as she falls

2;

"astrid!" frankie calls, skipping over to the bar and leaning over it to hug the woman.
astrid. the name echoes in reina's mind. a unique name to fit the beautiful woman it belonged to. she suddenly becomes more aware of her choice of clothing, the wide legged jeans and white blazer looking out of place when everyone else looked so natural there. reina didn't want to stand out or catch this woman's attention. catch astrid's attention.
"reina, c'mere." frankie beckons excitedly. biting her lips, reina approaches the bar and takes a seat on the stool beside her friend.
astrid pours liquid from the shaker into two glasses, pushing them towards frankie and reina, "first ones are on the house. since dr. gregory here is so popular."
reina catches a wink from astrid to frankie who shoots one back.
"thank you!" frankie sings and tips back the drink, exclaiming at the taste, "you have magic in your hands, astrid."
"that i do." the bartender replies, looking at reina, "i'm astrid."
"uhm, i'm reina." her fingers play on the chilled glass in front of her.
"don't be so shy, reina! this is the artist of that drawing you loved so much. maybe if you make friends with her, she'll give you one." frankie pokes at reina's shoulder.
a light goes on in astrid's eyes, "you like my work? i'd love to do something for you."
a blush creeps up reina's neck, "it's beautiful. you're very talented."
"thank you!"
"you know, astrid was a teacher at Astoria High too, but left to focus on art school." frankie says.
astrid's musical laugh tinges reina's ears the same pink blush as her cheeks, "and the bar. my dad left me the bar."
"oh? you seem to have done a lot. how old are you?" reina asks, curious at how someone who looks so young could have done so many things.
"i'm twenty-nine. i'll be thirty in december." someone from across the counter calls for attention, "excuse me, i'll be right back."
reina watches closely as astrid pushes up her sleeves, and tosses a towel over her shoulder. there wasn't any visible markings on her, a shock and happy surprise for reina. they're only one year apart, reina being the junior of the two. she immediately wondered if they'd be a good match.
"you seem smitten, reina." frankie sing-songs, something she tends to do quite often.
she tears her eyes away from astrid who's handing a pint of beer to another patron, "huh? what did you say?"
"ugh, you're in love. distracted by the beauty of my receptionist's daughter. how could i have planned this so perfectly? i'm better than fate herself." frankie fans her face with her hand, smiling triumphantly.
reina swirls the drink in front of her, "i don't even know if she has a soulmate."
"not yet. i would know." frankie turns to lean her back against the bar, "kathleen is always saying how she wishes astrid would find her soulmate and settle down here. all of her other kids moved away."
"oh." reina can't help but feel happiness grow in her chest. maybe astrid is the one, but she wouldn't know that for sure until astrid began feeling the same way.
the markings appear after the first kiss anyways so unless astrid wanted to kiss her, reina wouldn't know if they were destined to be together.
"so, you ladies want another drink?" astrid comes strolling back over, her green eyes trained on reina.
the brunette gulps down the beverage before her, holding back a grimace, "sure. but just a coke for me, please."
"she can't handle her alcohol." frankie fake whispers to astrid who nods.
reina playfully whacks her friend's arm, "it's an allergy. and i drove, thank you very much."
"right, right. in that case, give me a shot of tequila and a roy rogers for the little miss over here."
"you got it." astrid says with a laugh, scooping ice into a fresh glass for reina.
"so," a man's voice sounds in reina left ear, "francine and you live together?"
reina turns to him and recognizes it as gavin, "oh, yeah. we moved from california. only frankie's from here originally though."
"i moved here with my pops a couple years back. if you need someone to show you around town, i'm your man. a lot's changed since francine lived here." gavin says, a half smirk on his face.
reina returns with a shy, polite smile, "oh, thank you. i'll keep that in mind."
"matter of fact," he pulls a napkin over and grabs a pen from the bill beside him, "here's my number. call any time."
she takes the number he jotted down and nods, "cool, thanks."
