Watch Hands
They pulled into the drive through of the closest Hardee’s quite sedately, considering Kate’s lead foot.
Kate, who was trying very hard not to even glance at Brooke.
“Welcome to Hardee’s, can I take your order please?”
Kate did her best to order something small - lucky, that she’d never given up her childhood love of chicken tenders. She turned to Brooke, to ask what she wanted to order - and, was thus a little dumbstruck when she saw a very empty passenger side seat.
She turned back to the open window and receiver - to find Brooke leaning against it, opening her mouth.
“And three large fries, with ten packs of honey mustard.”
A pause.
“Could you repeat that please?”
Brooke rolled her eyes - but repeated,
“And three large fries, with ten packs of honey mustard.”
Exactly the same inflection.
“...And will that be all?”
Brooke raised her eyebrow at Kate.
Who paused.
“Um… yes, that’ll be all.”
“That’ll be sixteen dollars and sixty-six cents.”
“Alright. Thank you!” Kate added hastily, as Brooke got back in the car.
The second she was back in, Kate turned to her.
“Ten packs of honey mustard?”
“This place has the second best honey mustard on earth - right behind Bojangles. I’ve ranked them.”
Kate resisted the urge to burrow her head in her hands. She was driving, after all.
“And this place has good fries. Usually fresh. Those new Bojangles fries are also really good - thick cut.”
“I thought Bojangles did potato wedges?” Kate hummed, looking away from Brooke again - because the light glinted off her neck in that way that made Kate want to think sinful thoughts.
“They do, but they’ve got fries too. Maybe it’s a recent development.” Brooke shrugged. “Oh, and it looks good from above.”
“...What?”
“The Hardee’s. It looks good from above.”
“How would you… you didn’t climb on top of a Hardee’s roof, did you?”
“Hm? Oh, no, I have a drone. Actually… that’s not a bad idea, though. Let’s climb on top of this Hardee’s roof.”
“We are not climbing on top of a Hardee’s.”
“How did you talk me into this?”
Brooke tilted her head softly in Kate’s direction, considering the ledge line and the patio overhand.
“Effectively. Now, I’m going to hoist you up - you should be able to drag me up better. You’ve got upper body strength.”
“Not really.” Kate muttered.
Brooke turned to her.
“Yes, you do. Don’t make me lift our shirts to prove it.”
She turned back to the Hardee’s before she got the chance to notice Kate’s breath hitch.
“I mean - it’s just a fact that I don’t. We can - I mean. Uh.”
Brooke blinked.
Turned to Kate.
She was turning a very, very dark shade of red.
“I may have abs, but that doesn’t mean I have upper body strength.” Brooke said - mostly to bide time while trying to figure out what on earth was going on in Kate’s head.
“You… have abs?”
Kate’s voice was very thick. Brooke hummed thoughtfully, still considering the building before her.
“Technically, everyone does.”
“Oh. Okay. But not like… visible.”
“Oh, yes. No, not everyone has visible abdominal muscles. Obviously.” Brooke tilted her head again, wondering if she could grip that thin ledge. “But I am not everyone.”
“You… I don’t believe you.”
“Well, here and now is hardly the place to prove it.” Brooke said. “I’ll settle this when we get back to school. For now-”
Brooke turned, and joined her hands at her knees.
“Use my hands as a foothold and get up on that patio-roof. Then you’ll hoist me up.”
Kate did not look in the mood to do either of those things.
“This is so dumb, Brooke.”
“This is an experience I am not passing up, Kate. If you don’t want to help me - you don’t have to. Go back to the car, and you can eat your tenders while watching me climb up.”
It would be much harder to get up to the roof without Kate’s help, of course - but she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, force Kate to do anything.
Kate stared for a moment.
And then sighed.
“I can’t believe I’m actually gonna do this.” She muttered, stepping up and gingerly lowering her foot onto Brooke’s joined hands.
“Quickly, now - I don’t want to hold you for long.”
