Fragments: Bravery

This is a followup to Contraband, so you should probably read that first. I wanted to see how the situation I set up in the end of that story would turn out so badly that I couldn't help but sit down and write it.

There's some Spanish in here, and it will probably (though hopefully not) be immediately obvious to any Spanish speakers that I... don't actually speak Spanish. I did the best that I could with my limited knowledge and a few online resources, but I welcome and encourage corrections, either here in the comments or on twitter.




 -~o~-

As a general rule, when Yuriko was nervous about something that she had to do, she was typically nervous about it well in advance. For example: she had decided that she would try to introduce herself to the cute girl in her English class today. The first opportunity that she had to talk to her would be when class ended at 2:50 in the afternoon, and the butterflies had started to invade her stomach... Right when she woke up that morning.

Talking to people was not something she was good at, and introducing herself to someone - starting a conversation out of nowhere, just because she wanted to get to know them - that was something that she had only done... None times. Literally, she couldn't remember a time when she had started a conversation with someone she didn't know. Usually it was other people who started conversations with her, and usually for one of two reasons: because they had opinions about her chest that they just couldn't help but make known to her, or because their opinions about her chest were mostly that she should let them touch it, and they wanted to smooth-talk their way into doing that. It was the rare few who had turned out to actually just be interested in her as a person who had ended up becoming friends with her, and really that was pretty much just Mike. And she'd punched him in the face before they'd gotten to that point.

Rose would almost certainly have opinions about Yuriko's chest. Odds are she would fall into the "So like, do you have back problems? You should get a reduction." camp. If Yuriko was lucky, the two of them would find some sort of common interest that they could become friends over. If she was very lucky, she might be interested in women. And if she was win-the-lottery levels of lucky, Rose would be interested in women, interested in her, specifically, and would tolerate her boobs without too many comments.

God, why even try? She knew that she was getting way ahead of herself, thinking about a relationship before she had even really met this person, but she couldn't help it. Even if she turned out to be cool, it would just end up with Lilly pining over her endlessly - a friendship that would never blossom into anything more.

This entire train of thought was heading down the tracks before Yuriko had even gotten out of bed. By the time that she had finished with her shower, she had more or less given up. Why bother going through all that stress when things would almost certainly turn out to be... Well, kind of shit. She would much rather just not deal with any of it. Yes, she had made up her mind. She wouldn't try to talk to her, because it would only end badly.

Her phone rang as she was getting dressed. Who the hell was calling her at eight in the morning? She looked at the caller ID. Mike Goldberg.

"Yeah, what?" she said as she tried to put her bra on while holding the phone against her shoulder.

"Yo. Remember what we agreed to last night."

She frowned. "Listen, Mike, I've been thinking about it, and-"

"Nope!" Mike cut her off. "Yuyu, I know you, and I know what you're thinking. You should absolutely talk to this girl, just like I'm going to talk to Icarus today. I don't care what excuses you've come up with in your head. The worst that can happen is that you'll have wasted, like, five minutes and then you can move on."

"Did you literally call just to say that?"

"You're damn right I did. In fact, when's your English class?"

"Two."

"Perfect! I get off at three-thirty today. I want you to come to Smoothie City after you do it and tell me how it went."

"Alright, fine, but-"

"Ah-ah! Follow your own advice! We're both gonna do this, and it's gonna be awesome!"

"Alright! I'll do it."

"What? I can't hear you."

"Jesus, Mike, are you a cheerleader now? I-"

"Your voice is all muffled. I can't get a word you're saying all of a sudden."

"Oh... There we go. Sorry, I needed my hands free to put on my pants."

"So like, what percentage of our phone calls together are spent with your phone in your cleavage?"

"Honestly? Like, 70%. Don't knock it, it's convenient. I just accidentally put it in speaker-end-down this time. Anyway, yeah, fine. I'll do it. But you better do it too!"

"After work! I'll see you then. You'll get a congratulatory smoothie, but only if you earned it!"

---

2:48 pm. Class ended in two minutes, and Yuriko didn't much feel like having a congratulatory smoothie at the moment. She didn't think that she'd be able to keep it down.

Rose was sitting in the corner, by the door. Her wavy hair was bobbing in front of her face as she took notes from Professor Kleinhardt's droning lecture. (He usually went on until the very last minute.) She was... God, she was so pretty! She was wearing eyeliner today, and... whatever that stuff was that made your face look all smooth. Yuriko had worn makeup maybe three times in her life, and anything beyond lipstick, eyeliner, and eyeshadow was a mystery to her.

