Two weeks had passed since our movie night, and I was missing it more every day. I hated not being able to spend any of my time with Kara. Homework was a tremendous struggle, and took away most of my opportunities to spend time with others. Taking a semester off from school did not do my memory any favors. Classes overall were fine, though my required ‘freshman guidance’ class felt preachy and unnecessary. 

I thought I could make up for my lack of friends through classmates or my roommate, but each had its own problems. My roommate was basically non existent. I’d seen him, sure, and we had a conversation or two, but he was practically a nonentity. He stayed almost every night somewhere else, I assumed with a partner or a friend. I could barely even remember his name half the time.

My classmates, on the other hand, felt too out of reach. The girls were all gorgeous and everything, sure, but it felt like I didn’t fit in with anyone. It felt like to my left were the students who didn’t take anything seriously, and to my right were the people who took everything seriously. I felt overprepared and like I was doing all of the work with one group, and I felt like a complete idiot with the other. 

I was three quarters of the way through an American Sign Language assignment when I heard a knock on the living room door, and froze up. My bedroom was not tidy enough for me to feel comfortable with a random inspection, if that was what it was. I still had a pile of clean laundry dumped on the floor to be folded, and several of my finished assignments were thrown all over my bed. 

Fortunately, when I opened the door it was nobody associated with the dorm staring back at me. Instead, Aubrey looked uncharacteristically awkward as she stood at my doorway. I didn’t bother hiding my look of confusion. Kara or Erica showing up made sense, but Aubrey lived in an entirely different dorm. “Everything alright, Aubrey?” I asked, concern obvious on my face. 

“Uh… Yeah. Can I come in?” Oh, wow, she even sounded awkward as she spoke. Was she okay? 

I nodded my head and stood aside for her to enter. “Of course. Everything alright?”

“Oh, yeah! Just wanted to hang out with someone today. That okay?” 

Her answer only left me with more questions. Erica and Kara were across the hall, and to my knowledge didn’t have anything going on. Kara had a doctor’s appointment sooner or later so she could get started on the medical part of her transition, but I could’ve sworn it was on a different day. A moment of panic took hold of me as my mind wandered into the worst case scenario. “Is Kara alright?” 

Aubrey quickly nodded  her head, her nervousness not fading in the slightest. “Yeah, yeah, she’s fine. Erica’s driving her to a doctor’s appointment. I just, well… I’m used to hanging out with Erica, usually.”

My attitude changed the moment Aubrey soothed my nerves, like flipping a switch. “Oh, well of course we can hang out. What’cha wanna do?” I couldn’t help myself, the idea of actually hanging out with anyone did wonders for my attitude. Sure I had stuff to do, but those could wait a few hours. Plus, maybe hanging out with Aubrey could get me to stop thinking so much about Kara. 

“Oh! Uh, there’s not much to do out here. I’d say we could play some games, but Erica’s got all of the consoles in her room. Do you have anything to do?” It seemed a little weird to ask to hang out without anything to do, but I understood where Aubrey was coming from. Loneliness had a way of sneaking up on you.

Unfortunately, I was no better equipped to handle things than she was. I had my laptop, but that was the only thing I could play anything on, and it wasn’t like the two of us could get cramped and play something on there. Well we could, but… 

No, Luna, bad thoughts! 

“The only ideas I've got involve driving back home. It’s over an hour away, but there are tons of things to do out there. My dads run an arcade together, so I could probably set us up with some free games.” I didn’t say that it’d also let me see them again, and by God did I miss them. I had become so homesick in only a few weeks, I would have been so happy just for an opportunity to hug my dads again. 

Aubrey seemed to think about that for a minute, before coming to some sort of conclusion in her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I can do a long drive today. Would you be okay to watch a movie in my room, instead? I’ve got a ton of options.”

I didn’t even bother trying to hide my disappointment, I got way too excited too quickly. “Oh? That’s fine. Let me grab my purse and I’ll just follow you, then.” 

If Aubrey noticed the shift in my expression, she didn’t say anything. I quickly grabbed my things (and made sure my room’s keycard was in my purse), yelled a goodbye to my roommate (if he was even here), and followed just behind her. 

I always knew there was a stereotype about university students being incapable of waking up before noon on Saturdays, but I didn’t realize how true it was until I became one. It was just before eleven in the morning, and as we walked across the campus to Aubrey’s dorm I barely saw a soul who wasn’t working for the university. And of those I saw, few looked under the age of twenty-five. 

