Cute Chaos (Pt 2)

“Fuuuck, do I need to watch you?” Kiana asked Gelf irritably as she led her BACK to her own room and started pulling clothes out of drawers for her to wear.

Sorely still was not making eye contact with anyone. Soap lather still clung to his body. He clutched the bathmat to himself.

“No, I’m sorry…” Gelf said, those scars still on her mind. “What…what happened to him?”

Skorn crouched down after grabbing a towel and handed it to Sorley. “She didn’t mean anything bad by it, man.” He said in a kind tone. “Gelf just has a habit of following her nose too easily. Want to get the soap off and dry yourself? I’ll leave the room if that helps.” He stood up and headed for the doorway.

“You barged in on him while he was in the shower!” Kiana thought it was obvious. She had no idea what Sorley went through after they were separated in the system. “Women making the first move is great and all but that was way over the fucking line.” She tossed a shirt and jeans at Gelf.

Sorley nodded jerkily. He was covered in shower water so it was hard to tell that there were tears too.

“I didn’t exactly barge in. More like…uh…teleported. I was following the smell and just kind of showed up. I didn’t realize he would be naked.” Gelf admitted with a slight blush on her face. “I’ll have to apologize again…”

Skorn stopped at the door and looked back at Sorley. “Gelf didn’t mean anything bad, okay? She just…she follows her nose and probably didn’t realize what she showed up to until it was too late.” Leaving, he closed the door to give Sorley his privacy and went to wait for Kiana and Gelf by the front door. In fact, he stepped outside to smoke.

“Teleporting in was even worse! Poor guy had no warning. And of course he was naked, HE WAS IN THE SHOWER!” Kiana had never seen her brother so upset, not even when he was picking fights with men so much bigger than himself.

Sorley had not thought that Gelf had meant to do anything bad to him, all his primary abusers had been men. But she had seen how scarred he was. He never thought he stood a chance to begin with but now he did not think they could even be friends after she saw that. After Skorn left the room Sorley stood up, dropped the bathmat and got back into the shower. He quickly rinsed off the soap, and as he dried he used his power to collect all the water from the floor and everywhere else it didn’t belong and sent the water down the drain. He quickly got dressed.

“I’ll apologize a million times if I have to!” Gelf blurted back as she got her wet clothes off and pulled on the clean ones, doing her best to keep the jeans low enough for her tail. “I was half asleep, so I didn’t think. Jesus…” She sighed heavily, wanting to know more. She wanted to find whoever had done that to Sorley and make them pay. Those scars reminded her too much of MegaCorp.

Skorn merely listened from where he waited, blowing smoke into the air outside. “This is gonna be a long night…” He muttered.

“I thought they had drugged you, I protected you- were you just faking being sleepy the whole time?” Kiana asked.

Sorley exited the bathroom, his shoulders hunched tight and his head still bowed.

“Drugged me?!” Gelf blinked in exasperation. “No, they didn’t drug me. I’m a cat! I was tired so I fell asleep. It’s called a cat nap.” Her ears twitched and she quickly went out of the room, turning to Sorley. “Hey, listen, I am SO sorry for what I did! I didn’t mean for that to happen. I was half asleep and followed my nose and…” She kept babbling apologies, her face turning crimson with embarrassment.

Sorley’s whole body only seemed to tighten and he still couldn’t look at Gelf. He thought she must be so disgusted with him and his scars. That she would be even more disgusted if she knew. Could she guess? He hated himself.

Kiana stood in her doorway, watching to make sure Gelf did not do something else inappropriate to her brother.

“Look, I think you’re super sweet and I really want to get to know you more. I’m sure you didn’t want anyone to see the scars and I’m sorry I asked about them. I won’t ask again, I promise…again, I am so sorry for popping in on you like that. I feel like such a jerk.” Gelf ranted on. “I understand if you don’t want to forgive me, but here’s my number.” She dug in her pocket, realizing her phone wasn’t there.

Quickly rushing into Kiana’s room, she found her phone and returned. Wiping a little dampness off it, she found the place where her number was and showed it to him. “You can call me, text me, whatever you want! If you want to hang out, that’s fine. If not, I understand. I know I stepped over the line-”

“Calm down, G.” Skorn spoke up, setting a hand on her shoulder. “Give him a moment to respond.”

Gelf squeaked and hung her head. “Sorry…” Why did she feel so shy around this guy?

Sorley’s eyes flicked from the phone number (which he memorized instantly) to shyly peer up at Gelf for a moment before looking back at the floor. She wanted to be around him? Really? Maybe she was just being nice. He hunched his shoulders up to his ears. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Sorley said, his voice almost a whisper.

Kiana watched Gelf, not knowing what she was going on about. She folded her arms.

“But I do want to.” Gelf persisted.

Skorn sighed heavily. “God, you two are painful to watch…” He muttered. “Look, dude, she’s into you, but she was living in MegaCorp for a while, so she’s not all that socially aware. If you’re interested, she’ll gladly return that interest because she’s already interested. Take some time to think about it, okay?”

Gelf nodded in agreement with Skorn.

“I need to get going, though. I’ve got work to do.” Skorn explained and looked at Gelf. “You should probably get home and set things up. You just moved into town, remember?”