And the World Begins Today (Mona, Casual)

[LING LING DONGFENG]

Ling Ling had begun to make trips to the library somewhat routine. She’d immediately liked the place – felt the draw of books and art and creation just begging for her to come back – and had returned the day after her first visit, that time staying nearly the entire afternoon to look through everything. She loved it, browsing through endless tomes. She wasn’t a quick reader, which was sometimes not efficient and annoying when she had to look up uncommon words she’d never learned before, but it was learning, and learning was good, so it didn’t bother her too much. Now, she usually visited the library when she had free time, or when she was writing and wanted to sit at a different place than her old desk in her flat.

She was there now. It was around two, she imagined. She’d come at around twelve thirty, after she’d eaten lunch at a nice place with good prices down the street she’d found recently, and had been using her laptop to write for a while. She was doing an article for the paper about the cultural divide between the US and China, because she’d been commissioned to by a young woman at the printing shop who’d noticed her frequent comings and goings. She’d been happy to accept the small job, because it paid well, and she enjoyed writing about the place she’d grown up in. Despite all that had happened to her while living there, she still loved the country for its antique beauty.

But she’d finished writing for today, and had put her laptop back in her bag she carried around sometimes. She say in a comfy chair and began to read a book she’d found on the shelves that was about a man who lived with his wife, and they were grieving over the loss of their child. It was quite good, and she soon became immersed in it.

She sat there, reading, absorbing the information and story. Feeling for the characters and becoming attached to them. She’d always found it so easy to make characters of literature real in her mind. Sometimes it frightened her, and she’d not read for ages, scared that she was making them out to be too real; what if she started talking to them, like Mama had? When they spoke to the characters from the movies when she was a child, she’d loved it, imagined them perfectly. She didn’t like to think about how much it had upset her when Mama did it without her. How much it upset her when she realized that Mama continued to visualize the characters even when they weren’t playing. Even when she was too old to play make believe anymore.

But she didn’t mind it that right now. She was surrounded by people and other books, and that helped her paranoia; settled her unreasonably fears. She sat there reading for who knows how long, but she was nearly a third through the book – she was proud for only having to look words up every few pages – when suddenly, there was another person very, very close to her.

[MONA LISA DRAGOTI]

What the hell is the matter with people say one little thing about their mother and their profession on the corner and they get so upset.

Mona rubbed her cheek slightly where the slap had landed. Really in all fairness it wasn't her fault that she had spoken out in therapy today. The lady, Christy her name might of been, told Mona that maybe she had such issues because all her mother ever did was be a beauty queen. How was Mona supposed to let that go, I mean really she was smart enough to know when a chance to hurt someone came into the open. And when the slap came all Mona did was wink and say ' Do that enough and I may learn to like it'. It was a victory on her score board, even if her cheek now burned.

She walked in between the aisles of books letting her fingers touch the spines with a fondness she had never held for humans. Books had always been her escape from the world. No matter the pain, or the suffering that she had been put through as a child, she always had a book to comfort her. And for a long time now she had been neglecting her life long friends. Her eyes roamed over the titles of the books and noted in her head the ones she had already read before.

Mona turned her attention from the books to the people who sat in the library. So many people came here to find a book to read or to relax. She had once came to the Library like them, just to be there. Now she only came because she had too. Her life had changed so much in just a span of a year. She was just 18 yet she felt like she lived a lifetime already.

She had lost her parents, both spirituality and physically. She had loved, yet never loved back. And she had tried to kill herself, yet didn't succeed.

And now she was just angry, angry and tired and only wanting to be alone. She didn't love Dolores any longer, in fact if she was going to be truthful she hadn't loved Dolores in a long time. She felt almost empty now, the love that used to hurt her was gone.

She had to get out of the Library, it was making her... feel things. She pulled her hand away from the books and walked quickly down the aisles towards her way out of the place. She kept her eyes straight forward and didn't look at anyone. She was so distracted that she didn't see the man reading and walking. He ran into her pushing over and off balance. She tripped sideways and tried to catch her ground but fell over on something.

She looked up and came face to face with a young Asian girl who's lap she sat on. So not something, but someone.

[LING LING DONGFENG]

Ling Ling was getting to a good part in the book she was reading when suddenly, someone very not-gracefully fell into her lap. Into her lap. God, despite the comical circumstances? It hurt!

"Aya!" She cried loudly, and received a few hushes and glares from people around. She blushed at the attention - and the very not-a-little-girl currently sitting on her and making not much of an attempt to move - and the close contact. The girl was looking right at her, and her face was way, way too close. Oh God. Now, Ling Ling didn't usually have a problem with physical contact, not at all. Well, not usually. Sort of. Okay, well, maybe she did have a little bit of a problem with physical contact, but in this situation, who would blame her? God, and the other girl was heavy on her.

