Before Us (GirlXGirl)

Chapter 3

Lainey

The days turned into weeks, doing the same thing over and over, sleeping late, going to school, going to work, and rushing even later the next day to complete homework and the SAT prep. Lainey was exhausted. She figured she would pull an all nighter at the coffee shop and study for the SAT test she would take tomorrow.

After closing, Lainey cleaned as fast as she could, she figured she would skate to the coffee shop on 1st street near the school, but Jess caught up with her too quickly, "you know I don't mind giving you a ride home, right? It's just on the way to my house anyways." Jess smiled, closing and locking the door behind her, Lainey was all ears.

"I really do appreciate it though, you're a great person for it." Lainey smiled as the two of them walked to her car again, like they did every night. They were practically good friends at this point, but Lainey could never tell what they were. Jess continued to make eyes with Lainey several times over the past couple of shifts, but that was typical, because Jess was just such a flirt to everyone, it was her demeanor.

"Heading home for the night?" Jess asked, pulling out of the parking lot.

"Actually, if you don't mind, I'm going to pull an all nighter at the coffee shop and practice for the SATs." She sighed.

After a moment of awkward silence, Jess looked sightly confused, "I didn't take you as the studying type."

Lainey smiled and gave her a confused look as well. She was so tired and her voice was left so warn out from yelling at drunks her whole shift that she looked back over and said in the raspiest deepest tone, "then what did you take me as?"

For whatever reason, Lainey watched as Jess's cheeks filled with blush and she smiled, lightly biting at the inside of her lip. Jess shook her head, "sometimes I think I know a lot about you, but other days you really just surprise me, and I feel as if I know nothing about you at all."

Lainey smiled cheekily, she had to stand her ground, girls like Jess got her into all the trouble in the world. The car pulled into the parking lot of the coffee shop and Lainey sighed. "Nobody knows anything about me, yet I'm an open book." She smiled, slightly annoyed and opened the car door to leave.

Walking up to the coffee shop, she was greeted once inside. She ordered coffee and sat down, pulling all her work out of her backpack. The sound of the door opening could be heard and the person was greeted. Lainey never looked up, she was trying to get into her work, she flicked her pen around and bit the end of it thinking of where to get started, but the sound of the familiar kind greeting back had all her attention.

Lainey looked up and Jess stood in the empty line to order a coffee. The shop was dead, only hard workers who wanted things and wanted to get things done came here at night. Lainey shook her head and went back to her work, opening a practice test packet the school's SAT prep class gave out, she opened it up and began working away.

"I want to know how open your book is." Jess smiled with a chuckle, sitting down next to Lainey. The stools in the coffee shop were so close, their arms brushed every time they moved, it made Lainey's heart beat even faster. As if the car weren't close enough.

"Did you really follow me in here to talk about life?" Lainey asked, looking over at Jess, the look said it all and Lainey shook her head with a sigh, "ask me anything." Lainey reached for her coffee.

"Are you into women?" Jess smiled eagerly, but still tired, proud of her own question as she took a sip from her coffee.

Lainey nearly spit out her drink, if they had all night, and that was the first question she would ask, Lainey was in for a trip. Her heart beating fast, if she did admit something Jess really already knew, would that ruin their friendship?

"If you mean do I like to eat pussy, then yes." Lainey chuckled going back to her work. A straight forward question deserved a straight forward answer. Lainey wanted to meet Jess half way with the same energy.

There was silence after Jess chuckled softly. The silence was awkward, the sound of the elevator music from the coffee shop's speakers was the only sound heard along with the grinding of in-store coffee beans. Lainey was beginning to regret saying what she said, maybe she had messed up a blossoming friendship or a blossoming romance, although Jess would always be out of her league.

"Where did you come from? How did we not meet Freshman year?" Jess laughed questionably, digging through her backpack for school work.

Lainey looked over at her and realized she didn't mess anything up, Jess looked so intrested in what Lainey had to say that she would spend an all nighter doing homework with her.

"I kept my head down and went through all four years of high school to myself, just making sure I study hard and work hard so I don't end up in the same situation as my dad." Lainey half smiled, not taking her eyes off her homework.

Jess's look gave the type of apology that everyone gave her, but it was nice coming from a friend, since Lainey really went through all four years of high school with none. She always knew her alter ego would have made her a crazy high school kid but she swore on her mother's grave she'd make her mother proud.

"So what you're saying is, you've never been to a party, never smoked or drank alcohol, never went to any school games or on any trips?" Jess looked over at her, slightly astonished, because she knew the answer. Lainey shook her head yes and continued on her work. She loved the extra time with Jess, but it was beginning to be distracting, on the even more negative side, she wasn't sure where Jess was going with this except to embarrass her or make fun.

"Well, you've met me at the right time. Do you want to come on our camping trip next weekend? Just me and some other girls going." She smiled and shivered from the cold.

"If you really want me to rain on your parade..." Lainey cocked her head with a blatant smile.

"You could never. Just be yourself." She smiled back, pulling her jacket tighter around her.

Lainey thought to herself; be herself or be her alter ego? "If I say yes will you let me do my work?" She tried to stay serious, but Jess always made her smile.

Jess raised her brow and pretended to zip her mouth shut and turned back to her school work. Lainey watched her for a split moment more before rolling her eyes away. Lainey focused in on her practice test,  upon completing the test, she ran out of coffee and got up to get another, bringing Jess another as well. She knew she wouldn't have to do anything like that, but the warming thank you and the smile she got back was worth everything.

"Could you help me with this stuff?" Jess drove her hand up her forehead to ease the stress and push back the fly aways from her messy work bun.

Lainey looked over her shoulder surprised it wasn't something more mathematical. Economics, a girl like Jess wouldn't be into things like that.

"Sure," Lainey said, she hadn't sat down yet, she hovered next to Jess in the small coffee shop on 1st street at 3am. She read over the question and remembered the same questions from the semester before when she took Econ. Lainey grabbed the pen from Jess's shaky hands and wrote in the answers to the last two questions. There were originally twenty, but she had been working on it the whole time and Lainey felt bad. She had to lean in closer to reach the paper and the closer she got, the more she could feel Jess's warmth. It was so incredible the feeling of it was just like anybody's but her warmth felt contagious in that moment. Jess's hair smelt of coconuts and citrus and she wrote quicker with each inhale of the scent. Jess made her so uneasy and she had no clue why. She hardly knew her, she didn't even know her full name, yet she sat down on her stool a whole two feet from Jess and the warmth seemed to follow her.

Lainey blushed and went back to some other work. It was pretty early in the morning, the coffee shop began filling with people more and more with each passing hour. Lainey would look over at Jess a few times to see if she was ever looking back, but she never was. She would look away right as Jess would look up. They played eye tag, but there was no winner.