Torment Me

Chapter Two: Fool's Gold

Things really came to a head when I lost my friendship with Nicole. I mean, I guess I didn't lose it but you know what they say, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. When I met Nic, it was the first time I felt the burden of carrying Daddy's secret become a bit lighter. She had a way of pulling things out of you, little threads barely big enough to tug on and then three hours later, she's holding you while you cry in her arms about what it feels like to be an orphan.

"Oh yeah? Gonna seduce my dad when I bring you back to DC for thanksgiving?"

She'd joke, acutely aware of the way my heartbeat ticked a tad faster at the mention of going home with her for the holidays.

The knowledge that I liked girls wasn't breaking news. It was solidified years ago in a dusty old basement of St. John the Baptist church, when one of the choir boys suggested we play spin the bottle. Two minutes later I felt like soft press of Kenzie Barnes lips against mine while all the boys hollered and the girls blushed red to their ears.

This was something different though. In the simplest way put, Nicole made me like people again. After Daddy's note looped an iron albatross around my neck, I practically resolved to never allow my admiration for a person to blind me to the reality of who they really were. Needless to say, that didn't leave me many options. I was warming up to the idea of spending the next year alone, in my head and thats when I met Nic.

I was sitting outside the entry to the freshmen doors, trying to calm down after a mild fit of heatstroke and quietly listening to someone across the quad rant about reproductive rights to the petitioners on campus asking for signatures. I looked up to see her waving her arms dramatically in front of their signs, flipping them the finger as they stalked off to harass some other students. She was tall and slim, all legs that ran up to meet the soft curve of her exposed stomach. Atop her head sat a shiny heap of hair, coiled tightly as it gently danced in the wind. Her brown skin reflected light in a way that made her hard to look at, though I couldn't stop trying.

I balked when she spotted me staring, pursing her lips together slightly before she came skipping towards me with a grin on her face and her hand outstretched.

"Hi" She huffed, slightly out of breath as she slumped down on the bench next to me.

"Names Nicole, call me Nic if you want but please never Nikki" She continued, dropping her hand when she noticed I hadn't reached out to take it.

I quickly shuffled through the file folder in my head and remembered my name in just enough time to not seem to like a complete and total freak.

"Hi, I'm Willow" I said, cringing at the way I practically choked out the words, grabbing her hand from its place in her lap and giving it a squeeze -

"But you can call me Low."

The corner of Nicoles mouth turned up with a flick and she smiled like she had a secret.

"Low" she said, rolling the word around on her tongue like a marble, pleased at the way it clacked against her back teeth.

"I like it." She decided, lacing her fingers in mine as she stood from the bench.

While I pretended to be unfazed by the skin to skin contact, I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend the 15 steps from the front door to the elevator, memorizing the grooves of her palms. I wondered how much of her I could find out about her, if I could flip them over and read them, trace the slight sweat on her skin down and around her pinky, locking knuckles with her ring finger, hoping she'll get the hint.