Finding Light

“No”

She said it firmly, placing a hand over her mouth and shaking her head.

“Please baby?” Tré begged, trying his best to pry the fingers from her lips.

“No,” Eliot repeated “I’m not going to do it.”

“How will you know if you like it or not unless you try it” The drummer said, now holding the sushi readily over Eliot’s mouth, which was still shut tight. Tré pouted, sticking out his lower lip and giving his girlfriend puppy eyes.

Eliot rolled her eyes. “Fine, if it will make you happy Tré” she groaned, trying to conceal a smile and murmuring a “The things I do for you,”

Tré’s mouth evolved into a Cheshire grin. He quickly popped the raw fish into Eliot’s mouth before she could change her mind. He waited patiently as she slowly began to chew.

Eliot swallowed a few seconds later. And after she licked her lips to remove any lingering traces soy sauce, she sighed “Well, it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten.”

The drummer smirked, and leaned over the sushi bar to kiss his girl friend, whose lips tasted like Saki. The kiss was a reminder of the other activity he had planned for the night and he felt his stomach begin to flutter so hard he wondered if maybe he’d accidentally eaten a flock of hummingbirds.

So Tré did what came naturally, and began drumming his chopsticks, quite obnoxiously, against the bamboo bar.

Eliot didn’t even notice, she had grown so accustomed to Tré’s constant need to hit things that she didn’t even hear it anymore. But soon she began to notice the looks that the other people sitting at the bar were giving them and she awkwardly reached over and grabbed Tré’s wrist, silencing him.

Tré looked up at her, his eyes wide, he looked panicked.

“You alright?” Eliot asked gently “You’ve been more fidgety than usual tonight”

“I’m fine!” Tré responded, trying to play it off cool. He looked at Eliot’s concerned face and felt his heart begin to pound along with the hummingbirds “I’ll as...tell you later”

*~*

“You have to come with me when I get my hair dyed” Charlotte noted, tugging at her chocolate locks “I’m kind of scared”

Charlotte was an actress, a “Thespian” Ramona teased. And she had landed the leading female role in their high school’s performance of Grease that March. And as Sandy, Charlotte had to have the hair to match the part.

“I’ll come don’t worry,” Ramona reassured from where she was lying on the floor beside Charlotte’s bed “I want to see it actually,”

Charlie shot Ramona a look through the dark and resumed biting her nails. “I’m really nervous.”

She had a right to be, it was rare that a sophomore scored the role as star in any high school performance, let alone the high school with the largest drama program in Northern California. But Ramona was too lost in her own world to hear Charlotte at this point.

“Me too,” she murmured.

“Huh?” Charlie sat up in her bed and looked down at her friend.

“Nothing,” Ramona responded lamely, which of course only probed Charlotte to dig deeper.

“It’s Joey Armstrong isn’t it?!” She asked, “I don’t’ really know him, but he seems really sweet.”

“No!” Ramona shot her friend an angry glance, she wished she could see it. “It’s Conner” she half mumbled into her pillow.

Ramona heard a rush of air come out of Charlottes mouth. It wasn’t really a sigh, but it wasn’t necessarily a deep breath either.

“I know!” Ramona defended “But he’s sweet, he really is!”

“Yeah” Charlie grumbled sarcastically. Ramona swore she heard her say something else, but didn’t really want to know what it was.

The two laid in silence for a few moments. What did Charlie know? She obviously didn’t have the relationship with him that Ramona did so who the hell was she to judge? She pondered over this for a minute, but then decided to condone it. Even if Charloote didn’t know what she was saying, she was still the best friend that Ramona had made in California, besides Joey of course.

But still, her thoughts began drifting back to Conner, and that night in his car a few weeks back. “Charlie?” she asked, lifting her head from where it was buried in her pillow.

“Yeah Mona?” Charlotte answered, using the nickname she had assimilated from Ramona’s father.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” Charlotte sat up again in her bed.

“Are you a virgin?” Ramona asked quietly, her cheeks flushing. It was times like this that she wished she had been born with the audacity of her father instead of the shyness of her late mother.

Luckily, Charlotte laughed “Why yes Ramona,” she chuckled “I am.”

“Ok,” Ramona replied, finding the bearings to laugh along.

