“A House of Colours” Part 16 Pizza Friday

Friday Morning, the one day of the week when the morning routine of White, Dark and now Red, did not focus on the Mistresses needs. White and Dark remained in their beds, or rather Whites bed, as yet again she had joined White in the middle of the night after a bad dream had woken her.

It was always going to be a subdued day. The emotion of the visit to Madame Amy the day before was impacting the house. Raven and Saffron sat out on the balcony of their bedroom with their morning drinks as Red sneaked through their bedroom suite to find herself some breakfast.
Dressed in denim cut jeans and a red cropped t shirt her arms where free of their restriction of the last few days. She still wore the cuffs gifted to her by her Mistress, the carabiner was hanging from her right one. From the kitchen she took an apple and banana and headed down stairs, out the glass doors at the rear of the living room of the house onto the decking and headed to the seated area at the top of the garden.

She needed to be alone.

As she sat looking back down at the huge white and glass house below, her thoughts replayed the events of the previous day. Her Mistress, clearly defying seniority for her, but there was something more. Something uncomfortable. That at some time in her life her Mistress had suffered great sorrow, nearing the edge of oblivion Madame had said. The mere thought of her Mistress being unhappy left her feeling empty yet clearly this was past history. She seemed so happy now.

Red reclined back in the morning sun and closed her eyes. She focused on the moment, that day. She was not alone, she was safe in the house. People who cared for her surrounded her and the only work she’d done all week, while unpaid had left her feeling most satisfied at contributing to the house. She closed her eyes and relaxed, drifting into a light sleep, a light sleep that ended up being a couple of hours because on waking the sun had moved significantly across the sky and the Mistress and Goddess where now on the decking beneath her in the garden.

Noticing her sit upright her Mistress stood and headed up the garden towards her. Striding elegantly in a long trailing black skirt and cropped blouse. Her long hair was down and tousled around her neck. Walking barefoot up the garden she had a gypsy like quality about her, someone comfortable in her own skin. Her striking black nail varnish, such a minor detail, easily picked out by Reds eyes as she scanned the women lovingly as she approached. Upon reaching her Red stood and put her hands behind her back. “Good morning Mistress” she smiled and said, “Good afternoon sweetie” she smiled back, “Remember it is Friday my dear you may relax the formalities.” The girl nodded “Oh yes, of course , er, Raven, thank you” she said, placing her hands by her sides “We must never forget who we are, or where we have come from Poppy. Regardless of name, you will always be my pet.” The girl squirmed with excitement “But.. is that really the case, I mean… will I be able to stay.” the girl frowned a little, worried. Raven opened her arms and held the girl tight. “Little one, I will stop at nothing to ensure that you are mine. I know what you saw yesterday must have given you more questions than answers, but I will explain when I can, not yet. Just know that I will do whatever it takes.” Red held her Mistress back tightly, trying to remain strong.
“Little one, lets lay down, I’m feeling quite tired myself” the woman gestured to the cosy seating area. The pair reclined together. “Now little one, of sweet voice, tell me, what is your favourite book?”
“Just one? I guess if I had to pick one it would be Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Red took her time relaying the story she knew with much fondness to the listening woman, laying on her back. After speaking softly for a while the girl noticed her Mistress had fallen asleep. The girl smiled, tucking herself into the nook of her outstretched arm and closed her eyes also. She breathed in the soft scent of her Mistress and thought of nowhere else she would rather be in that moment, for a short time at least her fears of the future subsided.

As late afternoon approached Dark and White ran up the garden to greet the pair as they returned to the house themselves walking down the long lawn. The woman letting go of her as the two met them and continued to walk by smiling as she did.
“We’re planning takeaway dinner” White stated, “Pizza again?” Red optimistically chirped, “Probably” Dark added, “She’s hoping for the same delivery guy as last week.”
White suddenly felt a flush of colour to her face “No I’m not” she answered awkwardly, “Yes you are” reinforced Dark, “You fancy him don’t you?”
“I don’t know, he’s just been very polite to me at the gates each time, that’s all.”
Red suddenly felt transported back to her teens, a certain nervousness of the memories came over her as was evident in Whites defence. She recalled the little buzz of excitement the first Friday she arrived in the house when White went out to collect the dinner from the gate and clearly White wasn’t against leaving the house as Dark was. “Would you go on a date?” Red asked tentatively. Dark immediately looked at White for the response, evidently keen to hear the response as her own feelings on the matter filled her head.
“Well I, I guess I would consider it, maybe…” It wasn’t a very convincing.
Red asked something more “Would you, be allowed?”
White turned swiftly to the Mistresses down on the decking out of ear shot before turning to Red with her response “The Goddess has said I’m allowed if I wanted to.”
Dark looked worried at the mere thought, without needing to say a word it was clear how she felt as White turned to her. “Hey, I’m not going anywhere yet, don’t worry” she assured as she put her arms around her friend. “We’ve talked about this, I won’t go if you don’t want me to.”
“No” Dark stated “I don’t want to ever hold you back”
“Dark, no one is more important to me than you, nothing will ever change that, and if you aren’t ready, then I’m not” The pair tightened their grip round one another. “Now lets go sort dinner out ok!”
“Yes,” Dark breathed deeply.
The three girls walked swiftly to the bottom of the garden hand in hand to sort out the dinner order.

