It had been a while since they'd last seen each other. As best she could recall, Rita figured it had been about 23 years since she last saw Kelly. But though it had been a while and Kelly had surely changed, Rita knew that this was her indeed her friend from ages past. This was the girl with whom she played many games of hopscotch in the streets of Atlanta on hot summer days; the girl with whom she chased and caught lightning bugs in the evenings. She laughed as she remembered how they would peel off the tails of the bugs while still lit and stick them on their ears, pretending they were earrings. Kelly was the girl she played Monopoly with on rainy days. Even though Rita hated Monopoly, her best friend in the whole world loved the game, so on they played during rainy days while Kelly bought all the good properties and mercilessly sent Rita one step closer to the poorhouse every time she landed on Boardwalk. Yep, Rita mused, though taller, fuller, no longer a clumsy nine-year-old, this was indeed Kelly -- the first person Rita had ever kissed.
For she couldn't tell now long, Rita gazed at the lifesized photo of her friend hanging in full view at the entrance to the auditorium. Simply fantastic, Rita thought to herself as she absorbed every inch of the photo. Kelly had definitely changed. She had curves where there once were none; her prepubescent nine-year-old skin was clear all those years ago, but nothing like the vibrancy it held today. Her eyes were just as lively, but perfectly-hued eyeliner brought them out even more so that they seemed to glisten. Gone were the teeth that were too big for her face at one point. In their place was a perfect row of delicate, white pearls. In the time it took Rita to move up and down the photo, she realized that what she had felt as fun, kid-style, best-friend liking at age nine had never gone away after Kelly's family moved. No, it hadn't gone away. In fact, Rita thought as her pulse quickened, it's even stronger than ever. This beautiful woman in this photograph is the only woman, no, the only person I've ever loved.
When she'd grown tired of people pushing past her to get into the auditorium, Rita took a deep breath and marched towards her seat. She couldn't believe her best friend was modeling now and successful to boot. As the lights went down, Rita took in the sights of the runway, anxious to get the first glimpse of Kelly live and in person. She didn't have to wait long. After a few short words from the emcee thanking contributors, the show began. And out walked Kelly Baker in the most beautiful red dress Rita had ever seen. It was dangerously sheer without revealing too much, low cut in the front to show just a hint of what promised to be ripe, attentive breasts, form fitting in the rear to emphasize a gloriously round bottom, and it was just the right thing to send Rita to the edge of her seat. As she watched Kelly parade back and forth down the runway, the whole scene seemed to go into slow motion. Each step was long and deliberate and seemed to stab right to the center of Rita. Kelly's model-trained pouty lips called to Rita. Every turn of her head sent shards of pain right to Rita's core. After a while, Rita thought she'd have to leave or else be forced to run up on stage to claim what was hers, what had been hers since she was nine. Instead, she looked away momentarily, at her purse, at the wall, anything to break her attention from what was walking around on stage.
She made it through the show with the help of just such interludes and afterwards, walked out, not sure what to do with herself. Kelly didn't know she'd come to the show. Rita wondered if she dared try to find her to say hello. What do you say to a person you haven't seen in 23 years? Hi, I heard you were in town so I thought I'd drop by? Wanna go make love? No, of course not. With that, Rita decided that what she felt in the auditorium was just left over from something long since past. Kelly had changed a lot externally and maybe she'd changed a lot internally as well. Maybe she wasn't that happy-go-lucky, Monopoly-loving kid she once was. Maybe she was a snobbish, rude, near-super-model, who wanted nothing to do with old childhood friends. After all, Kelly's family had moved away, but Rita's had been in the same house for 30 years. If Kelly had even thought about getting in touch, it would've been an easy thing to do. With a silent goodbye, Rita gathered her coat around her and walked out into the cool October night.
She hadn't yet made it to the car before she'd reasoned within herself that it was silly to just walk away. This was her friend, after all. Even if Kelly was rude and obnoxious now, Rita reasoned that she owed it to herself to at least say hello. Without a second thought she turned on her heels and walked back into the theatre. There was still a crowd inside and Rita had no idea how she would find Kelly. Sure wish I had backstage passes, she thought. Do they even give away backstage passes at fashion shows? Without any other bright ideas popping up, Rita made her way back into the theater and towards the stage. It, too, was still bustling with activity as people went to and fro gathering up props and cable. She stopped one young man in his tracks. "Can you tell me where I can find the models?" she asked, holding her breath, half expecting this tired looking fellow to curse her out for bothering him while he worked. Instead, he heaved a sigh and threw a thumb over his should indicating an open door across the hall. Rita turned walked towards the door, stopping just shy to really determine if she was going to go through with this. Inside, she could hear voices, laughter -- a good sign. Before she could lose her nerve, she forced her feet forward and stepped into the very bright, very lively dressing room. Half naked models walked to and fro changing into regular clothes, wiping off layers of makeup, sweeping up over-teased manes into more manageable ponytails. Rita searched the room and was afraid she wouldn't find her until her peripheral vision caught a figure stopped just to the right of her. She turned slowly and felt her breath catch -- she'd found Kelly.
"Rita? Rita Ames? Is that you?"
Without waiting for an answer, Kelly lunged at Rita and through her long arms around Rita's neck, squeezing tight. Rita felt herself go stiff, but managed to get her arms around Kelly as well. Kelly squealed with delight as she stepped back and took a good look.
"Girl, you haven't changed a bit! Look at you! You look great!"
For the life of her, Rita couldn't understand why she was choking up now. Maybe the thought of being so close after all these years was affecting her. She knew she needed to say something, but only one thing came to mind. Before she could stop herself, she blurted out "Hey, I heard you were in town so I thought I'd drop by. Wanna go make love?"
