Chapter 6

“Let me deal with Anastasia, okay?”

“Fine, but seriously, stay on your side of the bed. I need to have plausible deniability,” Sienna hit ‘play’ and settled back into her pillows as the movie started up again.

“Erik’s going as Inigo. He’s got the wig and sword and everything.”

“Are you going?” Sienna gave Sasha a quick glance.

Sasha wrinkled her nose, “Maybe. The potential cost-benefit imbalance is hard to ignore though. I really don’t want to spare any effort for the endeavor.”

“That’s what I told mom. Not going unless I can figure out a costume that takes zero effort.”

Sasha nodded in agreement. Both women found comfort in using the movie as an excuse not to talk.

[Westley] ‘Inhale this, but do not touch…’

“GOT IT!” yelled Sienna. She watched the scene intently for the next few moments, and then slammed the laptop shut.

Sasha smiled with amusement, “Homework all done?”

Sienna grinned and nodded.

“You are going to go as the Man in Black?”

“Nope. Too obvious. Move over,” Sienna slid her laptop onto the window sill next to the bed, climbed over Sasha and walked over to her closet, “avert your eyes Sasha, I’m changing out of my jeans.”

“I have seen your bare ass before. Why so shy?”

“Because I now have a huge tattoo of multiple X-Men on my butt and I don’t like people seeing.”

Sasha sat up, “Really?”

“Yes, I got one of London Bridge too, dumbass.”

“Dude, I SWEAR I’m not looking. So who are you going as?”

Sienna grabbed a pair of PJs and quickly changed into them. She looked over at Sasha, who, true to her word, had her hands over her eyes. “Here’s a clue: it’s not ‘who,’ but ‘what.'”

“You’re going as a cliff of insanity.”

Sienna giggled but shook her head, “Feeble. Guess again.”

“Vizzini’s cod piece.”

Sienna laughed. “That’s gross. Nope. I’m wearing this,” Sienna held up a pair of khaki pants, “And this,” up came a light brown jacket. “And I’ll need to borrow a khaki baseball hat of yours.”

“You are going as… sand?” Sasha was genuinely puzzled.

Sienna grinned with glee, “I’m going to go as the container of iocane powder.”

Sasha raised both of her arms, “Wow. Yep. That’s genius, Logan. I love it. You’re brilliant.”

Sienna jumped back on the bed, “Thank you kindly. Now piss off back to your place.”

“It’s only ten o’clock! Why not finish the movie?”

“Because Anastasia would blow a gasket.”

Sasha frowned, “Can you stop harping on what Anastasia would think? Stop obsessing about her for a second. Do you want to watch the rest of the movie with me or not? Simple question.”

“I’m not obsessed about her, Sasha. I just don’t like thinking about you having to grovel and scrape when the inevitable blow up happens.”

“Good to know you have such a high opinion of me… I am able to stand up for myself, you know.”

Sienna shook her head, frustration rising to the surface, “I do have a high opinion of you. Which is why it sucks that you can only show up when your girlfriend is not around. Do you know how fucked up it is that you can’t be yourself when Anastasia is in the same room as you? Do you even know that you aren’t being yourself? It kills me to see you get totally extinguished by the conflagration that is your girlfriend. She sucks all the air out of the room. And you just run after her, meeting her every need, catering to her every whim. Why do you put up with it?”

“Why don’t you tell me how you really feel?” Sasha shot back, “I put up with it because… because relationships are hard work! And who are you to talk? You haven’t dated anyone since Jordan what’s-his-butt Senior year. Oh, maybe that blond dude from Labor Day weekend.”

Sienna allowed herself a sarcastic chuckle, “I’m not dating Pete. You don’t talk to me for three years and you assume I’ve been dateless since Jordan Lee. And by the way, relationships are hard work, but they shouldn’t be about one person dancing on a string that’s being pulled this way and that by the other person.”

“Hey!” Sasha shouted, “I know what I’m doing, ok? Enough with the relationship 101. And by the way, you stopped talking to me, not the other way around.”

“Sasha, Anastasia doesn’t make you happy. Maybe you can’t see it because she has got that glamor-azzi thing going on! Relationships are about reciprocation. Does she reciprocate?”

Sasha turned a deep, deep red, “Uh… no… wait, what?”

