Vanilla 2, chocolate 29, strawberry 25: Stay A While
Title: Stay A While
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Vanilla 2 (the sniffles), chocolate 29 (relief), strawberry 25 (thread).
Word Count: 1260
Rating: PG-13 because Ivy has a potty mouth.
Summary: Ivy's wretched day gets quite unexpectedly better.
Notes: I missed writing Ivy! So here she is again, plus Gina. This is a silver medal for the picture's worth a thousand words challenge for Team Inconvienent Fire Drill, using this picture.
Finally, the title of this piece is from Two Apples, a truly lovely song by Mighty Katy Pfaffl, which happens to be Ivy and Gina's theme in my head.
Ivy was almost asleep on her feet.
It had been way too long a day, she thought, leaning against a pillar on the subway platform, feeling the cool tiles imprint on the side of her forehead. Work, work, work then class, class, class, and she still had homework to do, damn it, and on top of all that, she had a cold. Brought on by end-of-semester stress, probably, right when she didn't need it.
Fucking grad school. Why did she ever agree to grad school? You could practice as a vet with a bachelor's degree, which Ivy had as of last April. She didn’t need to be in grad school, learning how to give injections to fucking goldfish. Ivy loved animals, usually, but right now she hated goldish with all her heart.
The subway cars were blurring in front of her eyes. She blinked, and focused. Nope, not her train. One more still to go, and then she could... catch a bus after that, and walk a block and a half after that. Christ, sometimes she wished she had enough money for a taxi.
She sneezed, and wiped her nose on her sleeve, and sensed more than saw a couple of people moving away from her. Good. Personal space was in short supply in New York; being sick would at least get you that grace.
Maybe she could skip class tomorrow and stay in bed. Ivy had an ingrained horror of missing classes-- it came from having a mother who was a teacher, and at least partly from paying over four hundred dollars per session, she'd worked it out once in college-- but at this rate she was going to get the rest of her class sick.
Possibly the goldfish too.
Stupid goldfish.
The train rolled in, and Ivy shoved her way on, glaring balefully at the perfectly hale and healthy twenty-something hipster taking up the handicapped seat. He smirked back at her, then ostentatiously turned up the volume on his iPod. Ivy entertained homicidal fantasies.
"Ivy?" The voice was female, musical, and familiar.
Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, not Gina, not here, not now... she closed her eyes, prayed, turned around and opened them again.
It was Gina, looking gorgeous and long-legged in a stylish black coat that set off her pale coloring beautifully.
Clearly, someone up there had it in for her.
"Hi, Gina," she said, and followed it up with another sneeze. Christ.
She'd managed, thus far, to always be made-up and dressed nicely when she saw Gina-- at least then the other girl might be vaguely sort of kind of interested, on occasion. Maybe.
So of course Gina found her now, when she hadn't even brushed her hair that morning and had a red, runny nose, when she was wearing her favorite beat-up old lavender sweater that did her figure no favors and Crocs, possibly the least flattering shoes in history and... ugh. Not even her siblings wanted to be around her when she was like this. How could someone as beautiful as Gina?
Ugh.
Gina looked vaguely alarmed. No wonder. "Are you okay?"
Ivy sniffed again, and fixed her attention on a loose thread hanging from Gina's sleeve in order to avoid looking her in the eyes. "Um. No, not really. Long day, and I'm..." she sneezed a third time, "sick. Goddamnit."
"You look terrible," Gina said.
Thanks ever so.
"How long until you get home?"
Ivy looked away from the thread and blinked at her. "Uh? Oh, God, I don't know. I have to catch a bus at Union Square and then walk a bit. Uh. Forty-five minutes?"
Gina shook her head decisively. "No, that won't do. You'll just make yourself sicker. Why don't you catch a cab?"
Ivy shrugged one shoulder uncomfortably, and crossed her arms across her chest, fixating on the thread again. "Can't. Too broke," she said, and added, "I'm a student," hoping that would explain that.
It must have, because Gina nodded, with an understanding look in her eye. "Well, I probably don't have cab fare on me, but I only live a block away from Union Square."
Why the hell was she talking about where she lived? "That must be expensive," Ivy said, and swayed back as the subway came to an especially sudden halt, almost cracking her head on the pole. Fucking subway.
Gina, despite wearing heels, swayed elegantly with the subway and managed to stay on her feet without recourse to a strap or the pole. Blah. Ivy wasn't sure whether she loved or hated her.
"Yeah," Gina said, "but it's tiny, so rent's less than you'd think." She paused for a moment, then added, her tone almost teasing, "I've got hot chocolate..."
