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Untitled

By X

Part One: Beginning

Kaeley sat quietly, her mind furiously working out the image before her, trying to make sense of them and putting them in the most pleasing; and interesting arrangement possible. With one hand holding her head and the other moved restlessly with an optical mouse. This was not quite working for her, she thought, maybe if she rested her eyes a bit and continued with it later.

Might help.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "Yeah?" She called out without looking at the door. There could be no one else but her roommate. She wondered what could bring her roommate to interrupted her tonight, normally Chris would not bother her especially when she closed her door and there was not a sound inside.

"Are you busy?" A voice came from behind and Kaeley finally turned in her chair, her roommate was poking her head inside, looking like she was not quite sure if she should enter.

"No, I'm not." Kaeley shook her head, in doing so allowing her friend to enter her room.

She leaned back in her chair, one leg crossed over the other, looking quite tired, her eyes were half lidded, hiding the pale blue underneath, shading them. Her short blonde hair was combed back after she came out of the shower and right now was dried and falling about her face. Her thin frame was wrapped in a loose white T-shirt and a pair of navy blue flannels Nautica pajama bottom.

"What's up?"

Chris sat heavily on the mattress, looking down at the carpet; the room was so much like the girl, quiet, clean, and somehow, hiding secrets. She had never seen anyone that so adamant about keeping a room so bare, the wall was painted off-white, and there was nothing much more than just a few drawings that she had pinned up... mostly for comparison than for decoration. They were those of line drawings that her friend was very good at, she used to stand so close to them, looking at the lines. They were so many lines; busy, unorganized, but somehow made up such gorgeous images. Had she broke it up into individual line there would be no beauty... so complicated.

Even the bed she sat on... just mattresses and box spring, the only thing that is not simple was the midnight blue and silver gray silk sheets that her friend used. The comforter was also of midnight blue, with several pillows encased in blue and silver gray alternated. The whole thing always had calming effect on her, including the girl herself.

Unlike Kaeley, Chris was slightly larger build, with womanly curve; her hair was also slightly longer, but not by much. And of course, she was not a real blonde.

"Nothing much, just bad day and I was wondering if you were busy."

"I was, up until this damn thing starting to look like a goddamn map of Eldorado." She gestured at the 19 inches computer screen. "I'm done for the night, or until my head stop buzzing."

Kay offered a crooked grin as her friend's laughter filled the room. Something was bothering Chris again, she could tell, and there was probably only one thing for her to do... cheer her up.

"So..." She said after letting her friend laugh. "What's bothering you?"

"Why do you think anything is bothering me?"

"You come in here this time of the night, while you leave me alone all afternoon after you got back from work." Kay put her foot down on the floor and leaned forward with both her elbows rested on her knees, waiting... "You know you can tell me."

"You make it sound like I only come in to talk to you when I have problem." Chris looked down at her own hands, feeling guilty; knowing what she had just said was probably accurate. There was no comment from her friend, and Kaeley continued to wait for her to spill.

"I just wanna talk." Chris repeated.

"Hey, what's a matter?" Kay asked again, looking into her eyes, trying to find the answer there. "Boss being a jerk?"

"How do you always able to sum up my problem?"

"It's a gift." The smaller girl nodded convincingly.

Chris gave out another laughter, knowing what her friend was trying to do, and loving her for it. She flopped down on the mattress and looked up at her roommate who only lifted one eyebrow in response to her action. And she pulled the pillow down and hugged it, it was the one that her friend actually used, she could smell her shampoo clung to it. Even with four pillows on her bed, she knew that Kay would only used one in particular; and that were, she was pretty sure, the one that she was holding.

Kaeley grinned, she knew what Chris was going to do, just like everytime she was in her room... bed was the first place she went to and it would not be long before she would lay down and then soon she would snuggled up underneath the comforter. And more often than not, went to sleep without even the attempt to hide how much she loved sleeping there. She didn't mind her friend sleeping in her bed really, just that sometimes... Sometimes she felt as if her friend was looking for something more... something that she was afraid to ask for.

And since she did not ask, Kay could not be sure what she wanted.

Tonight was probably going to end just like usual, Chris sleeping in her bed and she would wake up with her roommate wrapping around her, unconsciously seeking comfort. Or maybe it was something else that she was looking for, she didn't really know, and at the moment she didn't want to know.

Sometimes, she woke up to find that Chris came in during the night and snuggled up with her, made Kay glad that she bought a queen size bed, she would not want to be rolling over and fell off to the floor. She wondered what was happening inside that pretty head of hers. It was rather humorous to think that someone who seemed to be understood psychology very well and who liked to figure out how people think, could not, or would not allow herself to see her own problem.

She remembered the first thing Chris did to her was, attempting to figure her out, trying to find out what make her tick. Her attempt had not gone unnoticed, of course. She could see right from the beginning, but humor her nonetheless.

Right now though, she wasn't going to think about what happened in the past.

"So, tell me." She said.



Kaeley stood up, gazing down at her sleeping roommate, wondering if she should wake her up and tell her to go to bed, or just let her sleep in her bed again, like she usually did. Sighing, she left the room and head straight to the bathroom, her work would not be done tonight as she had hoped, but it was all right.

