Title: say what you need to
Author: A Pineapple
Sum.: “Not that… my name.”
Who: Johnson/Liukin and a side of Worley
Rating: PG13
A/N: For someone that makes me want to say things that I know I’ll never say to her. But you’re such a guilty pleasure. Unbeta’d – all mistakes, mine.
Words: 5K+
One.
A soft chime alerted her of an incoming message. Her lips twisted into a faint, whispering smile that she tamed with a gentle bite to her lower lip.
: ) hey.
Hey yourself. So? Tell me!
A small icon indicated her chat partner was typing. Time tick-tocked on. She grew impatient. And with minimal keystrokes, she sent her prose.
Well??
She laughed inwardly when the response blipped on to her screen; complete with typos and your run-of-the-mill net speak.
Omg, see I had 2 delete what I typed to snwr u! Stop rushing me, u know I type slow.
Sorry. Go on.
One line after the next, the replies piled on; her friend described her day and Nastia could only imagine the look that graced her friend’s face. The blonde couldn’t help but to smile at that thought. This time, she waited patiently as her chat partner finished.
Done?
Yep.
U could have done a paragraph…I would have waited.
Right. And have u whine why I take soooo long and then log off on me. Jsyk, that is rude..
That wasn’t my fault! I told you. Shayla decided to act out the time she and Sammie went to the ice rink. She knocked everything down. Everything. Including my laptop.
Haha. She’s a mess.
I know right?
A tooth brushed muffled voice wafted from the bathroom, “I know you’re chatting about me.”
The blonde lifted her head from her computer screen and glanced pointedly towards her roommate. Brilliant green eyes, much like her own, challenged her to say otherwise. A slender brow arched over a doe-shaped eye, but Nastia Liukin knew she lost this little exchange.
“How could you even know?”
Shayla snorted as her hands drifted to either side of her already pajama clothed body, “ALL.OF.THIS. Seriously… it’s always been about me. Don’t even.”
Nastia pressed herself against her seat and lifted a singular shoulder, “You know Alicia would have to argue about that, right?”
The brunette continued her nightly routine preening for bed. With her mouth still outlined with toothpaste foam she shrugged, “pssshhh – Alicia’s so yesterday.”
Nastia flushed a hand to her mouth, “Oh Yeah? I dare you to say that to her face.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t wanna die!” balked Shayla, “Have you not seen her right hook?”
The slender gymnast chuckled at her friend and the memory of Alicia laying it out on YouTube. It all but immortalized the Bostonian. Memories. But soon at the corner of her eye, a blip caught Nastia’s attention, and hurriedly she swerved towards her laptop, with her hands moving deftly over the keys. The blonde’s features contorted in pure concentration.
U still there?
Hello?
Or did u log off on me again.
Nnnnooo, still here. Lol.
Oh now ur talking 2 me.
Sorry! Shay was interrupting as usu.
She is glued to ur hip! Tell her I say hey.
Compliantly, Nastia lifted her gaze and announced, “She says hey.”
The brunette had eased herself to an adjacent seat across from her friend as her fingers idly trailed over the surface of the table supporting Nastia’s laptop. Shayla had been observing her friend closely before inclining her head, “O…kay. Tell her, I say hey back.” She then leaned forward, resting her chin on her left hand, “That Nina?”
Nina was Nina Kim. As close as Shayla and Nastia were, no one could rival the type of friendship that Nastia shared with Nina. They had an almost a familial relationship, closer than most siblings could ever be and tighter than a Church girl’s virgin legs. Shayla thought it was amazingly cute; perhaps bordering incestuous, but whatever. So she’d have to say she was shocked when Nastia gave a negating headshake to her question was an understatement.
“Oh, not Nina…?”
Nastia glanced up at Shayla – briefly -- and then reached for the remote. Pointing it towards the TV, she surfed the channels; every channel was plastered with images of Mardi Gras, reminding her of the things that she and Shayla saw, did and dived in to and were ABOUT to get in to.
And Shayla knew her friend intimately enough that she was stalling.
Canting her head the blonde kept her eyes affixed towards the current programming as she uttered, “It’s, you know…” Nastia tipped her head back, giving her fingers free access to the column of her own throat. She massaged its length, as if coaxing her voice out, “…her.” To clarify her statement, she motioned towards the TV as a quick promo blipped on screen.
