“Uh, I don’t know anyone named Raven,” she said, her lips smiling in a way that reminded me of an adult listening to the fantastical stories of a toddler. “And why are you trying to figure out who I am?”

I gave that a moment of thought. I had thought about this for a long, long time since I figured out who she was. And I knew who she was, she was obviously lying… though it was actually really hard to tell, and if I was any bit unsure, I would have backtracked immediately. But I wasn’t unsure. I knew.

“Because I like you,” I told her.

It was the conclusion I had come to the past few days, and as soon as the thought had first crossed my mind, it made sense. I might have rejected the idea at first, just a little bit, because I was scared of what it would mean for me. I mean, to like a whore? What sort of fucked up common sense did I have? But at the same time, it made sense. I understood all of a sudden why it shocked me so hard to finally realize, why I was so scared and happy and nervous and excited all at once.

“It’s because I like you.”

She looked shocked, her mouth hanging open ever so slightly, and I could tell that her eyes were wide underneath her mask.

But then her jaw snapped shut.

“You’re wrong,” she said, just a hint of venom in her voice. “You don’t like me. You like sex, and I just happen to be the one you have sex with.”

She seemed mad, but I wasn’t sure who she was mad at. Me? Or her? Or both of us? Or maybe the world?

Either way, I twisted around on the bed to sit in front of her on the bed. Looked her dead in the eyes as I said, “No.”

She balked, leaning back where she sat as I leaned forward.

“What do you mean, no?” she asked.

“I mean that I don’t like you because of your mouth, or your boobs, or the way you make me feel,” I told her. “It’s because it’s you.”

She looked stunned and confused as fuck and like we had just fucked under the guise of hidden identity before I revealed that I knew everything about her and me. Which was what happened, so…

“What do you mean, it’s me?” she asked me.

I shrugged. “I mean exactly what I said. I like sex because it’s you. Because I like you.”

She spluttered for a second, and it was the first time I had ever seen her so flustered, so lost for words. It seemed that tonight was a night for firsts for both of us.

“Lily,” she said at last, her shoulders drooping as she sighed. “Lily, you’re being childish. My name isn’t Raven.”

“Yes it is,” I said. “Don’t try to deny it.”

“Lily,” she said again with a sigh. “What are the fucking chances that we know each other outside of this? Like, what the fucking hell?”

“Yeah, sure, but,” I said, “it doesn’t mean that it’s impossible.”

“Lily…”

Her voice was so disbelieving that for a second, I really did think I had it wrong, but I shook her persuasion from my mind.

“Take off your mask,” I told her finally.

She had been running her hand through her hair, pushing it back from her face when I said this. She froze, turning her head back so that she could stare incredulously at me.

“The fuck you said?”

“Take off your mask,” I repeated, “and prove you’re not Raven.”

She scoffed. “I’m not Raven, Lily, fucking hell.”

I crossed my arms, and the situation finally seemed to register in my brain. Two naked girls, flushed and wet after having literally just fucked, having a serious conversation about identity on the bed. As hilarious as this was, it was also no time to be thinking about it.

“Why not?” I asked her.

“Fucking hell, Lily!” she shouted at me, and I flinched. “I’m a fucking whore, why the hell should I tell you who the hell I am?”

And as she said this, hurt flashed through my chest. Why had I thought she’d tell me anyway? There must’ve been a reason for all my insistence.

Why did I care?

But then my gaze caught on her face. Her eyes, specifically, and I saw something new. Something I had missed in the tone of her voice, the set of her lips, her flawless acting.

She was scared, and not only that, she looked like she was broken inside. As if breaking me by saying this was… was breaking her, too…

My resolve strengthened as I realized this, and her weary face scanned mine surprisedly. She didn’t expect me to get stronger when she said that. She intended to push me away from her. Well, I had something to tell her.

I wasn’t ever going to go anywhere.

“You can’t break me like this, Raven,” I told her, pushing myself from my ass to sit on my knees. “You can’t push me away.”

I crawled over the bed to her, shortening the few feet of distance separating us into one foot, half a foot, three inches…

She had leaned back, trying to keep me away, but I didn’t let that stop me. This was the place where, when I wanted something, I got it. Took it, if I had to. And right now, I wanted her and the truth.

She’d forgive me. Why, I knew she’d give it to me willingly.

“Let me in, Raven,” I whispered when I was sat in front of her, leaned in so that our mouths were almost touching. “Don’t push me away.”

