Let Our Paths Cross Pt. 01

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Two friends, Ashley and Billie, are reunited.
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-1.

Ashley P. Parks, a petite girl with hardly any length to her legs, stirred gently from her light sleep. She had come to the conclusion, before even looking at the lime-green dial of her electric alarm clock, that it was morning and she had better get up for a days work. Work, she laughed in self loathing; as if anyone in their right mind is going to purchase any of my shit. She, of course, was referring to a pair of almost identical portraits she had recently immersed herself in. Both of the canvases depicted a woman whom seemed in pain; the canvas to the right had been sketched using charcoals while the other, to the left, had been abstractly pieced together using an unusual array of surreal hued inks. Ashley, however, hated both of the pictures and saw them as being boring and unoriginal; much alike the opinions she possessed against all of her works.

Ashley had, for some reason, the look one would expect of an artist and possessed a sense individuality and natural beauty about her. It was in the way that her hair fell naturally as soon as she got out of bed, it was in the way she walked because her old shoes rubbed against the backs of her feet, and it was in the way she spoke with a fake American accent, when in actual fact she had been born in Nottinghamshire in England. It was in the small things, the things people often dismissed as being average, which made Ashley P. Parks the beautiful woman she was.

The artist had long brown hair, so long, in fact, when straightened the tips of her hair could reach to the top of her perky ass. She, however, seldom did anything specific to her hair other than tie it up in a loose ponytail so that it hung cutely across one of her shoulders and slightly concealed the adjacent breast. More often than not, Ashley's hair would simply hang beside her tiny shoulders in lax curls, in the way mother-nature intended for her to look.

Ashley thrust herself forwards and out of her bed; she had worn a white linen nightgown to bed. She had only bought it because the fabric had seemed particularly stiff and thick; and Ashley had seldom received any encounters of the sexual kind of late --well, apart from with her self, of course. When Ashley had originally moved back home to Nottingham, from New York in America, she had begun masturbating almost every night. Eventually, like sex with the men she had previously been with, it had begun to bore her. That's why she had a date later that evening with a man she had never met, a kind of blind date you could say. Her university friend, Claire, had set them up, however, so she was not going into it completely blind. She had planned to visit her local shopping centre, just a short drive away from where her apartment building resided, and browse for a nice outfit for the date that night. This, of course, was instead of painting like she needed to. Money was tight, especially when she depended upon an unstable market to provide her with security. Fashions in art were as unpredictable as any; and at the moment the style in which Ashley painted did not seem particularly popular.

-I'll stop off at a coffee shop first, the artist thought to herself while opening her large wardrobe doors. On the inside of the door was a mirror which reflected a small, earthy-green eyed, deliciously pink and plump lipped woman whose nose seemed long and pointed, although was not really that long nor pointed. Ashley shrugged the image of her self away and grabbed a long and black woollen cardigan from the front of her vast clothes collection, smiled, and then wrapped it around her cold and pale body.

-2.

"Oh my god, it's you!" A croaky voiced woman shouted from across the row of tables in the coffee shop. Ashley had looked up curious to what was happening, not expecting to find herself the one in question. Noticing how the woman, with her thick black nail varnish, had been pointing towards the artist, she raised an eyebrow in confused embarrassment. The woman, whom was seemingly a stranger to Ashley, now made her way slowly towards the table she was sat at. She was an Asian woman with beautiful olive skin and dark brown eyes. As she neared closer Ashley could smell the fragrance of her sweet perfume, and she became intoxicated by a strange curiosity towards her.

"You got me fired from my job." The woman croaked once more, this time, however, she had spoken at a normal pitch instead of screeching across the room like some kind of Reptile.

"I'm sorry, what?" Ashley had replied. She had originally been sat at her table quietly gazing into her warm mug of coffee, watching a thick muscular Stallion march gallantly away in the small amounts of froth which had appeared.

"You don't even remember," The woman had said, sitting herself down in the spare chair unannounced, "at the Corner-house restaurant."

Now Ashley remembered, she had been a low ranked chef who had under cooked her chicken breast to the point where if she had eaten it she could have got salmonella poisoning.

