A knock at my bedroom door brought me back to life. For the last hour I had been in a zombie like trance while strolling through countless job boards. "Hey Cora, are you alive in there?" The voice of my roommate Paige called out. I let out a groan of some sort in response. I was not sure if you could count job hunting as being alive. I guess Paige saw this as an invitation to enter and my door cracked open. Her head popped into room with her trademark happy smile plastered on her face. It did waver a little at the sight of my unkempt, messy room but she held on "Well, you are alive I suppose." She said as she eyed my pile of unfolded clean laundry.
"If this is life, I want a refund." I replied sarcastically as I exited out another job that I needed a ridiculous amount of experience for.
"Don't be so dramatic. You will find another job soon and then be complaining about having to get up for work." I didn't reply with any sort of intelligible response but rather sounds of discontent. "Anyway, I am off to my lab but will back tonight and I was thinking I could treat us to some takeout. Sound good?"
I looked up from my screen at her with a quizzical look. "How are you able to have extra money to spend? I thought you decided to do an unpaid internship for one of your professors this summer. You know because a doctorate is not impressive enough on a resume?"
"Umm yea It started out as that. Doctor Green changed it to paid once we started to work on something that could actually turn a profit. He also offered me stock if this product does go to the market."
I rolled my eyes. Some people had all the luck, though the ever-sweet Paige was someone that did deserve it. "Well, I am glad one of us is lucky. What are you two working on anyway?"
It may have been the mixture of the hallway light mixing with my dark room, but I was sure I saw Paige blush. Her eyes did drop to the floor before making contact with mine again in a rough recovery. "Do you want me to put you to sleep with terms you don't understand?"
"No, I guess not. I was just look for a distraction from this shit." I replied still thinking about her reaction to my question.
Her smile brightened once again, and any signs of embarrassment were gone. "Curiosity killed the cat." she said teasingly. Anyway, got to go but you pick out something we both will like on DoorDash. Charge it to my card so I can have food when I get home. See you tonight." With that she vanished as my door closed with a solid thud, returning me to the dark realm of job hunting. I let myself think about her reaction for a moment before turning my attention back to my job hunt. "Oh, look a job I'm not qualified." I thought to myself as I dramatically laid my head down on my desk. "Why can't I have some of her luck."
It took about another half hour for me to finally throw in the white towel. I decided it was best to give up on the hunt for now and have some breakfast. I made way to the kitchen intent on attacking some leftover pasta in the fridge. On my though something caught my eye. On the counter was Paige's floral lunchbox. I shook my head at the sight and sighed. Paige was often the smartest person in the room but was somehow so forgetful. Worse of all I knew she would not eat now because she would feel bad spending money after making herself lunch. I hadn't planned to go out today, but I knew where her professor worked, and I could use the break.
This kind of thing was why Paige and I had remained friends and roommates for so long. When we had been assigned the same room our freshmen year it had seemed a disaster. A sweet loving smart girl with a snarky asshole had bad sitcom written all over it. But we had gelled instantly. I had felt the need to keep this clueless girl safe. She seemed to like taking care of me in return. Over the years I had helped her avoid bad relationships and helped her when she was forgetful. She had made sure I lived a semi healthy life and had acted as a live-in therapist for me when I hit low points. Now five years later and in the grown-up world, I could not imagine having a life without her in it.
Returning to my room I got dressed in a loose tee shirt and jeans from the pile of clothes Paige had been eyeing earlier. Grabbing her lunch, I headed out to make sure the girl ate something today. The trip to the small office space her professor rented was rather short, which surprised me. Even my rundown old car could handle it with no issue. I always made fun of Paige for leaving so early for work when it was ten minutes down the road. She always argued back that not being early was late and I decided to let her have it. Though, I was so not letting her get away with leaving her lunch without at least a few days of teasing at the least.
Pulling into the parking lot of the office building where the lab was, I made my way to the front door. After a quick look at a list of the companies in the building I found what I was looking for on the ground floor. Making my way through of those hallways that scream no character I reached the door I needed. I knocked and waited, hoping that Paige would answer so no one else would see me in my rolled of bed state. I was still not as lucky as her though as a young man around my age answered the door. He had the same innocent kind of look as Paige, which was cute, but he seemed rather confused by my presence. 'I guess visitors are rare.' I thought.
"Umm hi. I'm Paige's roommate, and she forgot her lunch so I thought I would bring it by." I said after a moment since he seemed to forget to greet me.
His confused look vanished and a warm smile replaced it. "Oh, you must be Cora. Paige has mentioned you before. Let me go get her for you." By go get her I guess he meant yell for her to come to the door, but it worked. I could imagine that the lab wasn't that big so no need to go fetch her I suppose.
"Coming Ian. Hold on." I heard Paige's familiar voice call out. I prepared a smartass remark but as she entered my view, it flew out of my brain. My eyes went as big saucers, and I was pretty sure my mouth was open. Paige yelped when she saw me and her hands rushed to her mouth with a bright red blush. Now in the five years we had been roommates I had seen Paige in various forms of undress and outfits. Even if she was rather modest and shy. Still, I had never seen her in something like this.
From her neck to her feet she was wearing a bodysuit. It was so skintight I could almost see the nipples of her braless breasts and every curve of her body. Weirder of all the suit seemed to be covered in white fur. It gave it an animalistic look and I was pretty sure I saw a tail swishing behind her. Even if I didn't see one the ears on her head gave it away that this was something animalistic and very very kinky. I didn't think Paige had this in her. The most sexual thing I had seen her wear was a clubbing dress. Even that was modest by clubbing standards. Now I was seeing her in some sort of kinky sexual outfit thing.
We both stood there for a moment not speaking, with the very awkward Ian standing between us. He muttered something to one of us and excused himself from the situation. I saw him dart back into the lab from the corner of my eyes, but I could not stop looking at Paige. It was enough to get me back into the land of the living and I held out her lunchbox straight in front of me. "You umm forgot your lunch, Paige." I stammered out my eyes shifting from her to the floor. I could hear her shuffle forward and she grabbed the lunchbox.
"Thanks...this is not what you think. I..." She tried to explain but I could hear her trail off.
"It's fine Paige you do you. I am going home to...process." I started to leave letting my eyes enjoy the normality of the boring hallway. I was stopped as a furry arm grabbed mine, the softness rubbing against my skin.
"I promise Cora I will explain tonight I promise it's not...that." She said in a pleading voice. What was she scared that I would not be her friend? Or judge her when I used to have one-night stands in our dorm when she was studying in the library to give me privacy?"
I turned to face her and gave her a big smile, trying to avoid looking at her body. "No judgement Paige. I just need to process seeing you like this. You're still my bestie."
"Promise?" she asked in the same tone.