Goblin's Note: The author extends her sincere apologies to RAs, actual attendees of religious universities, and anyone who's ever actually been in an orchestra and knows the ways she got it wrong.
The concert was in eight hours. Nobody was coming. Melissa couldn't tell whether she cared about that.
Mary had every reason to hate her. She would, eventually, when she understood better. She'd understand what a horrible, deluded liar Melissa was. Melissa had never meant to help Mary. Not really. A sinking ship could tell itself it was a submarine all it liked; people still drowned.
There weren't any classes on a Saturday for either of them, so she'd spent most of the day holed up in the dorm room, drifting in and out of empty dreams. Mary was out, had been out all morning. Lizzy knew she ought to go get lunch, but lying in bed pretending she was a fallen log also felt very important right now for some reason. She just wasn't hungry.
Well, no, she was hungry. She'd just eaten two bags of honey cookies, so clearly she was hungry. Just not for. Eating.
Sylvia had put the paperwork through last night. It would be finalized first thing tomorrow morning. She'd be moving into Lucy's dorm room by 5pm tomorrow, and. That would be that.
Lucy had given her permission to sleep there for tonight, even though things weren't official yet. Lucy hated saying no to anyone. But did Lucy even like her? Did anyone here like her? Mary had only liked her because Mary was... new. She was a freshman. She was younger than Melissa. She was, what, eighteen? Nineteen? She'd needed someone to walk her through things, to guide her through the adult world, and she'd gotten a predator.
Melissa Charm let out a groan and sat up straight. She couldn't sit with this anymore.
She went over to open the window. She peered outside--nobody seemed to be out there, but her dorm was lucky enough to face the courtyard. Trees rose to flank the window, close enough that she'd thought once or twice about hanging a hummingbird feeder from a branch.
She popped the screen out, pulled it inside, and flew out of the fourth-story window. Her wings buzzed to life, carrying her down into the trees.
They weren't strictly allowed to use their windows to exit except in emergencies. They also weren't allowed to seduce freshmen. Melissa preferred that people notice one affront instead of the other.
The courtyard was empty. It was a cloudy fall day, and the leaves glistened with rainwater, telling Melissa it had just showered. Normally, the risk of rain, too, would be a deterrent for flying. Today, it felt like a guarantee she'd be left alone. She flew up to a branch and took a seat, resting her chin in her palms.
She'd just been so... so
bored
at the start of the semester. And lonely. And there was Mary, all cute and shy and... and confused about the littlest things, the simplest things. So easy to tease, to flirt with without admitting she was flirting, to suggest things to. And so kind to Lizzy.
Melissa heard a soft rattling from above, and a droplet of water struck her cheek as she looked up. It had started to rain again.
She felt a sting of regret. Beegirls couldn't fly in even slight rainfall--as strong as their wings were, they handled water very badly. Now she was stranded in a tree for who-knew-how-long.
Her shoulders slumped. Well, there were six hours until the concert. It wasn't like she'd had anything better to do.
Melissa leaned back against the mossy trunk and listened to the chorus of drips. Was this what it was like to fly alone? Everything felt so quiet and peaceful.
No wonder Mary liked it.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Seriously, though, what the hell do you think's going on with them? I've never seen roommates switch on each other so fast. You think it's politics?"
Alexis's shoulders heaved. As they passed by the common room's table, the vespinne retrieved a nickel from her pocket and dropped it into the swear jar. "I haven't got any idea, and it isn't any of our business."
"You are
such
a fibber." Denise shouldered her roommate.
"I'm lying that it... isn't our business?"
"Alexis, you're basically the dorm's oracle. You've got ideas about everything." Denise glanced at the jar. "Hey, what do you think Sylvia does with that money, anyways?"
"I genuinely have no idea."
"Yeah, she's tightlipped. I bet she's embezzling it. I mean, she gave me a whole lecture about pirating my textbooks, but there's
no
way she can afford--"
"It gets put into a pool administrated by the Resident Director, and she uses it to help fund events. Stop pirating your books, by the way. It's a crime."
"You literally photograph your books at the library, narc. I thought you said you didn't know?"
"That's not piracy." Alexis rolled her eyes, taking a seat on the couch and setting her dinner tray to the side. "And I meant about Mary and Lizzy."
"You're so full of bull."
"About--"
"About both things!"
"Nessie, it genuinely isn't our business!"
"First off, it is!" Denise sat down next to Alexis. "Because we live with them, ergo any problems they have are gonna turn into our problems sooner or later, and then the drama's gonna spread to the whole hall and we can have another Rice Cooker Situation. And second, I'm really, really curious! Like, when Mary came here, she was clinging to Lizzy's leg like a baby duckling. They were watching movies together every night, Lizzy was always getting called away to help her with things, and Lizzy was... like, she was in a better mood than I think I've ever seen her. Then one day, Lizzy starts refusing to talk to Mary, Mary acts like she shot Lizzy's puppy, and now they're fighting over who gets to move out of the room? A room which, by the way, just to draw attention--" Denise held up her hand while she took in a breath. "--is positioned directly between the exit and the bathrooms
and
faces the courtyard, which makes it it objectively, scientifically, the best room in the hall?"
Her monologue delivered, Denise leaned back in her seat and started pulling stuff out of her lunchbox.
"So." Alexis was rubbing her forehead, her eyes closed. "Can you... remind me why you never enter your 'legs form' when you're in public? Out here, I mean?"
Denise blinked. "Okay, so this is the bit where you ask a question that seems totally unrelated to make a point, right?"
Alexis gave a small smile. "Yes."
"Ugh." She rolled her eyes. She hesitated, but simply refusing to take the bait was never really an option with someone as stubborn as Alexis. "It's easier to sit down with two legs. And it's easier to fit on the couch with you. You know."
"Is that the only reason?"
Alexis's gaze was relentless. Denise avoided it. "Also, a lot of people are scared of spiders, and I don't like confrontation."
"Denise, you
love
confrontation. You'd make a great vespinne."
"I don't like
that
confrontation." Denise grimaced. "And you'd make a great aranea, with how you always weave around the issue like you're trying to trap me in something. You wanna make that point now?"
She met Alexis's gaze. Alexis's dark green eyes glittered with intensity. "My point is that people keep secrets for a reason. Us
knowing
the issue might make things even worse. I mean, it might cause more confrontations than it prevents."
Denise considered this for a moment, nibbling her bottom lip.
All eight of her eyes lit up. "... so, you
do
have an idea!"