"I just don't know." Anna said, sitting down hard against the edge of the large slab of wood that passed for a table in Lise's living room... As much leaning against it as sitting on it.
"Well, what do you want to do?" Lise stood with one hand propped on her hip and one foot kicked out a little from the other. The pose gave her a sense of authority that meshed well with her already stern beauty. “If you are doing what you really want to do, deep down inside, chances are you are doing the right thing.”
Anna lifted her gaze slightly. She had been studying the pattern in the maroon and grey carpet. Now she looked to Lise’s worn, white sneakers, and from there to the complex curves of her legs. Her softly faded jeans flared gently at the ankles and then clung to the shape of her thighs like shadows. Her one foot further out as she placed her weight on the other brought her knees close together and leant an oval heart shape to her thighs and hips. Above her belt, her old tee-shirt obscured her shape like white, fluffy clouds, telling almost nothing until it was just brushed at the collar by her short dark hair. The curls framed her face, highlighting eyes that sparkled over her warm smile. The random dapples of evening sun that passed thru the large front window bathed her in a warm pattern of light and shadow, set to sharp staccato now and then by traffic passing on the road in front of the house.
Suddenly a hint of mischief crept into that smile and Lise began to walk slowly closer, each foot sweeping in front of the other in exaggerated arcs that made her hips sway deeply. “Does it make you tingle inside, all alive with little shivers, when you think of him?”
Anna blushed instantly… Not because of any thoughts of the boy they had been discussing, but because looking at Lise was making her feel exactly that. Lise must have seen the color rise in her face, because she pounced like a cat with a new toy.
“Do you feel electricity, low in your tummy? Do you hear your blood rushing, so loud you can hardly hear anything else? So many wild butterflies inside you that you are afraid you will float away?”
Anna watched Lise as she came closer. She watched her lips, curling around the words she spoke, her eyes gleaming with fire and mischief, her tongue flicking over her teeth. Anna felt her skin get warmer and warmer. She felt her hands start to tremble and braced them on the table to hide it. But Lise must have seen.
“You’re feeling those things now, aren’t you?” she asked.
Anna’s eyes went wide. She nodded a slow “yes” before she could think, then blushed darker and looked down. Did Lise know? No. She was still talking about the boy. She didn’t understand that Anna had brought the subject up because she did not feel these things for him. She felt no passion at his touch, even though she knew she should. But what if she found out? What had she said about doing what you want to do? How would she react, if she found out that it was her that made Anna feel these things? How would she react if Anna told her she had never felt for a boy the way she felt for her. What would she think? More importantly, what would she do? Anna’s fingertips touched the crystal bud vase Lise kept on the table. She glanced down at it and saw a single white rose. She picked it up and began to turn it slowly in her fingertips, keeping her hands steady, and her mind – she hoped – focused.
Lise stood straighter, and with a more serious face, as if the nod was all the answer she needed. “What do you think you should do, then?”
Anna’s skin was fully ablaze. Everything blurred around her, and all she could hear was her heartbeat. Her tummy felt like it would burst. In a single moment of passion, she knew she would rather die than keep her feelings hidden. She looked at Lise’s eyes a moment, then looked down again, and took a deep breath. “I should tell you how I feel.” She said, her voice trembling, barely a whisper.