There was no rush anyway.

She ran her wet hands over her hair, smoothing it back, then reached for the towel to wipe out the droplets of moisture on her face. After she was done she hung the small towel back on the hook at the side and grabbed some paper towel to wipe down the water on the counter and the steam on the mirror.

Kaeley looked at her own reflection, distorted from the moisture and steam; she looked into her own eyes, wondering what other people see there. Most importantly, what her friend saw in them. Shaking her head, she wiped down the rest of the mirror and tossed the paper away.

No one sees anything, she thought to herself; no one would know what I think, how I feel.

She hated to have people see through her, and her fear had never been true... no one had ever been able to get through the walls she put up. No one ever tried hard enough to make that happen.

Chris almost did. She thought, but she stopped.

Kaeley walked back to her own room, the lights was still on, she closed her door and head right to her computer, turned it off for the night and then turned the light at her desk off. Then she turned around, turning the light off, leaving the whole room in darkness.

She could never sleep with night-light, and never could understand why someone would.

Chris complained once that she should have a night-light on, so that she wouldn't trip over anything in the middle of the night. The only response she gave her was that, she could make her way in the dark, and that she had never trip over anything at night, because she did not leave things lying around on the floor.

The she went ahead and gave a shot of her own, asking if it was problem for Chris to come in at night she would leave a light on, she just had to ask.

With that Chris had only mumbled something back at her, something like she would prefer to just go to sleep there before she turned the lights off at all.

And Kaeley let the comment go.

After the lights were off she climbed under the blanket and stretched out on her back, just as she was closing her eyes and relaxed the body beside her shifted and she knew her friend wasn't asleep.

"You're awake?" Kaeley whispered, just in case she was wrong.

"Yeah." Came the soft reply.

"Did I wake you?" She shifted on her side a little bit so she could see Chris.

"Does it bother you that I come in here and sleep in your bed all the time?"

Kay blinked a few times, surprised at the question, she never thought that her roommate would ever bring this up to talk about, it seemed like she was more than willing to just leave it go unsaid.

"No," she answered. "Not really, if you want to sleep here it's fine with me." Then a grin, "well, as long as you don't just push me off the bed that is."

Chris smiled at her comment, she would never do that, conscious or otherwise. She would rather be wrapped tightly in her friend's arms than push her away.

"Tell me."

Chris looked at the serious look in her friend's eyes; the playful twinkles were gone. She was caught.

"I don't know... I just... I want to... I feel so comfortable with you, and I feel so safe here knowing that you would be right here with me while I sleep." Chris sighed audibly. "I've been having nightmares and I... I'm scared. I can't tell you what they were about, cause I can't remember them."

To her surprise, she was pulled into a hug and she hugged her back. "You should've told me." Kaeley whispered in her hair. "Go to sleep now."

Chris closed her eyes, expecting her friend to be pulling away, and the emptiness return, but Kay didn't, instead she held her just tight enough for her to feel safe and secure and gave her a kiss on her forehead and told her to go to sleep, and that she would be here with her.



"Why are you up early?"

"I have to go into the office today."

Chris watched as her friend rummaging through the room, dressing at the same time. Kay was still in her undershirt, her black slack hung low on her hip, the only thing that kept them from falling totally were boxers that she wore underneath.

She usually never had the chance to actually see what her friend did in the morning; Kaeley work only required her to go in twice or three times a week. After a while she found herself watching how the muscle on her friend's arms flex as she reached into the closet. She had seen when her friend was half dressed all the time, Kay was tall, and thin, her figure was almost boyish, her breasts and hips almost non-existed.

Of course that just made the women in the bar they visit on occasions fall all over themselves to get her attention. And sometimes, Chris just didn't really like it, though other time it just made her feel a little smug at the fact that her friend was with her.

"What are you looking for?"

"Don't know, a shirt that I can wear?" Kay tossed over her shoulder.

"What about that blue one."

"That one?" She pointed at one of the many blue shirts she had.

"Yeah," Chris finally got up from the mattress and walked over to where her friend was. "Here," she said, reaching into the closet from behind.

Kaeley stepped aside so that her friend could see what she was grabbing. She watched Chris pulled out the midnight blue silk shirt from behind some other button up shirt that she had hanging there. "This?"

"Yeah, you look good in it, now put it on and you can get going." Chris turned around and went straight back to bed and tucked herself back in.

Kay looked at her friend, her eyes narrowing. "You're going back to bed, aren't you?"

"Why ever would you think that?"

"Yeah, why ever would I think that." Kay replied, looking at her pointedly.



Kaeley tugged at the hem of her shirt absentmindedly; the sleeves of her shirt were rolled up just below her elbows allowing freedom of her hands movement. Her eyes wondered over the graphic displaying on the computer screen.

"What if you put that aside," she pointed at one spot on the top right corner, careful not to let her finger actually touched the screen. "Right there and have it move down and then the music starts."

"Wouldn't it be nicer if you just get rid of it altogether?"

"I don't think so, it'll look so plain without it."

"If you say so." A shrug.

"I'm always right." Kay grinned, and gave her colleague a tap on the shoulder as she walked away.