Kate, finally, hoisted herself up - Brooke did her best to stay still under the weight of her foot, but it wasn’t easy - and put a foot on Brooke’s shoulder, before grabbing onto the edge of the patio roof.
She managed to lift herself up, with some very unladylike noises - and offered her hand.
Brooke couldn’t quite help but smile - though she managed to squash the unwelcome thing pretty quickly.
She took the two bags of food, and handed them up - Kate sat them next to her - and then grabbed Kate’s hand.
They managed to get onto the roof, after some risky maneuvers with a thin ledge and a few very close calls, with both falling off and stepping on the food.
But Brooke considered it worth it.
When she’d opened up her bag of fries, she’d been happy to discover they’d all spilled out of their containers - so, instead, she simply set the empty containers aside and used the bag as it should’ve always been used. As a fry holder. After finding her sauce, of course. And the packets might have been a little greasy, but it wasn’t a problem. She’d end up with greasy fingers anyway.
Kate, meanwhile, hadn’t touched her tenders - and was eyeing up her fries very obviously.
Brooke paused, and raised an eyebrow at her.
“Want one?”
Kate smiled sheepishly.
“Yes please.”
Brooke sat the bag of fries between them.
Kate dove upon her fries with a passion that Brooke hadn’t known she possessed, and devoured them one by one - in a manner so quick that Brooke could hardly even tell she wasn’t shoveling full handfuls into her mouth.
After at least a baker’s dozen fries, Kate finally paused long enough to actually swallow.
“If you wanted fries so badly, you could’ve asked.”
Kate flushed down to her collar.
“Just - the tenders were burnt, and I’m really hungry.” She muttered. “Sorry.”
Brooke raised her eyebrows.
“Your tenders were burnt?”
“Yeah. It’s okay though.”
Brooke hummed.
“We can get you some more. I am loaded.”
Kate made a tiny, amused noise.
“No, thanks. Let’s just eat some fries.”
Brooke stared at her for a moment.
The moon was behind her - a waxing crescent, she could tell. She wasn’t an astrology buff, but she knew her lunar phases and she was still waiting on that super moon next month. Kate’s hair - down again, thank God - glinted oddly in the nighttime light.
Her skin was paler then Brooke had first noticed. The edge of her collarbone was visible through the collar of her shirt. It traced through her pale, off-white skin and dipped below her adam’s apple.
Kate leaned back, and her head lolled with the motion to expose her pulse point.
(Her stomach turned.)
Oh. Oh, God, it was worse the second time.
She felt like she was going to throw up.
Her hand tightened against the edge of the roof.
She didn’t say anything.
Kate bit her bottom lip thoughtfully.
(A crawling sensation ran through her skin - itchy and uncomfortable, like needles.)
Her knuckles were white against the black backdrop of the sky.
(Kate looked like a sculpture in this light.)
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Brooke said - and her voice came out very flat.
Kate blinked - and sat up, turning to her sharply.
“What? Are you - was your food bad? Why-”
“Nevermind.” Brooke said - and her voice was devoid of the confusion that was stirring in her chest. “I’m fine.”
But why?
“Are you sure?” Kate said - and she was peering in a very concerned way that made her look quite pathetic.
Brooke didn’t like Kate much.
She didn’t like anyone.
She loved Mom and Dad, of course. But she didn’t like anyone. She’d never had friends. It didn’t end well.
She didn’t like Kate.
Kate wasn’t very intelligent. It was unfortunate - because she was polite enough. Accommodating. But she was pathetic, too. Kind. Blithe.
And Kate sickened her.
She had a very bare room. With stars, now, luckily.
She had blonde, glittering hair that looked better cascading down her shoulders.
She had wide, doe-like eyes.
She had a lack of interesting vocabulary.
She had a bad habit of repeating things Brooke had just said.
“What are you majoring in?” Brooke said, instead of answering.
Kate looked taken aback for a moment.
“The creative arts. Uhm - music, mostly.”
“Music?” Brooke hummed.
Kate nodded.
