Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Name, please?” a brown haired woman asked from behind the counter, peering over her glasses at Eda.

    “Eda. Eda Clawthorne,” she replied, tapping her foot on the tile floor. 

    The woman typed something quickly. “ID?”

    Eda pulled out her drivers license and wordlessly showed it to her. 

    “Here’s your key and room assignment. You’re on floor 9.”

    “Thanks.”

    Eda pressed the button for the 9th floor in the elevator and then looked at the piece of paper in her hands.

    “Oh, I’ve got a roommate.” She checked both sides of the paper. “Doesn’t say who they are. Guess I’ll find out.” 

    She looked up at a door in the hall. “Guess this must be it.” She struggled with the lock for a moment, but got it open. The room was completely bare except for two beds, desks, and dressers. They were set up on either side of the room with a window at the end. Clearly her roommate hadn’t arrived yet. Eda shrugged to herself. She’d claim the left side, then. 

“But first,” she muttered to herself, “good luck.” She pulled out a few crystals from her backpack and set them on the windowsill, standing back with her hands on her hips. “That’s better!”

She finished unpacking her suitcase quickly and grabbed her car keys and her new room key to go back to her car. She swung her keys around her finger while walking through the lobby, full of coffee tables and chairs. A couple people were chatting at one of the tables, and a person with short teal hair was talking to the key woman. 

Eda froze. A person with short teal hair?

She glanced over quickly, and then shook her head. It probably wasn’t who she had thought it was. Besides, she had to get her stuff. She walked quickly out the double doors and almost broke into a jog to the parking lot.

She just had to unpack everything. Once everything was all set up, it would all be fine. 

Eda lugged two suitcases and a tiny metal trash can into the elevator, barely pulling everything through before the door closed. She breathed a sigh, setting everything down and then immediately picking it up again to carry back out. She struggled with the key to her room again, but before she could figure it out someone opened it from the inside. 

“Need help?” they said. 

    “Nope,” Eda said, trying to pull her bags into the room. “I’ve got this.” Once she got everything inside, she glanced up at the other person.

    They had a wide-eyed look of surprise on their face. “Eda?” 

    “Hey,” Eda said awkwardly. “That’s me. Hi, Raine.”

    “I didn’t– I haven’t seen you around campus,” Raine said, tilting their head towards Eda. 

    “Ah, community college, really I’ve just gotten here. So that makes sense. I guess.”

    Raine nodded. “It’s nice to see you again.” 

    “Yep! Really awesome. I’ve gotta go get more stuff from my car now, see ya!” Eda shut the door behind her and started walking down the hallway.

    She stopped. She felt her back pocket.

    She sighed and walked back to knock on the door. Raine opened it with a confused expression on their face.

    “Forgot my keys,” Eda said apologetically. Raine stifled a bit of a laugh and let her grab her keys before going back out into the hallway.

    Eda sighed. That could not have gone worse. 

    Her phone vibrated with a text.

    Rainestorm <3 : It doesn’t have to be awkward, you know.

     She nearly threw the phone down the hallway. She took a deep breath. Changed the contact name. Carefully typed out a response.

    She deleted it and shoved the phone in her back pocket. 

    Eda finally reached her car once again out in the parking lot. Instead of popping the trunk to pull out her very last bag, she climbed into the drivers seat. She didn’t turn the car on, but rested her head against the steering wheel. She wanted to scream into a pillow. 

    She opened her texts with Raine again and scrolled up to see the last ones.

    Four years ago:

    Raine: I’m sorry, Eda.

    Eda hadn’t responded to that one. She scrolled up further to see another text chain that had happened just a few days before that.

    Raine: Eda, do you want to meet at our hill on Monday?

    Eda: sure!

    Eda: can’t wait to see you

    Eda: love you

    Raine: <3

Eda stared at the message. 

Raine hadn’t said “love you” back that time.

She hadn’t even noticed in the moment. Eda banged her head against the steering wheel, accidentally honking the horn. She let out a long sigh.

    “I have to go back,” she muttered to herself. “Really don’t want to, though.”

    Begrudgingly, she got out of the car and lifted her suitcase out. She glanced at the text again. 

    It doesn’t have to be awkward, you know.

