A/N: I'd really like to know what people think of this fic vs. my previous one.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ren wandered around Tawny's room, waiting for her girlfriend to arrive. Tawny had numerous black and white photographs pinned to her wall above her messy desk. Ren was very tempted to organize her things, but resisted. She'd offered before and Tawny had gone off on an entire spiel about her 'ordered chaos', insisting that if Ren did clean it up she'd never be able to find anything.
The photos were mostly of people—random strangers who had no idea they'd been photographed, and friends. There were several of Ren, as Tawny often seemed to have her camera on hand and insisted on taking tons of pictures despite Ren's requests that she stop. Ren, as everyone does, hated most of the photos of her--nothing against the artist, of course, only the subject. But she found one she that she liked—it was of her and Tawny, Tawny was holding the camera out and kissing Ren on the temple.
She took a seat on Tawny's bed, her back resting against the headboard, waiting. She lifted a book off Tawny's nightstand: Interview with the Vampire. Strange girl, Ren thought. Ren's New Year's card was her bookmark.
Then Tawny finally arrived, shoving her door open with an exhausted sigh and throwing her bag on the floor.
"Finals didn't go well?" Ren asked.
"No, they did not," Tawny groaned. She climbed across the bed and wrapped her arms around Ren, resting her head on her shoulder. "Yours were cake, I imagine?"
"Pretty much," Ren nodded, running her fingers through Tawny's dark hair. "But I only had two."
"I had five," Tawny grumbled. "In two days."
"I know, that sucks," Ren agreed. "Which class did you not have a final for?"
"Photo," Tawny answered. "For drama we just had to do a monologue, so that wasn't hard. The other four—calculus, poly sci, physics, and English were the harder ones. Calculus and physics were cumulative exams from the last two quarters, and I'm ok at that stuff but not great or anything. English was all Shakespeare, so that was ok too I guess. I didn't really study for it though, since I focued on studying for the others. And poly sci… that's what killed me."
"Because you always skip that class?"
Tawny didn't reply.
"I could've helped you with that, you know," Ren said.
"Yeah, yeah," Tawny yawned. "Whatever. It's over now. I need to sleep."
"Ok," Ren replied. "Sleep."
"How was your game?"
"It's not until eight," Ren answered.
"Right. Good, go team," Tawny yawned again.
"Go to sleep," Ren said softly, smiling.
"I'm going to come," Tawny mumbled.
"What? To the game?" Ren asked, looking down at Tawny. "You?"
"Yeah," Tawny replied. "I said I was considering it and I've decided that I can go to at least one."
"You're not going to enjoy it," Ren shook her head.
"We'll see," Tawny whispered.
"Hey, that picture over there by your desk, the black and white one where you're kissing me… do you have any other copies of that?"
"I could make one," Tawny's voice was barely audible.
"I'd really like one," Ren nodded.
A few moments later Tawny was fast asleep. Ren just stayed there, holding her, for a couple hours, drifting off herself a few times, before she had to leave. She'd never been one for spending time just laying around-- there were always more productive things to be done. But she did it often with Tawny. For some reason, it didn't seem like a waste of time if they were together, no matter what they were doing, or weren't doing. And It was always hard to leave.
She took great care not to wake Tawny as she left, and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek before leaving. "I love you."
A couples hours after Ren left, Tawny awoke. She found a tiny note that Ren had left on her nightstand:
You really don't have to come, Tawny. But if you're going to, it's at 8 at Lawrence.
Tawny glanced at the clock: it was 7:58. She got up and hurried into the bathroom, splashing water on her face in an effort to wake herself up. She rushed downstairs and out the door. The school was usually a twenty minute walk from her house. She ran into Ruby on the way though.
"Tawny!" Ruby flagged her down. She'd been trying to avoid the chatty girl who would undoubtedly hold her up.
"Hey, Ruby," Tawny greeted her less-than-enthusiastically.
Ruby brushed past Tawny's apparent lack of interest. "Where are you headed?"
"Um," Tawny knew that Ruby would make a huge deal of it if she knew, but telling her might be the only way to get to the game with time to actually see it. Though I still don't quite know why that matters to me, Tawny thought.
"I bet I know where you're going…" Ruby grinned after glancing at her watch. "You're going to Ren's game!"
"Uh, yeah," Tawny replied, well so much for secrecy. "And I'm already running late, so…"
"Let me give you a ride!" Ruby exclaimed. "My car is over there." She pointed across the street to the McDonalds parking lot.
"It's fine, I'll be there in a few minutes anyway and--"
Ruby ignored her, grabbing her arm and dragging her to her silver sedan.
Oddly enough, there were only ten minutes left on the clock by the time Tawny entered the gym, where she was quite off-put by all the noise and green and white. School spirit, ugh.
"These things are really fun," Ruby declared, putting an arm over Tawny's shoulder. "I don't know why you don't come more often. Ooh, look, Ren's in."
They took a seat in the bleachers a couple of rows up and watched the final minutes of the game.
"It's so loud," Tawny shouted over the crowd.
"What? You go to parties all the time, don't you?"
