Anne’s finger tapped impatiently on her desk while she looked outside the window. From her second-floor dorm room, one had a good view of the endless stream of students coming from or going to lectures, study groups, or one of the multitude of activities campus life offered. She’d looked forward to this for a long time. The freedom to explore, to make her own decisions like an adult. It had taken a lot of hard work and struggle, but she’d made it. Yet sometimes it felt like nothing had changed. Like right now, she thought, looking back to the screen in front of her.

“This is fine,” Mark said. “I only made some minor changes and adjusted the formatting a bit.”

“Thanks.” There had been a time not so long ago when her brother meddling with her homework had annoyed her. These days she’d left those adolescent impulses behind. Mostly.

It was her own fault. She’d mentioned that she had a paper to finish and he’d offered to look it over and that was that. Whatever he would send back would be better than what she’d produced on her own.

“How are your other classes going?” he asked. In the background, a man wearing an orange jacket and a construction helmet passed through the picture. Mark hadn’t mentioned where he was, and Anne hadn’t asked. From the wall behind him, it was clear that it was some kind of container, but that told her nothing about the location or the time zone.

“Good,” Anne said quickly. “I’m ahead.”

Her brother accepted her statement with a small nod. This was what he expected of her. It was also the answer that would keep him off her back. Of course, it had to be true which was why Anne invested a lot of effort to make it so.

The door flew open. “Hey, I’m back.” An expensive bag, that might have cost more than Anne spent in a month, flew across the room. “God, are you still working? It's Friday!” The tall girl planted a fist into her hip while looking down at Anne with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m on a call, Jess,” Anne said dryly, ignoring her posing roommate.

“Ah, sorry.” The redhead threw her long hair back and stepped behind Anne, leaning over her shoulder. “Hey there, Anne’s brother,” she sang, “how’re you doing?”

“Jessica,” Mark said, accompanied by his professional smile. “I hope you’re well?”

“We’re doing great,” she said. “I hope you come visit us soon. Anne said you haven’t seen the campus, yet.”

“I travel a lot,” Mark said. Glancing to Anne he pointed at his ear with a subtle gesture.

Anne reached over the table, picking up her earbuds.

“It was nice talking to you, Jessica,” Mark said, as she put them in.

Jess smiled brightly. “Sure, let me give you some privacy.” She waved and stepped around the table.

“Can you hear me?” Anne asked, switching to her earbuds. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Jess making faces.

“So hot,” the redhead whispered, falling on her bed.

Anne rolled her eyes. “Sorry about that.”

“She’s a college friend,” Mark said, the roommate already dismissed from his mind. “How is your hand?”

It was the box her brother had categorized Jess in. A friend for this phase of her life, that she would leave behind when she moved on to the next. Anne wanted to disagree - to push against his dry, rational world view but it was hard. Glancing at the stunning girl playing with her phone, she couldn’t see them sitting in a coffee ten years from now.

“It’s better,” she said, opening and closing her right in front of the camera. “The team doc says, I can participate again starting next week.”

“Do you feel good about that?”

“I’ve to earn my scholarship sometime,” Anne said lightly. Then she saw the slight irritation that was invisible to anybody but her. “I don’t feel any strain or weakness anymore. I’ll start slow and see if it holds up.”

Mark nodded. While he didn’t approve of all her choices, he let her be as long as she behaved responsibly and rationally.

“Is there anything else,” he asked. “I have another project call in thirty minutes.”

“There’s a concert I’m thinking of visiting,” she said before she could stop herself.

Jess’s head perked up immediately. “What the hell?” her lips formed.

“On campus?” Mark asked.

Anne shook her head. “Jess’s brother has tickets. We would drive over there tomorrow with her car.”

“That’s what? A three-and-a-half-hour drive?”

Of course, you know the exact driving time, Anne thought. She couldn’t even remember when she’d mentioned where Jess was from. But Mark would have filed it away together with a million other things.

“Do you intend to drive back afterward?” he asked. So far neither his tone nor his face gave anything away.

“No,” Anne said. “We’ll stay at her parent's place and come back on Sunday.”

It made a good case. Jess’s parents were a nice boring suburban couple that had been together since college. Her older brother was a bit wild, but Anne was sure she’d never mentioned him to Mark. On paper, they were the perfect nuclear family. Not that Anne had ever seen such a thing in real life.

“Send me a message after you made it over there safely,” Mark said after the smallest hesitation. He didn’t like it, but he didn’t have a rational argument against it, so he kept quiet.

“I will,” Anne said and meant it. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

Jess jumped up, waving with her phone. “Did you have to tell him about our trip?”

Anne looked up to the redhead towering in the middle of their room. Jess was one of those rare girls who always seemed to naturally fall into a posture fitting for a photo shoot.