    “I won’t make it awkward then. You’ll see,” Eda said confidently to herself in the parking lot. The sentence bounced off the empty concrete walls and echoed. “You’ll see.”

    Raine wasn’t even in the room when Eda got back, but their stuff was. Everything was organized in small, color coded boxes, and their violin case was tucked neatly under the bed. Eda looked at her own side of the room, small trinkets already scattered across the desk and the closet full to almost bursting. It was like a line had been drawn down the room. 

Finally, Eda glanced at her desk. A bright green post-it was stuck to it. Eda narrowed her eyes. She didn’t own any of those. She leaned down to read it.

Raine’s loopy handwriting formed a sentence on it: Headed out to find all my classes before tomorrow. Text me if you need anything.  

    They’d drawn a little smiley face next to it. 

    Eda crumpled it up and moved to throw it in the trash. She put her hand down. Put it in her pocket instead. 

    Raine might have seen it and felt bad, she reasoned to herself. Green was a pretty noticeable color, after all. Almost like their hair. 

    Eda told herself to forget about the post-it. Forget about the fact that she had to live with Raine for an entire year. Man, high school sophomore Eda would have been thrilled at the thought, she thought, laughing a little. Now it almost seemed like a nightmare.

    Forget about it, she told herself again. She had a bag to unpack. 

Chapter Text

    Eda went and got coffee instead of finding her classes. She figured it was a bad idea, which was partly why she did it. She’d made a lot of bad decisions this week, she thought, laughing at herself. Her course list had been given to her an entire month earlier, and the most she had done was glance at it. 

    She sighed and opened up her laptop to search for the email. She probably did need to know what she was doing tomorrow, if she was gonna have a chance of being there on time. Or just being there period, really. 

    “10 o’clock Study of Setting in Literature?” she said under her breath so nobody else could hear. At least it wasn’t 8 o’clock. She had made the mistake of taking early classes back in community college, and she’d resolved to never do that ever again. 

    She checked for any other Monday classes, seeing there were none. “I can work with that.” 

    Eda poured the rest of her coffee into the trash and walked out of the little shop on Main Street. She hadn’t driven there, so by her estimation she had about a ¾ mile walk back to the dorms. She sighed. She was pretty sure the caffeine would run out by that time. She was also pretty sure that wasn’t how that was supposed to work, but that it would somewhat happen anyway. 

    She arrived back at the dorms tired and managed to open the door with minimal struggling this time. Raine was sitting on their bed, playing their violin with their eyes closed. They didn’t seem to notice Eda, so she closed the door quietly and tried not to be noticeable. 

    Of course, Raine opened their eyes after a few moments more of playing and spotted Eda trying to subtly put away her things.

    “Hey,” they greeted her. 

    “Hey,” Eda parroted back, not sure what to say. There was no routine with Raine anymore. Eda didn’t know what she was doing. It was strange. 

    “You got my text?” they asked. 

    “Yeah. Yeah, I did.” Eda rubbed her hand on her other arm. “Sorry I didn’t respond.”

    They gave her a tight smile. Or maybe it was just a smile. Maybe Eda was imagining them being annoyed. 

    “Sorry,” she said again, just for the sake of it.

    “It’s fine, Eda. Don’t worry about it.” They glanced down at their violin. “Do you, uh, mind if I practice in here? I can probably go somewhere else.”

    Eda shook her head quickly. “No, no, please practice here.”

    “Thanks.” Raine held their gaze on Eda for another second before going back to playing. 

Eda: guess who my damn roommate is

Lily: ???

Lily: Is it someone you hate

Lily: Odalia?

Eda: SHE GOES HERE TOO?

Eda: okay you have two more guesses

Lily: um… Darius? Although I thought you were on neutral terms with him. I’m assuming it’s going to be someone you really dislike, based on your use of the swear word.

Eda: damn is not a swear word we’ve talked about this. one more guess

Lily: I do not remember the state of your relationship with anyone.

Eda: lily please just guess one more

Lily: Fine. Alador?

Eda: no.

Lily: Are you going to tell me now?

Eda: it’s raine.

Lily: Ah. Is it awkward?

Eda: a little bit but its mostly my fault and i feel bad about it

Lily: I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Good luck!

