Ease

(This is the continuation of the preview I posted earlier this week. I hope you enjoy.)


A gentle smooth breeze gracefully wafted from the clouds, and calm jade grass swayed at the distubence. A short, red haired woman stood up from the grass. Her posture was sturdy but as the sun hid at the horizon she seemingly melted to the ground. Her knees rested on soft grass leaving a slight green residue  on her legs, and her thin hands cupped her eyes. Tears rested in the bowl of the woman's palms before seeping through her fingers and falling like rain. The sun was no longer in view and the sky was a lavender color. Another tall figure entered, her hair a matted blonde tangle at the nape of her I neck. She kneeled down and brought her finger the short woman's chin, raising it slightly. The red haired woman's eyes where puffy and red with tears now as she gained volume in her cries. The blonde woman grew worried and tried to hush the other to no avail. Her cries soon diminished into silent hiccups, bouncing her red ringlets. She pressed into the other woman's chest hugging her waist for comfort.

 The taller woman stroked the shorter woman's hair; it was smooth as silk. She weaved her fingers through hair of splendor. Each breath the taller took was comfort to the red haired maiden. She could hear the air filling her lungs and every time it escaped.

"After all we've been through you act as if I'm a stranger, Why?" The tall dame's voice coed in a hushed tone. She let out a slightly disappointed sigh.

"I thought you where gone... I though I'd never get you back." The hands of the red haired woman clinched the bonde's sides. Pale fabric between her fingers. "How do I know your not a lie," tears seeped from her eyes and her voice seemingly broke.

"Try as you might but you can't get rid me," the blonde's tone was sincere, melodic and had and undertone of nostalgia. She grinned as she was released from the hug and stared at with eyes blue green in tone.        


"You.... rembered?" Eyes wide with shock,  the short woman dumbfoundedly murmured. A nod was returned and memories flowed back from a time when the women where young.

"Of course" the blonde smiled.



"Catch up buttercup" The blonde girl mocked. 

"Baylie !" The amer haired girl scolded. "I told you not to go so fast!" 

"Well I told YOU not to go so slow" Baylie snorted walking backwards. The amber haired girl's blue green eyes rolled in their sockets. "I just don't want to be late, you know I hate that Austin." 
  Austin sighed, her red hair falling as she stopped to catch her breath. "Yeah..." she stood up again and jogged to catch up. Her short stature made running long distances a chore. Baylie walked at a slow pace. "Is everything ok with you and your mom? I know it's been hard for you... I can tell that's the reason you've started hanging out with me... for someone to understand." Austin looked over seeing Baylie's eyes watering. "Sorry I me-"  


"It's fine," Baylie wiped her eyes dry. "Mom has been a hassle, she hates me now... I wish it never happened." Austin looked downcast. "It's all your fault!" Beleigh knocked Austin over. 

"For what? I wanted you happy and you don't want to be?!" Austin pleaded not noticing the scrapes and sharp pain on her right arm. Her eyes widened as she felt her right elbow bleeding. "If you think it's my fault why do you stay!" Austin's voice cracked as her eyes bubbled tears. 
    
"Because your..." Baylie's tone hushed "your... I-I" her rosy cheeks were wet. Austin stood up the scrapes didn't hurt anymore. She reached up and wiped Baylie's cheeks.             
       

"It's ok," Austin's tone was truly motherly. "We don't want to be late do we?" She smirked at Baylee  understandingly. 

"Y-yeah," Baylee smiled wiping her cheeks again. 


The two walked  beside each other getting to the small coffee shop, they watched as the door opened and they walked in. The two sat at the same table. 

"You ok?" Austin asked seeing the distress in Baylie's baby blue eyes. 

"I'm fine," she replied before the waitress came over and they ordered. 

  "Are you sure?" Austin grabbed one of the complementary croissants in the center of the table; for people who came early. 
  "I'm fine, why do care so much?why can't you leave me be?" Another croissant was taken by Baylie and she shoved it into her mouth.

"Because your my friend, and try is you might you can't get rid of me."  She smiled. Following was a pause long that never wavered. The waitress came back two beverages and a small box in tow.  "Thank you" Austin grabbed the box and drinks placing them on the table. "Baylie our coffee is here." Baylie was distant as she stared out the window.

