…or, Oh, Just Read
Missy was still deciding what she wanted when I got to the store. Marlot had her little chicken salad, a bottle of chocolate milk and an ice cream bar up at the counter. I got a little smoked turkey wrap and a big orange pop. Missy finally settled on a vegetable tray.
“You’re wasting a punch just on that?” I asked.
“It’s all I want,” she said.
We ate in my room with the TV on, which was fine with me. I didn’t feel like being on display in the lounge again. The TV gave us things to talk about that didn’t lead back to the circular argument about me “supporting” Marlot over Missy. After a while, Missy left to get ready. I told Marlot that I needed to shower.
“If you’re going to the union anyway, do you want to walk over with us?” I asked her before she left.
She raised her eyebrows.
“What?” I asked.
“Are you trying to piss Missy off?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “Why would she get pissed off? I’m going into the dance with her, not you.”
“So why do you need to walk over with me?”
“I don’t need to, I want to,” I said. “Because you’re my friend.”
“No, this is the question that will be in Missy’s head: if you’re not going into the dance with me, then why do you need to walk over with me?”
“I can’t just want to, I have to need to?”
“Oh, wanting’s even worse,” Marlot said. “Why do you want to?”
“Please tell me this is just you being weird,” I said.
“No, this is actually a case of everybody else being weird and me being normal,” Marlot said. “But trust me when I say that if you include me in your little date in any way, shape, or form, you will regret it.”
“When she asked me, it wasn’t even supposed to be a date-date,” I said. “We were going as friends.”
“And then you boinked her,” Marlot said.
“It was more of a co-boink,” I said. “And even then, it’s not like I gave her my class ring or something.”
“You really might want to tell her that you don’t want to go out with her,” Marlot said.
“What, dump her the night of the dance?”
“The freshman year welcome dance isn’t exactly the most specialfullest time of a young girl’s life,” Marlot said.
“I’ll tell her afterwards,” I said. “I’ll tell her that it was fun but I don’t see us together.”
“Make sure you wait until she looks up at you with big, bright eyes and tells you that she had a really nice time,” Marlot said.
“This just isn’t going to end well no matter what I do, is it?” I said.
“No, but it only has to end once,” Marlot said. “Whereas if you don’t break it off, it can keep going and going forever.”
“Good point,” I said.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one with a date. Three of the other showers were in use, at just past six on a Saturday night. That made me a little more furtive than usual as I took care of myself, but there were many reasons I didn’t want to pop a boner in the middle of dancing with Missy. I featured Violet, just for a change of pace. If she was going to go poking around my fantasies, I might as well let her in on them.
I’d have to remember to check the names on the corner door.
Half the sinks were in use when I got out. I couldn’t understand why people didn’t use the ones in their rooms, unless their roommates had issues with people shaving in their living space. Sucked to be them. I had my own private sink and I didn’t even need a shave.
Assuming Violet had told the truth, it seemed she was either Temperance or Beth. She didn’t seem like a Beth. She seemed even less like a Temperance.
At five to seven, I went over to the other side. I was a bit relieved to see Missy in a nice pair of jeans and a peasant blouse and not a formal gown and a sparkly tiara. She’d gone overboard with the make-up, but it wasn’t terrible. Glittery eye shadow wasn’t my taste, but the way it blended from midnight blue to purple was well done. Marlot had made herself scarce.
“Oh, wow, and you thought the blue and purple wouldn’t go,” she said. I still thought that, but I didn’t argue. “You look seriously hot. If you could just point your ears a little, you’d be perfect.”
“Yeah, I think I’ve had enough body modification for one day,” I said.
“You look pretty nice.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I got Juliana to glam me up a bit.”
“Juliana?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you think she’s kind of a bitch?”
“Yeah, but she’s good with eye shadow,” Missy said.
Then we were off. It was another mild night. The sky was clear, but it was hard to see the stars with the glow from the path. I kept my hands in my pockets on the walk over. Missy kept “accidentally” running her arm into mine, but if I was going to straighten things out after the dance I didn’t want to give her any encouraging signs.
If the union had been any further away, things might have gotten tense by the time we got there. The music was already playing. We checked our weapons and headed in and out onto the dance floor.
I’d only been to a few school dances, mostly in junior high. They’d been a bigger deal when I was fresh out of elementary and it seemed important to prove it. I could move okay, though. Elven grace and all that.
We swayed and bopped around a bit to the first couple of songs, and then a slow song came on. I started to say something vaguely apologetic, but then Missy said, “I don’t like this song, let’s wait for a better one.”
“Okay,” I said. “You want some punch or something?”
“Sure,” she said.
Heading towards the refreshments got us further away from the music, making it easier to talk.
“I don’t want our first slow dance to be to something stupid,” Missy said. “I’m trying to decide if I want to put in a request, or leave it up to fate.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“Missy, do you remember when you first told me about this dance?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “Wow, last weekend seems so long ago, doesn’t it? But time’s really flown by. It’s weird.”
“I don’t think we should make a big deal out of our first slow dance, or anything,” I said.
“Are you nervous?”
“Not exactly,” I said.
“It’s okay if you’ve never slow-danced before,” she said. “Or slow-danced with a girl. You’ll have time to get better.”
This couldn’t go on, I decided. Missy was inventing special occasions, looking for relationship milestones. I needed to end things, or at least get them back on the friendship track. I sighed and prayed for strength.
“The thing is, Missy—”
“Oh my kosh, will you look at that,” she said in a horrified not-whisper.
“What?” I asked.
My first reaction, which I kept to myself, was wow. The girl was seriously trashy, but also kind of hot. She was wearing fishnet tights and a skirt that was almost too short to be legal. Her top contained about a napkin’s worth of material. All that was missing was a pair of stiletto heels. Those would be hard to dance in, I guessed, but I wasn’t sure you could call what she was doing dancing. The guy she was with was squeezing her ass like he was making lemonade, and she was practically screwing him.
