Holding Back (Lesbian Story)

Lunch with the New Girl

Leila stared off into space while the physics teacher Mr. Koffberg droned on an on about friction.  The encounter with the new girl Maya had unsettled her, and she was trying to figure out why.  When their hands touched that second time, Leila felt as if she would tackle the girl--but not in malice.  This strange urge to practically assault Maya concerned her, and Leila frowned inwardly at the thought that she might feel that urge every time the two got together for the project.  Hopefully we can finish the project over text or something, she thought, trying to find a way around facing Maya as much as possible.  It wasn't like she hated her or anything, but Leila couldn't shake off this unsettling feeling that was triggered by touching Maya's arm.  

"Hey," said the voice next to her, "What's going on with you? You've been spaced out all class."

Leila subconsciously shook herself and turned to Carmen, who was conveniently her lab partner.  The only reason Carmen risked talking was because the bell was about to ring and everyone was packing up for their classes.  "I'm fine," Leila assured her, "I was just thinking about what to do for Zack's birthday--it's in only a week and I haven't planned anything yet."  

Carmen suddenly perked up as if she had just injected herself with coffee and started gushing excitedly.  "How about you have a flash-mob party at your house for his birthday??  I could plan it all-- texts would be sent out to everyone with just your address and a time, and then a herd of people show up at your door to surprise Zack!"  Carmen's eyes gleamed in excitement as she thought of her brilliant plan that Leila guessed she had been planning for at least a month.  "It's flawless.  I'll even get the cake and balloons!"

Leila just looked at Carmen incredulously as they got up and headed to the door.  "You're crazy, you know that right?"  

Carmen practically got on her knees in the hallway and gave Leila the infamous puppy eyes that were her trademark.  "Please can I do it?  I know you'll never plan it because you hate parties, but Zack loves them and I just happen to be the best party planner around.  Come on, you know you can't say no to this face!"  She started quivering her bottom lip to prove her point.

Leila laughed and held her hands up in surrender.  "Okay, god!  Just enough of the puppy eyes!  I can't stand them!  ...Anyways, I never said you couldn't."  

Carmen flipped her hair indifferently.  "Well even if you hadn't let me, I would have done it anyways and you would have still loved me.  Now let's get to English before Mrs. Difi screws us over."  The bell was about to ring, and they weren't close enough to walk the rest of the way to their English class, so they were forced to run, and arrived just as the bell blared in their ears. 

"Ah.  Miss Summers, Miss Arias, I'm glad you made it on time for once.   Please have a seat."  Mrs. Difi said with a grumpy tone in her voice.  She loved writing up disciplinary slips, and today she was just denied two.  

Leila and Carmen sat down in two of the desks in the circular layout and pulled out their notebooks to take notes on the seminar of The Sailor Who Fell From Grace WIth the Sea.  When she looked up from setting up her desk, Leila noticed that Maya was only three seats away from her on the right, and that she was looking straight at Leila with a funny look.  However, when she realized that Leila saw her, she quickly looked away and put on a bored face.  

"Okay class," said Mrs. Difi, "What do you think of Noboru's relationship with Ryuji?"  

Right away, people started firing off their remarks, but Leila held back, only commenting once or twice when she was picked involuntarily.

When class was over, Leila rushed off to gym class.  She hated seminars because she always was forced to talk when she would have rather sat back and listened to everyone else's opinions.  In gym, they were playing badminton, and Leila was thankful that she wouldn't be all sweaty when she left class to meet up with Zack at lunch.