The dense, humid air on the platform had been annoying Thea, and she breathed a cool sigh of relief from the conditioned interior of the subway car. Looking immediately for an open spot, she took the only empty seat on one side of the car, leaving Shane sandwiched between Thea's parents opposite her. The longing look on the faces of her parents and the awkward expression on Shane's face made her regret her quick moves, but she wasn't about to give up her seat now. Turning away from the clinging looks of her party, she perused the characters on the train, internally praising and criticizing each in turn- for a well chosen outfit, sloppy style or rude, glazed stare.
Sitting to the right of her were two girls, both wearing trendy, athletic apparel in startlingly well-matched ensembles. Neither of them attracted her attention much, until the sturdier of the two, sitting further away, glanced at her with a pair of deep aqua eyes. Nice, she thought, but then turned away to check out the incredibly burly Latino man on her left. Just as she looked away, though, the girl with the eyes leaned forward and rested her elbows on her parted knees, brushing her friend's leg as she did so. As soon as it happened, her wandering eyes flicked back to the couple and then met Shane's smiling eyes.
Thea smiled too, and the two of them made a silent connection with the other "us" on the train. At the next stop, Thea's parents got off, waved goodbye till tomorrow's brunch, and headed back to their hotel to wash off the filthy city and curl up for a rejuvenating night of sleep. Thea stood with her parents and claimed the seat next to Shane, taking her hand and getting a better look as the couple now sitting at a diagonal from her. And she was suddenly glad she chose the seat closer to them so she sat between Shane and the dykes across the way, protecting her claim. She wrapped her arms around Shane in a quick hug as the train pulled away, and saw her grimace and grip the back of her neck. Kissing her hand away, she started massaging Shane's neck and kissing her hair as she felt the weight of Shane's head on her shoulder.
The train stopped again and the girl with the eyes turned to the window behind her, as if looking for someone on the platform. As she did this, she slipped her arm nonchalantly over her partner's shoulders. Shane laughed silently next to Thea. In the next few moments, the girl with the eyes had manipulated her position so that it mirrored Thea's exactly. Thea nestled her face into Shane's neck and giggled, "They're following us!" Shane smiled back and kissed her on the cheek.
They glanced across the car and watched the girl with the eyes plant a soft kiss on her girlfriend's cheek. The four of them rode for awhile in silence, sneaking a look at each other every few seconds, Thea and the girl with the eyes keeping protective grasps on their human treasures. After awhile, Thea's eyes started to wander and stopped on the figure of her opponent's girlfriend. She was smaller than her blue-eyed companion. She was equally athletic, and the attractive curve of her muscled arm held Thea's attention for a moment. At her feet was a small backpack with an id tag attached. "Emily", it said. The girl with the eyes was holding a similar card, which stated her name in the same bold letters; "Jack". How appropriate, Thea thought. Her mother must have named her Jacqueline and been simply devastated when her daughter turned out to be a sporty dyke who refused to go by the girlie name and chose something utterly masculine instead.
Thea chuckled and turned her gaze back to Emily. She wore a white basketball jersey and a pair of fitted sweats that showed her tanned calves and ankles above her basketball shoes. Thea loved ankles. Something about the innate femininity of a woman's ankles, especially when she was a particularly butch woman, emphasized that dynamic of feminine dominance (such a conflicting, paradoxicdal, beautiful thing) that Thea so loved.
She let her eyes linger there on Emily's lower legs for a moment, but then she crossed her ankles and Thea's eyelids fluttered and met Jack's entrancing eyes. The two of them locked stares and fought in a silent, still minute. The look on the Jack's face suggested that Thea had crossed the line by violating her property with a gaze. The train stopped and Shane stood to get off, but Thea, still staring into those aqua eyes, pulled Shane back down next to her, clutching the back of her neck, and kissed her. Shane pulled back almost immediately and hissed, "What are you doing?"
"There's nobody around baby- don't you want me?" Thea replied in a soothing, almost misogynist tone. Shane glanced behind her around the car. The only remaining passengers were a black man in his mid-thirties standing by the center doorway, an old Asian couple dozing in the opposite corner, and the girl with the eyes, who, Shane noticed, was now playfully nibbling her partner's neck. She had seen that look in Thea's eyes before, and it was not one she wished to argue with. Overt resistance or not, Shane knew that she would somehow end up kissing Thea on the subway that night, so why try to argue? With a sigh, Shane wrapped her arms around Thea's waist and kissed her passionately.
At the next stop, the Asian couple hobbled off the train, Jack put her hand under Emily's jersey as she kissed her open mouth. Thea put her legs on Shane's lap and took her head in both hands, exploring Shane's tongue, cheeks, and teeth with her tongue. The black man by the doors caught sight of the girls' goings on and at the next stop, hastily stepped off the train while looking back a number of times as if to question the reality of what he was seeing.
As the train pulled away, Jack glanced up at Thea's progress and, still watching them, she pulled up Emily's jersey to the bottom of her sports bra, and bent down to lick the length of her abs and slide her hands under the jersey, slowly but firmly caressing her breasts, kneading and scratching the skin. Emily closed her eyes and put her head back, her hands in her lover's hair. Thea clearly recognized the challenge and took it, first straddling Shane, pressing their bodies close together, and pulling open her button down shirt (was that a button that popped off?). Thea ran her fingers over the soft heavy mounds on Shane's chest, caressing her nipples softly, rolling them between her fingers, scratching them lightly with her long nails.
Thea pulled her lips away from Shane, a smile playing on her lips as she watched Shane catch her breath, breathe in deeply, and bite her lip in pleasure. A quick glance back at their rivals ensured Thea that Jack was gaining equal momentum with Emily poised over her knee, which was pressed firmly between Emily's legs, and one hand flicking beneath her jersey. An announcement came over the speaker system; they were at the last Manhattan stop.
Thea stood and took Shane's hand. She pulled her up from her seat, and looking behind her, Thea cast a challenging stare at Jack, and led Shane off the train. Thea had been wearing a shawl for the breezy evening, and laid it across one of the wooden seats made for waiting passengers. She pulled Shane around her and pushed her down in the seat, climbing on top of her again, kissing her passionately. Shane glanced around the platform before she relaxed. It was empty. Jack and Emily came out of the train in a few seconds and took account of the scene.
