Cooling off

We didn’t say much after Nia’s impassioned lecture. We didn’t really need to, to be fair; her wrecking ball-esque approach had been undeniably effective in its goal. Even if it was a little inelegant — harsh, even — the patent earnesty in her words left very little emotional ambiguity between us. The only downside was how heavy the exchange had been, leaving everybody with much to digest afterward.

Still, digest we did. An unknown amount of time passed as we sat there, the three of us marinating in the ambient warmth of our pseudo cuddling session. It may be more accurate to say we were daisy chained, actually; with me cradling Nia’s upper body while she held Rina’s head in her lap. It was comfortable, doubly so after today’s arduousness…though, if I was being honest with myself, the positioning did remind me a lot of last weekend…

The sun sank beyond the horizon, suffusing the living room in a muted blue glow. I admired the fading twilight, hoping it would pull double duty and dispel the errant horny thoughts leaking in as I watched them lay together. It wasn’t the appropriate time for that kind of thinking, even if today was technically the date we’d set for our planning session.

I stretched loudly, moving to speak and more thoroughly eviscerate the lurid thoughts that plagued me.

Emery: I hate to backtrack after settling down, but are we feeling any better now that we’ve aired some of our grievances?

Nia mulled on that, rolling the thought around in her head before waving her hand in a “so-so” motion.

Nia: There’s more we need to talk about, but I fuckin’, like, highkey need a break from that ish. I haven’t worked my social brain that hard, or cried so much, since my O-Chem final… So, yeah…I’m pretty goddamn fried.

Emery: I completely understand, hun. Honestly, it was a very impressive showing. Your oratory skills made me jealous.

She tipped her hand in a playfully theatric gesture.

Nia: Thank you, sir.

Emery: Rina? How about you? Are you feeling alright? I feel like we haven’t heard much from you yet, and it wouldn’t be fair of us if we didn’t give you space to respond after everything we unloaded onto you.

Rina adjusted herself, staring up at us from Nia’s thigh pillow.

Rina: I’m with Nia. I know I owe you guys a better explanation for my behavior, and I will give it to you, but… Well, between this and work today, I’m burnt as fuck. Since Nia’s cool with it, I don’t wanna do anything but vibe for a bit…if that’s okay with you too.

Emery: Yeah, take your time. Sometimes it’s better to wait until you’re in a better headspace to tackle difficult topics.

Nia: Great, glad we’re all on the same page.

We returned to our relative quiet before Nia suddenly raised a finger to the sky.

Nia: Actually, one more thing. What’s with the “we” crap, Em? I was kinda just venting at the end there, you don’t need to own anything I said to Rina in the heat of the moment.

Emery: No, I don’t think that would be fair. I more or less deferred all the hard work to you.

Nia: I’m the one who wanted to though. I had shit I needed to say and I wanted to help you out.

Emery: All the more reason. I really appreciate you stepping in when I struggled to convey myself.

Nia: Hmmm…we~ll okay, we’ll leave it there for now, hehe. Just don’t hesitate if you feel like you have somethin’ to say later. Sure we didn’t hear much from Rina, but you didn’t say much either, and, as a wise man once said, it’s important to use your own words when you can.

Emery: “A wise man”, huh?

I felt the heat rise to my face, flattered by her indirect, storied compliment. She hadn’t called me that since…god, it must have been that time on the roof in high school.

Nia: Hehehe, don’t get too full of yourself mister. If you don’t practice what you preach then I’ll think you fell off.

Emery: I’ll make sure to be careful.

We shared a small chuckle, rose-tinted memories fueling our banter.

Nia: Being serious though, I am sorry I went a lil crazy on ya Rina. I sorta just started talking and couldn’t stop; wasn’t expecting it all to come out like that.

Rina: Nah it’s good. Real talk, I’m glad you did…I think I needed to hear it. I’ve been super selfish, and if you’d kept forcing yourself to be so nice then I’m not sure I woulda believed anything you were saying.

Emery: That’s fair, I could certainly see it coming across as dubious if you’re already feeling insecure.

Rina: …Something like that, yeh. Still though, I shouldn’t have **** it to this point. I’m really embarrassed I fell apart so hard these last few days.

Nia: No point dwelling girl, you’ll just end up beating yourself up. You know how we feel about too many apologies anyway, so if you really wanna make it up to us then try to do better in the future. As long as you don’t pull that distancing crap again we can always-…

Nia trailed off, pursing her lips in slight annoyance.

Nia: Hey hey hey, hold up. Stop. Why are we having the damn talk? We just said we were gonna wait, hehe.

Emery: Hahaha, I suppose that's **** of habit at work. I didn’t even realize we’d gotten so into it.

Rina: Guess it was on all our minds, heheh. Did you, um…did you wanna finish your thought though, Nia? I know we said we’d rather wait, but if you do actually wanna talk about it then it’s fine.

Nia shook her head, flapping her hand back and forth as if she were physically waving away the proposition.

Nia: Nah. Maybe we should, if it’s that in my brain, but I really don’t wanna. I just know it’s gonna go on for a while, and, like…bleh… I said I needed a break and I meant it. I just couldn’t help trying to get the last word in, so my dumb ass ended up dragging this on.

Emery: Hehehe, not too different from me when you and Lucy get into your debates, huh?

She shot me a petulant look, flipping me the bird before moving on as if she hadn’t heard me.

Nia: Aaannywaays… We’ll talk about all that crap later, let's just make up for lost time and hang for now.

Emery: Sounds good love.

Rina: Thirded.

Rina rolled over, facing towards the back of the couch and into Nia’s lower belly. A strange look crossed her face before continuing.

Rina: I guess, um, on that note, it's getting kinda late. Were you guys thinking of staying for a while?

Emery: Yeah, but if you need us to get going then that’s not an issue.

Rina: Nonono…I mean, you’re more than welcome to stay as long as you wanna. That’s what I was saying.

Nia: Haha, well that was what we all planned for today, sooo, yah know…

Nia shrugged lightheartedly, implying the rest of her statement. Rina stared blankly for a moment, cogs almost audibly turning, before lighting up in a display of horror and embarrassment.

Rina: Oh my god…I forgot today was supposed to be our big outline sesh! Ahhh!

Rina buried her face in the crevice of Nia’s thighs, groaning with an angst that would match even the moodiest teenager.

Nia and I couldn’t help but laugh at her over-the-top reaction.

Nia: Don’t sweat it, Rina. We’re doing this for fun, right? No sense stressing so hard.

Emery: Yeah, no worries, we’ll get to it when we get to it.

Rina: Yeah, but like…I suck so bad this week! Ugh!

Nia: Aw, Rina, hehe… Hey, y’know, maybe you’re not batting a thousand, but that ain’t the end of the world.

Nia took Rina’s head in her hands as she spoke, brushing the forlorn girl's hair behind her ear. She ran a finger along Rina’s temple, tracing down to the mouth and following the jawline. It settled on Rina’s chin, flirtatiously guiding her up to meet Nia’s vision.

Nia: Sometimes all we need after a bad day is a little…pick-me-up~.

“A pick-me-up”, she says. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. And so did Rina, if her wide-eyed surprise was anything to go by.