That Witch! (13 page)

The darker purple probably wouldn’t complement Brynn’s hair color as much as a soft lavender would, so she pulled out a few tops in lighter hues and laid them out on the chaise set against the wall to their left. If she could get Brynn covered up in a top, maybe she wouldn’t feel so awkward anymore. “Do you like any of these?”

“Whatever you think’ll look okay on me. I trust you.”

Without hesitation, Cassidy swept up a light violet Abercrombie & Fitch tank top. It worked for Brynn because aside from a small “A&F” tag on the lower left hem, there weren’t any large advertising letters across the front. She was trying to add color to Brynn, not change her style. She actually rather liked Brynn’s somewhat layered look, but it needed a little softness. Handing the tank top over, again, she averted her gaze from anywhere in the vicinity of Brynn’s chest. “We can pair that up with a darker purple gingham blouse I have and leave it open in the front,” Cassidy said, more to herself than to Brynn, who took the tank top slowly before Cassidy returned to searching through the clothes hanging in her closest for the top she’d been talking about.

“Aha, found it.”

“Does this look okay?” Brynn quietly asked, smoothing her hands over the lilac tank top now clinging to her flat stomach and subtle curves. “I mean, it feels nice, but do I look okay?”

“You look beautiful,” Cassidy replied encouragingly, as she held the cotton blouse open for Brynn to slide her arms in. She took extra care in making sure the neckline was folded down neatly and the button hems were straight. Once she rolled the sleeves up to Brynn’s elbows, she stood back and smiled. “I think some white jeans would work with that top combo.” Cassidy wasted no time in turning around to the other side of the closet, where she pulled a pair of white denims from their respective hanger. When she returned to stand in front of Brynn, Pinky looked a little more at ease and a bit less like she was ready to faint. “See if these fit. My ass is bigger than yours, I think.”

This time, Brynn immediately started slipping out of her jeans. She didn’t seem anywhere near as nervous as she had been before. In fact, she seemed to be almost confident, even as her dark purple boy shorts became exposed to Cassidy’s gaze.

Finally, the heavens awarded Cassidy’s patience and good behavior by granting her a peek at Brynn’s goods. So it wasn’t her whole body, but the clothes she wore belied the rounded bottom she rocked. Where Brynn might blush profusely and look away if Cassidy’s panty-covered butt was bared for her to see, Cassidy felt herself smiling and appreciating the hell out of the view.

“Maybe my ass isn’t bigger after all.”

“Huh? What?”

Brynn clumsily turned her head back and fell into a one-legged, jean-knotted half spin as she tried to get a view of what Cassidy was talking about. The move led to her falling forward enough that Cassidy had to catch her or she would’ve hit the floor hard.

“Sorry. Sorry,” Brynn repeated as she tried to right herself again.

Cassidy was laughing too hard to really notice her arms around Brynn’s lithe body. Only when both girls stood straight up again did she realize she hadn’t let go of Brynn. She didn’t want to, either. As a matter of fact, she pressed against her a little more, bringing Brynn in a bit tighter. Brynn’s minty breath caressed Cassidy’s face, making her want to suddenly taste the parted lips that were all but beckoning her. She wouldn’t, though. Out of respect for Brynn and the fact that she was standing with one leg in the jeans and one out, panty-covered ass still exposed, Cassidy restrained herself and instead began to release her hold.

B
RYNN
never expected to find herself half-naked and in Cassidy’s arms the way she was. She knew the day would come when they’d want to get a little closer, a little more intimate with each other. She had no idea when she’d crawled out of her bed this morning, today would be the day. With Cassidy’s arms around her, and the closeness of their bodies, Brynn didn’t want to stop whatever was about to happen between them. She both feared it and craved it. And the moment Cassidy’s arms started to loosen, she felt like her chance to really see another side of Cassidy Rivers had passed.

“Don’t,” she whispered airily, dropping her gaze to Cassidy’s lips.

“Are you on your feet?” Cassidy never ceased to surprise her. There they stood at the edge of their first intimate moment, and she was worried about Brynn falling over.