Shayla pressed the tip of her tongue against the inside of her cheek and nodded; staring at Nastia curiously. The brunette quickly recovered. “Oh, cool. How’s she doing with that dancing thing?”
Prompted by that, Nastia drew her attention back towards her screen. A smile wedged its way on to her lips. Shawn apparently busied herself by playing with her fonts and colors waiting for Nastia’s return. Nastia chuckled.
“Good… she’s doing good. Totally excited to be dancing with that one guy, was a champion one year; says she couldn’t – hang on,” Nastia paused and scrolled back in her chat session to re-read what Shawn had written, “..ah... yeah, she couldn’t stop laughing during the practices, doing the waltz I think.. Can you imagine? I mean you just saw the clip. Silly cute, right?… did she grow taller to you?”
Shayla kicked her legs over the armrest of her seat. She was amused by Nastia’s ability to ramble and to ramble so much you hear more than you should and understand far less than you could ever hope to understand. Yet you still get the gist of what was said.
“Okay, Promo – yes saw it. Cute – Okay no, scratch that -- disturbing. Shawn taller? RIGHT, that’s like you not being Russian. Just not reality. And, not really into that type of show.” Shayla paused and shrugged her shoulders, “Kinda dinky actually.”
Nastia drifted her fingers lithely over her keyboard.
…Oh… I like that font, color suits you. Shayla thinks the show’s dinky, btw.
I will keep it then, just cuz u like it, & its my fave color...
Nastia tempered a smile.
& tell her she’s dinky for using that word. Rly who does now??
Without looking at Shayla, the blonde relayed the message. The slender brunette puckered her lips before sticking her tongue out. Shayla lifted a stray veil of her bangs from her eyes, as she thoughtfully stated, “Didn’t think you all talked – much less chatted that much, I mean it’s not like you two were, you know, close, right? ...at least not now…”
Nastia quietly turned her attention to Shayla. It was unreadable to the brunette, but Shayla could feel the weight burrowing into her. Something liken to a warning.
“That’s just silly. I mean… she’s a friend, maybe not as close we are but still, why wouldn’t we stay connected?”
“I was just sayin’, Nast – Shawn-John isn’t really all that good with the net thing so to know she’s sitting there, chatting is like, whoa!”
“Shay.” Nastia’s voice dipped a hitch, almost making it a little difficult to hear. But the brunette knew she was treading in dangerous water. And she didn’t even know why.
Yet.
“That wasn’t what you said. What you were implying.”
Shayla shifted from her seat and wended her way towards Nastia. She leaned forward and conspiratorially uttered out, “Damn skippy it wasn’t.”
Nastia stared at Shayla, confused and mildly irritated.
Shayla’s eyes searched the blonde’s own. “When you feel like talking, I’m’a be in Jo’s room. Tell Shawn ni-night for me.” Then in a sudden move, Nastia’s cheeks were smashed between Shayla’s hands and a wet kiss was placed on her forehead.
Before it even possibly registered what had happened, the blonde heard the tell-tale click of the door closing and Shayla beginning to sing-song down the hall to her sister’s room.
Two
Luckily, she was still in her teens. Which meant that it was still capable of healing faster than most. But Shawn was well aware the rigors that her body had gone through since the age of six, it could very well decide to call it quits at ANY time. She just hoped it would be after her latest ‘guest starring’ role. The young athlete was bent over and in the middle of wrapping another ice pack to her calves when her computer came alive with another IM. Anticipating the IM, the Iowan snapped her eyes towards the screen, as she righted her body she ended up knocking her forehead against the desk’s edge.
“…JEEZ! That was SO graceful – good one..”
As she rubbed at her head, her eyes focused on the simple announcement.
Hey. Back.
Shawn read the one liner a few times, before deciding to hunt and peck her reply.
Wb. Sumthing up?
The one-time Olympian groaned at her pathetic spelling. It aggravated her that she… a self styled writer cannot seem to grasp the simple concept of typing. Her eyes drifted towards her newest nemesis. The keyboard stared blankly up at her indifferent to her plight.
“Seriously. thanks…because of you, she probably thinks I’m a moron.”
As another message blinked up, Shawn chuckled at the response. But soon, the gymnast felt her smile fade the longer she allowed her mind to think.
