Free Beebo Brinker Chronicles 1 - Odd Girl Out by Ann Bannon Page A

sudden hot passion. Laura sat up in bed and struggled against her implacable desire with tears and tremors.
    "Laur?” murmured Beth, and her hand found Laura's startled back.
    "I'm all right,” said Laura in a quick scared whisper. “I'm all right, Beth,” and she lay down and faced away from Beth and drew the covers high.
    She slept very little that night, and her whole being was consumed with wonder and hope and powerful misgivings. She had completely forgotten Charlie.
    Beth slept, but restlessly. There was the mystery of Charlie to trouble her dreams, and there was the surprise of unexpectedly rousing Laura. She had begun to think that she would never reach Laura, never really be close to her; it seemed that all she ever did was tease, and all Laura did was answer her politely. But when she reached over in bed to tickle her she realized with a shock that she had struck a profoundly responsive chord in Laura. She felt Laura's cold hands grip hers and heard her breathe, “Oh, Beth ... Beth...” and felt her cool, remote courtesy melt away. Beth was surprised and delighted. Unwilling to hurry her and just as unwilling to let her go, Beth simply held her in her arms and enjoyed the feel of her and marveled at the force of her heart. She knew it was more than fright that provoked Laura's heart so, and somehow Laura's reaction complemented the strange mood Charlie had brought upon her.
    Beth took Laura in her arms that night, not because she had forgotten Charlie or because the effect he had on her was lessened; but simply because Laura was right there with her in the same place at the same time, because Laura was sweet and warm and accessible and Beth felt a tender fondness for her. And perhaps most of all because Charlie had aroused to painful new life her old craving for love.
    It meant a lot to Beth to be loved. It would have meant even more if she could have loved someone herself. But she had never been able to give her love successfully and so she was ready to take someone else's. She needed it; if she couldn't give it she would take it, that was all. And Beth was not afraid to take, to try new ways, to look in new places. She had not been afraid of George, nor of the boys that followed him. And she wasn't afraid when she felt Laura's unmistakably erotic response to her teasing; startled, intrigued, but not afraid. It did not frighten Beth that Laura was a member of her own sex; it made her only the more curious.
    There was, in fact, only one thing that scared Beth a little that night, and that was her reaction to Charlie.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    THE NOISE IN the halls woke Beth the next morning. She moaned and stretched and turned to find Laura watching her, and she smiled sleepily at her.
    "Morning, honey,” she said, and yawned. ���What time is it?"
    "I don't know. Almost nine.” Don't get up! Laura thought anxiously. It all went so fast.
    "Ummm ... got to get up.” She raised her arm over her head and squinted at her watch.
    "It's early,” said Laura hopefully, still watching her.
    "I know, but Uncle John rolls out at nine on Sundays. Always has.” Her arm fell across her stomach. “He'll be by to pick me up in a few minutes for breakfast.” She looked at Laura. “Sleep well, Laur?"
    "Yes,” said Laura, and she thought she had never seen anything quite so beautiful as Beth with her sleepy head on the pillow and her pale face set in the aureole of her dark hair.
    Beth reached up languidly and pushed Laura's hair behind her ear, and that ear tingled to the ends of Laura's fingers. “My God, are you ticklish,” Beth chuckled. “I thought you were going to snap at me last night."
    Laura smiled sheepishly. “I didn't mean to. I was just��you caught me by surprise."
    "I guess!” said Beth, and she lay still and looked at Laura for a long moment. She liked to be looked at the way Laura was looking at her. She was being admired and she enjoyed it. But still, Uncle John got up at nine.
    She sat up and