A knock comes at my door in the evening. The time between last night and now went by in such a blur, that I was surprised to see Mare standing before me.

"You came."

Mare looks slightly uncomfortable but maintains a cool composure, nonetheless. "You invited me over to try on a dress, remember? For the ball? Preferably not made out of things you can turn into your weapons."

I smirk at her. "Let's make you look Silver-born."

Rolling her eyes, Mare steps into my room and observes far too much about it. I'm sure she noticed the empty bottles of wine and liquor on the table by the window, but she doesn't question me. It had been awhile since I had allowed anyone into my room to do any cleaning. I take her wrist and pull her straight to my vanity table to sit her down in front of it.

"Now, let's see. What color would look best on you?"

Shrugging, she suggests, "Red?"

"Too basic." I glide over to my walk-in closet and start digging through the tons of dresses that I own, the ones made of fabric and not metal. This will be a challenge. I've never had to wear any regular dresses because Father always told me to be armed. Even if that meant wearing my weapons as clothing.

Mare slouches in her seat. "Remind me again why you're being so nice to me all of a sudden?"

"Remind me again why you willingly came into my room?" I call out to her, grabbing a handful of dresses to bring out.

"Green, Evangeline?" Mare makes a face at one of the dresses I was holding.

"It's emerald. And it shimmers. You're lucky to have the opportunity to wear something so nice."

Sighing, Mare tried on each of the dresses for the next hour. Most of the dresses weren't cut to her height, and the gowns ended up running a good 6 inches too long on the floor. It would absolutely drag if she walked. I ended up digging further into my closet for dresses that I had owned when I was younger, though I was one of the first girls in my class to hit puberty first. My growth spurt happened immediately the moment I turned 12, and in general, I had always been relatively taller.

Helping Mare into a navy-blue dress, I murmur, "Why do you have to be so short?"

Scowling, she replies, "We're not going to find a dress with your wardrobe. I'll just wear my Scarlet Guard uniform."

"No, that would be horrendous. Are you sure you don't want me to shape a dress onto you?"

"Positive," she mutters.

Groaning, I decide to give up for the moment. I'll figure something out before the ball; that's what seamstresses are for. "I'm just going to have to have one of my maids alter one of these gowns. In the meantime, would you care for a drink?" I have a mischievous expression on my face. I expect Mare to be the type to drink but she surprises me when she says she doesn't.

"I just don't," Mare answered, when I inquired why.

"You've got to try this wine. It's one of the strongest ones out there."

She looks at me skeptically. "Will I be okay walking to my room later?"

I laugh at her, a little too loudly. When her expression remains serious, I go, "Oh, you weren't kidding. You'll be fine, it's not like you're driving anything."

"I guess I could try it," Mare relents.

Making my way over to my wine collection, I grab the highest quality bottle that I own and two glasses. I bring them over to Mare who has moved from the vanity table to the regular, small dining table. Sitting across from her, I pour both of us a drink.

"This wine is so finely made that you won't even be able to taste the aftertaste of bitterness when you drink it."

Eyeing her glass, she suddenly goes, "Was Elane upset because of last night?"

I take a long sip of my wine. She's referring to the kiss on her cheek. "I suppose she was a little upset."

"Is that why you did that?" She raises a brow. "What is with you Silvers shoving dominance in each other's faces?"

Amused by that, I laugh. "It's no different from you Reds blowing things up in our cities."

She takes the tiniest sip of the wine. And she doesn't hate it.

"Maybe if you guys knew what it was like to have to be Red in the first place, we wouldn't be blowing things up! How hard it must be to be a Silver."

I pour some more wine into my glass. "Very hard. Unable to be ourselves, forced to marry for riches and power. Being stuck in a cage for most of our lives."

Mare drinks more of the wine and starts giggling. This girl is a lightweight. "Having too many dresses to decide which one to wear is a struggle." Looking at the mess we made near the mirror of all the dresses she tried on, we both laugh. The wine was giving me a buzz due to how fast I was drinking it all down. Maybe I had a problem. Maybe I should slow down.

Getting up, I pick up one of the pale, pink dresses she tried on earlier. "On a serious note, I think this would look amazing on you if we cut it to your height."

She crinkles her eyebrows. "Pink?"

"Don't tell me you think it's too girly for you. What's wrong with girly?" My body was fuzzy now, and my mouth was moving before my mind could filter out my thoughts. Being buzzed felt so carefree.

"Nothing wrong with girly!" She raises her hands up, to show she meant no harm. I jokingly glare at her. Laughing, she went on, "I think it's too fluffy. Not what I normally wear."

