London Harmony: Small Fry (9 page)

As it went on, prepping for the recording, I thought about the people I have seen at London Harmony.  Jen, Vanessa, Mei, and to some extent even Zilrita who was a delightfully square peg.  Then I looked over at June who was just watching what was going on in the booth with pride and wonder in her eyes.  Her own mother was deaf.  She, and everyone she chose to be around her, truly didn't seem to care about anyone's afflictions, rather they celebrated the person instead.  God, I loved Fran's family.

Tabby turned back then did a double take at me and waved cutely.  Then the man at the controls cued the room mic again, “Hey, Kacy stop making googly eyes at Mei.  Mick, can you run interference?”  The tall woman with the electric bass grinned and stepped between the two women.

He grinned and looked over to June.  “You don't pay me enough for this.”

She winked at him.  “Oh shush, you love it and you know it.”

He smiled and then looked away and keyed a mic.  “Tabs, walk the scale if you would please?”

She sang the scale in a nasally off key voice, then chuckled at the man who looked over to us again. “See what I have to work with?”  Then he keyed the mic. “I've got all day, lady.  I'm sure Teri will be upset to miss lunch with her wife because you're stuck in the booth.”

She mocked hurt and surprise and sang the scale in an eerily perfect tone.  The woman was so pitch perfect you would almost think a machine was producing the notes.  He adjusted some controls and said to her, “Better.  Thank you.”  She made a silly face at him, and he said to June playfully, “Like a bunch of kids.”

June said, “You enjoy it and you know it, Mickey.”  Ahh!  Now I had a name to go with the curly black haired and slightly slumped shouldered bloke with the birthmark on the back of his left hand.

He grinned and made a point of adjusting some controls deftly while not looking away from June.  Then he looked away and keyed his mic.  “Okay, Kacy, count them off.”  He held one ear of some headphones to his head and nodded his head in time with the beat from the drummer hitting her sticks together over her head.  On the sixth beat, the band exploded into a fusion of thrash and pop that was Tabby's signature sound.

I was peripherally aware of Micky adjusting controls. I was overwhelmed, I was actually listening to something that nobody outside of the studio had heard yet.  It was so full of emotion like all the songs produced by London Harmony.  It was like a private concert.  I wiped a tear from one eye, wondering where it had come from.

I was still in a daze after we said our goodbyes as they continued doing other takes and June brought me to the other sound room to witness Abigail Addison creating music literally out of thin air, out of the very sounds of the city outside.

I was enraptured, then some warm arms wrapped around me from behind.  I caught Fran's scent and sighed.  Then we played with Abigail's big golden retriever working dog, Percy, as we watched.  This was the most surrealistic day of my life.  I had to smile, realizing that this was just like any other day to the woman who had captured my heart.

The next day we spent just hanging out with each other, walking the city.  She was far too sweet, always wearing that bandanna.  I was to the point I knew her just from the way she held herself.  When we had stopped in Hyde Park to sit for a bit I slid the thing off her head and whispered,  “I know you.”

We shared another of those kisses that filled my heart then just sat there on the bench watching people pass by.  The days were getting pretty cool now but I felt warm under her arm.  The trickster had me buy coffee for us that morning, then at lunch time she said, “Let's get some grub.  I'm buying, you got the coffee this morning.”

I swear to God that she plans those things out so I don't feel like she is giving me any charity.  The one time I brought it up she just grinned and said, “What?  Am I not allowed to spoil my girlfriend?”  She wins.  I smiled inwardly, closed my eyes and ran my fingers along her lips, I wanted to remember that smile.

We wound up back at the Archive and consumed the last of my food.  Fran was eyeing my stores critically.  I had a few quid still squirreled away that I could replenish a bit for nights and weekends, and I could supplement by eating more for breakfasts and lunch.  I'd snag a few handfuls of saltines from the cafeteria whenever I thought about it.

Sadly, the blonde imp had to leave me after that to get back to her room to finish up her homework before the morning.  I walked her down and she pulled me close by the collar of my jacket and smiled, saying, “I like this.  I wish I didn't have to leave.”

