Demonic - Ch.9 - Repressed (Patreon)

The last day of school arrived soon enough, and while there wasn't much going on in our classes it was the start of a busy exciting weekend. 

Tonight we were going to have a little party to celebrate the start of summer break, then tomorrow night the four of us would be out in the park doing the new moon magic stuff with Lily. And Sunday was kind of left open, since we didn't know how we'd all feel after the magic. Assuming it was anything like the cottage, we figured it was safest not to have any big plans.

The stuff my tall sexy blonde girlfriend told me Monday evening had been on my mind on and off all week, so when I caught a certain classmate looking at me while we were all packing up and getting ready to head to lunch I made a sudden decision.

"I'll catch up with you later," I said quietly to Melissa. 

Then I slung my backpack over my shoulder and hurried after Grace, who was already heading out the door. Out in the hall I moved up alongside her, but she didn't notice me walking next to her. She was looking down at the floor with a slight frown on her face as she walked.

After a few seconds I asked, "Grace? Can I talk with you for a bit?"

She startled slightly then stopped and glared at me. She half demanded, "What do you want?"

She was one of those attractive upper-middle-class girls who you assumed just had everything going their way. She stood two or three inches taller than myself, with a slim figure. Her hair was golden blonde, a combination of curls and waves that hung down past her shoulders. Her eyes were a deep blue colour. She had flawless skin that looked slightly tanned. And she was always fashionably dressed and wore perfect make-up. Today she was in low heels, white tights, a knee-length pleated navy-blue skirt, and a yellow blouse. And like always, she wore a gold cross around her neck, hanging from a long slender gold chain. The only negative thing about her appearance was her expression, she rarely looked happy.

I stopped as well, I gave her a polite smile as I shrugged "We haven't really talked all year long. I know it's a last-minute thing but I figured before we all disappeared for summer break I'd give it a shot?"

"Seriously?" she seemed unimpressed as she stared at me.

I smiled back at her while I focused on my demonic intuition thing, to try and get as much of a read from her as I could.

The first thing I got was the low-level hatred. Back at the start of the school year I was a bit of a class clown, and she thought I was disruptive and a distraction to other students. And even though I got a lot better about stuff like that in January, Grace never looked past her first impression. She also disapproved of how I always dressed so casual, with my leggings and loose tops. She thought it was a sloppy lazy way to dress. 

Beneath the dislike and the disapproval was the envy. She saw me dressing however I wanted, being true to myself and enjoying my life on my own terms. She saw that I wasn't obsessed with grades, just getting a passing score was good enough for me. And she saw me being flirty with my friend Melissa at the start of the year, and by the end of the year she saw me and Melissa were girlfriends with each other and Amber too. And she envied all of that, and the freedom and confidence I had to do it.

And way down at the bottom of all that, there was attraction. Just like Melissa said.

I didn't get anything in her to suggest she was homomisic or queermisic. She just used that as a convenient way to express her negative feelings. That came from her parents, like Melissa figured.

All that came to me in a second or two, and I blinked then nodded "Seriously. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot back in September and I'm sorry it's taken me all year to try and fix it. I was wondering if maybe we could get together for coffee some time? Or even lunch?"

Grace's eyes flicked up and down over me. She had a slight scowl on her face, but it looked like she was having trouble maintaining it. This was probably the longest the two of us had spent talking all year, and she didn't seem to know how to respond. As she looked at me her right hand crept up to the cross she wore around her neck and she started fidgeting with it. 

I got the feeling that wasn't a conscious thing, like she wasn't deliberately clutching the cross to save her from my evil lesbian charms or whatever. Actually it crossed my mind that'd be kind of cool, like if I really did have evil lesbian charms. Except maybe not evil. Just like, vaguely demonic lesbian charms would be more my style.

After a second or two I stopped fantasizing about that and added, "No pressure. If you're not interested that's fine. I know this is unexpected, and probably not great timing with the last day of college and everything."

Her scowl finally gave way to confusion, and perhaps curiosity. She shrugged, "I guess we could... Did you mean right now?"

"Sure!" I grinned. "Do you want to go to the cafeteria? Or we could go someplace else, like a cafe or restaurant. Whatever you want, my treat."

Grace looked skeptical again but she suggested, "I know a quiet cafe not far from the campus, we could go there?"

Ten minutes later the two of us were sitting across from each other at a little table. It turned out Grace had a car, so we didn't have to worry about walking or taking the bus. 

The cafe felt like the sort of place I'd imagine posh ladies would visit on Sunday after church. They didn't have a liquor license and the menus looked a little more up-market than the sort of place I'd visit. They probably didn't get a lot of college students coming in, which accounted for it being kind of quiet. There were a few other customers, most were middle-aged women and a few older men.

I looked and felt very much out of place in my dark leggings, black tunic top and sneakers. The chairs weren't tail-friendly either, so just like in Grace's car I had to take a few moments to get myself comfortable and sort my tail out. 

Grace frowned as she watched me fuss around till I was settled, and I knew she was wondering what the hell was up with me in that regard. And part of me wanted to just reveal my horns and tail, knowing how much of a fuss that'd kick up with everyone in this posh little restaurant. On the other hand knowing how much trouble it'd get me in with Lily was what stopped me.