You could tell from just that?
Shawn’s fingers wove into the thick mass of her hair. What she wanted to say, she really didn’t believe. Nonetheless, the seventeen year old’s lips mouthed the words to no one else but for her own ears to hear.
“…I know you.”
Shawn’s hands rested on the keyboard as she painstakingly punched in her message.
Wild guess. Need 2 talk?
Just something Shay said. But I need to know what you think.
Shoot.
You’d consider us friends, right?
Yep.
Unusually, Nastia took her time in composing her question. The younger gymnast watched her screen deep in thought. Something must have been weighing on the blonde’s mind. And then the question appeared.
would you say we’re close?
It was a simple question to an onlooker, and an easy one to answer. Yes or No. But lately, behind the mask of ones and zeros they escaped their respective worlds in this medium Рso the line was blurred. They seemed closer here than in real life. Shawn inwardly laughed at the absurd now-clich̩ statement.
Through this, an unspoken rule was set. They never called the other, even though that would have been an option. They shied away from that. But here…They would talk about anything, everything and nothing – gymnastics went to the wayside - even hearing companionable blips from their IM’s with nothing more than emote-icons scrolling up rung out…all just to let the other know they were still there. That satisfied their need. They became both new and not, fantasy and reality. Two girls connecting.
Shawn acknowledged many times that she never knew Nastia the way the others did.
But they never knew her quite like how Shawn knew her. And why Nastia wanted to get into this conversation, was beyond her. She typed up her answer.
No. Not rly but..
Yeah, I didn’t think so either…
The younger gymnast could feel the shift in Nastia’s demeanor, she could hear the blonde’s mind whirring, trying to digest her answer. As quickly as Shawn could, she offered up the following; concentrating on the words, and the spelling.
Let me finish before you completely lose it.
I don’t lose it. I never lose it. And don’t act like u know me. Not exactly ‘bffs’, right? I thought we were at least....nvm. U know… I’m just gonna go.
Aside from being mildly amused by Nastia’s gradual declination to Internet-baby-talk… Shawn felt the faint, dull-pang of hurt settle in the pit of her stomach. Bffs? No. They were at one time though, rivals and teammates. That had to account for something.
Nastia couldn’t just walk away from this. From her. Quickly the young girl clacked at her keyboard and what appeared on screen held a sense of finality.
No ur not.
Thinking she had garnered the upper hand, Shawn hoped she could begin to explain herself as she readied to type; But… Nastia shot back with ease…and rapid fire typing. It wasn’t fair. She growled at her keyboard.
And ur gonna stop me how?
Thought so, I’m logging.
Before even a letter was typed and sent, Shawn heard the tell tale musical peal of someone logging off the chat program. She remained seated, staring at Nastia’s screen name fading form her contact list. A sudden odd mix of emotion topped off with a dash of aggravation bubbled in the gymnast.
There are moments in life that define you with a single choice that you make. Some times, like now, you aren’t given much leeway to maneuver. As Shawn thought about what’s happened thus far in her young life…She came to a realization she owed Nastia nothing; except angst for appearing in it.
Because all their past amounted to was Shawn or Nastia, Nastia or Shawn? Were they truly friends like they said? Or were they exactly how the media painted them? It’s only recently the young teen was finding her own voice without being constantly asked about Nastia Liukin and what the hell she thought of the Russian-American while they roomed at the Olympics.
It was a sick twist of fate that decided to link them at that one moment.
Well not any more.
So fate, karma and Nastia can go and suck a big one. A REALLY big one and choke on it, as far as Shawn was concerned.
Three
“So…you guys just out of the blue start chatting,” asked Shayla interestedly.
She had just come back from Jolene’s, her sister’s, room claiming that she’d grown tired of listening to her sister drone on and on about some purse she bought. Nastia thought otherwise. Shayla was the curious type. At times, too nosy for her own good. The truth of it was…the brunette had witnessed Nastia’s slight bauble earlier that night. It was a stupid mistake that the Russian-born teen chided herself for.
Nastia shrugged casually as she looked at her friend. “She was on Facebook chat same time I was. So you know,” the blonde’s eyes dropped to her newly manicured nails, “…I said hi.”
Shayla snorted and then nested herself in a sea of blankets, “Oh. Facebook. She actually active on FB? Cool.” There was a quiet moment of genuflect, “And… how long have you guys been….?”