Eda: is that all you’ve got?? no advice?? no anything??

Lily: We both know that if I gave you advice you would immediately do the opposite of what I told you to do. Which is why I am telling you to not talk to Raine. Definitely don’t do that. 

Eda: what if i dropped out

Lily: Eda.

Eda: FINEEEEEEEEE

    Eda woke up at 9:45 the next morning for her 10:00 class. After a couple wrong turns, she walked into the classroom at 10:05 for Study of Setting in Literature. The room was packed. It looked like there were no seats left. 

    She scanned the room again. There was someone she vaguely recognized from high school sitting on the right side, but she couldn’t remember their name. She looked to the left and spotted a familiar flash of teal. Right next to them was their bag, sitting on an empty seat.

    “Dammit, Raine, I thought you’d be a music major,” she muttered. She made her way down the row.

    “Can I sit here?” she asked quietly, since the professor was talking. Raine seemed engaged in whatever he was saying, and didn’t even glance at Eda. 

    “Sure,” they said, pulling their bag off the seat. “I knew you’d be late.”

    “You knew I was gonna be here?”

    “I checked the roster. Clearly, you didn’t. Now shut up and listen to the lecture.”

    Eda opened her mouth to retort, then closed it. She pulled out her notebook and tried her very best to take notes.

    Eda yawned, almost drifting off, when she was startled back into focusing by the professor clapping his hands. 

“I hope you’re ready for our first reading assignment,” he said in a deep voice. “We’ll be reading Piranesi by Susanna Clark. You can work in partners or groups of three. Your job is to read the book and write a piece about the way one of the characters interacts with the setting. You can choose to make a fifteen-minute presentation or a three page paper. I know this is a bit much for the first class, but you have two and a half weeks to finish it, so you should be fine. We can also do peer edits at our next session.” He clapped his hands again. “Feel free to find your partners or groups now.” 

Raine glanced at Eda. 

Eda barked a short laugh out. “You want to be partners?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Raine said sarcastically. “You sure you wanna hang out with me, though?”

Eda was taken aback a bit. “Did I ever say I didn’t?”

Raine shrugged. “I dunno, sure seems like you’re avoiding me. It’s fine if so. We can probably get rooms changed, if you’re still upset.” 

“No, I promise I’m not, it’s just…”

“Just what?” Raine asked, looking hurt.

“No, I’m just messing everything up, I don’t know—I don’t know how to act around you anymore.”

Raine looked down at their feet. “Sorry.”

“I swear it’s not your fault, Raine. I’m just—”

Raine put their hand in a ‘stop’ motion. “Eda. We can talk about this later. Do you want to be partners or not?”

“Yes. Okay. Sorry.” It was Eda’s turn to look at the back of the next row of chairs, avoiding Raine’s eyes. “What’s the book called again?”

“Piranesi. I’ve already read it.”

    The TA was walking down the halls handing out copies. Eda took one and passed the stack to Raine, turning the thin volume over in her hands.

    “Well. I guess I’d better get to it, then.”

Chapter Text

    Raine went in a different direction after class than Eda, so she assumed they had something else to do instead of going back to the dorms. 

    She felt mildly relieved. Then she felt bad about that. Raine had just gotten annoyed at her for avoiding them. And here she was, somewhat avoiding them once again.

    Maybe she should’ve followed them. She quickly rejected that thought. Raine knew she was heading back to the dorm. It would have been weird to follow them, in fact. 

    Eda glanced down at Piranesi , which she was clutching in both hands. She’d made it about 15 pages in class, which was definitely enough to understand the setting. She flipped to that page to reread the last few sentences. 

    It is my belief that the House itself loves and blesses equally everything that it has created, she read. Should I try to do the same?

    She made a note to herself to highlight that for character analysis later. She was 90% sure she’d forget the note within five minutes, but it was a good thought. 

    Of course, reading while walking was an awful idea. Eda bumped into someone and apologized quickly, still looking through the first few pages of Part 2.

    “Eda?” they asked. She sighed and looked up.

    “Hey, Darius.”

    “It is you!” he exclaimed. “Welcome to Hexside. I was going to say I was surprised and then remembered that Raine told me you were here.”

    “Did they tell you we were roommates?” 

