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Agnes carefully searched Rashi's face; her eyes were closed, her wet hair sticking to her face and her knitted eyebrows. She knew what she wanted to do, heck, every single cell in her body ached to hold Rashi's face and kiss her. But all she did was gently brush Rashi's wet hair away from her face. "We should go back in, I saw lightning earlier"
Rashi's eyes flew open and Agnes noticed her face turn a little pink. "Wha-? Yeah, okay"
When Rashi had turned around to go climb down the stairs, Agnes smiled to herself, picturing in her head over and over again the things that lead up to that one moment. The moment that Agnes threw away. The truth was, she was scared. She was scared it was only a spur of the moment type of thing, that Rashi would regret it the second it was over. So Agnes had stopped herself, she told herself she would hold back until she was sure of Rashi's feelings.
Once they were back in, Agnes walked past an awkward Rashi who stood beside the door, clenching the hems of the shirt she had borrowed, water dripping on the floor. "Your dress is dry, you can change back into this" she said, tossing the yellow dress towards Rashi. "I'll make you something hot to drink"
Agnes didn't bother to change into dry clothes and quickly gathered ingredients for hot chocolate. She remembered the look on Rashi's face when she'd given her a cup of it earlier that day and she wanted to see it again.
As she waited for the milk to heat up, from the corner of her eyes, Agnes saw Rashi slowly slip out of the baggy shirt. Agnes blushed and turned her face to other side, trying to be casual. But the image had already registered and she couldn't shake it off. "Sorry, I should've gone out. I didn't mean to make it uncomfortable"
"No...No, it's okay. I'm not uncomfortable"
"Okay. You can use the towel from earlier to dry your hair"
Agnes turned her attention back to the milk and didn't dare to look anywhere else until she felt Rashi standing next to her.
"I'll watch the milk. You should change too. You'll catch a cold, do you have something dry to change into?"
Agnes stepped back "Yeah, there should be another one of those old T-shirts somewhere in the storage"
Their empty cups were placed next to each other on the table and Agnes stared at them, lost in thought as Rashi slept quietly behind her on one of the cushioned seats. She wanted to wake her up and talk about what had happened earlier. She could tell things had gotten really awkward since they'd come back in and it felt like Rashi was being careful around her and so she wanted fix it.
Another half an hour had passed when Agnes heard Rashi shifting from her uncomfortable position before slowly opening her eyes. When she did, Rashi gave Agnes a smile and Agnes didn't know how to make sense of it but she smiled back anyway.
"Slept well?"
"Not really. My back's a little sour. But it's fine" Rashi stretched as she sat back up. "What have you been up to?"
"I just... watched the rain. It's not as heavy anymore but there was lightning and thunder" That was a lie. Agnes just didn't want Rashi to take the chance to leave so she decided a little lie wouldn't hurt. She knew she'll have to let her go eventually anyway.
"I'm not sure if you changed my mind about the rain. But I can see why it can be beautiful"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah"
Silence fell upon them, the only sound came from the rain hitting the glass door and windows. Agnes's curly mess of a hair was still a little wet from earlier but she still forced them into a bun, it seemed like the only thing she could do than sitting there idly trying to think of a way she could word her thoughts properly.
"What was it like? Growing up for you?"
"All of a sudden?"
"I got curious"
"Well, I stayed with my grandma mostly. Mom and dad were busy working, they came around during weekends but they were busy most of the time so...grandma pretty much raised me up"
"You were close to her then"
"As a kid, yes. But not when I started high school, not really"
"What happened?"
"I didn't agree with a lot of things she believed in. Didn't behave the way she wanted me to behave"
"Oh"
"It's all okay now. We're not close but she's the only family I keep in touch with these days, this place is hers"
"Your parents?"
"No. They were never really in the picture anyway. My parents felt like visitors to me"
"Like my dad" Rashi nodded, taking it all in.
"Do you miss him a lot?"
"I'm used to it" Rashi paused. "Are you going to stay here? As in work here for the rest of your life?"
"I'm still wondering what I want to do. All I knew was that I needed a break after my Bachelor's"
"I wish I could get a break. Mom would tear me apart if I told her that"
The two girls chuckled and there was silence again. But this time, Agnes decided she'll speak up. "Rashi? I have something to tell you"
