The Pipe
Holtzmann had decided that today was the perfect day to try out her pipe. She’d developed several plans for making a proton shotgun but felt that she could probably destroy a few things with the pipe and still use it in her prototype. She pulled her goggles down on her eyes, set the ugly floral vase she’d seen in the dumpster onto a stool she kept in the alley, and swung away. It exploded into ceramic shards.
While she was excellent at creating things, sometimes it felt great to destroy things too.
Jillian felt confused about Erin. She’d been flirting with Erin since they day they met, and what had started out as trying to make the other woman as uncomfortable as possible had morphed into something more...playful. Holtzmann truly liked Erin, enjoyed her company, and found her to be beautiful and weird and perfect in her own way. It hadn’t taken long for her to realize she had an honest to goodness crush on her.
It had been a while since Jillian had had a crush on someone. Usually Holtz was more straightforward about her intentions with the women she was with. She’d been attracted to women for as long as she could remember, and she’d had a handful of relationships over the years, but she couldn’t remember the last time someone had made her heart flutter the way Erin did. She had it bad for her. Erin was sweet and smart and had an excellent dry sense of humor that Holtz appreciated. Holtz felt like a middle schooler, getting excited when Erin sat next to her for movie night and feeling a jolt of pleasure whenever they touched, even if Erin was just playfully smacking her arm for a ridiculous comment she'd made.
She didn’t know if Erin was into women or not. Erin had ogled the hell of out Kevin since they’d hired him, but it certainly hadn’t seemed like anything serious. Until the night of the rooftop party, that is. Holtz had been drinking and chatting with some partygoers who apparently worked across the street when movement caught her eye and she saw Erin grinding on Kevin across the way. She’d smiled and shook her head, having seen this before. Her smile faded though, when Erin pulled Kevin down by the collar of his shirt and kissed him, long and hard, in front of everyone. Holtzmann excused herself to use the bathroom at that point and didn’t see them the rest of the night.
When she saw Kevin emerge from Erin’s room the following morning, it felt like an icy hand was squeezing her stomach. Especially when Erin watched him leave with a smile on her face. Holtzmann felt like an idiot for ever wondering if she had a shot with Erin. She knew that she couldn’t stand being in that room a second longer, so she loaded up her bag, made a sassy comment to Erin that she hoped sounded normal, and headed down the pole and out the door as quickly as possible.
Yes, today was a good day for trying out her pipe.