Title: "Our umbrella"
Summary: One rainy day, two girls walking in the rain with just one umbrella. It's the perfect recipe for some corny fluff and bad jokes.
Author's 1st note: I'm not even sure how this idea popped into my head, but I wrote it down almost immediately. The only reason it took so long to post this was because I struggled to find an umbrella for the cover photo.
For once, Holli was thankful for her mother's over-attentiveness. Weather report clear skies, but here she was; on her way home from a long boring day of high school and the only way it could have been worse was if it started to rain. And the universe, the lukewarm bitch, decided to piss on Holli the moment the roof of the school no longer covered her blonde hair.
Thank Helene Curtis for inventing hairspray.
Needless to say, the fact that Holli's mother that morning had insisted on Holli bringing an umbrella to school turned out to be her saving grace. Just as Holli started rummaging through her bag, the familiar sound of shoes approached behind her. She didn't think much of it at first, though it was weird that someone else was leaving school so late. Holli had a valid excuse, she fell asleep studying for an upcoming test, but she hadn't noticed anyone else in the library with her.
"Oh, uh…" a small, timid voice said behind Holli. She looked over her shoulder and immediately recognized the human embodiment of being way too cute for your own good; Angelina Benson aka Holli's personal hothouse flower. She did an awkward wave. "Hi, Holli."
Well, well, well, looks like the end of a boring day could be a little fun.
"Hey, Daywalker." Holli said, effectively killing the smile on her classmate's face. Holli gestured at the rain. "You must be loving this development."
"Actually no, I love the sun… but just so you know, Daywalker is for gingers who don't get sunburnt. And they usually have freckles and brown eyes."
"How come you know so much about a nickname for gingers?"
"So I can tell people like you that you're using it wrong." Lina argued and looked at the rain, crinkling her nose. "It's not going to be a fun walk home."
"Maybe not for you." Holli said in a sing-song voice and opened her umbrella over her head. "But I have an overbearing mother who threw this at me this morning. I hope I've somehow inherited her sixth sense for these things and it's just still in development."
"Lucky you. I'm wearing ballerina flats, they're going to be ruined by the time I'm home."
"Don't be silly. No, they won't." Holli interjected then looped her arm around Lina's. "I'll cover you with my umbrella."
"Uh, n—no, I'll be fine!" Lina tried to protest, but Holli had already dragged her out in the rain. Lina almost immediately huddled closer to her much taller classmate, effectively confusing said classmate.
"You ok there, Hothouse Flower?"
Lina looked up at Holli, grimacing at the nickname, before creating a tiny bit of distance between them. "I don't like being cold. And if I get wet, I'll get cold."
Holli considered asking why the redhead was showing cat-like traits, but knew when to take a chance when she got it; so instead she wrapped her arm over Lina's shoulders, pulling her in closer. "Well, the easiest way to feel warm is through body-heat."
"I—I didn't say I was cold now!" Lina protested, but made no attempt at pushing Holli away from her. In fact, the blonde was almost certain she could feel a hand hovering behind her back, hesitating for whatever silly, but probably cute reason. "Don't you live close to school anyway?"
"Oh, that's ok. I'll walk you home."
"… You're taking the chance to find out where I live, aren't you?"
Holli faked a gasp. "These allegations, Miss Benson!" she joked, snorting right after. "If I wanted to find out where you lived, I could just Google it."
Lina blinked. "You can't find out where people live that easily."
Holli arched an eyebrow and handed the umbrella handle to Lina who took it from her, unsurprised and unbothered, as if this was second nature to them. "It's actually disgustingly easy." The blonde corrected, pulling out her phone from her short leather coat, showing Lina as she tapped on the screen with quick and easy skill. "I know your full name because we're classmates, so I'm just going to Google your name… there you are, and – oh! There's your phone number, so I'll Google that and… yup, there's your address. It even shows that your mom and siblings live there too."
Lina's jaw was effectively dropped. Even though Holli had explained every step, she was in awe. How was attaining such personal information so easily? And if Holli could figure out where Lina lived just with a few clicks, why had she never showed up unannounced at her house? She doubted her classmate would be above something like that; if she was willing to constantly try to trick Lina into spending time with her – right now being a good example – why would accidentally bumping into her near her place be off the table?
"Don't worry, I'll show you how to hide yourself online."
Lina shook her head, forcing herself out of the web of thoughts she had managed to be spinning for long enough for Holli to think she was truly worried. "Thanks…" she muttered, allowing Holli to take the umbrella back once she put her phone away. When Holli took the umbrella though, the redhead noticed something. "Aren't you getting wet? I don't think the umbrella is big enough for the both of us."
Holli laughed. "You're too small to take up any real space, I'm not getting wet." She answered, unbothered.
Lina frowned, leaning backwards just enough to see that Holli's shoulder was, indeed, getting wet from the rain. Lina then looked at her own shoulder, dry as a bone, perfectly shielded by the umbrella, she noticed was tilted in her direction and covered her entirely. With the subtlety of a porcupine in a balloon shop, she used her free hand to tilt the umbrella more towards Holli. This, of course, didn't go unnoticed.
"Aw, you care about me!" Holli teased, squeezing Lina's shoulder.
"Shut up or I'm stealing your umbrella."
"Ha! You couldn't outrun me if your life depended on it, Double-Oh-Tiny. Am I not, like, 2 feet taller than you?"
"… How tall are you?"
"6'2". You?"
Lina's face scrunched up like she had just tasted something sour. "4'9"."
Holli choked on her own breath, laughing so hard that she doubled over. It was only the unhappy sound from Lina when the rain hit her that pulled her out of her stupor and she hurried to cover the poor little princess. She kept laughing though, even while Lina hit her shoulder unhappily. It wasn't like it even hurt.
"Hey, at least it wasn't 2 feet!" Holli tried, still laughing.
"Yeah, well, I can still do this!" Lina said before putting her hands behind Holli's neck, pulling her down and planting a kiss on her. For once in her life, Holli was speechless. She kept staring at the pink eyelids right in front of her, imagining what it all must look like from an outside perspective. Tall, blonde girl, pulled into the position of a hunchback while a ginger munchkin was tiptoeing to reach her lips. Oh, she would love to see it. Maybe someone would walk by, take a picture and Holli could somehow convince them to send it to her? That way she had proof that Little Miss Perfect actually kissed her cause knowing Lina, there was no way she would ever admit it to anyone.
Happy to have made her point, Lina let go of Holli's neck, grabbed the umbrella and ran off, leaving Holli standing on the sidewalk. She watched Lina run for a bit, the raindrops creating a rhythm in beat with her heart. It took her a while before she realized that her little hothouse flower actually had the guts to steal and run off with her umbrella. Perhaps it was to balance the kiss. Either way, it left Holli to walk home in the rain. She looked around, trying to remember where she even was, when she realized she was already home; the stoop to her apartment complex was right next to her.
Holli's eyebrows scrunched in thought and she looked towards Lina once again, even though the girl was far gone at this point. She had many questions, but the one at the front of her mind was…
How did Lina know Holli lived here?