The room that was once bustling with activity went quiet as all eyes turned to them. Kelly took a look around and let out a nervous laugh. She quickly recovered, and just as lively as before remarked, while again throwing her arms around Rita's neck "You are SO silly! I said you hadn't changed, and I was right! Always the joker!" She turned to her fellow models, "Hey guys, this is my friend, Rita. We haven't seen each other in over 20 years, but take my word for it, she has NOT lost her sense of humor!"
Rita caught on and pretended to laugh really hard at herself. She said something to cover up the Freudian slip, and the models seemed to buy it, as they went back to putting on clothes, taking off makeup, and other stuff models do after a show.
"Hey, let's go get a cup of coffee and catch up on old times" Kelly announced, more for the models' benefit than Rita's. But Rita didn't mind. She hadn't seen this woman in over 2 decades, and the first thing she does when she sees her again is embarrass her big time. Rita mentally kicked herself all the way out of the building and all the way into Kelly's car, which they decided along the way to take. Rita knew that Kelly had recovered bravely from the fiasco for the models' sake, but now that they were alone, she had no idea how Kelly would take what she did. She braced herself as she slid into the passenger's seat of the BMW.
"Kelly, look, I..."
"So, how did you know?" Kelly interrupted.
"What?" Rita stammered.
"How did you know that I'm a lesbian? Is it obvious? Does it show on stage? Am I too masculine?"
Rita's mind swam as she took in what she was hearing from Kelly. This was really too good to be true. They drove the city streets passing by dozens of coffee shops as Kelly continued to probe for information.
"So, how did you know Rita? If I'm too masculine on stage, please tell me because that could affect my career. And people knowing about me will most definitely affect my career."
As Rita's mind caught up to the conversation, she realized what her friend was asking her. "No, Kelly, you weren't masculine at all. In fact, you were absolutely beautiful. Gorgeous. You took my breath away."
"Where do you live? I'll take you home."
"I live in the same house, but my car's still at the theater, remember?"
"You still live with your mom and dad?"
"No, they both died a few years ago, but I kept the house." As the possibilities began to form in Rita's mind, she added "Yes, take me there. I'll get my car later."
They rode the rest of the way in silence, each lost in her own thoughts. As they pulled up to Rita's house and went inside, Rita wondered over and over if it could be true. Could Kelly really be a lesbian? If so, would she be interested in her? At the moment she seemed more interested in her career.
"Wow, this place is almost exactly like I remember it," Kelly said, looking around. "Almost like -- coming home again."
Rita remembered her manners and offered her friend a seat. "So, what have you been up to, Kelly, besides modeling, I mean."
Kelly took another look around the room and then met Rita's gaze dead-on. "Rita, I guess you know by now that I am a lesbian. I've only had one affair with a woman, but that totally changed my world and now all I want are women. That may surprise you and I can understand if you aren't comfortable with it, but that's just who I am now, so you might as well know. And I know we haven't seen each other in a while, but I would hope that you're still my friend. I hope that you won't go blabbing this to the media. I'm not ashamed of what I am, but until I'm in a different line of work, I can't exactly go marching in any gay/lesbian parades. You know what I mean?"
Rita had never known herself to be so short on words. "I...I..." she stammered.
Kelly looked at Rita and then slowly stood. "I'm sorry about this, Rita, that you had to find out this way. But what I am doesn't change who I am. I'm still that happy little girl I was when you met me. I still love to play Monopoly and everytime I visit my Grandma in the country, I take a walk in the woods just to go looking for lightning bugs. You still know me. I haven't changed. I've just been -- enhanced." She picked up her purse and keys and walked towards the door. "We can go get your car now if you want."
Rita was fighting with everything she had to force words out of her mouth. Finally, she won. "Kelly, I love you! I've always loved you! For the last 23 years, thoughts of you have constantly been with me and even though I didn't know if I'd ever see you again, I always wondered what you'd be like. What you'd be doing. I always wondered if you loved me too. Remember that time we kissed? I think about that every day. Neither one of us knew how to kiss, so we just stuck our tongues out and made them touch each other. We thought that was kissing. Just like kids, huh? But I want to do so much more to you now. When you were walking across that stage, I felt something that I hadn't felt in a long time. I felt alive! It was like I couldn't believe I'd craved you for all those years and then there I was in the same room with you! Every inch of my body wanted to feel yours, to know what you feel like, what you smell like, what you taste like. I love you!"
Now, it was Kelly's turn to be shocked. She made her way back to the couch and sat down. "So, when you said what you said backstage, you weren't kidding? You actually meant that you wanted to make love to me?" She chuckled to herself "I really did think you were just joking. Wow, you love me."
Rita congratulated herself on finally being able to speak, but wondered if she'd spoken too much. Oh well, she thought, it's out in the open now. "Yes, I love you, Kelly. Always have. I think I must have fallen in love with you as a child, if that's possible. I don't know. But I do know that for all these years, you have never left my thoughts. I've always wanted you"
"Well," Kelly said, rising again to face Rita, "if you want to know how I feel, I'm open to that. Touch me."
Without hesitation, Rita placed her hands on Rita's face and kissed her lips. Softly and caressingly, but then Kelly parted them and stuck out her tongue. It took Rita a while to catch on, but when she did, they both laughed. Then Kelly stuck out her tongue again, and this time, Rita did too. As their tongues touched in the manner of that innocent "kiss" from years ago, Rita's mind swam with the possibilities. She gently forced Kelly's tongue back in her mouth and gave her the most passionate kiss she could muster.
"So," Kelly said, after they parted for air "is your bedroom still the same?"
"Let's see", Rita said as she took Kelly's hand and led her upstairs.
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