By Sunnybunny
Heather roused herself out of bed and padded across the small room to the minifridge nestled in the corner between the dresser and wall. Inside were a bunch of chilled bottles of off-brand water. She retrieved two and tossed the second onto the bed, beside the little girl nestled in the mess of sheets and comforter and pillows. Angie smiled in thanks and picked it up, fingers a little shaky as she unscrewed the cap and she drained half of its contents in three loud gulps. Heather mirrored her, noting that her own hands were having some difficulty complying, but for once it wasn’t nerves.
It was fatigue.
They were both exhausted to the point of collapse but neither would concede to the beckoning of sleep. There was too much left unsaid between them, so many words unspoken that teetered on the tips of their tongues.
Heather half-sat on the edge of the dresser, clothed in nothing but the rooms dingy light and the static glow of the muted television. She was normally self-conscious about nudity and always insisted the light remain turned off while she and Richie made love. She did not even like taking a shower with the man, always conscious of his leering gaze crawling up her nakedness. She shivered at the memory, her back breaking out in goosepimples as if she could feel his eyes on her now. She shook the thought away, taking another long drink from the bottle. Her tongue felt swollen inside of her mouth and the icy water was soothing. A stark contrast to the warm wetness of the treasure between Angie’s legs. She thumbed at the sticky film of girl cum around her mouth, wondering how long she had kissed those most forbidden lips. The way her jaw ached and how sore her tongue was from straining to burrow deeper into that sweet cleft, it must have been hours.
Angie looked drained and satisfied, shining all over as if their lovemaking had kindled some internal flame. Neither knew any shame about their nudity or for anything they had done. The silence between them was an easy one. An extension of the afterglow they enjoyed.
For a time, they had lain in a twisted and tangled mess of arms and legs. It was too hot in the tiny motel room for cuddling but they held one another close regardless of the heat, neither wanting to be apart after sharing something so intimate. It felt a great burden had been removed from their shoulders, or put more aptly, neither felt they had to shoulder their loads separately. There was a kindship, an unbreakable bond that defied taboo and yes, even time. They were one, Heather and Angie, the same thing…two halves of the same whole….
Angie reached across the bed and retrieved her shorts from the mess of clothes to fish around in the pockets. She finally produced a pack of cigarettes and a butane lighter. With a satisfied sigh, she settled back into the cushion of bedding and crossed her legs at the ankles. She lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply, dragging a thick gray line down the shaft of the stick.
“That good, huh?” Heather teased.
Angie nodded languidly. “Uh huh.”
Heather crawled back into bed next to her and plucked the cigarette free from the girl’s lips and took a long drag herself. “After tonight, you’re going to stop smoking these.” She blew grey and blue ghosts along Angie’s naked body, making the child grin. It only added to the heavy air in the room, so full of sex and sweat and heat.
“I guess I need to make the most of it then,” Angie replied and took the smoke back, placing it between her lips. They passed it back and forth between them until it was smoked down to the filter and Angie lit up another one from her pack.
“I never knew it could be like that.” Angie sat up and folded her legs Indian style. “I knew that sex could feel good but I never thought it would be…” She paused, at a loss for words which amused Heather to no end.
“Angie doesn’t have anything to say? There’s a first!”
Angie reached across and pushed Heather playfully. “Shut up!”
Heather caught her arm and dragged her across the mattress and into her arms. She was greeted with a soft kiss that lingered on and on. She did not draw away again and instead settled into Heather’s lap, leaning easily into the fold of her arms, and they could only marvel at how well they seemed to fit together.
“I meant that, fucking is so much better when you actually give a shit about them.”
“Crude, but I know exactly what you mean.” She hadn’t before tonight.
Angie passed the cigarette up, the smoke billowing out of her nostrils like twin engines. “I had a really good time tonight, Heather. The best I think I’ve ever had.”
Heather had to agree, plucking the cigarette from between Angie’s fingers and lifted it to her lips. “Mine too.”
Angie craned her neck around to look back at Heather. “You really mean it? You aren’t just saying that?” She sounded like a young girl again, not ready to get her hopes up about the promised trip to Disneyland. “It’s okay if it wasn’t. You don’t have to say it just because.” She pronounced ‘because’ like ‘cuz’.
Heather combed the hair away from Angie’s right ear and rocked forward to give it a little peck. Angie shivered, breaking into a smile then a fit of giggles. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”
“You were my first, you know…”
Heather blinked, confused. “First?”
“Uh huh…well,” she rolled her eyes and hastily explained. “Like, not my FIRST-first but…the first woman that I’ve ever been with. Before, it was all boys.”
“Did you like it?” Heather asked, still smoothing her fingers through Angie’s sweat-damp hair. “When you did things with… boys?”
Angie shrugged and made a little seesaw motion with her hand. “It was okay sometimes, I guess.”
“You don’t sound very sure.”
Angie spied her with a wry smile. “Not jealous, are you?”
Heather had to laugh, giving the girl an affectionate squeeze. “You all but said that this was the best sex of your life. I think I win.”
Angie joined in, leaning back into Heather’s embrace. “Yeah, boys suck!” She declared, then did it again much louder. “Boys suck!” The third time Heather joined in and after a time, it became a mantra that crafted a spell that could only be broken up by more laughter.
