by Alexis Davie
Ellie made a disgusted face.
“Ugh, you’re right. And all the places where we could go are probably already closed by now.” She sighed and let herself fall back onto her bed again. “But we should still do that at some point. Probably ASAP.” She gasped so loudly that she made Sadie jump, and then she sat back up again, a manic sort of look in her eyes. “Maybe this Friday! Just go out, let loose a little bit, and have fun!”
“Don’t you usually leave on Fridays, though?” Sadie pointed out.
Ellie waved a hand in front of her face like she was trying to swat a bug. “Oh, I can make up some BS excuse about why I need to leave on Saturday. I’ll tell them I’ve got an assignment to finish or something.”
“You do have an assignment to finish,” Sadie said, at which point Ellie frowned quizzically.
“What assignment?”
“Our history assignment?” Sadie reminded her. “You know, the one for Professor Jameson?” When her friend still stared blankly at her, she elaborated. “Pick your favorite era of witchcraft and explain why it was important to the development of modern spells and wiccan practices?”
Ellie blinked. “The one that’s due in two weeks?”
“It’s never too early to get a head start on schoolwork.”
That was Sadie’s philosophy, and it had worked incredibly well for her so far. Yes, she’d had to pull an all-nighter once or twice during exams for particularly difficult subjects, like Wealth Management 101 and Lycanthropy—which was downright pathetic, considering she was a wolf shifter—but otherwise, her system was almost perfect. It left room for last-minute assignments and reports, and she had designed it that way so she would never be caught off-guard. Or so that it only happened in truly dire situations.
Ellie continued to stare at her, except that the blankness in her expression had changed to a mixture of shock, disbelief, and pity.
“Sadie,” she said in that flat tone she used when she couldn’t believe the ridiculousness of what she had just heard. “Two weeks is entirely too early to get a head start on schoolwork. Even one week is too early to get a head start on schoolwork!”
“Yes,” said Sadie, “if you’re someone who likes to pull all-nighters all the time and suffer from sleep deprivation when you’re desperately trying to finish your immortal biology essay while stuffing yourself with junk food.”
“Okay, first of all, junk food has a bad reputation. I dislike humans as much as the next wolf shifter, but you gotta admit they’ve come up with some amazing stuff to keep you awake.”
“Well, it’s not like it affects us the same way it affects them,” Sadie said, remembering the time she’d tried an energy drink and wondered how the hell humans didn’t die with only a sip of it. Her right leg hadn’t stopped bouncing for almost three hours.
“And secondly, that’s what the college experience is all about!” cried Ellie. “Among other things, of course.”
Sadie rolled her eyes. “Not my college experience, thank you very much.”
“Like getting a group of people from different species to study for the same exam because you’re all crap at the class,” Ellie added as though Sadie had not spoken. “Or doing your homework at the library and finding a vampire staring blankly at the books on the Nutrition for Immortals sections.”
“Yeah.” Sadie shuddered. “And that’s one part of the college experience I don’t want to repeat.”
One night when she and Ellie had gone to the library to finish their respective assignments, since the fae students next door had been making a ruckus and wouldn’t dial it down, they had noticed the vampire, and the way he was standing completely still with a glassy, almost empty look in his eyes had made them pack up their stuff and go back to their dorm, noisy neighbors and their too-loud music be dammed.
“In his defense,” said Ellie, “I think he was experimenting with the sleep deprivation you’re so against.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault you don’t like sleeping,” Sadie replied, though she was only joking. If there was one thing she knew about her roommate—besides the fact that she hated going to her parents’ place every weekend and yet was obligated to do so—it was that she loved sleeping, though one wouldn’t think so, with her awful working and studying habits.
Ellie scowled at her and didn’t dignify her statement with a verbal response.
“Anyway,” she went on. “I know you usually don’t go out unless it’s strictly necessary—”
“That’s not true!” Sadie said. “We went to that screening at the university theater last month.”
“Yeah, okay, but that’s my point,” Ellie said. “All of our girls’ nights have been here at the school. We watch a movie in the student lounge, or we stay here and order takeout, or something else that doesn’t involve leaving the campus!”
“So?” asked Sadie, failing to see the problem. She always asked Ellie if she was okay with her ideas for their girls’ nights, and her roommate had never mentioned having any problem with them.
“So…we’re missing the ‘out’ in girls’ night out.” Ellie gestured to the cracked door of their room with her hands. “We should actually go somewhere that’s not in the area where we already spend like ninety percent of our time!”
Sadie slumped her shoulders and groaned quietly to herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t like the idea of leaving the campus and going somewhere else for a night. It was just that it wasn’t really her scene. New York was different. There was so much to do. The small town in Wyoming, where she grew up, didn’t have all that many places exclusively for immortals to relax and have some leisure time, and she had always been self-conscious about interacting and mixing with humans too much. Not that she had anything to worry about regarding accidentally revealing herself as a wolf shifter, but she preferred being in an environment where she had some sort of control.
Ellie seemed to notice her hesitation because she took a deep breath.
“Just promise me you’ll consider it, okay?” she asked, except it sounded like a plea, and Sadie exhaled through her nose.
