Another Time

Author's note: I haven't updated in a while I know, but I've been busy with a lot of stuff lately, and most of my reviewers are actually on my blog (I need motivation to keep writing you know) but here goes...

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‘This is so unfair.’ Looking across to the figure in white, I grit my teeth and crossed my legs as the unwelcome and telltale signs of my arousal threatened to make my face flush from embarrassment. I turned away before she could catch me staring, as my mind saw it fit to play scenes which involved her and I, hot and heated, writhing beneath the bed sheets of someone’s guest room while we fought to keep our moans from letting the whole house what we were up to… Not that it had any chance of happening… but that just made the ache even worse. Were it that we had met at any other time… my thoughts made me sigh and I felt someone nudge my leg roughly.

“Pay attention.” the dark-skinned, fair haired woman next to me hissed as the beautiful figure in white stood up, smiling and blushing slightly. ‘Had we met at any other time before this…’ the young man stood up next to her smiling warmly. My eyes stayed on her as I absorbed her smooth skin visually, locking the mental image into my memory as the priest said the words I’d been dreading hearing the whole evening.

“I now pronounce you man and wife…” my best friend leaned in to kiss the girl of his dreams and mine before the priest could finish the statement and the entire congregation erupted in cheers and whoops for the happy couple. All with the exception of me that is, I bit my lip instead and kept my eyes away from the blushing bride as her face lit up with joy. I felt horrible for lusting after my best friend’s girl, but that was the way things were at the moment I guess. They made their way down the aisle and I followed them out of the church and made my way half-sullenly to my car intending to follow them to the place they would be taking pictures and then to the reception. I sat behind the wheel of my car and after a long moment of simply staring straight ahead, I slammed my head into the steering wheel making someone who was apparently next to me let out a soft gasp before I felt a pair of hands on my shoulder. I raised my head and looked at the pale blonde girl who was worried for my well-being.

“Don’t worry about me.” I brushed off dismissively before she could ask anything. “I’ve just got a lot of shit on my mind.” I reached for my key and turned the ignition as her brows creased.

“Are you sure?” she asked tentatively while she pulled her hand away from my shoulder as I closed the door

“I’m perfectly fine.” I replied shortly as I saw the bridal car pull out and I rolled up my glass to prevent anymore conversation going on between us. She had to make a small jump backwards as I pulled out of my spot. I bit my lip as I saw the silhouettes come together in another kiss in the back of the limousine and fought back the resentment I felt while keeping a death-grip on the wheel. ‘This is gonna be a long night isn’t it…’

““““`

My facial expression gives no indication of my inner turmoil as I had to speak on behalf of Richard and his beautiful blushing bride, Carmela. I smiled sweetly as I offered up the toast, earning a few laughs when I said that Richard didn’t deserve her, and took my seat fuming on the inside. The people who I was sitting with seemed to share wistfulness as a trait, though most of them were lusting after Richard.

“How come you two didn’t get together?” one of the girls asked.

“We never wanted to.” I replied easily, remembering this time to keep my sharpness in check. They didn’t need to be the outlet of my foul mood. Thinking about it, I should find that girl from before to apologize for my attitude and I sighed.

“It’s such a shame that he had to get married.” Another girl sighed right after me with her eyes trained on him. I had to admit, he did have the charm that would get normal women stripping off their clothes for him and laying down for him to walk all over them, if he was that kind of person. And if perhaps I wasn’t the way I was, it would’ve been me that walked down the aisle for him. I shrugged it off though, just in time for the first dance to begin, which is when I slipped out as the lights dimmed down and got my infamous mask and a few to go around before doing a quick change and slipping back into the room and giving the spares to some of my friends who knew about it. A treat of the bride and groom, the walls had been lined with tables and seemingly decorative masks, enough for every person that had been at the wedding and a few extra in the event of crashers. I smirked behind my mask at the thought of stirring things up with some of the females who’d been eyeing the groom. At least it would take my mind away from the thought of losing my chance with the bride…

“The dances that are supposed to take place now, are to take place with people you don’t know.” Richard said as their song had finished “It was a thought that my best friend came up with, unintentionally, and one I’m very happy to allow.” I barely restrained a giggle as he continued “There are masks along the sides for those of you who want to enter into anonymity, hope you enjoy yourselves.” A voice piped up

“Can we dance with your wife?” I glanced around wanting to see who else harbored the liking for the woman we couldn’t have but couldn’t find them as Richard laughed.

“Only if she wants to.” I glanced at her subtly and noted that she was giggling into her hands but at the same time shaking her head. Hopes raised hopes fallen, I searched the room for a dance partner as the music picked up again and found on in a petite, familiar looking blonde and smiled. ‘Might as well kill two birds with one stone.’ I thought as my feet made their way to her without any conscious thought.

“May I have this dance?” I asked softly as I extended a hand out to her. She jumped only slightly at the suddenness of my invitation and her eyebrows connected while her eyes ran up and down my body. I was, for the wedding and most of the reception, wearing a dark blue gown-like satin dress that came down to my feet and showed of my curves without over-emphasizing any feature and silver and gold make-up that highlighted the subtle but strong beauty of my face. Now, I was wearing a simple black tuxedo with silver lining, a red undershirt and a gold and black mask that hid most of my face.

“Uhhh,” she hesitated while I gave her a reassuring smile. Her hand lightly touched mine and my fingers automatically closed around hers and I pulled her to me, causing her to gasp and look down at the little space between us.