“Why wouldn’t I?” she asked, pulling out the earbuds.

“You’re a grown woman,” Jess said. “Why do you have to ask your brother’s permission to do stuff?”

Anne closed her screen. “I don’t remember asking for permission. Do you want to grab dinner across from campus?”

“Sure,” Jess said, already looking at her phone again.

Together, they left the room. On their way down Jess seemed to greet everybody they met. Anne was always amazed at how she knew so many people. The socialite seemed to be acquainted with half the student body. Maybe it’s because she changes majors all the time, Anne thought, a little jealous.

Walking the last couple of steps to the front door, she watched their reflection in the glass. Seeing themselves side by side she couldn’t help but notice the stark difference in their appearance. Next to Jess with her long legs and slim physique, Anne looked short and maybe even a bit stout.

“Stop doing that,” Jess said, without taking her eyes off her phone.

Anne pulled the door open for them. “Doing what?”

“Whenever we walk past a store window or something you make that face.” She pointed back over her shoulder.

“Not always,” Anne said defensively.

“Always,” Jess said, pushing the phone into her bag. She gave Anne one of her radiant smiles. “Sadly, I cannot share the secret of growing an awesome pair of legs with you. Family trademark, you understand. But I bet you could get yourself some nice curves if you stopped running to the gym twice a day, every day.” She winked, making Anne smile against her will. The facade of the campus socialite made it easy to forget how perceptive her roommate could be at times.

“I have to if I want to keep my scholarship,” Anne said, shrugging. “The curves will have to wait until I graduate.”

Jess rolled her eyes. “Good idea. Why date in college when you can wait until you join the exciting world of accounting. Why ever did you choose the most boring part of business? Did I tell you, that I’m thinking about switching subjects, by the way?”

“Accounting is a real profession,” Anne said. “Business isn’t.” She didn’t ask what Jess intended to try next. It would be her third major in as many semesters. Currently, she was studying English Literature which seemed a strange choice for somebody who didn’t read.

“Law is a profession,” Jess mused. “Or you could become a doctor.”

Anne shook her head. “Takes too long. And isn’t really worth the time and money.”

They walked along the path leading away from the dorms. This part of the campus was essentially a big park. Many students sat around alone or in groups to enjoy the afternoon warmth of the late summer.

Maybe I should study more outside, Anne thought, I would be less pasty. She was about to share her musings when she noticed Jess watching her with a troubled expression. “What?”

“Nothing,” Jess said. “It’s just…that sounded like Straight Anne.”

“Straight Anne?”

“Yeah, you know.” Jess paused, searching for the right words. “Rational, focused. Get in, get your degree as quickly as possible, and rush out again.”

Anne raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that what we’re here for?”

“Sure, but we’re also here to figure out what we want to do with our lives. To make experiences.”

Anne would have made a joke but the expression on the other girl’s face stopped her. Something seemed to sincerely trouble her.

“I mean, do you really want to become an accountant?” Jess asked.

“I didn’t want to do engineering or computer science,” Anne said lightly but the frown on the other girl's face only deepened.

“Those aren’t really your only choices, you know?” Jess paused for a moment. “Has this something to do with your brother?”

Something in Anne’s expression must have alarmed her because Jess immediately raised her hands. “Sorry. Look I didn’t mean it like that, ok?”

“What?”

Suddenly, Jess looked unsure. “It’s just...you’re looking at me like you looked at John, back at the freshmen party. Almost”

Anne frowned. “John?”

“Yeah, you remember. He was in our orientation group back then. He was actually really into you, which you probably didn’t notice.” She rolled her eyes, pushing a strain of hair behind her ear.

“The chemist?” Anne asked, remembering a boy with glasses and underdeveloped shoulder muscles.

“That you remember?” Jess shook her head. “Anyway. I think he got a bit desperate because he couldn’t get your attention and made some stupid comment about your brother to provoke you. You gave him that look – the Anne Douglas ‘you are dead to me’ look.”

“I don’t look at people like that. And he said that we were obsessed with each other or some shit like that.”

“You basically never talked to him afterward,” Jess said. “He was so upset he switched colleges.”

Anne stopped and turned to her roommate. “That wasn’t because of me! Wasn’t there some party that went overboard?”

“See,” Jess said, with a serious face, “you drove him into drugs and alcohol.”

Anne couldn’t help but laugh and the taller girl grinned down at her.

The mood lightened as they passed through the gate that divided the campus from the rest of the world. Across the street were a lot of cafes and restaurants catering to students armed with credit cards, covered by their parents. They decided on pizza and found a place to sit outside. Food was one of the things they’d bonded over. While most of the girls around them were picky eaters, Jess and Anne both enjoyed real portions.