“Chatting.” Nastia expressed dead-pan.
A grudging nod. “Sure.”
Nastia hated when Shayla adopted that smug timbre. Like she knew something.
“Three maybe four months, off and on.”
Nastia pulled herself free from her bed, and moved towards the far corner of the French influenced hotel room they shared. She rested her body flushed to the wall while a humid breeze rustled through the translucent drapes. From the streets of downtown New Orleans, Mardi Gras was till in full swing; robust glaring sounds of brass instruments screamed into the night. It didn’t dull the loud insinuation that she was currently on the receiving end of though.
“Enough with the Inquisition. Spit it out, Shay.” Said Nastia dully.
“Okay,” Intense green eyes pinned Nastia’s form, “You and Shawn.”
Cooly, inflected with enough detachment, the blonde replied, “There is no me and Shawn.”
“Fair enough,” a slight pause was given as Shayla busied gnawing on the edge of her blanket while her next question was delivered with curiosity and quiet wonder, “…do you want there to be?”
Nastia wouldn’t even turn to acknowledge Shayla square in the eye. Letting the question glance off her like it didn’t exit. And it wouldn’t. Not here, now or ever.
“Getting late, tomorrow’s the thing.”
After a time…The taller gymnast felt the brunette’s hand rest on her forearm, she didn’t know how long she stood there just lost in thought; Nastia didn’t hear Shayla move. Nastia glanced towards the source expecting to find a look of teasing mockery hinted at the corner of Shayla’s lips. And the question was posed again.
“Do you want there to be?”
There was no use in playing deaf and dumb. She understood the question. Shayla’s gaze was serious; there was seemingly no hint of play in her voice. Nastia felt compelled to answer… truthfully? Unguardedly? Whatever it was, Nastia had some explaining to do. It had been a question that she never constructed in her mind, much less wanted to hear asked out loud; she didn’t know the answer. Her eyes hadn’t wavered from Shayla’s and she knew that the brunette wasn’t about to let up.
“I don’t…know… I mean…” began Nastia, albeit unsteadily before regained her common sense and spat out, “You’re ridiculous, I hope you know-”
The sound of Shayla’s ring tone saved the blonde from forming a rambling statement. One that probably wouldn’t’ve made one iota of sense. Shayla sighed dramatically; holding a single digit up, she indicated that she’d only be a moment, the brunette turned about greeting the caller with her expressive, “’Ayyy bay bay,” sound-byte.
Nastia nodded as an afterthought, she ran her fingers along the bridge of her brow. It’s how she staved off the need to over-analyze issues that came careening out of nowhere. And this was ONE issue Nastia never dreamed of dealing with.
The blonde slid down the length of the wall that still provided her support. Slowly she drew her sinewy legs against her body and nested her face between the cavity left by her knees. God she was tired, too tired to be angry, too tired to continue on with these piddly appearances. Nastia knew her star was waning and Shawn’s was sky-rocketing; so what? Nastia was excited to turn to the next page in her book. She had practice taking the backseat to the incomparable Shawn Johnson.
But.
Just when they started to re-connect…to be familiar with one another again, their relationship took a back seat.
Nastia closed her eyes, willing her mind to a lull. The faint noise from the TV still on in the room had helped. Her eyes absently searched the screen out. Then as Murphy would dictate, the TV was lit up again with that soul-stirring smile, and then edited images flashed on the screen. Nastia wasn’t even given time to sort this out.
The imp was gussied up in barely-there wears; tan and toned muscles moved in tandem with her dance partner, rippling under her flesh – Nastia never knew the shorter girl could move like that... Nastia found herself flushed and her breathing shallow; She chalked it up to being embarrassed for her friend. Nastia ended up screwing her eyes shut tight listening to the promo piece.
“On this year’s Dancing with the Stars… we have the youngest contestant…”
Nastia frowned. Shawn was all over the place. Pride, jealousy and sadness crawled under the blonde’s skin. She wanted to scrub herself raw. Shawn’s grown. Then..An urgent nudging at her foot interrupted her thoughts. Irritably jade eyes glanced upward. Then a phone was shoved towards her.
“For you,” prompted Shayla. “It’s my phone, so – watch my minutes.”
