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Adaine scrunched her nose up in exaggerated disgust as Fig took a swig of her coffee, sliding into the seat beside her, surprisingly on time to the lecture.
“I still don’t understand how you could possibly like that,”
“Hey,” Fig’s response dripped with mock offence, “you don’t hear me talking smack about your drink!”
“That is because Hot Chocolate is the greatest thing ever created by humankind,”
“Not at,” Fig paused, checking her watch, “Eight in the morning?” She groaned and put her head on the table with a soft thud.
“You say that like it’s ridiculously early,”
“It is for me!”
Fig punctuated her argument by taking another drink from the paper cup, Adaine eyeing her as she did. Even with the bags under her eyes and unkempt hair she looked cute.
Blushing, Adaine looked away.
“Besides,” she said, keeping her gaze fixed at the other end of the hall, “it’s not like chocolate changes flavour halfway through the day,”
“But I need the caffeine!” Fig whined, making Adaine snort, “Hot chocolate is a sleepy time drink, if I drank that I’d just be a zombie all day,”
“So the same?”
“Ouch,” Fig narrowed her eyes at Adaine before yawning, “I could never be a morning person, I have no idea how you do it,”
“Well I have this secret trick, where, get this, I actually sleep at night!”
“Sounds boring, just, like, lay there?”
“If it means that I don’t have to taste that filth then I’ll take boring any day,”
“Well you’re entitled to make your own, stupid decisions, ‘sides, if I need sleep then I’ll just be late,”
“Why’re you here then?”
“I enjoy your company,”
“Kristen and Tracker in your room again?”
“Yeah pretty much,” Fig yawned again, “got back early from a party and walked in on them; not sure they even noticed me, ended up passing out in the lounge.”
“Classy,”
“Well, my apologies Zenobia, I didn’t mean to offend your sensibilities; what do you do when they’re at your place?”
“I pass out in the library,”
“So much class,”
“What can I say, I’m fancy,”
Fig laughed quietly.
“I know this might seem awful, but I really didn’t figure they’d last, right? Like, they’re cute together… when they’re not,” Fig made some rude hand gestures and laughed when Adaine shoved her, “but, like, Tracker brought back this baby gay and I figured, oh at some point I’m gonna have to give them space for a night or two…”
“And it lasted, I get it,”
“What was it like for you at the start aside from their-”
“Amourous encounters?”
“I was going to say hardcore fuck sessions but whatever,” Fig giggled madly as Adaine blushed.
“Well, Kristen was so obviously in love with her, but of course she didn’t realise it for, just so long… She just started ranting about Tracker: about how cool she is, about how nice and sweet she is, and ‘Oh my life, Adaine, she’s so smart’, and ‘she’s, like, so attractive, I mean objectively, like not as in I find her attractive or anything’, and I guess she figured that was how heterosexual people talk about someone that they’re not attracted to?”
“Oh, my God, it was the same with Tracker: she’d just go on and on about how cute Kristen was, but ‘Oh, I can’t say anything because I don’t even know if she’s into girls,’. It was exhausting!”
“Tell me about it, I’m really happy for them obviously, but if I fail anything it’s because of them destroying my ability to sleep,”
“Same, well, that and the fact that I don't really care.”
Despite herself, Adaine laughed and they fell into an easy conversation until the lecture began.
They’d been in the same class for the whole semester and had obviously had a few conversations however it wasn’t until their respective roommates began hooking up that they began to grow closer and now found themselves sitting next to each other basically every lecture, Adaine was a little ashamed to admit she’d put her bag on the seat when she got there first (vast majority of the time) in order to stop someone else from taking it.
And Fig (on the very few times she’d gotten there first) would have her feet crossed on Adaine’s empty seat when she walked in.
Around fourty minutes into the lecture Adaine heard light snoring beside her, turning, she found that Fig had passed out, arms folded under her head with her eyes closed.
For a moment Adaine was tempted to wake her but decided she could use some more sleep. And if she looked really cute when she nuzzled her head into her makeshift pillow then that had no impact on her choice at all.
When the lecture was finally over, Adaine packed her stuff away before turning halfway in her seat and gently shaking Fig.
“Fig,” she whispered, ignoring the crowd of students passing.
“Fig,” trying again, Adaine raised her voice slightly, but still no response.
“Fig!” finally she just poked her nose.
Fig jumped slightly, then opened one eye to glare at Adaine before closing it again.
“Unless you have coffee then go away,”
Adaine rolled her eyes affectionately.
“I’ll buy you some,”
“Alright, let’s go,”
Adaine left Fig in a corner of the cafeteria, when she returned it looked like she was about to pass out again.
“You know,” she said, sliding down opposite and placing the two cups down, “if you want I could just dump this on your head, might wake you up?”
“Haha,” Fig glared back at her, staring morosely into the steaming drink, “Thanks,” she muttered.
Adaine laughed slightly as Fig swigged the cheap drink, wincing slightly at the temperature, not making a move to drink her tea yet.
“I’m impressed you remembered how I like it-”
“I just asked for the most disgusting, caffeine filled, hot drink they had,”
Fig stuck her tongue out at her.
“But the coffee here is quite shit,”
“Yeah, the tea’s not great either,”
“So why’re we here?”
“I don’t have time to go off campus, I’ve said I’ll call my sister in,” Adaine checked her watch, “ten minutes ish,”
“Urrghh, I should go do… something…”
“Sleep?”
“Nah, they won’t be up before one today. And if they are up I don’t really want to see what they’re doing.”
