Lightly Scented Air

[rhiannon_lee]

Clink…clank…scratch…

Under a thick layer of mascara and liner, Rhiannon’s eyes lifted from the pages of her paperback to search out the sound. She sat slumped on a vinyl-cushioned bench in the laundromat, legs stretching into the aisle alongside her basket of detergent and dryer sheets. She leaned forward and squinted at a zippered hoodie bouncing ‘round and ‘round the front-facing dryer. Was it worthwhile to stop the machine and flip it inside out?

The Laundromat was humid and heavily scented: ocean breeze, spring bouquet, fresh cotton. A television was mounted in the corner and from it Rhiannon heard the subdued score of a soap opera punctuated by commercials for cleaning products or diapers. Headphones hung crookedly around her neck because she wasn’t sure how much juice was left in the cassette player’s batteries.

She set her book aside and knelt in front of the dryer to open it.

[Thread]

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[holiday_pirner]

"Wait, that's my load." Holly paused, standing in front of the row of dryers. "I think." She had forgotten to take note of the number when she had put her clothes in, but she knew it was in this general vicinity.

Having delayed this chore for so long, Holly was left to wear a Toto t-shirt an ex-boyfriend had never picked up from her flat, and battered jeans.

"Shit."

An older woman folding shirts nearby gave her a dirty look.

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’d recognize that hoodie anywhere.” She pulled the garment free, the Joy Division logo on the back confirming her suspicions, at least until an unfamiliar bra tumbled onto her legs where she knelt. “Oh. Sorry.” Cringing with the awkwardness of the error, she casually flicked it back and then frowned into the barrel with its massive load of darks. “Wait.”

[holiday_pirner]

She felt her face grow hot as she watched her bra tumble into plain view. "Well," Holly said, resisting the urge to pull her sunglasses down from her head. "That's, um, a coincidence."

There was something about the other brunette that was familiar, but not enough for her to place.

"Wait?," she asked, leaning down to peer into the dryer. "What are we waiting for?"

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon bit her cheek. “I’m still trying to figure out how this is your load. Looks like mine.” She shook her head and put the hoodie back to dry. In the next machine over, her own darks swirled and flopped in an untidy pile. A flash of red t-shirt. The sleeve of a dark blue sweater. The slayer stood up and looked at her. “Oh hey,” she said as it dawned on her. “Elevator. Boy, did you get out on the right floor. It got stuck halfway up.”

[holiday_pirner]

Elevator. Oh, right.

"Yeah, I was bit off that night." She boosted herself up to sit on one of the formica tables. "I see you found a way down, though, so that's good news."

Hadn't Julianna asked about her? Or had that been Valerie? It was hard to recall now.

[rhiannon_lee]

“We climbed out,” she said, then corrected, “Well, two of us did, I don’t know about the others. I kinda hope they fell.” Rhiannon returned to the toxic orange cushion and drew her legs under her Indian-style. “I’m Rhiannon. I’ve seen your bra, so we should probably be on a first-name basis.” She marked her place in the book with a receipt she’d used for that purpose for months.

Jim’s Corner Store
$1.69 cigarettes
$0.99 candy
$0.25 coffee

[holiday_pirner]

"The others? I thought it was just you, me, and the blonde girl." Holly crossed her legs, watching clothes swish around in the washers. A dinky television was bolted up in one corner, soundlessly broadcasting a Three Stooges marathon.

"Rhiannon!" That was it. "I mean, cool, like the song." When had she become such a spaz? Was there something in the desert air?

[rhiannon_lee]

She smiled at the reference to Fleetwood Mac, one she heard often. There were worse things to be serenaded with at age fourteen. She had known a girl named Mandy who definitely got the short end of the stick.

“When you got off the elevator, it was me and Valerie, but then two people got on. Two… well. Yeah. People.” She made a wry face and watched a man scoop an armful of bleached whites into his basket. As he sorted through the socks and undershirts, he fished out a necktie that had wound up in the mix.

‘Son of a…!’

Rhiannon clamped her lips together and tried not to smile. "And you are...?"

[holiday_pirner]

Turning her attention away from the irate man, she looked back at Rhiannon. "Right, sorry. I'm Holly." She took her sunglasses off her head and folded them.

"So if they were just people, why did you want them to fall?"

[rhiannon_lee]

“Yeah.” Rhiannon propped her cigarette on top of an empty soda can. “I’ve made some questionable dating decisions,” she said as she rolled a sock right-side out and searched for its partner. “Not once did it matter what anyone said to me. I was going to do what I wanted, with whomever I wanted.” She found the pairing and tucked them into a secure ball. As her fingers shook the wrinkles from a pair of jeans, she zoned out on a poster across the room, thinking about the worst offender. “What’s so bad about him?”

[holiday_pirner]

She made small stacks on the counter with her quarters, avoiding looking directly at Rhiannon. "People think he's dangerous."

