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College is oddly easy – one of those lucky turns, Audrey thinks, since she has never really applied herself academically before – as it seems that she is actually a good student. She attends lectures, socialises moderately, and the years fly past. She is not the most beautiful student on campus, but there are some who find her hypnotic. She has boyfriends from time to time, and incredibly intense relationships with women.
"I have a sister, back home." Audrey is curled in the crook of Elizabeth's shoulder. Elizabeth is a psych grad student, dark skinned and fiercely feminist. Audrey admires her passion – she doesn't feel that, often, herself – and loves the way the corners of her eyes crease when she smiles.
Elizabeth is surprised; Audrey rarely talks about her family, and it is strange to see that smooth, calm facade slide away. She presses her lips to the top of Audrey's head, breathes water-lily shampoo and sweat. "I knew you had a brother."
Audrey turns in Elizabeth's arms, so that her lips are close to the curve of a breast. "I think, sometimes, that half the town might be half Horne. My father was a..." – what was the term that suited him best? –"a Lothario. It turns out that two of the girls in my class were my sisters."
"Two?" Elizabeth allows herself a smile. "It was just one a few minutes ago."
"She's dead." Audrey traces the bell of Elizabeth's breast with her lips. "One of the girls was murdered when I was seventeen."
Elizabeth can't help but snort, it's just one more absurd thing about Audrey. "What is this place that you come from? I can't believe half the things you tell me about – growing up in a hotel, going to school in a limousine." She's from Ohio, is Elizabeth, a place where the streets are straight lines, and the houses are three bedroom/one and a half bathroom, with a pool and a garage and a big yellow bus to take you to school.
Audrey traces her finger around one nipple thoughtfully, round and round until Elizabeth doesn't care what the answer to her mostly rhetorical question is. "It's the place that made me. I don't know any other thing to call it."
Later, Audrey calls the Great Northern, just to hear the reception desk rattle off the standard welcome message. Audrey doesn't say anything, just lays the phone down on the cradle again. It's not that she gets homesick, just that it's good to remind yourself that home hasn't gone anywhere. Twin Peaks will always be there.