AN: Happy Late New Year. May your new year be filled with joy and pleasant surprises. Thank you for all who've read and followed my stories. Please, please, keep it up. Well that and review. I love hearing your opinions.
gurl3677: Isn't he just so adorable. And sweet… And endearing… charming…
Flickering lights flashed red and blue over Reese's pale torso, as her hips swayed back and forth. Her long arms stretched high over her head, hooking around the steel pole. Smiling down her undulating body at the crowd, she bit back a sigh. It had become a more difficult chore to smile on stage these days. Her cheeks were sore from the constant struggle of pushing against the tension in her face that demanded she expose the misery in her heart. Working there had never been easy to begin with, but it had taken more of her restraint to not panic on stage. Spending so much time with Harry had brought many of her memories bubbling to the surface. Unfortunately much of her life had been tragedy after tragedy, punctuated with small mercies. She couldn't be numb to some memories and not others. Reese's movements stopped abruptly as her music ended. As she scooped up the money scattered about the stage, she spied a familiar shape hovering in the window. The muscles in her face loosened, letting her smile come more gently.
Reese trotted through the curtains to where her stuff sat thrown about on her chair. She quickly tore off her clothes and stuffed them into her duffel bag.
"Lover boy hanging round outside?"
Reese ignored the snippy voice, and focused on making herself presentable. She wiped off the mask of make-up from her face, so that she could reapply it in a less overwhelming manner. In the corner of her bag was a sweet little cream colored dress with pale blue blossoms embroidered in a slanting trail from her bust to her hip. Reese had bought the dress on a whim, hoping a happier disposition might accompany it. Slipping it on, she stared at herself with a critical eye in the mirror. She didn't quite look like herself, which she supposed was the point.
"No matter what you try you can't wash 'whore' off," Dani snorted behind her. Reese stiffened at the remark. It was kind of hard to deny what she knew what to be true in her heart. A flicker of pain passed over her face, as she stared at the reflection of damaged goods looking back at her in false pride. She threw on her coat and zipped up her bag.
"Of course, a creep who hangs out around a strip joint would be happy to have trash like you," the she witch snickered at her as she made her way to the stage. Reese's pained expression burned away under the newly lit flame of her anger. She turned, fixing her death glare on Dani, whose lithe hand moved to part the curtain. Reese's own hand shot out to grasp the wretch's limb and dragged her down the short length of steps.
"I may be a whore by circumstance," she hissed. "But you are a cunt by nature." She twisted Dani's arm in an unconventional direction, until the girl squealed. Reese brought her face as close to her as possible, "If you speak of him in that way again, I'll break your arm off. Working gal like you doesn't need an arm to be on her knees."
Reese let go of her arm, pushing her back roughly as she did so. Still staring daggers at her, she grabbed her bag and made her way to the door. The door opened with a crash, letting in the cold air. It brushed her skin with a nursing caress. Breathing in the open air, she bathed in the brisk air, letting it wash away her anger. She sped down the alley, eager to leave as quickly as possible. Her coat billowed about her, leaving her exposed to the elements in her weather inappropriate dress with its superhero cape impersonation. Reese looked down and began buttoning up her coat as she walked. A loud crack sounded in her ears, and before she could determine the source of the noise, Reese found herself falling backwards with a sudden pain in her skull.
"Ow," a voice said, as arms wrapped around her middle to prevent her butt from making its acquaintance with the cement. Blinking Reese looked up to see Harry wincing.
"I guess I'm still a clutz," she laughed, wrapping her arms around him as well. She could feel his chuckle rumble through his chest as he held her awkwardly against him. Harry still wasn't entirely comfortable with her touch. He would often stiffen in her grasp, but at least he didn't pull away from her anymore.
"It's fine," he smiled lightly at her. His arms dropped rather abruptly from around her, and he moved aside to give her space to join him on the sidewalk. Slipping her hand into his, she tugged him along the sidewalk to go enjoy their evening together.
"What did you want to go do?" he asked softly, walking with her down the street.
They never really planned any event. It wasn't so much as they were spontaneous, but rather they were far too indecisive. Spending time together doing absolutely nothing was more than enough. Doing something different in a small place was hard enough as is. Instead, they took comfort in each other's company. Once they had taken their combined company to the library. Sitting in the library side by side on the same couch, enjoying a silence that did not threaten in its quiet depths, she found comfort in simply being able to be near him. In the past silence was not a sought out acquaintance for Reese. Quiet had always been the ominous opening act to a headliner she would be an unwilling party to. The retreating waters before the tidal wave that would consume her. However, she discovered that when the silence found her with Harry, it tossed off its gnarled shadows and embraced her with the unspoken understanding of a mother's love.
"Hmm," she paused. "Movies?" He nodded his head slowly, assessing the suggestion in his mind.
"Sure," Harry agreed, a smile winking at the corner of his mouth. "We'll go see what's playing."
0000-000000000000-000000000000-00000000000000-00000000000000-000000000-00000000
"Rey, I don't have any money." Harry whispered, as she pulled him along down the sidewalk. Her long fingers, shed of their former youthful baby fat, entwined firmly about his. She turned back to smirk at him. His windblown hair had settled into shaggy locks about his ears. The wide eyed expression he wore exposed her to the full impact of his striking blue eyes.
"Neither do I," she laughed, keeping him in tow while they made their way to the theater.
"Then what are…"
"Don't worry about it," she shushed him. The movie theater in their neighborhood had only recently been renovated from a uniplex to multiplex. Though the building lost its antique feel, it allotted for a larger variety of movies to be shown at the same time, as well as appeal to a greater customer base. Incidentally, it also made it easier to sneak into, due to the larger and more diverse crowds. She had been to the movies only once since her dad had died, and when she found out that Harry had never been at all, naturally a field trip had been in order.