“What…?” Nastia responded tiredly. It took a moment, for her mind to catch up but never the less; she took the phone and cradled it between her neck and shoulder. Annoyed she sniped out, “…Seriously, I have my phone Sammie, you could have called there.”
“I could’ve. If it were on and...” The voice paused, “…it’s not Sam.”
Four
Nastia snapped her eyes accusatorially at Shayla. But the brunette at this time had her back towards Nastia, already having made her escape out on their wrap-around balcony. With her nose tucked into a rag-mag and ears sheltered behind her headset, the blonde was given her ‘privacy’.
Nastia knew the voice immediately, the same cadence, the same inflection. It sounded so different than through her interviews on the television. It became all too much for the blonde. Shawn was closer now where in the chat-verse… all you dealt with was text.
“You…called. I thought we agreed that… we wouldn’t call each…” Nastia uttered, almost disbelievingly. “Why? Why’d you…”
“We never agreed on that… we just… never did. And…Like I had a choice? You logged off on me, couldn’t explain, what else was I supposed to do?” Shawn’s voice muffled adding a meek, “Had to chase you.”
Nastia’s insides knotted unexpectedly. Adopting a more intimate tone, she replied, “I don’t understand why you felt like you had to…You said enough in your last IM.”
Shawn had curled herself in her bed, her back resting against her headboard; the young gymnast had settled in for the night expecting to be overcome with sleep, but the little tit-for-tat with Nastia left her feeling like a mess of tangled wires. Twisted and just a mess.
“God that’s so funny…” said Shawn. Her voice was clipped and bitter. She heard Nastia’s breathing, so steady, take an unpredicted hitch; the shorter girl knew at least in this medium… Nastia couldn’t hide.
“…What is?” Came the soft reply, musical and tender. The simple askance caused Shawn’s skin to goose-pimple surprisingly.
“You don’t get it.”
“No,” a flustered edge started to creep into Nastia’s dulcet tone. “can you stop being so cryptic?”
“Fine,” Shawn positioned herself on her back, and flung her forearm over her eyes, “I’ve been chasing after you… Always been chasing after you. But you never stopped long enough to look back. You’re so intense...”
Shawn reached for the remote to the TV and powered the unit off. Her room was blanketed in dull shadows of the California afternoon. The teenager couldn’t work out what she was trying to get across to Nastia. But she knew what she needed to hear. Desperately, she flushed her phone to her ear just to listen to the blonde breathe gently. She allowed her left hand to drift aimlessly towards her stomach. The teenager’s fingers splayed over its flat expanse only to then flex closed. A fistful of Shawn’s top crinkled in her grasp, anticipating on hearing her friend’s lilt.
Nastia heard the distinct rustle of cloth coming through on the monotone handset, followed by a soft exhale from Shawn. Involuntarily…she felt herself lap at the plump of her lower lip. After a moment, the blonde collected her thoughts and continued. The innuendo was there.
“If you noticed,” she said quietly, tilting her head back till it was stopped by a chest of drawers; she then listed her eyes closed. Nastia’s pulse quickened when she finally let loose an unsteady breath and murmured,
“…I stopped. A long time ago, but you’re still going.”
“So you could actually see me.”
“How could I not? You’re EVERYWHERE,” stated Nastia. “I can’t turn without hearing something about you! Everyone talks about you! You and that guy Mitchell, you and your ex, you and Mark, heck even you and Ellen!”
“…They’re talking about them…But not about you and me anymore. And it’s bothering you.” Shawn mused.
“No, … it’s not like that. I didn’t mean to-”
“-I miss your hugs...” Shawn tenderly injected.
“…don’t.” Nastia begged.
“-I miss your eyes.” Shawn dismissed the blonde’s subdued protest and ushered on.
“…You can’t just…”
“-I miss how you looked at me, your smile, your support. How you said nothing and everything at the same time.”
“…call me and do this.”
“I. Miss. You.”
Five
It was an uncomfortable position. Knelt behind shrubbery, straining all her senses…
Shayla wanted to be good. She did. But it was too tantalizing NOT to try…Like a New York Cheesecake blanketed in Blueberry topping. You just wanted to stuff your face. And from the look on Nastia’s face… she was getting down to the BEST part. The brunette pressed herself further against the door. Tilting her head towards the window pane just…to….hear…
Did something just crack…? Nah.
