|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 7:09 pm
Briiva said nothing, her eyes focus on the ceiling fan that was lazily spinning above them. She felt the bed shift as Beth moved into a more upright position, her friends words heard clearly even if they weren't exactly registered. Sliding smoothly off her bed, she pulled her shirt off in a singular, fluid motion before letting it fall shapelessly to the ground. Her bra was quickly replaced with a plain black sports top as Briiva walked up to her open closet doorway where she had a personal pull up bar neatly installed. She turned to face Beth again as she stretched up her arms to grasp the rubber grips. "Dad was pretty firmly against alcohol, actually. But he's not - around- to stop me anymore, so that's his fault." Briiva pulled herself effortlessly up the bar, her face disappearing momentarily behind the wall of her closet. Even taking into account the strain of pulling herself up however, she more spit her words than speak them. Now that she was more calm, her anger had cooled to something closer to abhorrence than unbridled fury. She gave a short, harsh laugh before pulling herself up once more. "Best thing I ever got from my mom was her unique brand of stubbornness. And temper. But hey, At least she taught me early on I had to be self-sufficient, because she sure as hell wasn't going to help me with anything. Couldn't stand to even look like me, I inherited too much from my father not remind her of him by simply existing."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 7:35 pm
Beth made a face as Briiva pulled away, followed by sputtering as Briiva started stripping. Before she was forced to figure out a response to this, she was spared by Briiva replacing her shirt and bra with another top. Sitting on the bed with the rumpled sheets around her, she still had a bit of a deer in the headlights look when Briiva started her pull up bar routine. Apparently, the story was one that Briiva couldn't tell face-to-face. Beth saw the restless energy in each athletic move. She couldn't help but be impressed, though it made sense. Beth's own athletic routine was mostly yoga, whenever she remembered to go. But this wasn't about her admiring another woman's body. Considering all of her possible answers, Beth finally settled on, "I'm sorry. That must have been difficult. What happened to him?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 8:09 pm
Again, Briiva didn't answer her friend immediately. Instead she continued her routine, pacing her breathing to cycle routinely with the motion of her exertions. Thinking back on her family only aided in focusing the spite she was biting back, having just enough alcohol swimming in her system to lose herself very easily in the memories she kept on such a tight leash. Her feeling regarding her father were quite complicated. He had been the most stabilizing aspect of her adolescence while at the same time the cause for much of the contention she faced.
Her breathing became heavier as she picked up her pace, sweat beginning to glisten down her bare stomach.
Trying to consolidate her feelings for her father into something tangible felt all but impossible at the moment, and she honestly wasn't feeling very charitable to Beth at the moment; Her walls were very much in place, strengthened by the rawness she still felt from their argument. With all that in mind, going into detail about how her father died wasn't a conversation she would be going into tonight.
"As I said, he died."
Briiva dropped to the floor lightly, grabbing a towel from her closet to wipe her face. She took a deep breath and draped the towel around her neck.
"I've learned to cope. Don't worry about me, I've gotten used to dealing with my s**t on my own."
The grin Briiva flashed was reflexive, even as she brushed a few stray strands of hair from her face, chest still heaving from her short workout.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:20 pm
Beth tried valiantly to keep her attention on Briiva's words rather than on her shimmering, rippling muscles. She had a weakness, all right. And there was a warmth in her belly from the drinks they had been imbibing that belied the seriousness of their conversation. She found herself wondering and admiring, in spite of her admonition barely minutes before that she not lead her friend on. It didn't help that silence stretched awkwardly between them, broken only by the slight grunts of someone trying to chase thoughts away with frantic physical activity. There was a tension between them that Beth couldn't figure. And as she thought about it, she started resenting Briiva for it. Trying to resolve the dissonance between two competing mindsets, Beth decided more alcohol was in order. She snagged her glass and filled it as Briiva finished her exercise, draping herself across the foot of the bed. Archly, she shrugged, dismissing Briiva's grin. In a move she learned from her mother, she said, "Well, it's not like you had anyone offer to listen or anything," and then made a pointed face over the rim of her cup as she took a drink. "I guess I won't hold my breath." She half-muttered. Turning her gaze to the wall, she tried to pretend she was the one less hurt by their current weirdness.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:32 pm
"This started with me trying to get you to open up more to me, you know." Briiva sighed, the anger that had threatened to grip her now ebbing away as her heart beat slowed. With that force no longer pushing her to attack any and everything like a cornered animal, Briiva began to realize how selfish it had been for her to try making her friend to talk about her past. Briiva would sooner die than show anyone, even a friend like Beth, how desperate and frightened and... Lonely she could feel. Now that her adrenaline levels seemed to be tanking, Briiva felt heavy. Heavy and tired. She half walked, half sauntered up to Beth before crawling onto the the bed and pushing herself firmly against her friend. As she did so, she swiped Beth's drink and downed it in a single fluid motion before catching her eyes in an intense stare. "I'm sorry Beth. I'm sorry I yelled at you. Sorry that I made you upset. I'm- I'm sorry for trying to get you to do something I'm unwilling to do myself." She looked at the girl, feeling warmed from the drink she had just downed, and found herself lost in Beth's eyes. Almost impulsively, she pushed her face towards Beth, catching her at the lips and she kissed her. Tentatively at first, and then desperately before coming back to her senses and reluctantly dragging herself away. "I'm- I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" Briiva, for once, couldn't think of how to finish her sentence., and ran her finger against the rim of the glass, her face flushed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