"Oh yeah."

She heard a sarcastic replied being tossed over her shoulder and she laughed. "I'm going home," Kaeley said, walking into her office. "Just e-mail that to me when you're done with it."

Taylor looked at her friend and co-worker walked away, her pale feature narrowed slightly. Kay always stayed late when she comes into work, this was the first time that her friend leaving early-- in this case, before the last person left-- that she knew of. So she decided to follow her.

"What's up?"

Kaeley looked up from her desk and found her friend, Taylor stood at the door, looking at her. She was leaning casually against the doorframe, watching.

Kay looked back down to what she was doing, "nothing much, you?" She looked through her disks and counted them, made sure that she had everything with her before leaving, she wouldn't want to come back and get them when she found that she missed the disk and could not finish the work without it.

She didn't look back up until she saw a pair of legs stood right in front of her desk.

"This is the first time you're leaving early. I just thought something's up."

"Nothing, really." Kay shrugged. "I just don't feel so good today."

"Oh. OK." Taylor smiled. "Well, then go home, get some rest."

"I intended to." She replied dryly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, even if she wanted to. Really, really wanted to.

And just as she looked back down to close her back and thought that Taylor had left, her friend reminded her that she was still there. "So, how's your roommate doing?"

"Chris? She's OK, I guess."

"You guess?" Taylor exclaimed. She quickly settled her small frame into the chair in front of the desk, intended for the clients, her short skirt rose up considerably, she crossed her arms over her chest, indicated that she had no intention of moving anywhere until she satisfied her curiosity, about whatever that may be.

"Well," Kay said slowly, noted how her friend sat right in the chair, unmoving. She wasn't going anyway until Taylor White was satisfied. And she wondered briefly if it would be possible to just disappeared into thin air. "She's been pretty busy with work and school for the past week or so. By the time she got home she's too tired and I didn't want to bother her."

"Jeez, you live in the same apartment, you could at least ask."

"I know." Kaeley mumbled. "Well, I will. But now I've got to get going."

And with that she left.



Taylor walked back to her own office as soon as the door closed behind her friend. She had always admired how her friend could make every little thing look good on computer screen or otherwise. Kaeley was a very nice person, she was very sweet and caring, to everyone she called friend.

True that she hadn't known her for very long. Kaeley Titan had just moved into town and in the company. She was hired at the highest possible rate and White thought that the money that the company spent on Titan was worth it. She was brilliant and very, very talented. Though sometimes she was a little close off, but she thought that it was probably because she was so new.

Taylor wanted to get to know her better, certainly a lot more than her friend letting her, she was a lot more private than most people and what she deemed that people didn't need to know, she didn't tell. She was probably the only person in this place that knew enough about her, and even been to her place. A very nice two bedrooms apartment that she shared with a roommate. She didn't really know why Kay needed a roommate, certainly on her salary alone she could afford the place by herself, maybe even a bigger place. But she never asked.

Christine, the roommate.

She was nice, in Taylor opinion, but she didn't know her that well, and after a few times that she had been over at their place she found her to be very smart, and very interesting person. She also found that Kaeley was protective of her friend, very protective.

Taylor White had the suspicious that maybe that was the whole reason that Kaeley Titan had roommate. Not because she wanted someone to share the responsibilities and bills. She decided that when she had a chance she would ask how far back they were.

Of course it could be just that she wanted someone around to talk to, living alone in the new town could be very scary sometimes.

In any case, Taylor just wanted to get to know this mysterious girl better.

And other thing, she also found her to be very attractive. Taylor had never found herself attracted to a woman before in her life, Kay was the first. The girl was tall, and slim, in an athletic way, she was like a sculpture created by a master, she was perfect in her own way. She was beautiful, but not in a womanly sense.

The word she had for her was, androgynous.

She didn't really have any other word to describe her really. Maybe that was why she found her so attractive.

In any case she might have to work harder to get to her goal.

 

Kay parked her silver/gray 2000 Ford Mustang in the parking slot and reached over to the passenger seat to grab her backpack. Usually, anyone that work like she did would have a briefcase or something to that effect, but Kay never liked it, she thought that it was a waste of space, and she have no patient for stuffy piece of leathers. Besides, the smell gave her a headache.

So, instead of the briefcase she chose to use a black and blue Timberland backpack to keep several folders of information and cases of her disks.

Just as she pulled back away from the passenger seat with the backpack in her hand a car was pulling into the empty slot next to her, a dark red Camero, it was her roommate. Kay looked at the watch on her wrist and noted the time. It was a little early for her friend to be home, but then it was a little too early for her to be home as well.

"You're home early," Chris exclaimed as she got out of her car, walking over to the driver side of the Mustang.

"Yeah," Kay mumbled, pulling the backpack with her as she got out. "Didn't feel good so, I left."

"Are you ok?" Christine asked as soon as her friend shut the door.

Kaeley shrugged, which was a little strange, Christine had never seen her friend answer this sort of question with a shrug before, but she decided that it wouldn't do her any good to push.

Kay tossed the backpack over her shoulder and offered to help her friend carry some of the books up to their apartment.


To Be Continue