…or, Crossing Signals
Iason was awake and alert at an obscenely early time. Doubly so, when you considered how late we’d kept each other up after the card games broke down. I didn’t bother getting up while he was getting dressed. I would have broken my legs trying to get down the ladder.
“What time are you supposed to be at the barracks?” I asked.
“Nine,” he said.
“You’re going to be way early,” I said.
“How do you arrive at that conclusion?”
“Well, it’s what? Like six now?” I said.
“Yes, so I will only be on the order of nine hours late,” he said.
I didn’t bother rolling my eyes. That was too much effort for so early in the morning. If the rest of me was asleep, my lungs were awake and they were hungry. I coughed and then reached around for my jeans, wedged between mattress and wall.
“You want me to walk down with you?” I asked Iason. There was no answer. I sat up and looked down over the rail. He’d ducked out while I was coughing.
You had a good night, Violet thought. It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah,” I said. It was easier just talking out loud. “You?”
The same.
“Of course. Look, it’s too early for me to be talking to the ceiling. You want to just come over?”
I’m naked.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
No response. I figured she was getting dressed, so I took my crumpled jeans, climbed out of bed, and pulled them on. A minute later there was a knock on the door.
I opened it.
There was Violet.
“Holy shit,” I said. “Are you crazy?”
She’d dyed the rest of her hair purple, but that wasn’t the first thing I noticed. I hadn’t exactly put on the ritz for her, but Violet had gone me one better: she had nothing on but a smile, and even that was kind of skimpy.
“Probably,” she said.
“There are guys on this floor,” I said.
“I noticed,” she said, her mind giving a squeeze inside my jeans. “Do I get to come in, or should I just go to the lounge?”
“Why didn’t you get dressed?”
“I don’t feel like being constricted right now,” she said. “My skin’s real sensitive.”
“Then why come over here?”
“You asked me to,” she said. “Are you going to let me in?”
“Sure,” I said, stepping back and holding the door. I closed it behind her.
“I’m not coming on to you,” she said. “So go ahead and look, it doesn’t matter.”
“How’s that work?” I asked.
“I have to explain looking to you now?”
“You aren’t coming on to me, so it doesn’t matter if—you know, that actually makes a kind of sense,” I said.
“Yeah,” she said. She looked at my couch. “Do you have a sheet or something?”
“I can give you a towel,” I said.
“Too rough,” she said. She looked at the floor. “And of course, your floor is carpeted.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m overstimulated,” she said. “Feel like I’ve got jangly bells going off all over my skin.”
“You want to explain that?” I asked.
“Not really, no.”
“I thought you weren’t big on secrets.”
“It’s not a secret,” she said. “Just something I gave up trying to explain a long time ago.”
“Ah,” I said. “I was going to go smoke. I guess I’ll wait until you’re up to joining me.”
“Oh, that’s actually just what I need to settle my nerves,” Violet said. “Let me go get my stuff.”
“Stuff including clothes?”
“Bet you nobody stops me,” she said. “It’s college. It’s Saturday. It’s the asscrack of dawn.”
“Yeah, I’m going to pass.”
“You think I won’t go alone?”
“I think I won’t be the guy standing with the crazy naked girl if you go alone,” I said.
“Yeah, think of what that might do for your reputation,” she said. “What if Barley was with us?”
“Then I’d be the guy with two naked chicks,” I said.
“But you wouldn’t have to worry about getting in trouble,” she said. “Which is what you’re actually worried about.” She laughed. “That’s so middle school. ‘In trouble’. Adults get arrested. Or expelled. ‘In trouble’ means getting pregnant and I don’t think either of us has to worry about that.”
“I don’t think anybody’s going to take you for a nymph,” I said. “No offense.”
“None taken,” she said. “But if you’re with a nymph, it’s not obscene.”
“Yeah, they’re protected when they’re having sex,” I said. “But how’s that apply if you’re just standing there?”
“Are you saying standing with a nymph is more obscene than fucking one?”
