All characters are 18+.
...
Gwen Jones and Kelly Buxton hadn't been friends long, and they weren't even particularly good friends -- their desks happened to be next to each other at work and that was about it. They were very different -- Gwen was short and slender and pale, with long red hair and equally red freckles splashed across her face, her vibe almost infinitely shy. Kelly was taller, more serious, her blonde hair in a carefully maintained pixie cut, her body curvy and eyes blue to the point of hypnotic. They were opposites -- perhaps that's why they started to gravitate together.
Bit by bit by bit, they got to talking and learned various vague things about each other -- Gwen found out about Kelly's farming family, her obsession with old foreign movies, her "utterly useless" degree in Classics. Kelly found out about Gwen's recreational screenwriting, her love of baseball, her online side-business selling socks. And then, surprising even herself, Gwen asked Kelly out -- not as a date, not really, but to see something which Gwen kept as a tightly locked up secret. Cherry Blossom Island.
The island lurked south of town, where the river valley shattered into a sprawling archipelago separated by a knee-high river. Nobody ever came -- fewer than nobody, it seemed, knew about the island, a dot of pink among a sea of reeds. Gwen had been coming since she was little and, all that time, had never seen another soul. She didn't know how long her secret would stay that way -- nor why she'd so carelessly betrayed its existence by inviting Kelly to see it. She supposed she was now old enough to start sharing.
Gwen arrived first, having deliberately come early to head off any risk of Kelly getting lost, and she spent the spare time sitting on her backpack and dipping her bare feet into the water. A pair of blue dragonflies danced together above the surface. She wondered if Kelly would come at all -- she'd said she would, yet Gwen couldn't help but fret. It was an odd thing to do, inviting a friend from work to a place like this, but she preferred it to the pub. She wanted something memorable.
Eventually, there came a rustle from the trees up the nearby hill and from the greenery emerged a slightly flustered looking Kelly, weighed down by her own backpack. Her face filled with relief when she spotted Gwen as she realised she wasn't lost after all. Gwen waved and Kelly hurried down the hill, dressed in a stripy t-shirt, baggy trousers, and walking boots.
"I was starting to think you weren't coming," said Gwen, as she arrived.
"Course I was coming," Kelly replied, her smile as sweet, if a bit scary, as ever. "Just hard to find this place."
"Yeah..." Gwen looked away. "I guess I forget finding my way is second nature by now."
"So that's it, then?" Kelly asked, looking out over the river towards the island, which seemed to explode into pinks and cherries with all the blossom crowding its trees. Birdsong and the rush of water filled the air. It was hard to believe the city was so close and yet so silenced.
"That's it. Neat, huh?"
"I didn't bring a change of clothes."
"You don't need to," Gwen assured her. "It's way shallower than it looks -- just roll up your trousers to your knees and you'll be fine."
"Alright -- but I'm trusting you on that one."
"I'll try not to let you down." Kelly smirked -- Gwen watched as she sat on the riverbank to take off her shoes and socks before rolling up her trousers as instructed.
"Alright," said Kelly, as she stood again. "Let's do this thing."
Hand in hand to keep from toppling over, the pair waded into the warm river -- more than once, Kelly remarked on the sight of little fish navigating around their ankles.
"How on Earth did you find this place?" she sighed. "It's heavenly."
"Just lucky, I guess," Gwen replied.
"I never knew the air could be this sweet, and... oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" Gwen felt the pull as Kelly stepped on a loose rock which surrendered under her weight. Kelly fell backwards and Gwen tightened her grip to try and keep her upright -- all it did was make Gwen fall with her. The two crashed into the river and found themselves sitting there, the water running around them, soaked to their skin. Kelly sighed.
"Awesome."
"It's not the end of the world." Kelly shot Gwen a look.
"I'm going home."
"No, don't," Gwen protested. "Come on -- at least check out the island. Who cares if we're a bit wet? Can't get any wetter."
"Yeah..." Kelly looked down at herself, still sat in the river. "Yeah, alright, I guess."
Kelly stood first, then with both hands helped haul Gwen to her feet, water dribbling off their sodden clothes, the fabric sticking to their skin. They then waded the rest of the way to the still-alluring island.
"It's a hot day," said Gwen brightly. "We might dry pretty quick."
"Maybe." Kelly shrugged. "I'll try not to let it spoil my mood."
"You better not." Gwen stuck out her tongue and Kelly smiled.
"At least our hair's dry. That's... something."
Soon enough, the pair were stepping ashore, the grass taking good care of their bare feet, and Kelly seemed to have forgotten all about her soddenness. She was too busy staring this way and that at all the cherry blossom trees, each exploding with colours so bright they could have been alien, awe in her eyes even as she picked constantly at her t-shirt which clung to her skin. The shape of her bra was as visible as it ever could be against her shirt and Gwen tried not to stare -- after all, she was in much the same predicament and Kelly wasn't staring at her.
