Author: eklipsej "You CAN do it. And if she doesn't remember you, then you'll just have to make sure she has a reason NOT to forget you this time around." Tara smiled weakly at her friend. Jo's friendship had done wonders for the girl who, because of her stutter, had not had many friends as a young girl. And so if Jo said so, then so be it. She smiled again at her roommate and turned back to look at her redhead from the airport, only to find that the girl and her friends were gone. "Too late. They're gone." Tara said, her smile fading. The feel of her roommate's hands tense on her shoulders surprised Tara. She looked up to speak but found herself staring into Jo's ear. The girl was craning her neck, scanning the area where the redhead from the airport, the one had been a redhead even then, had been sitting. Suddenly, she jerked Tara up. "There, look." She pointed towards the portable toilets. "There she is!" Tara's head swiveled in the direction the darker haired girl was pointing. She caught sight of the mysterious redhead briefly before she disappeared into one of the cabins. "Go, Tara! I refuse to believe that you and she are both here by some freak coincidence!" Tara found her roommate's determination to be contagious, and with a resolute nod of her head she stood and quickly weaved her way across the sea of blankets, all the while keeping an eye on the cabin the redhead had disappeared into. Now only a few yards away from the stall, Tara saw the door open and the girl walk out before she disappeared from Tara's line of sight in the sea of people that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Steeling her resolve, Tara made her way through to where she thought the redhead was headed. Suddenly she felt herself being pushed further along almost faster than her feet could carry her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw flashes of bright color and just as suddenly the wave moved past her. Taking advantage of the momentary pause, Tara spun around to get her bearings, but as she turned to head towards the bathroom stalls she found herself colliding into someone, causing the other person to fall to the ground and drop her bag. Sensing another rush of people approach, Tara reached for the bag before it could get trampled. Her hand found the strap a few seconds before that of the bag's owner. Tara pulled the strap and as she moved to hand it to the fallen girl, she looked up to find herself staring at red hair. Squeezing past two girls with brightly streaked hair, Willow turned to what she hoped was the direction in which her friends were seated, and collided with another concertgoer. The bump caused Willow to fall on her side and her bag to fall from her shoulder. Mustering the little that was left of her dignity, Willow leaned onto one elbow. As she reached for her bag strap before it could get trampled, another hand beat her to it. "Thanks." Willow said as she took the bag that was being handed to her. "Y-you're w-w-welcome." Willow froze halfway through her attempt to stand. Slowly she turned her head to face the owner of the soft voice and found herself looking into familiar blue eyes. Her own eyes opened and closed several times, accompanied by her mouth, before she lost her balance and found herself seated on the grass once again. Tara loosened her grip on the bag in her hand when the redhead took the bag. All at once she felt as though her heart had stopped beating and was racing a mile a minute. Tara didn't realize that the redhead had thanked her and that she had responded until the other girl turned to face Tara, and she found herself staring into familiar green eyes. She blinked to be sure and when she opened her eyes again the redhead was no longer half-standing in front of her. Somehow the other girl had managed to fall back onto the grass once more. Tara knew that there was music playing. She knew that someone was singing into a microphone and that there were people singing along. She knew that there were also people trying to talk over the music. She knew that she was standing in the middle of a crowd, only a few yards away from a row of Port-A-Potties. But everything was muffled, far away, irrelevant, insubstantial. The only thing Tara was sure of in that moment was that sprawled out on the grass in front of her was someone she thought she would never meet again, no matter how much she had hoped for it, and she had no idea what to say. Willow continued to stare at the girl standing before her. Her eyes wanted to blink some more to confirm that this was not some illusion or dream. Her mind however would not cooperate. It refused to let her eyes close in case it, she, was an illusion, afraid that in the millisecond it took to blink the girl would disappear. She felt heavy thumping in her chest. Whether it was her heart or the music reverberating through her body she didn't know and didn't care. And after an eternity of staring at each other, both girls were jolted back into the real world and catapulted into a world of their own. Another group of teenagers pushed past Tara and an especially rowdy girl managed to bump into Tara especially hard, causing the blond to fall forward, into the pleasantly surprised arms of the redhead still seated on the grass. It took Willow a few moments to really process the fact that the girl who had been standing above her was now laying on top of her. The blond had been knocked over by some eager teenager and had fallen forward onto the girl still seated on the grass. Willow had instinctively raised her arms, catching the blond at the waist. This was enough to help soften the girl's landing, but not enough to stop the blond from causing Willow to fall back, and not enough to stop the blond from landing on top of Willow. Tara felt herself falling forward, and when she felt hands on her waist Tara knew that the redhead had raised her hands to catch her. Tara on her part had stretched her own arms forward, trying to stop herself before she dropped all her weight on the slimmer girl. Tara had unfortunately or fortunately hesitated and she found herself laying on top of her mystery redhead, one arm resting by the other girls hair and the other just by her shoulder, their legs tangled together. |