thunder and lightning pt. 3
Clara brushed a hand through her short blonde hair, pushing it back behind one ear. There was a towel draped around her shoulders, to catch any dripping from the ends of her hair, to keep it from getting through the thin blouse she now wore. It was a little too big for her – whoever it belonged to, and she was certain it wasn’t Janet, had to have been a bit taller than she was because even the pants were a little too long; she’d rolled them up so that the ends didn’t drag along the ground. She straightened her glasses just so and then smiled. “Thank you,” she said, walking into the kitchen. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Janet shrugged. “You’re right. I didn’t.” She continued to stir the pot over the stove then pulled the wooden spoon out of the pot, sipped some of the hot chocolate off of it, and then nodded once. “Mugs are in the left cabinet. Get them out.”
Clara did as she said. Inside the cabinet were only two mugs – a grey one and a black one – and she pulled them both out, staring at them. “No color?”
“Color was always Whitney’s thing.” Janet took one of the mugs and slowly filled it. “Or Luisa’s.” She passed the mug over to Clara and took the other one. “Emma and I were more greyscale. And Rose….” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “You wouldn’t have wanted to meet Rose.”
Clara took her mug and curled up on one end of Janet’s couch. “What was she like?” she asked, her head tilting to one side. “She and Rhea—” She sighed. “She and Mom didn’t get along. I was too young to learn why, and Mom’s never felt the need to explain any of it to me. It didn’t matter. I never wanted to meet her. But I’ve heard so much—”
“You wouldn’t have wanted to meet her,” Janet repeated. She didn’t move out of the kitchen, instead cradling her mug in her hands and staring at it. “You might have liked her. It was worse that way.”
“Worse?”
Janet shrugged again. “You’ve met me. Whitney. Emma.” She glanced past Clara at the window lining the back wall. “You’ve never met Luisa.”
“No.”
“Looks just like me, except for this.” Janet tapped the scar on her left eye. Luisa didn’t have any powers or any complications. Of course, Rose had liked her better. Of course. Not that it had helped them out any. “You’ve never met anyone like her. Or Rose.” Her eyes lit up as she met Clara’s eyes. “Rose was a lot like Rhea. She brought us together. We weren’t anything without Rose.”
Clara’s eyes narrowed. “You’re together now.”
“I wouldn’t call us together. We just work at the same job. Different parts of it. We’re not what we once were.” Janet took a sip of her hot chocolate and moved to the couch, sitting on the opposite end, as far away from Clara as she could. “You’re welcome.”
“I already said thank you.”
Janet nodded. “You were there when Rhea fixed me up, after this.”
“Rose was, too.”
Janet shook her head. “Whitney was. You just said you never met Rose.”
“I said I never wanted to meet Rose. I didn’t say I never met her.” Clara focused on the hot chocolate in her mug. “I don’t remember much about that.”
It was a lie. Janet could hear the lie in her voice. She wasn’t going to call her out on it, but she could hear it. “Let’s not talk about that,” she said, taking another sip of her hot chocolate. “I don’t like to talk about Rose. That was a long time ago.”
“Three years.”
“Longer,” Janet corrected. Her fingers tapped against her mug, the grounding rings making a clicking noise as she did so. “I left before she died.” She settled against the couch. “Let’s not talk about that. I don’t like to talk about Rose,” she repeated.
“You don’t like to talk about much.”
“There’s nothing good to talk about.”
Clara frowned. “Where did you get these clothes?” she asked. “They don’t look like anything of yours.”
“They’re not.” Janet looked up just enough to meet Clara’s eyes again and then looked elsewhere. She wasn’t comfortable. She didn’t feel comfortable around people very often in general, so this wasn’t a particularly new thing for her, but there was something about Clara that consistently got under her skin. She couldn’t say just why. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You put me in your ex’s clothes?” Clara asked, and her eyes widened before lighting up. She grinned, her eyes moving up and down Janet’s form. “Naughty, Janet. Very naughty.”
Janet took a deep breath and then looked up. “You wouldn’t fit in my clothes. They’d be—”
“Too big?” Clara asked, and she waved one of her arms, the end of the shirt going long enough that it flopped just there. “Bigger than this?”
“You look good in that. You wouldn’t look good in any of my clothes.”
“C’mon,” Clara needled, scooting a little closer to her. “Tell me you don’t want to see me in your clothes.”
Janet looked straight at Clara, holding her gaze. “I don’t want to see you in my clothes.”
Clara frowned. “Well, that’s unfortunate. I’d love to see you in mine.”
This. This was it. This was why Janet didn’t like spending time with Clara. She was as bad as Rose used to be. At least Rose had a little class. Clara was just—
“Janet.” Clara reached one hand out just far enough to brush her fingertips along Janet’s arm, stopping before she so much as touched her. Janet was grateful for that, at least. She hated to be touched. “You know I’m teasing. Mostly.”
“I don’t like the joke.”
Clara sighed. “Do you want me to stop?”
Janet didn’t want to think about that. She didn’t want to think about that at all.