Laurel Needed some help…
It had been about two weeks after thanksgiving and Alex and Ava were out doing some physical training (PT) when Alex got a phone while they were jogging. Both clad in USMC Green PT shirts and matching USMC running shorts.
“Hey Laurel, what’s up?” Alex said as Ava looked over at her with an eyebrow raised. Ava couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation but was wondering why Laurel was calling Alex in the first place. “Yeah of course I can help out. Hey, wait I’m with Ava she could probably help too. Hold on a second...” Alex grabbed Ava’s forearm to bring them to a stop and she looked at Ava. “Laurel needs some help moving some boxes into her new apartment. It’s a couple blocks away. Is okay we head over there and help her out?” Ava moved her hands above her head and just nodded in agreement. “Hey, Laurel we will head your way give us about 10 minutes and we’ll be there.”
Alex and Ava started to job towards Laurel’s apartment when Ava decided to ask about Laurel.” So... Laurel??”
“What?” Alex raised an eyebrow
“Well I mean you have been hanging out a lot with her. And now she is calling you to help her move boxes?” Ava smiled.
“Yeah, so not like that at all. Laurel is totally straight, she just got out od a bad relationship and apparently all the friends she thought she had...” Alex rolls her eyes
“Oh, that’s bullshit!” Ava snorts
“Pretty much. So, she has been calling me a lot and I’ve been like you know helping her out and talking to her.” Alex shrugs.
“That’s cool just watch it because I don’t want you getting hung up on another straight girl again.” Ava makes sure to meet her eyes at this statement.
“I don’t care what you say Nikki was not straight!” Alex snorted, as Ava just rolled her eyes and they continued on their way.
Once they got closer to the building, they could Laurel standing outside by a small pickup that had a ton of boxes in the back. They both made there was to Laurel and stopped there pace and threw their hands over their heads. AS laurel looked them both over trying to figure out exactly what they were doing here on foot and not in a car.
“Hi guys did I interrupt a competition or something? Laurel was smirking.
“No, we were finishing our run when you called and honestly it was closer just to run here then run all the way back to the car and then come here.” Alex said catching her breath, it didn’t help they sprinted the last half mile just for fun. Ava was looking up at the apartment building they were in front of.
“Nice building.” Ava covered her eyes from the sun.
“Thanks.” Laurel said. And motioned towards the boxes, this is it all I have in the world well aside from my furniture but that’s getting put in storage for now. It’s upstairs on the second floor, Apartment 2C door is open. You can just put the boxes next to the couch.”
Ava nods and grabs a couple boxes out of the back of the truck and makes her way in the building as Laurel talks to Alex for a minute. Ava made her way up the stairs to the second floor and noticed the open door and when she walked through was impressed the open floor plan she could see the Kitchen off to the left and a small dining table right by the kitchen island and to the right was a comfy looking couch and love seat and a stack of boxes was already sitting there. She made her way over and placed her boxes on the ground next to the stack that was already there. When her eyes started to move up, she noticed a pair of shoes that had appeared in the hallway. Her eyes made their way up to the toned legs that were there and slowly she moved her eyes up and saw a black pair of running shorts her eyes still going up and there were abs not just abs defined almost other worldly abs that led to a black sports bra her eyes wide as they continued up to see the freckles and the arms the toned arms and blonde hair on her shoulders and finally to her face and those blue eyes were looking at her. Not at her but moving up her body, as she stood up and continued to look into the eyes of Sara. Sara’s eyes were still on her body not meeting her gaze just yet.
Sara needed to ask Laurel a question, so she came out of her room with a small stuffed canary she had found and when she got the living room, she stopped dead in her tracks at the sight before her. Legs was all her brain could see, The most beautiful long legs. Tan and muscular as her eyes moved up, she could see sweat dripping down the legs and arms, that were flexed putting down boxes. A chill moved through her whole body as the woman stood up straight and her eyes continued to move up to her body. The tight shirt she could see toned stomach and a chest that made her mouth water. As her eyes continued up, she saw broad shoulders and blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. Her eyes met Ava’s for the first time, and both were just stuck in the moment. Their eye’s trailing over each other with no regret no thought just both in pure amazement. Sara’s eyes followed a drip of sweat from Ava’s neck all the way down her arms until it reached her fingers.
“Hey, Ava.” Alex is saying as she walks in the apartment box in hand and notices both woman standing across from each other and stops. Neither woman moves their eyes still trained on each other, Alex clears her throat, and both snap out of their gaze looking over at Alex in the doorway. “Laurel wanted to know if we wanted to stay for lunch?” Ava puts her hand behind her neck nervously rubbing it and walks towards Alex.