Heather looked down the length of Angie’s body, so perfectly laid out before her like a buffet full of her favorite treats. Should I sample an earlobe? Maybe a little taste of nipple before a kiss to the navel. Or should I go even lower and treat myself to a hearty meal?
At last, Heather could reconcile the images in her head. Like slipping into a warm bath and drifting off, she could picture her and Angie together. Somewhere, in another life, in another time, she saw them lazing about in bed together. They wore their coziest pajamas and were sharing a plastic bowl of popcorn between them, snuggled in close with their shoulders and heads touching. On the television, Netflix would be streaming reruns of Gilmore Girls, and Angie would be making crude jokes about incestuous relationships and who had the bigger cock between Rory and Lorelei until Heather couldn’t help but join in on the gag.
Angie wiggled and Heather realized she had been hugging her very close, very quietly all of a sudden, as if the images would fly away if she held them too loosely. In the end, that was all that they were, ever could be: fantasy.
“Angie, I promised I would tell you what’s going on,” Heather began. “But first I need to ask you a very important question. Do you know somewhere in town I could get a gun?”
If she was surprised to be asked such a question, Angie did not show it. “Well, yeah. I know where you could get a gun. What do you need one for?”
“Protection.”
The girl’s ears perked, like a curious puppy’s, and she squirmed about in Heather’s arms until they were facing each other again. “What do you mean?” There was anxiety in her question, Heather noted.
“I mean, I’m running from some very bad people, Angie. I’m not going to get into a lot of details with you, trust me!” she held up a hand to stop the follow-up protest. They knew one another so well now… “The less you know about all of this, the better. I need a gun because the people that are after me might have picked up my trail and if they find me, I want to be ready for them.”
Angie folded her lower lip into her teeth, a determined expression on her face. “I know where you can get a gun. My dad has one at the house. He’s always telling me not to mess with it even though he keeps leaving it lying around in the living room.”
“Won’t he notice that it’s missing?”
Angie rolled her eyes again, more fitting of the sixteen-year-old she would become rather than the preteen she was today. “He loses it all the time, finds it again under a pile of dirty laundry and then goes into a big speech about gun safety.” She sniffed at that. “Like he don’t get all drunk and take the stupid thing outside to shoot at coyotes and jack rabbits.”
“I promise I’ll only need it for a few days,” Heather vowed.
“I’d rather you took it. Those poor rabbits and coyotes…”
Heather smiled sympathetically and touched her arm. “Thank you, Angie.” It was now or never… “You know that this means I’ll be leaving soon, right?”
To her credit, Angie did not pout when she hung her head. “Yeah…” she sounded a touch unhappy about it but not miserable. She was a good kid and Heather would wager she would be rather grown up for her age even without everything that had happened to her.
Another life…
“When’re you leaving?”
Heather shrugged her shoulders. “Soon. As soon as I can but I don’t want to take the chance of them catching up to me before I have a chance to run. If that happens, I need to be able to defend myself.”
“Where will you go? Will I ever see you again?”
“I… don’t know, Angie. West, for now. I sure hope I do come back one day, but Oasis isn’t going to be safe for me for a long time.” Heather anticipated the next question like she was reading it in a script.
“Can I come with you?”
It pained her so to have to refuse this darling girl, this beauty that had stolen her heart and mind so wholly. “Oh, Angie…” She reached out and caressed her cheek lovingly. “I can’t. Do you understand why? You have a whole life here I’d be taking you from. School, friends, and family. Who would look after Mama Maven after I’m gone, huh? Who’s going to eat all that ice cream or open your dad’s shop every morning? Who’s going to be the wild desert rose that makes this town so special?”
She was trying to let her down as gently as possible. Angela Lawrence, prettiest girl in the whole state going missing would likely attract the attention of larger law enforcement agencies and with Heather lighting out at the same time, it wouldn’t exactly take a rocket scientist to determine who the kidnapper was. A state-wide woman hunt would mean media and with a girl as gorgeous as Angie missing, the entire country could be captivated and that would lead Richie Valentine directly to Oasis and her trail….
“I don’t care about any of that,” Angie replied frowning. She sounded a touch huffy now, and by the way her nose was wrinkling, knew how childish it must have seemed but was powerless to help herself. “I want to go with you, Heather, and we can do this all the time. We could leave and get a place somewhere and have sex every night, and we could pretend you’re my mom until I get older and then we can get married and REALLY be together –.” Angie was talking faster and faster now, getting caught up in the fantasy of it all until Heather silenced her with a kiss.
“That all sounds so wonderful,” she confessed, their mouths inches apart. “I’ve had daydreams about just that. Us lying around together in bed like an old married couple, making love every night, taking expensive vacations together and just being happy. Like you and I were the only two people in the whole wide world who really mattered. But Angie, that’s all it could ever be. A fantasy, a daydream, just something to think about that could only happen in a more… understanding world. I want you to know, I’ll never forget you. Or forget tonight. It was so wonderful.”
