. wild out a little

[dolly weathers]

For a moment she's reminded of the text message her step-mother Claudia had sent her. 11am family meeting. She wonders if she should be so presumptuous as to assume the meeting would be taking place over Zoom, but she knows that's not how they do things. Jonathan Weathers would expect his family at his home, pandemic or not. And if she wore a mask, he'd act offended. Dolly takes a long sip of wine to forget this thought till the morning. Her leg relaxed under his touch. It was weird. She'd been with Damien on and off for years, but she didn't feel like she was as connected to him as she was to Theo. She didn't remember Damien's touch being so warm or his voice making her knees feel weak. "What have you been thinking about me?" her green eyes look up at him and she leans back into the bubbles.

[theo lovett]

It wasn't until he was in a different environment that he realized how little space he had. Going from his bedroom to a shared living space in an apartment that barely managed to fit its three tenants, into an ambulance that was an even smaller space for a similar number of occupants, to being on a patio that belonged to a three bedroom house that belonged to one person... it seemed palatial to him, though it must have been modest to her. He takes a gulp of wine, his insides warmed by booze as his outsides were warmed by water. "If I were you I'd live in here. Why bother with school?" He mulls over the question, wondering how honest to be. His drunkenness means there's not much option other than totally. "At first I was thinking about how much of a bitch you were for betraying me, obviously," his fingers trace her calf, absentmindedly drawing little circles, "then I couldn't stop wondering what it was like, if Jake was still talking to you. Then I couldn't stop thinking about what a simp I was being. Then I started Googling. All the time I kept wondering what you were doing at any given moment, hoping I'd run into you somehow, even though no one's running into anyone these days. Seriously, I thought about it a lot."

[dolly weathers]

Dolly feels as though she's in a dream and at any moment she'll wake up. She can't help but fixate on the word pretend, which Theo had so eloquently used on their video chat. How far did the pretending go? Would it only stretch until daylight, when the sun would hit the truth. She smiles when he brings him school, "because I value learning and like a change in scenery. You can take this over while I'm gone." Her drunken head tips into the water and dampens her hair with chlorine. She's comforted by his hands which draw on her as he explains his thoughts. "I can't imagine liking someone so easily accessible," easily accessible but at the same time hard to reach, there were so many walls to climb. "I thought about you too. Less, maybe. But you'd just come into my mind," she sips her wine thoughtfully, "you should stop Googling me though. It's not fair."

[theo lovett]

"Pfft, who cares about learning," Theo says, giving her a tiny play splash. She dips into the water and he feels a surge of affection towards her, by how comfortable she seems around him. LA was full of girls who looked great in a hot tub, but wouldn't dare submerge themselves, makeup expertly applied and expensive extensions tousled just so. He sometimes loved the glamour of the city, but most of the time he yearned for home, craving the great outdoors and down to earth people. It was strange that he found Dolly Weathers of all people comforting, but he did. "You're sweet, but I'd go crazy here on my own. I don't know how you do it." It's unbelievably quiet here, the usual din of traffic seeming a million miles away. He drinks wine, shooting her a skeptical glance when she suggests that she thought of him too. "Come on, be real. Are you saying you wouldn't Google me if you could? If there was all this info, loads of pictures, out there?" He pauses, narrowing his eyes at her. "Actually. Do you even follow me on Instagram?"

[dolly weathers]

She laughs, "well, I haven't actually been alone that long." She thinks of Damien, who has already moved onto another relationship.. though, granted, their relationship wasn't really real. Even if they both kept to themselves and barely conversed, she missed knowing that there was someone else there. "But this is better," she says, sinking deeper in the water and letting her foot slide up his thigh. She looks off into her yard, thinking if she would Google him. "I don't know, I'm not really a Google-r. I sure there's a lot more about you on Google than you think, and I haven't tried to figure it out," she takes a sip of wine and looks back at him. "Come on, get over yourself. You know I follow you," she splashes him back and grins. "Are you going to stay till tomorrow?"

[theo lovett]

He cringes inwardly at his own indiscretion. "Oh fuck, yeah, course... sorry, spaced," he says, taking another sip of wine though it doesn't help him to be as coherent as he wants to be. In fact, he sets the glass down, resolving not to keep drinking. Much more and it could tip into not remembering territory, and this he definitely wants to remember. Her foot starts to slip up his thigh and his heart starts thumping again. He'd managed to forget for a moment that they were both naked, mere feet apart. Now that he can't forget it he groans, running a wet hand over his face and leaning back, sinking further into the water. "You're killing me." "There's old local news articles, a few things about my high school hockey team..." he grins at her, splashing her again. "You get over yourself, you think you're the only person I Google? I've Googled myself enough for the both of us." He pretends to think about the question, finally shrugging. "I don't know. I was really thinking about hitting it and quitting it... I wouldn't want to lead you on."

[dolly weathers]

She watches as he puts his glass down and decides to do the same. Her head is already spinning and these Weathers' grapes were bound to give her a killer hangover. She couldn't mentally handle her family on her best days and would hate to face it with her head pounding. "Oh," she grins, recoiling her foot back into her space quickly, "you poor thing. I'll stop." "You played hockey? Oh my godddd, of course you did. Your old hair makes so much sense," she laughs and twists a piece of blonde hair around her finger. "I remember Googling myself when I was like.. thirteen maybe. And I saw this picture of myself in this shiny fancy dress. When the picture was taken I thought I looked like such a hottie. And then, I saw it and haven't Googled myself since!" The photo mentioned is burned into her memory. The violet shiny dress and heels so high her knees buckled. "I can't believe you think you're even hitting it."

