The thunder cracked loudly, startling me out of the doze that I was just starting to drift off into, and I realized that I probably wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. I knew that with all the driving, the setting up my tent, meeting all these new people, and the anticipation of the rest of the weekend, it was going to be tough for me to get any good sleep the way it was. We'd been planning this gathering for months, a group of us from a chat room that I often hung out in, all of us from the same general area of the states, getting together to camp out for the weekend and get to know one another. I thought everyone was straight but me, but I'd gotten a pleasant surprise. Now, nearing midnight of our first night, there was a huge storm brewing outside, and to top it off, I'd been caught quite off guard by the fact that Calinae was a lesbian, and a totally hot butch at that.
"Cori," I thought to myself. "Her real name is Cori. Cori, Cori, remember to call her that," I whispered mentally, and nearly jumped a foot straight up when I heard the voice of the woman I'd just been thinking of, and right outside the doorflap of my tent.
"Hey, Azure... I mean, Anya... are you awake?" she whispered. I sat up and reached over to unzip the flap, the wind buffetting the tent like someone was outside shaking it.
"Yeah, Cori, I'm awake. You can't sleep with the storm either, huh?" I said, and she laughed, her small flashlight casting a pale glow on her face. It caught a glint in her hair, and I noticed what an attractive shade of blonde it was. Gotta quit thinking like that, I thought quickly, as Cori crouched down further so that she could talk to me.
"No, I really can't, and the lack of an air mattress isn't helping. I know that this is kinda forward and all, but I... uhm... well... I don't suppose that there's room in your tent for me, is there?" Cori asked, with a sheepish smile and a faint blush I thought I could see even in the darkness of the midnight and the storm. "Mine's not got an air mattress like yours does, and I'm pretty sure the seams are gonna leak when it starts raining. Would you mind?"
"No. I mean, sure, Calinae...Cori... come on in," I said, wondering what on Earth would possess me to tell her it would be okay. Well, she'd behave, I was sure of that. I could definitely kick her out if things got out of hand, right?
She crawled in carefully, avoiding stepping on me, trying her best not to disturb me any more than necessary. She moved to the back wall of the tent, and laid down, trying to arrange the sleeping bag that she'd brought in with her so that she wouldn't get in my way. We both lay down, and stared up at the ceiling of the tent for a few minutes, and then laughed when we both said, "So..." at the same instant.
"Go ahead," she said, "Ladies first," and turned on her side to look at me with a smile. I rolled over on my side, as well, and asked her about herself, figuring that if we were gonna share a tent, we might as well get to know a little bit about one another.
We talked easily with one another for a long while, and I was amazed to realize that I didn't even notice time passing while we were chatting. We talked about ourselves, our jobs, the chat room, and various other things that came to mind. But eventually, it began to rain outside - and rain hard. We realized that any more talk would end up being shouts, because the sound of the rain on the nylon of my tent was nearly deafening, so we finally just gave up and waved a friendly goodnight.
I turned over, away from her, and lay there thinking how nice Cori was, and how I wouldn't really mind much if she was a little closer to me, but knowing that we'd just met, and it would probably be too much to think about that sort of thing happening. I mean, I'm not the sort to DO that sort of thing. But as if she'd read my mind, I felt the air mattress rock a little, and realized that she was now laying just behind me, close.
"Do you mind?" I heard her say in my ear, and the sound of her voice so close sent a chill through me. The caress of her words across my face, the gentle vibration of the depth of her voice.