Anne was always amused by the envious glances they received when they were out in groups. In Jess’s case, it was well deserved. The hot redhead was blessed with one of those magical physiques that lacked the ability to gain weight. For Anne, it was simply due to her athletic activities. She had to replace all the calories she burned, training every day.

“You know,” Jess said, as they waited for their food, “I don’t want to stick my nose into your private stuff.”

“Sure,” Anne said, knowing that she was about to do just that.

Jess’s hand played with the napkin while she searched for the right words. “It’s just...I wouldn’t even let my dad tell me what to study. Or where.”

Anne smiled lightly to put the other girl at ease. I’m a bit damaged but I’m fine so leave it, Anne thought, but didn’t say it out loud. It would be both mean and unhelpful. She didn’t like to talk about this at all, but she also knew that her friend meant well. After over a year as roommates, Anne had learned that Jess had an uncanny antenna for her social environment. She wouldn’t let go until she was reassured that everything was fine, and harmony was restored.

Anne sighted. “I told you that it's just Mark and I, right?”

Jess leaned forward, becoming very serious. “Yes.”

“And it has been for a long time. Since before I was eight.”

“You were in the foster system?” Jess asked in a low voice.

“It's complicated,” Anne said, sidestepping the question. “Mark is older, so he took care of us. Of me. He got himself jobs and later bought a used computer and taught himself coding. With that, he was able to make enough money to get me through high school and himself through an engineering program.”

Jess's eyes widened slightly. “That’s amazing.”

Anne only nodded. She was skipping a lot, especially the darker parts, but bringing those up wouldn’t help to reassure her roommate and she didn’t like to go there. The memories of her early childhood were fragmented, and Mark never talked about it. The truth was Anne didn’t want to know.

“But why is your brother making you become an accountant of all things?” Jess asked. “I swear if my dad tried that...”

Anne raised her hand, stopping Jess from continuing. “My brother isn’t making me do anything. Accounting, IT, engineering – those are professions that are in demand and highly compensated. Once I have my degree, I can get a job and take care of myself.”

The redhead looked across the table with a sad face. “So, you chose the most boring major there is to not depend on your brother anymore. That’s...quite the noble sacrifice.” There was a twinkle in her eyes, making Anne giggle against her will.

“But what would you like to do?” Jess asked. “If you would let yourself choose freely, I mean.”

Anne hesitated. “I’m not sure. It’s not the way I think about it. I believe you should first make sure that you can take care of yourself before you can think about what you want.” She shrugged.

Jess looked thoughtful. “I guess I understand what you mean.”

Anne wasn’t sure she truly could. As far as she could tell Jess’s idea of independence was based on a big student loan and a credit card covered by her parents.

Going into debt had never been an option for her even if Mark had allowed it. He’d meant for her to stay with him and earn her degree remotely but that wasn’t what she had wanted. It was the first and only time she’d gone against her brother.

“Did he write?” Jess asked.

Anne blinked surprised and the other girl nodded at her hand. Looking down Anne realized, she had subconsciously checked her messages.

“If you guys wouldn’t send messages all the time, you would have more to say to each other during your calls,” Jess said. “The pizza is coming.”

“Is that how it works for you?” Anne tilted her head, looking innocently. Jess barely ever put her phone aside.

“I never run out of things to say,” Jess said, running her fingers through her hair. “It’s a gift. My mom has it, too.”

The waiter placed a large pizza between them on the table and both girls immediately filled their plates.

Anne was grateful for the interruption. Talking about herself always made her uncomfortable. If she was honest with herself, she and Mark were very different. And Mark doesn’t really do small talk, she thought, glancing at her phone. Almost all their messages were quick updates about where they were going and what they were doing. They’d done this since Anne was little and never stopped. It was habitual. And reassuring.

“I guess, maybe I’m a bit jealous, too,” Jess said.

Anne quickly looked up, feeling caught.

Jess grinned at her. “Having a reliable brother who always checks in - by comparison, mine is completely useless. Without my mom, he would starve to death. And of course, Mark is super-hot.”

“You’re jealous because your brother isn’t hot enough?”

Jess threw a napkin at her.

“Hey, I’m not judging,” Anne said, letting herself be hit by the slow projectile. “I guess, it’s a bit weird but the heart wants what the heart wants.”

“Ah, stop it,” Jess said. “And give me back my napkin.”

Anne handed it back.

“Thanks,” Jess said. “But seriously, I have to remind him to be on time tomorrow. I don’t want to be late for the concert.”

“We’re not taking your car?” Anne asked.

Jess shook her head. “We’ll pick up some friends and his truck is bigger. Just warning you, he drives like shit.”

---

Book 1 now on Amazon.

Side Story to this fiction - Birth of a Magus.