//------------------------------// // The Morning After // Story: A Night Gone Awry // by TheOriginalDash //------------------------------// We fell asleep like that, wrapped in each other's arms, each left to their own thoughts. I spent most of the rest of the night awake, just enjoying the last moments I may be able to be close to Tavi like this. If we moved on from this, odds are our friendship wouldn't be the same. It might be too awkward for her to let me hold her like this, and I may not ever get to do it again. That's a sad thing for me, because I enjoy cuddling with my friends. Eventually, though my eyes drooped shut, and stayed like that. It was probably sometime around four a.m., because when we woke up at seven, I felt like I had gotten almost no sleep. I opened my eyes to the sight of Tavi's head still resting on my shoulder, and both of us were still sitting upright, the way we had fallen asleep. She had curled closer into me during the night, most likely cold from the lack of a blanket. After what happened, we were both too frazzled to remember to drag one over to us. So, I reached over now, and grabbed a fuzzy neon green and electric blue striped one, draping it over her legs as best I could, and sat quietly, trying not to wake her up. My still sleepy mind decided that the color made a nice contrast with the white duvet and black sheets on her bed. Those were new, but the rest of her room was much as I remembered it from summer; a chic glasstop desk in the far corner, gray carpet with purple accent rugs, lemon yellow gauzy drapes on the large bay window, and a lovely mahogany bookcase overflowing with Tavi's large book collection. There were many horse racing trophies and ribbons displayed proudly around the room; equestrian sports had always been a passion of hers. And over in the other corner on the opposite side of the room, were all of her musical instruments and the various accessories for them, circled around a rather comfortable looking straightbacked chair and a music stand weighted down with a veritable library of well worn sheet music. Her personal favorites were always on the very top of the large stack, scribbled and annotated on as she added her own personal flourishes to the composer's original vision, claiming it as her own. About thirty minutes later, Tavi began to stir. I watched as she slowly opened her eyes, and swiveled them up to look at me. She scrunched them tight, and stretched as far as she could, like a cat. After that was done, she laid her head back on my shoulder, and snuggled back into me. I was becoming slightly concerned. Was she just ignoring last night? Was she forgetting about Note? Does this count as cheating? Oh Luna, I'm in for it now. I leaned my head over on hers, nudging her. She looked balefully up at me; apparently she had intended on going back to sleep. I couldn't let that happen. I had this semi-burning, crawly feeling in my stomach, the kind I get when I think about somebody I like, and my hands started sweating. I needed distance, and now, before things got worse. "Look, this is nice and all, but I need to pee. So, bathroom time for Scratchy, okay? It's still first door on the left, right?" She blinked a few times, and nodded. I took care in sliding out from under her, helping her to lay her still sleepy body carefully on the bed. Then, I crept from the room, and snuck into the bathroom. I wasn't lying about needing to pee. I turned on the light, and shut the door, locking it in case her little sister got any ideas about surprising me, like last time. While washing my hands, I contemplated my current situation. I could always pretend like nothing happened, like Tavi seemed to be doing. I could press her to talk about it. We might even end up together. Ordinarily, I would dismiss that suggestion immediately, but she was the one that initiated the kiss last night. So, this is where I was stuck. After I dried my hands, I slowly walked back to her room. Hesitating outside the oak door, I briefly considered not going back in. I'm sure she would understand. But I didn't want to run away. Also, I can't exactly drive, and I didn't want to wake my parents up. So, resigning myself to what may come, I turned the burnished metal knob, and let myself back into Tavi's room. She was currently laying on her side, curled into a ball, a lock of her naturally curly dark hair falling across her face. I smiled at the sweet scene, and crossed the room to perch lightly on the corner of the bed next to her. She stirred, and stretched her hand out to meet mine. I twitched at the sudden contact, unsure if this was unconscious, or if she was awake. After a few seconds, her hand relaxed, so I assumed that meant she was sleeping. I took the opportunity to remove my hand from hers, and curl up on the bed with her, sharing her blanket. She moved again, and pushed herself backwards a little, forcing me to cuddle with her. I was almost certain that she was awake by now, so I tried something to test her reaction. I lifted my arm up, and laid it over her waist, effectively spooning her. She grabbed my hand, and held it. Well, that was enough proof for me. "Tavi, darling. As much as I love cuddling, we need to talk. Come on, wake up, and talk to me. It's time to finish this." She shook her head, and curled tighter in on herself, taking my hand with her. I tugged it out from her grip, and sat up, pulling the blanket off of her. She shivered, and pulled her knees up to her chest. Ordinarily, I would've make a joke about how she gave me a perfect view of her bottom, but I felt too awkward to even look at her. Reaching over, I lightly tickled her sides, the one surefire way to wake her up. She was incredibly ticklish. Sure enough, she flipped over, and I came face to face with a very peeved Octavia Legata. Oh dear. I've done it again. "Okay, fine. I'll talk. But there's really not much to talk about. I kissed you, and that's it. There's nothing more to discuss, is there?" She glared at me, still mad that I tickled her. I sighed, and ran a hand over my face. "Look, there's a lot that we need to discuss because of that. What are we going to do about it? Do we just forget it? Or do we do something about it?" She stared at me for a long minute. And then another minute more. Finally, she broke the silence. "What do you think we should do about it? What do you want?" I looked morosely at her, and when I spoke, my voice was quiet and solemn, full of pain that was not even seen in my eyes. "I don't think you want me to answer that truthfully. We