Tara leaned back against the bench and threw a polite smile at the person sitting on the other side of it. She took in the lake in front of her, simmering with the brush of the wind and the swans and ducks floating within. The warmth of may cozied around her body and she let out a small yawn, the sunny weather paired with gusts of wind always resulted in her growing tired, especially after eating and especially after yet another sleepless night.
It had been a long day. A long week, even. Filled with preparation for her upcoming exams, social dramatics, and the suffocating feeling of having no shoulder to lay on to help her de-stress.
Tara wasn’t academically gifted. She had been held back a year when she was younger and had been embarrassed about it throughout her life. It brought her a lot of stress, overthinking, and the urge to spend all her time studying when exam season came up. She hadn’t seen any of her friends the whole week, the only human interaction has been with her sister, Sam, who practically had to push her outside and force her to go to their local park so that she could relax a little and take a break from the constant revising.
The thought of revising reminded her of the flashcards she had secretly taken with her as her sister had pushed her out the door and she fished them out of her pocket. Tara was pretty sure Sam wasn’t lurking behind the trees around her to make sure she wasn’t studying, but she still glanced around to be sure.
As she read through the flashcards a cloud moved from the sun and a new wave of warmth hit her cheeks, causing another yawn to leave her body. Tara felt like she was being wrapped up in a blanket by the universe. She closed her eyes, sleepiness filling her body as if it was a glass being filled with water. It started by warming her legs, her waist, her torso, her neck, and her face, and then swirled around in her chest and settled.
Tara felt her eyelids getting heavy and her head momentarily dropped, the jerk of her body causing her to wake up a little and lightly slap her cheek. She couldn’t afford to waste time by sleeping when she could be revising instead.
She looked back down at the flashcards and sighed as another wave of drowsiness overtook her. After much effort, her eyes closed once again and she decided that five minutes of rest couldn’t hurt.
✪
Tara’s eyes fluttered open to the sound of loud barking and splashes of water. She blinked a couple of times as her eyes adjusted to the light and tried to make out where the noises were coming from, confused about how and why they sounded so close.
She looked around without moving her head as she took in her surroundings and remembered that Sam had forced her to come to the park earlier, hence the noises. The sun had changed position, it had moved from being in the middle of the sky to nearing the end of it.
The sun was setting.
How long had Tara been asleep? Despite falling asleep on a public bench, she felt well rested, comfortable even. She felt as if she had just experienced the most relaxing sleep of her life, which was … weird.
Suddenly, Tara felt a slight shift under her head. She frowned for a second, questioning why the wood she was resting on was moving before she looked up to the side and was faced with pale skin instead of brown plank.
She let out a gasp and quickly pushed herself off of the shoulder she was leaning on. She slapped her hand to her mouth and stuck out a hand and waved apologetically as she scooted away from the person.
“Oh my god,” She squeaked. “I am so sorry.” Tara felt her face go warm due to sheer embarrassment. “I didn’t–” She stuttered a little. “I–”
“Hey, calm down,” The girl in front of her said while raising two hands in a manner of calming Tara and letting out a wary laugh. “It’s okay.”
The shorter just stared at her for a moment, too shocked to speak. The girl in front of her had long black hair and skin so pale it reminded her of the moon. Her eyes were dark and held an aura of intimidation to them, although they felt more inviting than scary. The girl also seemed to be a head taller than Tara. She felt herself blush as she took in the taller’s strangely unique features, forgetting where she was for a moment.
Tara shook her head as she facepalmed herself. “I’m sorry.” She mumbled into her hand.
“It’s not a problem,” The taller let out a small laugh. “You seemed tired when you sat down earlier. I could see you fighting the urge to sleep for about five minutes before you gave in.” Her voice was soft, as if it was laced with honey, and held a sarcastic and mean tone to it, but it was as if the mean tone wasn’t directed at Tara. It fell so nicely around her ears that she wanted to hear the girl speak more.
Tara blinked a few times and waved that thought away before she let out a nervous laugh in return. “Yeah. I didn’t get much sleep last night,” She glanced down at the lake trying to avoid eye contact with the girl.
“Exam season, right?”
“Mhm.” Tara sighed as she picked at her sweater. She wasn’t sure why she was still talking to the stranger. The only reasoning she had was that it felt right talking to her. Comforting.
“Math coming up first?” The girl asked after a beat, not breaking eye contact the whole time. She seemed sure of herself, confident.
Tara frowned. “Yeah, how’d you know?” She shifted uncomfortably. What if she was a total stalker who had been watching Tara for days? What if she was some creep who wanted to kidnap Tara and brutally murder her? What if–
“When you fell asleep on my shoulder,” The girl interrupted Tara’s thoughts. “you dropped your flashcards onto my lap. I looked through them and figured you probably have a test or exam coming up. Fun stuff.” She shot Tara a smile which made her cheeks furiously warm up.
“I wouldn’t say fun … it’s pretty hard.” Tara stuttered a little and hid her face when the taller let out a small laugh at how visibly nervous she was.
The taller nodded and finally looked away, watching the dogs splash around the lake. Tara felt a mix of relief and disappointment wash over her. Part of her wanted to keep talking to the girl, wanted to know more about her.
She looked down and shuffled through her cards. How long had she slept? Had she bothered the girl? Did her shoulder hurt? Her shoulder was strangely comfortable, so much so that Tara felt the urge to go and cozy up next to the girl again. She bit her lip and heaved as she thought about getting up to leave and go back home and act like all this never happened.
“I could help, you know.”
“...Huh?” Tara turned around to look at the girl who was still looking at the lake.
“Your test,” The taller lazily pointed at Tara’s flashcards and puffed out her cheeks while she turned to her. “I think you’re in my year. I received the same formulas to study for my exam.”
“You’re asking if you can help me revise?”
The girl clasped her hands together and leaned back, her eyes darting from the lake to Tara. “Yeah, if you’d like. I’m pretty decent at math.”
Tara looked down at the girl’s leg and noticed she was anxiously bouncing it, and it dawned on her that she was nervous about asking Tara if she could help.
The shorter looked back up at the girl, confidence flooding her. “What’s your name?”
The girl looked at her and poked her cheek with her tongue, obviously fighting a winner’s smile. Tara could already feel that this girl had a cocky personality, which made her want to know even more about the girl.
“Why, you wanna take me out on a date?” She broke out into a smile.
“Huh?” Tara blushed and felt herself start to panic. That wasn’t what she was trying to convey. She wasn’t trying to flirt with this random stranger she had just met. She just wanted to add a name to her pretty face.
Pretty face?
Tara blushed even harder at her thoughts and her mouth felt dry. “I wasn’t–”
“Oh my god, chill out.” The girl snorted. “Stab reference. My name’s Amber,” She crossed her arms and gave Tara a one-over. “And you are?”
“Tara.” She quickly said and smiled. She didn’t mention not knowing what Amber was referencing.
“Cute,” Amber sat upright. “So, can I help you study?” She said with much more confidence than she had when had she asked the first time.
Tara smiled and got up. “Sure thing, Amber.” She stuffed the cards back into her pocket. “Library?”
She looked down at Amber and frowned a little in confusion when she didn’t answer. She was looking up at her with a look in her eyes Tara couldn’t quite decipher. As if carefully analyzing every blink and breath that left her body.
Amber nodded and stood up. “Yeah. Let’s go, pretty.”