Sienna’s eyes twinkled, “I wasn’t talking about sex you idiot…”

“Whatever.” Sasha pulled the beak of her baseball hat lower.

“Seriously. What I meant was: someone who doesn’t give you any room in a relationship can’t possibly make you happy.”

“I’m tired of talking about Anastasia. She’s not here right now. And you don’t know a whole ton about what goes on between Anastasia and me, either. Enough with the judgy-ness.” Sasha looked into Sienna’s eyes earnestly for a moment. The two sets of blue eyes found each other, for the first time in a long while.

“I wasn’t judging you,” Sienna whispered. Sasha’s eyes flickered for a second when she noticed Sienna’s eyes start to tear.

“Oh, man, Sienna, I–” Sasha began.

Sienna knew what Sasha had seen, and quickly collected herself. She felt stupid for fighting with Sasha. The topic was nothing new. “This is why I stopped talking to you,” she breathed out slowly, and looked back at her friend. “Arguing about your girlfriend. It never changes anything. It’s your life Sasha, I shouldn’t have said anything in the first place. I’m sorry you thought I was judging you.”

“Hey – Sienna…” Sasha began.

“What?” Sienna snapped, slightly more sharply than she intended.

Sienna shrugged, “Of course.”

“I don’t want to fight any more about Anastasia either, okay? Labor Day was awful and I’m sorry about it. I was so happy to finally see everyone, and it just didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. A lot of it was my fault. But I don’t want to get into that right now. I do want to say that I want us to be friends again. Like we used to be. Clean slate.”

“Okay,” Sienna frowned and changed tack, “You know, all this time, I’ve been expecting your phone to ring, with Anastasia telling you about some emergency thing that only you can solve, and only you can solve in person.”

“Anastasia is in California. And I shut my ringer off before I came over.” Sasha let that sink in for a moment, “I just wanted to spend tonight with you.”

Sienna didn’t really know what to say, so she did the thing she always did, and made a joke of it, “Are you propositioning me? Because that could get you arrested in 12 states, you know.”

Sasha blushed, images of Sienna in states of orgasmic bliss flashing dangerously in her head. “Who’s the perv now?” She gave Sienna a playful shove.

Sienna reached for her laptop. “Ok. Ok. Truce. Let’s finish the movie.”

“Which is what I suggested half an hour ago, by the way.”

“Must you get the last word every single time? Living with you must be a nightmare.”

“Don’t knock it till you try it,” Sasha said breezily.

“Never gonna happen. You can’t cook. It’s one of my non-negotiable criteria for a life mate: ‘Must know how to cook.'” Sienna stared at the monitor as the computer came back to life. She looked at Sasha, who had an unreadable expression on her face, “Ready, Wolfy?”

Sasha nodded and Sienna hit play. The movie started up again. Sasha’s eyes were on the monitor, but she kept obsessing about Sienna’s comment about cooking.

[Westley]…I’m not saying I’d like to build a summer home here, but the trees are actually quite lovely…

“Does this mean you’ve been dating college guys who are whizzes in the kitchen?”

“I’ve met a lot of guys who know more about making omelettes than you do.” Sienna replied casually, feeling slightly guilty about her lie of omission. She didn’t have the energy to talk about Sydney or Alex.

“I know how to make an omelette,” Sasha knew she should let it go, but she couldn’t.

“I’m very happy for you, now shut up and watch the movie.” Sienna conceded the point only because she wanted to move off the topic as soon as possible.

Sasha leaned back into the bed so she was slightly behind Sienna. She watched her friend watching the movie. Sienna’s sandy blonde hair was tucked behind her ears, and fell in soft waves around her shoulders. There was a shorter strand that fell over Sienna’s brow, which was now knitted with concern as she watched Westley surrender to Count Rogen. Sasha longed to sweep her thumb along those brows, so she stuffed her hands into her pockets instead. A familiar wave of conflicted emotions made itself known: sadness in knowing her feelings for Sienna would never be reciprocated, joy in being alone with Sienna for the first time in god knows how long, wonder at her beauty, delight in her wit and smarts, pain with not being able to touch her the way she wanted to. Perversely, dating crazy possessive girlfriends had been helpful in keeping those feelings at bay. Anastasia was right in a way, it was obvious what was going to happen next. Sasha scrunched her eyes shut, remembering how Sienna had caught her staring — twice — earlier in the day. Oh, this next part is going to suck. It wasn’t fun walking around in high school secretly pining for Sienna… and it ain’t going to be fun now.