I pushed her blonde hair aside and kissed her lips gently. “Scoot Small Fry, if you don't go now, neither of us will get our coursework done and we'd fail together.”

She crinkled her nose at me.  “Yes, but what an auspicious way to end our continuing education careers.”  I snorted, shoved her out the door, and locked it behind her.  I hugged my arms around my shoulders with her on my mind and slid my back down the door until I was sitting.  I leaned my head back and closed my eyes and remembered the feel and shape of her lips on my fingertips.

I hopped up when I noticed  Mr. Myong at the far end of the hall, up on a ladder, replacing some bulbs.  He was grinning at me.  I blushed, stood and waved at the man then slid through a door into the stacks, using my aunt's key.

The next morning I snuck down early to pull a couple of retrieval requests for Fran, to make her job easier tonight.  How in the hell had she entrenched herself so firmly in my heart in such a short period of time?  She didn't care about my living situation and never treated me differently than anyone else.

It could be the seductive sway of her hips or the smooth liquid grace of her movements.  I doubt she even realizes she is doing it.  And bloody hell could she kiss.  That was the most intimate I had ever been with a person and it was so exciting and frightening.  I wanted more.

I snuck out of the building then made my way to the campus and the locker rooms.  A few people were already in there.  A woman moved over to me and bumped hips.  Her dark skin and the fencing gear told me it was Max before she said, “Hey girl.”

I blushed and looked at her.  Such a pretty face with those chocolate eyes, I'll remember they are brown when I look away but would lose her features into the mire of my mind. I responded, “Hey.”

She chuckled. “You have Fran walking around on clouds.  It is great to see her grinning like a git all the time.”

I shrugged and blushed that I could have an effect like that on anyone.  I admitted, “She has the same effect on me.  She's a distraction from my coursework.”

She chuckled and grabbed her foil and saluted me with it.  “Well feel free to drop by and distract each other anytime.  I have to get going before coach starts bellowing.”

I gave her a little wave then watched her go.  I showered and put on some fresh clothes.  I'd have to spend a few quid on laundry soon.  I didn't have much lolly left.  I'd have to pawn some of the jewelry Aunt Ingrid had bought me for my sweet sixteenth.  I made a mental note to check out the job postings on the bulletin boards in the commons to see if I couldn't find someone willing to hire me.

I couldn't get a work study job because the paperwork required a post address and I didn't have one.  The other places I have tried applying to in the past year were the same.  I tried telling one I was currently between flats and they seemed to shut down the interview after that.  Like being homeless is like a taboo they didn't want to be associated with.  Though I hate the idea, I could be on the Dole, but again, government assistance required a post address.  It was like I was living in a perpetual catch 22.

But once I graduate, I know all of that would change for me.  It had to.  All I had to do was to survive four years.  I could do that.  I had to.

I skipped off to class and the mobile Fran gave me vibrated.  I looked down and giggled at her message.  “Where iz be?  In lecture hall now, no Tash.”  With a smiley emoticon following it.

I texted back,  “I am on my way now.  Your grammar and diction regress when you text.”

She sent back an, “LOL! Text no be email, woman.”

Immediately followed by, “I could facilitate a more stilted and artificial eloquence in my texting if that is what you would prefer.  Though it seems more ponderous and obsessive in a rapid messaging application.”  Then a heart emoticon.

I gleeped.  Oh, dear lord, she was far too funny for her own good.  I sent a little heart back to her, then paused at a hallway intersection  I looked at my hands and clenched my left and turned left.  My bloody genetics is the gift that just keep giving.  It is too easy for me to get confused on which direction I need to go.  That's why I developed my own method of coping.  I just make a song out of it, utilizing taps of my right or left hand.

If I'm not thinking about where I need to be, my body just knows, like I am on autopilot like a normal person.  However, the moment I start thinking about it, it sort of gets confusing and hazy in my head.  It has something to do with the way we process directions utilizes areas of the brain that border the facial recognition center.

I stepped into the lecture hall and there was a girl I identified as Fran right away sitting in her spot across the aisle from my seat.  I grinned at her, she was wearing her clothes that she felt comfortable in again, even if it meant enduring Professor Whitley's verbal wrath.  I don't know why that made me so happy, she didn't need to change herself to please anyone and I sort of hated it when she did.