"Do you understand how hard it is?" Baylie didn't change her glance.   

"How hard what is?" Austin grabbed her coffee and a small sugar packet. Baylee clinched her teeth. 

"To say..." her words trailed. Austin tilted her head in confusion. "To say I- I," she took a deep breath out.  Then in a hushed tone she said something that made Austin's mouth dry, "to say I really like you."     
  
Austin almost dropped her coffee as she brought her hands to her mouth. She was at a loss for words. "Am I really the reason? The reason why she... no... really?" Her mind spun before it reeled in to speak.  Austin looked at Baylie a few strey tears away from her eyes. Austin leaned over the table to wipe her companion's cheeks and look her in the eyes.  


The women grinned at each other.

"I remember that day," The red haired woman said her hand brushing loose hair from blocking her view. "I wish I had told you how much you meant to me, how much THAT meant to me."

"Austin it's fine, it wasn't your fault." The blond woman said holding her companion's shoulder she rubbed it gently. The intent to soothe in mind along with a nagging feeling.

"I could've told you before it happened," Austin whispered. She clutched the other woman's sides again.

"No one could've known the fire would happen. Not even you," Tears welled in the blondes eyes as she spoke.




   The cool night air wafted past Baylie as she walked to her porch step. She was refreshed yet she had an inkling that something was wrong. Her backpack felt heavier on her shoulders. She placed her key in the lock and sighed. As she pushed the door open then she waved back at Austin, who was walking to her own house. 

  Baylie turned around and her face turned pale. Her mother stood sturty and her hands rested on her  hips. Her eyes seemed to burn Baylie's own. "Don't you have anything to say?" Her mothers voice was so powerful and any hint of her being motherly was gone.  

   "No mother, I was just getting some help after school at the library with Austin. Is there anything wrong with that?" Baylie placed her backpack on the recliner and walked to the kitchen to make dinner. She looked back at her mother whose face cringed toward her nose.   

"Anything ELSE?" Her mother tried to milk the situation for what it was worth, but you can't milk a cow that isn't there. 

"No mother," Baylie rolled her eyes grabbing her apron and putting it on. She went to the fridge and grabbed the ingredients for a brothy chicken soup. She gathered some celery, some leftover rotesery chicken, and noodles. "Chicken soup ok ma?" Her hand instinctively grabbed her chopping knife and a celery stalk.  

Baylie's mother let out a sigh. "It's fine Baylie," the words seemed bitter and hissed through cliched teeth . Baylie felt her arms shake momentarily and closed up the windows. She scowled seeing the large heater on.  

"Mom you turned on a heater with the windows open!" She sneered at her mother. She unplugged the heater and trotted back to the kitchen to cut celery. Her mother was embarrassed.

"Why do you care?" Baylie's mom snorted going to the sink and staring into the pool of dirty water and dishes.  

  "I dunno, maybe it's because last months power bill made it so we had a hard time getting our car fixed and putting food on the table!" Baylie's voice slowly raised and her chopping got faster before a long exhale. Her mother was speechless. 

"How dare you-" Her mother started  
  
"Dare I what! How dare I make dinner, and clean the dishes and all the house hold chores AND manage to keep an A in all my classes so I might get a scholarship!" Her eyes where heavy with tears that refused to fall. She poured chicken stock haphazardly into the pot. "How dare I try to improve our poor lifestyle." Her mother gasped and seemingly groweled at her daughter with total rage.  Baylie walked to the sink and washed  her hands of celery before she grabbed the towel off the oven door and dried her hands off. She placed the greasy  towel a little too close to the gas stove. It hug in a pan of bacon fat.   

"Oh really you do all the work! I do-" Baylie's mother paused to ponder what she did for the household. "I pay for the house! I pay for the roof you live under young lady!" 

"Pfft hardly." Baylie said to herself quietly beginning to chop up chicken after throwing the celery in chicken stock.


The towel lit 

  

"Baylie I'm sorry. I wish I had been there for you." Austin murmured clinging to Baylie.