    “Yep.” Darius grinned. “Didn’t tell us much more, though, so if you want to spill feel free.”

    Eda sighed again. Then she narrowed her eyes. “Wait. Us?”

    He shrugged. “Well, if you tell me, Eber’s hearing about it. That’s a given.” He glanced around. “He’s probably around here somewhere, honestly. He likes taking the most inefficient way around.” 

    “Are you two roommates?”

    “Yeah,” Darius replied. “By choice, though. I heard you two just got lucky.”

    “Raine doesn’t seem to think it’s too lucky.” 

    He snorted. “I think you might be overthinking it.” He kept walking.

    “Wait, what do you mean by that?” Eda called behind him.

    “Do you still have my number from high school?” he asked.

    “Yeah, probably.”

    “Text me later. I’ve got class.” 

    “Or you could just tell me right now like a normal person,” Eda grumbled under her breath, walking away. 

    “I have good hearing!” Darius called back.

    Eda flopped down on her bed. She was getting tired of the summer heat. 

    “Stupid dorms with their stupid lack of air conditioning,” she complained, fanning herself with Piranesi. 

    She set the book down on her dresser, reaching her hand back behind her head so she didn’t have to get up. She pulled out her phone instead.

Eda: explain.

Darius: lmao

Eda: i hate you

Darius: i meant exactly what i said though

Darius: i don’t remember what i said but i’m right 95% of the time so that gives you good odds

Eda: you’re a bitch

Eda: sorry i mean ‘dingus.’ gotta practice keeping it pg for lily

Darius: good luck <3

Darius: with both whatever you and raine are doing AND the keeping it pg

Eda: we’re not doing anything

Darius: good luck <3

Eda groaned, rolling over to lie on her stomach. She buried her face in her pillow. It was so freaking hot outside. The sun coming through the window was hitting her side of the room dead on. It felt like almost a taunt. 

“Eda?” a voice asked from above her. She opened her eyes, blinking a couple times to get adjusted to the light. “Sorry for waking you up,” Raine said, standing next to her bed. “I just got back from class and you were asleep with your phone in your hand, so I figured you’d fallen asleep by accident.” 

“I did,” Eda said, rubbing her eye with her fist. “Thanks for waking me up.” She winced as her pillow brushed her back when she sat up. “I’m probably sunburned as fuc—as heck.”

Raine laughed a little. “It’s almost six. You’re lucky it’s summer, it’s still light out.”

    Eda blinked. “It’s six? Did you just get back from class?”

    “Yeah. And I took a little bakery detour on the way back, since first day of class and whatever, but Fundamentals of Music Theory is only once a week, so it’s a long class.”

    Eda nodded.

    The room fell into silence. Raine sat down on their bed, pulling their feet up into a cross-legged position.

    “Do you want to talk about it?” they asked, tilting their head.

    “No,” Eda answered honestly. “Yes. No.” She shifted her gaze from them to the thin carpet. 

    “Please, Eda. Just talk to me.”

    “About what, Raine?” Eda’s voice had an edge to it.

    “About the way you look away from me when I look at you. About the way you saw I was your roommate and looked for an excuse to leave.” Raine kept their eyes on Eda. “About the way you never even texted me again after I broke up with you.”

    “I don’t want to fuck things up again, Raine.”

    “There’s nothing left to fuck up, Eda .” There were tears in the corner of Raine’s eyes. Eda could see the light left from the setting sun reflecting off of them. “Why do you keep saying my name?” 

    “I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

    “You said you don’t know how to act around me anymore.”

    “Yeah, well, clearly I don’t, because now you’re mad at me and I don’t know what to do about that either.” Eda held herself back from saying their name again. 

    “I’m not mad at you, I just want to understand.” 

    “I look away because you make me nervous. I looked for an excuse to leave because I was worried you hated me. I didn’t text because I was sad, and then it was months after and you were talking to new people and it was too late. It felt like too late.”

    There were tears on Raine’s face. They nodded slowly. “It wouldn’t have been too late.”

    “Unfortunuately, I didn’t know that.” Eda pulled her legs onto her bed too. She studied Raine’s face, and they held her gaze. 

    The two beds sat like islands on either side of the room, a five-foot ocean between them. 