Her book had dropped to the floor, her arm on either side of her in the air, her fists clenching. She probably looked a bit like a cartoon character. She stared back at the girl's face for a moment, trying not to freak out too much. But just… oh god oh god oh god she was so damn close.

"P-please can you…" she spluttered, and could barely finish her stance. "Not be on me," she finished weakly, biting her lower lip nervously. The sentence was lousy, grammar leaving much to wish for, but, well, she'd let the fact that her ability to speak English less than perfect pass this time.

The other girl was pretty, very pretty. She had darker skin than most of the pale Caucasians running around the city, and had long, dark wavy hair. She was thin, though her weight was still making Ling Ling all but shake. She hadn't caught a glimpse of her before the girl had unceremoniously fallen on top of her, but now she was catching probably a lot more than she ever would have if their bodies weren't uncomfortably squished together. That, and Ling Ling was really regretting wearing a skirt today.

[MONA LISA DRAGOTI]

Mona looked at the girl who's lap she was sitting in and her first thought was. ' Wow this is very comfortable'. Then she may of thought about how pretty the girl was. Mona always had a secret thing for Asians, they were all so pretty and most of them smart. And she found intelligence attractive on a woman.

She watched as the girl moved her hands and stumbled out words. She wanted Mona to get off of her, that much was clear. But Mona didn't feel like moving at the moment. In fact she would be more inclined to move if the girl wanted her to stay.

It was quite obvious that the girl wasn't of the same orientation as Mona. You could tell easily by the look of disgust of her sitting in her lap. But that was another reason why Mona wouldn't move, because she liked pushing people past their limits.

Mona brought her hand up and pressed it against he girl's cheek, bringing her face closer to the girl's. She looked over her face and gave her a small smile.

"And why should I leave when I'm so very comfy right here" She whispered warmly into her face.

[LING LING DONGFENG]

Instead of accepting the polite and completely reasonable request like a normal person would, even the average rude New York City citizen, the other girl instead grew closer. Closer! That wasn’t normal at all, was it? Ling Ling shuddered slightly as the girl lifted a hand and practically stroked her cheek. He tried not to flinch too noticeably, but… Well, she rather failed. Her eyes had closed for a second too long, and she’d jerked backward a bit too much. Still, she hadn’t broken the contact completely.

“And why should I leave when I’m so very comfy right here?” The girl whispered seductively into her face, and Ling Ling really wanted to bolt just then and there. The way the other girl’s breath so easily felt her face, warmed her skin slightly as she spoke, it made Ling Ling a bit tearful. Well, she wasn’t going to cry, far from it – she didn’t cry easily – but she did feel panic rising quickly in her chest, the pressure nearly as great as the other girl on top of it.

“I don’t…” she tried, trying not to let her voice sound too desperate. “Because I asked you to nicely?” She tried pathetically, her voice practically breaking with the strain of talking while simultaneously just-barely managing not to run away. She could see the girl’s eyelashes so clearly, could have counted them if she could actually concentrate on them, which she really wasn’t trying to right now. “I’m not… comfy.” Comfy was the same thing as comfortable, wasn’t it? Oh, she was even having a hard time translating in her head now.

[MONA LISA DRAGOTI]

“Because I asked you to nicely?”

Mona just hated the word nice. Mostly because she was once considered a nice person by some standards, and Mona hated how she once was. A fake who hid behind false emotions because she hopeless dreamed that someone would want her. And nobody loved someone who was depressed all the time.

Good thing Mona was no longer looking for someone to love.

Nor was she "depressed" in the normal way. She no longer cried or even tried to hide her emotions. It wasn't hard to do now that mostly what she felt was anger and hate. She had been told many times that it wasn't a good thing for her to feel only those emotions, but Mona found it better then the sadness that once filled her. So Mona refused to be nice , not even for the pretty girl who's lap she sat on.

Still Mona moved so she sat on the arm of chair, yet keeping her legs in the girls lap to keep her in the chair.

"I don't really do nice, you see but just don't tell anyone, I have a reputation to uphold. "

[LING LING DONGFENG]

The other girl made a distasteful face at her protests, and Ling Ling had enough sense to know that she had said something specifically annoying to the other girl, but she couldn’t just not say things, could she? Usually she kept her tongue, was so quiet. But, well, obviously getting smooshed against a chair in the library by a complete stranger was an exception.

