"The spirits already took pity on me Paul, I don't want it from you."
in which Tama finds herself falling for her ex, again.
{pre-twilight-onwards}
{extended summary inside}
{book one in the 'heavenly bodies' series}
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"Hiking?"
Tama turned away from the mirror she had been standing in front of to face her childhood friend with an unsure glance. Leah sat on Tama's bed with her legs crossed, balancing a tray of white chocolate chip cookies that Mitena had just baked for the girls on her lap, shoving her third serving into her mouth before shrugging, "I thought it'd be fun."
Not wanting to argue with her friend that was obviously in the midst of emotional turbulence - as was she, so there was no room for judgement - she nodded before checking her lipstick in the mirror again, resisting the urge to smudge it, not caring about Leah's reaction to her "ruined masterpiece". "Yeah sure, it'll be great practice for track and field since my mother hates me and signed me up against my will." Tama agreed almost immediately to please her best friend and Tallulah rolled her eyes, the younger girl lazily sprawled across the bed next to her crush, absentmindedly undoing the plaits she had put in only a few minutes earlier.
She had recently cut her own hair even shorter, now it sat a little over an inch above her broad shoulders, the ends colored an emerald green, one of Leah's favorite colors. The girl had complimented her on the new style and Tallulah had secretly promised herself that she'd never change it. "What she means is, I need a distraction from my idiot fiancée so I'm forcing everyone to go hiking on Tallulah's only off day."
Leah scowled, shoving the girl as she hid her pain, something she did often as she had developed a somewhat sour personality since Sam had basically ghosted her. Tama raised an eyebrow curiously, "Who's everyone?"
She turned to face the mirror again, debating on if a dress was too much for a first date. It was beautiful, she couldn't deny that but, it was out of her comfort zone, which is why it had been thrown to the back of her closet and why she groaned when Tallulah had plucked it out, commenting on how it matched Mason's "ocean" eyes. Sighing, she undressed for the third time, cursing the existence of clothes all together.
"Just you and me, and Lulu," Leah answered, setting the cookies aside before she shot her a look, both of them ignoring Tallulah who complained when Tama tossed the dress back into her closet carelessly, "who doesn't have to come if she's just gonna complain the whole time."
"Of course I'm gonna come," Tallulah shot back, returning next to her on the bed, stealing a cookie as she crossed over her lap. "Doesn't mean I can't complain the entire time, especially since you invited Emily."
Tama undid her braids, watching as they formed soft curls that almost reached her elbows. She quickly followed up with hairspray, knowing her pin straight her wouldn't allow the curls to last without it, the trio coughing as the spray filled the room and their lungs, Tallulah mumbling about how she'd catch lung cancer like her late uncle. She glanced at Leah from the mirror, reaching for her curling iron and fixing any imperfections, "your cousin Emily? What's wrong with her?"
While the two weren't close, Tama wasn't opposed to the girl. She was usually quiet but, straight forward and aware of what she wanted. Tama respected that. Tallulah pouted, unable to come up with a valid argument as to why she disliked her crush's cousin so very much, other than the fact that she got "a feeling" whenever she was in her presence, which wasn't often as the girl usually stayed further up north on her own reservation. The girl originally thought Leah had only invited her, initially excited at the thought of them being alone together. Tama knew this of course, laughing childishly at her friend's pout. Leah knew the younger girl had a crush on her but chose to ignore it, unable to break the girl's heart by outright rejecting her. Despite outward appearances, the jokes and the shoving, she truly did care for the girl and didn't want to lose the bond that they had, especially right now when they needed each other most. They just didn't talk about it, it was an unspoken rule between them.