    “What were you afraid of?” Raine asked.

    Eda snorted. “Is that even a question? I was afraid I would hurt you. You felt like this—” she gestured around her— “this fragile glass thing, that you’d asked me to carry, and I didn’t know—I couldn’t—it felt like so much responsibility, and I just kept pushing you away so I wouldn’t fucking break you.” She wiped a tear from her own eye. “God. I promised I’d stop cursing for Lilith. I’m completely failing.” 

    “I’m stronger than you think I am.”

    “You were always so optimistic about me. I didn’t want to disappoint you.” Eda let out another snort-laugh. “Of course I did that anyway.” 

    “I’m not made of glass,” Raine said slowly.

    “I would have hurt you if I had put it all on your shoulders.”

    Raine shook their head. “You’re still the same. I told you so many times that I could handle you, Eda. I wouldn’t have dated you if I didn’t want all of you. You only ever gave me half. You still think you’re gonna break me, and you won’t.”

    “I broke my dad, and he’s one of the strongest people I know. If I could make him cry in front of me, and tell me he didn’t know what to do with me, I would have destroyed you, Raine.” Eda almost shouted the last bit.

    “I didn’t know that,” they said, much more softly. “You never told me.”

    “I never told you.”

    “But I wasn’t your dad.” They looked down at the ground. “I was in love with you. I made the choice that I wanted to make.” 

    “You were in love with me?”

    Raine laughed bitterly. “You couldn’t tell? I was so in love with you. I was so in love with you that every second felt like my heart was exploding.”

    They made eye contact again. “And then I had to go and break my own goddamn heart.”

Chapter Text

    “I’m sorry,” Eda said again.

    “You don’t need to be sorry, but—this time, please, tell me things.” Raine softened. “I know it’ll take a little while, but we’re roommates. We’re stuck here. And I want to be friends again.” 

    “Friends,” she repeated. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I just woke up. I’m not handling any of this well.” 

    “I’m sorry for pushing us together in class, by the way. I was just frustrated at you for ignoring me, so I figured we’d have to talk if you sat next to me.”

    Eda shrugged. “I’m not angry. It clearly worked.” 

    “Um. I’m glad we talked, and I know it was my idea, but I think—if it’s okay—I’m kind of done with talking for now. I’m just going to read,” Raine said.

    Eda nodded. “Sorry.”

    “It’s okay.”

    Eda walked down the street to the dining hall, messenger bag slung over her shoulder. 

    She’d probably sat in bed for the last half hour, telling herself to get up and eat, and she was finally doing it. She hoped the food would be mildly okay. She’d been surviving off granola bars and cereal cups for the last few days, not wanting to walk the two blocks or so.

    It was kind of pathetic, now that she thought about it.

    Her bag swung against her side, and Eda regretted bringing her laptop. She knew damn well she wasn’t going to get work done during dinner, but she had sure hoped she would. 

    She grabbed a slice of pizza and an Apple Blood, that weirdly delicious brand of apple juice that Raine had showed her back in high school. She winced. She was not here to think about Raine. Again. 

    She glanced around, hoping that by coincidence Lilith had decided to be at the dining hall at the exact moment. She drooped a bit when no such coincidence presented itself. 

    Fortunuately—or unfortunately, Eda couldn’t decide—she spotted Darius’s trademark purple dreadlocks at a table in the corner. Eberwolf’s poofy ginger hair wasn’t difficult to spot either. 

    Possibly against her better judgement, Eda slid into a seat across from them. 

    Darius raised his eyes at her. “Hey.”

    “Hey,” Eda said, trying to smile a little bit. 

    Eber signed something to Darius, who kind of snickered. Eda glanced back and forth between the two of them. 

    “What did he say?” she asked. “Been a while since high school, you know, when I talked to you guys more often. Don’t think I’m fluent anymore.”

    “Oh, nothing,” Darius said, still laughing a bit. “You just missed Raine, you know. They ran off to TA a beginner music theory class probably like five minutes ago.”

    “Ah, that’s… unfortunuate,” Eda said carefully.

    Darius narrowed his eyes, but didn’t comment on her tone. “Yeah. Too bad.” He changed the subject. “How are your classes going?”