I would push her to the edge. Make her see me and decide for herself (with a lot of persuasion from me, of course) if she wants to show me herself.

She was leaned almost all the way back her weight on her hands as her legs were beside me. I lifted my arms to plant them on the bed beside her hips, anchoring myself on top of her and keeping her here.

“Raven…” I whispered pleadingly, formulating that little pout on my lips I knew she couldn’t resist.

“Lily…” she whispered back, her eyes dipping down to look at my pushed out lips.

“Please?” I asked.

She huffed a long, loud sigh, and I was surprised she hadn’t exhaled her entire fucking lung with how much air left her mouth. “What fucking difference would it make?” she asked rhetorically as she reached up and grasped the edge of her black mask.

And then she closed her eyes and pulled it off.

Her skin was a bit raw underneath, pale and flushed and glowing as she slowly took it off. And fucking hell, she was so much more beautiful under the mask, even more beautiful than the last time I had seen her.

Her eyelashes were twice as long without the mask obscuring them. Her eyebrows weren’t plucked to perfection but still dark and straight. Her nose was small and dainty in every way she wasn’t. She had that small dot on her cheek, too, and it was all so Raven and so Orchid at the same fucking time that I think I forgot to breathe.

After a moment, she blinked her eyes open, her gaze down, looking at her own stomach where she set her mask in a way that almost looked like she just fluttered her eyes while they were still closed.

She took a deep breath before she looked up, her gaze hard and fierce as she met my eyes, and I think my liking for her just dipped into-

Too soon.

“Happy?” she asked me, her words sharp and biting even as fear shone in her eyes.

What could she possibly be afraid of?

“Of course,” I breathed back. She balked, so I continued. “The most beautiful person in the world showed me who they were. How could I not be happy?”

She laughed as she sat up further, leaning into me as she lifted her hands up to take my face in her hands.

“Sorry, but that’s not possible,” she whispered against my mouth with our lips just barely brushing each other. 

I frowned. “Why?”

Without even a moment of hesitation, she told me, “Because you’re the most beautiful person in the world.”

“So fucking cheesy,” I breathed into her mouth as I brought a hand up to her head to smash her against me.

“That’s what I’m here for,” she told me between kisses, but that was the last thing spoken between us.

To be honest, I had never been the ‘brave one’ before. Not in any situation was I ever one to take initiative. When I first came here, I was scared to kiss someone, let alone… whatever the fuck this was. I hadn’t remembered that I had shared a first kiss with someone before, always thought I was fresh from the womb with no prior experience. How could I have forgotten about that first kiss?

That is, unless I made myself forget? But how could I have made myself forget?

And as I sat there, making out with Raven in a way that had never happened before, I realized… did it matter? I forgot, so what? Did it change anything? No. Did it help me recognize Orchid as Raven? Sure, but at the same time, so? I was making-the-fuck-out with Raven, so why shouldn’t I just enjoy it?

So I banished these thoughts from my mind and focused on her, on us, on this.

And, fuck, was it worth it.

“Wait, wait,” came a voice as suddenly, my lips were separated from hers as the hands on my face slowly pushed me away. “We need to talk.”

I let my eyes drift open to peer down at her and how did I end up on top of her? How’d she get on her back?

She groaned above me as I frowned down at her, confused as to how the hell we got here. “Ugh, I can’t focus when you look at me like that.”

I huffed a laugh as I let my frown ease into a small smirk. “Sorry,” I said and since when had I ever smirked? Or known how to?

It didn’t matter as she stroked my hair and gazed, awestruck, up at my face. It didn’t matter because she was naked beneath me. It didn’t matter because I was naked on top of her. It didn’t matter as her lips began to dance in the way of words.

“You were right,” she told me with a shrug. “My name is Raven Paek. We went to high school together, back when you knew me as Carissa. We were partners in science in the ninth grade, and history seat partners in senior year. You were right.”

“I was right,” I repeated. “Your name is Raven Paek, my name is Lily Miracle, and I gave you my first kiss at the Christmas party in the ninth grade. You saved me from that drunk bastard two Saturdays ago, and then you beat him to hell and back.”

“You like me,” she said with a slight smile.

“You like me,” I retorted back, and she sighed, her smile shrinking sorrowfully.

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” she asked, a sad look in her eyes, and it threw me for a loop.

“How so?” I asked her, frowning. “There’s no reason for this to be a problem.”