The first two pages of the menu was all fancy tea and stuff like that, then they had sandwiches and soups and salads and canapés. No fries, no burgers. Then there were two pages of desserts, tea cakes and petit-fours and posh stuff like that. 

"So is this your kind of food?" I asked as I went back and forth through the menu.

Grace glanced at hers then set it aside like she already knew what she wanted. She shrugged, "Not really. My mother brings me here all the time, so I knew it'd be quiet."

"Oh," I said as I tried to keep a straight face. 

She sounded defensive as she asked, "What? What's so funny?"

I grimaced, "Sorry! It's just, last time I had lunch with my mom we went to an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. I was just thinking how different stuff probably is for you and me. Like I don't think I've ever been in a posh place like this before?"

Grace frowned slightly, and I had to quickly focus on the menu to try and keep the surprise off my face. 

The feeling I got from her was just like the one I got on my very first date with Amber. That thing about not knowing if she wanted to date me or be me. Except with Grace it wasn't my body she envied, but my life in general. Like I got from her before, she wanted my freedom and confidence and stuff.

Eventually a waitress came and we ordered. Grace got some fancy-sounding tea and a posh sandwich and salad. I just got water and a tuna sandwich.

As the waitress left Grace frowned at me, "They have twenty-three varieties of tea and eight kinds of coffee, none of that appealed to you?"

I grimaced, "I can't have caffein. It's like an allergy or whatever? So yeah, I mostly stick to water or juice."

"You can't have caffein but you invited me out for coffee?" she commented with a faint smile. I was positive that was the first time I'd actually seen her smile, and it was nice.

"Yeah," I shrugged and grinned. "I mean, 'wanna get coffee' is kind of short-hand right? Everyone knows what it means. And if I'd asked you 'wanna get a non-caffeinated non-alcoholic beverage?' you'd probably just look at me funny then back away slowly."

Grace actually smirked slightly before she got control of her expression. Then she just nodded quietly, "You're probably right. And for future reference, most of the herbal teas don't have any caffein in them."

"Huh," I frowned. "I didn't know that."

Our drinks arrived next, and the two of us continued our awkward conversation until the food arrived. I went with the tuna sandwich because it sounded the most normal out of all the options, but they still managed to make it wrong. Like posh people couldn't just have tuna and mayo, they had to weird it up with all kinds of stuff like bits of dried fruit and whatever. About the only fun thing was they cut it up into little tiny mini-sandwiches.

Me and Grace talked more, and I noticed she didn't seem to like her meal any more than I liked mine. The only thing she seemed to enjoy was her tea. 

We didn't get into anything too personal but I found out her dad was a preacher. And I told her my folks divorced when I was little. She said she still lived with her parents, out in the suburbs to the south-east of the college. And I told her me and my girlfriends all lived in a house a little ways west of the campus. 

Grace was really curious about the fact that there were four of us all in a relationship, but I could tell she was reluctant to ask too many questions. I didn't go into too many details, other than it just sort of happened and we were all friendly and open and stuff. 

Then we talked about how we got into photography, Grace said she had an uncle who was a professional photographer and she was going to be working with him as an assistant over the summer. She also told me her true passion was fashion photography, she was hoping to find work in the fashion industry after we all graduated. And while I was on a two-year program, she was planning to take a third year of advanced classes to learn more and get more experience before she tried chasing her dreams in the fashion business.

She nearly spit out her tea when I told her I originally took the course because I wanted to do better nude photos and selfies. Except after she got over the shock she actually confessed she was interested in that too, but she used the posh-sounding term 'boudoir photography'. 

I also told her I was really enjoying my drama minor, and she told me her minor was in philosophy which she said she thought was a very interesting subject.

All in all it turned out to be a nice lunch, apart from the food and stuff like that. But by the end of it I felt like I'd gotten to know her a lot better and I hoped she felt the same. At least I wasn't getting hate-vibes from her anymore.

As promised, I paid for lunch for the both of us, then asked her "So do you have to get back for afternoon classes?"

"I doubt there's anything interesting going on," she replied. "Last classes of the last day before summer break, it'll probably be just as quiet and boring as the morning was."

"Wanna just skip then?" I asked with a grin. "We could go do something fun?"

Grace hesitated, then finally shook her head. "We should probably get back. I'm sure your girlfriends are wondering what happened to you."

"Ok," I nodded. Then as we both got back into her car I asked, "Do you have any plans for Canada Day?"

She shook her head again, "Not really. Why?"

"We're doing a backyard BBQ party," I told her. "You could come by if you wanted? We'll be having a few other people over as well, there'll be drinks, music, food, whatever."

Grace didn't respond right away, but she actually seemed to be thinking it over during the short drive back to the campus. 

As she parked the car she finally nodded, "Yeah ok. Maybe."

"Cool!" I grinned. 

We ended up exchanging contact information, then I texted her the address and told her the party would start some time in the afternoon and go till 'whenever'. We finally parted ways as she went to her last class and I headed to drama.