Free Terrorscape by Nenia Campbell

looked so cute together,” she
kept saying the next morning, as they were picking
up soda and beer cans from the floor. Someone had
brought along a bottle of Grey Goose, and Val
wondered who that belonged to.
“We just had one dance,” she said, dropping the
liquor bottle into the plastic bag.
     
“But you left with him. I saw you.”
    “Just into the hall. I got a little dizzy from all the
loud noises, I guess. We drank water and talked.”
“What did you two talk about? Did you kiss?”
“What? No! No—I just met him.”
“These things can happen pretty fast if you let
them. You're keeping those? Yuck.”
    Val had picked up some plastic bracelets flung
from the ravers' flailing wrists the night before. The
kandi were handmade with brightly colored pony
beads and plastic charms. Val kind of liked them.
They
were too
pretty
to
throw her away, and
reminded her of the friendship bracelets she and her
friends had made back in grade school.
    “I'll wash them off,” she said, shrugging. “And
anyway, I don't move fast.”
I made that mistake before.
“Okay, whatever,” Mary said. “But you're making
a big stink over something that was nothing.”
“So you were watching me?”
    The garbage bag in Mary's hands dropped a few
inches as her shoulders sank. “Well, not, like, stalking
you or anything, but yeah, I was keeping an eye out.
Making sure you were okay. You seemed a little
depressed, is all.”
That word again. “I'm fine. I'm just surprised. I
didn't see you around much.”
    “I was in and out. Alex wanted me to stop by his
dorm and, well—” she smiled as if to say, you know
how these things go . But she didn't. She'd never had the
chance “—at least you had fun, right?”
    “I guess.” Had she had fun? It had been a long
while since she had attributed that word to herself.
She had enjoyed talking with Jade. He was so calm
and down to earth, and very grounding. “How well
do you know Jade?”
    “A little, I guess. He's friends with Alex—sort of.
As friends as you can be with Alex. Don't pretend
otherwise,” she said, as Val adopted an innocent
expression. “I know he can be an ass. But he's not too
bad once you get to know him—anyway, yeah, Jade
was in my campus tour group, same as Meredith, and
I talked with him some at the ice-breaker.”
    “Hmm,” said Val.
“He seems like a real nice guy.”
That was my impression, too.
    Val's eyes landed on Mary's old alarm clock, then
skittered back in shock. “Oh shit, is that the right
time?”
“Pretty sure. Why?”
    “Shit.” Val dropped her trash bag and tossed the
paper towel roll aside. “I have a class at three-fifteen.
I'm late.” She raced into the bathroom to brush the
scum from her teeth, then poked her head out again.
“I'm sorry. I'm not flaking. I'll clean as soon as I get
back, I—”
    “Chill, Val. I'll probably be done by then.” She
smiled a little as if to soften her words and Val
wondered if Mary was as cool with this as she was
pretending to be. “If it's an issue, I'll call Alex to come
over and help. He owes me.”
    Val shuddered internally, not wanting to think
about what sorts of activities the two of them might
get up to in her absence. She hoped Alex wasn't so
sleazy that he might consider having sex in her bed.
    You've been reading too many roommate horror stories
on the internet . Hopefully most of them were just that,
stories. Urban legends. Not, say, real.
    “Sounds
like
a
plan,”
she
called
from
the
bathroom. Her face was pale, with a few splotches of
breakouts from too much makeup and too little sleep.
She touched up her eyebrows with the black pencil
and applied more mascara. Then she slid her contacts
back into place—did Mary notice?—and pulled on a
green Henley buttoned up to her throat and a pair of
jeans that had been worn clear through the knees.
    She grabbed her black coat from the top of her
hamper and thrust her arms through the sleeves as
she walked back into the bedroom. As she did,