“Will you fucking quit with the charade already?!”
Alejandra stops mid sentence, her red button up bunched up in her hands, her damp hair laid out on a fluffy white towel that’s wrapped around her shoulders.
“Is it not clear to you already? Your stupid flirting has no effect on me, so quit it! You flirt with everything that moves, asshole, everyone knows that; or did you think I was too stupid to notice?!”
Alejandra’s body is frozen, shock clear on every line of her face. Her stupid pretty eyes are blown wide. “What the hell are you on—?”
“Need me to summarize it? Dumb it down?” Noa growls, her own damp hair dripping tiny drops onto her blue button up, “Stop. Your. Useless. Flirting!”
When Alejandra doesn’t speak, doesn’t move, Noa moves in her stead. Fury on her face, frustration in her voice, she paces. “It won’t work on me, I thought I made you see that! But— whatever, I guess I was wrong, like how I was wrong about you being genuine!”
Alejandra finally moves, a stomp forward, her face clearly twisted with something pungent; Noa barrels on regardless, quitting her pacing to storm right up to the other girl.
Barely inches away from each other, face to face, chest to chest, foot to foot.
“What? I can see it on your face, you wanna say I’m wrong.” Noa’s mouth curls in a humorless smirk, “But let’s be honest, you’re just a female Heath with social skills — a slippery eel.”
Alejandra’s sudden move, head thrown back in a bark of laughter, startles Noa. But she’s quick to hide it, a scowl on her face. But Alejandra’s own face is just as vicious as her head snaps down, quick as a viper, to glare down her nose at Noa.
“Who the hell are you to say my feelings, my attempts at getting you to see I fucking like you, are fake?!”
Noa recoils, her eyes widening and her scowl faltering — just the tiniest bit, but faltering nonetheless. She steps back. Alejandra leans in, stepping forward, erasing any kind of space made between them.
“What? Too scared to speak now that the big bad wolf snaps back? I’m just playing the game, Noa. Sure, I’ve manipulated the others, played with their heads. Their hearts. Fine, fine, I can admit that I’m– I’m not so trustworthy in this game — but do you honestly expect that having that sort of trait will do you any favors in the long run?”
Alejandra dogs every step Noa takes, the space between them never existing for more than a second.
Step for step, step for step. Until Noa’s back hits the bathroom wall.
It’s porcelain cold, and Noa hisses, face scrunching in discomfort. The steam made it slippery, and Noa tries to lift her back from it but Alejandra forces herself into her space, making Noa flinch back.
Alejandra scoffs, “But it’s—.. different, with you. It’s always been different with you, you annoying dick. I tried to convince myself I was just– just trying to flirt with you to pull the sack over your eyes! But I just— I just couldn’t!”
Alejandra shakes her head, eyes closing and shoulders tensing, “You.. You just– just kept occupying my head, making me lose my focus every time you did anything! I couldn’t.. I couldn’t lie to myself anymore; I’ve been trying to hint to you that— Oh for God’s sake, that I like you! But, who the hell am I kidding?”
Alejandra’s glare turns bitter, closed off in a way that nearly makes Noa choke.
“A genius, aren’t you? A cruel one, maybe.” Alejandra mutters, “You know, you could’ve saved us both the trouble and just rejected me. Playing the oblivious fool doesn’t suit you, amada.”
Noa’s sudden face-scrunch is enough to silence Alejandra for a brief moment, letting her get her two cents in.
“Oblivious fool? Fuck you, I am a genius. As if I hadn’t noticed your stupid little trend, flirting with someone and then their subsequent elimination? Yeah, fuck right off. Genuinely like me? Sure. Maybe in some alternat—”
“Oh, fuck you! And yes, oblivious fool! Maybe, just maybe, if you were just so-o observant, you would’ve noticed I never interacted with them before or even after my attempts. You would’ve noticed my act dropping as soon as they were gone — you’re smart, you’re capable of picking up these details.”
By this point, Alejandra’s hands have gone from curled up at her sides to grasping Noa’s shoulders, her face contorted in such a way that it leaves Noa speechless.
“So why didn’t you?”
Noa is still silent, even after seconds, minutes. Her eyes are blown wider than they’ve ever been, hair a mess against the wall and her shoulders, breathing a little too quickly and a little too shallowly.
Alejandra’s eyes drop, moving to the side as does her head. Her hands, her grip, loosens bit by bit until they eventually drop back to her sides, limp. “..So why? I suppose, in a way, it’s fitting..”
Taking in the girl before her, Alejandra’s downcast eyes, her taut frown and her tight jaw, her previously pristine hair now a tangled wet mess..
Noa’s chest tightens at the way even her hair was curtaining her face, as if even the world was still trying to mask this hidden part of Alejandra; her mask is broken, this shining and delicate part of Alejandra showing through the cracks, and yet the universe is still plotting, still trying to hide her.
