Did someone ask for a WIP Wednesday?
(No, nobody did but I'm posting one anyways :) )
“Are you ready to go? Anyone you want to say goodbye to first?”
She shook her head again, setting the bottle down on the counter. “No, I think… I think the cool air will do me some good.”
The adrenaline of the situation had kept her semi-functional, but now that her body realized it was safe, the liquor she had consumed with reckless abandon was coming back to bite her. And she still couldn’t stop herself from staring.
“I think it might too, Marsh. You’ve been swaying since we got to the kitchen… how much did you have to drink anyways?”
Marcia shrugged, carding a hand through the now-wild curls she’d so carefully styled all afternoon. “Dunno. I stopped counting after a while.”
Anetra crinkled her nose and Marcia almost missed what she said because the action was so cute, so delicate, and innocent in a way she didn’t really associate with the girl.
“Um. Sorry. Can you say that again?” She stuttered with a blush, her lower lip finding its way back between her teeth.
“I said I don’t envy you the hangover you’re gonna have tomorrow. I have some Advil back in our room that you can take,” Anetra offered as she moved to put her hand to Marcia’s back, leading her back toward the door. “You’re gonna freeze out there in that. Did you bring a jacket?” she asked with a frown, grabbing her own jacket off the coat rack with her free hand.
Marcia nodded, reaching for her own coat. She glanced enviously at Anetra, whose jacket looked thick and warm and high quality, compared to the thin flimsy one she had gotten for this costume. It looked cute but it wasn’t going to keep her very warm on the walk.
Anetra looked over at Marcia, brows furrowed slightly as she watched her. Marcia had her jacket in her arms but was making no move to put it on, eyes locked on the coat Anetra had just shrugged onto her own shoulders.
It took Anetra a second to understand. She shrugged her jacket off with a sigh. “You can wear mine. We’re basically the same size anyways.”
She draped the warm leather over Marcia’s shoulders, carefully extricating the other jacket from her grip to throw over her arm so Marcia wouldn’t have to hold it. The leather was soft and worn, clearly well-loved. It felt like butter against her skin and smelled like a mixture of weed and something that she was pretty sure was jasmine. It shouldn’t have smelled as good as it did. She nuzzled against the fabric, pulling it tighter around herself before looking up, giving Anetra a warm smile.
“Thank you. You’re secretly really sweet, aren’t you?”
Anetra smiled back, ducking her head a little. “I didn’t realize I was keeping it a secret.”
“You totally are. You play the tough guy with the brooding silence and the smoking and the sexy scar on your eye. But it’s all a lie and you’re not actually tough. You’re soft,” Marcia announced decidedly. It wasn’t necessarily that she thought Anetra wasn’t tough or intimidating. After all, she vividly remembered how dangerous Anetra had looked the one time she made her angry. But she was certainly second-guessing her concept of Anetra as mean and aloof. After all, how mean could a girl who had literally given her the jacket off of her back be?
“I think I can be tough and soft… wait, did you say my scar is sexy?” She cut her own comment off, face twisting in a funny way Marcia didn’t recognize. If it were on anyone other than Anetra, she would say it looked shy. She had colored in the scar when she did her makeup, a far cry from the usual attempts to make it blend in as much as possible. Marcia wasn’t sure exactly why she had decided to do that, but she thought it made her look like an action hero, some sort of brave knight or powerful spy. It made Anetra even more striking, to Marcia at least.
“That’s surprisingly nice to hear. I’ve always hated it,” she said quietly as she pulled open the door, smiling back at Marcia. “Now let’s go, I’m sick of being in this apartment right now.”
Even drunk, Marcia could tell Anetra was trying to cut off the conversation, which only piqued her curiosity, but she obediently stepped through the doorway, shoving her hands in the pockets of Anetra’s jacket and looking up at the night sky.