"Oh yes, I remember now," Ashley said, "you nearly killed me." The woman, tall and slender, smiled; she did not seem bitter about the fact that her career had been temporarily destroyed.

"Yeah, I'm glad I did though. That job was terrible and the guys there treated me like shit." The woman said, after this she had begun to prattle on about how bad the working conditions were; but all Ashley could concentrate on was the slow and glorious motions her lips made as she spoke. The room had appeared to fall silent as she stared, watching the woman's tongue coasting back and forth within her mouth, gathering small deposits of moisture in the corners of her plump lips as she continued to talk. --"my name's Billie by the way." Ashley widened her eyes and slid her back fully upright once more, returning to a conscious state.

"I'm Ashley." She said, introducing herself, but as soon as she had spoken her voice had appeared to break momentarily. There was something in Billie's cheeky smile that told Ashley she knew what she was thinking; and liked it.

"You should let me take you out for a meal, to apologise for nearly poisoning you and all." Billie suggested. She had now begun to slowly move her legs closer to the artist's underneath the round coffee shop's table.

"Okay." Ashley replied in haste, the answer had seemed to fly out of her mouth without even allowing her to think it through fully. Her heart had begun to pound furiously somewhere amongst her ribcage now, and the mixture of intoxicating odours from the coffee and Billie's perfume were not helping the situation.

"Do you like sushi?" Billie asked while intensifying the advances underneath the table, it had seemed like a question used in order to divert attention away from the fact that she had moved her leg right up against to Ashley's hips.

"I've never eaten it before." Ashley replied.

"Well, I guess there's a first time for everything." As Billie had spoken she had bit her bottom lip with one of her front teeth. Ashley stared as she loosened the clasp upon it and let her lip fall gently back into its original shape. The whole room had fallen silent once again and all Ashley could hear was the deep and heavy panting of a woman in her ear. She could no longer taste the bitter coffee in her mouth but instead the sweet and sticky taste of Billie and the elation she felt in the back of her throat.

"If you write down your address I'll come pick you up at eight, tomorrow?" Billie asked, this time in a more serious tone, while rummaging around in her medium sized black-leather handbag. After around thirty seconds of scouring through the bottomless thing, she finally pulled out a black ball-pointed pen and a piece of thick cardboard, the type one would expect a business man to hand you.

"Sure," Ashley said while gently brushing hands with Billie to grab hold of the pen and piece of cardboard. Billie watched over as the artist quickly scrawled down the address in a rough, almost artistic, style of handwriting.

"Thank you." Billie made sure, once more, to caress Ashley's hand as she took the pen and cardboard back. Ashley watched in wonder as their hands looked almost perfect next to one and another's.

-No, Ashley thought, pulling away from the tender moment and recomposing her self. --It's obviously just because I'm flattered by the attention from her, that I'm feeling like this. This is all it is. Right? Ashley began mulling over the answers for a couple of seconds while the pair sat in silence.

"I better be heading off," Ashley said before taking a large and final gulp of her, now cold, cup of coffee "it was nice to meet you, Billie."

Billie remained in the coffee shop for a little longer, pondering over how to approach the whole situation. Billie had known about Ashley long before they had met at the restaurant a few months back, she had, in fact, recognised her name from their early nursery school days. She could remember, almost as if it was yesterday, being in the sandpit at school with a young and loud Ashley and playing with two figurines. The one Billie held had been male, while the one Ashley played with was female. They would play at this sandpit throughout the entirety of their 'playtime' and often made up tales of love between the two figurines, but slowly the young Billie had fallen for the real Ashley and the stories they played along to soon became real to her heart. So, one day she told her, she had looked deep into the girls eyes and said with great intent 'I love you Ashley', but another child --who it was Billie could not remember that far back, had overheard and started shouting their head off about Billie being a lesbian. How they had even known what the word meant, as she did not even understand it fully for herself, she had no idea. However, Ashley had simply looked longingly back towards Billie, and smiled, rescuing the whole situation by telling everyone they were just playing stories.