“That’s her!” Missy said.
“Who?” I asked.
“The demon girl.”
“I thought you said that Mack girl from Harlowe was the demon,” I said, right as my brain sorted through what I was seeing and I realized it was Mack.
“Yeah, that’s her,” Missy said. “I thought she was a lesbian, though.”
“She looks pretty straight to me,” I said. I realized my stupidity a second later. “She could be bi, obviously.”
“The guy’s kind of cute,” she said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. He was built like me, though taller and a little darker. He had a nice ass. I would have fucked him, if he was into that and I hadn’t been involved with Iason.
“I wonder what he is?” Missy said.
“Probably straight,” I said. That was my default assumption for guys. It was just safer.
“I mean, racially.”
“Could just be human,” I said.
“Why would he be dating a demon?”
“Maybe he doesn’t think she is one,” I said. That seemed safer than suggesting she wasn’t.
“Look at her, she’s such a slut,” Missy said. “I’m surprised she doesn’t drop to her knees and—”
“Don’t eat me!” the girl’s date yelled over the music, shoving away from her and landing on his ass. She reached for his hand, but he shielded his face with his arms. He might have made a warding gesture, it was hard to tell. The crowd parted, giving them a wide fucking berth, as we all stared on.
If we’d heard the words from where we were standing, then everybody in the room had heard them, too.
It was hard to say, but Mack looked hurt. The guy dropped his hands. He looked sheepish. Her mouth formed the words “what the fuck?” He got all apologetic and started to get up, but she turned and bolted for the door. She could move. Not gracefully or pretty, but she was gone in a flash. Her date yelled “Mackenzie!” a few times before getting up and following after her.
“Wow,” Missy said. “I guess he just found out?”
“It could just be a rumor,” I said.
“Maybe,” she said. “But she’s got to be something, and you said yourself, she doesn’t look like anything but a human.”
“Maybe that’s what she is,” I said. “Maybe she requested Harlowe because her friends are there. Maybe she wanted to room with somebody in particular.”
“That would mean all her friends are non-human, so she probably would be, too,” Missy said. “Anyway, I think she rooms with that Puddy.”
“Well, there you go,” I said. “She could be in Harlowe because her girlfriend’s there.”
“I don’t think they should let lesbians room with each other,” Missy said. “It’s not like straight couples get to share rooms. Why should lesbians get special consideration? That’s a bunch of bullshit.”
“Yeah, I think it’s more a matter of not being given any consideration in the first place,” I said. “If Marlot and I wanted to share a room, people would officially assume the having of hanky-panky, but she rooms with you and nobody bats an eye.”
“Well, of course, because I’m not a lesbian.”
“But nobody asked. Nobody checked. Nobody cared,” I said. “If Iason wanted to move into general housing, I could share a room with him, but the closest Marlot and I can get is adjoining rooms in one of the tower suites.”
“Oh, that would be so cool,” Missy said. “You and Iason could have one, and we’d have the other.”
“I don’t think Iason would go for general housing,” I said. “And I think we’re getting way ahead of ourselves.”
“Oh, well, I’m just having a hypothetical conversation,” Missy said. “Of course, I could sleep over on your side of the suite when Iason’s away, or even when he isn’t.”
“I don’t think Iason would be into that,” I said.
“Well, hypothetically.”
She could hide behind that word, but it was obvious she was planning ahead, and her plans didn’t fit in with mine. Marlot and I had already talked about moving to the towers, but the idea was we’d each pay for single rooms. Significant others didn’t factor into that plan because they didn’t need to; if one or the other of us was seeing somebody, they could sleep over without causing problems because we each had our own room.
“Missy, I think we need to get—”
“Oh my freaking kosh, are they actually coming back in here?” Missy asked. I knew before I turned to look that she was talking about Mack and her date. “Why would he be with her now that he knows?”
“That probably means it isn’t true in the first place,” I said. “Just a dumb rumor that somebody started.”
“It isn’t dumb,” Missy said. “Let’s talk about something else. No, let’s dance.”
“You know, I don’t really feel like dancing,” I said.
“Well, I do,” she said.
“You can dance if you want to,” I said.
“By myself? But, you’re my date.”
“I thought I was your friend,” I said. “That’s what this was supposed to be, right? Just a casual thing.”
“Are you br—do you not want to go out with me?”
“I don’t think it’ll work out,” I said. “We don’t really have anything in common. We keep getting into stupid little arguments.”
“If you would quit disagreeing with me all the time, that wouldn’t happen,” she said.
“This is why it wouldn’t work,” I said. “We don’t see things the same way.”
“So? Opposites attract, right?”
“It’s not that you aren’t attractive. I’d bet if you were here alone, you’d have guys asking you to dance,” I said.
“You’re damn right I would,” she said. “What, do you think I sat on the sidelines all through high school?”
“No,” I said. “I really don’t.”
“I don’t need you, Jamie,” she said hotly. “I could have asked a bunch of guys to come here if I hadn’t met you first, you know that? Maybe I settled too quickly.”
“I’m sure,” I said. “You know, I don’t want to fight, so I’m just going to go.”
“Do that,” she said. “You just, um, do that.”
She turned and headed out onto the floor. I watched her go for a few seconds, then turned to leave just as she turned back to see if I was watching. I hurried out and retrieved my weapon.
I found Marlot in the game room. She didn’t ask, and I didn’t say. I joined the card game she was playing and we took a bunch of other freshmen for a small pile of coppers. We stayed there until long after the dance ended, and parted ways when we got back to our floor.
It hadn’t been awful. It hadn’t been great, but it hadn’t been awful. There was still room for awfulness to come, though.