[theo lovett]

She recoils and suddenly the hot tub feels six feet wider. He misses the closeness instantly, craves her touch in a way he had never craved anyone before. But he stops himself from grabbing it back, knowing better than to react too quickly. "Thanks. All that blood rushing combined with hot water was making me feel dizzy."  He nods, grinning. "What, I had hockey player hair? I've never heard that before. But I was fucking sick at hockey, so I can't really disagree with you." He laughs, shaking his head. "I refuse to believe you could ever look bad, but I don't know what I'd do if all my awkward kid photos were online. You could get a lot of mileage out of that on Tik Tok." He raises his eyebrow at her. "So you make me leave the comfort and security of my own home..." he starts, moving slightly closer to her across the tub. "Come all the way here, endangering both myself and my poor Uber driver..." he's getting closer with every word. Eventually he's in front of her, and he places a hand on either side of where she's sat, his arms grazing against hers. Leaning in so that his face is only a few inches from hers, he lowers his voice. "...And you aren't even polite enough to let me give you the best fuck of your life?"

[dolly weathers]

She nods, "you had hockey player hair. Which makes total sense, with Alaska basically being Canada." Her touch is replaced with a tension and it melts into the air. It clings to her in such a way that she can't help but reach for her wine glass again. She tips the rest of it into her mouth and swallows, the red velvety liquid hits her stomach heavily. Her drunken eyes are fuzzy with bleeding mascara and as he moves closer, she feels her heart might jump out of her chest. "I told you that I could OD on this," she lowers her voice and looks him deep in the eyes, "you're making it hard to breathe." Her fingers search for his beneath the water and she squeezes his hand tightly. Her head tips and she grazes her lips against his before leaning back to give him a nudge in chest with her knee, "you know, I'm actually feeling really rude."

[theo lovett]

"Honorary status," he agrees, feeling nostalgic for his hometown. Though he'd always held it in fondness, something about knowing that he couldn't go back right now even if he wanted to makes him really, really want to. But if he wasn't going to be there, then he supposed here would do. He watches as she drinks, her lips stained purple by the wine but looking all the more tempting for it. Close to her, his heartbeat is really thumping now. His whole body feels tense with anticipation, his forever friendly, easygoing facade showing its cracks as he feels an animalistic desire to be close to her. "Want me to check your vitals?" he asks, unable to help cracking a grin. He ignores her hand squeezing his, the almost touch of her lips making him want to close what little distance there is between them. But she nudges him and he's stirred, the tension broken, the intensity between them gone in an instant. "Rich girls always are," he says, giving her a kiss on the cheek and planting himself back on the other side. He's calming down, his blood cooling. He glances behind her at the infamous tiki bar. "Want me to make you a whiskey sour instead? It's one of my many talents."

[dolly weathers]

She can feel his body vibrate through the water. Her own feels full of warmth and a strangeness that is new to her. She asks herself how sad is it that she's never felt such attraction? These sensations of closeness were so foreign, but everything else was so familiar. "You'd probably find that I'm having a heartattack," she admits, her heart is playing a long drum solo. He backs off and she immediately misses it. The water feels cold and her skin feels bare. "No, don't go," she pushes herself off her seat and moves closer to him, planting herself where he was to her. "I don't really want a whiskey sour," her stomach was so full of wine, she was afraid anything more would tip the scale completely. She gently presses her lips to his and sighs, "there, I'm dead."

[theo lovett]

He's surprised by how she's being with him. She had always projected a huge amount of confidence, even through her sunny reputation as America's sweetheart. The real Dolly he had gotten to know had a sharp wit and a tongue that could match it, she took no shit and knew just how to cut him down to size. But now she seems vulnerable, and he's both caught off guard and flattered to see it. After all, he felt just the same. As she closes the gap between them once more, his breath gets shallow, his pulse rocketing back up. "That's probably wise--" he starts, only to be cut off by her lips pushing up against his. His whole body reacts with enthusiasm, though he stays still, a small smile on his lips when they part. He kisses her again, his hand finding the back of her neck and holding her against him as he kisses her eagerly, hungrily. When they part, his hand slips to her neck, pressing two fingers against her pulse. "You're alive, actually. Which is good, necrophilia isn't my thing."

[dolly weathers]

His lips feel pillowy soft against hers. Her chest rises and falls with ease, that unfamiliarity fades away and everything feels like instinct. Her hands push into the bench and they move onto his thighs, her fingernails dig softly into his flesh. "Are you sure? Can you check again?" she asks, greedily going in for another kiss. She moves her body to sit on his thigh, "there's something I've been dying to do". She lifts a hand out of the water and rakes it through his yellow hair, "god, that feels so good. Definitely like velvet!"

[theo lovett]

It's everything he anticipated and more. Yet again he feels like a teenager, a kiss threatening to send him over the edge like a hormonal fourteen year old. His hands find the small of her back and he holds her, her nakedness suddenly seeming total and impossibly inviting, her body so warm and weightless in the water. "Yeah, there's a lot I'm dying to do," he says, his voice a slight croak as he tries to regain control of himself. He laughs, enjoying the feeling of her fingers in what hair he has left. He pulls her in for another kiss, pulling away and exhaling heavily. "This is embarrassing but we're gonna have to take a sec," he says, trying to pull himself back from the edge. He holds her with one hand, using the other to pinch his eyes. "Fuck. I swear, I'm not usually this... I don't even know. Pathetic? Desperate? ... Easy?" he opens his eyes, looking at her again. "You do something to me."

[dolly weathers]

Her arm reaches around his neck and her fingers touch him softly. The lack of physical affections mixed with sharing this space with Theo makes her feel completely starved for him. His neck tastes of salty humidity when she kisses him there. She feels him breathe and sigh, the corners of her lips tug with an amused smile. "I actually am this easy," she scrunches her face and fakes embarrassment. "Shh. It's not me, it's these fucking tiki lights," she kisses him again. "Do you want some water? Press pause?"