“Mind if I ask why?”

“Oh no reason,” Ramona said, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that dotted her best friend’s ceiling “Just wondering”

*~*

“Holy shit!” Tré breathed as Eliot collapsed next to him, placing a hand on his sweaty chest “Oh god, oh god, oh god.”

Eliot giggled and kissed his tattooed shoulder “Good?” she smiled.

“Fuck” Tré choked out as a response, mainly because it was the only word his brain could form at the moment.

“Well, you weren’t so bad yourself there Mr. Cool” Eliot complimented, burying her head in the sheets, her sweaty black hair splaying across the mattress.

Tré coughed a laugh, his chest still rising and falling rapidly. “I love you, you know that?” he said quickly “You’re just so… I... I... oh my god.”

Eliot laughed, “Deep breaths baby, deep breaths” she joked. When he calmed down a bit she leaned over and kissed him fiercely “I love you too” she murmured.

“You’re amazing,” he said softly, running a hand through her dark hair “Utterly amazing”

The 35 year old smiled and nuzzled his neck “Thank you,” she whispered, kissing below his ear before resting her head against his collarbone.

The pair laid together in a tangled, sweaty bliss for a few moments, Tré gently trailing a hand up and down his girlfriend’s arm. He had to do this before she fell asleep.

The drummer shifted onto his side, so that the two were on their sides facing each other.

“Hey,” he whispered in Eliot’s ear, brushing her hair away.

“Hi,” Eliot answered, her deep blue eyes meeting his.

Tré placed his nose against the tip of hers “Close your eyes,” he instructed.

“Ok,” Eliot answered, slightly confused. She did what she was told and her eyes quickly fluttered shut.

Tré rolled over and opened the bedside drawer, fiddling through trying to find what he had hidden in there only an hour before.

“Tré you better not be getting some sick, dirty toy or something” Eliot said from behind him, remembering one eventful night from a winter past.

The drummer looked over his shoulder and smirked at the memory “No,” he reassured, “Just keep your eyes closed” he told her as he continued to dig through the drawer, until his hands came into contact with the soft felt box.

Biting his bottom lip, Tré rolled over to face his girlfriend once again and carefully placed the box under the pillow.

“Ok you can open” he said, and on cue, Eliot’s obliged. He felt the hummingbirds begin again. “Um,” oh shit, he had never been good at this.

“Uh,” he searched his head for the right words. This would have been easier if she had kept her eyes closed.

“Tré what’s wrong?” Eliot asked, placing a hand gently on his nervous face. ‘God she’s so sweet,’ he thought to himself.

’Fuck it, just spit it out’ “Will you marry me?!” the words came out so fast that even Tré wondered if he had said 4 individual words or just one garbled mess.

Eliot’s eyes widened, she wasn’t sure if she’d heard him right either “What?”

“I bought a ring,” Tré said quickly, reaching under the pillow and pulling out the box, he opened it as gently as he could, considering how hard his hands were shaking.

Eliot’s hands flew to her mouth as her eyes continued to grow to the size of saucers. “Oh my god,” she said, now becoming the one who couldn’t speak. “Tré it’s beautiful,”

“I bought it because, because I thought the sapphires matched your eyes, and, and because it’s beautiful, like you.” Tré was still talking as fast as a high auctioneer. And the only way Eliot could silence him was to kiss him harder than she ever had before.

When she pulled away, put her lips beside his ear “Ask me again,” she whispered.

She placed her forehead against Tré’s and waited, her eyes smiling.

“Eliot,” Tré began, much slower than before. “Will you marry me?”

The dark haired woman grinned and nodded, pulling her now-fiancé in for another kiss “Yes, yes, yes.”

“I love you” Tré reminded her as he slipped the ring on her finger, his hands still shaking slightly. He then attacked her with kisses, causing her to laugh hysterically and try to push him off. It only took a minute for both of them to be out of breath, and tangled up in the sheets once again.

“You know what Tré?” Eliot asked, lifting her head to view the drummer, who was now resting comfortably against her chest.

“What?”

“Only you would propose after we have sex.”

“Yeah well,” Tré leaned up and gave her a peck on the lips, “You love me,”

“Yes I do,” Eliot agreed “God help me.”