An hour or so later the girls had the table ready on the decking, one of the last nights of the summer they might be able to eat outside as the temperature of the seasons had begun to change. When the chime rang indicating the delivery driver was at the front gate White suddenly felt nervous and Saffron had noticed this.
“Are you going to collect dinner as usual sweetie?” she softly asked.
“Er yes. Yes of course” the girl replied, looking at Dark for a reaction, “Do you want to come with me?” She asked of her friend, in hindsight a terribly cruel question to ask of her but it was her own nerves that had made her say it, but Dark froze in shock, “I.. I er, I .. but” she stammered feeling suddenly pushed between her friends plea and her own fear. It was Red that bravely reached for darks hands and offered a solution. ” How about,” she made eye contact with Dark, “How about I go with her and you wait by the front door for us?”
A look of relief fell across Darks face, “Oh y..yes please.. that, that would be great, thank you Red”.
White looked a little saddened that she had asked her friend such an awkward request, but also that she was unable to help her, she took them both by the hands and pulled them to her for a moments embrace before standing and the three headed towards the front door.
“White” Saffron called, to which the girl paused and turned, “Remember what we spoke about, it’s just a conversation, and he’s more scared of you than you’re scared of him”.
The girl nodded and the three resumed walking.

As Dark hide inside the front doorway with her back to the wall, she closed her eyes to concentrate on listening to any glimmer of conversation she might over hear.
White and Red walked down the driveway, in cropped jeans and tops, to the awaiting delivery vehicle. Red hung back a little.

“Hello my Princess” the delivery boy spoke as the girls approached, “two of you today, I always knew you weren’t eating all of this Pizza alone, a friend?”
Instantly shy White squirmed a little and turned to Red “This is my sister” she proudly stated, “Wow” was the reply as the boxes where handed over to the pair, “Two Princesses in one family, any more? Or just a wicked step mother who wears a lot of black and locks you in the tower, taking the form of a dragon at night?”
The girls giggled in unison, they both knew the other was thinking the same thing. Red remained tight lipped.
“Our pet dragon is very well behaved actually” White cheekily answered, causing Red to snigger.
“Is he now, I’d best be careful talking to your Princesses then”
“She, actually”
“Oh of course, a female dragon to look after you… I was wondering if …maybe your dragon would allow a young knight to take you on a date…. like we discussed last week, maybe bowling? If .. if you wanted to?”

Red observed White clamping her lips closed, keeping herself calm but clearly this had her a little flustered.

“When?” She simply responded,
“Oh, er well actually I work most nights except Saturday so is er tomorrow ok?”
White hesitated, calmly thinking, holding her pose.
“How may I contact you?”
“Oh er, er here” the boy hurried to his van and scrabbled around for a piece of paper, desperately nervous, he found a pen and noted his number down and handed it to her.
“Thank you young knight, and what is your name”
“My friends call me EJ”
“Well I shall phone you in the morning and let you know” she confidently stated, smiled and the pair turned to walk back to the house.

Red had watched the nervous pair, she noticed how White had mimicked the posture of the Goddess, how she held herself, more prominently, more confidently than usual. Her speech, when she did speak was direct, she was prepared for this conversation, on top of all she had found, the house had given her a mentor.

“Wow, that was amazing White!” Red exclaimed once out of earshot, “Do you think so?” a now nervous White answered.

“What happened?” an excited Dark asked as they reached the door.
Tight lipped Red turned to White allowing her to do all the talking.
“Um, he asked me out, to go bowling… tomorrow”
“Oh wow” replied Dark, “Are you going to go?
“I shall ask the Goddess, I’m not sure.” she replied and the three headed back to the decking.

Once there they opened the pizza boxes and the 5 sat tucking into their Friday night meal. Red sat curious to see whether White would raise it during the meal. She possibly wasn’t until Dark blurted it out, possibly out of her own anxiety about the thought.
“White has been asked on a date tomorrow Goddess” on realising what she’d said her face flushed bright red and she turned to her friend, whose eyes had pinged open widely with surprise mid mouthful of pizza.
The Goddess’s reaction was of course calm, “Really White, and what do you plan to do?” she asked smiling.
“I, er, I don’t know Goddess, I have his phone number, I wanted to talk to you first, I said I’d call him in the morning”
Dark was transfixed on the exchange between White and her Mistress, anxious in the outcome and ultimate decision.
Red however had looked beyond the pairs exchange to the face of her Mistress, silently listening, but not making it obvious as the facts of the location where shared.