“I want to apologize for my behavior earlier,” I said slowly as I began waltzing her through the growing crowd, “I really did have a lot on my mind back then… I tend to act like a bitch when I get like that.” I looked down at her and smiled as realization dawned on her face. I began to slow our movements, giving her the option to end the dance… an option she didn’t take, ‘Interesting…’

“I’m not sure what to say.” She whispered after a moment more of dancing. I smiled

“Say that you forgive my pig-headedness?” I asked as charmingly as I could, causing her to laugh a little as I led her on for a twirl. Years of practice made me a near excellent dancer and a wonderful lead if I do say so myself. She blushed lightly and nodded her head. I happened to glanced up in a moment and saw the happy couple dancing in the center. Her hand tightened on mine strangely and I looked back at her as she suddenly pressed her full length into me, taking a moment before resting her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around her and smiled as we began simply swaying on the spot as the song switched over to a slower one.

We stayed like that for the duration of that song, and although I saw more apt prospects for the nights festivities, something about this girl had drawn me in… how long her hold would last on me was not certain, but she had me for the while at least. I took her hand as the music got louder and wilder, and led her outside to the fresh air, into a garden I had noticed when I was helping them pick out a place for the reception. I leaned against a post as she walked into the garden with awe written on her face.

“If I had gone with any other person I may not have even seen this place huh?” she asked softly. I shook my head

“Probably not.” I replied knowing that not even Richard knew why I chose this place above the others. She smiled and looked away shyly. “What’s your name anyway?” I asked after a moment of comfortable silence. She looked up to me just as the moon came out from hiding behind some clouds to illuminate the entire area almost as brightly as it were day and managed to catch and highlight her pale blue irises perfectly.

“It’s Azure, actually.” She said with more than a little blush coloring her cheeks, but she didn’t look away. “What’s yours?”

“Saavick.” I replied “My mom loved Star Trek and insisted that I had a Vulcan name.” I continued rolling my eyes as my inner nerd came up briefly. I pulled off my mask and closed my eyes, allowing the cool night air to tickle the contours of my face, before I felt something warm touch my cheek so quickly I would have thought I imagined it, were it not for the fact that Azure now looked more embarrassed than before.

“Sorry.” She muttered quickly trying to get past me in vain. I ended up smirking as I looked down at her

“It’s no problem…” I said letting my voice trail off, “I just have one question,” she nodded, refusing to look at me. “Was that out of pure curiosity, or are you actually interested?” She bit her lip and refused to answer which led me to believe it was the latter, but I said nothing else on the subject. Instead I took her deeper into the garden, where we could still hear the music, but not as loud, and found some benches and we sat down and just spoke.

““““

It’s truly amazing sometimes, how much a person would open up to you when they want to avoid a particular topic. I learned that she was just turning twenty-two, this was the fourth wedding she’d been invited to in under a year and she was starting to feel left out as her friends were all beginning to leave her and start families of their own, she loved to draw but was in banking, her favorite color was red and she was Carmela’s cousin. My eye-brows rose at that point and I tried to see the features that they may have shared when she then said she looked vastly more like her father than her mother (her mother was how she was related to the bride). I also noticed that she had a habit of letting her eyes linger on my lips as her sentences came to an end and I wondered if that was intentional or subconscious. I don’t think I would have minded anyway.

I told her about my job, I was a landscaper and a photographer in my spare time. I skipped over the obviousness of my sexual orientation and let it slip that I was more than single, while looking back in the direction of the reception as in the back of my mind I was wishing that I was with the bride instead of her cousin.

“Did your parents know?”

“Huh?” I didn’t realize that I had stopped talking to fantasize and I felt my cheeks flush

“Did your parents know?” she asked again

“Know what?” she made a point to not look at me when I asked and I saw that she was starting to get red again, but the color wasn’t as visible as the moon hid behind another cloud.

“That you were…” her voice trailed off and I could hear her embarrassment from a mile away even if I wasn’t looking for it.

“Gay?” I finished and she nodded, now struck mute and I chuckled a little. “No, not until I told them.”

“Oh…” she bit her lip and I stayed quiet hoping she would say what was on her mind before she had combusted internally. “How… how did they react?”

“They would have kicked me out if I wasn’t already out of the house.” I replied easily “They effectively disowned me and tried to write me out of the will.”

“Tried?”

“Their lawyer would allow them to. Said there was no real basis for them to do that.” I chuckled at their faces when they did that. Of course, they didn’t realize that he had been gay as well. She giggled when I told her that. I heard some movement and my mask automatically came back over my face as someone poked their face around the corner of the alcove and sighed.

“You mind moving?” the muscled man asked as his ‘date’ came into view, giggling and obviously drunk. “We have something to do here.” I tilted my head to the side and looked at the two of them for a moment before shrugging and reaching my hand out for Azure’s. She took it with little hesitation as we stood and moved for the two revelers to have their fun on the bench.

“You could have fought him for it.” She observed.

“Yeah, but why? It’s not like we were doing anything that he thinks to be productive.” I answered as I looked for another alcove with a bench. She stopped moving.

“You seem to be confused.” She whispered as I looked back at her. I frowned. “You want to be with me, but you want to be with someone else… I saw it on your face a couple times already.” My eyebrows rose behind my mask and mentally scolded myself for being so open around her.

“Honestly…” I let out a breathy laugh and looked away. Carmela was still on my mind, but Azure was taking up a big part of my thoughts now. It was strange the way nature worked sometimes… “How do you feel about me?” I asked after a long moment meeting her eyes despite her best intentions.

“I’m not sure…” she whispered breaking the eye contact as quickly as she could. A smile melted onto my face as I used my empty hand to brush against her face gently and pulled her into me with the hand she still had a grip on. Gently I lifted her chin so that she was looking into my eyes. Her eyes held a kind of innocent emotion that you didn’t get to see very often and I couldn’t help but lean into her to capture her soft lips…