“Are you saying that nothing you do with a nymph could get you arrested?” I countered.
“Well, I think if you offed a dude you’d still be arrested for the murder, but not for being lewd while you did it,” she said.
“Anyway, isn’t this all kind of moot?” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“Have you seen Barley around?” I asked. “I mean, lately?”
“Oh, are we feeling used?” she asked. She fluttered her eyelashes and pouted. “Poor baby.”
“Seriously, though. Do you really think she’s just going to be hanging around?”
“She might,” Violet said. “I’m thinking of asking her to be my roommate.”
“Don’t you have one of those already?”
“Yeah,” she said. She frowned. “I don’t think it’s working out.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” she said. She wrinkled her nose and winked. “Something about me staying up all night masturbating. I didn’t really catch all of it. I was, you know.”
“Masturbating,” I said. “I could see where that might be an issue for some people.”
“It’s not really something I do,” she said. “So much as something that happens. It’s not like I was in there with both hands up to the wrist. Because, ew. Fluids, you know? But anyway, I start thinking about it—or you do, or whatever—and off I go. It’s not even really the telekinesis. That’s part of it. I just don’t have a real big body/mind divide. You know?”
“Not really,” I said. “But I’m getting the idea. Thinking about sex is like having it, for you.”
“It’s better,” she said. “A lot less messy, for one thing.”
“Messy can be fun,” I said.
“It makes for a nice, visceral aesthetic. I just don’t want it on me.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “You really think your roommate—”
“Temperance,” she said.
“So you’re Beth.”
“I’m Violet,” she said. “Anyway, she’s thinking about it.” Violet shrugged. “Thinks I’m weird. She’s nice to my face, but I hear what she really thinks. If she had a different roommate and she hated them, she could probably go all year, smiling in their face. Isn’t that weird?”
“I think it’s pretty normal,” I said. “One reason I decided to skip it.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I’ll see how serious she is about it after she’s had some more sleep,” Violet said. “But I think her mind’s made up.”
“You can’t tell?” I asked.
“Being a telepath doesn’t mean I can divine the truth from the past, present, and future. It just means I know what people are thinking now. Right now, she thinks she’s serious,” Violet said. “People think that all the time, about everything. It doesn’t feel any different in their head when it’s actually true.” She shrugged. “Minds change. I had a sort-of boyfriend in high school who told me he loved me more than anything, and he always would. He meant it, too. He meant every word. A week later, he was banging some chick he met at a gladiator match.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“I’m not,” Violet said. “He was sweet, but better her than me. Anyway, it wasn’t like I could be mad at him or anything.”
“Is that because ‘all men are pigs’ or something?”
“No,” she said. “Because he didn’t lie. He meant what he said, when he said it. Most people do. And then they break up, and they say to each other, ‘Was that all a lie?’ But it isn’t. It’s an earnest prediction that happens to be wrong. We weren’t even together that long. I was just so ‘new’ and ‘different’ and ‘free’, not like all the other girls. All that stuff. He was sweet,” she said. “But in the end we wanted different things.”
“He wanted sex,” I said.
“Yeah,” she said. “But he still meant what he said. He loved me. He just didn’t fully understand who it was he loved.”
“You know, I really need a cigarette,” I said.
“I’m a little calmer now,” Violet said. “I suppose I can put on my jammies, if it’ll soothe your delicate sensibilities.”
“Just jammies?”
“They cover up the same amount,” she said. “And they’re softer and looser. I told you, I don’t want to be constricted right now. I’m feeling very open.”
“I can tell,” I said. I headed for the door ahead of her, to check if the coast was clear. “Are you doing anything today?”
“Dragons. No shit? Cool. I’m in,” she said.
“Uh, cool,” I said. “Great.”
I took a look out through the peephole. There was someone heading down past the girls’ room towards my corner, but I couldn’t tell who. It was a girl in a nightshirt or something, though. I figured that would be no big deal.
“Coast is mostly clear,” I said.
“Barley?” Violet said.