“Well my dear, I believe you are quite able to make the decision yourself.” The Goddess stated. “I believe you are ready my dear, it was a good idea to give yourself some thinking time, reflect on it over night and let him know tomorrow morning as you have agreed. Then just remember to check what time he’s picking you up”.
“I’ll drop her off, and pick her up” The Mistress finally spoke, with some conviction,
“There’s no need for that Raven” Saffron answered quickly, almost having pre-empted the intervention.
“Maybe, but that’s what will happen.” She turned and looked sternly at Saffron who remained calm but raised her tone with her response. “Do we need to discuss this now or later my dear?”
“Neither, we just have.” Raven wasn’t budging on this one and clearly didn’t share the enthusiasm of the Goddess.
“Well White, it’s your choice, I believe you are ready for this experience, sleep on it, but don’t let it worry you okay?” Saffron tried calming White who simply nodded, turning to Dark to gauge her reaction, her friend simply smiled.

After the meal the girls began clearing up “Why don’t you find a movie we can all watch girls and we’ll snuggle down together for the evening” Saffron suggested and the trio disappeared into the house.

It was Red on her own who walked back to the decking to inform the Mistresses they were done, she had done so to allow the two girls some privacy to chat about the potential date, not realising that Raven and Saffron had restarted their conversation about the matter themselves.

She heard her Mistresses voice first “Well you obviously know best dear, you know how I feel.”
“Yes Raven, I know how you feel, but there is a girl who we a nurturing in there who is ready for this. We’ve spoken of this before. We tell all the girls that they are here as long as they want, as long as they wish, it is ultimately not up to us, they are not ours to control.”
“I know that, but the simple fact is she’s not going on her own”
“What do you mean, she’s not 12, they don’t need a chaperone?!”
“I will keep out of the way, she won’t know I’m there, I’ll drop her off and then just be around”
“You, Little Miss Inconspicuous?” Saffron taunted
“Yes, and that’s the end of the discussion Saffron.”
Raven turned away from her partner, based on what she had seen up to then Red realised this was not usual for her Mistress to act in the this way. The protective and possessive nature of course, these were inherent in her character, it was the way she was not giving in to Saffron that made this moment different.

“Raven” Saffron beckoned for her attention but the Mistress resolutely didn’t react.
She tried again “Raven, you can’t…” at which point the woman stood and with her wine glass in hand and started to walk toward the open doors of the house “I know how you feel, you know how I feel.” She stated

Red ducked into the house and tried to make it look like she’d just arrived as the stern faced mistress walked straight passed her without saying a word. The girl continued out onto the decking to Saffron as she to was standing “Anything I can do for you?” she asked smiling sweetly, which the woman matched in smiling back at her, “No dear, we’re all sorted out here, let’s go and find the others”
“Is everything alright between you?” the girl gingerly asked, a little worried that even the smallest thing might come between the two Mistresses.
“Of course it is Red, just a certain inevitability that I was ready for” she explained
“Mistress doesn’t like the idea of White going out does she” she said as the Goddess linked her arm with hers and they began walking into the house together.
“Of course not, but fine, if she’d reacted any other way I would have been more worried”

On reaching the others in the living room there was no sign of Raven. White and Dark where stood by the Television ready with the movie (Black Swan) ready to go.
Saffron sat on the sofa and the girls dived either side, White quickly gestured her arm to Red who snuggled down next to her.
“Put the film on then White please” the woman asked
“Shouldn’t we wait?” White asked holding the controls
“No, she knows where we are, she’ll join us when she’s ready.”

With that, White started the movie.

Sure enough about an hour later Raven skulked silently into the room and sat in the arm chair, her eyes focused immediately on the movie. Red sat quietly and glanced at Saffron who was already hoping to make eye contact. The woman merely nodded and Red got up from her place on the sofa and headed coyly towards her Mistress. As she stood silently beside the chair the woman eventually looked up with a slightly icy stare, looking deep into her eyes for a few moments making Red feel anxious, until the woman raised her arm inviting the girl onto her lap.

Red gladly accepted and sat across her legs laying her head on her shoulder and continued in silence to watch the movie, her hand finding that of her Mistress, who placed her other arm delicately around her.

The girl was unaware of her Mistress’s true thoughts but knew she wanted to be in her arms, hopeful in some small way that her being there was having a positive effect.