After All These Years
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PART 9
Jessie blinked in the early morning sunlight that streamed through a
crack in the blinds. She tried to roll over but a smile spread
across her face when she realised that Katie had wrapped herself
around her side. Leaning in she lightly grazed Katie's lips with
her own. Katie stirred slightly, but didn't wake, muttering
something inaudible as she rolled over onto her back.
Jessie just watched her sleep, mesmerised by the rise and fall of
her chest. The sheets lying softly across Katie's hips, and the
shirt she slept in had ridden up to reveal most of her perfect
stomach.
Jessie couldn't help but reach out and touch her, rubbing the flat
of her palm along the taut ripples of her abdomen which were hidden
beneath the surface of her soft, tanned skin.
She ran her thumb gently over the small patch of dark skin above
Katie's right hip, and smiled at the familiarity of it. She
remembered this scar: June 2003 when Katie had her appendix out.
Jessie smiled as remembered trying to look after Katie when she was
sick, and Katie would have none of it, bounding out of bed,
insisting she was fine and popping two stitches in the process.
Jessie wondered if that wonderfully irreverent Katie still existed,
and as she looked at her where she was sleeping so soundly, she
really couldn't be sure. Everything was different now, it had been
so long, and although Jessie recognised the scar on her hip, she
realised that even Katie's body had changed, and she wondered if
hers had too.
Katie's body, once thin and lanky had softened, and she had
developed the curves that had eluded her so long. She was still as
tall and slender as she had always been, but the difference, Jessie
realised, was that the person before her was, now, as much a woman
as she then had been just a girl.
Jessie sighed, as much as she accepted that they both were probably
fundamentally the same people they had been all those years ago, she
lamented that loss of familiarity. She had thought that she would
grow old with Katie, and that included growing up with Katie. She
hated that she'd missed out on that that, and couldn't help but
resent all the people that had known Katie in the meantime.
Jessie furrowed her brow and shook her head to clear it. She didn't
want these thoughts now. She wanted to be happy, and having Katie
here with her, she couldn't understand why she couldn't just let
herself be.
"Hey you," Katie smiled as she stirred to find Jessie watching her
intently, "What are you doing?"
"Just thinking," Jessie answered softly.
"What about?" Katie enquired, a grin playing across her features.
"About you," Jessie answered her slowly, not knowing how to
articulate her thoughts from the last few minutes, "You're so
beautiful," she finally said, and the moment she said it she knew it
was true.
Katie's features flushed slightly at the unexpected compliment, and
her smile faded as she said in full seriousness, "Jessie, I love you
so much."
Jessie was shocked at this frank admission, she had not expected it,
at least not this soon. "Katie, I..." she began as Katie looked at
her expectantly, "Please don't say that...you're leaving in two
weeks, lets just have fun. Okay?" she implored, and as she answered
Katie, she all at once hated herself, but knew that it was what she
had to do. She couldn't get hurt again, she was sure it would kill
her.
Katie, although taken aback, forced a smile. She understood what
Jessie was feeling because she was feeling it too. She didn't want
to take this anywhere Jessie didn't want to go, so she just smiled,
pecked Jessie on the cheek and hopped out of bed.
"What are you doing?" Jessie asked her, concerned.
"To make you breakfast," Katie replied with a grin, as she pulled on
some clothes and started to head downstairs.