Thankfully, the walk felt shorter than it was. The sun was out and proud, keeping temperatures far above the winter’s normally intolerable levels. It was still chilly, but thanks to a small jacket and a lack of strong winds we made it to Aubrey’s dorm without me freezing half to death. From there, we easily made it to her dorm room.

As soon as we arrived, I was hit with the all too familiar smell of cooking bacon. It was enough to cause me to lose focus on everything but the kitchen. Inside were two women who looked like exact opposites. On the left was a tall, broad woman with incredibly short, green hair. She was wearing some gym clothes, similar to what Aubrey wore the day we’d met, so either she had just gotten back here or was about to leave. On the right was the cook in question, a short girl with her black hair in a bun, wearing a hot pink apron with the words ‘kiss the cook!’. 

“Oh, Hannah, Abby, I didn’t know you’d be here till later?” Aubrey sounded confused, which only made me feel more tense. Were they not supposed to be here? 

Then again, I was much more focused on how pretty they both were.

The cook was the first to answer, with an adorable smile on her face as she spoke. “Oh, yeah, I got surprised with a day off work, and convinced Abs to come over for a delicious home cooked breakfast. Who’s your friend?” The cook, Hannah, had a voice that I was almost convinced had to come from training. She sounded like honey tasted.

As soon as I realized all eyes were on me, though, I managed to snap out of my stupor. At some point Aubrey spoke up, introducing me, and something she said must have put me in the spotlight. “Hi! I’m Luna. Aubrey’’s girlfriend’s roommate’s friend, oh god that sounds stupid. I’m Aubrey’s friend.” I couldn’t help but ramble aimlessly, Hannah’s voice had ruined me. 

“Y’alright, Luna? Pardon me for, uh, assuming, but you seem a little out of it.” Oh god, Abby sounded like Scorpia from the She-Ra remake. Well, before season twelve, which everyone agreed didn’t exist. Regardless, she too was perfect, which did nothing for my rapidly beating heart.

“I’m fine! Just, you know, weird around cute, er, new people. Sorry about that.” Fuck! I slipped up again, they were probably thinking I was some sort of creep. I couldn’t exactly blame them, either. I was a mess. At least neither of them made my heart beat like Kara did, I wouldn’t have been able to survive the ensuing embarrassment if either of them had that kind of power.

To my surprise, though, they were both blushing. Unfortunately, that only made me more aware of how cute they both could be. I really needed to get better at controlling my emotions around girls, but it was impossibly difficult. Girls were just always so soft and cute and sweet and… Ugh.

Thankfully, nobody seemed to notice how distracted I was, and after introductions were made it was decided that we would all watch a movie together. I didn’t mind, new people could be fun, especially if I read their interactions right. 

We sat together on and around their couch, and from start to finish I was captivated by the movie. It was an indie movie about a girl learning to be a vampire, as she comes to terms with her newly realized attraction to the vampire woman who turned her. There were times where the small budget felt kind of obvious, but otherwise I loved it. Every character was so precious.  

I rarely took my eyes off of the screen until the end credits began rolling, but I was quickly made aware of how much Hannah and Abby were cuddling over the course of the film. I couldn’t help but feel a little bit jealous of what they had. For some reason, my mind kept wandering back to the movie a few weeks ago, and Kara. She was so warm, soft, and dorky. Her dumb smile could light up a room.

We spent a handful of minutes after the credits rolled talking about how interesting the movie was, among other things, but it was quickly cut short. Abby checked her phone and almost had a mini freak out before she rushed out of the door. Aubrey and I shared a worried look, before both of us turned to Hannah.

“Before you ask, she’s fine. She’s working with a classmate on a project due tomorrow, and the dumbass was too distracted to leave thirty minutes ago, when she was supposed to.” The way Hannah called her girlfriend(?) a dumbass put a smile on my face. I loved endearingly calling people dumbasses, and it was good to see others doing the same. 

“Well, that’s good. How’re you two doing, by the way? You seemed a little, er, closer than last time I saw you both together.” Was Aubrey implying that they were new to dating? With how close they were, it felt like they had been together for quite a long time. Maybe I was just reading too into things.

Hannah seemed to blush a little, looked between the two of us, and quickly nodded. “We talked things over. Turns out the constant blushing and flirting were signs that we really, really liked each other. One kiss later and, well, you can assume the rest.” 

“Huh. Wonder why that sounds so familiar.” Aubrey expressed aloud what I was thinking, but the way she said it and the coy look on her face as she glanced over at me told me everything I needed to know. 

I stuck out my tongue at her.