Fin.
Their voices melted over one another, each trying to get their side across. But the shorter teen had the final word. The conviction in Shawn’s voice milked out a side of the blonde that overwhelmed even her. Nastia sighed into the phone and cupping it closer to her lips she whispered, “…why do you have to be so sweet?”
Shawn distantly smiled. “And why do you have to be so far…?”
They both laughed in unison before fading back to the hushed tone of their conversation. Again the faint sounds of fabric broke through. Nastia found herself toying with the edge of her top and smirking.
“What’re you doing…? That’s a lotta noise coming from someone so tiny.” Nastia teased.
Shawn replied with little to no intention of play, “Lying in bed listening to you…hoping.”
Nastia’s brow crinkled, while the heat from her cheeks radiated. “Hoping?”
Shawn’s fingers snuck beneath the hem of her top, and soon she felt the tender pads of her digits phantom over her abdomen area. Idle, contrasting patterns that made no sense, to her. But she knew that it felt incredible and if she imagined hard enough…
“Yeah,” the shorter girl replied almost timidly. “Hoping…that maybe…you could feel me… like I’m feeling you right now.”
The Iowan’s eyes shut tight and her ears pounded with the deafening rhythm of her heartbeat; realizing what she was doing and saying. The younger gymnast just asked Nastia Liukin to do something incredibly intimate… and perhaps something really stupid they’d both regret. While they’ve been close to doing something before, text was so much more different than hearing an actual response. Shawn’s thumb precariously hovered over her phone’s end-call button.
“I... I don’t know why I asked that.. I’m sorry,” rasped Shawn.
“Don’t go. Don’t hang up.” Nastia’s voice rippled through, and Shawn never heard anything more perfect.
“I can’t think when you’re anywhere around me… even here.”
“You don’t have to,” murmured Nastia. The elder teen turned her face towards the New Orleans skyline and listened intently to the symphony of Louisiana’s atmosphere, the stick and sweet of the bayou air clung to her skin. It felt like the tickle of a breath every time the moist air drifted into the room. The ambiance and Shawn’s voice was enough to set something in her on fire. It grew to a smoldering heat at the base of her center.
Nastia snaked her hand along her collarbone, climbing to the nape of her neck; her fingers found that tender sweet spot that held her pulse. “The air’s wet here…”
Shawn’s fingers slid towards the gentle ridge of her hipbone, dipping into the indentation, threatening to lower even still. “It’s New Orleans, it’s either….” The shorter girl demurred, “…wet or hot.”
The elder girl bit the inside of her cheek swallowing a moan, while her knees locked tight. The heat building was both painful and delicious at the same time. Shawn had no clue to the power she lorded over the blonde, much less how the younger girl’s voice throbbed through Nastia with little resistance.
Nastia offered a dusky chuckle and then let her voice dip an octave; she repaid Shawn in kind, “…And right now I’m feeling both.”
The younger girl’s throat constricted, her words caught in the back of her now parched mouth. Shawn’s hand nestled further down, coming to rest at the junction of her inner thigh. The toned gymnast’s body arched towards her ever-attentive hand. Unfiltered images of Nastia Liukin writhing sinfully surged through Shawn’s mind. It had been enough to beckon her wandering hand to where it craved to be; her hips eagerly met the intrusion. The Iowan turned her head towards her beddings, hoping to muffle those embarrassing bedroom noises that seem to erupt with little warning.
Shawn chewed mercilessly on the edge of her beddings before lifting the receiver to her lips; she gripped at her phone. Shawn panted out desperately, “Let me hear you.”
Nastia barely nodded despite knowing younger girl couldn’t see, her forehead had gone flushed to the chest of drawers and her breathing had been steadily going ragged. The blonde’s hand lingered over her chest area; sensitized by what Shawn offered freely to her. With her lips parted, the blonde allowed a slew of words to flow from her. They were affectionate and passionate, telling Shawn how the younger gymnast affected her.
“If I close my eyes long enough”, quietly confessed Nastia, “…I can almost feel your lips every time the breeze comes in…” Her fingers dusted over every part that she imagined Shawn’s lips would have marked, “…but I need…”
“…more.” Shawn added without haste and in a single breathless reply.
