Fearless - A Linhella Story [UNFINISHED]

o4

A/N: Hi everyone! enjoy chapter 4 of Fearless.

i stopped censoring words because in all honesty i'm too lazy and i can't remember which ones i deemed "censorable." still censoring both "f-words" because they make me a little uncomfortable.

so i guess if you aren't comfortable with swearing, i don't know what to tell you. whoops

okay with that enjoy reading! xx
(chapter word count: 1191)

After the coffee and croissants, which Marella had to admit were pretty good, they went to the thrift store, which was a couple of stores down. They walked in to see not a lot of people there, but it made some sense since it was early on a Saturday morning.

Linh and Marella started shopping through, occasionally pulling out ridiculous finds to show off to each other.

Like the hideous neon green and pink cargo pants Linh found.
Or the neon yellow cardigan with a few tears in it that Marella spotted.

Marella couldn't remember the last time she laughed so hard with someone. Well, obviously she had with Biana and Sophie, but that didn't count. She'd known them for years.

She hadn't had another friend, let alone one she hung out with outside of school, in years.

After a couple of hours of looking around and finding a few cute things, Marella admitted something to herself.

She wasn't quite ready to leave Linh's company yet.

"Anything else for you ladies today?" The perky cashier asked as they paid for their clothes.

"All good, thanks." Linh smiled sweetly, pulling out her card again.

"Altogether or separate?" she asked, motioning between Linh's small stack of clothes and the pair of ripped jeans Marella had.

"Together," Linh said at the same time Marella said,
"Separate."

"Okay... Your total together is 23.70."  She seemed unsure of what's happening, but Linh handed her her card.

"Here you go." The lady swiped the card and placed the clothes in a bag before handing Linh her card. Linh put it in her pocket, and Marella grabbed the bag off the counter.

"Have a nice day," Marella called to the cashier as they left. She raised a hand as they walked out of the store, and the second Marella climbed into Linh's car she smacked her arm, light enough to not hurt, but hard enough to be noticeable.

"What was that for?!" Linh gasped, running a hand over her arm.

"You didn't need to pay for my clothes. I haven't paid for a single thing and I brought cash specifically for that reason." Linh shrugged.

"Can't I do something nice for a new friend?" she asked as she started the car. Linh placed her hand on her seat as she backed out of the spot, which made something squirm through Marella's stomach and worm it's way to her heart.

Linh silently handed Marella her phone again to play music, so Marella started playing the same kind of songs as she had previously.

For the most part, the drive back to Marella's house was silent, with Linh occasionally saying something or Marella. When they got back, Marella felt that same aching in her chest as she felt when they were checking out.

She didn't want to leave Linh's company.

"Well, this is your house. Grab your pants from the bag?" Linh suggested. Marella nodded and grabbed the jeans that she was going to paint later from the bag.

"Thank you so much for today. It was really fun. Maybe we can hang out again soon?" Linh nodded, brushing her shiny black hair out of her face.

"I'd like that. I had a good morning, Marella."

"Me too." 

The two blue-eyed girls, one silver-eyed and one pale blue, stared at each other, neither wanting to leave the other, both feeling the growing tension but neither of them wanting to act on it.

"Well, I should get going now. Told my mom I'd be home by like noon, and it is."

"Yeah, I guess so." Marella bit the inside of her cheek before getting a stupidly bold idea.

And because she was Marella Redek she acted on it. 

She unbuckled her seatbelt before leaning forward and brushed her lips against Linh's pink cheek. Linh gasped softly as Marella gave the smallest wave she could and practically ran into her house before she could think any more about what she just did.

Linh Song:
Linh only had two words come to her mind after Marella's soft lips grazed her cheek.

Gay. Panic.

She drove the five minutes to her house in a state of shock, mind reeling, and the butterflies in her stomach made her know for sure what she'd been suspecting all morning.

She had a crush on Marella Redek. 

When she got home she saw Tam's car in the driveway and she praised the lord.

"TAM! Where are you?" she yelled upon entering the house. 

"Where else would I be?!" Tam called from upstairs, and Linh sighed. She sprinted upstairs, threw the bag of clothes into her room, and threw the door open to her twins. Tam was laying on his bed, reading, and looked extremely disgruntled as Linh barged in. 

"I have SO much to tell you." Tam chuckled lightly as he set the book down on his bed.

"I figured as much, seeing as you usually yell at me when you have shit to spill. Sit down. What's up?" Linh flopped down on the edge of Tam's bed, playing with the end of her shoelace as she debated speaking.

"You know how I went out with a friend today?"

"The one that saves my ass every day from F*ckface Vacker?" Linh couldn't help but laugh at the nickname.

"Yes, Marella." Tam smirked.

"What about her? God, she may be small but she's goddamn terrifying when she's pissed." Tam folded his arms across his chest, seeming to find this whole conversation entertaining. Linh took a deep breath before blurting out,

"I think I like her." 

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, she kissed me-"

"WHAT?" Tam interrupted. Linh held her hands up as Tam started to berate her with questions.

"Calm down, Jesus. I didn't finish my sentence. I was going to say she kissed me on the cheek. And before you get weird about THAT some girls do it platonically, but I barely know her and I know she's lesbian, so like maybe she likes me or maybe she was doing it platonically, but it made my stomach all squirmy and I realized that I totally like her. Like a lot. And I barely know her. Goddamnit is that weird?" Linh flopped onto her side on Tam's dark bed sheets, burying her face in the thin material as she heard her twin snicker at her. 

"You're f*cking whipped for a girl you barely know."

"You can't talk! I know that you're hung up on a straight boy who's friends with, in your words, F*ckface-" Tam covered her mouth with his hand, shushing her insistently.

"Hey! We don't talk about my crush, okay? It's not gonna happen, but I can't help it. He's f*cking hot as hell." Linh laughed as Tam removed his hand from her mouth.

"Two Songs, both with crushes on people we have no chance with."

"Not true. You may have a chance with Marella Redek, but I have like 0.001 chance with Keefe, plus we don't even know if he's into guys." 

Linh sighed heavily, dragging a hand down her face.

Yeah. She and her brother had amazing judgement when it came to people to like. 

A pretty much straight boy who hung out with the most homophobic kid at school.

And a girl who, while into girls herself, was so reckless and spontaneous and flirty that Linh couldn't tell when she was being a friend or trying to become her girlfriend.