Beauty and the Beauty (Lesbian Romance)

Really.

We sat around that table for hours, my mum, Lena and I. We talked and drank until we were filled with the warmth of life and eventually, at almost eleven, mum got too tired. I wheeled her into her room, making sure she was comfortable in bed before heading back to the kitchen where I'd left Lena. She was cleaning up the dishes from dinner. 

'Oh - you don't have to do that.' I said, suddenly a little more nervous around her. She was more daunting when it was just the two of us, that was for sure. 

'I want to help. You've both been so nice to me today.' Lena replied with a small smile. 

'Seriously, you're a guest! Stop it!' I said, reaching for the pile of plates she had collected. For a split second our fingers brushed together. My heart skipped a beat and I quickly pulled my hand away, clearing my throat as I walked towards the sink. I sighed as I rinsed the plates, overly conscious of Lena's presence behind me. 

'It's pretty late,' Lena said. I took the hint - she was ready to leave. 

'I'll drive you home, let me grab my keys,' I moved across the kitchen to the basket by the back door that held the keys to the clapped out Mustang that had once belonged to my older brother. It was the only thing that made it through the crash that killed him and disabled my mother relatively unharmed, and I resented it. It's stupid, I know, to hate a car - it was the ice and the dark and the steep hill that killed my brother... The last time I saw him was in the front seat of the damn car, and I was reminded of it every time I drove. I preferred to walk, but it was late. 

I didn't bother saying bye to my mum; I knew she'd be dead to the world. She'd always been a heavy sleeper. Lena and I walked down the path to the front drive in silence, and I noticed she began to shiver in her thin jumper. I opened the passenger door for her, mostly because it was ridiculously stiff - there's a knack to opening it, and then got in. The memory of my brother's smile as he drove my mum to pick up her surprise birthday present, a kitten, flashed across my mind but was gone as soon as Lena began to talk. 

'Ana?' She asked, the loud, friendly voice I had gotten used to over the past couple of hours now quiet and shy. 

'Yeah?' I asked, reversing out of the drive.

'Why are you being so nice to me?' She looked out of the window, but not before I caught a glimpse of her reddened cheeks. 

'What do you mean? Why wouldn't I be nice to you? You've been perfectly friendly with me for whatever reason and I figured, I might as well be friendly with you until you make real friends tomorrow...' I trailed off, rebuilding the wall I've had in place for everyone for years. Lena wouldn't want anything to do with me from tomorrow onward; she'd find her clique in no time. She was amazing. 

'Oh.' She seemed to stiffen in the seat next to me.

'What?' I asked, inexplicably irritated by her tone. 

'You're just being nice to me because I'm new here. Tomorrow you'll go back to your friends and forget all about me -' Her voiced quavered. 'I just thought... Maybe I'd make a real friend in this town, and maybe it would have been you.' 

I pulled the car to a stop as we approached Lena's house. I could see two people in the kitchen, two men, surrounded by boxes and misplaced furniture. I sighed and looked at Lena. 

'Lena. That is not what I meant.' I stopped, deciding then was as good a time as any to shield her from what I was really thinking. It would be easier in the long run; making friends had never been my forte. 

'Then what did you mean, Ana?' She asked, looking over at me, her delicate eyebrow arched over her left eye where her makeup had smudged slightly and her eyelid began to droop with tiredness. 

'I won't go back to my friends tomorrow because I don't have friends. You'll find your clique tomorrow and we'll pass each other in the corridor and look in opposite directions to avoid having to speak to each other. You'll forget about me.' My hands tightened around the steering wheel as I stared straight ahead into the dark street. We sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. 

'I won't forget you.' She barely whispered. I looked over to her, my heart convulsing. I didn't know why I was so nervous. I just wanted so badly to make a friend, particularly in Lena. Contrary to the image I tried to put out there, I desperately wanted to be close enough with someone to tell them anything. I needed to share things, I needed someone to be there. And I hoped it could be Lena. 

She looked even more beautiful in the orange glow of the street light as she smiled shyly over at me. I didn't know what to say to fill the silence and before I knew it an awkward laugh had escaped my lips. Lena furrowed her brow and then sniggered. Soon we were both laughing uncontrollably and for no apparent reason. 

'Ana... thank you.' Lena forced her words out between bouts of giggles. She covered her mouth with her hand whenever she laughed, which was a shame because her smile lit up her entire face. I shook my head in response, smiling, the laughing now over. I sighed contentedly and leaned back into my chair, sitting sideways to face Lena.  She mirrored my position and we just looked at each other and for the first time, I wasn't self-conscious. I felt weirdly comfortable, as though I'd known the girl sitting opposite me for my entire life, not a couple of hours. After years of only having my mother for company, it was a good feeling.

I looked towards Lena's house again, intrigued to see where she lived. And who she lived with. The two men were still in the kitchen. Lena followed my gaze.

'Shit. Shit.' She began fumbling around in her handbag for her phone. 

'What's wrong?' I asked, feeling suddenly uneasy. She only shook her head in response as she put her phone to her ear, making a call. 

'Molly? Are you at home?' Her voice was frantic, her eyes darting from the kitchen window to the front door and back into the car again. She sighed, her body instantly relaxing. 'Oh thank God, okay, stay there. I'll see you tomorrow.' She hung up. 

'What was that?' I asked, curious, but unsure whether it was any of my business. I felt guilty for asking almost immediately. 

'My cousin. She lives with me. That guy in there?' She gestured towards the kitchen, where one of the men was standing with his back to the window. 'That's her dad. He's a - a pretty awful guy. And my dad... He's either never home or too drunk to know whether anyone else is home.' She looked over at me and I noticed tears in her eyes. Instinctively, I reached out and gently rested my hand on hers. 

'You don't have to go home, you know. You're welcome to stop at mine.' I told her, my thumb absent-mindedly rubbing circles into the back of her hand. 'Uh, I have a spare bed.' 

'Really?' She asked, looking out at me from under her long eyelashes. 

'Really.' I said, giving her hand a squeeze before turning the key and driving home again.