'I love you too.' Ashley had replied while they had been putting their figurines back into the toy box; as the bell for end of playtime had rung. Shortly after the whole event Ashley's parents had decided to move to New York, leaving Billie with the niggling thought at the back of her mind which always asked 'what might have happened?' She had thought it too much of a coincidence to just let pass, thus marking the beginning of what she believed to be her destiny.

-3.

"What is it like, you know, being a free-lance artist?" A muscular, butch man was sat opposite the small dining table from Ashley. He wore a thin, probably two sizes too small for him, black t-shirt and a pair of baggy blue jeans with rips at the knees. This was obviously a man whom had no fashion sense, Ashley thought to herself while smiling falsely and distracting her self with the meal, nor any individuality.

"It's really good, I'm so..." Ashley trailed off, realising the butch man had not been interested in her response but more so with his own. He interrupted her briskly,

"So basically while I'm breaking my balls at work, you're at home doing absolutely nothing?" His name was Brian -boring Brian.

"Yes..." Ashley replied; almost sarcastically,

"You have to admit, you've got it easy. While the rest of us are working our butts off, you're getting paid seriously large amounts of money just for painting. Hell, I could paint if I really wanted to." Ashley grimaced and, while picking up a paper napkin and dabbing it under her mouth, she rose from her chair.

"I need to go to the bathroom." She said, gliding across the red carpeted floors and towards the gilded hallway where she had spotted the toilets. The whole restaurant had an air of tackiness about it, a place only those obsessed with self image and social status would go; not the place for Ashley. It was simply what it was at face value, and very little more.

Ashley unlocked the bathroom door and slowly walked towards the large wall made up entirely of mirrors. The woman staring back at her did not belong in a place like this, the way she wore a troubled expression upon her face and dragged her feet in a un-lady like manner; Ashley belonged in a place full buzz and activity. A place where people did not always consider being an artist to be a job just anyone could obtain, like it was for the ordinary. Ashley considered Brian to be ordinary and that his job, as a plumber, to be ordinary. How dare he, she thought to herself while running the cold tap at the sinks and plunging her hands underneath the stream of cool water. Then, it suddenly struck her; a pang of desire froze her guts. She was going to run away and not even say goodbye. Like some kind of profligate stray cat, eluding their crimes, she pushed the bathroom door open slightly and then hurried quickly along to the exit.

Shit, she thought just as she had got to the exit doors, there was a man checking that couples were not leaving without paying their bills. Coyly, she managed to dodge past him from behind and make it to the concrete path outside.

"Excuse me Ma'am, you have not paid." The bill-checker shouted, heading towards her with a large clip board in his hand.

"There's the thing, I came in with a guy but I'm ditching him." Said Ashley, she had begun to clench her teeth tightly together from the tension of the moment. She reached into her pocket slowly and found a spare five pound note.

"Oh, names please?" He asked, raising the clip board up to his face's level ready to check the list secretly.

"Ashley Parks and Brian... Erm." He nodded, however, acknowledging the five pound note as a bribe and noticing their names upon the clip board's list. Realising this was her indication to run away, she turned her back to the large mahogany doors and headed towards the nearest bus shelter.

-3.

It had only just struck eight-pm when Billie Cheng arrived at Ashley's apartment door video-phone. She had arrived holding a large bunch of articulately arranged pink lilies and red roses. Nervously, she hesitatingly began to stare towards the button that would buzz her into Ashley's apartment. Number 13 the piece of cardboard had read, yet, she couldn't help but feel anxious. She thought about what Ashley might be doing up in her apartment for a few moments before finally standing up straight and creasing down her tight leather jacket. It sprung open just at her ample bosom, making them appear bigger than they actually were. She quickly glanced down at her stiletto heels to check that nothing embarrassing, like a piece of toilet roll or something, was attached to them. She pressed the button and waited anxiously in the slight nip of the cold winter breeze.

"Hey, come up a second I'm not ready yet." Said Ashley noticing Billie's beautiful face upon the monitor situated next to her phone. --It suddenly hit her, she thought Billie was beautiful. A few moments later Billie had peered through the unlocked door with her equally stunning bunch of flowers.

