Chapter 8

/GPOV/

„Goodnight," she whispers and hangs up. I look at my phone's screen. Six hours and a half. Wow. That's about the longest phone call I've ever had, yet I can't even bring myself to think about how much the bill would be as I'm too busy giggling and smiling like an idiot.

she

likes

me

and she kissed me and she tastes like heaven and she called me sweetheart and babe on the phone and as much as this is disgustingly gay I called her babe and princess back and I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS HAPPY

Even in my bravest dreams, I couldn't see this happening. I mean, her liking me? Why would that be? But there it is, and my lips feel swollen and my clothes still smell of her. I think I'm sleeping in this T-shirt. Six hours and a half, and there wasn't a moment I felt bored. This woman, oh.

Of course, the moment I got home I had to call her. I thought I had had a daydream; hell, having been abducted by aliens and having had my memories replaced seemed like a more logical explanation than her liking me back. So, I called her, not even sure what I was supposed to ask her. It couldn't be right to go with, „Hey, um, did we by any chance spend half an hour making out?" because... what if we hadn't, what if I was just making the whole thing up? And then she picked up the phone with a „Hey there, sweetheart," - and my heart melted. We talked about everything. She made me listen to that song, „You drive me wild", three times, and she purred the lyrics every time. I made her listen to „Sur l'autre rive je t'attendrai" by Alcest, explaining the lyrics to her, and she loved it, I think(I am a hardcore black metal fan, yes, but I have a soft spot for shoegaze, sue me). She told me she didn't expect this, us, would happen. She had been so into Aragorn, all this time, that she couldn't realize he was, well, just your typical lad, while I was, as she said, „exactly the weird piece of shit she had been looking for".

How can you not fall for someone like her?

I throw a glance at the clock. 04:15 AM. Wonderful. I catch myself yawning – and do trust me, I could use some sleep – but I get up from the bed I've been lying on throughout the phone call and go to the computer. I spend the next four hours listening to songs by The Runaways, then whichever similar band YouTube recommended me. Some songs I like. "He's my thing" by Babes in Toyland gets immediately stuck in my head, and I keep singing it in the shower. The water still goes slightly blue every time I wash my hair, although no one could ever say I tried to dye it. Dark blue on black. I guess I didn't try that hard at all. I get out of the shower and put my red set of piercings in. I feel sort of scarlet today. I've been feeling sort of scarlet since she kissed me, need I be fair. SHE! KISSED! ME! Wow wow wow. I still can't get over that. I'm such a girl, I swear.

I'm supposedly meeting her at half past ten, before her French Lit lecture, so I won't smoke now, I don't want to smell like shit. And I guess I should look neat. Not that I can, but... I find my most decent T-shirt, a black one with the DarkThrone logo on it and nothing else, and I put on the ripped skinny jeans that I never really wear cause they look too plain. I go with the red Converse and I decide I need my hair in a messy ponytail(I never really go out without my hair covering at least half of my face as I feel kind of naked otherwise, but it is less annoying this way, so). I listen to "He's my thing" again and again on the bus. I love listening to music and gazing out the windows, the whole city washed out, like in those weird old movies that never really became famous, but were so fascinating that you loved them nonetheless. Saruman used to say that whatever we saw in a forest while in a vehicle showed what we truly were. I always see snakes. I guess it makes sense, having in mind my tongue split and how everyone thinks I lie and lie and lie.

Eowyn is waiting for me at the bus stop, and she's so beautiful it makes me want to cry. She also has her hair in a ponytail, she's wearing a checkered red shirt with a T-shirt that says "WAVVES" underneath it, black jeans and flip-flops, and she's crossed her hands on her chest, staring at the wrong direction with the most annoyed expression I've ever seen. I tiptoe until I get behind her, then I grab her by the waist and (try to)lift her up. Now there are few things I need more than exercising. She screams a little and slaps my cheek, then hurries to kiss it as I place her on the ground, grinning ear-to-ear. "So, um, hi," I manage to say while Eowyn is still giggling. She gives me an amused look. "Hi," she replies and takes my hand. "How did you spend the last six hours and a half?" I ask, and she yawns. "In bed, mostly. I guess I fell on the floor at a moment as I woke up there, but yeah, you got the idea. And yourself?" "I, um, listened to some of your bands," I try not to blush. I hope I'm not blushing, at least. Ugh. "Really?" she lifts an eyebrow, and I smile in embarrassment. "Yeah. Babes in Toyland are kinda great." "Babes in Toyland rule," she gives me an offended look, then leans up to gently kiss my neck. "I don't know, but I really really really like their song "He's my thing", it's super cute," I bite my smile. Eowyn stops walking and literally jumps up to kiss me. I try damn hard to concentrate on not collapsing. "Now aren't you my thing?" she whispers, and I can't help kissing her back. Wow. I'll never be able to get enough of this. Of her.

"So, why are you all red today?" she asks with a smirk when we finally continue our walk, my arm on her shoulders. "I guess I've been feeling sorta scarlet since yesterday," I admit, positively blushing this time. "How so?" "Well, there's this thing about you that just makes me feel raw, you know? Fresh. As if all of the boredom and lack of enthusiasm I've been feeling for ages are simply... a bad dream, gone, far away, and instead of it - passion. It's just, I look at you, and you have that sparkle in your eyes, you know, and your smile holds all of the happiness in the world, and – Jesus, I'm just so glad I got to kiss such a lavishly great person, is all." I look down at my feet. Woah, easy there, Romeo, I tell myself, but then she wraps her arms around my waist and looks up at me and cheerfully says, „Why, aren't you an angel in disguise, huh?"

I laugh it off. Angel, yeah, as if.

I walk her to the building and go to the library myself, smiling for all I'm worth the whole time. I swear to anything holy this is the best I've felt in quite a while... up until I bump into some tall and massive guy with a black hoodie. „Would you mind?" I try to pass by him, but he grabs me by the elbow and drags me to a corner, where he pushes me against the wall and hisses, „I saw you touching my doveling just before, you worthless scum," just before laying such a hit on my nose that I lose consciousness.

Yeah, about that...