“Let me go get some more boxes.” She rushes out, Alex watches her and then turns to Sara who is still frozen in the same spot her face turning red. She turns and makes her way back to the bedroom down the hall. Leaving Alex standing in the living doorway as Laurel makes her way in behind her.
“Hey what did Ava say?” She asks.
“Oh, she didn’t say anything just ran out to get more boxes let me go check.” Alex put the box she has down and walks out of the apartment and down back outside to the truck where Ava is standing with her head on the side of the truck. “What the hell was that?”
Ava turns to her bright red flush on her face “Did you know Sara was going to be here?” she was tense.
“No, I had no idea why?”
“I have to go.” She started to turn and leave when Alex grabbed her hand and stopped her.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened.” She was serious now she wanted answers.
“Oh, the usual I made an ass of myself in front of Sara.” She rubbed her face in her hands. Thinking about how her eyes couldn’t stop wandering over Sara’s exposed skin and her muscular body. She started to pace and explain what happened “I walked in to the apartment, I put down the boxes, I saw Sara, I literally checked her out, like she saw me my eyes went all the way up and then all the way down and then all the way up again.” She stopped and threw her hands up “I want to die just kill me now.” she moved back and put her head on the truck and took a deep breath.
“Okay so no offense but I was standing there and clearly saw her checking you out.” Alex said and she was right. Ava thought back to when her eyes met Sara’s face and she noticed her eyes weren’t meeting hers they were roaming her body. They were looking her over just like hers had roamed over Sara. Until they came to have their eyes meet and just stood there in silence neither knowing what to say.
“Holy Shit!” Ava turned to Alex “wait?” Ava stopped herself “she’s not into girls Hannah told me about how she had boyfriends and crap.” Her hands fall back into her hands. “this is too confusing, look I’m gonna help get these boxes up and head back to my car. Tell Laurel I’m sorry I can’t stay for lunch.” She grabs two more boxes and run them past Alex and up into the apartment building. After about ten minutes all the boxes were upstairs, and Ava was about to leave and head back to her car when Laurel popped out causing Ava to stop and turn.
“Ava, are you sure you won’t stay? I feel bad you helping out and you wont even let me feed you.” Laurel made her way over to where Ava was.
“Laurel thanks so much for the invite but I have somewhere I have to be. But seriously raincheck we should have lunch sometime.” Ava was being serious after thanksgiving she really did enjoy Laurel’s company; she didn’t have many friends outside of the military and it was refreshing sometimes not to have to worry about talking shop all the time.
“Ava, that sounds great as long as you let me pay so I can at least make up for you helping me out today.” Laurel said as she was backing away. “I’m not taking no for an answer!” and she disappeared into the apartment building. As Ava shrugged and turned the direction of her car. What the hell is it with these Lance women??
As soon as she made it home she walked in to see Hannah sitting on the couch watching tv she didn’t even stop she just threw her hand up as if to say hi and walked straight to her room and toss her bag on her bed. Heading straight to her dresser and grabbing some clean clothes and heading to her bathroom. She turned on the shower and jumped in. This is what she needed a cold shower to calm her down, to calm the thoughts she was having down. She couldn’t stop thinking about Sara about her body and all of the ways she could worship it. Her face filling with red as her thoughts continued of the blue eyes looking her over. She must have been looking at the sweat pouring down or the crappy PT clothes she was wearing. She placed her head on the cold tile of the shower and just tried to wash away all of the thoughts. Here she was telling Alex not to get hung up on some straight girl and she herself was letting her imagination run wild over one. Not just anyone but her sister’s physical therapist of all people.
Once she was out of the shower and dressed, she made her way into the kitchen to make a snack and get some much need hydration. When Hannah seemed to appear out of nowhere. “Hey, you’re a little late getting back from PT.” she crutched over to sit at the island in the kitchen while Ava finished her drink.
“Oh. Yeah Laurel called Alex and needed some help moving into her new place.” Ava grabbed a banana and started to peel it.
“Don’t you mean Sara’s place?” Hannah raised an eyebrow.
“What?” Ava was confused now
“Sara told me that Laurel needed to come stay with her for a while after her breakup with her boyfriend. She didn’t really go into details, but it sounded like a raw deal.” Hannah continued “sounded like he cheated on her quite a bit.”
“Who would cheat on Laurel?” Ava was interested now not usually one for gossip, but she wanted to know more for some reason.
