I See You

Venus

"Venus is the Roman goddess of love, you know," Mystic Quincy suddenly appears next to me during my free period, which I tend to spend in the library.

I drop the book I was getting off the shelf, onto my foot. Hopping on one foot, I scowl at her. "Are you trying to scare me to death?" I demand, hands clutching my throbbing foot. Why are textbooks so heavy? Are they that heavy because the writers want to show off how smart they are?

She rolls her eyes, "Walk it off! God, I just want to talk to you!"

I hold back my groan, and limp my way back to the corner I hide in.

She follows, and it's like her annoyance radiates off her. "I said I want to talk to you-"

I sit down and rotate my foot, trying to ease out the kinks, before looking up as I respond.

"No, you want to interrogate me," I look up at her standing above me, "I'd expect nothing less... oh, thank you!"

"For what?" She questions skeptically, right as I reach up to pull the textbook on mythology (of which the irony is not lost on me with her goddess comment) that I'd dropped minutes before.

She shakes off her confusion, dismissing it, "Yeah, whatever. I want to talk to you."

"I'm so honored! The queen of the school wants to talk to me!" I mumble into the textbook as I open it. She slaps it, palm down, knocking it out of my hands and it falls to the table, open, with a thud. "Right, let's get this over with," I acknowledge her, looking at her straight on, gesturing for her to have a seat.

My directness seems to throw her off a bit. Quiet doesn't always mean completely shy, I'm just not too good with multiple people at a time. She rolls her eyes again, taking her sweet time to sit down.

Then she looks me straight in the eye.

And I think she's trying to give me a strong staring me down, and I'm supposed to be scared, or showing what I'm made of, or something, but it's having an opposite reaction.

Her stare- down look actually looks more like she's concentrate hard not to lose eye contact like a cat would. (I know, I know, self. I know I'm weird.)

A better way to explain it is that it's the same look Azalea has when I'm talking to her about serious stuff and she doesn't move until I'm done. Azalea is a great pet.

Anyway, Mystic's face is the human version and on a human it looks funny.

Yup. I'm trying not to laugh at that adorable expression.

She frowns, "Why is your face turning red and what's with that choke-y cough noise thing!?"

I can't take it and laugh, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I apologize, "I'm good now, but seriously that was adorable-" I slap my hand over my mouth, appalled at myself.

She second my thoughts, "You did not just call me adorable! I am a lot of things but adorable is not- will you stop laughing!?!"

"I'm trying!" I defend myself, blinking away the tears that were forming.

"Whatever!" She says angrily, "Just listen. Venus is one of my best friends, and we're closer than sisters. You hurt her and you hurt all of us. You don't want to hurt me-"

I interrupt her, "No, I don't want to hurt Venus. Venus is who matters most! If anything I did hurt her, I'd be hurting myself! She's so amazing! I really, completely really, like her! I still can't believe that she actually said yes to the..." I trail off, unsure if she'd told them how we happened.

Mystic stares at me hard, expressionless. Now this look, it does scare me.

Finally her whole authoritative persona fades a bit. With a small smile she tells me, "I see this conversation is really unnecessary. You're good."

I'm confused. "Did you just give me permission to take Venus to homecoming? And the privilege of dating her?"

Oh my god, was I already supposed to have that? I look up at her worriedly.

Mystic laughs, her fiery hair, rippling as she throws her head back. "How formal, but yes, essentially."

Getting up she ruffles my hair, before leaving me a weird mixture of confused, relieved, shocked and elated.

Finally I look down at the textbook, at the page she randomly turned it to, and smile. It seems as a good enough subject as any for my paper.

Later after school, Venus comes running up to me clearly upset. "It's- I'm so sorry! I told her not to, but she did it anyway, didn't she?"

For a second I don't follow. Then it clicks. "...Yes, but I expected it after what you said." I give her my best grin, brushing my hair out of my eyes. "It went okay, really!"

She raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"No, it was horrible and I'm scared for life, how could you sick her on me like that?" I laugh before adding, "Nah, typical stuff..." She looks at me with worry, "You know, like 'I'll end you if you hurt her'- not in those terms I promise! - and like... but it was in an odd sort of way, because she was almost nervous about it-"

"Probably because I threatened her NOT too-"

I wave her off, pecking her lips before climbing into the passenger seat. Venus has insisted that she drive me home, even though my house is only fifteen minutes walking distance. "Well, it is Mystic Quincy we're speaking of... it wouldn't be right if she didn't have the talk with one of her clique's significant others!" I tease her.

She laughs, pulling out of the parking lot. "Who says 'clique' anymore?"

I pout, "I do obviously! What's better, 'posse'?"

She laughs, reaching over and patting my leg at the red light. "You are too cute! These days it's 'squad', cuteness."

"Oh, right," I bite my lip. "It's not any better, it's just an evolution of a group of people connected by a common variable and self-identifying themselves as something 'unique'. Same old, same old, just with a new label. 'Squad'!" I feel my face heat up. "Sorry."

Rolling to a smooth stop, she parks at the end of my driveway. Instead of getting out, she takes my hand and laces our fingers together.

"Don't ever be sorry for being you. You're amazing as you are," She tells me, sincerely.

"I said something of the same effect to Mystic about you," I admit immediately, as I don't want wait and make it awkward by not knowing how to take her compliment. (I'm always nervous about receiving compliments from anyone non- family... love seriously, I appreciate it, but awkwardness always follows!)

She blushes, and it sets off butterflies off in my stomach.

"Oh, but something good did come out of that talk!" I laugh at the memory, nervous and wondering if she could hear the thumping of my heart.

"W-what's that?" Venus asks, looking extremely startled and nervous herself.

"You had Keplan for history last year right?" I ask, and at her confused nod continue, "Remember the midterm paper?"

She takes a second to think before frowning, "Yes, it was killer to find a great topic someone hadn't pitched five seconds earlier!"

I grin, a little smug, "Mystic did all the work unknowingly, and Mr. Keplen ate it up!"

She grins, "She would lose her shit if she knew about it. Mr. Keplen had her resubmit her choice six times before he accepted it!"

I try to hold back my laugh, but a little escapes anyway. Venus, on the other hand, laughs to the border of hysterical.

It takes her a few minutes to calm down, and by then we've reached my house, where my mom is grabbing the mail from the mailbox. She waves to Venus with a smile before heading back up the driveway, as I make the movements of preparing to exit.

Venus rushes to open my door (how cute is she?!) "What's the topic, anyway?"

I grin, pecking her on the cheek, as I get out. She pouts so I kiss her lightly on the lips. She grins back.

"That's the best part! Egyptian Mythology- the Goddess of Cats, Bast!"

She kisses me again, lightly pushing me towards my home, "Its purr-fect!"