“I promise,” she agreed, which was all Ellie needed to victoriously throw her arms into the air, her fists clenched.
“Girls’ night out!” she started chanting, like it was already a done deal. “Girls’ night out!”
Sadie continued reading the article for her history assignment. While she did intend to think about going out somewhere outside campus with Ellie on Friday, she already knew that she would most likely end up deciding not to go. Perhaps Ellie would forget all about it during the week, and then Sadie wouldn’t have to outright say she’d much rather just stay in and watch something on her computer with a bowl of popcorn on her lap. Could she somehow convince Ellie to help her find the best compilation of human failures online? Those always made her friend laugh and were usually pretty good at changing the subject or distracting her from the matter at hand.
Sadie shook her head. She was worrying too much about something that was still a few days away and not an immediate problem she needed to solve.
I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens, she thought, hoping that this would be the last time she heard about it.
2
It was, as luck would have it, not the last time Sadie heard about it.
Although the winter break at EMU was a little less than a month away, she felt as though it were quickly approaching, and she was relieved to see that a lot of students from all years shared the sentiment; they were already starting to prepare for the final exams, papers, and assignments of the semester. It wasn’t uncommon to spot groups of people from different species all sitting or huddling together, bent over books and notebooks and laptops while they worked or studied or simply talked amongst themselves.
That was one of the things Sadie liked most about EMU, the fact that she could come across a single group and find wolf shifters, vampires, fae folk, and even an angel or two in the mix. Living in a small town had made her grow up surr
ounded by mostly immortals like herself—pretty much the entire town was one single pack, so it wasn’t like she had been around strangers—and this was the first time in her life she was able to properly interact with other kinds of immortals.
It was nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time, and Sadie felt like she couldn’t get enough of it.
The week went by, and on Friday, after classes had ended for the day, just as Sadie had begun to come up with reasons why she couldn’t join Ellie in their “girls’ night out”, Ellie rushed into their room, packed her two bags in a hurry, and then left not even ten minutes later with a “Have a nice weekend, see you on Sunday, bye!”
Sadie stared at the closed door her roommate had almost run through and sighed in relief. It appeared that Ellie had forgotten all about her big declaration of an outing the past Sunday, and now Sadie didn’t have to worry about thinking of ways to turn the invitation down.
When Ellie returned from her weekend trip, she didn’t mention anything about their girls’ night out, and Sadie, not wanting to jinx it, wisely kept her mouth shut and simply listened to her friend ramble and complain about her parents and the continuous pain and suffering her visits to their place entailed.
After another week went by without Ellie bringing up the subject again, leaving only eleven days until the end of the semester, Sadie was convinced that it had been nothing more than a fleeting idea in her roommate’s mind, and so she had gotten over it or thought better of lying to her parents to go out for a night. Whatever the case, now Sadie could go back to worrying only about finishing her remaining papers and getting to spend some nice time back with her family during the winter break.
She didn’t know how wrong she was until that Friday, when Ellie stomped inside their room at exactly 5 p.m. with her phone pressed to her ear.
“I’m terribly sorry, Mother,” she was saying in a tone that told Sadie she wasn’t sorry at all, and she lifted a finger in Sadie’s direction as if to silence her, even though she had not said a word. “I’m afraid that I must delay my departure until tomorrow morning.”
Sadie pulled her gaze away from her computer and looked at her friend.
“I did mention that we’re entering the final stretch of the semester, didn’t I?” Ellie went on, and for a moment, it sounded like her voice had grown kind of posh, like she had an accent when talking to her parents, but only then. Perhaps it was just the way rich, important people talked to each other. Most of the conversations Sadie had heard Ellie have with her parents had been Mr. and Mrs. Hanson scolding their daughter for one reason or another, with Ellie interjecting only a few times. Maybe it was even something unconscious.
Ellie sighed heavily. “Mother, I don’t understand. You want me to get better grades, but when I try to stay so that I can finish my work, you tell me that I’m being unreasonable. What is it that you want me to do?”
She closed her eyes while she awaited her mother’s response, letting her head fall against her shoulder.
“Of course I will leave first thing in the morning. I will be home before you wake up, I assure you,” Ellie said, turning to Sadie to mimic gagging. “Yes, Mother, I’ll make up for it. Yes, Mother, I can help Father with whatever he needs my help with.” Her mother said something on the other end of the line that made Ellie grin the widest Sadie had ever seen her do. When she spoke, though, she sounded completely normal, as if she weren’t about to start jumping up and down in excitement.
“Yes, yes, of course! Oh, Mother dear, you’re wonderful, truly. I don’t know what I did to deserve such an understanding parent. Yes, I will see you tomorrow. Goodbye, Mother.”
As soon as she hung up the phone, Ellie let out a scream so high-pitched and loud that Sadie thought campus security would rush into their room any second now. She wondered if any dog within a twenty-mile radius had lifted its head in confusion.
“I take it they’re letting you leave tomorrow?” Sadie asked, though she didn’t expect Ellie to hear her over her overjoyed yelling.