Offended, I shake my head. "It makes a statement! Why not try wearing something new? Trying something different?" And suddenly, I didn't know if I was still talking about dresses.

Mare pauses, taking a drink of the wine. "I'm just used to being comfortable with what I have."

"It would be nice to wear something new for a night. Be a new person."

I set the dress down on the back of a chair and noticed Mare's eyes were glistening. I think she was buzzed too. Grabbing the bottle to place it back into my collection, I tell her, "Okay, that's enough for you."

"It was surprisingly really good, and it goes down smooth."

I smile at her, silently proud of being right about the wine.

We end up lying down on my bed, side by side, staring up at the ceiling. We were both buzzed from the wine but not drunk. We talk about Elane and my relationship and the things we had gone through. Mare listened, for once, without interrupting. She was probably sleepy. Being intoxicated does that.

It was silent for a few minutes.

"What is it like to kiss a girl?" Mare asks suddenly. She sits up, a little too fast, and nearly falls over. "Not that it's weird, but it's interesting that there are… people like you in Montfort."

I feel like Mare and I have crossed a line we never knew was ever going to be crossed tonight. Buzzed, in bed, and talking about our relationship problems because we had no one else to listen. I sit up as well, slower. People like me, she said.

"It's the same as you kissing Cal, a guy. But better. For me, that is."

"So, you never wanted to be with a guy?"

"Never." I enunciate. "I don't see the appeal. My body isn't genetically engineered to be with one."

Mare bites her lip. "But how do you know?"

"The same exact way I knew being a magnetron was in my blood. The same way you feel the surge of lightning running through your veins."

I look over at her. Her hair is disheveled from lying down for a long time, and her eyes were dark and glossy. Looking at her full, soft lips made my heart race faster than it had since that dream of her. And I suddenly found myself wanting to kiss her.

"But I hadn't found out I could use lightning until later on in life," she muses. She looks down at my bedsheets made of silk and traces circles onto it.

"Some things take time to discover," I state, painstakingly. Mare looks up at me, and we hold each other's gaze.

I don't know if it was the alcohol making me bold, or if the energy between us was aligned tonight. I don't even know if it was Elane's betrayal making me cover the distance between Mare and I. Or if the dream was influencing me in any way.

But I move cautiously toward Mare, and her eyes fluttered shut, and naturally, our lips found one another.

Slow moving at first, we didn't move any other part of our bodies. We let our lips explore the taste of the other. Mare was more hesitant than me, this being her first time kissing a girl. This was normal to me. I expected the softness, there being no hard edges. The kiss began to grow deeper until she pulled away first, gasping slightly for air.

My face was heated silver, and I gauged her reaction first. Her face was also flushed but she didn't look uncomfortable. She looked intrigued.

"Can we try again?" she asks, embarrassed. Without saying anything, I nod.

We kissed again, and this time, my hands find her hair, entangling themselves into it. I move to be on top of her as she lied back down, her hands nervously placed on my waist. Mare was so stiff that I couldn't help but laugh.

"Are you still a virgin or what?" I ask, half-joking.

Mare glares at me defiantly. "I am not!"

I blink. "You've had sex with Cal?"

"Yes?" She looked confused.

"It's just unexpected. Cal struck me more as a 'Don't do it before marriage' type of guy."

"Well, he's not," she mutters, looking to the side. "It just kindof happened."

"The way this kindof happened?"

I kiss her gently again, and Mare was more welcoming as she wrapped her arms around me. We made out for some time, only pulling away to breathe. Shockingly, I found that I liked kissing her. I liked kissing a girl that I had sparred with and competed with seriously. My hands roam her body until I was between her legs. Mare gasps against me, but her legs spread against my hand, and I was feeling how wet she was down there. I caressed her through her panties, and she let out little moans against me.

I was about to insert a finger into her, until she grabbed my wrist, preventing me from doing so. I glance at her, fear at having done something wrong.

"I don't think we should be doing this," she let out in a rush. "I mean, I'm just not comfortable… Well, not ready. I don't know. I don't know how to feel right now. This is so off and-"

Swiftly, I move away, turning my back to her. "That's fine."

The feeling of being rejected hit me in a wave and I didn't know how to accept it. I forget sometimes that other people are different, and attraction is more complex for some. She must be thinking of Cal right now.

Mare got up and gathered her things with her awkwardly. I stayed in my spot, pretending to inspect my nails.

"It was oddly nice of you to let me try on some dresses," she said, tense, by the door.

I shrug. "Have a goodnight, lightning girl."

And she was gone. And I was sitting here wondering what the hell just happened between us, and what it meant.