She was cutely wiggling her foot, drawing my attention to her shoe with the smiley face she drew on it for me a few days back.  I whispered, “Smart arse American.”  And grinned.

She whispered back, “Too true, but I'm your smart ass American.”  Bloody hell, I melted.   Then she checked the time, which, of course, made me do the same, five minutes until the class started.  She leaned over and whispered,  “I'm not going to be able to have lunch with you today.  I have a meeting with the Dean, Professor Grey to talk about the scope of a project I am proposing.  Brandye Franklin-Callahan and Tim Phearson from Phearson Prosthetics and Robotics flew in from the States this morning to discuss it.”

I blinked and remembered that she thought hanging around with famous people like Brandye Franklin, and high power business professionals like Tim Phearson, was a normal thing.  I furrowed my brow, why hadn't she told me this earlier, and what could she possibly be doing with them?  I asked, “What about?”

She shrugged and smiled, causing me to smile back.  I mean, what else was I going to do?  A beautiful woman smiles at you, then you damn well smile back, I'm not a git.  She answered cryptically, “Just my art project for you.”

For me?  I asked, “What is it?”

She just gave me a cheesy toothy grin and shrugged.  I was about to chastise the cute lady when she whispered, “Golly, there's Professor Whitley.  Time for class.”  Just as a man locked the lecture room door.  He walked down and took Gregory's seat at the front of the class.

I shot the blonde imp the evil eye which only prompted a slight giggle out of her as she mocked her full attention to the new droning lecture from possibly the most monotone professor on the globe.  Fine, monotone, but extremely insightful.  Are you happy now?

The little blushing glances Fran shot my way, and the cute way she bit her lower lip kept me distracted throughout the lecture and made time drag by so very slowly.  I wanted those lips.  I caught myself licking my own.  I'm hopeless.

When the lecture was over and the other student's had poured out into the halls, Fran looked at me seductively and swayed her hips on over to me as she leaned in, placing a single finger on my chin and giving me a whisper light kiss that burned as hot as the sun.  She kept her finger on my chin as she turned and started walking, leading me out into the hall with the light touch of her finger on me.  It was like a magnet and I found myself following her and she looked back over her shoulder demurely.

Oh dear lord!  I whispered, “Tease,” as she finally gave my free will back by dropping her finger and looping her arm in mine.  At the intersection, she frowned and sighed. “See you tonight?”

She was obviously as sad that we had to part ways as I was.  I nodded and leaned in and caught her lips with mine for a quick peck.  “Okay.  I'll walk you to work then.”  She nodded and then she scooted me down my hall as she headed on.  She was extra playful, it made me wonder what the mystery meeting at noon was all about.  I admit to perving out a bit and watching her fine arse sway away for a few seconds before heading to my next class.  Then feeling self-conscious about it and trying to hide away into my sweater as I grinned.

I couldn't wait to see her again after my last class.  I sent her a smiley on my mobile and got a heart back.  That sustained me for the rest of the school day.

I waited outside the main doors after my last class of the day let out, in the shadow of one of the arches.  I almost felt as if I had lived in the shadows my entire life as I watched all the people walking around in the open.  All the fleeting faces, oblivious to those of us who watched them, wondering what it was we were missing out on.

A familiar hazelnut scent accompanied two warm arms sliding around me from behind, and pulling me back into a hug.  Fran whispered into the nape of my neck, her hot breath sending a delicious wave of goose flesh down my spine, “Hiding in the shadows again?  You were born to be in the spotlight.”  Then she lightly kissed my neck, just below my right ear and a heat bloomed inside my core, driving a foreign need.

I looked back into the blue eyes of the smiling face that I knew was the only face in my world until I looked away.  I didn't want to look away.  She was so confident and feminine, even with her rocker gear on.  I loved the slight roundness her cheeks got when she smiled.

I wanted so much to hold onto that.  I turned in her arms, not breaking eye contact, then reached up with a hand, releasing my sleeve and cupped her cheek as I closed my eyes.  I couldn't think of what her face looked like now, it was like a light switch had been flipped.  Fucking disease, but it can't steal the feel of her face from me.