“Yeah. I was in my Church’s chorus - and I really enjoyed it. I wasn’t super sure what I wanted to do after that, but… music seemed like the obvious choice when choosing a major.”
“Can you sing me something?”
Kate blinked.
“Like… right now?”
“Yes. Like right now.”
Kate was turning a little bit pink under the moonlight.
Brooke’s hand, tight against the roof edge, loosened a little.
“I kinda… it’s… I mean. I - sure?”
Brooke sat back, laying her hands against the flat stone.
Kate hesitated.
Took a deep breath.
And began to sing.
“Leet’s go in the garden,
Yooou’ll, find something wai-ting,
Riiight, there where you left it,
Lying up, side, down.”
Brooke blinked.
She knew this song.
(And Kate sung it very…)
“When, you finally find it,
Yooou’ll, see how it’s fa-ded,
The unn-derside is lighter,
When you turn it around.”
Kate stopped - and sent her a hesitant, hopeful, sheepish glance.
Brooke stared for a moment.
“...Go on.” She said, finally - and her voice was full of some emotion she couldn’t quite name.
Kate hesitated again.
“Ev-ery-thing stayyys,
Riight where you left it,
Eve-rything stayys,
Buuut it still chan-ges.
Ev-eer so slight-ly,
Daaaai-ly and night-ly,
In little ways,
When evvv-erything stays.”
Kate was breathing a little heavily by the time she finished.
Brooke stared.
“...Uh. How was that?” Kate muttered - and she flicked her hair away from her eyes with a dismissive movement.
Brooke blinked.
“...Good.” She said, finally.
(It was a lie. Kate wasn’t good - she was great.)
“You picked well.” Brooke flicked her hair back. She’d wanted to tie it back up, but she hadn’t found the time. “I think there might be a future for you in this.”
Kate blinked.
“...Really? Mom always... said I needed practice.”
“Well, it can’t hurt, I suppose - but that was quite good. I’d applaud you.”
Kate stared at her for a long, long moment.
“...That… means a lot, Brooke. Coming from you.”
Brooe blinked.
“‘Coming from me’?”
Kate went a little pink.
“Uhm. Because you’re… smart? And I like you? And you’re hard to please?”
Brooke stared at her.
“...You like me.”
Kate went from pink to magenta in record time.
“...Yes?”
“That was a very hesitant yes.” Brooke said - though there wasn’t really any bite in her voice.
“Yes. I like you.” Kate said, a little more confidently this time.
Brooke stared at her.
“...Uh - Brooke?”
And shook her head.
Thought.
And then, hesitantly - unrolled her left sleeve.
Kate glanced down - confusion painted on her features. There was a nip in the air that bit at the blonde’s button nose, slightly pink from either the cold or her blush.
Kate blinked when she saw Brooke’s watches.
Kate knew - knew in a way that really didn’t make a lot of sense, in a way that was more instinct then logic - that this was more important then it seemed.
Brooke, with a very steady but slightly slow hand, undid the strap on one of the two watches she was wearing.
They were identical.
She slipped it off.
Kate stared.
The scar on Brooke’s arm was lit white in the moonlight. The skin around it was slightly risen - and it had a texture like very thin tire tread.
“Your arm.”
Kate - numbly - offered her arm.
Brooke gently grasped her hand, and rolled up one of her sleeves - before beginning to fasten the watch to her wrist.
She didn’t say anything.
Brooke didn’t say anything.
After a long moment - the watch was secure on her arm.
Brooke let go of her hand.
The skin tingled where she’d touched it.
Kate flipped her arm over - and inspected the watch.
It had a second hand - and she could tell from just a glance, that it was perfectly in-sync with Brooke’s.
“The hands are limestone.” Brooke murmured, without prompting. “They were custom made. You may already know this - but limestone is made from the bones of dead sea creatures.”
“...I didn’t know that.” Kate said, glancing up at Brooke.
“Well. You now know that. I have bestowed upon you - the knowledge of the sea.”
Kate laughed weakly.
Brooke smiled.
And not much was really important besides that.