Sun Upon Dark Clouds

33: No More Walls

The only people that Margo had ever eaten with were Noah, Nora, and her father. The purple-haired just could never imagine herself eating meals with people that were not them. Since they were the only people that the purple-haired woman only ate with, she never had to worry about striking up a conversation as it would just flow naturally like how they were always used to. Eating with new people basically meant that Margo had to think hard on how to not make the situation awkward.

Of all people out there, the purple-haired woman just had to sit across the raven-haired woman who shared the same blank facial expression as her at a table in a small Italian restaurant. The clinks of stainless-steel utensils along the faint murmurs of the other diners and the slow instrumental music coming from the speakers on the corners of the room filled the restaurant. The appetizing aroma of pasta that was being cooked from the kitchen surrounded around the place. Back to the two women who were having lunch together, the purple-haired woman focused on swirling the water in her glass while the raven-haired woman watched her do so.

The silence between them was uncomfortable for Margo as she had never been in that kind of situation. Also, the other people were often the ones who comes up with a topic to talk about. The purple-haired woman was slightly regretting in agreeing the raven’s offer. The main reason why Margo agreed to have lunch with her was basically to avoid spending money for lunch[l1] , which was supposed to be a ready-to-eat meal that could be bought in a close convenience store.

“Here you go,” the waiter flashed a friendly smile as he gave each of them a menu.

“Thank you,” the raven replied as she flipped the menu open.

The purple-haired woman did the same as she scanned her eyes through the dishes. Her eyes widened as she saw the prices of each dish, which were ten times more than the price of the ready-to-eat meals that she buys in convenience stores. Margo slightly opened her mouth to suggest to the raven to go to a cheaper restaurant instead as she lifted her head, only to see the waiter and the raven looking at her with faintly lifted eyebrows. It turned out that Ghrae had already ordered.

“What do you want to eat, Margo?” Ghrae asked.

“These are way too expensive, Ghrae,” Margo replied with a bit of worry evident in her tone.

“What do you mean? They’re not,” Ghrae briefly furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she threw a glance on the menu again to check. “Also, don’t worry. You’re not paying a cent.”

The purple-haired woman dropped her jaw as she stared at her blank brown eyes in disbelief. She could not believe the woman across her who was acting as if the dishes in the restaurant only costed a dollar each. Margo then realized that Ghrae must be rich as she could not blame her calm behavior and returned her eyes on the menu to choose. But like what her father taught her; she must never be shameless if someone was buying lunch for her.

“Do you want to have the same dish as mine instead? I ordered one serving each of spaghetti Aglio e Olio and classic lasagna,” Ghrae spoke when she noticed that the purple-haired woman seemed to not know what to pick.

“Uh yeah, sure.”

“She’ll have the same,” The raven turned to the waiter as he wrote down their orders on his small notepad.

The purple-haired woman and the raven accidentally held eye contact when Ghrae turned away from the waiter as they blinked multiple times awkwardly before looking away. They waited for the waiter to leave with the menus when he suddenly ripped one page and placed it on the side of the table, more on the raven’s side. For some reason, Margo was quick in reading letters that were upside down as she instantly read what was written on the paper, making her furrow her eyebrows in abhorrence.

What was written on the note was, “hey, sexy. Meet me in the restroom in a bit. Tell your friend to come with you so we all can have fun together.” With a winking face on the bottom corner.

“What the—”

“Why would we meet you in the restroom and have fun with you?” Ghrae innocently asked, her voice being loud intentionally.

The perverted smirk on the waiter’s face dropped as the other diners began to murmur while staring at him with disgust. His hand started to tremble as he held the menus while he looked down to the raven who was looking at her with a poker face as she raised her eyebrows. Margo looked at the raven in amusement and amazement as she immediately caught up her strategy. She pushed her purple locks behind her shoulders as she looked at the waiter with the same innocent look as the raven.

“Oh my! Are you asking us to give you a b*****b?” Margo asked with a shocked expression as she took the page to read it, intentionally letting the diners nearby be able to read the note.

The murmurs in the restaurant became louder as some of the customers started to stand up and leave the restaurant, throwing the waiter looks of revulsion. The waiter gritted his teeth as he trembled on his seats before aggressively snatching back the note from the purple-haired woman’s hands and the menus on the table before storming off with his cheeks flushing in humiliation.