“You bet your ass they are!” Ellie exclaimed, her voice back to normal. “Jesus, I thought my mom was going to say no for a moment there. WHOO!” She pumped her fists into the air in a sort of victorious dance that made Sadie smile.
“I’m sorry,” Sadie said after a moment. “Did she ask you to make up for the day that you’re not going to be home?”
“Technically, she asked me to make up for the half day I’m not going to be home.” Ellie sighed. “It probably won’t be a big deal. My dad, for all the power and status he holds, can’t operate a goddamn cell phone without help, so I doubt I’ll have much trouble with whatever he’s going to ask me to do.”
Sadie just stared at her, doing her best to hold back her disbelief so it wouldn’t cross into her expression. How could Ellie find that normal, or ‘not a big deal’? Rather than simply being sad because her daughter would be with her one day less, Mrs. Hanson had told Ellie that she had to make up for her absence, as though she was an employee who had to work extra hours because she had asked to leave early so she could go to her child’s recital at school.
The immortal world had almost none of that—those barbaric practices were mostly human, and Sadie couldn’t believe how such important members of a pack could fall into them as if they were humans rather than eternal beings with quite literally all the time in the world.
Ellie must have noticed something shift on Sadie’s expression anyway, because she smiled reassuringly.
“Seriously, I swear it sounds worse than it’ll actually be,” she said. “At this point, I’ll take whatever they throw at me for less time spent talking to them.”
Well, now that just made Sadie even sadder. When she had moved to New York to attend EMU, she and her parents had agreed that the distance was too big for her to visit every weekend. So, until witches could create some sort of magic transportation system that was faster than airplanes and much more comfortable, Sadie would go back home only during the longer breaks, like the one that would come with the end of the semester next week.
She kind of wished she could take Ellie with her so that she was surrounded by a loving family for once in her life. Her friend more than deserved it.
“And whatever they throw at me,” Ellie continued, her smile growing into a grin, “is going to be completely worth having our girls’ night out tonight!”
Oh. Oh. So she had not forgotten about it then.
“Wasn’t this supposed to happen last week?” Sadie asked, trying not to sound as desperate as she felt all of a sudden.
“Yeah, it was, but I’d just had that argument with my parents, so I knew that asking them a favor, even in the name of schoolwork, would not go well for me.” Ellie went to the shared closet at the back of their room and pulled the sliding door of her side open. “I had to go last weekend and be all ‘yes, Mother, yes, Father, I should truly study more and work harder and become the exact kind of immortal you want me to be!’ Ugh.”
A full-body shiver went through her, like she was recoiling in disgust. Sadie didn’t blame her.
“Does it have to be tonight?” She had convinced herself that they had left this whole thing behind them, so she had thrown out her mental list of reasons why she couldn’t possibly go out for a night of fun with her roommate and was now wishing she had kept it in the back of her mind.
“It’s the last Friday before the winter break!” Ellie said, her back to Sadie as she stared at her clothes and looked through them for something to, Sadie assumed, change into. “If it’s not tonight, when will it be?”
Hopefully never? Sadie thought, wisely holding her tongue.
Ellie pulled two hangers, each carrying a different dress, from the closet.
“What do you think?” she asked. She held each one in front of her, shifting between them at a slow enough speed to let Sadie formulate an opinion on how they both looked.
“I think,” she answered, “that I don’t have anything that looks even remotely like that
.”
That wasn’t entirely accurate. Sadie had brought with her a wardrobe of jeans, V-necked shirts, comfy, loose blouses, two long skirts, a few jackets, sweatshirts, and sweaters, two pairs of tennis shoes, three pairs of flats, one single pair of high heels, and only one dress that could be considered appropriate to go out to a club or bar or wherever it was that Ellie intended for them to go.
“Oh, that’s no problem at all!” Ellie said, lowering the hangers. “I can lend you something of mine!”
Sadie shuffled nervously on the bed. “I don’t know if your clothes will fit me,” she muttered.
She and Ellie were around the same height, yes, but Ellie had a more athletic build to her body, the muscles in her arms much more defined than the ones in Sadie’s noodle-like arms. Sadie had never felt self-conscious about herself, but the last time she had worn someone else’s clothes, she had been a seven-year-old girl trying on her mother’s dresses and shoes and pretending to be a grown-up.
“Nonsense, of course they will!” Ellie threw the dresses she had pulled out onto her bed and began to rummage through her closet again. “What would you prefer? With straps, strapless, a longer skirt, loose, more fitted—”
“I would prefer to stay in and finish my Spells and Witchcraft homework, to be honest,” Sadie confessed, immediately regretting her inability to keep it to herself. Then again, in her defense, Ellie had asked her.
Actually, in her defense, Ellie had said she wanted them to do this last week, and she hadn’t mentioned anything else about it, so was it really Sadie’s fault that she didn’t want to change her plans of finishing her last essay of the semester and then watching the mid-season finale of The Fast and the Immortal?
Ellie turned to her, and Sadie couldn’t decipher the look in her eyes. It was almost neutral, like not even Ellie knew how to feel or react.
“Sadie,” she began, calmly. “Why don’t you want to go on a girls’ night out with me?”