Taken by a Stranger (Meadema)

Chapter 17 - A Harsh Reality Check (18+)🪨

Warning: mentions of sex and genitals, but it isn't discussed in much depth.

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That feeling kept running through her head, every time she looked at Viv, every time she saw something that reminded her of Viv, which was basically the whole day and especially, every time she had a touch with Viv. The eagerness for a touch with Viv grew bigger and bigger, every time she lay against Viv with her head laying comfortably on her chest, moved past her in the room and accidentally bumped into her, it felt nicer and nicer. Her friendship with Viv grew and grew and one thing she knew for sure, Viv was slowly becoming her best friend.

Today was Viv's off day, after a pretty tough night with those horrible flashbacks to Steve, they decided to go to the forest with Myle in the snow. Viv had grabbed her hand, had even placed her arm around her for a moment when they actually took the first steps into the forest, had made her feel safe in every possible way. Of course it had gone completely wrong, in the forest, when she wanted to walk Myle in the forest. With all those thoughts about Steve, and especially with what had happened last night, Viv was eager to put her at ease in the best way possible.

There was no real touch, their hands were covered with gloves in the cold weather. But it felt safe, very familiar, her hand fitting perfectly in Viv's. And despite everything that had happened yesterday and last night, she couldn't help but think back to Steve, at the beginning of their relationship, when they sometimes walked hand in hand down the street, when he was still somewhat proud of her in the first months of their relationship. And it gave flashbacks to how she sometimes walked hand in hand down the street with Steve's group of friends, with the girls.

'Look, there's our talking bench again. Come on Myle, you go play'. Viv untied the dog, threw a tennis ball that Myle ran after, but she was already distracted by the completely white world, which gave Beth and Viv the opportunity to talk about a topic in peace again. Together they cleaned the bench free of snow, spread the towel on the bench and they sat down. And actually for quite a long time, with space in between, not the touch of legs their touching.

Beth herself had been the first to sit down on the bench, Viv had briefly looked in which direction Myle was going and whether the dog was doing well in the thick snow. Then she had sat down next to her, but not directly against her, about six inches away from her, no arm around her. She didn't draw too many conclusions yet, but somehow she was disappointed that Viv apparently had no need for physical contact, because Viv herself was usually the one who initiated physical contact, now that Beth knew that Viv was not used to physical contact with friends. Had she scared Viv off a bit with that nickname? Had she done something else wrong?

'Vivi, do you have a topic you want to talk about today?'. Viv looked at her, her head immediately filled with all kinds of thoughts. She had deliberately left some space between her and Beth, all to ensure that her crush on this woman would disappear as quickly as possible, but with Beth saying things like that, who had just grabbed her hand firmly while walking into the woods, which had honestly been her own intention, that became quite difficult.

Beth didn't get an immediate response back. She could have kicked herself for calling Viv by her nickname again, when literally seconds ago she had realized that this might not be something Viv wanted, now that Viv actually seemed to consciously keep some distance between them for the first time. But it just seemed like it was becoming automatic, like she did with all her friends.

'Uhm... I... Well... I... I don't know'. Beth didn't know what to do, whether to place her hand on Viv's leg, place her arm around her, apologize. For the first time, it suddenly felt a little awkward. It suddenly felt like one wrong move would affect their friendship. What on earth was going on right now that made her so unsure of what to do? 'I don't really have a topic to talk about. Do you have something?'. To her great gratitude, she received a response from Viv. 'Uhm, I don't really have anything either'. It remained silent, they started to stare into space, towards Myle, who was going to examine this new white substance with her snout.