Angie turned her head into Heather’s hand, looking so small and innocent and lonely that it was heartbreaking to witness the transformation. “I know. I guess I always knew. Just not fair is all. Everyone I care about goes away and I’m stuck in Oasis. Just… stuck.”
“I wish there was more that I could do for you, Angie.” It was the truth but Angie’s reply surprised her.
“Heather, I need to tell you something. I’ve been meaning to for so long I just didn’t want you to be mad at me. Tonight was so great and I just know this is going to ruin it all, but I can’t let you leave without fessing up.” She scooted to the edge of the bed and stood up, taking her bottle of water with her. Not to drink but to pass around in her hands to keep them busy while she talked.
Heather watched her with growing concern, raising up to stand on her knees, and offered both arms out to the girl. “Hey, c’mere. Stop pacing and talk to me okay? No secrets.” She looked down at her own nakedness, smiling slyly. “Especially now!”
Angie glanced over but ignored the offer to cuddle back into bed. She looked fearfully at the space between them and continued to pace. “I didn’t know it would be so bad, everything going on with you, Heather. Please believe me. When you first got into town, when I was eyeing your car that first day, do you remember?”
Heather settled back to sit on her legs, watching Angie apprehensively. “Yeah?”
Angie nodded, her narrow chest rising with the effort of a deep breath. “That night… after I rode off? There was something in the back, right? Something… important?”
Realization struck like a bolt of lightning and Heather collapsed onto her side. She fumbled about in the sheets, too stunned to speak. No… no, no, no! There was something worse than anger or shock on Heather’s face. What Angie saw there was almost too painful for words.
It was an expression of betrayal.
Angie came to the bed at last, talking fast and flapping her arms, looking frantic. “Please, Heather! It’s not like what you think!”
Heather pulled away, drawing away to the opposite end of the bed with the sheets drawn up to cover herself. “Angie, how could you do something like this? How could you keep it from me?!”
On the bed again, Angie was desperate, crawling closer and seeking refuge in Heather’s arms. How had things gone from absolutely perfect to utterly destroyed so quickly? How? Why?
Heather scooted so far away that she nearly fell backwards off the bed. She stood and wrapped the sheet around herself and began collecting Angie’s discarded clothes from the floor. She tossed the pair of shorts into the girl’s face. “Get dressed. I want you to leave. NOW!”
Angie fumbled to catch the garment, ended up taking the thrown clothing directly to the forehead. Her eyes were too blurry from the sudden welling of tears. “Heather, please! Listen, there is more I need to tell you!”
“You’re right. Like where you’re hiding that fucking money.” She found an inside-out t-shirt next and hurled it over. A pair of panties were underneath it, sparking the memory of a second pair beneath Heather’s pillow. “Get all of your shit, Angie. Where is that bag?”
Angie was sobbing so hard now her shoulders were shaking. Tiny fists pounding lightly into the sides of her head. “I screwed it up. I screwed everything up. Heather, I am so very sorry for not telling you sooner!”
Heather was seething. How could she have been so foolish? Nothing about this relationship made sense. What had she been thinking?
By Angie’s own admission, she felt stuck in Oasis, was desperate to leave it all behind. Thus, the pieces of a larger puzzle began to take shape in Heather’s head. She had stolen the money as a means of escape. She would lay low until Heather was forced to flee without the bag and then, she could go anywhere she wanted. The whole world would be open to her with that kind of cash, just as it had been for Heather when she stole it from Richie. “You were using me,” Heather accused. “You knew I couldn’t take you with me and — Goddammit, I can’t believe I fell for this — you put on this big pageant to sucker me in, to make me CARE about you! Why? To see if I suspected you? It worked, kid. I bought it hook, line and sinker. I never suspected you for a minute because I thought you legitimately cared.” Heather was fighting her own sobs now but knew she had to get it all out before she turned into a puddle of tears. “Has anything you’ve told me been the truth, Angie?”
Angie looked up, eyes swimming, looking so wounded you’d think Heather struck her. “No… I never…!”
Heather snatched her by the arm and hauled her out of bed to stand before her. “Don’t you dare lie to me! Not now, not after everything you’ve said.” She squeezed the girl’s arm tight enough to make her wince. “Where is that money!”
“Heather, you’re hurting me!”
She released Angie so suddenly that it staggered the girl and she flopped back onto the bed. She looked back at Heather fearfully, rubbing the spot on her arm. “I did not lie to you! About anything! I would never lie to you, Heather!”
“Bullshit!” Heather walked the room, wanting so badly to hit something, but was using both hands to hold up the blanket and the last thing she wanted was for Angie to see her naked body again. It felt too vulnerable, too exposed, and with this new revelation, she was a bundle of anxiety. Her heart seemed to have vanished from her body entirely, leaving a wound that ran deeper than she could ever have imagined. Even after Richie, she had never felt this great a sorrow….
“It’s true!” Angie passionately insisted, and that somehow made it all worse. “If you will just listen to me, Heather. I didn’t steal the money!”
Heather could only stare in response to that. A fresh blow, another revelation. “What? You just said that…”
“You didn’t let me finish! I didn’t steal your stupid, fucking money!” she roared through the tears. “MY DAD DID!”
On to Chapter 12!