Back at the Start (02)

Thursday, August 14th - morning


Jules,

You wake to the sound of your second phone alarm. In your own bed. You're still wearing the clothes you wore to the party... checking your phone... last night. DREN! You've got twenty minutes to make it to class!

What do you do?

There's way too much my brain is trying to process all at once after the sound of my alarm wakes me up. Where am I? What happened last night? Why am I still in my clothes? How did I get here? Where's Knox and Soph and- Frell! I'm going to be late!

I scramble out of bed, all the other questions and feelings not really mattering right now as I dash to the bathroom to see what kind of state my face and hair are in. Maybe I have time for a shower? No, no, definitely not. Just going to have to wash my face and put on some extra deodorant or something. Dren!

"Soph?!" I call as I get ready, wondering where the hezmana she is and why she didn't wake me up earlier.

Your face is a wreck, with dried mascara, hair that's dried-sweaty, slept-in-your-clothes look. A washed-face will help, but you look rough, girl.

In response to you calling her name, you hear Soph groan from her room.

"Frell!" I swear - at my face, at Soph still being in bed, at the whole frelling world. I get a washcloth wet with tepid water then rush across the hall to Soph's room, heading right inside as I scrub the washcloth over my face. "Soph, get up! We're going to be late!"

Soph draws in a sharp breath, "What the frell?" She sits up, still in her party clothes. "Where's JS?" She scrambles for her phone, finds it on the bedside table. "She left us? I... told her to go ahead? What the hell happened? Oh dren, I feel gross."

"Did frelling Galinthias bite you too?" I ask as the memories start to come back to me. I whirl around to face the hallway again, calling out, "Galinthias!" I don't know where she'd be if not here, and she has some explaining to do. "Get up! We have to hurry. I'll text Knox and see if he can come open a door for us." That'll save us a little while of driving at least. Dren, this sucks.

Soph springs up from her bed, then staggers over to hold onto the wall. "No, the ferret didn't... I passed out in the hot tub, I think. What a frelling party," she says with a mix of pain and wonder. "I'll take a shower downstairs." She moves to her door and tries to head for the stairs, but she's in rough shape.

When you text Knox for a door to school, he texts back:
Are we still together? Your little advisor said you wanted some space.

Soph got to the frelling hot tub and I didn't?! I'm about to say as much when Knox's text comes in and the bottom really falls out of the whole frelling world.

"She did WHAT!?!" I screech aloud, followed by a string of expletives intermingled with Galinthias' name and "ferret." I can't even think about trying to help Soph and instead pace back and forth down the hall as I dial Knox's number, my heart racing and my free hand clenched in a fist that I want to put through a frelling wall.

Soph tromps down the stairs with the clothes she's going to change into as you call Knox. He answers on one ring but sounds sleepy, "Hey spider. I can still take you to school if you want. I wasn't say no, I was just curious."

"That frelling ferret," I start, my tone hot and not at all sleepy like his, "doesn't have one iota of say over my life! She's spewing lies and is just jealous that we're together! She's supposed to be helping me and instead I get THIS!" I pace up and down the hallway, wash cloth growing cold in my hand.

"So.... we're not taking a break? You don't need space?" Knox asks, his brain catching up to your words. At the end, he sounds a little hopeful.

You hear the shower downstairs start up - Soph is taking one. Probably quick, but maybe not.

"Of course we're not taking a break!" I reply immediately, still heated, but starting to calm down now that I know Knox doesn't hate me for what Galinthias said and maybe things are going to be set right again easily. "I love you!" I take a deep breath for the first time since I woke up. "I love you. And Galinthias is crazy. I'm so sorry we didn't get to end the night together last night. She knocked me out and...well, I don't really know what happened after that."

He sighs and you hear his bed creak as he stands up. "That ferret is an imperious little dren. I waited around for you in my office for a bit, then she came in to tell me you'd gone home and that you needed your space. I'm sorry I believed her."

I swear under my breath, soft this time. "No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry she did that to you." I scrape a hand back through my hair and look around the hall as if all the answers I need are going to be painted on the wall. "Look, I've got to get ready for school. Can you come over and open a door for Soph and I in a few?"

"Sure. Be there in a couple of minutes. Your bedroom?" he asks with a flirtatious grin in his voice.

His flirtatious tone makes me smile for the first time since I woke up. "Yeeees," I answer. "But don't get any ideas. It's the second day of school and I can't go around skipping just yet."

"I always have ideas, spider," Knox says with a playful laugh. "Can't stop that. I'll be there in two minutes. Love you, bye." He ends the call.