"Vile temptress," Ivy said, and sniffed back an errant drip. "My sister Summer drank all ours. I was just gonna crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. And stay there for about a week."
Gina laughed. It was a lovely sound to hear; it made even Ivy, in her wretched, mucusful misery, smile. "That was an invitation." She paused, then flushed bright red and added hastily, "Er, to have hot chocolate, not crawl into bed."
Damn, Ivy thought, automatically, then, Wait, what? "You're inviting me to tea?"
"Close enough," Gina said. "Here, I'll bribe you. I'll give you cab fare home."
"Oh, no, I couldn't take that..."
Gina overrode her. "Sure you could. You're sick, Ivy. I mean, I don't think you get quite how sick."
Ivy scowled and wiped her nose again. "I'm the one suffering here. I get it just fine."
"Yeah, well, it could turn into bronchitis, and that would suck." Gina shrugged. "You can pay me back when you're done being a student, if you really want."
"Hah," Ivy said. "Bronchitis would suck. I guess if you're really willing to wait three and a half years for cab fare..."
Gina raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were out of college?"
"I am," Ivy said. "This is grad school. Heaven help me."
This time Gina's laugh had more than a tinge of relief about it. "Right, well." She waved an arm, and that thread caught Ivy's attention again. She couldn't recall anything imperfect about Gina; this tiny flaw, minescule as it was, was new, and attractive as hell, dammit. "Come have hot chocolate with me and I'll wait three and a half years to get my cab fare paid back. Promise."
Ivy wrinkled her nose, thinking. Was that... it couldn't be, she looked terrible...and it was always better not to assume. But Gina was smiling, and she was so lovely, and Ivy had wanted her since she'd seen her... God, it must be nearly nine months ago now. They'd met so rarely it felt like less.
It had been spring, then, just before her birthday and it was the depths of slushy winter now, and she really, really did not want to go slogging through New York City sidewalks and possibly get bronchitis.
And then there was that flush...
Oh, what the hell. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. "Or I could buy you dinner once I get over this damn cold," she said, as casually as she could manage.
Gina's brilliant smile stunned her, almost as much as another sudden stop. "I'd love that," she said, and grabbed Ivy's mittened hand to give it a quick squeeze. "You better get well quick. I'm patient about cab fares but not about dinner."
Well, damn. Ivy grinned, and sneezed, and grinned some more.
Maybe whoever was up there liked her after all.
Main Story: In the Heart
Flavors, Toppings, Extras: Vanilla 2 (the sniffles), chocolate 29 (relief), strawberry 25 (thread).
Word Count: 1260
Rating: PG-13 because Ivy has a potty mouth.
Summary: Ivy's wretched day gets quite unexpectedly better.
Notes: I missed writing Ivy! So here she is again, plus Gina. This is a silver medal for the picture's worth a thousand words challenge for Team Inconvienent Fire Drill, using this picture.
Finally, the title of this piece is from Two Apples, a truly lovely song by Mighty Katy Pfaffl, which happens to be Ivy and Gina's theme in my head.
Ivy was almost asleep on her feet.
It had been way too long a day, she thought, leaning against a pillar on the subway platform, feeling the cool tiles imprint on the side of her forehead. Work, work, work then class, class, class, and she still had homework to do, damn it, and on top of all that, she had a cold. Brought on by end-of-semester stress, probably, right when she didn't need it.
Fucking grad school. Why did she ever agree to grad school? You could practice as a vet with a bachelor's degree, which Ivy had as of last April. She didn’t need to be in grad school, learning how to give injections to fucking goldfish. Ivy loved animals, usually, but right now she hated goldish with all her heart.
The subway cars were blurring in front of her eyes. She blinked, and focused. Nope, not her train. One more still to go, and then she could... catch a bus after that, and walk a block and a half after that. Christ, sometimes she wished she had enough money for a taxi.
She sneezed, and wiped her nose on her sleeve, and sensed more than saw a couple of people moving away from her. Good. Personal space was in short supply in New York; being sick would at least get you that grace.
Maybe she could skip class tomorrow and stay in bed. Ivy had an ingrained horror of missing classes-- it came from having a mother who was a teacher, and at least partly from paying over four hundred dollars per session, she'd worked it out once in college-- but at this rate she was going to get the rest of her class sick.
Possibly the goldfish too.
Stupid goldfish.
The train rolled in, and Ivy shoved her way on, glaring balefully at the perfectly hale and healthy twenty-something hipster taking up the handicapped seat. He smirked back at her, then ostentatiously turned up the volume on his iPod. Ivy entertained homicidal fantasies.
"Ivy?" The voice was female, musical, and familiar.
Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, not Gina, not here, not now... she closed her eyes, prayed, turned around and opened them again.