I could feel her smile grow larger under my fingers as I traced every curve of her face, the crooked smile of the cocky American woman who was rapidly becoming my favorite thing.  Bloody hell, I'd take her over chocolate ice cream.  She leaned her cheek into my hand and I stroked it gently with my thumb.  I had to grin when I got to her meticulously sculpted eyebrows and she waggled them for me.

She whispered, “Whatcha doin' Tash?”

I smiled and kept my eyes closed, reaching my other hand up and I cupped both of her cheeks as I grinned and responded. “Just looking at your face, memorizing it.  I think I found my subject for my sculpting class.”

She pulled one hand away from her face and gently kissed my knuckles.  I chuckled and asked, “Trying to woo me all over again?”

I opened my eyes as she nodded emphatically.  “Yes, ma'am.”  Then she added as she laced our fingers and dragged me along beside her. “I shall endeavor to sweep you off your feet by taking you for an early supper at the Cannery.  Then you walk me to work as I simultaneously walk you home.  Tis my evil plan to court you properly until you swoon and are mine.”

I snorted.  The Cannery was where all the food trucks lined up just a block from campus.  “Hey, I'm not a cheap date.”  Then I chuckled. “Alright fine, I am.  But don't expect much swooning.  Besides, I'm pretty much yours already.”  She was suddenly speechless and blushed cutely and leaned in so we walked shoulder to shoulder as she pulled me up to a frank truck.  She was wooing me with frankfurters?  I grinned.  It was working.

I watched in amazement as we sat on one of the folding plastic tables at the curb that stretched the length of the Cannery.  The woman was eating a German sausage half the size of my arm.  She opted for no onions or sauerkraut.  “In case a kissing emergency came up.”  But it was still stacked high.  For such a small thing, where did she put so much food?

I chuckled, as I was one to talk, I looked at my two hotdogs.  Prepared properly, not like the cute uncivilized savage I was with.  Ketchup, mustard, and relish.  I shook my head and grinned as I ate. “Just how did you people in the Colonies beat us?  You can't even prepare a frank correctly.”

She arched an eyebrow at me then took a slow, huge bite from hers and grinned as she chewed.  I had to smile back, I didn't stand a chance against such concentrated cuteness.  I raised my chin imperiously then took a dainty bite from one of my own, eliciting a chuckle from the blonde, then proceeded to take just as big of a bite as she had.

This all reminded me that I had to get to a pawn shop, it would be my turn to feed her tomorrow and I had nothing left in my cubby except bottled water.  My face fell.  I had gone a year with what little lolly I had, but it was all but exhausted now.  So I was now reduced to selling or pawning what little valuables I had.  My personal things.

I looked away from my food and to Fran.  She had told me how desperate things got with her and Vanessa.  Was I capable of dropping so far to steal to survive?  I tried imagining a much younger Fran, just thirteen and on the streets.  If I had to take care of her as Vanessa did.  Then yes, I could do things I never thought myself capable of to keep her safe and fed.  I couldn't bear to see her suffering in any way.  Wait... is this love?

I smiled softly at her when she paused and tilted her head at me, trying to figure out why I had sobered so quickly.  I winked at her then went back to devouring my food.

She started nibbling around the edges to avoid spillage of her toppings as she asked, “What up buttercup?”

I chuckled and teased. “Such eloquence.  I thought you were supposed to be an articulate wordsmith.”

She bobbled her head and said with a passable British accent, “Allow me to elucidate my stance on prose and the assemblage of my diction when in the presence of such an alluring and disarming picture of pulchritude.”  She gave a cheesy grin. “I'm so distracted when you are around that I'm virtually tongue tied.”

Then she prompted again. “So... what up buttercup?”

I chuckled at her and said seriously, “I may be more than just in deep like with you.”

She nodded once staunchly and swallowed a bite.  “Good because I'm more than just in deep like with you too.”  Then she tilted her head as I melted into a sodding puddle, and said, “You have something just there.”  She pointed tot he side of her mouth and I licked mine and widened my eyes in question.

