Gin and Tonic

The first time Gin sees Marie she thinks, "What a beautiful cadaver." Long and lithe, pallid and fragile, she lies draped across a sofa. Limbs limp, hanging off the ends. Lids closed.

To Gin she looks like Juliet in the catacombs, death personified. Or a marionette left dead by it's puppeteer. Silk spun golden hair draped over the arm rest. Long and pooling like liquid sunlight.

And despite what Andrew tells her, that it was lust at first sight, she knows it was love.

Marie awakes when her mother calls for her. With the life breathed into her, she lifts herself with ease. Gliding on air, she is effervescent. Grey silk hanging off her like molten metal. What she does cannot be described as walking; floating, gliding, all fall short. Marie's presence moves like air, constantly permeating. Like a perfumed scent drifting, containing the room. Marie Blanchard is unforgettable.

Mrs. Blanchard introduces Gin as Virginia Warwick. Of the New York Warwick's. Not French aristocrats, whose bloodline links to a Louis the something from one of his cousins, but old money. Eggs.

Gin says nothing at first, mesmerized by a woman she hardly knows.

It's Marie, the ghost, imbued with a silvery-hue, that takes Gin's hand. It is a light hold, like cold morning fog kissing the skin. And though Gin doesn't quite know whether Marie Blanchard really is a girl or just a figment of her imagination, she knows that feeling is home.

Mar, as Gin often calls her, sees it differently. To her, she is not some ethereal, wispy fairy that floats on the wind. To her, she is more like Sappho and Gin is more like Aphrodite.

Aphrodite not as seen by Botticelli or some pre-Raphaelite artist. Not born from a seashell. Gin is not air or sea foam to Marie, but flesh and tender skin. Her Venus is one with hair of flames, thick and curly. Shortly cropped, finger-waved. A wild mane set in the latest fashion. Her Venus has a slightly upturned nose, small and cute. She is sun-bronzed, with a smattering of freckles across the nose. Some on her shoulder disappearing behind a blue cotton dress. Loose, fashionable, androgynous.

Her Venus is named Virginia in her reincarnation on Earth. Mar is left only to yearn, to write wistful poetic drabble in her head. Ode's to a woman she'll never have as anything more than a friend.

Mar doesn't deny it either, despite Andrew shaking his head at her. Love it was. First sight, first glimpse, whatever you want to call it. But when her eyes had fluttered open to see a red-haired beauty before her...Well Marie Blanchard knew she had fallen in love with that Warwick girl.

Marie is the first to kiss Gin, whom she now calls Ginny.

It happens on a midsummer day, when the sun is high in the sky. The heat is too great to do anything else but lounge. And Gin has declared that they should swim. It is often Gin who is left to decide upon matters. One day they go driving about the countryside. Another they picnic on grounds at the Blanchard Estate. They ride horses on the beach in June. Don fanciful dresses to attend a soirée in early July. And today, they swim.

Marie and Gin both wear plain blue suits. Both a single piece that cut off at mid-thigh. Marie looks waifish, thin and pale, blue eyes brilliant in contrast to the navy. Gin is curvaceous, a navy hourglass with her flaming mane tucked into a ruched white cap, curls still threatening to spill out.

The Silence is Golden between them.

The ice clinks in an old-fashioned glass. A Gin Toddy, done up right with syrup, water, ice and gin. As if reminded of it's presence, Gin picks it up, taking a sip.

Marie watches her companion from a lounge chair, drawing her thin shawl around her. Gin sits at the edge of the pool, drink in hand.

Watches as Gin swishes her legs in the chlorinated water.

Watches as the girl takes a long sip, licking her lips after.

Watches as the tip of her tongue runs over her painted red lips.

The urge is too strong.

Gin finds herself in a shadow, Mar's shadow, as she hovers over her. The stick bends cupping the fiery Aphrodite's face in her hands. Gray eyes meet blue. Red lips meet pink flesh in a backward kiss.

Ice clinks in a glass.

One day in August, when the sky has broken into rain, two girls lay silently in a bed.

It started as a light shower. Sprinkled kisses along the jawbone. A drizzle, really.

It grew to a down pour. The rain fell steady and strong. The tightening of an embrace.

It became torrential. Passion heightening. A storm with lightning. It thunders. Words cried out at the climax.

And then the clouds break, leaving only dew upon grass. Beads of sweat on naked skin.

Mar gasps for air and Gin smiles to herself, burying her face into the comfort of a pillow. Both girls say nothing. Mar rests her head on the same pillow and without an utterance Gin's arm snakes around the nymph. As if she would disappear into thin air.

Gin treats it as if it where a dream.

Mar recounts the day as Zeus's blessing. His thunderbolts lighting the sky in revelation.

When the summer heat returns, the following year, Gin meets Andrew Madison at a pansy club in the Village. She immediately takes a liking to him and notices how 'Dear Andy' takes a liking to Ford.

"Divine," she says, describing how Marie tastes.

"Divine," Andrew repeats after Gin has had too much gin and tells the story again.

They all meet again, another night that summer. Early, before the hip crowd has come in to booze on illegal liquor. Andrew leans against the bar counter, Ford's hand running possessively over his back to his shoulder. Gin, as always, downs a gin and tonic.

Andy meets Marie for the first time and he seems to agree. With her straight blonde hair brushed into a bun and a pale pink beaded number, she is perfectly....Divine.

Marie decides she likes Andrew almost as much as Gin does. Despite, his shy appearance he seems to have an intelligent answer to everything. Naive with brown puppy dog eyes.

Ford says nothing when Gin and Marie regal them with a series of tales. How they became loves, like Sappho and Aphrodite never could. He's heard it before, from Gin's ossified rants and Mar's beautiful verse.

"There is no such thing as love at first sight," Andy says, "you came to love each other through time."

Lies. I loved you at first sight, Gin says silently with a simple smile and the hand on the small of her back.

"I love you, too," Marie says through her parted pink lips.

And later when Ford takes away Virginia's gin and tonic, telling her she's had enough, Marie thinks she's glad that no one has taken her Gin away.

Because she's the Tonic to her Gin.

A/N: Gin and Marie are minor characters from my (slash) story [also set in the 20's] Star-Cross'd (which features Andrew and Ford). I really wanted to embellish more on these two, since I love them, so this is what came out.

20's slang:
ossified - drunk
egg: rich person

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