"I haven't in awhile but that's not the same," Tawny yelled back.
A few moments later the buzzer went off. The score was 66-48 in Lawrence's favor.
The home crowd cheered and the teams did the ritual 'good game' exchange.
"That's it?" Tawny asked, looking at Ruby.
"Well, that's the end, yeah."
"If the climax is this boring I can't imagine what the rest of it must be like."
"You sound like an English teacher."
"Where's Ren?" Tawny asked.
"Changing, probably," Ruby replied. "Come on, though. Admit it: this was fun, wasn't it? It's better to watch the whole game, but you got a taste. What did you think?"
"It was everything I thought it would be," Tawny replied.
"And that means…?"
Tawny shrugged, rising to her feet. "Where will we meet Ren?"
"Downstairs, outside the locker room," Ruby explained, leading Tawny out of the crowd.
Several minutes passed before Ren emerged from the locker room, showered and dressed. "Hey, I didn't think you came."
"Well, I was late," Tawny explained, turning her attention to Ruby. "Very late."
"She was walking and I offered to give her a ride, but I got pulled over for speeding."
"Twice, by the same cop," Tawny scoffed. "Within eight blocks."
Wide-eyed, Ren turned to Ruby. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, my mom's going to flip," Ruby sighed. "Oh well."
"That's not safe, Ruby," Ren warned.
"Oh, chill," Ruby said.
Ren shook her head.
"So," Tawny changed the subject. "You played good. You ran fast, bounced the ball, and all that. You're pretty good."
Ren laughed. "You really didn't have to come. But I'm glad you did."
"Yeah, well, how glad? Do you secretly really want me to come or am I free now?"
"Oh," Ren grinned. "You're free. It was that hard for you?"
"All ten minutes of it," Tawny smiled. "No, it wasn't that bad. But I think I'll pass on coming again. Unless you want me to though, because I will."
"No, no," Ren shook her head. "It's fine."
"Ok, well, I'm going to go and leave you two to do whatever it is you do together," Ruby said before she hurried upstairs to meet with other friends.
Ren took Tawny's hands in hers. "So, what do you want to do?"
"I want to go up to that place we went with Ruby back in the beginning of the year," Tawny answered. "You know, when we were doing the friends thing."
"Ah, yes," Ren nodded. "Why?"
"Because it's a clear night," Tawny said. "It'll be nice and peaceful, as opposed to the clang and clamor of this."
"True, but since when have you been so against loud places?"
"I'm not against all loud places," Tawny shook her head. "Ruby already grilled me on this."
"Sorry," Ren smiled. "Alright, let's go."
There were no random astronomy geeks at Mitchell's Point this time. It was just the two of them, cuddling in the backseat of Ren's car. Ren wasn't altogether comfortable in the environment, but she was trying her best to hide it. And Tawny could tell despite Ren's efforts at keeping her cool. The black silhouttes of the trees towered against the dark blue of the glittering sky.
"Calm down," Tawny said. "Nothing's going to happen. We're the only ones up here."
"You don't know that," Ren mumbled. "There could be tons of creeps up here."
"Ok," Tawny shifted from her position next to Ren, straddling the nervous girl. "Let me take your mind off it."
Ren smiled. "Well, if you insist."
"I do," Tawny said before kissing her.
Ren moved one hand up to the side of Tawny's face and ran her fingers back through her smooth hair. The other she kept on Tawny's thigh. Tawny held herself firmly against Ren's slender body, moving her mouth from Ren's down to her neck. She slid one hand around to the small of Ren's back. After a few moments of passionate kissing, Tawny pulled away. She bit her lip. "Can I take off your shirt?"
"Uh," Ren hesitated, out of breath. "Ok."
She could see the excitement flicker in Tawny's eyes in the moonlight. "You sure?"
As if she could say no to her now... "Yes."
Tawny kissed her again, more intensely this time, and unbuttoned her shirt, sliding it back over her shoulders.
Ren focused her attention on Tawny, but felt the anxiety growing within her.
Tawny moved her hands over Ren's skin, moving her lips down again, down Ren's neck to her chest.
Ren's heart was pounding with nerves. Keep it together, she told herself. Please, don't fall apart now. This isn't a big deal.
Tawny came up, kissing her on the cheek and whispering: "I'll stop."
"Wha—what?" Ren asked, surprised. "I didn't--"
"I wasn't going to go any further, I just…I'm sorry," Tawny said, moving back to Ren's side. "Tell me to stop when you want me to, Ren. You can do that."
Ren didn't respond, but pulled her shirt back up over her shoulders. She sighed and leaned back against the seat. "I'm sorry, Tawny."
"No, it's fine," Tawny replied.
"No, it's..." Ren shook her head. "I can do this. We should just do it. Come on," she turned to face Tawny. "I want to, I do."
"You aren't ready," Tawny said, her voice soft with concern. "Don't do this just because you think I want to."
"I know you want to," Ren corrected.
"Still," Tawny said. "There's no rush."
Ren sighed in frustration, hugging herself tightly as if she was cold.
Tawny brushed a lock of hair out of Ren's face and kissed her cheek. "It's ok, baby."