It was Gina, looking gorgeous and long-legged in a stylish black coat that set off her pale coloring beautifully.
Clearly, someone up there had it in for her.
"Hi, Gina," she said, and followed it up with another sneeze. Christ.
She'd managed, thus far, to always be made-up and dressed nicely when she saw Gina-- at least then the other girl might be vaguely sort of kind of interested, on occasion. Maybe.
So of course Gina found her now, when she hadn't even brushed her hair that morning and had a red, runny nose, when she was wearing her favorite beat-up old lavender sweater that did her figure no favors and Crocs, possibly the least flattering shoes in history and... ugh. Not even her siblings wanted to be around her when she was like this. How could someone as beautiful as Gina?
Ugh.
Gina looked vaguely alarmed. No wonder. "Are you okay?"
Ivy sniffed again, and fixed her attention on a loose thread hanging from Gina's sleeve in order to avoid looking her in the eyes. "Um. No, not really. Long day, and I'm..." she sneezed a third time, "sick. Goddamnit."
"You look terrible," Gina said.
Thanks ever so.
"How long until you get home?"
Ivy looked away from the thread and blinked at her. "Uh? Oh, God, I don't know. I have to catch a bus at Union Square and then walk a bit. Uh. Forty-five minutes?"
Gina shook her head decisively. "No, that won't do. You'll just make yourself sicker. Why don't you catch a cab?"
Ivy shrugged one shoulder uncomfortably, and crossed her arms across her chest, fixating on the thread again. "Can't. Too broke," she said, and added, "I'm a student," hoping that would explain that.
It must have, because Gina nodded, with an understanding look in her eye. "Well, I probably don't have cab fare on me, but I only live a block away from Union Square."
Why the hell was she talking about where she lived? "That must be expensive," Ivy said, and swayed back as the subway came to an especially sudden halt, almost cracking her head on the pole. Fucking subway.
Gina, despite wearing heels, swayed elegantly with the subway and managed to stay on her feet without recourse to a strap or the pole. Blah. Ivy wasn't sure whether she loved or hated her.
"Yeah," Gina said, "but it's tiny, so rent's less than you'd think." She paused for a moment, then added, her tone almost teasing, "I've got hot chocolate..."
"Vile temptress," Ivy said, and sniffed back an errant drip. "My sister Summer drank all ours. I was just gonna crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. And stay there for about a week."
Gina laughed. It was a lovely sound to hear; it made even Ivy, in her wretched, mucusful misery, smile. "That was an invitation." She paused, then flushed bright red and added hastily, "Er, to have hot chocolate, not crawl into bed."
Damn, Ivy thought, automatically, then, Wait, what? "You're inviting me to tea?"
"Close enough," Gina said. "Here, I'll bribe you. I'll give you cab fare home."
"Oh, no, I couldn't take that..."
Gina overrode her. "Sure you could. You're sick, Ivy. I mean, I don't think you get quite how sick."
Ivy scowled and wiped her nose again. "I'm the one suffering here. I get it just fine."
"Yeah, well, it could turn into bronchitis, and that would suck." Gina shrugged. "You can pay me back when you're done being a student, if you really want."
"Hah," Ivy said. "Bronchitis would suck. I guess if you're really willing to wait three and a half years for cab fare..."
Gina raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were out of college?"
"I am," Ivy said. "This is grad school. Heaven help me."
This time Gina's laugh had more than a tinge of relief about it. "Right, well." She waved an arm, and that thread caught Ivy's attention again. She couldn't recall anything imperfect about Gina; this tiny flaw, minescule as it was, was new, and attractive as hell, dammit. "Come have hot chocolate with me and I'll wait three and a half years to get my cab fare paid back. Promise."
Ivy wrinkled her nose, thinking. Was that... it couldn't be, she looked terrible...and it was always better not to assume. But Gina was smiling, and she was so lovely, and Ivy had wanted her since she'd seen her... God, it must be nearly nine months ago now. They'd met so rarely it felt like less.
It had been spring, then, just before her birthday and it was the depths of slushy winter now, and she really, really did not want to go slogging through New York City sidewalks and possibly get bronchitis.
And then there was that flush...
Oh, what the hell. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. "Or I could buy you dinner once I get over this damn cold," she said, as casually as she could manage.
Gina's brilliant smile stunned her, almost as much as another sudden stop. "I'd love that," she said, and grabbed Ivy's mittened hand to give it a quick squeeze. "You better get well quick. I'm patient about cab fares but not about dinner."
Well, damn. Ivy grinned, and sneezed, and grinned some more.
Maybe whoever was up there liked her after all.