What if that was important to Rose? Lilly's face was kind of greasy today, and she had a zit on her forehead. She also hadn't done anything with her hair other than just brushing it and shoving her beanie on over it, and she was dressed how she always was: hoodie and jeans. Rose always dressed so nice. (She was in a long, flowy skirt today, with a cardigan over her button-up, which was unbuttoned just enough to show some cleavage without being too racy.) Clothes were probably important to her, and then there was Yuriko, dressed like she didn't give a shit.

Which she didn't, really. She dressed for comfort, which really just meant anything that she wore anything that covered her and that she could fit her boobs into. So here she was, an awful gremlin, who probably smelled like... Oh god, she had forgotten to put on deodorant this morning! She probably smelled like sweat, and-

And class was over. Oh god, oh god. Rose was packing up her stuff, preparing to leave. Most of the time she stopped to talk to some of the other people in class (but never Yuriko), but today it looked like she was just leaving. Yuriko shoved her own notebook into her backpack, trying not to think about how she felt like she was going to vomit, and rushed out the door after her, hoping to catch up to her before oh god there she was!

"Rose!"

"Hmm?" She turned. Looked at her. She was right there, and... God, she smelled really good, and she was so gorgeous and... "I, um..."

Rose tilted her head to the side, expectant. She was looking at Yuriko's chest, but so did everyone. Her eyes only stayed there for a moment.

"I. Er. Hi. My name's Yuriko."

"I know. I've seen you in class. What's up?"

"You're, um..." Oh god oh god oh god, what should she say? She had been so caught up with being nervous about talking to her, that she hadn't thought about what she'd actually say. "You're. Er. Really pretty."

If it was possible to die from embarrassment, Yuriko would have perished on the spot. Honestly, she felt like she was going to even if it wasn't.

"Oh. Thank you." She looked surprised, and confused. Yuriko would have been too, if she had been approached by this awful gremlin who could apparently do nothing but stammer vague compliments at her. "I, uh... I'd love to talk, but I've sort of got a thing." She waved down the hall, the universal gesture of 'I need to get going.'

"Right!" said Yuriko. "Of course! Um. It was nice to meet you."

"Uh. Yeah. You too."

And that was it. All that worrying, and she hefted her bag and walked away.

---

"And then I ran to the bathroom and barfed in the toilet."

Mike leaned back in the other side of the booth, his big arms crossed. He was still wearing his Smoothie City apron. "Well... Hmm. That could have gone better."

"Understatement of the fuckin' century. So I've lost my shot with her, I guess."

"Not necessarily."

Yuriko shot him a withering gaze. "Yeah, I'm sure that she can't fuckin' wait to talk to me again after that."

"It's really not as bad as I think you think it is."

"Whatever." She took a sip from her smoothie. "At least one of us is getting laid this week."

"Uh, no. I don't fuck on the first date."

"Would you suck his dick, though? A handy, maybe?"

Mike blushed. "Maybe. If he really impressed me."

The bell above the door rang, and Yuriko could hear two voices speaking in rapid Spanish approaching the counter behind her. She slid down in the booth seat, straw in her mouth. The smoothie was nestled neatly in the crease between her breasts, where she could sip from it hands-free.

"Are you going to try again?" asked Mike.

Yuriko scoffed. "You're seriously asking me that?"

He frowned. "Yeah, I am. She probably actually just had something she-" He paused for a moment, turning his ear towards the girls at the counter.

Entonces me escapé. Quiero hablar con ella, pero ella me pone nerviosa. Probablemente piense que no me gusta ahora. 

Yuriko didn't bother to look at them. That would have meant sitting up straight and turning in her seat, and she didn't want to do much other than slouch and sip right now. "Can you understand them?"

"A little. Anyway, I've got a good feeling about your situation! Seriously, you should try again sometime. You just need to find a way to chill yourself out and just... I don't know, talk about something. Maybe try to catch her before class, instead of after."

"I should probably wear deodorant, too. And not dress like a gremlin."

"Quit calling yourself that. Seriously. I know that you're just trying to make a joke out of it, but when you repeat that to yourself over and over it..."

Son enormes. Mucho más grandes que los míos. Gigantes. Ella nunca usa nada más que sudaderas y suéteres, pero yo también lo haría si fuera tan grande. 

Yuriko turned her head to look at them, but the seat was in the way, and she was fantastically lazy. "What are they saying?"

"Uh... Nothing. But, uh, yeah, deodorant would probably be a good idea. You don't smell right now, but I mean, like. In general."