She shook her head and I wiped with a napkin and she shook her head again.  I asked, “What is it?”

Then all the playfulness was suddenly gone from her posture and her face as the look that replaced it was so wanting and sultry that I was heating up and felt a little moist in my nethers as she leaned in and kissed me more passionately than she ever had thus far.  I was in heaven at that moment, I just knew it.  I couldn't feel my seat, I had to have been floating.  I curled my toes and she finished the hot kiss and she gasped out her answer, “My lips.”

I just sat there like a bloody git, trying to figure out how those thinking and speaking things worked.  My brain may have short circuited, all I knew is that I wanted more of her.  She was my Fran.  When my blush finally surrendered some blood back to my brain, I gave her a dreamy smile, looked down and bit my lower lip.

She gave me a self-satisfied grin and then said, “And with that, I need to get to work.”

Bloody hell!  I forgot about that, I'd not be able to do anything about this raging inferno for four hours!  I had never felt so aroused in my life.  I said in a hoarse voice, “You bloody tease!” She giggled in delight and stood and offered to take my trash to the bin.

I swear the bird put some extra sway in her hips just for me.  If she was trying to seduce me, she was definitely an over achiever.  I grinned realizing that I was ready to give myself over to another woman without hesitation.  I was surprisingly quite alright with that, especially when I looked at the smiling woman who walked back over and offered her elbow to me.

I took her arm and chuckled. “You're an odd duck, Frannie.”

She shrugged. “Quack.”  Then we walked to the Archives as we chatted about everything but what her meeting had been about.  Whatever it was had put her in a decidedly pleasant and playful mood.  She unlocked and poked her head in the door then looked back at me and I slipped in and headed into the stacks quickly after giving her a peck on the lips.

It was all I could do to concentrate on my studies, knowing she was on the floors below me, working.  I gave up after a couple hours and put my schoolwork away, took Kinder - und Hausmarchen off of the shelf behind me, and started reading it in the candlelight.  Ahh, The Seven Swabians.

I must have been tired, because the next thing I knew, I woke up to find myself sleeping with my head on someone's lap and the book nowhere to be seen.  I caught her scent and snuggled in a bit with a smile on my face.

She grinned down at me.  “There she is.  I just thought I'd drop by before I headed off to my room.  I found you snoring in here.”

I blushed and defended myself and said, “I don't snore.”

She cocked an eyebrow and asked, “How can you be sure?  You're asleep when you are doing it.”

I narrowed my eyes and pointed at her menacingly.  Instead of cowering in abject fear of my half smirk.  She took my hand and kissed my accusing finger instead.  She must have thought that was a grand idea because she kept my hand and started kissing each finger in turn, hotly.

I either stopped breathing or hyperventilated, I'm not quite sure, all I know is that I was lost in a raging inferno of passion.  It was possibly the most beautiful thing that had ever happened to me.  There was no animalistic tearing of clothes and screams of wanton heat like Hollywood has us believe.

Instead, it was something much more, intimate, personal.  She shared herself with me and I with her in a way that touched my very spirit.  She was slow and methodical, keeping eye contact with me as much as possible.  It was so sensual, exciting, and even a little erotic.  It was more than I had dreamed possible.  I just wanted to be one with her, and merge as I bit my lower lip.  She made a woman out of me that night as I arched my back in ecstasy.

We lay there, sweating and panting in the afterglow, in the flickering candle light.  Igiggled. “Wow.”  Then asked, “Is it always that way?”

She shrugged cutely. “I don't know.  I've never given myself fully to anyone before.  But I hope we can find out together.”

I narrowed an eye, ready to call bullocks on her.  “But your boyfriends.”

She grinned.  “Never more than second base.  Maybe that's why it never worked out.”

I grinned and whispered, “Touchdown.”  I marveled at the fact that I was her first too.

She chuckled. “Wrong sport there, Natasha.”  She ran her fingers through my hair and I closed my eyes and basked in it and the way my full name rolled off her tongue.  I balled up my toes at the thought of her oh so talented tongue.

I teased her. “Yank.”

Just to get a “Brit,” in return.

Bloody hell, I was in love.