“No,” I said, but then I realized that was exactly who I was looking at.
She came right up to the door and stopped, wiping her nose and eyes and trying to straighten the shirt and smooth down her tangled hair. She was beyond exhausted this time. Whatever had upset her, she was shaking. I opened the door.
“Oh, James!” she sobbed and staggered in. She had some kind of hair band in her hand.
“Khersis, Barley,” I said. “What happened?” I noticed she was bleeding from her hand. “Were you attacked?”
“Something’s wrong with me,” she said, staring at her hand. “I think—I think Mack did something to me.”
“She hurt you?”
“She tainted me, somehow,” Barley said. “I-I don’t—oh!”
She collapsed against me, sobbing. She smelled like the barroom floor at closing time. The shirt she was wearing, a plain white t-shirt that didn’t fit her at all, was dirty and had probably more than one person’s sweat on it. Probably more than sweat. I let her hug me anyway. I could take a shower.
“Your blood’s supposed to be virginal pure, she needs virgin blood, your blood’s too dirty for her somehow?” Violet said.
Barley nodded.
“Could be something on her end,” Violet said. “I mean, maybe she can’t stand alcohol?”
“What was she doing tasting your blood anyway?” I asked.
“I was just trying to help her,” Barley said. “And she freaked out. She acted like I was vile, like I was disgusting. She said I was shit.”
“Oh, that fucking bitch,” I said. “I think we’re going to have to have a little talk.”
“Oh, this is not time to play paladin,” Violet said. “Unless you’re actually a paladin, in which case it’s probably exactly the time.”
“Here, let me take that,” I said, taking the headband. She was bleeding on it. “Is this yours?”
“No, it’s—she was wearing it but I don’t think it’s hers. She took it from Two,” Barley said. “The golem.”
“The golem doesn’t have a name?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Barley said. “She calls herself that. But I’m pretty sure it’s hers. I—well, there was kind of a struggle.”
“Barley, you have to report this,” I said. “If a demon student is going off on people—”
“She didn’t attack me,” Barley said. “I don’t think, anyway. I kind of lost it when she started going off on me. I just wanted to get away.”
“You did,” I said. “You’re okay.”
“Yeah,” Violet said. She looked green. “Um, you’re still bleeding, though.”
“Oh, yeah,” Barley said. She stared at her hand for a few seconds, and the cut healed up.
“Blood on the carpet,” Violet said, looking at where it had dripped.
“It’s okay,” I said.
“Blood on the carpet,” she repeated.
“I’m sure my mom gave me something to clean it up,” I said.
“Yeah,” Violet said. She relaxed and regained a bit of color, but she took another step back.
“Look, you want to hang out with us today?” I asked Barley. “We were going to go over to West Campus to see the dragons.”
“Dragons?”
“Little ones,” I said. “Comparatively.”
“Oh, the animal fair!” Barley said. “Mother Khaele, I forgot about that! I actually forgot about it. I’m volunteering.”
“Oh, cool,” I said. “So, we’ll see you there anyway, I guess. Your Harlowe ‘friends’ probably won’t be interested in anything like that.”
“No, Amaranth stopped caring about animal husbandry two seconds after she found out what it really meant,” Barley said.
“And I’m going to the skirmish match later on,” I said. “Watch Iason fight. If you wanted to come along, I mean, if you don’t think it would cause a conflict with anybody, you know?”
Careful, tiger, Violet thought. She’s really not that into you. Specifically.
I know. I’m just being friendly, I thought back.
I know that’s what you think.
I’m not looking for a date. I’m going there for Iason.
“No, I think that’ll be fine,” Barley said. “I’ve never been that interested in martial sports, but I think Mack has kind of a stick up her butt about that stuff. She won’t be there. So, yeah. Sure. Yes.” She giggled. “I’ll go.”
“Great,” I said. “It’s a date!”
You’re kind of an idiot, aren’t you?
Yeah.
Cross-reference TOMU 118 « « ~73~ Poker In The Front ~75~ Clothes Make The Woman » »
