You made me ink | Alessia Russo

The one with all the feels.

"Here." Alessia looks up and finds Cairo standing in front of her, holding out a steaming mug of tea with a small smile.

Alessia smiles gratefully before reaching out and taking the mug in both hands, allowing the heat to warm up her palms. As soon as the two girls walked through the door of Cairo's flat, the tattooed girl had ushered Alessia up to her bedroom and handed her some joggers and a hoodie, telling her to get out of her wet clothes and meet her on the couch when she's done. Alessia really tried not to inhale the smell of Cairo on the hoodie as she pulled it on, the girl obviously having worn it for a brief time before. 

"You're mad, you know. You'll get a cold, now." Cairo mumbled as she took a seat on the sofa next to the blonde. 

"I needed to talk to you." 

"And there wasn't better ways than standing in the rain?"

Alessia felt her cheeks blush pink, despite the cold goose bumps all over the rest of her body. "At the time...no." 

Cairo bit the inside of her cheek to stop the smile plastering on her face. 

Actions speak louder than words.

The two sat there in silence, one of them gazing around the room, taking the decoration in, and the other eying up the still damp girl in front of her, trying her hardest to push down those butterflies that have not eased at all since their last conversation. 

"Less." Cairo eventually whispered, curiosity finally getting the better of her as Alessia's eyes snapped back to her. "What's going on?

Not even a second had passed before Cairo finishing her question and Alessia blurting out: "I like girls!" 

Cairo cocked her eyebrow up, a small smirk covering her face. "I mean same, but I don't travel half way around the country to tell people."

"No,no, I uhh," Alessia started to stumble over her words. In her head she had this big speach, she'd planned it all out to a fine details. But now, sitting here, in front of Cairo, being able to see every fine detail on her skin; being able to see the small scar above her right eyebrow, how she plays with the sleeve of her own hoodie, how she lick her lips when she's thinking...it had all gone out the window. "When we...met, I wasn't sure. I didn't know who I liked, I'd never liked a girl before, not really anyway...and it terrified me. Like one side of my brain knew I couldn't help who I like, and really it was no big deal, but the other side of my brain overthought everything. Like would people look at me different or treat me different? So when you left...I did what you said...I took some time, tried to, uhh, tried to figure out who I am. Figure out what my feelings are. I spoke to my friends, my family about it. And it was like the penny dropped...I like girls. Maybe I like boys too, i don't know," Alessia took a breath, making sure Cairo kept eye contact with her. "But what I realised more than anything was that I like you Cai...like, really really like you."

Silence bubbled between the girls, Alessia still focussed on saying all the words she's wanted to for the past few weeks, and Cairo trying to absorb everything she was being told.

"Like, I get butterflies whenever I talk to you or know I get to talk to you. Like when I think about it I get so excited for every day that I know you, but I'm also so excited for everyday I will get  to know you, you know? Like I think of how happy you make me feel, and it makes me want to like, shout it from a rooftop or something, I don't know. But...I know I hurt you, and I'm scared that I've ruined things before they even had a chance to really start, and if I have then that's on me, I'll have to live with it, but thinking of the hurt I must have caused you hurts so bad. You must have felt so shit. I'm so sorry, Cai. I'm so sorry."