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“-and then he went and drank the damn thing anyway!”
The sound of laughter echoed through Rumi’s earbuds as the pencil in her hand scratched idly at the paper beneath it, notes from today’s class long forgotten in favour of what currently had captured her attention. Her phone lay next to her on the desk, the display lit up with a contact photo.
“And? Did he end up exploding like you’d warned him?” she asked, tone laden with sarcasm and lips parted in a small but genuine smile.
An incoherent but clearly flustered noise met her ears. “Well, no, but it’s an affront to nature! To common sense! Who in their right mind would mix vanilla Coke and Baja Blast, the two best flavour drinks ever?” her girlfriend Zoey responded, the bewilderment in her words apparent. “Ugh, I just wanna punch Myst in the arm for that one. I actually tried it after him, because he kept insisting that it ‘wasn’t that bad’, and I nearly threw up.”
“Really? Was it that bad, jagi?”
“You have no idea. It stank the whole booth up, and the people near our table actually got up and opened a window. It was so mortifying. I don’t think I ever want to go to Taco Bell again.”
“I think you’ll be just fine in any other Taco Bell, bug.” Rumi turned her attention to her notepad again, realizing she’d been ignoring her notes for a while. She began to write once more, her eyebrows scrunching together, pencil moving rapidly across the page as she jotted down another bullet point off of the slideshow presentation from her earlier lecture.
The silence stretched on for about twenty, maybe thirty seconds, before she heard a rustling noise from Zoey’s microphone.
“Rumiiiiii. Are you writing more notes?” came her girlfriend’s voice, breaking her concentration.
“Yes, bug, because I need to study. This test is really important and I can’t risk getting a bad grade on it.” The sounds of pencil on paper intensified a little more with each word.
Zoey groused loudly, the sound muffled slightly by the phone audio. “But it’s been hours, and it’s really late now. You’ll never get a good score if you’re sleep-deprived,” she argued, and, yes, she did have a point, Rumi supposed. No use in studying if my brain can’t retain the information very well afterwards.
She sighed, letting the pencil fall from her left hand, and rubbed her eyes with her right. Then, as if hit by a tsunami, she felt her jaw unhinge as she let out a loud yawn. Leave it to Zoey to know her body’s needs better than she did.
Zoey, for her part, must have been really proud of herself as she spoke once more, “See? I was right, you’re tired. Now come on, you need to get ready for bed. I think I’ll do the same- wait, what if we went to bed together?”
Rumi froze for a moment, before responding.
“Zo. You’re halfway across the country, how could we possibly go to bed together?”
Her girlfriend’s bubbly laughter graced her eardrums. “On call! We can get ready for bed together, and then we can fall asleep together! It’ll almost be like you’re here for real!”
Rumi would not have been surprised if her face was permanently disfigured after how hard she grinned as she stood from her seat.
“I’d love to,” she whispered softly, as she picked up her phone and plodded over to her bathroom.
“That’s the spirit! Now- shoot, let me get out of bed first…” Zoey mumbled to herself, sheets rustling loud enough for Rumi to hear. “Okay, give me a sec!”
The camera turned on, and Rumi’s heart must have forgotten how to read its instruction manual.
Short, dark hair, half in its usual twin bun look, framed a sun-warmed, freckled face. A gray t-shirt that she’d stolen from Rumi when they’d first met up in person the year previously hung off of her frame.
“Okay! Hi honey! Like what you see?” she teased with a knowing smile.
She’s so beautiful. I want her forever.
Rumi coughed once to clear her throat.
“Yes, my love, I do. Just like all the times you’ve asked me that.”
Zoey giggled to herself. “Just checking. Now, are you gonna turn on your camera or are you going to leave me high and dry, without seeing my wonderful girlfriend’s kissable face tonight?”
Rumi stood still for a moment, then set her phone on the bathroom counter and turned her own camera on. Her hair, still in its signature braid, snaked its way over her sleep shirt; a cropped tee with blue cat faces scattered in a randomized pattern over it. She wore her favourite sleep pants, the ones Zoey said were ‘the most honest thing she’s ever worn’, adorned with cartoon bears and steam engines.
She splayed her fingers outward in a pale imitation of jazz hands. “Ta-da. Better now?”
Zoey’s grin only widened. “Loads.”
The sounds of teeth being brushed and faces being washed drowned out all other noise for the next few minutes, before Rumi retrieved her phone from its post and made the journey to her bed for the night. Seeing that Zoey was still busy in the bathroom on her end, she took the time to set her alarms for the following morning and check the group chat for an upcoming project before placing her phone on her nightstand sideways and clambering into bed.
She watched her girlfriend through the screen, her eyes following the movement of her hands - which were, to her chagrin, larger than her own; Zoey had cackled uproariously after comparing their hand sizes when they’d met in person for the first time - as she moved through her skin routine. Her gaze, however, found itself wavering, as the call of sleep beckoned her. She forced her eyes further open.
“Zoeyyyyy,” she whined. “Bed time…”
“Oh shit, sorry hon! Let me just-”
Her hands darted out to put the current bottle of product back in its place, before grabbing her phone. She sprinted towards her own bed, and, judging by the camera view, jumped onto it from across the corner, landing with an audible ‘oof’.
After a few seconds of rustling, Zoey reappeared on camera, face visible just above what seemed to be some form of roughly-constructed cocoon of blankets.
“Okay, all bundled up now. Are you getting tired, Rums?” her voice reverberated through the one earbud Rumi still had in her ear.
Rumi could only offer a noise in the affirmative.
“Gosh, you sound so exhausted. Goodnight, Rumi. Love you,” Zoey cooed, smiling softly as she saw Rumi’s attempts to keep her eyes open.
“G’night, jagi..” Rumi whispered, before sleep finally staked its claim and pulled her under.