The Drumbeat Years (girlxgirl)

7

7

24th. August 1985

Catherine. Tina called her 'Catherine'. Not 'Cath'. Not 'Cathy'. Not 'Cat'. Catherine.

She was everything that Tina wasn't. Tall, popular, beautiful, with long blonde hair and a body that had blossomed in the years that they had known each other. The only thing they shared was their intelligence, but, even in that, Catherine surpassed Tina on every level. And Tina loved her. Loved her with a desperation that bordered on painful.

They had become friends at the start of High School, where they had both wound up in the same Comprehensive and the same class. Tina had had it all her own way in Junior School. The smartest of all the kids, by far, and they didn't like it. Bullying was a daily occurrence. Catherine had never had that. She, too, had left everyone in the dust, but, in her previous school, they had loved her.

At first, Tina had tried to compete with Catherine, trying to get better marks in class, pushing herself harder than she had ever pushed before. It made no difference. Catherine peeled away, leaving Tina in awe. Everyone held Catherine in awe, but it was Tina that Catherine became friends with. True friends that, over the years, became an infatuation for Tina and then love. She never told Catherine, however.

The end of Summer holidays had crept up on them and they had decided to hit the city for one last time before the final year of school called them back to reality. Exam year. The year that most school kids dreaded. Not Tina and certainly not Catherine. They knew their worth. They knew passing their exams and getting into university would go so easy, they almost didn't study. Almost. Neither of them could ever stop studying. They both lived for it.

"Ugh. Why are we here? It's a dump!" Pulling a face of disgust, Catherine stared up at the sign. 'Game Cave'. A little shop far from the crowds of the main shopping areas. "I feel dirty just looking at it. Come on, Tee! I need to go shopping!"

Catherine never noticed the tremble in Tina's hand whenever she held it. It was a normal thing. Girls held hands all the time. Only, to Tina, it was more than two friends holding hands. It was the softness of Catherine's palm, the touch of her fingers, the clacking of the rings they had bought each other, years ago. Tina didn't move, resisting the pull.

"I'll only be a second. The guy in the bookshop said this is where that game can be bought." Tina had to admit, the shop didn't exactly give off a welcoming vibe. Dirty windows and a closed door faced them. "That new book I read, the one about dragons by Weiss and Hickman, was based on a game. You know how much I love fantasy stuff."

"Do I! So, this 'guy' in the bookshop? Have many fantasies about him?" Bumping her shoulder into Tina's, Catherine gave her a fake look of lust that almost made Tina's legs collapse. "Was he cute? Thinking about going back? For more books, obviously."

"He wasn't my type." She knew Catherine would take the flush in her cheeks as a sign that Tina lied about not liking the guy. That wasn't why she blushed. "Come on. In and out. I just want to see what this game is like. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It sounds, I dunno, cool."

With a resigned howl, Catherine allowed Tina to pull her into the shop. Inside fared little better than the outside. Cramped, with shelves piled to the ceiling, filled with books and little metal figures, boxes and occult-looking jewellery, the place felt claustrophobic. One man, sat alone at the far end of the shop glanced up from reading a book, adjusted his glasses and dropped his head again.

Tina didn't know where to start. There seemed no order to the place, with things dropped upon the nearest shelves as far as she could see. She wandered up and down the shelves, while Catherine did the same at the other side. Tina scowled, she couldn't find anything in this mess and she considered talking to the silent man, though he seemed uninterested in either her or Catherine.