And Your Girl Can Sing

Chapter 40: The Calm Before The Storm

Happy valentines day! WE've hIT CHAPTER 40 and a freaking 14k reads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!

NB: This chapter was written during the span of the last few days and in the end reached over like six thousand words so I'm breaking it up but the next chapter will be out soon. I hope you all are having a wonderful day! Hearing from you all makes my heart melt :,)

I thought it odd that June smoked weed, broke into school, broke out of school, stole from her mother's purse, etc, etc, but strangely never had a boyfriend. It wasn't spoken of before, it was just something that didn't need to be explained. "Boys are absolute twats," I furiously muttered one day during lunch break, scrunching my hair up and letting it loose, frustrated at the lack of explanation about the topic. June had said, "Amen, sister," as we both leaned against the wall of the yard in a private corner where she could smoke without bring caught.

"Why don't you have a bloke of yer own, June?" I had asked her, hitching up my skirt and pulling my socks up past my knees. Sailor Moon had recently made a comeback; the anime-esque short skirt and thigh high socks were currently on trend.

She took a long drag on the cig and fired back, "Why don't you?"

I reached into my purse and took out a lip gloss, looking subconsciously for something to do with my mouth. After applying a coat on, I capped the lid and delicately replied, "There's no one good enough." Mother's words some few years ago, "You're just not ready," had made me defensive and even though I knew she was right I preferred to give my own thought up explanation, and oh, Danny hurt, he hurt so much, but I always bounced that thought away from my mind.

"Fair," June said conversationally, and then, "Danny was quite nice, though."

Again someone else's words made more sense than mine. I squirmed in my mental quicksand. "Shut it. We're over." Something slipped out of my mouth unnoticed. "I'm looking for someone who will love me forever."

June almost dropped her fag, she was laughing so hard, her long blonde hair flying in front of her face. "Cora," she grinned widely at me. "There will never be anyone like that. They don't exist. You want to know why I don't have a boyfriend? Or just a quick hookup bloke? I know enough about this world that when you love someone, you form connections with them. And then you lose them and you have to deal with the pain. I'm through with that. Best to not get started at all."

I looked away, slightly hurt, feeling like I had been granted a new piece of wisdom I hadn't really wanted in the first place. "We all just want somebody to love," I muttered instead, shoving my pride into the toe of my mary jane shoes, and I felt her take my hand and squeeze it. I gave her a gentle squeeze back and tiptoed, bringing my lips to her forehead in a gesture of silent affection.

***

"Mara! Did you hear that?"

I opened one eye from my dream and through darkness saw a haze of dark green, tiny green bamboo shoots, like I was in a forest. Something felt off, like just getting off of an airplane and thinking, wow, I'm halfway around the world! or waking up on the couch when you were sure you remembered crawling into bed the night before.

"What, Charlotte?" came a British accent from the same vicinity.

"That thump," said the voice, confused.

The green shoots were grass, just not in the daylight I was used to. Groaning, I pulled myself up from the ground like a cat, stretching on the dewy morning drops, dirt on my cheek. It was strangely dark. My eyes blinked to adjust to the darkness and I couldn't. My stomach caught up to me and I stumbled; feeling like I just got off of a ferris wheel. I could feel my sweaty legs sticking to the back of my dress and a strange breeziness between my legs. Where was my underwear?