#myki

“You’re missing some good info. Jane corrected them again. Where do you go when you power off like that?” The way Briar leaned in, as if they weren’t already nearly touching, her blue eyes sparkled with curiosity in a way that made Myki’s skin crawl. She was hard to read at the best of times, this had to be a bit to see how far she could push before she bit back. “Literally anywhere other than here.” She kept it short, even toned though she saw Juicy snickering in the corner of her eye. Briar didn’t read any signal she tried to put up, hand finding its way to Myki’s arm as her body tensed at the sudden touch. “Yeah it’s kinda boring, but hey it means I get to spend time with you.” If she meant it genuinely, Briar’s tone betrayed her. She seemed more amused by the lack of response she always got from Myki than happy about the act of being next to her. When she’d slid into the seat on the first day, she was almost hopeful that it could be a fun distraction. Briar’s long black hair, eccentric outfits that never covered enough skin for a class and piercing blue eyes were hard to ignore. Then she opened her mouth. That was the start of the downfall, she saw one Stitch pin on Myki’s bag and decided that she had to proclaim that she looked like a Disney adult. It was then that Myki just decided to play quietly, uninterested in both the class and her in hopes that she would get the hint. Briar couldn’t catch a hint if it hit her squarely in the face. Juicy had told her that much after, swearing up and down that Briar actually seemed very fond of her. It was hard to believe, between that and her over the top flirting it felt like some cruel joke at Myki’s expense. If it wasn’t for Jane occasionally shushing them to focus on the lesson she would’ve been content to just stare into space for that hour and a half every week. 

For her part, Briar kept things interesting. Sometimes she was almost fun to be around, when she kept her hands to herself and at least tried to listen to the class. She’d still fill the air with a million tiny comments but it was bearable, even amusing when she zoned out staring at Myki. 

Today was not one of those days, maybe she’d skipped her adderall that morning or had too much diet coke but Briar was practically bouncing in her seat. She lightly prodded Myki’s arm again as her eyes lost focus. “You okay? You’re more spacey than normal. I mean you’re always kinda spacey but like. You know what I mean? No one ever really does apart from Juicy. You know Juicy’s cool she’s like one of the only people to-” “Briar. Stop touching me.” Myki’s tone was sharp, interrupting Briar’s ramble as she stared back in shock. Even she could catch that one, her hand retreating back to her lap as she turned to face the front. “Okay jeez, you should’ve said so earlier.” Briar’s hands sat in her lap, leg going from bouncing erratically to deadly still. She seemed quieter, meeker than Myki’s namesake as her gaze fell on her barely touched laptop with notes pulled up. “Sure.” Though she didn’t stay to see Briar’s reaction to that, Myki felt the energy next to her shift. Briar didn’t say a word for the rest of class, rushing out the second it was over without even a glance to Juicy. Whatever had happened, at least she finally had peace. 

Juicy’s brows were furrowed, pulling Myki to the side the second the rest of their class filed out of the room. “Do you know what that was about?” She was genuinely confused, as if she hadn't been less than 2 feet away from that entire conversation. Myki blinked slowly, processing Briar’s unusually erratic behaviour before trying to formulate a response. 

“She was fucking with me too much and I told her to stop. Not much else to it but she was dead quiet for the rest of class.” Myki could only shrug as Juicy frowned. If Briar was genuinely hurt by being asked to stop pestering her, that really was not her problem or business. “You know she likes you right?” Juicy spoke up after a second of contemplation, the mere concept of that taking the air out of Myki’s lungs. “What? I thought she was fucking with me.” There was nothing affectionate about it. Briar was simply someone who got amusement out of prodding and jokingly flirting with someone she sat next to in one class. There was no way it could be more than that, no one in their right mind would be that over the top for no reason. Surely? “Well that too, but I’m pretty sure she has a massive crush on you and she just wants your undivided attention.” Juicy continued. Myki could feel the room around her start to spin. Her eyes widened, trying to form words that never came. What the hell did she mean by that? Sure, Briar was pretty. If not drop dead gorgeous in a way that made Myki’s mind convinced everything she did was some form of joke at her expense. But her actually having feelings, or any attraction to some small theatre kid? Even with her muscles, she was still not even five feet tall. Even at her 5 '2 Briar was still a few inches taller, Juicy practically towered over her despite standing at 5' 4. 

