Good LORD! I am so, so, so, so, sorry that I haven't updated in a coons. Like the last update I posted said I had a lot of family issues going on, which made it almost impossible for me to have any time. Then my job that I had for a while ended up having a manager change, and things got messy with that. Then I met my girlfriend, and for the last 6 months she has taken up A LOT, I mean A LOT of my time. But I've started a new job, twice actually, and I really just want to get back onto the writing wagon. This isn't 100% the best I have ever done, I'm sure it could be 1000 times better.
But, this is what I have for you.
As always, I don't own characters, and what not.
All the story lines are mine, annnnnddd they're not the best.
Enjoy!
"Want a glass of water?" Holly asks after locking the door behind me.
"I'd prefer more scotch if you've got it," I walk through her hallway and into the living room making home on the couch.
"I think it would be a better decision to have water, and maybe some food," I hear Holly open and close some cupboards in the kitchen before seeing her standing in front of me with a large glass of water.
"You're so nice," I take the water from her hand and take a giant swig from it, placing it on a coaster on the table in front of me.
"It's just water, Gail. Did you want something to eat?"
"No, just come hang out with me. Let's talk some," Holly sits on the couch next to me, kicking her feet up on the coffee table.
We sit there in silence for about ten minutes, neither of us really knowing what to talk about. Every couple of minutes I take another drink of my water, and glance sideways at her every time I place it back on the coaster. Holly turns towards me and pulls her feet underneath her. Without thought I look over at her and then rest my head against the couch, "Why do you like me?"
"Come again," Holly says quirking her head to the side.
"I'm a failure. A total fuck up. I'm the least favorite child. I disgraced the family name because I'm gay. I don't dress up enough or go out on dates. I'm cold and rude and a downright horrible person."
"I don't think you're any of those things," I scoff and knit my eyebrows together. "Okay, maybe you are cold and can be rude, but everyone has those downfalls. You're not a failure. Not by a long shot."
"Superintendent Mother seems to think so. All dinner was, was her ragging on what I was wearing. Asking why I didn't invite you, telling me I wasn't doing my job well enough, and trying to set me up on blind dates with Pointless Facts McGee's brother. Then I turned invisible, which is highly common for my mother when Steve is around. Then she and Steve talked about how he was such a good cop and that his relationship with Traci was so strong and that he could never do any wrong. Hence how I accidently got drunk." I ramble on beginning to pick invisible lint off the knee of my jeans.
"Well, I like what you're wearing. I mean, I wouldn't wear it, but it's definitely you," Holly pokes my leg trying to get my attention. "I think you're doing a fine job with work. I mean you wouldn't be a TO if you sucked at your job right?" I let out a hum in response. "Judging by what you just told me, I'm kind of glad I wasn't at that dinner, because I probably wouldn't have let her talk to you like that, because you don't deserve it. And you never know, Quinn's brother, might, just might, be the prince charming to your icy queen," Holly laughs and rubs her hand over my knee.
"You can't let her get under your skin, and getting drunk at family dinner is just fueling her flame of, for lack of a better word, blatant immaturity that she thinks you have. You are a wonderful, beautiful, terrifying girl. You're smart and funny. God you're funny as hell and you're beautiful."
"You already said that," I place my hand over hers. "And while everything you've said is really nice, we've only known each other for like a month, how can you even possibly know?"
"I can't explain it, but there is something that's just there. I can tell."
"Well, you're pretty beautiful too, nerd. And nerdy. You're beautifully nerdy," I smile feeling my cheeks flush. "I'm sorry I'm drunk. But you are. You should be drunk."
"I think you're drunk enough for the both of us."
I let out a hum of approval and grab the glass of water off the table again finishing it off. "She means well," I say after a couple moments of silence. "I know she means well, but I can't stand up to her. She has done nothing but berate my entire life because I'm not Steve. I don't even know what is so special about him. I love him, I really do, and he is without a doubt my best friend. But, whenever he's around mom he is a completely different person. See, I told you, get me drunk enough and you'd find out about my life."
"You told me I'd find out about your childhood."
"Yeah, well, I'm definitely not drunk enough for that."
Holly turns her body towards me, sitting sideways on the couch. She studies the profile of my face for a couple seconds staying completely silent and still. Finally she speaks, "Your childhood couldn't have been that bad, Gail. You've still got your parents and your brother."
"Oh, it isn't that it was bad. No, I kind of had the most normal childhood in the world, until I was about 14. That's when Elaine became a white shirt, and everything just kind of," I throw my hands out in front of me making a sweeping motion with them, shrugging. "I didn't want to follow in the family footsteps until just recently, and even then it wasn't because I was just like 'LETS DO THIS!'. It was more of a 'this is instilled into my genetic code, I have no other option, and this is just what I know how to do.'"
A silence falls over the two of us as I let my hands fall back into my lap. Holly placed her hand on my thigh and began idly making circles, I inhaled trying to think of something to say, if anything at all. I rest my head back on the couch looking up towards the ceiling.
"Grilled cheese," I announce randomly after a few minutes.
"Pears," Holly replies without a second thought.
"What?"
"I thought we were naming foods that we liked?"
"No. I want a grilled cheese. Do you know how to make grilled cheese?"
"Gail. Who in their right mind doesn't know how to make a grilled cheese?"
"There are people out there Holly, I swear there are people out there. I don't know how they live their lives, but they do, and it's terrifying. We let those people walk the streets, those people who have NO idea how to make grilled cheese walk the streets, I'm not doing my job right. It's blasphemous."