“As good as I can be.”

“You sure? You can be pretty clumsy.”

The moment Brynn opened her mouth to respond, Cassidy’s lips locked with hers. This was it, the moment she’d been waiting for a whole week. For seven long days, she’d fantasized about what it would be like to finally kiss Cassidy Rivers. Would Brynn freak out? Would her kiss be clumsy like her? Or would it be soft and sweet like Cassidy? Would they do it once and never again? Or do it many, many more times.

As Cassidy eased her tongue through the slight part in Brynn’s lips, Brynn closed her eyes and gave up on wondering where this might go. She gave into the feel of finally having their mouths touching in a not-so-chaste-sorta way. It was the first time anyone had ever kissed Brynn that way, the first experience she had with anything remotely sexual.

Cassidy’s arms tightened, and Brynn returned the hug, splaying her fingers over Cassidy’s back. They held each other tight, even as Cassidy slowly released her lips. Brynn couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes, and she damn sure didn’t want to let go of Cassidy’s body.

“I don’t get why people wanna come out of the closet. I rather like it in here,” Cassidy said breathlessly.

“I kinda liked it myself,” Brynn smiled. “We should, um”—heat flushed her cheeks—“do it again sometime. Maybe?”

“Oh yeah, we’re definitely doing that again sometime soon. For now, pull your jeans up so we can get you over to the Apple store.”

“And the frozen yogurt place,” Brynn added as she reached down and pulled the jeans Cassidy loaned her up to her waist. Only Cassidy’s fingers were the ones that ended up on the zipper.

Brynn watched curiously as Cassidy fastened the button, all the while wearing a silly smile on her face. She couldn’t believe it had actually happened, that she’d actually kissed a girl… and liked it. It felt so right and so normal, some of that ridiculous fear she’d had before faded away.

O
NCE
Cassidy had Brynn situated inside the confines of her Scion, she drove them to the nearby mall. She zoomed into a parking spot and wasted no time leading Brynn inside, directly to the Apple store so her Pinky could hopefully fix the phone her freak friend had broken. This was her lifeline to Brynn, the main way to communicate with her when they couldn’t be together, so to say it was important to Cassidy to get that phone fixed as soon as like, yesterday, was an understatement.

Standing in the line for the Genius bar, Cassidy tapped her foot impatiently against the polished floor of the store and took the opportunity to ogle Brynn, who was still glowing from their kiss earlier. She wasn’t the only one. Cassidy almost ran a stop sign and two red lights on her way there because she was absorbed in the moment inside her closet. It had been more than she’d ever imagined it to be, and she’d imagined the scenario countless times. Brynn’s lips were pliant, her kiss tender and full of curiosity combined with excitement.

The look on her face must have given her thoughts away, because when Brynn’s eyes met hers, Pinky smiled brightly and giggled softly.

“What?” Cassidy asked.

“Nothing.” Brynn’s smile widened. She was so obviously lying.

“Yeah, right. You look like the Cheshire Cat.”

Brynn’s cheeks turned that cute shade of bright red Cassidy adored, and when Pinky cut her eyes away, Cassidy knew she’d been caught in a little daydream.

“I’ve never kissed anyone the way we kissed,” Brynn quietly admitted.

Well, that wasn’t quite the same for Cassidy, who’d had a boy or two kiss her in the past. Nothing ever came of it, though, because Cassidy lost interest rather quickly. Before realizing she was into girls, she’d just thought boys were stupid and couldn’t hold her attention. Now she knew better. Even still, with her two or three somewhat passionate kisses in the past, nothing compared to what she’d shared with Brynn less than an hour ago. Boys never gave her butterflies. Boys never made her eyes close when their lips touched, and boys certainly never ever managed to make her feel as exhilarated as Brynn had.

“I have, but it’s never been as amazing or even half as toe-curling as that was. So it was kinda my first time too.”

“Toe-curling? You, um… you thought it was toe-curling?”

“Well, yeah. My toes curled.”