A smirk of victory appeared on the purple-haired woman’s face as she dropped her hand on the table and turned to look at the raven who had a small smile on her face. The both of them chuckled as the invisible wall between them began to break down. It felt satisfying to humiliate a p*****t together that the purple-haired woman started to soften up to the raven because of that very situation.

“That was really awesome,” Margo sincerely said with a smile on her face.

“I know. You were awesome too,” Ghrae let out a chuckle and took a sip on her water.

“I’ve been harassed like that too, so I couldn’t just ignore it,” Margo opened up and she did not know why she was telling the raven that.

“Me too. Situations like that don’t really affect me that much now.”

“Still, harassment is never okay,” The purple-haired woman furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at the calm woman with concern.

The raven let out a chuckle as she nodded. The both of them continued their conversation about how men are trash as their conversation flowed naturally like they had been close friends for a long time when they were literally awkward to each other earlier. They turned their head when they saw the perverted waiter from earlier storm off the restaurant in casual clothes as they looked at each other and smirked in success; they eventually got the waiter fired, which was probably with the other diners’ reactions playing a part.

Their food came as the both of them did not speak and began to eat. Margo felt relieved to eat real food after a long time as she felt extra thankful to the raven in front of her. The last time that she had Italian food was with Nora. With the thought of Nora, the purple-haired woman suddenly remembered their cold interaction earlier as she felt guilty about it again. Gently putting her utensils down, the purple-haired woman slowly lifted her head as she stared at the raven who was calmly eating her pasta neatly.

Margo was basically debating whether to answer Ghrae’s question from earlier or not.

“It is for a certain someone,” Margo blurted out.

Ghrae stopped chewing for a second before continuing to chew as she lifted her head to meet her hazel eyes. The raven was not sure whether the purple-haired woman was answering her question from the record shop or not though she decided to keep her mouth shut and listen to her continue.

“Your question earlier. The collection of records that you saw in the shop earlier is for a certain someone. A special someone, rather,” Margo continued as she avoided to meet the deep brown eyes of the latter. “You probably know already, but I’ll confirm it. Yes, I’m into girls.”

Ghrae swallowed what she was chewing as she placed her utensils down to have a drink on her water. She was not even surprised as the image of a certain someone appeared in her mind that she assumed to be the person that the purple-haired woman was talking about.

“It’s Nora, right? Nora Farley,” Ghrae said without looking at her surprised face as she swirled her fork around the pasta.

“W-What? H-How—”

“You look and smile at her differently,” the raven said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The purple-haired woman had her mouth remained open in astonishment as she blinked multiple times while staring at the raven across her. They were literally not even friends, which was why she was shocked on how she was able to guess that she was secretly in love with her best friend’s sister. Ghrae let out a chuckle when she noticed her staring at her.

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” Ghrae reassured the latter. “Not even Coley knows about it.”

Though Margo already expected her to keep it as a secret, she felt more relieved after receiving reassurance. Nobody knew about her secret romantic feelings for the red-haired cheerful woman and it did feel relieving to know that she would be able to feel comfortable about expressing her feelings toward her best friend’s sister to someone that knew about that. Margo could not help but still feel guilty for being rude toward Ghrae for the whole time while she never even got affected or intimidated by her. It felt nice to meet someone new who accepted her.

When they were done with lunch, the both of them were much more comfortable with each other as they talked about how delicious the dishes were even though the perverted waiter from earlier made them slightly lose their appetites. They laughed as they talked about the ugly face of the waiter when he felt embarrassed from being exposed. For the first time, Margo did not feel the need to wear her icy mask to someone who was not Noah or Nora.

While they were on their way back to the record shop, a tall lean man suddenly bumped on Margo’s shoulder, making her step back. The purple-haired woman immediately furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance as she turned to look at the man who just bumped her. Her annoyance was upgraded to exasperation when she saw the face of the man in a green flat brim hat.

“What the f**k is your problem?” Margo angrily spoke, gritting her teeth.

“My bad, sissy. But is that the way to say hi to your loving brother whom you haven’t met in a long time?” The man with an anchor beard as he looked at her with squinting red eyes.

He is f*****g high again, Margo thought as she gritted her teeth in anger.

“I do not have a f*****g brother,” the purple-haired woman spoke through gritted teeth.

“Now, that’s—”

Before the man could even speak, Margo held Ghrae’s wrist as she pulled her and began to walk away from the man that was intoxicated in drugs who was yelling for her name though he was unable to chase them since his body felt like jelly. That man was the person that the purple-haired woman never wanted to see ever again.