"God Gail, you're so weird," Holly gets up off the couch and grabs the nearly empty glass off the table on her way back into the kitchen. After a couple minutes I stand up off the couch and mosey my way into the kitchen, hopping up onto the counter opposite of the stove watching Holly intently.
"Ew, get your butt off my counter!" Holly turns around and slaps my knee with the spatula in her hand.
"My butt is very clean, thank you very much." I catch her hips with my legs and pull her into me, I place both my hands on her cheeks and pull her into me, our lips meeting for a brief second. "Thank you."
"For?" Holly asks, her eyes fluttering open slowly.
"Picking my drunk ass up. Making me grilled cheese. For being you."
Holly just gives me a small smile and a nod, her cheeks tinting the slightest bit pink, she presses her lips into mine again quickly before turning back around flipping the grilled cheese. I let my eyes linger over her body for a moment before looking around her kitchen.
I've always thought kitchens looked like the people who owned them, which kind of means Holly would have scalpels, mason jars full of weird things, it would smell kind of formaldehyde-ish. She would probably have dismembered bodies in her freezer or something. Her kitchen looks normal. A coffee pot in the corner of the counter, a microwave above the stove, a stove, a refrigerator that looked far too large for someone who lives on their own. Super modern too, I don't know. It screams very normal, and now thinking about it as much as I am, very Holly.
I hear Holly clear her throat and I snap back into reality shaking my head. She presents the most perfect looking grilled cheese on a plate in front of me. My eyes get big and I instantly grab the sandwich, taking a bite without a second thought about the fact that it just came off the stove. I drop it back on the plate quickly and begin taking shallow breaths of air in trying to cool the food in my mouth.
"It's kinda hot," I mumble out waving my hand in front of my mouth.
Holly raises her eyebrows, "oh it is?!"
I narrow my eyes at her swallowing the food, "hey now, you can't put a grilled cheese looking like that in front of a drunk girl and not expect her to just go balls out for it!"
"Such a classy term, balls out."
"Hey, this is what you get," I run my hands from my shoulders down my body, "it isn't much, but at least I'm kinda fit."
"You're incredibly fit. Which is shocking, considering your eating habits."
"Hey now, you've only seen me eat twice now," I grab the grilled cheese stuffing another bite into my mouth, "wait, three." I mumble.
"Each time you've inhaled your food before I've even gotten a quarter of the way through mine."
I just shrug and finish off the rest of the sandwich. I pull Holly towards me using my feet again and place my hands on her forearms looking slightly down at her.
"If you would have asked me a week ago if I thought this was how I would be spending my Thursday night, I would have laughed and said 'you're out of your fucking mind'. However, I don't think I would trade it to be honest."
"You're drunk," Holly states placing her hands on my thighs.
"Only kind of now, but I'm being serious. You're the first person I've ever really just wanted to spend time with. Good God, I don't know why I'm being so honest right now, this is very unlike me, but this is what you're getting."
"Well, I like very much what I am getting," she slides her hands up my thighs and sets them on my hips pulling me closer to the edge of the counter. In one quick motion she has her hands under my butt, "I told you to get your butt off my counter!"
She carries me into the living room and drops her hands off my butt, but I stay clinging to her my thighs gripping her waist tightly. Holly pokes her fingers into my sides, beginning to tickle me. A laugh bubbles up from the bottom of my stomach and I begin wiggling while trying to hold myself on to her. After a couple minutes of her attacking my sides and me squirming I let go of her waist and fall backwards onto the couch still laughing.
"No one tickles Gail Peck without facing the consequences," I stand up off the couch and place my hands on my hips looking at her with serious eyes.
"Oh? And what consequences am I facing?" Without thinking I go right for her sides, beginning to tickle her. She stays stone cold still without a flinch of any sort.
"Why aren't you trying to run away or fight me!?"
"I'm not ticklish," she states with a shrug.
"What? How are you not ticklish?! That isn't a real thing, everyone has a part of their body that is ticklish."
"Everyone but Holly Stewart, clearly," Holly adjusts her glasses and slides them to the top of her head.
I cross my arms in front of my chest and let out a loud sigh while plopping down onto the couch, "well, that's no fun then."
"Wanna watch a movie or something? I have mostly really boring documentaries, but there's a couple normal movies, and I'm sure we could find something to rent on demand or something."
"Yeah sure," I lean back against the arm of the couch and stretch my feet across the expanse of the couch watching Holly mill about her living room grabbing a blanket and turning the lights out. She looks down at me, her features illuminated by the glow of the TV, "what?"
"Sit up," she states before placing the blanket over my legs, I sit up reluctantly and Holly slips between me and the arm of the couch.
I slide down a little bit turning on my side before placing my head in Holly's lap. We decide on some old black and white film that I've never seen and had no real want to see, but Holly kept ranting about how much she loves all those black and white films. The couple minutes I managed to stay awake though, I enjoyed. Not that I would ever even let anyone know that I did, but it wasn't too bad really.
I nuzzled my head further into her lap and let the alcohol and comfort take over me. After a couple minutes, I feel Holly's fingers begin to play through my hair. I sigh contentedly and close my eyes, falling asleep like this is definitely something I could get used too.
Sorry if there were any mistakes, I just wanted to get this up for you lot!
As always, feedback is awesome.
Thanks guys!
-K.