TRIGGER WARNING: The focus of this story is a love affair between two women. But just as I am not a gold star lesbian, Sarah has an impure past. She is remembering that checkered past in this chapter, which includes episodes of nonconsent - but as always, the erotic focus is between women.
Thanks to HaltWhoGoesThere for copy editing.
Impact of Ground Zero
I was striding down Greenwich Street, taking the longest steps my legs and Claire's shoes would allow. I was trying to outrun my
Sunday Scaries,
but I must have been a sight because I was drawing LOOKS. Hopefully, it was my outfit and not the fact that I'd just been crying.
I was pretty sure it was the way I was dressed. I had changed back into Claire's high-waisted short shorts and her little top. Add to that, the looks were mostly from men, but some were from women, and most were admiring, a few were hungry. No one seemed worried or concerned.
It was the outfit.
My phone had vibrated repeatedly while I was talking to my mom. I don't slow down, but check my phone, hiding from the eyes trying to catch mine.
There were texts from both Helen and Claire.
It is always a pleasure seeing you. Claire is a very lucky woman ;)
Despite myself, I barked a laugh. My life was so strange.
I opened Claire's text.
I'm awake! I'm sorry I fell back to sleep. Are you home?
She wanted to know if she could come uptown. I told her that I needed to read and draw; to focus on the project, and that she should rest.
That was the truth, but it was also a lie of omission. Of all the things I confessed while making love to Claire, I was most ashamed of what I hadn't admitted, about the job. I hated that I was being cagey, hated even more that I didn't know why I was being cagey...
Although, I was also more than a little embarrassed by how much I'd confessed. For Claire it was probably just run-of-the-mill dirty talk, but what I told her when I was talking dirty was
true,
and I wanted to be alone with that embarrassment.
"I just want to serve you!"
I'd said that out loud - pleaded - I could feel my cheeks burning. 'Why did I have to say that? What can she think?'
She had called me a servant... Helen and my mother and Claire were all troubling around my head. I needed to clear my thoughts, so rather than go straight home, I turned downtown to go shopping for Claire.
'Because I'm her servant,' I thought mockingly. But I was smiling again, or trying to.
I knew where I had to go, and what I had to do. I headed south. But I was still thinking about Danny and that first year at Brown...
That first fall away from home had been heady and exciting but also scary and lonely.
I had been pursued by a series of boys, first year, but also upperclassmen. It was thrilling and flattering. I had mostly kept them at arm's length with stories about Danny. But there was one beautifully thin and effeminate upperclassman boy named Jeremy who pushed past those stories, refusing to be deterred.
He was from Seattle - which had seemed so far away as to be the stuff of fantasy. I imagined everyone must live in houseboats like Tom Hanks in
You've Got Mail.
Jeremy said that was absolutely ridiculous, that only architects lived in houseboats in Seattle.
He had long brown hair, blue eyes, and lips like a bow that made me weak with longing, and one night I let him kiss me.
That was the closest I came to cheating on Danny... with a boy.
The very next day,
like she knew,
my mother wrote to me, pressing me to reach out to Danny, to invite him to visit. She pointed out I had a three-day weekend coming up in a couple weeks.
Part of me dreaded what I was opening myself up to. After we had sex the first time I pictured him taking up residence in my dorm room. But Danny had surprised me by keeping his distance. After years of being joined at the hip, it was strange not to talk to him every day.
I did as I was asked and broke things off with Jeremy. Campus was especially lonely after that. I had Kwasi and my other friends in the dorm, and in my classes, but Jeremy and his circle of friends had swept me up and made me forget everything else. Without them to distract me, I realized how much I missed Danny.
I was also beginning to realize I was out of my depth at Brown, and not just socially. Writing was never my strong suit, so I was encouraged to sign up for classes with a "writing designation" - I was struggling to keep up. But I was even flailing in my physics seminar. It was all so intense and different from what I was used to.
"Your research is great," my anthropology TA told me, handing me back a B- paper. "But you really need to focus on your writing. You can do better than this."
My mostly unflappable roommate, Jilly, thought I was losing my mind. I cried all the time.
"Bs are not bad!" she told me impatiently. I had never been a B student.
So after dragging my feet a little longer, I finally called Danny. We ended up talking for a long time. There were gaps in our stories. I didn't tell him about Jeremy and there were things Danny was leaving out too, but I didn't care. Talking to him, I realized how terribly homesick I was. I cried and told him so; that I missed him. I invited him to visit for the long weekend.
"It's Indigenous Peoples Day," I sniffed, still a little teary. He thought I was pulling his leg.
Rather than come stay with me for the three-day weekend, he offered to pick me up and drive me home so I could spend it with him in Buffalo.
"I'll drive you," he told me when I asked how I'd get back to school. I told him he was crazy, but I agreed.
My mother was ecstatic.
When Danny came to pick me up he was so happy to see me. I brought him up to show him my room, but he just glanced around and shrugged. All he wanted to do was get back on the road. So we left. That's how it was that year.