Always the Second Choice (GirlxGirl)

Chapter 2: Big Bang Bump

Autumn’s P.O.V.

(PRESENT: Autumn is 24 and Freya is 29 years old)

I am currently in front of the microscope, trying to identify the morphology of the bacteria from the culture media that I’ve inoculated, from an unknown patient’s sample yesterday. 

I was adjusting and focusing the microscope when all of a sudden someone poked my sides, surprising me and almost made me jump out of my pasty skin.

I frowned at the disturbance, “What the hell? I’m busy here!” I threw a piece of crumpled paper towards the annoying person that has ruined my concentration.

She caught it and laughed at me. “Easy there, tiger! You’re coming with me to the club later after work, right?”

I looked at my coworker/ best friend and glared. “NO! Can’t you see I’m busy? I have so many pending papers to finish, you know that.” 

“Come on, Autumn! It’s been so long since you’ve relaxed and took a break. You can’t drown yourself in research all the damn time. There’s more to life than working. Don’t waste your youth. Besides, you’ve been so ill tempered lately. You have got to get out and get SOME, if you know what I mean? Wink. Wink.” She said while giving me a nudge with her elbows.   

“Ugh. Cleo, why can’t you just leave me alone? I’m fine. I don’t need any meaningless encounters.” I stood up and walked towards my desk and wrote down my observations from the specimen.

“Autumn, you’re really frustrating me. You’re already twenty-four years old. Don’t you think it’s time for you to experience the pleasures that life has to offer. You are really missing out.”

“I haven’t found the right person, all right? I don’t want to rush into things. I’m not really in a particular rush. I’m willing to wait for the right person.” 

“Riiiiight. “Right person” Huh?” She said while gesturing air quotes from her fingers and rolling her eyes. 

“What you really meant to say is that you're waiting for a very specific person. Said person is the one who already rejected you and treats you like a little sister, right? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.” 

“You Are Wrong. I’ve already moved on from her, okay? Please stop bringing her up.”

“Whatever. Start working on your papers because whether you like it or not, I’m taking you with me. There’s a newly opened lesbian bar downtown and I want to check it out. I’ve been searching for an addition to my long list of girlfriends.” She said while wiggling her eyebrows.

“We’re not going on one of your lesbian b**m clubs, right?” I looked at her suspiciously. She once took me to a b**m club, and as soon as I discovered where we were, I immediately ran off and I didn’t talk to her for a week. 

Have I mentioned that my friend Cleo has a unique taste? She confessed that she was a female dominant. I’m completely fine with it but I warned her to never try and include me in her lifestyle.  

Looking at my friend, it wasn’t really a surprise that she is a domme. One look at her and you’ll be intimidated. She’s standing tall at five feet and nine inches. She has short dark hair and piercing gray eyes. Her face was perfectly proportional and there’s no doubt that she is quite a beauty. She has that androgynous look that makes both men and women attracted to her.  Despite her loud nature, she can also be very serious if she wants to.   

Cleo chuckled loudly, “No, it’s not. I won’t take you there anymore. I was just teasing you back then. Your face was hilarious when you found out what kind of club it was.”

“It was not that funny.” I glared at her. 

“Oh yes it was.” She laughed once again and walked out of the room.

I met Cleo two years ago here in this lab. We work in a major research laboratory here in California, which focuses on chemistry and biomedical research. It’s extremely difficult to get in this lab and only the smartest of the elites are accepted.

We were both assigned to one mentor when we first started working here. I found her annoying at first. She was obviously a flirt and a loud mouth, the complete opposite of me but we eventually got along thanks to her tenacious attitude and now she’s a close colleague and friend of mine. I wouldn’t know how to survive the stress from work without her here. 

Opposite personalities attract, I guess? Well, we do have one thing in common... We both like women but that’s about it. 

I sighed. Curse Cleo for reminding me of the person that I’ve always wanted to forget. 

It’s been eight years since my heart was ripped into shreds. I’ve tried dating other women but none of them really lasted that long. They always break up with me saying that I wasn’t really invested in the relationship and that I was cold to them. 

Well, they were correct. I was dating them just for the sake of dating. If that even made sense. None of them really made my heart skip a beat. 

There was only one woman that has made me feel crazy in love. Unfortunately, she rejected me and now I just feel empty. 

It’s really frustrating, I do want to fall in love with someone but I haven’t found anyone that makes me feel like I felt for her.

I also didn’t see the value in having meaningless s*x  so I haven’t done it yet. I wanted my first time to be somewhat special with someone special. Which may be weird for some people, in this day and age I still had that kind of conservative thinking.

I find it weird that I still haven’t moved on from that woman. I’ve kept my distance to try and eventually forget about her.  But, she eventually pops up in my mind whenever my mind is free, that’s the reason why I try to occupy my thoughts with research. My job keeps my mind occupied so it refrains me from thinking about her.

For God’s sakes, I haven’t even seen the woman for a very long time but I still remember everything about her and I still remember every detail of that night.   

The last time I saw her was at their college graduation and that was seven years ago. Despite saying that everything was fine between us, we never really talked to each other again after that night. It was awkward between us every time we saw each other. I wasn’t really a great actress and I couldn’t pretend that I wasn’t hurting. 

I’ve met her girlfriend, Bella Love.  

She was an absolute Goddess. Plus, she was also the sweetest. 

She was just absolutely f*ckin perfect. 

I knew that I couldn’t hold a candle to her and that made me feel even more dejected.  

