A Greater Good (girlxgirl)

Questions

I sat at my desk trying to get my computer to turn on while Clarissa started to work beside me. It was the Monday after the engagement party and we had spent the first fifteen minutes of the day debriefing each other on the weekend, which included Clarissa's highly detailed account of the man she hooked up with in the bathroom of the venue.

"Honestly, I don't know what I have to do to get this fixed," I said to Clarissa, holding down the on/off button.

"Blow."

"Excuse me?" I said startled and turned around to Clarissa.

"You don't know who you have to blow, that's usually the phrase," she replied monotonously, staring into her computer screen with concentration and typing out numbers carefully.

"Oh," I laughed. 

I pushed away from my desk and hung my head back over the chair. As I stared at the ceiling I thought about the sex I had this morning in the shower; James crept up behind me and bent me over so my cheek was pushed against the glass, I could feel myself getting excited just as I thought about it.

"Hey, what's the go with James' sister," Clarissa asked, her typing stopped.

All excitement went from my body and I sat up quickly, stars filling my vision.

"Pardon?"

Clarissa smiled cheekily. "I said, what's the go with James' sister?"

"What about her?"

"Wow, protective much."

"That's not what I, I just..." I moved back to my desk and look across at her. "It's complicated."

"I didn't mean what's the go with all the family drama, I meant what's she like, how old, where she lives, da da da," Clarissa said, usually people would be abashed to ask such intense questions, but Clarissa was bold and unashamed of any desire she may have.

"Oh... Ah, she's our age, 27, we used to be really close, it's how I met James..." I faded off from the conversation as the memory of Jane coming over to me in primary school, accusing me of stealing her ruler came to the front of my mind.

"I don't have it," I replied to her accusation boldly.

"I know you do, just give it back," Jane replied equally as bold.

Other kids would have been scared, Jane was a scary kid with that slick black hair and piercing green eyes, but I felt so indignant that she thought I would do something as petty as stealing that I wanted to laugh.

"Look, I don't have it, I'll even come help you look for it."

So we snuck into the locked classroom and opened up everyone's tubs. We had a ball as soon as Jane realised that I didn't have her ruler, and she started being nice and she was funny, I had no idea even at that age that I could laugh so much.

"Ah hah!" I cried as I open Ryan Gilbert's tub - one of the grottier boys in the class - and found the ruler.

Jane came over and snatched the ruler out of the tub. "Thank god."

"Maybe we should let him keep it?" I said timidly, I'd known Jane for 15 minutes and while it felt as if we were equals there was some barrier between us stopping me from saying what I was really thinking about Ryan. 

"Why? It's mine."

"I don't know..." I lowered my eyes from her's. "I feel sorry for him, he doesn't have much money." My short statement would have to do, I was too nervous to get into what I really knew about Ryan with someone as cool as Jane.

"Well too bad," Jane said firmly. "Hey, thanks for your help."

I nodded and we went back out to the playground, it was the beginning of an interesting (to say the least) friendship. And the only reason that I was so determined to be friends with her was because after lunch and back in class, I looked over at Ryan Gilbert in his seat and he was ruling lines with Jane's ruler - she had left it in his tub after all.

"Hello!" Clarissa said loudly.

I snapped out of my daydream and back to the present, colleagues at the next desk over were staring at me, I smiled at them before turning back to Clarissa.

"What?"

"I've been talking at you for a full thirty seconds!"

"Ok, and what do you want now?" I asked unfazed. 

"Is she single?" Clarissa asked, raising an eyebrow seductively. 

I laughed. "But you're not even -"

"I know, but have you even looked at her, I would do anything to anyone who is that good looking."

I laughed loudly and shook my head at Clarissa fondly.

"So is she?" she urged fully serious.

"How do you even know she's into women?" I asked with a know-it-all tone, leaning back in my seat finally expecting to slip Clarissa up.

"Because of how she looks at you," Clarissa stated bluntly.

I opened my mouth to reply but froze, I was stuck gaping at her. Clarissa didn't change her expression, she just looked at me calmly until I could speak again.

"No, no. No, I - " I stumbled until I was cut off by the telephone beside me, I picked it up gratefully, glad to get out of the conversation that had made my cheeks burn. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Everlyn?" a worried male voice asked.

"Yes, this is she." I looked over at Clarissa who mouthed 'who is it?' and shrugged.

"Now, everything's ok -"

Just those words made my stomach swoop and I sat up straight. "What's happened? Is James' alright?"

"Yes, he's fine, he just fell over and caught his leg on a nail, he's been sent to St Luke's hospital for stitches. It's quite severe, you might want to get there to check on him."

"Fuck," I breathed with panic, I was already collecting things into my handbag. "Um... Thank you, ok, thanks." I hung up.

"What's wrong?" Clarissa asked.

"I need you to drive me to the hospital."