Nastia’s cheeks burned, “yes.” She paused, shifting – the movement caused her thighs to add pressure to her center, making her insides clench in raw want. Nastia fought to bite a moan back, but it slipped from the depths of her throat; a guttural mewled statement, “ need you here…”
Shawn understood all too well and gruffly responded, “Need you in…”
“….SHAYLA!”
Shawn blinked rapidly at her phone as she pulled it from her ear. Her heart rate was still erratic, pressing the phone back in its place, sounds of discord rung out. Shawn sighed and then after righting herself against the headboard, she resignedly uttered,
“That really wasn’t what I was trying to get at…but if that’s what gets you off…Um…You there? Hello?”
-
Lying in a twisted heap of shrubbery, limbs and broken glass, Shayla winced; Nastia was already by the brunette’s side carefully easing her to her feet. After being sure that the brunette was all right, the flushed blonde ripped into her.
“You were listening?! Shay! That was,… OH MY GOD! It was…private!”
“Okay well yeah,” Shayla began carefully, eyeing Nastia amusedly before offering, “But see it was my phone, so… technically I would be, you know… privileged to the calls.”
“You best know that that was the stupidest thing ever said,” snapped the intense beauty.
Shayla grinned, her eyes adopting an impish glaze, “I’m sure there were and will be more stupid ones.” Carefully as she dusted herself off, the brunette off handedly said aloud, “So? Good talk with Shawn-John?”
Nastia eyed her friend as if she’d grown two heads and turned her face from Shayla, “Yeah, we…” the blonde’s eyes grew distant, “it was more than I expected. And everything I hoped it could be.”
“And that would be?”
“Just certain things I wanted to know.”
Shayla nodded knowingly.
Deftly, the slender Gymdawg skirted the shards that still lay in the wake of her eavesdropping and towards the railing of their loft’s balcony system.
“Think you can answer my question now?” Nastia met the brunette’s eyes, “Do you want there to be a you and her?”
“Would it bother you,” dared Nastia.
“Maybe,” answered Shayla truthfully, “Would you care?”
“I shouldn’t, but it’s something that might come up.”
“Then it will. No matter what, we’ll deal. Cuz that’s how friends roll, I mean, I at least think our friendship’s that strong.”
“It better be.”
Shayla smiled. “Then that’s that.”
Her eyes shifted to the phone still in Nastia’s hand causing the older gymnast to lift the still-gripped phone. Nastia’s gaze went wide, her mouth slack as Shayla loudly called out. “Night Shawn, she’s all yours don’t keep’er up too long!”
Then on lowering her voice her attention split back to her friend. Closing the distance, she rested her hand on Nastia’s shoulder, “Mm, after you’re done, please charge my phone that you used for your pleasure. Thanks.” Shayla eased from Nastia muttering something about having room service clean that mess in the morning.
Once alone…Nastia slowly tucked the phone back to her ear. “H…hello?”
“Well, hi there.”
Shawn’s tone was peppered with gentle teasing; she couldn’t suppress her smile. Chewing on her lips the younger gymnast could only imagine the way Nastia was taking the realization that she’d been broadcasting. “You know, it’s okay…”
“Tell me that when I’m not feeling embarrassed for myself.” Came the crackled answer.
A chuckle free fell from Shawn’s lips, “Nastia…You’re over reacting. Shayla okay?” When no answer came, Shawn cleared her throat, “Um, hello? Did I lose you?”
It was a barely there utterance, so much that Shawn had to concentrate on Nastia’s voice as it commented, “…say it again.”
“…Is… Shayla okay?” Reiterated Shawn, albeit confusedly.
“Not that… my name.”
Shawn closed her eyes and smiled, the feeling of her friend’s name coating her lips, suddenly had a different connotation for the seventeen year old. Where it would take them, she didn’t know. For right now, it was a thrill. Complying, the younger teen curled her tongue about the syllables that created the exotic name and gently, she breathed out,
“Nastia...”
They never lauded one another’s name, for fear of making something real, that the other probably didn’t want.
The blonde reveled in the way her companion said her name, and in one moment of clarity, everything just fit. Nastia lifted her face to the now midnight hued night sky and smiled. Softly, she answered.
“hi…Shawn.”
Epilogue
SWORELY if u tried to call me, sry. Some1 drained my phone batt last night phone sexing. Rude.
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