“Well I only know what Sara told me and it sounds like Laurel works a lot and the guy was a total douche bag! Sara hated him! She hates her sister is going through this, but she is glad that she finally saw the kind of person he is.”
“That’s awful and I know from personal experience as you well know. She invited me to lunch maybe that’s something we can kind of maybe talk about.” Ava was brainstorming because she didn’t know much about Laurel and they had only just met but the fact that she understood what Laurel was going through well that might be something she could let her know.
The next day Alex got to the school to find Ava already in her office dealing with curriculum scheduling. Principal Heywood had insisted on having the rest of the school year’s curriculum before winter break which was just five sweet days away. And then they would be able to have a break from the mundane life of teaching and molding the minds of the future. Almost three weeks with not having to deal with fights, arguing, breakups, and breakdowns on the daily. Dealing with teens and hormones was a lot harder than Ava had ever imagined but she was also about to deal with Alex and her questions about yesterday. Alex came in and plopped down in front of Ava’s desk.
“So, are we going to talk about it?” Alex asked
“Are you going to make me talk about it?” Ava retorted not lifting her head and staying focused on the task in front of her.
“Ava come on.” Alex was getting frustrated
“Look there is nothing to talk about. End of discussion.” Ava kept her head down
“Bullshit! You like her and I know you like her.” Alex was stern in this fact.
“Well I can’t like her now can i?” Ava finally looks up and meets Alex’s eyes. “I have no shot with Sara Lance and you and I both know that so...” Ava looks back down at her work.
“What if I told you something I found out.” Alex smirked, Ava huffed and put her head down on her papers she was working on. Not mentally ready for whatever Alex had to say. “I heard from Rory out there that his buddy Leo says one Sara Lance has been known to hang out at the Waverider.” Ava’s head pops up from her papers and looks at Alex with a raised eyebrow.
“Wait the Waverider is a gay bar?” now Ava was confused very confused. She shakes her head not possible maybe she is just hanging out with friends or something. I mean seriously tons of straight people go to gay bars with their gay friends.
“I know what you’re thinking I can see the wheels turning and I thought the same thing too. So, I dug a little deeper and went to the Waverider to see Leo myself and ask some questions.” Alex had a huge grin on her face now.
“Are you seriously telling me right now that you went to the bar and asked around about Sara Lance?” Ava kept her eyes locked on Alex.
“Sure, did and to be honest I was quite shocked at what I found out.” She smiles and stares at Ava who throws her hands up in the air as if to tell her to keep going.
“Well?”
“Leo is nice retired Army Master Sargent he owns the bar with his partner Gwyn. Turns out he knows Sara well they served together for a while. Did you know Sara was stationed in Japan for a while?” Alex asks Ava knowing she didn’t know that, and Ava just stares at her in disbelief. “Okay well she did, also turns out she a reputation with the ladies. She isn’t one for how should I put this… relationships. Apparently and this is according to Leo she met someone while stationed in Japan and they dated for about a year and half and things went south when she found out the woman was married the whole time. This was about four years ago according to Leo. Since then she has only ever done casual, with men and women.”
Ava doesn’t know how to respond she was speechless. She just stared at Alex this new information causing some sort of brain malfunction no words of any kind. She thinks back to seeing Sara’s eyes roaming all over her body maybe she had been checking her out. But one thing Ava wasn’t was casual, Alex had tried to get her to pick up woman to relieve tension and she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. She didn’t like physical intimacy with someone who she wasn’t going to see again. She just couldn’t relax enough, sure there may have been some make out sessions here and there, but it never went too far. Alex was saying something, but Ava was lost in a fog in her head when she finally heard her name she came back and saw Alex staring at her waiting. “What am I supposed to do with this new information?” it came out almost a whisper from Ava.
“Easy, Friday night we go to the Waverider.” Alex smiles at her. “According to Leo, Sara might be there one of their Army buddies is having a retirement party.”
“And what exactly do I do if she is there?” Ava hasn’t been to a bar in almost two years.
“Oh well Sharpe I’ve seen what you can do in a bar with beautiful women. There is a whole other side that comes out of you. This confident side I haven’t seen in a while and I expect to see it Friday night so you can charm one Sara Lance.” Alex leans back in her chair knowing full well that Ava has this ability to flirt with women. She had seen it many times before and it was time that Ava finally put that charm to use.
Ava dropped her head back down on the desk and quietly mumbled. “Fine. Let’s do it I can’t take this anymore. She is on my mind constantly and if I get shot down maybe just maybe I’ll stop thinking about her.”