That couldn’t have been true. But she and Juicy shared a brain a lot of the time, finishing each other's sentences whenever something caught both of their attention. It was a distracting pairing to be sat near, if Briar wasn’t talking off her ear she’d be giving Juicy a running commentary of something else. If anyone was going to know the inner workings of her mind, it would be her. “Could she not do that any other way?” That was what she leaned on, Juicy seeming entertained by the mere suggestion of Briar doing something the normal way. “Briar? God no.” “And I'm supposed to just take it?” “No. Just tell her to stop. She seemed a lot more hurt by that though. There’s probably more to it. You should talk to her once you’ve both had time to cool off.” Juicy had a good suggestion, there was something off about Briar that whole class. She normally wasn’t that talkative, that touchy or that distracted by everything around her. Was it really her job to care? No. Did she feel bad for unintentionally causing the black haired girl distress even if that was their entire relationship for the past two months? More than she probably should have. Juicy left Myki to her thoughts, leaving with a vague promise to text her if she got an update about where the hell Briar had gone and if she was okay. Myki could only walk a lap of the campus, alone with her thoughts as she tried to process how she felt about all of this. Bad. That much was obvious. Briar obviously wasn’t the most socially aware. Neither was she, being told enough that she was weird or annoying to develop a few complexes along the way. Apparently it wasn’t normal to just power down occasionally, so lost in your own mind that the world just ceased to exist around you. Briar seemed like the opposite, always on such high energy that anyone around her couldn’t help but be painfully aware of everything she did. She’d caught herself staring more than a few times. It was hard not to, Briar’s clothing choices never left much to the imagination but she looked good in everything. Maybe that was something else that soured her originally. She was stunning, it proved hard to not stare at her ass when she bent over to pick something up or to pull her laptop out of her bag. Juicy had to have noticed, she wasn’t exactly subtle. But neither of them ever commented on it. Maybe that would explain Briar’s inexplicable need to always sit next to her. The routine wasn’t bad, if anything she found herself disappointed on the few times Briar didn’t show up for class. She kept things interesting. Maybe what she felt was too complicated to be quantified into liking or disliking. 

By the time she’d completed a lap, Juicy had finally texted her, giving her Briar’s dorm number and telling her to talk it out. That wasn’t enough to fill her with confidence, but she didn’t actually want to hurt Briar. 

She was only a floor below Myki’s room, how they hadn’t run into each other more was something she didn’t have the time or energy to ponder right now. She knocked lightly at the door, hearing shuffling before it creaked open just enough for Briar to get a look at who was there. She paused, their eyes meeting for a second before she looked back to the floor, slowly parting the door enough to poke her head through. Her eyes were red, eyeliner smeared a bit from where she’d clearly been crying. Juicy was nowhere to be seen, having only just learnt that they were actually roommates things were starting to slowly make a lot more sense. “Juicy said I should come talk?” She spoke the statement as more of a question, Briar finally pulling the door open fully and gesturing for her to follow inside. Her room was as chaotic as herself, dolls lining her side of it as Juicy’s looked tasteful in comparison. Every inch of the wall was covered, a mixture of postures, drawings, polaroids and what must have been taxidermy covering every bit of space that was allocated to her. She sat on the far side of her bed as Myki took the first seat, allowing far too much space between them. Briar remained staring at the floor, fiddling with the sleeve of her oversized hoodie as Myki searched for the right words to say. “How much did she tell you?” Briar broke the silence, body language …

“Not a lot, just said we should talk and that you were in fact not just bullying me this entire time.” “You thought I was bullying you?” Briar shifted in her seat, voice quiet in anguish as her face flashed through a progression of remorse, hurt and then a quiet emptiness that was far too jarring from her usual self.  “Yeah, it was the only way I could explain you seeming so interested in me.” Briar sniffled slightly at that, eyes starting to water again. “Is it that shocking I could be interested in you?” She let out an exasperated huff. Indignant at the fact Myki could only conceptualise her having feelings as a joke. “No, I mean, not after Juicy told me. I didn’t think you’d be affected by my lack of interest.” That only plunged the knife deeper. Briar brought her knees up to her chest, turning her head towards Myki as she tried to swipe the tears away before she could notice. Myki’s heart twisted in her chest, this was not going how she meant it to. “I’m not usually, I guess cause it’s you it hurts more.” Briar seemed resigned to her fate, hesitant to do anything further than stare numbly at Myki as she tried to course correct. “So you do like me?” Though she tried to pick up her tone, Briar was unmoved by it. Blinking a few more tears back before responding. 

