A/N: Unfortunately as predicted I didn't have time to post a chapter last week, sorry campers. This one is set the morning/day after the previous chapter. Thanks for all the reviews!
When Gail wakes up she has no idea where she is, but the room and pillow smell familiar. Sitting up she takes in her surroundings, spots a black bra hooked over a chair in the corner and feels a not so unpleasant warm sensation drop to her stomach. She's in Holly's bedroom and judging by how cool the sheets are next to her Holly must have been gone a while.
She forgets about the burn on her wrist until she feels the stinging pain shooting through it when she tries to stretch her arms above her head. "Son of a-" clenches her teeth together until the pain dies down again. It feels strange then, laying in Holly's bed without her there, wonders if she's even still in the apartment or if she's already left for work.
Throwing the cover back she goes in search of the brunette, steps into the bathroom half way down the hall before she reaches the living room. Whilst washing her hands she catches her reflection in the mirror and gasps in shock when she sees of how out of control her hair has become overnight. There's no sign of a hairbrush in any of the bathroom cupboards, so she tries to tame it with her hands before giving up, it looks distinctly worse than when she started.
Gail finds the brunette in the kitchen fussing over the microwave.
"Morning," Holly looks up and the corner of her mouth pulls up into a half smile, "there's a hairbrush in the bedroom."
"Ever thought that maybe I like having my hair like this in the morning? It's chic." She pulls out a chair from the table and slides onto it.
"Yeah, bird nest chic, I hear it's all the rage in the fashion world right now." Gail watches Holly open the microwave and pull out something that looks distinctly like meat loaf.
"Really? You're eating, what is that, meatloaf? For breakfast?" She scrunches up her nose, because really it's too early to be smelling that type of food let alone be eating it.
"Gail, sweetie, it's 1pm."
"What?" It's not that she doesn't believe her, but they couldn't have gone to bed any later than ten the previous evening, so she turns to check the clock on the far wall, her mouth falling open. "I slept for 15 hours."
"Yeah, apparently you can't hold your pain medication. Speaking of which do you need to take any of these for your hand?" Holly picks up the bottle of medication the doctor gave her the previous evening and shakes it in her direction. She flexes her hand, even the small movement makes her wrist hurt. There's only a vague recollection of the previous day at the hospital with Andy, but she just knows taking any of the pain killers and spending time with Holly would be a bad idea, so she declines.
"Do you want breakfast, I can make you toast," Holly lifts her plate towards her, "or you can have leftover meatloaf."
"Pancakes." Holly lets out a laugh and starts pouring her some coffee from the pot on the side.
"That wasn't one of the options."
"Pancakes."
"There was no pancake option," the brunette hands her the cup and she takes a sip, leaning back in the chair.
"Yes, pancakes will be great, thanks Holly."
By the time she's showered and finished dressing in some of Holly's clothes, there's a plate of pancakes and a cup of fresh coffee waiting for her in the kitchen.
Holly's still there with her, and it bugs her then, she's pretty sure the brunette was meant to be working, doesn't bother swallowing the pancakes in her mouth before speaking. "Are you going into work today?"
"I took a personal day, blonde damsel in distress," she doesn't look up from the papers she's reading at the other end of the table.
Gail stares at her then and finally swallows, when she called Holly the previous night she didn't really think ahead to what the brunettes plans for the evening or the following day might be. Feels guilty. "Do you want to go for dinner tonight?"
"Dinner?" Holly looks surprised, she feels surprised, she isn't sure where the request came from, but it feels right to have asked.
"Yeah, there's uh, there's a place just down the road from, from my place," she doesn't understand why she feels nervous asking, takes a gulp of coffee and prays her hands aren't noticeably shaking.
"Then, yeah dinner, dinner sounds good," the brunette stands and grabs a piece of pancake from her plate as she walks through to the living room. "My God, I make good pancakes."
They spend the rest of the day watching old movies, it becomes apparent to Gail when she looks through Holly's DVD collection that if it was filmed in black and white, the chances are Holly owns a copy. She can't help herself asking the brunette if she remembers seeing them all when they were first released at the cinema.
"How much older than you do you think I am?"
"Well old enough to remember these being released obviously," she wasn't expecting the cushion to the back of the head. When she asks Holly if she ever watches videos that start with a pillow fight and if she was trying to imitate them another cushion is launched across the room.
