You, Yourself, and, Thee
Chapter 8
ExperiMental: The Final Step
Starfire stood in the doorway, decked out in a totally gothic outfit. Her hair, fingernails, and lips were all jet-black. Her black jeans were impossibly baggy and covered with chains.
"Is that you, Starfire?" asked Raven.
"Meeeow!" said Andrew.
Raven glared at him.
"Sorry," he said, hanging his head.
"It is I," said Starfire. "I don't look too much like my sister, do I?"
"Not really," said a very shocked Raven.
"Well? Do you like it? Am I "goth" enough?"
Raven got up and walked over. "Why are you doing this?"
"To make you happy! Beast Boy told us of your crying sessions with your stuffed animals."
"I'm going to kill him," said Raven as she clenched her fist.
"You have stuffed animals?" asked Andrew.
Raven glared at him again. Then she turned back to Starfire. "I have a confession to make. Those stuffed animals were for you. I kept meaning to give them to you, but I just couldn't. I'd always find something wrong with it and end buying another one and doing the same thing. And when I talked to them, it was a little like…like I was confessing my feelings to you. I was lonely." Raven stared at the floor when she finished.
"I have a confession to make as well." Raven looked up when Starfire said this. "I have been feeling lonely as well. This whole experiment was to see if I could find somewhere to fit in you Earthling cliques." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I…I mean…it's just that you are the dark one, Beast Boy is the humorous one, Cyborg is the technological one, and Robin is the one who leads. But I am just the alien. The "outsider." I want to be a "one" as well!" She wiped tears from her eyes, smearing her makeup.
"You are a "one," Starfire," said Raven. Blushing, she added, "The beautiful one." Raven's glass shattered with her embarrassment.
"Raven…" Starfire grabbed Raven's hands with hers.
Raven opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out at first. Finally, she said, "You're touching me."
"I know."
"I…I…I think I…I love you."
"I know," said Starfire in a whisper.
They embraced each otherand kissed passionately.
It took a minute for them to remember that they weren't alone. Andrew shouted, "Go Raven!" and they pulled away from each other, suddenly realizing that everyone in the café was staring at them in amazement.
"Um…" said Raven. Then she smiled and laughed. "Let's go home," she said.
Robin was reading the newspaper when Starfire and Raven came in a few hours later. He looked up, and his eyes widened.
Starfire's black lipstick was smeared, and Raven had black lipstick marks all around her mouth.
"What are you looking at?" Raven snapped.
"Nothing, nothing!" Robin quickly buried his nose back in the paper.
When they left the room holding hands, Robin put down the newspaper.
Were they just…did they…what the heck justhappened there?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