“Does it matter?” Myki wanted the floor to swallow her up as Briar’s eyes kept welling up no matter how hard she tried to play it off. Her face in her hands at that point, shuddering breaths betraying the cool facade she was desperately trying to keep up. “Yeah I mean, I had time to think it over. You’re a lot but being around you is never boring. I’m not against that.” Briar’s head lifted at that, finally allowing herself to make eye contact with Myki. The hope in her eyes made Myki’s chest tighten, nerves clenching at her as she tried to force herself through it in one piece. “You mean it? You’re not bullying me?” The sudden switch in her attitude, still wiping at her eyes to clear away the tears that only just stopped falling, made Myki recoil slightly in shock. She couldn’t help but laugh in confusion, delighting in how that made Briar giggle back at her. “Oh my god, Briar!” “That’s not a no.” She started to close the gap between them, shuffling a few inches closer to Myki as she spoke. “It’s not.” Myki couldn’t help but shuffle her legs against the floor, suddenly restless as the uncertainty met the sudden deluge of feelings. “I’m sorry you thought I was making fun of you when I was just trying to flirt.” Briar barked out a loud laugh, her hand migrating its way back to Myki’s arm, idly caressing her bicep. “You are not subtle at all are you?” Myki couldn’t help but laugh at her theatrics. How was she the drama student between them? “No, who has time for all that?” Briar tilted her head again inquisitively, she looked like a confused puppy at the best of times when she did that. Not helping the case of her being so cute she could get away with murder if she gave the judge the right look. “Not you clearly.” 

Myki was doing a great job of playing off how much Briar was flustering her, at least she thought so. Briar inched closer, their knees touching as she leant in to be meer inches away from her face. 

“Maybe I can make it up to you.” Her free hand found its way to steady herself as it rested on Myki’s thigh. If she felt them trembling slightly under her grasp she pretended not to.  She didn’t wait for a response, leaning in and connecting their lips to speed along the slow dawdle that was both of them trying to confess their feelings. Briar was a hungry kisser, Juicy had joked about it offhandedly once. But in the driver's seat? Myki felt powerless as Briar took the lead, melting into the kiss as she looped an arm around Briar’s waist to pull her into her lap. That was all the signalling she needed, her tongue slipping into Myki’s mouth at the action. They stayed interlocked, Briar desperate to explore every inch of Myki that she physically could before the door opened, interrupting them though neither of them dared to separate.

“God you two worked that out quick.” Juicy said dryly, shaking her head as Myki stared back, heat rushing to her face as Briar just grinned wickedly. 

“Thank god we did, I’ve got a lot of learning to do.” Briar’s gaze flickered down to Myki’s lips, biting her nail as she did so. That look was going to be the death of her, Myki just about managing to hold herself back as Juicy watched them with a mildly disgusted interest. “Do you have to learn how to shove your tongue down Myki’s throat?” “See, you get it.” Juicy nodded slowly, propping herself against the door to lift herself into a handstand before pacing the room on her hands. 

“You two are both extremely strange.” Myki felt like she was the most normal one in the room, between Briar’s eccentricities and Juicy doing a handstand at the most inopportune moment? She couldn’t have been that far off. “I could make you strange.” Briar leaned in, her breath hot and tickling Myki’s face. There was no way she wasn’t blushing, cheeks feeling almost feverish as she very quickly reconnected their lips before pulling apart again. “Myki likey” Briar couldn’t help but let out a loud, unmasked cackle and the rhyming phrase, clutching her sides as she only laughed harder as Juicy grimaced at the exchange. 

“I really should bully you for that, this is better though.” Briar leaned in again, capturing Myki’s lips before she could retort. She was slower that time, moving to the rhythm of Myki as Juicy watched on in mild horror. “And with that, I’m done third wheeling. Have fun, don’t do anything stupid.” “You know I can never promise that.” Briar only broke apart to say that, quickly going back to kissing Myki with every inch of her body focused on the task. She truly was a being of chaos, someone hand crafted by a power that only craved making the world a less boring place. “Yeah, that’s why I remind you constantly.” With that, Juicy left the pair alone again. Briar seemed unwavered by the incident. Her hands were moving, one squeezing Myki’s arm still as the other wrapped its way around her shoulders to keep her steady as her tongue came back into her mouth. She was savouring the taste of Myki, so focused on that that everything in the room faded away as the two of them let out all their pent up feelings. Maybe Briar Blush was a blessing from the gods afterall.