"no problem." he full on grins at her. for a moment, reina is confused on why he's offering.
"care for a drink?" he asks.
there it is.
"i'm fine, thank you. i'm all set with a soda." she gestures to the coke that astrid had set out for her a minute prior.
his grin drops, "no fun? not even on a friday night?"
"i'm not a very fun person." reina replies lightly, trying to get the point across that she isn't interested.
all of the sudden, dr. hunt's hand slaps onto gavin's back, "your wife's here to pick you up, gav." he juts his thumb over his shoulder where you can see to the outside. a blue minivan is parked, idled at the door with a woman behind the wheel.
"ohh, the missus, that must be my cue. have a nice night, it was great meeting you."
gavin exits the building quickly and dr. hunt takes his seat, clearing his throat gruffly, "he was a little out of it."
reina watches him run around the front of the car in the rain to hop in and his wife drives off, "that, i believe."
"he used to be some big shot lawyer in portland, is what i heard. but lost his license when a case went bad." frankie butts in, chewing on the straw of her third drink.
if anything, frankie was a gossiper, she'd kill for a good story. that's partially why reina liked her, she would honestly review her work, loving every juicy detail of the characters' lives.
"he's in here nearly every night. i keep donna, his wife, on speed dial." astrid tuts at the door, "they're soulmates but he sure doesn't act like it."
reina shakes her head, "i'll never understand why people ever cheat on their soulmate. they're meant to be, aren't they?"
astrid looks at reina, "some people don't deserve a soulmate."
even if the words weren't meant for her, reina felt as though astrid was trying to say something. did she find reina unworthy? was astrid wronged by her soulmate and knew reina thought she was hers? the ideas ran quickly through her mind at a mile a minute.
"you deserve one, honey." dr. hunt says, "just because you haven't found yours doesn't mean a thing. even if you don't, you'll find someone you love just the same."
his words complicated reina's thoughts. did astrid think she, herself, was unworthy of love?
"reina, do you wanna head home? you look tired." frankie questioned, smoothing her thumb over the wrinkles between reina's brows.
"huh? no i'm just thinking."
"we'll, don't think too hard, i don't have any botox for you at my office."
frankie cackles as reina smiles and rolls her eyes, astrid stifles a laugh while dr. hunt let's out a joyous chuckle very similar to his niece's.
-
they stayed for a couple more hours before frankie checked her watch, "geez, we gotta head home, i have an appointment with the electrician tomorrow morning. oh, and we need to drop by the drugstore for advil, i'm sure i'll need it tomorrow morning."
she had knocked back a few more shots than reina thought necessary to have a good time. she did get baited into a challenge with another drinker at the bar. she was deathly competitive, something reina could never get her out of was a drinking challenge.
reina nods and pulls out her wallet to pay, beginning to hand over her card when astrid pushes it away.
"on the house tonight." she says.
"what? frankie drank a lot, i'm sure it was quite expensive." reina rebuttals by sliding her card across the counter to astrid.
the redhead once again refuses it, "let me paint you instead. i need a model for my portrait series."
reina's eyes nearly bug out of her head, "me? frankie's the pretty one, you wouldn't want to draw me."
francine lorraine gregory was stunning, smart, funny, and friendly, things that were never used to describe reina. she was a long legged, blonde haired, blue eyed supermodel with brains to boot. people were lining up at frankie's locker to ask her to prom each year in high school. reina was charged with writing down all potential dates and getting back to them within two to three business days with an answer.
"well i think you're the prettier one. no offense, doctor." astrid looks to frankie.
she shrugs, "none taken, my little reina is so cute i'm sure everyone would want a painting of her." she drunkenly tries to pinch at reina's cheeks.
"okay, alright, we're going home." reina says, dodging her cooing friend's grabby fingers.
astrid hands over her cellphone, "add your number and we can set up a date."
"a date?" reina blushes, "oh, yeah, date and time. sure."
she hurriedly types in her number, adding her name and saving it before handing back the phone.