That was the short answer. Holly wasn't completely certain, but she thought she had some inkling who, and what, the other woman was. And she wanted to ask so many things.

"That school in London. They didn't teach you the usual things, did they?"

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon froze.

Her head turned.

“You’re not…”

No. Three in one city would be insane. Forget about three in one elevator.

She leaned her hip on the folding table, a t-shirt dangling from her hand.

“How’d you know?” she asked.

[holiday_pirner]

She couldn't talk about her father, not here. And not with a slayer, yet. "I know a watcher."

Holly picked up one of Rhiannon's socks and put it with the others. "She works at the university. Prim, proper, yet oddly quick to anger. Well, it might not help that I know how to make her angry."

She shrugged, the hint of a mischievous smile on her lips.

[rhiannon_lee]

“Oh, gross.” Rhiannon rolled her eyes and sighed. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together and come up with the watcher’s identity. “I can’t stand her,” she muttered and folded the t-shirt. “If she’s one of your relationship’s detractors, you should definitely stay in it. In fact, send her photos.”

She picked up her cigarette and took a drag.

"She probably wouldn't care for what I'm up to, either."

[holiday_pirner]

"I would," she answered, flipping her hair back with a smirk, "if she hadn't tried to chat him up."

Holly sat down on the row of thinly padded chairs. "But she gave that up, I think, when she realized he was a -- that he was with me." She pushed aside a Good Housekeeping magazine.

"What are you doing that's so bad?"

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon frowned. “One of you is dating out of your age bracket.” She tossed her folded clothes in the laundry basket. Then she sat down alongside Holly and stared at her flipping laundry. Black sock. Blue shirt. “I’ve been seeing someone who’s not quite human. Well, he’s human, but he’s also something else, and it’s the kind of thing that can be contagious, if you’re not careful. They might not care about that, but watchers don’t generally condone our sex lives, no matter the circumstance. We're supposed to be more focused.”

She bit her cheek.

"You know, I once had sex with a vampire. I staked him after. I felt like a real tool."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She could feel her face go pale, paler than usual.

"Oh." The brunette searched the recesses of her brain for something a little more eloquent. "Was he not good?"

[rhiannon_lee]

"Well, aren't you vague but curious." Rhiannon's mouth quirked. She put both feet on the ground and leaned forward, pushing on her knees to stand up. "Everyone I meet in this city takes conversational deflection to an art form," she muttered, reading the timer on the dryer. "Let's just say he's an asshole and leave it at that for now."

[holiday_pirner]

"Actually, I've been a little too forthcoming lately. So I've been trying this thing where I think before I speak." Holly smiled ruefully. "I'm not very good at it."

She absentmindedly flicked her lighter with her free hand. "Anyway, I guess the less people know about you, the less chance you have of getting hurt."

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon picked up a stack of flyers from the dryer and flipped idly through the papers. Orange for a pizza menu. Blue for a car wash. "I always thought it was the other way around. Y'know, the more I know about other people, the more I get hurt." She leaned back against the machines, which felt warm through her t-shirt. "And yet, I keep asking dumb questions."

She paused on a flyer for a concert. Held it up for Holly.

"Here's that place you were talking about. No cover on Thursdays."

[holiday_pirner]

Holly ruminated over that. Yeah, she supposed that was true. But it felt better than being completely in the dark.

"I had been curious to meet a slayer," she blurted out. "You weren't really what I was expecting. In a good way," Holly amended quickly.

"I guess I had this notion of stake first, ask questions never."

[rhiannon_lee]

"Really?" Rhiannon looked at her across the aisle. "Hm." She set aside the stack of flyers but kept one page. She began to fold it into a paper airplane. "I think it'd be easier if I was. Safer. The more I dig, the more I realize how complicated it is. One day, I'll give the wrong demon the benefit of the doubt. Which is weird, because I almost never give it to humans."

She took aim and the plane sailed above the room.

"We aren't born slayers," she said. "It comes to us when we're already forming into a person. Already happy or damaged, beautiful or ugly, confident or timid."

[holiday_pirner]

"Maybe it's the same with vampires, too." She retrieved the fallen plane, fixed one of the wings.

"So, what would you do if you weren't a slayer anymore? If you just woke up one day, and were the girl you were before?"

[rhiannon_lee]

"Kill myself?"

Rhiannon smiled and looked down.

"I have no idea if I'm kidding or not," she murmured. "Truthfully, I can't picture myself without it anymore. It's what I was made to do."

She pushed away from the dryers and crashed onto the seat next to Holly.

"So what are you made to do?"

[holiday_pirner]

Holly laughed, an edge of weariness to the sound. She cast her eyes up toward the ceiling, exposed duct-work and white tile crisscrossing over their heads.

"Oh, god. That question." Her expression sobered. "I have no idea. Maybe that's why I'm always a little jealous of people who do. Like, 'what do you have that I don't?' Oh, right, a plan."