    Eda laughed. “I’ve literally only had one so far. I’ll have one today after this, and then tomorrow will be a little crazy. But the one I had was pretty good, I think.” 

    “Study of setting in literature?” Darius said through a mouthful of food.

    “Yeah?” Eda said, confused. “How’d you know.”

    He waved a hand. “Please. We’re Raine’s friends.”

    “Oh.” Eda hadn’t thought about that. She hadn’t thought about Raine in a solid 3 minutes, which she thought might be a new record for this week. 

    “Sounds like a fun class, though,” Darius supplied, helpfully reminding Eda of the topic at hand.

    “Yeah, so far it…it’s fun, we’re reading a fun book. Started off with a bang.”

    “I’m sure.”

    Eda thought she might’ve seen a flash of Raine’s hair on her way to her literature seminar, but she couldn’t be sure. She wished she didn’t have time to think about it, but the lecture was mind-numbing . She left the hall with no new information and exactly one new headache. 

    She didn’t really want to go back to the dorm. It was small, she reasoned. She headed to the library instead. It probably took her about twice as long to get there as it should’ve, due to her taking three wrong turns, but she made it there. 

    It was, in fact, bigger than her dorm room. And there were way more books than her high school library. Honestly, it was kind of overwhelming. Eda sat down and opened her computer to the google document, and then immediately opened her phone and started scrolling through Penstagram. She figured focusing had never been her strong suit anyway. What was the harm in a few minutes?

    She wrote a solid two paragraphs on the lecture homework in intermittent bursts before looking up and realizing it was 6:30. There was only half an hour left until the dining hall by her dorm closed. She hurriedly packed her stuff into her bag and walked quickly off. 

    She arrived and glanced around for Darius and Eber, or maybe Raine. She saw none of them. The hall was pretty empty as a whole, actually. Apparently peak dinner time was earlier. 

    Eda considered going back to the library after eating her pizza as fast as possible and waving an apologetic goodbye to the staff, but decided to go back to her dorm instead. She’d probably gotten enough done. After all, this assignment wasn’t due until next week. She had time. Probably. 

    She took a different path back to her dorm through the law school. It was gorgeous, with old stone pillars and structures covered in greenery, and she found herself slowing to watch the sun set slowly over the vines. She made a note in her mind to come back here to study at some point. 

    After a nice walk, Eda unlocked the door to a dark, empty room. She flicked the lights on, opened her laptop, and put on some TV to watch while laying back in bed. The sun finished going down, and she let herself relax. 

    She glanced at the clock after a long while. 9:30. Raine still wasn’t back from wherever they were. Eda idly wondered where they were. And how long they usually stayed out. Raine hadn’t been a party person back in high school, but if they’d changed their mind, Eda would have to ask them about what usually went on around here. She turned her attention back to the show.

    At 10:15, Eda heard a clicking of the key rattling in the door. It took Raine a minute to open it—their lock had a bit of a trick to it that both of them were still figuring out—but they got it, and walked into the room with a violin case in hand, looking tired. Their hair was a little messed up, but they were smiling slightly. 

    Eda paused her show. “Hey,” she greeted Raine.

    “Hey,” they said back, grinning.

    “Where’ve you been?” Eda asked. 

    Raine narrowed their eyes at her questioningly.

    “I mean—not, uh, not like you have to tell me, but I was just wondering. We, uh, weren’t out late much in high school?” Eda said lamely. 

    Raine laughed a little at that. “I wasn’t at a party, if that’s what you’re wondering. Or at least, it wasn’t really a party. I play violin gigs with a little group at Warden’s Pizza on Wednesdays and Fridays.”

    Eda closed her laptop and nodded. “Sounds fun. Anyone in the group I know?”

    “They’re all younger,” Raine said. “So probably not. Unless you know a Katya, a Derwin, or an Amber.”

    Eda shook her head. “Nope, doesn’t ring a bell.”

    “You’ll probably meet them at some point. I’m good friends with them, they just have a different kind of schedule since they’re underclassmen.”

    “Makes sense.” 

    Raine set down their case and started pulling off their jacket. “I’m probably gonna go to bed soon. Performing knocks me out.”

    “Still got stage fright?” Eda joked.

