rain all day.....

Okay, so i'm going to at least start this novel experience here. :). at least, Lord willing, that's the plan. there's a few reasons for this, one of the largest being that i know v reads this, and she was my novel friend while traveling. please note, though, that the point of this experience is supposed to be quick and dirty writing, not a lot of polishing. so if it's not so amazing, don't judge me. ;OD. okay, thank and praise God (for all)!!!!!!!!!! and Lord willing all is good, and awaaaay we go. :OD.

chapter 1
She wasn't much for boys, actually. She knew what they were like, underneath all the flirtatious games and macho posturing. She knew how they acted once they had completed their mission, conquered their game. Boys were hunters, and she prided herself on never being hunted anymore. No, she wasn't much for boys at all. Still, she played along with these bar nights, with the dressing up and scoping out the most prime examples of physical beauty. She batted her eyelashes and asked for drinks. She played the game, and played it wholeheartedly for as much as she disliked the male species in general, she loved Deborah. These nights out made Deborah happy, and she would have done far worse things to please Deborah, had done far worse things in the name of sisterhood. It was, after all, the least she could do.
It had been Deborah who had first found her after her self-imposed exile. That technically wasn't true she supposed, the logical part of her brain hated to ever state something as fact which wasn't, in the most literal sense, a fact. She had been seen by dozens, probably hundreds, of others that day two years ago. Wandering the streets, dirty, disoriented, empty, virtually catatonic, she had been living on the streets at that point for a week. Unused to hard living, she was sick and hungry. She had taken nothing from home but what she was wearing, a medical book from her dad's library, and 50 credits. Like an idiot she had thought that would get her far. Passage to the nearest planet took most of it, and food the first two days had taken the rest. She had stolen a knife to protect herself with, and spent her nights hiding in strategic locations, and her days wandering. The knife had been only an instinctual thing, actually, as was the process of rising and walking each day. Long after logical thought had been suppressed, her survival instincts tenaciously insisted on remaining, her subconscious clinging ardently to the frame holding it. She didn't want to feel, but she could not cease to be. So she wandered, and occasionally heard the voices around her wager on how long the poor girl would last.
It was during the heat of the day that she first saw the black form from the corner of her eye. She had always been observant, and had an insatiable curiosity. Without meaning to, she found herself turning to follow the form, but it was gone.
Later, Deborah had told her that it was this attention which, in turn, had caused her to take notice to the life below. Deborah was good at her job, and her job was invisibility. For someone to see her was disturbing. She had an assignment, but after its completion she had followed the girl the locals had begun to call the "doctor". She needed to know if she was a threat. Instead of danger, she saw need and made the rash decision to bring the girl home. She had devoted time to bringing her back from the nothingness into which she had climbed, gave her a family, skills, and a mission. The girls became partners, and later best friends.
"Hello, Hols, you in there?" Always chipper on these nights out, light and carefree, Deborah was laughing as she interrupted the memory.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about when we met. I phased out." Deborah laughed at Oholibah for her blunt frankness, and the tendency to say what she wanted regardless of social convention. "What were you saying?"
"What about him? The one with the bangs, over on the end. I think he's checking me out, and you know I won't entertain anyone who doesn't pass your creep radar."
"They're all creeps." Deborah just laughed.
"He appears to be less creepy than most, though. Look at him, he's actually blushing looking over here. He's also clutching his glass- he's obviously uncomfortable in this environment. My guess is he's here only under pressure from his friend there. I'd say he has more to worry about from you."
"My favorite kind of game. Do you think he's cute?"
"Yeah, he's cute enough, though he's not my type."
"Hols, we've been friends since you were sixteen, and I have yet to discover what your type is." Deborah started to swing her long legs off the bar stool, and brushed her thick chestnut curls back over her shoulder.
"It used to be tall, dark, and handsome. Now it's anyone who doesn't remind me of tall, dark and handsome." Holi responded wryly, climbing off her own stool.
"Come on, let's go watch you devour some poor innocent young boy." This was her role, as a devoted friend, playing wing girl to Deb, the consummate flirt. Nothing serious would result from the encounter, more than a casual fling did not sit well with the family. Still, Mother understood that young women in a high stress job needed to let off steam. What the girls did on their days off was their business, so long as it didn't follow them home.
"I never dance with anyone who isn't willing." Deb shot back with a laugh. "If he ends up devoured, it will be his choice."
The rest of the evening had progressed much like dozens of other nights. Deb, with her infectious personality, tall sinewy frame and ample curves had no trouble ensuring that her playmate went to his fate willingly. The two left for a walk around midnight, and Holi sat down to chat with his friend. In time they, too left. Holi didn't like boys, when they signaled relationships, but when she was the predator and it signified nothing, she was not adverse to dabbling in the game herself.
As was their habit, she met Deborah back at the ship promptly at five the next morning. They had work later in the day, and needed to get back. Mother became very cranky if her girls did not check in home before a job, and with plenty of time to prepare.
"So, how was it." Holi noticed right away that something was different this time. Debs face was practically glowing. Deb hadn't been an innocent child since she was eight, and normally her carefree glee was a veneer covering the steel which those closest to her knew was always lying just beneath. This time was different, however. She seemed genuinely radiant, as if she really didn't have a care in the world. It warmed Holi's heart to see.
"Oh, Hols, you have no idea."
"That good, huh?"
"No, it wasn't even like that. We talked Hols, just talked. It was amazing."
"It must have been, you're giggling like a schoolgirl."
Deb sat down in the pilot's chair, beginning the pre-flight steps from habit. Holi strapped herself into the chair next to her, engaging the nav system.
"Oh Hols, it was unbelievable. We started to kiss, and I tried to progress things. He stopped me. At first I was insulted, and started to stomp off. He called me back though, and said in this really soft gentle voice, 'Can't we just get to know each other first? You intrigue me.' We talked for the rest of the night, about everything." Holi glanced in her direction, raising her eyebrows and eliciting another giggle. "Okay, so obviously we didn't talk about everything. We must have talked about almost everything of no consequence, though. I felt, well, please don't take this the wrong way, but I felt like I was normal for a time. Don't get me wrong, I love my life and wouldn't change it for the world, you know that. Most eighteen year old girls haven't spent a decade doing this though, you know? It was nice, for just a few hours, to feel normal."
"I'm happy for you Deb. I really am."
As the atmosphere tinged the windshield orange, Deb broke the silence again, in a pleading tone she almost never used. "Hey Hols?" "Yeah." "Do you think we could come back next week?" "Whatever makes you happy, you know that." "Thanks Hols. Now let's plan for tonight's job." The rest of the trip was spent in the mapping out of the tricks of their trade.
Chapter 2
twenty years later
"What are we going to do?" Mara's voice could become shrill when she was nervous, and the pieces of shredded napkin littering the dull brown carpet belied the fact that she was very, very nervous. Not like Daniel wouldn't have known even without the tell tale tissue, he was certain that soon the carpet would be permanently worn into the pattern of her pacing. "They are just kids, Dan, and they have no where else to go. Do you know what will happen to those girls if they end up back on the street?"
"Yes, Mara, I know." burying his head in his hands, Daniel indulged in a momentary expression of frustration- tousling his hair, prematurely salt and pepper, roughly with his fingers.