Gail looks around the restaurant, it still hadn't changed from when she was dating Chris, even the paintings on the wall were the same. They had used it as a refuge to get away from Dov in the evenings, she hadn't been back since they broke up.
"I feel like your bad movie habits are rubbing off on me, this place would look cool in black and white." Gail doesn't want to over think why this was the first restaurant she thought to bring Holly, there's plenty of others in the city that don't have roses on the table or little tiny candles in lanterns or a constant soundtrack of soft romantic music.
"Bad movie habits? Beats bad eating habits I suppose, Miss I speak with my mouth full no matter where I am."
"Well at least I don't eat leftovers from last nights dinner for lunch every day. I mean what are you even going to eat tomorrow?"
"At least I'm not clingy." She watches Holly take her glasses off and place them on top of her head, raising an eyebrow in challenge.
"I am not clingy." She knows it's the wrong answer as soon as she says it, Holly's mouth curls up into a half smile.
"Uhuh, so last night, it wasn't you that wouldn't let go of my arm?" Part of her wishes Holly was wrong, but now she's mentioned it she remembers it happening, remembers pulling Holly's arm back around her when she tried to roll away, remembers pulling her hand to intertwine with hers under her chin.
She has an idea then, to try and deflect the question, tries to summon tears to her eyes.
"Holly, I don't want to hurt you, but last night I was-" she looks away from Holly's eyes and bats her eyelids to hold back the faked tears. "Last night I was cold, and I just needed a warm body."
Gail looks up to see Holly looking at her with one hand to her chest her mouth open in shock. "I feel used Gail, I feel like you led me to that bed knowing full well that you could take advantage of me and you used me."
"Don't be like this Holly," grabs her hand from across the table, "we can still be friends."
Holly's about to continue their mock scenario when they hear a cough from above them, the waiter is standing with both their plates in his hand, eyebrow quirked.
"This is really not what it sounds like," she tries to defend herself, because right now she does not look like the good person in this scenario.
"It sounds like you'll be the one footing the bill," his hand squeezes Holly's shoulder in comfort as he walks away shaking his head.
As soon as the restaurant door shuts behind them they're both laughing.
"I don't think I can ever go back!" Gail buries her hands in her pockets, the cold biting at her bare fingers, she's glad it's only a five minute walk back to her place.
"I'm sure they'll serve you again," Holly's voice doesn't sound convinced.
"Did you see the way they were all looking at me?" As they were leaving she had glanced up to the kitchen entrance and seen what she suspected the whole of the staff, including cleaners, arms crossed and scowling at her.
"No you're right I was just trying to be comforting, they're never going to even let you in again." Holly's shoulder bumps into hers almost knocking her off balance.
"It was terrible, I think we might have to start going to that pizza place again, have you got any more coupons?"
"Yeah, about that, they got shut down two weeks ago, it failed a health inspection, someone tipped them off." From her tone she fully suspects that the someone was actually Holly, so she just laughs as they cross the street to her house.
It becomes strangely awkward then, Holly's car is outside on the driveway at the side of the house and she leans against it playing with the keys. She wonders if Holly is having the same debate about how to say goodbye.
She's not sure if she intends to hug Holly or not, but she takes a step towards her anyway, and suddenly they're too close. Gail can see the mist from their breathing merging together, they're too close and she thinks maybe Holly is about to kiss her again. It surprises her then that she wants Holly to kiss her. She's sure they're both starting to lean in when the lights of a car cause them both to squint their eyes. The moment is broken and she takes a step back from the brunette, just her close proximity is making her head swim.
"I'm going to head in." Holly just nods in response and she turns on her heel for the door. The key is in the lock when stops and turns back around, stalking back down the path before pulling a bemused Holly into an embrace. "Thank you for last night, I'm sorry I was such a mess."
She knows it's the first time all day that she's really acknowledged without joking what happened the previous night. Holly's arms wrap around her back and lightly squeeze her. "I meant what I said the other week Gail, any time you need me, just call ok?"
Gail thanks her again before walking back up the path and entering the front door. She leans against the door and listens to Holly's car starting, listens to the sound of it driving away and lets out a breath she didn't realise she was holding. If her and Holly were really just friends it should not have taken that much restraint to stop herself inviting her to stay the night.
A/N:The ending of You Are Insane has been written :O It's just the bits in between that need some work...
Pixies - Is She Weird?