Reese tugged him to the back of the building, revealing an employee access. A strip of tarnished gray duct tape lay firmly over the latch of a simple door knob with no deadbolt to accompany it. Sinking her teeth into her lower lip with gleeful mischief in her eyes, Reese wiggled her eyebrows at her somewhat reluctant partner in crime.
"C'mon, Rey," Harry said, tugging his arm back. "Let's just go to the park."
"Harry," Reese countered firmly, pulling him close to the door. "I wanna see Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Are you gonna make me do this alone?" A twinge of guilt tweaked her insides at her obvious manipulation, but she squelched it with the insistence that he needed to get out and experience life off of the leash. And she had no problem being the tramp to his lady.
The sigh that burst forth from his lips whistled his surrender between his teeth. Bearing a full scamp of a grin, she pulled open the door, and dragged him in behind her. Sneaking passed an usher, she made a quick dash through the hall to the doors to each of the screening rooms, Harry trotting unhappily in her wake. Signs hung above each of the three rooms, each with its own ticker tape labels spelling out in their red flickering lights the titles of the movies playing.
Peering down the line, she spied the door to her cartoon spliced glory. Smiling happily, Reese led Harry to the set of double doors behind them, plunging the pair into an inky darkness, offended only by the Technicolor cartoon characters on the screen. Throughout the rows were scattered numerous heads attached reasonably to the great array of local patrons, bent on getting a break from life's general sorrows. The random placement of each individual, couple, or group proved a problem for their desire to sit together in peace near the middle or even the front. Fortunately the back row carried only three other viewers with whom they would have to share the space.
They tiptoed quietly down the row, finding a pair of seats within decent range of the middle. Reese sat down happily, her heart beating a little harder with the excitement of their less than honest escapade.
"Is this a cartoon?" Harry asked, rather loudly, as he remained standing in the row.
"Shh!" several disgruntled hisses followed the innocent query.
"Sorry," she whispered, dragging him into the seat to her left. He landed with a less than graceful thump in the chair. Rolling her eyes at him, she tucked his arm around hers and leaned back to enjoy the movie. On the enormous screen a generously designed animated woman in a sparkling red dress had just, quite literally, kissed the pants of a man. Hardly a mood setter, but as she sat in the dimly lit room, Reese became increasingly aware of the very warm, very male presence at her side.
They had been friends for several years, and in the time of constantly finding time to spend together (even going as far as creating a nickname that made it sound as though Harry spent said time with a guy friend than a girl) she hadn't fully realized how much he had grown. Suddenly, the little boy she had nailed on the hip with her leg wasn't so little anymore. An awkward feeling settled in the pit f her stomach
Shifting quietly in her seat, she felt her arm twitch. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Harry stare with a crinkled brow at the screen. He didn't seem to take notice of the rapid beat of the pulse in her wrist against his arm, or the thin layer of sweat that had mysteriously y appeared on her palm. Nibbling on her bottom lip, Reese turned her eyes back to the movie. She would pay attention to the film. She would not watch Harry like a peeping tom. She wouldn't see how his sandy hair stroked the nape of his neck. Or how the lean muscles of his neck tightened as he moved his broad shoulders. She certainly would not wonder if his lips were as soft as they looked.
The nervous rhythm of her heart knocked away in her chest as though the pattern would call his to join it, inflicted a cruel influence on her breathing. A slow ripple of sensation crept along her skin prickling up a fresh pink flush. She continued to fidget in her seat.
"You ok?" the whispered question sent soft puffs of warm air down the length of her neck. Turning her head to face the music, she lifted her eyes to meet Harry's. The second her gaze met his, she knew she was doomed. A tingle skipped down her spine as the tip of his nose brushed along the side of hers. Harry's eyes widened at the intimate contact. He began pulling back to break the spell that engulfed them both. Driven by the desperate cry in her heart, Reese quickly planted her lips fully against the tender assault, she felt his mouth soften in response.
00000000000-000000000-0000000000000000000-000000000000000-000000000000-0000000
"So the boyfriend's mom was the killer?" Harry asked as they turned the corner onto her street.
"Ex-boyfriend's mom," Reese laughed. "But whatever." Harry shook his head at the correction, smiling his shy half smile. Crossing a small patch of dead grass, they walked from the sidewalk to the brick path that led to her apartment building. It wasn't an enclosed complex, but rather multiple buildings with 8 apartments to a building. Her apartment was on the second floor, which was only accessible by an ominous flight of steep rickety looking metal stairs. As they reached the end of her own little version of the mines of moria, she realized that Harry had stopped abruptly several paces away. One hand on the cold railing, she turned to face him, a question poised gingerly on her lips.
"You know, Harry," she mumbled, her nail picking at the flakes of white paint peeling from the steel bar. "It's still really early. Do you wanna come up?"
He blinked, his expression paying reverence to the deer-in-the-headlight impersonation.
"Just to hang out," she stuttered. "Well I mean you know, if you want to, but you don't have to. I wouldn't force you. I could make coffee or something. I'm rambling."
Her cheeks betrayed her less than subtle timidity, speckling her cheeks with a vibrant red.
"I'm just gonna go inside," she laughed miserably. "Before I make this anymore awkward than it already is." Waving a shaking hand at him, she scrambled up the stairs and quickly put the door between herself and the source of her humiliation.
"Coffee?" she snapped at herself, planting her face into the small hiding space her hands provided. A small knock shocked her from her self-formed sanctuary.
"Rey?" Harry called softly through the door. "I could hang out for a bit."