“Except for every reason that there is,” she said.

A pause of silence as her hand kept on stroking my hair, and then I told her, “I’m not following.”

She let out another sigh, and I swear, if she were to sigh again, she’d die of lack of oxygen.

“Lily, you’re this big pediatrician,” she began, and I began to protest but her hand on my hair pressed against my lips. “Just listen, Lily,” she told me, waiting until I nodded my agreement before she moved her hand back to stroke my hair and continued with her words. “You have a pure job and a happy life. You love your sister and your sister loves you. You went to college and did something with you life. You’re making clean money by helping people, and one day, you’ll probably meet some nice guy or girl and settle down. And that will never be me.

“I’m not pure, hell, I’m not even nice half the time. I’m a prostitute. I make money by fucking people, and that money I make definitely isn’t clean. I only speak face to face with my family for holidays when they drag me to what they think is my ‘home’. I decided in college that I wouldn’t do that for the rest of my life, and I’ve stuck by that decision for eight fucking years. And here’s the big thing that will forever separate us.

“I will never settle down with anyone. No one will want me, you won’t even want me once you actually get to know me, so why even bother to try?”

I gaped down at her. She scoffed at my face, and I couldn’t even bother to try to hide my horror. And the worst part? She actually looked like she believed every word she said.

“No!” I finally managed to shout as my mouth flapped around like a useless fish. “You’re wrong!” I told her aggressively.

She scoffed again but I wasn’t having any of it. If she made me listen to her quietly, then she’d have to listen to me quietly.

“First off, I’m not some big doctor,” I told her. “I went to college to be a pediatrician because my parents wanted me to. Fuck, you quit college after some while because you didn’t want to. You denied your parents’ demands and did your own thing. And look where you are now? Sure, you don’t do something a lot of people bring up in conversation to brag about, but you make hundreds a day. You’re hot as fuck, too, and I could never do any of this. Denying your family makes you so brave. How could no one like that? And how do you know I’m happy? I’ve literally been living life like a fucking puppet until I met you. Give this a fucking chance, will you?”

She still looked rather like she didn’t believe me, but she was also blushing like a virgin I knew she wasn’t.

“Really?” she asked, turning her head slightly to the side as if to hide her face from me.

“YES!” I practically shouted into her face. “Just- just go out with me once, just one fucking time, and then we’ll go from there?”

She still looked hesitant, and I wondered how she had gained this mentality. What sort of bitch made her this way? I mean, I liked her so much, every broken crevice of her, but I wanted to kill whomever made her feel unworthy. She was the most beautiful, kind, helpful person in the world, and I wanted to spend every moment with her.

“Please?” I added in a small voice.

It was pure agony to wait for her answer, but then she was slowly nodding. “...Okay,” she said after a moment of hesitation, and then she met my eyes again. “We’ll go from there.”

“Okay,” I agreed, so fucking happy that she agreed, but then she was pulling me back down by the hands in my hair.

And then we were kissing again, our bodies so fucking flush against each other that there was no way I could hide anything, and neither could she. Her mask was off, and this time, it wouldn’t be Orchid fucking me. It’d be Raven.

 I let my hands drag up her body, starting from her hips, all the way around her warm, satin-like skin until my fingers were trailing down to wrap around her wrists. Bare as the rest of us, and I tried to remember how long it had been since she had worn any of the jewelry from our first night. I had only seen her on Wednesdays, along with that one Saturday at The Heaven’s, but she hadn’t worn anything since the first time we reunited here, right?

I dragged my hands back up her arms to reach under her waist and pull her into me, and she reciprocated by wrapping her arms around my entire neck and trying to swallow me.

This time, we didn’t use the toy for assistance. Instead, we just went with our old fashioned fingers, and it was just as heavenly because it was us.

But all too soon, I knew I had to leave her. I tried to pull out the cash from my bag while we both redressed, but she refused to take it. It was almost like the time before, but I hadn’t even been able to pull the cash in my own hands this time before she pushed it away.

“We’re dating, now,” she told me with a slight smile. I could tell how nervous she was just from her face, but she was sincere, too. “You don’t need to pay me.”

My hand stilled in my efforts to pull out the necessary cash. I thought it over for a second, my eyes darting around her face and her half-naked body.

“Okay,” I agreed hesitantly. “But I’m paying for our first date, deal?”

She laughed lightly. “Deal.”