"cool, i'll text you." astrid smiles, "and here's a water, doc."
frankie takes the bottle from astrid, pops off the cap, and downs it, "chug champion."
"you sure are." reina laughs and bids farewell to dr. hunt and astrid before leading frankie out to the car.
"i'm going to drop you off at home and then go to the store, i don't want you to vomit in here." reina watches frankie clamber into the backseat, stretching her legs out.
she sighs, "okayyy, i guess so."
-
once she had gotten frankie into her night clothes and brushed her teeth, reina set a glass of water beside her and changed herself. she trotted back downstairs and out the door to head to the 24 hour convenience store for frankie's pain meds.  reina loved the rain, but didn't welcome it late at night while she drove. but as she was speeding down the road, she spotted an old, beat up toyota with its hazards on.
standing in front of it was a frazzled looking woman who, in the headlights of reina's car, was none other than astrid.
"what the hell?" reina pulled over beside astrid's car and rolled down the passenger side window, "astrid?"
wet, auburn hair was stuck to her freckled face, but she still smiled, "hi, reina!"
"do you want to get in? you'll catch a cold."
"yeah, sure."
reina unlocked the doors and astrid hopped in, sighing as she stripped her soaked hoodie off. her white tee shirt underneath was just as wet, her nude bra in plain view through the shirt. reina also notices how her eyeliner was nearly gone and her freckles stood out even more on her reddened cheeks.
"thanks." astrid gives an exasperated sigh.
reina thinks to take off her own sweater and hand it to astrid, she wore a long sleeve night shirt anyways.
"here, you'll get sick. what happened?"
astrid looks at reina with big eyes and takes the knitted sweater, "well, my old piece of shit car decided to break down. then, i locked my keys and my phone inside on accident."
as she speaks, she tugs the shirt over her head and slips on the garment reina lent her. reina sees a flash of a tattoo on astrid's side and looks away, finding it weird to watch her change like that.
"i'm not the brightest, i guess." the redhead laughs, "lucky you were here though."
"well, i'm headed to the store, i could drop you off at your house."
"that's very kind of you. but about that..."
reina realizes, "your keys."
"yeah..."
"you don't have a spare somewhere."
"i used to but, i sort of lost them."
"oh." reina sees astrid grimace, "uh, you could stay at mine and frankie's tonight."
reina's cheeks burn at the thought of astrid staying the night with her.
"are you sure? you could take me to my mom's."
"yeah, of course." reina mentally facepalms, of course she could take astrid to kathleen's. they both live in town and astrid would much rather stay at her mom's house than some random person she met that night's. reina blinks away the thoughts and puts the car in drive, heading back into town.
astrid let's out a chatter, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. reina reaches over to turn up the heater and when she moved to face the vent towards astrid, their hands meet.
"sorry." reina quickly withdraws her hand, letting astrid aim the warmth herself.
the passenger laughs softly, "it's okay, thank you for thinking of me."
"any time." reina responds automatically but cringes at the choice of affirmative.
they drive without talking, the soft music on the radio only interrupted by the rhythmic swish of the windshield wipers.
"oh, her house is on the next right." astrid points down a street up ahead and reina follows her directions.
the lights on the front of the house glow dimly behind the haze of the misty rain that continues to fall. pulling up to the curb, reina stops the car and unlocks the doors again.
"thank you so much, reina." astrid says as she unbuckles.
she starts to pull of the sweater, but reina stops her, "keep it. i'll get it back when we see each other again."
astrid's smile doesn't go unnoticed, even in the darkness, "okay. that'll be soon, i hope."
"sure." reina replies quietly, a similar expression playing on her lips.
"goodnight."
"goodnight."
she watches astrid scurry to the front door, knock a few times, and, after a few moments, the door opens to reveal kathleen in a robe. they exchange a few words and both wave to reina who turns on the overhead light and waves back.
the butterflies in her stomach flutter as she drives away, on happy autopilot as she goes to the store.