    Raine smiled, a little embarrassed. “Actually, yeah. I’m better at dealing with it now, though.” 

    Eda looked a little startled. “Wow. Clearly.” She glanced away from Raine, out the window. “That’s impressive.”

    “I know. I used to be so terrified,” Raine said. “My bandmates…definitely help, though. I won’t lie.”

    “Still. Really…really commendable.”

    “You sound like my grandmother,” Raine laughed.

    Eda blushed. “I don’t usually use words like that. The english classes are getting to me.”

    “Happens to the best of us.” Raine held up a handful of clothes. “I’m gonna go change into something more comfy. And then probably fall right asleep. But maybe you should come by one of these days. You haven’t heard me play since junior year, probably.”

    “No, I haven’t,” Eda said quietly as they walked off towards the bathroom.

    She put headphones in so she wouldn’t keep them awake.

    Eda blearily woke up the next morning to her alarm right next to her ear. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and quickly hit the off button when she saw Raine still lying in bed. 

     She gingerly pulled on some sweatpants and an old T-shirt she had from high school. It had originally said ‘GIRL POWER’ but Eda had taken a sharpie to it and changed it to ‘BAD GIRL POWER.’ It was bright purple, too. She thought it was hilarious. 

    As she was walking out, Raine’s alarm rang as well. Eda quickly shut the door behind her and set off on her way. She tried taking an alternative route, since the law school walk had been so nice yesterday. Unfortunately, this time she just ended up walking through several bushes and taking far longer than anticipated to get there. 

    She walked into the hall tired, and made a beeline for the coffee machine. She tossed a couple pancakes onto her plate and glanced around the tables for Darius and Eber. It didn’t take long for her to spot them, but she also spotted a familiar shock of teal hair walking their direction.

    Eda hesitated. She didn’t want to intrude. She went to sit at a table by the wall.

    Raine: You can sit with us, if you want.

    Eda panicked.

    Eda: Oh, wow! didn’t even see you guys over there! Yeah I’ll come sit with you :)

    Raine reacted to her message with a thumbs up. 

     Eda picked up her tray and made her way over to the table, sliding in next to Raine. Darius gave her a little wave.  Eber followed suit, and then signed something quickly to Darius.

    Eda narrowed her eyes at him. “Clearly I need to brush up on my sign.” 

    Eber cackled a little bit.

    “I was just telling these guys about the new piece I’m composing,” Raine supplied helpfully.

    “Oh, well, I’d love to hear about it,” Eda said.

    Raine started talking, and Eda watched them get excited about all the new things they were trying. It was nice to see them talk about music again, Eda thought. It had been too long.

Chapter Text

“Hey. Hey.” 

Eda opened her eyes slowly, blinking in the bright light. She saw teal hair above her.

“Raine?”

“Your alarm went off and you weren’t waking up. I was about to leave, but I don’t want you to be late to anything.”

Eda sat up. “Thanks. I definitely would’ve kept sleeping if not for you.”

Raine laughed. “Yeah, figured as much. I’m off now, have a good day.” They gave Eda a little wave before walking out of the room.

Eda crossed her legs and sat on the bed for a moment, just looking at the closed door. 

She got up and started getting ready. She didn’t want to be late. Even if it was just being late to freaking College Study Skills. 

College Study Skills was one of the required classes for all students at Hexside, meant to be a kind of introduction to college workloads and how to handle college assignments. The class was mostly freshman, from what Eda could tell. Disappointing, of course, but also expected. She sat down next to a hispanic girl with a short, curly poof of hair and opened Piranesi to where she’d left off.

 She’d barely gotten through a sentence when the girl next to her turned to her. “Hi! I’m Luz. Are you a freshman too?”

Eda snorted. “Hell no. I mean heck no.”

Luz tilted her head. “Then why are you here?”

“Blunt, aren’t we?”

“Sorry? I think?”

“No need to apologize,” Eda said. “I went to community college. And then I transferred.”

“Oh. I didn’t think about that. Sorry. How was community college?”

“It was fun at times.”

“Is it like normal college?”

“I’ve been at normal college for like three days. So far I’d say they’re pretty similar, but I’m no expert. There’s good and there’s bad in everything.” 

