*** Everyone mentioned in the story is older than 18 years old.
*****
It was a uni kid's life, getting fucked up at three o'clock in the afternoon on the roof of a girl she liked. Melanie had led Raven up there when she got there, barely done complaining about the stairs before she was pushed up the ladder next to the bed that led to a balcony that looked exactly like what you'd expect from a Mediterranean fantasy. The roof was sloped and when she saw two hot girls that looked to be in their lower thirties laying out in shorts and nothing else across the street so they could tan she climbed onto the roof as well. Melanie had gone back to the kitchen to get the beer and when she came up to see her she laughed but came to join her.
Melanie was every fantasy Raven had never had when she was questioning her sexuality. She was wearing basketball shorts and a tank top with big arm holes and no bra, white enough that you could just make out the colour of her areolas. The only thing that was missing for her to look like a wannabe frat boy was a backwards baseball cap over her buzz-cut. Raven still thought she was beautiful, though, never having been too dependent on either men or women looking the way the world wanted them to look like. Right now her eyes were red-rimmed and slightly swollen, although she'd washed the tear tracks off of her cheeks. Raven did her the favour of pretending not to notice although she didn't know whether she was there to notice or not. But truth be told she didn't want to be here for the emotional fall out of Melanie's relationship. She'd relegated her position to rebound fuck and that was really the only thing she felt competent enough to deal with.
Raven had wanted Ivone to fuck off for ages now, too much competition. Not because Ivone was a higher league than her or anything, but rather because she was the same if not a little bit extra. Raven had long hair with champagne blonde hair that had been blatantly bleached to look like Khaleesi although she usually pulled it back from her face, where she wore just enough her make-up to make her eyes big and her lips bold. Ivone had had an edgy hair cut that practically screamed of an alternative lesbian announcing to the world that men were a thing of her distant past (although they weren't actually) and she let it hang in her face where she wore just as little make-up as Raven but with neon colours. Technically, they looked very different, but when Melanie had introduced Raven to Ivone they looked in each other eyes after trading cheek kisses and saw the exact same thing; they were both exactly Melanie's type.
Where Ivone was exactly the kind of girl you'd expect by looking at her, a bit over dramatic and a lot jealous for someone who'd insisted for an open relationship, full of sweet words said with a sickly-sugar tone that told you what she was really thinking, Raven wasn't. She didn't like drama, didn't thrive in it, so she'd taken a step back. Ivone hadn't liked Raven, and Raven had made sure not to give her a fair reason to hate her. In all honesty, Raven had even been a bit attracted to Ivone. However, while she'd been nineteen she still acted like a child and while Melanie might like girls that were high maintenance, she didn't, and she had the feeling that the reason Ivone didn't like Raven wasn't solely because she was into Melanie and not willing to hide it, but rather because she was into Melanie and not her.
There was also the other side of it, that however self-involved Raven might have thought Ivone was, she had been willing to offer Melanie an emotional relationship. Something Raven wasn't willing to give to Melanie since she knew come June she'd be gone, and anyways, Raven was too good at ruining things to be willing to put herself out there. She'd thought Melanie was hot, and that was it, and if Ivone hadn't gotten so possessive Raven probably wouldn't have cared enough to put in more than an hour's worth of her effort. At any rate, it didn't matter what Ivone's intentions with Melanie were since she was clearly gone. Raven had a pretty good idea her interest in Melanie had been reciprocated, but this was the first time in six weeks Melanie had so much as texted her - obviously not allowed to until now - and even if she had hung out with her before, Raven knew that it'd been against the rules to bring girls back home. That had been her first sign that Ivone was gone.
"You got a tattoo," Raven said when Melanie handed her a beer. It was shitty beer and she was reminded not for the first time that Melanie was a uni girl playing house in an adult world that she clearly hadn't learned the rules for.
"You mention that and not the hair?" Melanie asked with a laugh, raising her eyebrows at her a bit judgmentally as if she thought Raven had missed six inches of her hair being cut off.
"I actually like the tattoo."
Melanie pushed her playfully, but she was still smiling to show she wasn't offended. "Bitch." She cracked open her beer and took a drink before holding her arm out to look at.
"Looks fresh," Raven said. It had to be either way, since it hadn't been there six weeks ago.
Melanie nodded. "Ivone did it last week."
"It's nice."
"You think it's stupid."
Incredibly stupid. "But also nice."
"I wanted a souvenir."
"Now that's stupid."
Melanie shrugged but didn't deny it. They sat together on the roof drinking the beer and not talking about anything serious. She didn't even mention Ivone again although Raven knew that the only reason she was there was because something had happened between the two of them. Probably Melanie was smart enough to know that Raven wasn't the one to cry to about Ivone anyways. Instead, they talked about how Melanie was doing in her uni classes although Raven knew Spanish professors tended to just pass foreign students regardless of how little work they did and Melanie asked her about work.