both know exactly what I would hope for, Tavi." My voice broke in the middle of the first sentence, and my inner turmoil was evident in my slow, carefully chosen words. Tavi looked as if she wanted to hold me and try to soothe me, but she thought better of it. She realized that she was the source of my pain right now. Drawing herself up, she sighed slowly, and sagged against the wrought-iron headboard behind her. "I know, Vincenza, I know. There's just no easy way to solve this. Any way you look at it, somebody gets hurt. It might be you, or Noteworthy, or me. Maybe the both of us." She had captured my attention by using my first name. She never uses it. She's much more upset about this than I realized. "Well, what do you think? I know you love Note, and he loves you probably just as much, but you obviously have some subconscious feelings for me, unless that was a onetime thing. Was it?" She shrugged, unsure of what her body, and her heart were telling her. I'm sure her body said my name, but her heart most likely said Noteworthy's. So what did her head say? "Look, I'm not asking you to abandon him. You've been together over fourteen months now. That's a lot of time to just throw away for me. Sure, we've known each other for over five years, but we haven't been dating that whole time. Who's to say it would even work out between us? How do we even know that you're actually attracted to me? Heat of the moment thing, you know?" I think I was trying harder to convince myself that it wouldn't work more than I was convincing Tavi. Maybe I would get rid of the vaguely sinking feeling in my gut that told me I was starting to fall for her. Why did she have to go and kiss me? I might've been just fine, and not been attracted to her like I'm starting to be now. "Look, Scratch, I know it's a lot of time. And you're right. For all we know, it was just a onetime thing. Right now, I don't feel any different about you than I have before." My heart began to sink at these words, despite my better sense telling it not to. "But," Tavi interrupted this line of thought, " I don't really know what I'm going to feel, because I've only been up less than a half hour." This was true, the clock read 7:27, and it had been 7:10 when I finally got Ms. Cuddlebutt out of bed. Suddenly, a large, gurgling rumble split the room. Tavi leaned down and put her ear to my abdomen. In doing so she gave me a good view of her bottom again, one which I took full advantage of this time. Hey, can't blame a girl for doing what comes naturally, right? Tavi noticed my roaming eyes, and decided to put an end to it. Sitting up properly again, she said, "Hey there, missy, no looking yet. That butt is still Noteworthy's alone to stare at. We haven't even discussed this properly yet. Course, we might want to get breakfast first. You've got an angry monster in your tummy, and I think he wants to be fed." My face flushed at her accusation, even though it was completely true. I nodded meekly, and followed her as she skipped to the door. She turned the knob and swung the door wide open. She began walking quickly down the hallway, humming Peer Gynt's "Morning" to herself as she sped to the kitchen. The melody quickly transformed into Simplest Mistake by Seether, cycled through a few Neon Trees and 30 Seconds To Mars songs, and settled on A Thousand Years by Christina Perri; several odd, and yet, totally predictable choices for the eclectic music junkie. I think there may have even been a Panic! At The Disco or Three Days Grace song in there somewhere. I joined her in the kitchen a few seconds later, and joined her in singing a few seconds after that. We were both mezzos, so I suppose you could say we're... bisectional. I took the higher set of notes at first, and we traded off periodically, as we've always done. Christina Perri has nothing on us, especially considering Tavi is one of our school's chamber choir's leading soloists. That girl has almost too much talent. I mean, solos in choir, and band? Impressive, to say the least. I could probably do the same probably, but I'm not much for singing performances. I helped Tavi make toast and scrambled eggs. It's a miracle that we didn't burn down the house, considering we're both huge culinary disasters even alone. I set the food on plates, and poured two glasses of orange juice for us. We'd probably go out later and get coffee. As soon as Tavi finished making bacon, she brought it over to the table and deposited the marginally burnt food onto her plate. She offered me some, but remembered at the last minute that I was a vegetarian. Eggs are about as far as I'll go with eating animals. Tavi walked back to the sink and deposited the used pans and cooking utensils very quietly in the sink. We didn't want to wake her parents. As she began to cross the kitchen to the breakfast nook, I jumped up and held her chair out for her, and helping her to push it in. I caught her blushing as I took my chair, the same way she always does when I do something gentlemanly. Or is it gentlewomanly? We ate in silence, hurrying to finish so we could continue our discussion upstairs, and also trying to let the rest of the household sleep. Tavi's cat Norris walked up to me, purring and rubbing against my legs as he always does. I scratched his back to say hello, as I always do. That old cat was always something of a conundrum to us; he always seemed to hate other visitors, even Noteworthy. But Norris has always loved me; even when he would try to hurt everyone else, he would calm down for me. I would always pet him softly and sing him Welcome To The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance, his favorite song for some reason, until he stopped being mean. Tavi always took it as a sign that we were meant to be best friends. I finished eating what seemed like mere milliseconds after I sat down. I waited patiently for Tavi to finish. When she did, I snatched up both of our plates and dumped them in the sink. Then it was my turn to drag her along somewhere. I took her hand and tugged down the hallway and into her room. Pushing her inside, I closed the door softly, and then locked it. I really don't like being interrupted during serious conversations. When I turned back around, Tavi was already seated on the bed, absently picking at the drawstring on her blue Cookie Monster pajama pants. I shuffled quietly over, and sat down next to her. She looked over at me, kind of sheepishly, and said nothing. So, we sat in silence for awhile. I would wait as long as it took for her to start.