(no subject)
He’d been surprised- he hadn’t noticed he’d come this far. And once he’d sat down, laid down in the bowl, the thick night had pressed him to the cooling concrete, and he’d simply let his eyes droop and listened to the whir of insects.
He must not have been thinking of her, for once, because her cry and the sudden grate and crash of her bailing off her bike was so utterly unexpected.
“Jesus!” she gasped, and, frozen bolt-upright in the not-quite-blackness, his muscles sang with electric recognition. “Are you ok? I almost didn’t see you-“
“I’m fine,” he said, tone shakier than he’d have liked, “Riley?”
“Yeah. Who-“
“Zane. Um, from the other day- the documentary.”
“You remembered my name,” she said, softly and with such undiluted pleasure it sent a spike of warmth straight through him.
An awkward silence descended in which the grit on the ramp magnified every shift.
“Oh! Hey- are you ok? That sounded like a nasty fall,” he said, suddenly and all at once.
“Yeah,” she said, “I’ve taken worse on this ramp. You just surprised me.”
“Sorry,” he said, belated heat creeping up his face.
“What are you doing out here so late, anyway? I haven’t seen you around since you finished the film thing,” She continued over the sound of a zipper and canvas rustling.
“I was just walking around. You know. And I must have fallen asleep, I guess.”
He squinted in the sudden, yellow light. “I guess,” she said, wryly, her teasing grin brief on him before she turned to inspect her bike.
At a loss again, he watched her silhouette against the flashlight beam.
“How’s your bike?”
“’sfine. She’s tougher than she looks.”
“Are you sure you’re ok?” he asked, looking pointedly at the ragged mess of her pants leg.
“Shit,” she said, looking down, “Donny’s going to rip me a new one. Third pair of coveralls I’ve ruined this month.”
“Donny?”
“My boss, down at the garage.”
“Oh.”
They looked at each other, her eyes darker, warmer than the night crowding into the dim circle of light.
“If you want, I’ll leave,” she said, “since you were here first.”
“No. I mean, you don’t have to. I was only here by accident.”
She looked at him for another minute and he hoped his expression wasn’t as stupidly, openly hopeful as it felt. A tiny grin crept up her mouth and burst wide.
She clicked the light off.
The darkness lapped them again, and her footsteps crunched over to her pack, then close beside him, then slid into the long scrape and shift of her legs stretching out. He leaned back, cautiously, and let his eyes wander upwards. The deep bowl shut out most of city lights, leaving only a faint green-gray pall that faded from the sky just enough to admit a few determined stars near zenith.
“It’s a nice night,” she said, voice, breath very close beside him.
“Yeah. Tomorrow’s supposed to be real hot, though,” he said, and bit his grin. Talking about the weather.
“How’s the movie?”
“The- Oh, it’s ok. I’m thinking about maybe entering it in the film festival, once it’s done.”
“Cool.”
“Hey,” he said, abruptly, “Were you planning on sleeping out here?’
“Yeah,” she said, and shifted, slightly, “Kind of.”
“Why?” he asked, then immediately regretted it.
She snorted.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t-“
“No,” she said, “It’s just- Joe, Donny’s roommate- they let me crash at their place- and Joe pisses me off like, all the time. So he was just being an ass, as usual, and I just felt like riding around, and then I didn’t feel like going home. Besides, it’s a nice night.”
“Yeah.”
“What about you?” she asked, with a crunch like she’d rolled up on one elbow, and a sudden nearness of body heat and he had to remember to breathe.
“Ah- my parents, they won’t care. Sometimes I need out of that house, you know?”
“You in school?”
“Home-schooled. You?”
“I dropped out. Donny didn’t want to let me, but I was about to get kicked out anyway.”
“Why?”
“Fighting.”
“Me too.”
“Yeah?’
“Yeah. Those assholes on the team always managed to pin it on me. Even the administration thought I was a fag,” His bitterness still hadn’t faded enough to keep out of his tone.
“That sucks,” she said, and her hand landed on his ribs, rested there for a moment, jerked away.
They were quiet again, and her body close beside him made the night air frigid.
“Hey,” she said, “Have you ever been out to the springs?”
“Not for a while.”
“You wanna go? Tomorrow? Do you have a bike? They’re the best early in the morning, before everyone gets there.”
Her enthusiasm was infectious, and she swayed closer to him, brushing his arm with the soft fabric of her tank. The image of that white cotton transparent and clinging lanced through his mind. He was not going to let himself get hard.
“Are you sure,” and his voice was not husky, not in the slightest, “You aren’t trusting me a little too quickly, letting me stay here with you?”
“Of course,” she said, so blithely positive it made him blink.
“How?” he asked.
“Instinct,” she said, and he could feel her smile all the way to the pit of his stomach.