn't care considering she pushed away and hurt almost everyone that had wanted to come into her life, but Araneo was different. He cared a lot for her, so she decided to let him in, even if it meant he'd get caught up in her family's shit.
Oh, if only Meenah knew Araneo's secret...
The end of the school day came and Aranea took a deep breath. It was time to head on over to Meenah's place.
The walk home was a pleasant one, with Aranea having a good conversation with Meenah. They seemed to be even more teasing toward one another than usual, and by the time they got in the door, they were laughing harder than either of them had ever laughed. They set their backpacks down by the stairs, and Meenah told Aranea she had to take a quick trip to the bathroom before they continued on their tour of Meenah's house. It was really big, like Meenah was a rich kid or something. This was the perfect time for Aranea to investigate. Aranea took a quick lap around the kitchen and the family room, only to discover nothing out of the ordinary. There was a door just past the kitchen, but Aranea assumed it lead to a supply closet, or the garage.
Once Meenah was done, they ventured upstairs to Meenah's room. Her room was big and painted a dark fuchsia and had many sea themed decorations. She even had some posters of the bands she liked on her wall. Once again, nothing out of the ordinary.
"So Araneo, what do ya wanna do now? We have a lota things to do. We even have a big swimming pool in the basement. I think that sounds like a flippin fantastic idea. You can just take off your shirt and then I'll dry your shorts after you're done." she said as she got up and headed over to her closet. Aranea swallowed. This mission was going downhill fast.
"Hey Meenah, I don't think that's such a good idea." she said. Meenah was confused.
"Huh? Why the fuck not?"
"Because I prefer swimming with my shirt on." Meenah gave her a weird look.
"Araneo, you're one weird ass kid. Well, alright then. You can swim in your clothes." she said as she pulled out her bikini and went to change. Aranea breathed a sigh of relief until she realized one more problem: she had just started her period, and had no extra tampons. How was she supposed to ask Meenah where they were? Ugh, being a boy-girl was so hard! She'd have to think of that later. But for now, it was time to enjoy swimming with Meenah, who had just stepped out of the bathroom in her bikini. And Aranea couldn't help but stare.