No Time Like Now (Lesbian)

Chapter Fifteen

Imagine you have knowledge of a planet with its own population of humankind. What do you do with it?

If I'm throwing a party and none of my friends are coming, then I'm inviting them and we're all rocking to Kesha until sunrise.

Is that the only thing you'd do, Aspen??

Well yeah, where else am I gonna find some back-up partiers? 😂😂🎉🎉

I mean... that's probably an actual job for some people here.

Yeah but I'm broke. Can't afford to hire professional party people.

I slide down the screen as I look for other interesting texts. Often I'm glancing up at the time out of nervousness. Not because Aspen might not show up; I'm not sure what I'm gonna say when she comes. 

It doesn't help hearing footsteps getting louder and faster. Hell, I stop breathing as if it would make me invisible.

The footsteps, at its loudest, slowed down. And then a voice. "Niamh? Are you hiding under a tree?"

I barely have the chance to process the voice when Aspen appears. And now I have to process how cute she looks in a polka-dotted parka. (Is it acceptable to call it parka-dotted?) Strands of her hair are coming out of her grey knitted beanie, framing her smiling face. 

Returning the smile, I move inches to my right to make room for her. The sudden movement somehow causes another wave of pain, and I wince. Thankfully, Aspen doesn't notice. 

Sitting down, she shoves her hands in the pockets.

"You have no idea how bad I needed a break," she says, exhaling sharply. "The only customer I had today was a pain in the ass with payment, and Dad kept telling me he'll fix one of the machines, even though it takes an expert to figure out what needed fixed, which he isn't. I love him, but a bookkeeper who knows more about numbers than machinery shouldn't be near the machine if it's broken." 

She turns to me, with a refreshed smile. "By the way, hi."

"Hi." What right does she have to let out a rant and then come up with the cutest 'hi' I've ever heard? And can she please keep greeting me every time like that? Her getting out some frustration and me feeling happy over her 'hi's are the two birds that dies from the stone.

I could have found a better way of saying it. Whatever.

Aspen looks around the graveyard. "I feel like I should know this place. I've been living here all my life, you know?"

I didn't until now. Guess the small town isn't that small. What a relief. 

I briefly explain the existence of Broken Bones, finally finding the opportunity to release some knowledge about this place to someone besides myself. "The last body at the first graveyard was buried in 1913, and then this one was built about a year after that."

She nods in understanding, and then pauses. "A year? Where'd they put the bodies that died in between?"

The elementary school teacher I had for fourth grade didn't really say much on the graveyard situation when teaching us the town's history, which meant I had to look it up on my own. "If I remember correctly, the bodies were buried under the field of this one farmer everyone hated. The closer they buried the corpse to his house, the better."

Luckily, Aspen didn't have the same teacher. "Yeah, I remember something about that," she mentions. "He was the guy who constantly made fun of the mayor's kids. Didn't one of them had polio or something?"

The mere mention has my brain whirring for more information. "Yeah, Poor Polio'd Paul."

Aspen snaps her fingers. "That was his name!" She pauses. "Man, the farmer was a dick."

"Yeah, for sure." I haven't brought up the other shit he did, including throwing a skunk at some dude for asking for his daughter's hand.

She keeps her gaze on the chilling view. "What were you doing here?"

"Only way I can have alone time," I respond, simple as pie. "Which, you know, I don't want. Kind of why I texted you first."

Cringey Niamh's at it again, apparently.

"Aww," Aspen coos, "I was the first person you thought of?"

"I -- yeah."

She smiles again. And then it disappears. "Am I also the only one you can tolerate right now?"

"Where did you get that?"

To answer my question, she gestures to my face. "Customer interaction is useful in a lot of ways, including reading a lot into implied statements through expression."

There are other ways to learn the skill, but I get it.

Before I can stop myself, I admit to Aspen, "It feels like I can't have a single second of time to myself without my parents barging in, or friends, or teachers." 

As if proving my point, my phone buzzes. 

With a laugh, she asks, "Wanna see who it's from?"

"Nope; I'm busy."

"Good." Her hands pop out of the pockets and start fiddling with each other. "How often do you come here? I'm gonna assume a lot?"

"You assumed right." I tell her about my schedule and how I managed to stay under my parents' radar for so long. My favorite part of talking is watching her reaction. Currently, I am impressing her with my awesomeness. Fuck yeah.

"And what if your parents find out?" she asks.

Ah, the one question I've thought about a few times. 

"I imagine it would be three hours of them lecturing me about what a horrible child I was for lying to them, and then another hour of demanding why I did that, even though they're not gonna listen to --"

Like a bratty child demanding for snacks from her tired, cranky mom, the cramps attack me when I least expect it. My words cut off, I'm bending over with a grimace. While I'm fighting back tears, I'm praying to Satan to please welcome me to Hell as pleasantly and nice as possible, because I'm already regretting everything and that's the least he can do. I know for a fact I'm not going to Heaven, so I don't see the point of trying to make nice with God.

Aspen stares at me, her eyes wide with concern. "Are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?"

I shake my head. "Nope, I'm good," I say weakly. "Just the cramps."

Said cramps brings up another wave like I summoned its presence by name.

With a sigh, Aspen stands up and leaves my line of sight. I don't bother calling for her; I'm a little too occupied. I will make a commitment to remove my organs, though. There's no reason for it to scare someone away.

I open my eyes more in time to see Aspen coming back, shaking something noisy in her hand. Kneeling by me, she pops the cap out and shakes the pill bottle until two tablets come out. She places them on my outstretched palm. She then gets a small water bottle from her pocket and hands it to me.

Okay, at this point I'm sure God heard my cries for help and sent an angel. Satan doing that could be another possibility, but I wouldn't hear the end of it if I called Aspen a demon.

"Sorry I can't do much," Aspen says after I swallow the pills down.

"Don't apologize for being helpful."

She rolls her eyes. "I apologize for everything," she points out. "Before I came over here, I said sorry to my car for having to use her today. After I promised I wouldn't."

Yeah, that about sums up Aspen. At least, from what I've seen.