"Hey, wow you look stunning." Said Billie, she looked at Ashley dressed in her black skinny jeans and her long and flowing black cardigan and understood why she had felt so overwhelmed by emotions when they were just young children.

"I'll put these in some water, they are really nice." Replied Ashley, she had tried to shrug off the compliments. In fact, from the very moment Billie had stepped through her door and gazed deep into her own eyes, she began to feel nervous and blush.

"You're welcome," Shouted Billie from in the living room area, she had begun to take a little look around the apartment. The thing that had struck her, initially, was how clean and clinical it appeared. The walls had all been painted white and about the only furniture inside the room possessed a plastic like appearance; like as if they were in a showcase living room and not someone's home. The next thing she had noticed had been the two paintings, one in ink and the other in charcoal, and the sheer beauty of the things. She raised her hand to touch the canvas as if it were a portal to some mysterious new land.

"Okay, I'm ready." Said Ashley, she had noticed Billie's fascination with the canvases but had ignored it. In fact, she had regretted not putting them away and hiding them behind a door.

"Did you do these?" Asked Billie,

"Yes, no one will buy them though," Ashley replied with a slight giggle to her tone, "no one buys my shit anymore."

"No way, these are amazing. I've never seen good art as close as this, only in like, photographs or the internet." Billie said while turning to touch it once more.

"So," Ashley said trying to change the conversation, "sushi?"

"Oh sorry," Billie laughed, catching how awkward a situation she had created, "just never knew you were an artist."

A short car journey in Billie's old Volkswagen Golf and the pair had arrived at a brightly lit, glass encased building filled to the brim with energetic young noise. There was a citrus freshness about the air, something Ashley did not expect from a sushi bar, as they entered. Large groups of people were gathered around a large conveyer belt continuously churning out different types of foods, while others preferred to sit around small enclosed tables in the corner.

"Over here," Billie said while grabbing Ashley's hand and gently urging her towards the most enclosed and private table in the restaurant. The table lay concealed almost in complete darkness; where as the rest of the room seemed brightly lit up. It was as if they were stepping into a different room or something. "My family know the family who run this place so I got them to set this up." She laughed at that point, "Sorry if it's too cheesy for you, I'm just an old romantic."

"It's nice." Ashley said, but that was not what she had wanted to say. Really she had been dying to ask whether Billie was a lesbian, as neither of them had actually said anything about the subject. For all Ashley knew she could have been misreading the whole situation seeing as she was hardly experienced in such a subject matter.

"Do you want to order a platter of sushi so we can share?" Billie's feet had found Ashley's already; it was like a comforting reflex towards her more than anything.

"Sure, I really don't know what this is going to be like." Ashley said, pulling her feet away and tucking them behind the soft chair so they were out of reach. Billie got up and headed towards the black conveyer belt of sushi.

"I'll be right back, babe." Billie said as she left Ashley at the table with her heart fluttering nervously away in her chest. No one had ever made her feel like that before, not even her boyfriend of three years, Stuart, whom she truly believed she loved. Perhaps she never loved him, and perhaps she never even liked men. She watched over as Billie leaned over the counter and slowly wiggled her tiny ass back and forth. For a brief moment she imagined herself wearing only a pair of boyish panties and rubbing her clitoris against those soft skinned butt cheeks. As quickly as the image had appeared it had disappeared; as she begun to realise she was staring blatantly at her friend's bottom. She probably knew, Ashley thought, quickly recomposing herself.

"Wow, that looks good," Said Ashley standing up to help Billie with the large platter of rice balls, raw fish and small array of accompanying sources.

"I know right, it's this kind of food that made me want to be a chef in the first place." She grabbed enthusiastically at a green parcel of rice and fish and then slowly ate it in one. Ashley picked up the same kind of piece as Billie and then shoved it curiously into her mouth. At first its textures had been something unusually different to her, but after her second parcel she soon realised, she too, enjoyed the fresh food.

"Why don't you get a job here? If you worked in the Corner-house you must be a pretty good chef." Said Ashley while picking up slab of yellow fish and dipping it into the porcelain dish containing soy source.