As the movie slid towards its conclusion, Sienna glanced at Sasha, who looked like she had fallen asleep, baseball hat tipped forward. “Same old Sasha,” Sienna muttered to herself, “Conking out before the movie is over.”

Sienna watched the end credits for a little bit, and feeling tired herself, moved the laptop onto the window sill. She pulled the covers up and curled up with her back to Sasha. She stared out of the window, listening to Sasha’s steady breathing behind her. Just enjoy this before Anastasia comes back. It’s like a nice long dream. We’ll both wake up soon enough.

Chapter 6: The D̩tente (Junior Year, 22nd Dec РSunday)

Sasha woke up with a face full of blonde hair. As her eyes focused on her surroundings, she realized she was still in Sienna’s room. Sasha vaguely remembered falling asleep; her eyes had been getting heavier when Westley was tortured in the Pit of Despair. And she had been aware of Sienna moving the laptop off the bed and settling in next to her.

Now, Sienna was wrapped around Sasha and sleeping soundly.

“I like waking up with you,” Sasha said quietly. Sienna shifted her hand up until it rested in the middle of Sasha’s chest. To Sasha, it felt perfect: it was as if Sienna had a quiet but unambiguous claim to her body. She struggled to process the collision of wish and reality. The imminent rupture between her and Anastasia only served to stoke the resurgence of Sasha’s long unspoken desire for her friend.

Sasha took a deep breath and tried to get her heartrate down from Sienna’s unintentional caress. Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle buzzing. With her free hand, Sasha fished her phone out of her pocket and checked her messages. Nothing from Anastasia. The writing’s on the wall, I guess. There was a new text from Erik wondering where she was and asking if they were still on for their morning run. “Shit,” Sasha rested the edge of the phone on her forehead, “I forgot about that.”

Sasha started to shift out from under Sienna. Sienna sighed and turned back towards the window. Sasha leaned in to her ear and said, “Si, I’ve got to go meet Erik for a run. I’ll see you later.”

Sienna reached behind her and grabbed Sasha’s arm, bringing it across her body. Here comes the dream again… Sienna froze. No, wait, this isn’t the dream. This is Sasha’s arm. She quickly let go and sat up. She blinked at Sasha, who started putting on her shoes.

Sasha smiled, “Gotta go, Wolfy. Wanna come over for dinner tonight?”

Sienna nodded, heart pounding. She didn’t move until she saw Sasha jogging across the front lawn, pulling her sweatshirt over her head as she headed home.

“Thank god!” Sienna said under her breath, and dove back under the covers. Two more seconds and Sasha would have witnessed me having that dream. That would have been so fucking embarrassing.

Just over an hour later, Sasha glanced up at Sienna’s window as she passed the Logan’s house at the end of her run. She smiled, happy to have finally found some time to spend with her friend.

“How was the run, kids?” Mike James looked over the top of his paper as his children walked in.

“She kicked my ass, I’m going to go cry in the shower now,” Erik grabbed a glass of water and trooped upstairs.

“Which route did you take?”

“We went round Standard and up Haverford. Then all the way up Crown Hill….” Sasha put her foot on the counter and started stretching her leg.

Mike let out a slow whistle, “You guys weren’t kidding around!”

“Foot off the counter, honey, we put food there!” Sasha’s mom admonished.

“Morning darling,” Maria said, giving Mike a kiss before turning to Sasha, “And you! You didn’t come home last night.”

Sasha looked from her mom, to her dad, and back to her mom again. “I fell asleep at Sienna’s,” she said simply, “I told you I was heading over there.”

Her parents looked at each other, and turned back to Sasha.

“We watched a movie. We fell asleep. Why do you look so shocked? This is something that we have always done. Oh, hey mom, can you teach me how to make lasagna? Like the one with Nona’s recipe?”

Maria leaned against the fridge and crossed her arms. “Did aliens switch my daughter with a clone? You want to learn how to make lasagna with my mother’s recipe? Is it delayed April Fool’s or something?”

Sasha shook her head, “No, I’m serious, I want to learn.”

“Ok. Sure. When do you want to learn?”

“Can we make it for dinner tonight?”