Maidens & Killers

Girl Talk

    “I love your hair! It’s like red wine, or blood or something. Do your sisters have red hair too? Your mom? You are so lucky my hair is so dull.” I help Gayle unpack the things that she has brought with her and listen to her compliment me incessantly.
“Two of my sisters are redheads like me, but we get it from my father, not my mother. Though I am the only one with red curls, the curls come from my mother.” I explain to Gayle as I watch her brush her thick, waist length dark brown hair. She looks like a softer, more feminine version of Garrick. Her shoulders are broader than even mine, but meet at a trim waist, giving her an elegant hourglass shape that my sisters would die for. Her eyes are Garrick’s same dark chocolate brown and her mouth is a perfect cupid’s bow that I am more than familiar with.

    Ridoc seems to have noticed her full lips as well, as he is still hanging around the corner of Gayle’s new room. I can’t help the smirk that creeps on my face as I catch Ridoc’s eyes. He looks away from Gayle quickly, a look of embarrassment creeping across his face.
“Can I get you anything Gayle? Ummm something from the kitchen?” Ridoc asks as he heads towards the door,
Gayle turns and smiles at the tall lithe young man that I knew to be the jokester of our group, “I’d LOVE something to drink. An ice water or some juice maybe? It was a long flight and I am not accustomed to flying at all.” I am shocked when I see Gayle actually bat her eyes at Ridoc and I swear it causes him to stumble on his way out the door.

    Gayle watches him leave before turning back towards me, “What?” she asks innocently when she sees the look on my face which I am sure includes raised eyebrows.
“I saw that. Are you interested in Ridoc?” I ask her as I sit down on the edge of her new bed.
“Not sure. He’s sure cute enough, but there are tons of cute boys here. I saw no less than ten on the walk to my room alone.” She giggles as she goes back to her hair.
“Mmmmhmmm, well I think you are giving Ridoc the idea that your interested in him and he’s like a brother to me. You may not get it, but there is something about a squad mate that is almost closer than blood. I would hate to see him hurt.”  I tell her before standing up and taking the hair brush from her hand. “Sit here on the bed, I will braid your hair for you.”

     Gayle takes a seat on the edge of her bed, and I step in behind her. I brush her thick, lush mane for a few moments before I take it into three parts and begin to braid it into a thick braid.
“You’re good at braiding. I never learned that skill.” Gayle says with a sigh.
“Five sisters, remember.” I say with a chuckle as I tie the end of the braid  with a scrap of fabric.
“Lucky. I was the only kid at the Boreson’s house, that is why they were so eager to take me in. They couldn’t have any children of their own. They treated me like the greatest thing to ever happen to them, honestly. It hurt to leave them.” Gayle said the last part in a whisper and I couldn’t fight the desire to lean forward and hug her from behind.
“Did you tell them goodbye at all?” I ask her hesitantly.
Gayle just shook her head, “They wouldn’t have understood. They’re good people, but they are Navarre sympathizers through and through. They are too old for new ideals they always told me whenever I questioned them about anything.”
“I’m so sorry, Gayle. I know how difficult it can be to leave people behind that you care about. My younger sisters, well I don’t think that a day goes by that I don’t think of them.” I step away from Gayle now and look around the room my sister in law will be living in.
It seems strange to me to see this room, identical to the one that Garrick and I have been sleeping in and plotting war plans in, filled with things belonging to a normal 19 year old girl. There were pretty notebooks, and more clothes than I would have brought with me and even hair ribbons hanging from the hair post beside me.
I was barely two years older than Gayle, and in all likelihood given my upbringing, we should be a lot more alike. But my mind wanders to the things that I had packed for the trip to Aretia, the uniforms and history books and cloth for wounds and medicines I had stuffed in haphazardly, and I realize that we couldn’t be more different.

   I look up from my thoughts as Ridoc enters back into the room, carrying a glass of water. “Sorry. No ice and no juice, the kitchen maid actually laughed at me, but the water is fresh.”
Ridoc reaches forward to hand the glass to Gayle and I notice that Gayle lets her fingers linger on my friends. I stifle myself from shaking my head as I head for the door to head back to my room. I had reservations about leaving Gayle and Ridoc alone in a room together, but I figured Ridoc could defend himself. I needed to find Garrick and have a very awkward conversation about his boy crazy sister.