Earnshaw Heights

Chapter Ten

Normani sat on the dirt path down to the lake, accompanied only by her thoughts and the body of her roommate beside her, Lauren's mind clearly also being lost in her own thoughts. Mani's mind could have been racing through the millions of thoughts that were flooding through, but she was pushing them all aside. She was losing herself in this particular moment, attempting to commit every detail to memory so that she could return to this moment again and again. Because in this moment, here by the lake with Lauren's head resting on her shoulder and Mani's hand gently tracing shapes on Lauren's knee, she felt at home. She felt the sun against her face, sending warm tingles throughout her body. The soft breeze off the lake wafted the smell of Lauren's hair to Mani's nose, and she closed her eyes and allowed the scent to overcome her. She felt the solid ground beneath her, and with everything in her she knew that this moment meant so much more than it should have, but truthfully, she just couldn't pretend to care anymore.

"I can't keep fighting this," Normani announced hesitantly. The words escaped her mouth before her mind could think them through. Mani had never felt so liberated in her life than she did around Lauren. She broke down the walls that Mani had sturdily built up around her mind. Mani was acting before she thought. She felt free. And she was scared shitless. She mustered up enough courage to pull her shoulder back so that Lauren was forced to look at her, gazing up at Mani with her entrancing green eyes.

"I don't want to either," Lauren spoke up after appraising Normani's face for a few moments. She returned her gaze down to the path in front of her. "But you can't get mixed up in my shit. I'm not gonna let that happen. I can't," her voice faltering over those last words. Lauren looked up again at Normani, who could feel everything inside her start to weaken. She had firmly decided to put herself out there, to stop pretending that Lauren had no effect on her life. She couldn't do that any longer, no matter how much Lauren seemed set on fighting her.

"You're not the only one with shit to deal with, you know." Normani turned so that she was facing her roommate, prompting Lauren to do the same. "I don't know what this is with us. I don't understand much that's going on in my life, to be honest. I don't know what we are or where this will go. I don't know what's going to happen with these classes. I certainly don't know how my magic will fit in here any more than you do with yours." Lauren moved to turn back towards the lake, but Mani anticipated her movement and grabbed her hand, forcing her attention back. "I mean it. Listen, all I know is that you make me feel at home. You unnerve me and you scare me and you bring my walls down, and I don't understand any of that. But what I do understand is that I can't stay away from you. Whether that's as friends or..." Normani let her sentence trail off, turning away slightly, completely unsure of what she wanted and what Lauren would want. God, why was she being so daring and so stupid? Why wasn't she holding back and keeping things to herself? What was she doing here right now?

Before Normani could process another thought, she felt the warmth of Lauren's breath against her cheek, and she turned her head slowly to face her. She found herself a mere inch away from the witch's face. She saw her eyes up close for the first time, catching the flecks of gold and brown and gray all caught up in the overwhelming shimmering green. She saw her perfectly sculpted nose and cheekbones, noticing the red flush that had warmed her cheeks. Mostly, she noticed her lips. Their fullness, with a naturally pink tint. The sight of those lips so close to her own sent shivers throughout her body. Her chest physically ached with the need to close that distance, but she wanted Lauren to be the one to do it. Normani wet her lips with her tongue, watching as Lauren closed her eyes for a moment from her desire, and Normani found that to be all she needed. She closed the already minuscule distance between them.

The kiss was soft and chaste, yet Normani was sure that her heart had escaped her chest with its outrageous beating. She didn't have much experience with kissing, but she felt so sure of herself with Lauren. Lauren's lips were soft, God, and their simple movement against Normani's sent sparks to places that only deepened her desire for the witch. Mani felt as though she could stay kissing Lauren forever and never tired of it. She wanted to deepen the kiss, to explore Lauren's mouth with her lips and her tongue. She wanted to run her hands through Lauren's thick hair, softly sliding down her skin to the rest of her body. Maybe she would have, if the moment hadn't been cut so short.

Normani and Lauren were so completely lost in one another that it took them both a moment to realize that anything was occurring. Lauren broke the kiss first, pulling back and making a solid effort to focus her eyes again on the world around her. Normani was stuck for a moment, everything blurry and seeming so far away, her lips still tingling from the feeling of Lauren against her in such an intimate way. Only once they had stopped and focused did they notice the glow around them fading and the fact that they were slowly, yet not-so-gracefully, returning to the ground.

Normani was awe-struck. Realizing that she was only now feeling the dirt beneath her body again, she glanced around and caught the remnants of swirling black and gold dust around the two.

Normani caught Lauren's eye, and could not help but smile at the rush of power and electricity flooding through her veins. Mani knew there was a reason that she could not stay away from Lauren, and she supposed that the two were truly magical together.