Mars/Venus

A story set on the planet formerly known as Haraway's World ...

I

We're lying on my bed with the sheets around our ankles. The sweat on our skin hasn't even cooled and already there's handspans between our bodies. I stare up at the ceiling and listen to her breath in time with the waves. The springs break and I turn my head, see her rise up in the dark and push her hair off her forehead. "You know, you don't have to do this." I say this every time, at some point. She shrugs one shoulder.

"It's okay." She's looking at me, and I wonder how she's looking at me but I can't see. The light through the open doors only falls on my body.

"I know you don't like it."

"It's okay. It's not unpleasant."

'Not unpleasant' is about the best I can do. I think about leaving again and try not to let it show. I try something different. "Aren't you worried? If someone finds out."

Her hand's still in her hair, and I watch as her hand slides down to rest on her shoulder. "I wouldn't say I'm worried. You live pretty far away from anyone. Are you trying to convince me to not have sex with you?"

I don't say anything.

"Honestly Kloude, you get so weird when we fuck. Are other men like this?" She lets her head hit the pillow, then rolls on her side to watch me. I feel like an intellectual curiousity. I turn away and look up at the ceiling.

"I don't think another guy would be much different." I say.

"Weird." she says in an exaggeratedly breathy way, then giggles. She lies there for a little while, then sits up. "I'm gonna go, okay?"

And she leaves.

II

"Petra's just so ... I don't know, it's like she's in a different world to me sometimes."

I idly stir my cappuccino.

"It's not like we're not intimate. The sex is still good ... but there's not a lot beyond the sex. I mean she's a Green you know?" she pouts a little and put another couple of spoonfuls of sugar into what I know is good coffee. "She's supposed to be personable. I just feel so much like a toy sometimes, and I know what you're going to say, that I should talk to her about it. I have, it's just ... she's a Green, you know?"

I pick up my cup and drink then put my cup down and turn it in its saucer. I place my chin in my hand and consider her. If she isn't literally the most beautiful person on Tempest I would be surprised. When she lifts her latte the way her perfectly formed lips press against the glass is so innocently sensuous that it's basically unreal. There isn't a word to properly describe she she is. This wasn't deliberate, her mothers aren't wealthy, and I don't know if it really counts as natural. Maybe fluke.

"Meyer ..." Even if I didn't know Petra, and I do know Petra, I would know that she is just being treated like a toy. Greens with ultra-pretty rep-building trophy girlfriends are practically five a like. I'll admit that I've peeked into their open house with some of the Reds from the gym. I thought about confronting Petra about it, but it was so hypocritical to consider it. "I know you think that because I knew Petra when we kids that I've got some kind of insight into how she thinks, but I don't."

Meyer frowns a little and it breaks my heart. "I just thought ... you're more level headed than I am. You've been so helpful in the past too ..."

I turn my cup back and forth then pick it up. I say something cowardly. "Well, you like her right?" Of course she likes her. Everyone fucking likes Petra even when they're not a stereotypically Blue college co-ed with a double major in poetry and ditzy romanticism. I like her and she blackmails me every other week.

"I do ..."

"And you think she likes you?" I take a drink.

She blushes even through her tan and smiles in that self-indulgent way when you remember something special. "She whispered 'I love you' in my ear the other night."

I hold my cup for a moment and stare over it, then place it down. "Really."

"Uh huh."

I sit back in my chair and examine the room to gather my thoughts. We're the only people here. It hasn't been popular for a while now, but at least it isn't slandered any more. I look back at Meyer. She looks like she could practically float into space. "Really."

"Jeez Kloude, don't sound too surprised. It's not the first time someone has fallen in love with me." she sounds like she's trying to be indignant but I don't know if she's really capable of it.

"You don't say."