"Yeah, probably." She sighed. "I know I need to work on that more. Being confident in myself. It's just hard when-"

Mike held up a hand. "Sorry, hold that thought." He stood. "Hey, um. ¡Hola! No quiero ser grosero, pero creo que quizás estén hablando de mi amiga. ¿Se llama Yuriko?"

The Spanish-speakers, apparently picking up on Mike's accent, switched to English. "Yeah, that's her. You know her?"

Wait. Wait. That voice was awfully familiar, now that it was speaking English. Yuriko sat up and turned, and...

The thing that Rose had to get to, when Yuriko had ambushed her in the hall, was apparently a gym session. She and her friend both had their long hair pulled back into ponytails, both were still slightly sweaty, and both were still in their gym clothes. For Rose, this meant that she was wearing sweatpants, running shoes, and above the waist... Nothing but a sports bra.

Her eyes went wide. Rose's eyes did the same. "H- hi," Yuriko squeaked.

"Hello," said Rose. "Er. Funny that we ran into each other again."

"Yeah. Um."

Yuriko was fairly certain that Mike had never met Rose's friend before, but they looked at each other, and something was instantly and effortlessly communicated between them. They both smiled.

"My cousin was just telling me about you!" said the friend. Or, cousin, apparently.

"Which is funny," said Mike, "because Yuriko was just telling me about you! Your name is Rose, right?"

"Uh. Yeah," said Rose.

"Mike, what's going on?" asked Yuriko.

"Oh, your name is Mike?" said the cousin. "I'm Alejandra."

"It's nice to meet you! Say, Alejandra, do you know what I think would be a great idea?"

"What's that, Mike?"

"My good friend Yuriko wants to go have a nice dinner this weekend, but I'm going to be busy and she doesn't have anyone to join her."

"Oh my god, Mike, are you two-"

"Oh, that's a problem!" said Alejandra, who was pointedly ignoring the question that Rose was whispering to her in Spanish. Instead, she wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pushed her forward a bit. "But it's also a coincidence! See, Rose wanted to go see a movie this weekend, but I have other things to do, so I can't go with her."

Yuriko was a brilliant, bright red now. Rose was too. They had a very hard time looking each other in the eye all of a sudden.

"You know, I think that I have a perfect solution to both of their problems!"

"Did you two plan this, Mike?" Yuriko asked frantically.

"Believe it or not, no," said Alejandra with a laugh. "So, is it a date?"

Yuriko expected Mike to answer for her, but he just looked at her, in exactly the same way that Alejandra was looking at Rose.

"I mean..." said Rose. "I'm up for it, if-"

"Yes!" said Yuriko. "Yes, I'll go!"

"Dinner and a movie!" said Alejandra excitedly. "So, do you need us to do the rest of this for you, or-"

"I kind of want to see that new Mad Max," said Rose. "Yuriko, would you-"

"Yeah! I'd love to! Do you like, um. Sushi?"

"I do like sushi!" Rose's blush had spread to cover her entire upper torso.

"Six o'clock on Saturday, and then we can work out the movie from there?" Yuriko felt like her mouth was running on auto-pilot now.

"Works for me!"

"Good! I'll see you then!"

"Yep!"

"Great!"

"Awesome!"

There was a long silence. Yuriko and Rose were both still blushing furiously, while Mike and Alejandra both looked like they were trying very hard to stifle a fit of giggles.

"Um..." said the guy behind the counter, who had watched the whole thing with a confused expression. "I have a medium bananaberry and a medium orange?"

Once Rose and Alejandra had taken their smoothies and left ("See you this weekend!!!" "Yeah, you too!!!") Yuriko let out a breath that she didn't realize that she'd been holding in that whole time.

"Mike."

"Yeah?"

"What the fuck just happened?"

"I think that me and my new friend Alejandra just set you up on a date."

"Jesus Christ, Mike. Fuck."

"I mean, hopefully, if things go well. Probably not on the first date though," he said with a grin.

"Did you see her?"

"Yeah, she's pretty. I can see why you're into her."

"Abs, Mike." She leaned foward over the table (squish) and grabbed his apron. "She has abs. Abs! And did you see her back?"

"I saw her chest. No wonder you like her."

"I didn't know she could speak Spanish. And that she has abs. And that she's apparently... Into me? I guess? Why would she be into me?"

"Why wouldn't she be? Talk to her this weekend and find out."

"Mike, you're the best and I love you, but please don't ever do that again," she said, still dazed.

He laughed. "Love you too, Yuyu."