"I know, I forgive you." Baylie stroked Austin's hair and as she got further down her fingers weaved through the ringlets.

 

The towel started to burn and lead the fire from the gas stove to the pan of bacon grease and I became some what of a fire ball. Baylie and her mother yelled at each other spitting venom. The argument ad distracted from the fire until- 

"BAYLIE WHAT THE HECK, WHY IS THE STOVE ON FIRE!!!!" Baylie's mother spat angrily and smoke started to fill the air. Baylie's mother then grabbed a dirty pot of mucky water and poured it on the fire.  

It didn't work and the fire spewed small hot drops of grease and flew hitting the wall and Baylie.

"MOM!" Small seering  drops of fire stung Baylie's bare arms. "YOU DONT PUT OUT A GREASE FIRE WITH WATER-oowwwww!" The damage was done to her arms as she tried to wipe it away. The drops had all spread fire dancing along the walls and smoke filling the house. Baylie tried to run to her phone to call 911 but her mother blocked her.  

"WHY DO YOU ACT LIKE YOU KNOW EVERYTHING!" Baylie's mother screamed.  

"Mom please!" Baylie pleaded trying to push by getting pushed over. She began to hack and cough and her mother pressed her on the floor. 




Austin looked towards Baylie whom  looked downcast as the jade grass. "It's not your fault either," Austin reassured stroking her friends cheek calmly.

"I wish I could say it was... so I could say I was the problem and I was fixed," Baylie smiled snickered to herself a few stray tears dancing from her eyes. "But the problem is still out there, somewhere..." she started to laugh, "I wish she had gone down with me."

Austin tried to calm Baylie to no avail, she remembered something...


Austin sat in the remains of the burnt home of her best, her ONLY friend. She simply cried and looked around the charred remains. Baylie's mother had left the house Scott free with some minor burns but Baylie had passed away from smoke inhalation. Baylie's funeral was canceled soon after it was announced but that wouldn't change the date they gave out her objects that had survived the fire. Austin stood up and explored the house. It was somewhat distopian and barren. Everything was charred, warped or reduced to charcoal.
  
  She explored for awhile looking at everything she was so used to seeing when she came over. She sighed opening the warped door to Baylie's room dispite the lack of walls around it. She came in and saw the warped bedframe covering a shiny metallic object. She criously walked to it and picked it up. It was a small box with out a lid... must have been cardboard. She looked at the side of the box seeing the words "For whom I love" carved into it in sloppy cursive. She was startled and frankly enthused. She looked in the box seeding a velevet coated mini box covered in a ziplock bag. She questioned the dicicion to open it. 

She pondered before knowing what to do. She pulled the velvet box from the bag and she sat on the floor. She sighed before opening it her hands quivered and her fingers shook. She managed to open it. The boxes content made her want to cry. A small napkin with a white coffee bean pattern on it, and words where scribbled on it in pen. A small plastic dinosaur ring, and the most heart breaking was a folded picture. 

She didn't know what to look at first but decided the picture would be best. She unfolded it and found it to be a photo of Austin and  Baylie sitting next to each other on a bench. It didn't hurt as much as what she saw next. The napkin was her last stop and opening it brought her to tears. It read:

Why? Why do I feel this way? Its not your fault ... not at all... I just want you to know, I love you. 

Austin sobbed and tucked the napkin in her breast pocket and slid the ring on her finger. She smiled felling her chest burn and twist.  
  "I love you too," her hoarse voice was drowned out buy the silence of the air and she started to walk home. Her feet rhythmically tapped the ground meeting the slow beet of her heart. She stared at the green plastic dinosaur ring on her ring finger, it was hard to focus and her eyes where too dry to cry anymore. 

 Austin tussled about trying to find the napkin or ring. Her had struck something hard in what seemed to be a pocket  on her white clothes. She pulled out the ring. "Was this for me?" She brought it into view so Baylie could understand and she simply nodded.

"Yeah.. that was for you," Baylie smirked. "I'm glad you found it."

"I am too..." Austin stared at Baylie and hugged her genuinely.

"I love you..." Baylie whispered.

"I love you too," Austin grinned and the stars finally came out in the sky.