“I, um… I think mine did too.” Brynn giggled softly. It was probably the cutest, most innocent sound Cassidy had ever heard. “Have you ever, um… you know?”

Oh man. That was a heavy question. There were so many implications that Brynn’s “you know” could mean. Cassidy shook her head gently and cleared her throat. “Not really. I mean, a guy felt up my boob once, if that counts as something.”

And she’d hated it. It felt wrong and dirty, so she’d immediately pulled her shirt down and left him sitting in his car while she went to catch a ride with one of the other cheerleaders. Eww. The memory made her skin crawl. Luckily, all it took was the thought of Brynn’s hand over her girl globe instead to replace the near-vomit memory with hope and a smile.

“I’ve never had anyone like me enough to try,” Brynn confessed.

The line moved forward, placing them next to be attended. Thank freakin’ gawd. The importance of Brynn’s cell phone could not be measured in words. Fixing her attention back to Pinky, Cassidy offered her a soft smile. “Well, I like you enough to try.” Yeah, she said it. And what? It was worth watching that precious blush flower across Brynn’s cheeks all over again.

“Can I help you?” the woman in blue behind the counter asked.

Brynn had to clear her throat before she spoke. “I, um”—the red in her cheeks glowed brighter—“my phone is busted. It won’t come on.”

“Is it under warranty?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, you can leave it with us and come back in an hour or so. We’ll see if we can’t get it to boot. If not, we’ll just replace it.”

“Thank you,” Brynn said as she handed over the phone. As soon as the woman behind the counter took the device, Brynn reached down and grabbed Cassidy’s hand and started urging her out the door.

Cassidy happily followed Brynn out past the pretty Mac computers and into the mall’s crowded hallway. She laced her fingers with Brynn’s, glancing down to smile at the contrast of Brynn’s silky porcelain skin tone against her own tanned flesh. When she looked up again, she was still smiling. God, she was doing a whole lot of that since Brynn had come into her life. Or stumbled in. Or fate via Mrs. Miller had delivered her. Whatever.

She gave Brynn’s hand a little squeeze and was just about to lean over and press her lips to her cheek when she heard someone cry out, “Are you freakin’ serious?”

Brynn immediately tensed. Her fingers tightened around Cassidy’s, causing her fingertips to tingle from the pressure in her clasp. “Crap,” Brynn hissed under her breath as she released Cassidy’s hand like a hot potato.

There wasn’t anything that could have ticked Cassidy off more than the purple-headed, black-clad freak who came charging toward them like that bat out of hell Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off of.
She
was the reason Brynn had just let go of her hand.
She
was the only person who stood between her and Pinky, and Cassidy loathed competition as much as she abhorred interference. At the moment, Laura represented both.

Brynn took a step forward and said, “Laura, it isn’t what you—”

“You know what?” Laura interrupted. “I’m so sick of you lying all the time. You hate her!” She stabbed her pointy finger in Cassidy’s direction. It took a whole lot of restraint for Cassidy not to break that lanky digit in two. “Now you’re going all lezzie with her? What the hell?”

Brynn opened her mouth, but Cassidy stepped between them. No way in hell was anyone going to talk to her Pinky that way and get away with it.

“Jealous much? God, freak. Quit spazzing.” Cassidy’s tone was insulting. Downright demeaning. It was the cool, arrogant voice she reserved for the meanest of insults because she knew nothing bugged the crap out of people more than being treated like someone who wasn’t even worth a raised tone. “What’s your deal, anyway? Maybe you’re the lesbian, what with the way you’re all up in Brynn’s Kool-Aid.”

“You’re freaking mental, Cassidy. Wait until everyone hears about you holding Brynn’s hand. You just wait!”

“Oh, I’m cowering,” Cassidy snorted. “Really? Who’s gonna care that we were holding hands? More importantly, who’s even gonna listen to you? You’re a nobody.”

“Stop!” Brynn yelled. Her face had blanched to a pale white, paler than her normal creamy porcelain. “Just stop.” She looked at Cassidy and frowned, then looked back at Laura. “Why are you being so mean to me?”