“Well, I mean,” Adaine said, stirring her tea even though the milk was already mixed in properly, “You could crash at mine and Kristen’s place?”
“That… actually sounds great, are you sure it’s not a problem?”
“Not at all, if you can sleep through my call?”
“Honestly, at the minute I think that I could sleep through an earthquake,”
“Let’s hope you don’t have to find out,”
Adaine knew what the first words out of Aelwyn’s mouth were going to be when her face flashed up on the screen.
“Oh, Adaine, a girl in your room, is my little sister finally doing a healthy bit of college experimentation?”
Fig had crashed down on Adaine’s bed as soon as they got into the small dorm and she’d been offered it, explaining that she didn’t know what had been gotten up to in Kristen’s.
The cute snoring had started a minute later.
“Gross,” Adaine rolled her eyes but smiled.
“I’m just saying…” Aelwyn grinned, raising her eyebrows.
“Well stop saying, it’s not like that!”
“She’s not your type?”
“I- I don’t even have a ‘type’,”
“All the more reason to investigate, maybe with the girl already in your dorm,”
“Gross,”
“Your perspicacity never ceases to amaze me. So, if she’s not your beau, then who is she?”
“She’s Tracker’s roommate, been exiled from her room by her and Kristen,”
“Well, it would seem to be a convenience-”
“Quit trying to set me up from a thousand miles away!”
“Fine, fine,” Aelwyn laughed, raising her hands in surrender, “so, how’s your week been?”
“Good,” Adaine sighed, “works been busy, but mostly I’ve just been stacking shelves so it’s not been too bad, how’re you? How’s Sam?”
“I’m as amazing as always, Sam is… well… Camille, her… y’know, has been calling a lot and Sam’s been having a bad couple of days, but, we’re getting through it,”
“Say hi for me?” Adaine asked, her face twisting at the mention of Sam’s biological mother. She could empathise pretty easily with shitty parents.
“I will, are you still coming over break?”
“Of course! You think I’d miss out on expensive free meals?”
“Well maybe you could bring someone along for us to meet maybe your sleeping beaut-”
“Aelwyn!”
Aelwyn fell into a fit of giggles at her sister’s frustration.
They talked for a good while, at least a few hours, and Adaine could see the room behind Aelwyn darkening as the evening grew into night.
Just as the streetlamps illuminated on the screen, Adaine heard rustling behind her and turned to see Fig trying, unsuccessfully, to sneak out of the room, tangled in the bedsheets and sliding inelegantly off the bed.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt,” she grinned up from where she had fallen.
Sighing lightly, Adaine turned to the computer.
“Aelwyn, this is Fig, my roommate’s, girlfriend’s roommate. Fig, this is my sister, Aelwyn.”
“Hi!” Fig beamed excitedly as she awkwardly clambered to her feet.
“Good morning,” Aelwyn smirked, raising her eyebrows to Adaine who blushed slightly.
“Nice shirt,” She nodded to the tattered band tee shirt, “it would look better on Adaine’s floor,”
As Fig’s sleep-addled mind tried to catch up, Adaine groaned, looking up at the ceiling.
“Did you really just flirt for me?”
“Someone had to,”
“I hate you,”
“Why,” Fig grinned, perching on the desk, “Is the thought of me without my shirt that horrible?”
Adaine buried her face in her hands to hide how her face turned scarlet and screamed.
“This is bullying!”
“Well, I have to go, Sam will be back soon; nice meeting you Fig, I love you Adaine,”
“Love you,” Adaine huffed through her hands, making Aelwyn laugh before she hung up.
“I like her!” Fig said after a moment.
“She tortures me,” Adaine remarked, looking up finally.
“Isn’t that what siblings are supposed to do? I never had one but that seems right,”
“Yeah I guess,” Adaine sighed, but smiled at her sister’s antics, “how’d you sleep?”
“Amazing! You might be onto something with that whole ‘ sleeping through the whole night’ crap,” replied with a melodramatic stretch.
“Hey, I’m good,”
Fig laughed and hopped off the desk.
“Thanks, for letting me crash,” she added.
“No worries,”
“Wonder why we never thought of that before,” Fig scooped up her bag and jacket which she’d discarded haphazardly when she entered; usually Adaine would be furious at such mess but somehow she hadn’t had in her to be angry at Fig.
“Probably because we figured Trackerbees wouldn’t be a nightly thing,” responded Adaine, spinning in her chair lazily.
“Yeah,” Fig agreed, “speaking of, I should probably head back, see if I have permission to go in my room yet.”
“Umm, if not, you could crash here again. Or whenever.”
“Thanks, Adaine, might be an idea actually, although if we end up sharing a room whenever they have an ‘amourous encounter’ we’ll probably end up living together,”
“Would that be so bad? I mean, apart from having to deal with you ganging up on me with my sister?” Adaine could picture Aelwyn’s teasing if she ever found out she and Fig were living together.
“I don’t know, where do you stand on satanic blood rituals?”
“Hmmm… what kind of blood?”
“Human?”
“Chicken.”
“Goat?”
“I think I could deal with that,”
“Pleasure doing business with you Adaine,” Fig bowed, solemnly.
“Well, good luck anyway,”
“See ya!” Fig called over her shoulder as she left the dorm.
As the door closed behind her, Adaine looked fondly at the messed up sheets and decided that, maybe, Kristen’s and Tracker’s excessive amounts of trysts weren’t the worst thing in the world.