“No, I… I’ll just change in the bathroom.”
“You don’t have to do that; this is your room. I can wait downstairs.”
“Yes,” I said far too fast. “That would be… yes. Perfect. Great. Amazing.”
She smiled, and I swear to God she was fully aware of what she was doing to me.
“I’ll be in the car then. Take your time.”
She reached the door, then paused.
“And princess?”
“Yes?” I croaked.
“Next time you want to tell me how you really feel, don’t hold back. I like seeing what’s going on in that pretty head of yours.”
She left, closing the door behind her, and I stood there for a full minute just trying to remember how to perform basic human functions like breathing and blinking.
Next time.
She had said next time, already certain there would be one. Like she wanted there to be one.
I grabbed my clothes and stumbled towards the bathroom, my hands still shaking slightly as I tried to process what had just happened.
Marley had come to my dorm. She’d been in my room. She was waiting for me downstairs, and despite all my confusion and embarrassment and complete inability to act normal around her, she kept coming back.
Maybe I didn’t understand whatever this was, but apparently, I didn’t need to. Not yet.
For now, it was enough that she was waiting for me downstairs, and for the first time in days, that hollow ache in my chest was completely gone.
VII
“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.”
— Audre Lorde
Chapter Eight
Kelechi
The first thing I noticed when we got out of the car and made our way to the entrance was a big neon sign that glowed with the word ‘Noctura’ in electric purple letters. It was quite impossible to miss.
The second thing I noticed was the line of people waiting to get in. And by people, I mean women. Lots of women. Women with long hair, miniskirts, some dressed very femininely, while others had short haircuts and leather jackets. Women with tattoos snaking up their arms, women who looked like they could bench press me without breaking a sweat. And a suspicious number of them looked… well… they looked like Marley.
My eyes drifted to the bouncers at the door—two tall, broad-shouldered women with arms crossed and expressions that were equal parts intimidating and magnetic.
“Marley,” I said slowly, my voice nearly swallowed by the bass thumping through the walls. “Where exactly are we?”
She glanced at me, that familiar mischievous smile tugging at her lips. “It’s a gay club,” she said. “More specifically, a lesbian club.”
I stopped so abruptly that someone behind us nearly walked straight into my back.
“A what?”
“A lesbian club, K. You know, a place where women who like women come to hang out, dance, and meet people.” She sounded far too casual, like she was explaining something random.
My brain short-circuited. I had never been to any club, let alone… this. I looked around again. Some women were holding hands, some laughing together. Everyone looked so comfortable, so certain of what they were doing. Certainly, they belonged where they stood. It felt as though I had stepped into another universe.