“I don’t really do nice, you see, but just don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold,” the girl said, moving slightly but sadly not moving enough so that Ling Ling could make any sort of attempt at escaping if she didn’t want to be charged with public indecency.

Anyway, she wasn’t entirely sure what the other girl had meant by that, but she was smart enough to know the general gist of the phrase. ’I don’t exactly do nice.’

“W-what?” She stuttered, confusion in her voice still, but now something a bit like annoyance rising too. “I – stop!” She wasn’t exactly sure what she was asking the other girl to stop doing specifically, but she was sure her message was clear. ’Get. Off. Me.’

[MONA LISA DRAGOTI]

Mona's eyes narrowed on the girl as she told her to stop, her head tilted to the side and the hands that sat in her lap tightened. Did the girl not get that she was doing this just to piss her off? That she wanted to get yelled at and pushed around? If she did know and just acted ignorant of the fact that Mona was practically begging to be screamed at, then Mona knew she had to do something drastic. But what would it be exactly?

Normal people would question her sanity in the fact that she was asking to be hated. But Mona wasn't normal, the hatred that she felt from others helped fuel the hatred that made her go throw with everyday life. If everybody liked her then how could she hate them? She would just go back to that pathetic little loser that sat in her room crying at night cause her mother never loved her. And Mona would never go back to that person again.

"Do you not know what I mean when I say I'm not nice?, Well I'll tell you , I'm a bitch, and everyone knows it." Mona's face moved closer to the girl's and she grinned in an evil way.

"And a word of advice, you shouldn't struggle it excites people like me."

Then Mona grabbed her face in her hands firmly and pressed her lips forcefully against the girl's. making sure that the girl couldn't pull away the instant it happened. If this didn't make her pissed off then nothing would.

[LING LING DONGFENG]

"Do you not know what I mean when I say I'm not nice?, Well I'll tell you , I'm a bitch, and everyone knows it. And a word of advice, you shouldn't struggle, it excites people like me," the girl smirked crudely, and only leaned closer.

"You-" Ling Ling started, but then, she was interrupted, because suddenly, she was being kissed very, very hard. It was passionate, but not in a loving way. No, it was a statement; proof this girl was trying to force at her to clearly say she was not a good person.

Now, Ling Ling had kissed people before. She'd kissed boys in the neighbourhood on the cheek as a dare when she was a kid, and her step-father when she was forced to show fake affection, and her mother on the lips, laughing as children do. But she'd never kissed a woman aside from her mother, and that wasn't anything like this. This wasn't nice at all. This was harsh, teeth against teeth, tongue choking with the single fact that it was unexpected and disgusting, and almost painful in it's force. And, in truth, it was by definition her first kiss.

The girl was holding on to her face, tight to make sure she couldn't move without a lot of effort. Ling Ling used a lot of effort to get away. She gasped, and leaned back as far as she could with the girl still sitting on her lap. "What was that!" she cried, more upset than she'd like to admit. She didn't want this, it was just wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong because it was her first kiss and wrong because she had never met this girl, ever, not in her entire life, and she wasn't even kind, and wrong because the woman was a woman, and she'd never even thought about women like that, not once. It was startling and basically horrifying and wrong.

[MONA LISA DRAGOTI]

Mona felt a smirk fall upon her face before she started to laugh loudly. She laughed so hard and so deeply that she fell back off of the girl's lap and onto the floor. She grasped her sides as tears rolled down her face. Then almost as suddenly as she started to laugh, she stopped and just stared up at the ceiling. It had been at least a year since she had a personal touch with someone, and even then it was paid. How far the mighty have fallen, to force a kiss upon someone just to prove she could. Soon the tears that had come from laughter turned into ones from loneliness. It was stupid, to be upset about being alone in the world. She was used to being alone, she worked better in the world when she was alone, and being alone never got you hurt.

But was that really true, I mean she was laying on the floor of the library crying because she was alone.

Your a pathetic little monster aren't you?

With and angry swipe at her face she wiped the tears away , leaving a scratch on her cheek from her nails. She pulled back her hand to look at the still fresh tears that were still on her finger tips. She quickly clenched her fists and crushed the small drops in her palm. Weakness was what they represented, a weakness she didn't want to have.

She sat up quickly, knowing the tear tracks were still on her face, but she showed none of the sadness that had been there before.

"Sorry does the fresh young virgin not know what a kiss was?" Mona stood up and stretched before picking the girl's book up and tossing it into her lap. "The ending is boring, all happy happy joy joy crap. I suggest some darker stuff, Poe maybe. " Mona prepared to leave this girl in her dust, tired of being sad in the stupid library .