Once I'd finished college, I moved out of my home and told my parents that I wanted independence. Despite their complaints, I was able to persuade them. The lab was also a little far from the mansion so that’s another excuse that I used, to move out. I didn’t want to stay home because her house was also near there and there’s always a chance that she’ll visit my brother and I wanted to avoid her like the plague.

Ugh. Here I am once again thinking about her. I need to stop. This isn’t healthy. 

Forget about her.

Forget about her.

Forget about her.

I chanted in my mind.

***

After failing to brush her off my mind. I decided to distract myself with work. And focused my attention on the task at hand.

Couple of hours later, I got my job done for the day. I immediately packed up my stuff to try and leave before Cleo came back to kidnap me.

I got back to my apartment by seven-thirty p.m., I didn’t run into Cleo when I left the lab. Hopefully, the rest of my evening will remain peaceful.

When I entered my apartment, I shut the door and placed my keys on the console table. I walked towards the couch and set down my heavy satchel.

I made my way to the bathroom. I unintentionally looked at myself in the mirror and sighed. I looked so pale and tired. 

No wonder no one wants me…

Maybe my friend was right. Maybe I needed a break. 

I sighed once again and stripped off my clothes to take a quick shower.

I closed my eyes, savoring the comforting feeling of the hot water. 

After a couple of minutes, I got out of the shower. I grabbed my fluffy blue towel and wiped my body dry. I grabbed my hair dryer and started drying my mid length hair. 

I went to my walk-in closet and slipped on an old t-shirt and shorts. 

I made my way to the kitchen to prepare my dinner. I opened my fridge and groaned. Looks like I needed to shop for groceries. 

Luckily, I still had leftover bread and chicken breast from the fridge so I decided to make a sandwich for dinner. 

After cooking the chicken, I assembled my sandwich and got a glass of orange juice. I decided to eat on the couch then I turned on the tv and started eating. 

I was watching a tv series on Netflix when all of a sudden I heard the doorbell rang. I was making my way to the door when the person behind it suddenly started banging on the door while still continuously pressing on the doorbell. 

I peeped through the keyhole and saw an annoyed Cleo. 

I unlocked the door and opened it.

“What?! You’re disturbing the neighbors.” I said with my arms crossed.

She looked at me and raised a brow. “What neighbors? You own the whole floor. Get dressed. We’re going out.” 

She pushed me aside and entered my apartment. I rolled my eyes at her.

“You’re so annoying. I. Don’t. Want. to. Go. Out.! I’m tired! I’m already ready for bed.”

She just stared at me. Without saying anything, she went towards my bedroom. I followed her and I saw her walking out of my closet while holding a black dress and a pair of heels. 

“Wear this.” She demanded while handing me the dress and the shoes. I could see that there was no room for argument so I sighed in defeat and just decided to humor her.

After getting dressed, I quickly fixed my hair and my face and went to the living room where Cleo was waiting while watching tv. 

When she saw me, she stood up and made her way to the door. I grabbed my clutch and followed her. 

We walked out of the apartment building, she unlocked her Range Rover and we jumped in.

***

After a couple of minutes of driving, we finally arrived at the newly opened club. She parked her car and we started to walk in. 

Looking at the interior, I can say that it’s not your typical club. It looked really hoity-toity, like only the rich can afford to be here. 

This club wasn’t as crowded but there were still a lot of people “dancing” or maybe “grinding” with each other is a more accurate term. 

“Let’s get some drinks!” Cleo shouted. I I nodded. We made our way through the mass of people partying and arrived in front of the bar.

To start us off, She ordered us three tequila shots each. 

I looked at her asking if she was serious. “You’re going to get us both drunk? How are we going to drive back home?”

“We’ll take a cab. Now, let’s drink and get the party started.” She shrugged. 

I downed the alcohol one by one until I got a slight buzz. We didn’t work during weekends so I thought it was fine for me to have a hangover tomorrow.

Cleo finished drinking her shot way ahead of me so she was gone and off to the dancefloor. I could already see her grinding with a woman who was wearing a barely there dress. 

I shook my head and continued drinking. I wasn’t here to hook up with anyone and I didn’t even want to be here anyway so I decided to stay in the bar and ordered a less alcoholic drink to keep myself from being too drunk too fast.  

A couple of drinks later, some women tried to approach me and tried to flirt with me but I immediately dismissed them. 

When I was finally in the mood to dance, I wobbled my way to the dancefloor. I didn't see Cleo anymore so there's a possibility that she's already f*cking some girl. 

With all the alcohol in my system, I started dancing like a maniac. I was drunk out of my mind dancing and jumping in the middle of the club. 

I was having fun, dancing alone like a crazy person but I felt nature calling so I tried to look for the restroom to pee. 

I tried to walk straight towards the hallway that leads to the restroom. I leaned and held on to the wall to reach my destination. 

I am so drunk. I am so going to regret this tomorrow.

After relieving myself, I looked at my phone to check the time and saw that it was thirty minutes past midnight. I have been here for three hours and I can feel that I'm about to pass out so I decided to call it a night and go home.

I staggered towards the exit and I was feeling drowsy. I was almost out the door when I suddenly lost balance. I was waiting to feel the floor hit my face but instead I was caught in an embrace of a stranger. 

I suddenly felt electrified.

I wanted to apologize for the inconvenience and to thank the stranger so I stood up straight and tried to look up to my savior.

I uttered a slurred sorry and thanks. I looked at the blurry face of the stranger and shook my head to try and focus my vision. 

When I finally saw her face clearly, I gasped and suddenly blacked out.

I wasn't sure if I lost consciousness because I was so drunk or because of the shock that I felt from seeing her once again.

| Dec.10-11.20 |