Noa’s breath catches.
She would not have that. She will not have that.
Alejandra’s affections are genuine?
Noa thinks back to all their interactions, of Alejandra previously only showing her a pristine image of herself, of Alejandra slowly but surely dropping little imperfections here and there. Noa isn’t sure, has never really caught onto these little changes in behavior like others, for example Owen, has always been able to.
She can solve geometry equations in less than 5 minutes but she can’t catch the emotions on peoples’ faces. The lines of a person’s frown, their smile, the lines around their mouth, around their eyes, the so-called soul in a person’s eyes.. It never meant anything to her, nothing but lines and colors.
Noa isn’t sure. She can’t necessarily be sure of anything regarding emotions unless they were as clear as day and said.
But..
Alejandra’s snorting, squeaky laughter echoes in the back of her mind; it’s a sound she hasn’t heard often, but she’s heard it enough to seer it into her mind.
Alejandra’s thorny, sharp quips remind her that no one else has heard her real humor, no one but her. A small piece of the shining girl hidden beneath cement trusted to her.
Noa’s hands move without a single thought from her mind, her mind blank.
Well, other than the small fire lit in her chest, a mix of hopefulness, hesitance, fear, regret, and, God above, glee.
She can’t be sure, can’t know for sure that this isn’t another scheme, can’t read a person’s face and just know. But she can remember past actions, past words. She can see these actions and see the little words attached to them, sheer as they are, vague as they are.
Their lips crash, their teeth click, and Noa’s biting Alejandra’s lower lip, a hint of anger entering the fray of fire in herself.
You idiot, she thinks, how was I supposed to know?
Alejandra’s hands immediately fly to her waist, to her back. They cling, slender fingers clinging onto cyan cloth. They cling, they bunch and hide in her clothes, as if scared to let go, and Noa breathes.
She breathes and knows that this isn’t a mistake.
The two nearly knock heads but for the world of them, they can’t care.
They break away after a moment, Alejandra’s hands never once loosening their grip, Noa’s eyes never once leaving Alejandra’s eyes. She still can’t read whatever emotion is there, for all the reading she’s done, she can’t see anything more than pretty emerald green and tiny pieces of deeper greens and speckles of lighter shades.
It’s only colors, and the small wrinkles at the edges of her eyes are— are just that, really. Lines on her face, color in her eyes.
But even still, Noa breathes and Alejandra clings.
And it’s right, Noa is sure of that.
“You dumbass.” Noa murmurs, ignoring Alejandra’s noise of protest, “And, just an FYI, I’ll make you regret ever meeting me if you leave me.”
Alejandra’s grip tightens, and her face twists into a softer version of her previous sneer. But even blind, blind Noa can read the gentleness of her actions, the fondness in her voice as she says, breathlessly, “Even after spilling my heart.. you still doubt me?”
“Just being careful.” Noa’s face does something, a twitch or a crease, she isn’t sure. But Alejandra’s own face responds, her sneer softening into nothing, her eyebrows relaxing. “Couldn’t have made it this far without doubting everything, yeah?”
“Nor without a little manipulation.” Alejandra agrees, in her own stupid, suave, unfortunately correct Alejandra way. “Both can go hand in hand, both do go hand in hand.”
Noa scoffs, rolling her eyes, but she can’t stop the way her lips curl up. “They can.”
“And they will.” Alejandra says, simply. Noa’s eyes narrow, with what, she isn’t sure. Alejandra watches her, Noa ignores her and turns the idea over in her head.
Expectant. Alejandra raises an eyebrow when Noa meets her eyes again. Her hands still cling to Noa’s shirt, while Noa’s own hands still linger on Alejandra’s shoulder, feather-light touches brushing against her bare neck.
Rolling her eyes so hard her head literally lolls to the side, Noa says, “You smug bastard.”
Quick as a whip, Alejandra retorts, “Your smug bastard.”
But the way her hands tighten, the way she shuffles, the way her eyes dart away. Noa hates the way Alejandra won’t meet her eyes again.
“I guess so.” Noa says, with such conviction in her voice that it absolutely negates the less-than-sure connotation her words convey, “And, since you’re mind, as you self-proclaimed, does that mean you’ll follow my every order?”
“Never said I was a pet,” Alejandra grumbles, but her lips twitch. “But I suppose so, yes. Was there a particular reason?”
Noa grins.
The contented surety in her chest warms the walls of her heart. It’s nice.
“Yeah, fetch my vest, will you? It’s cold as shit in here.”
“Ever the eloquent girl-genius I fell for.”
“You’ve heard worse.”
And, shit, this is cheesy. But the lights hit Alejandra’s face in such a way that her eyes literally shine.
“I have.”