“That makes sense. I came from Gravesfield. I don’t really know anyone other than my roommates and their friends so far.” Luz tapped her pencil on the table. 

Eda smiled a bit. “Lucky you. Every single person I knew from high school is here, apparently. Including my own sister.”

“Sounds like—”

Luz was cut off by the professor starting to talk about the class syllabus. She shot Eda an apologetic look and turned to pay attention to him. Eda noticed that she was clearly trying to listen, but also was very quickly bored. She glanced at Luz again five minutes in and saw her doodling a surprisingly detailed dragon in the margins of her notebook. 

Once there was a pause in the lecture, Eda turned to Luz again. 

“Whatcha drawing?” she asked, gesturing at the page.

Luz blushed. “It’s a dragon. From a book series I like. Azura, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it?”

“Nope. Never in my life. Looks good, though.”

“Thanks.” Luz glanced down at her work again. “I draw occasionally. I prefer writing, though. I think that’s what I might go into eventually.”

“No way, me too. I’m an english major,” Eda supplied. “I’m assuming you haven’t declared a major?”

“Nope. I’m hella indecisive,” Luz said, laughing. 

“Well, English majoring is fun so far. I’m taking some classes that are at least mildly interesting.”

“More interesting than this?” Luz glanced at the professor, who had started droning on again.

“Way more interesting. I think this guy must be over a hundred years old.”

“You’re probably right.”

At the end of class, Luz gave Eda her phone number. “Let me know if you want to hang out!” she said cheerfully, pressing the paper into Eda’s hand. Eda tucked it in her pocket and made a mental note to put it in her phone later. For now, she’d just head back to the dorms.

“We should chat more sometime,” Luz said. “You should meet my roommate Willow and her friend Gus. They’re both super nice.”

“Thanks,” Eda said. “Yeah, sounds fun!” 

Luz’s mention of roommates reminded her of Raine. Hopefully they wouldn’t be in the dorms when she got back. 

Eda walked into the room and immediately spotted the pink post-it note she’d stuck on her calendar. She’d forgotten that she had another class in—she glanced at the clock—an hour. SOSIL. With Raine. She hadn’t even finished Piranesi . 

She sighed and rustled through her bag until she found her copy. She sat cross legged on the bed, put in earbuds, and started reading. She didn’t think she’d get through the whole thing, but it couldn’t hurt to try to get more in.

Raine hadn’t come back to the dorm by the time she had to leave. She’d been expecting them, a little bit—that maybe they’d come back and grab their books and walk with Eda to class. She guessed they had just brought their stuff with them. Honestly, knowing Raine how they were in high school, there was a chance they were already in the classroom even though it was twenty minutes until the start. Eda stuck her headphones in again and started the long walk. She really needed to get a bike.

She arrived in class about thirty seconds before it was supposed to start, and slid into the seat next to Raine. They gave her a quick nod to acknowledge her, but they had their copy of Piranesi and a messy but full notebook in front of them. Eda smiled despite herself. Raine had always been smart, but they’d never kept neat notes. 

Once the professor released them to do free work on their projects, Eda turned to Raine. “I assume we’re doing a paper, not a presentation.”

Raine snorted. “Yeah, we’re doing a paper. I’m pretty predictable. Did you finish the book?”

“Mostly?”

“Did you get to the twist?”

“The twist?”

“If you don’t know what the twist is, you haven’t gotten to it. That’s okay. They explore the setting at the beginning almost as much, and we can focus on that to start.”

“You finished it?”

“Well, like I said, I’ve read it before.” Raine flipped a page. “But I did reread it since last class to remind myself what it was about.” 

“I don’t know how you find the time.”

They laughed. “I’m just a fast reader. You know that.” It was a statement.

“I do. I do know that.” Eda wasn’t sure how she’d forgotten. 

“Anyway, we should start coming up with theses. Those are always the hardest part. Do you think we should talk more about character interactions with the setting or how the setting influences the character?” They leaned back in their chair. They were wearing black combat boots with some fancy designs on the side that looked hand-painted.

“Um, maybe the second one, because he kind of revolves his whole life around exploring.” Eda gestured to Raine’s boots. “Did you paint those?”

“Oh, these?” They glanced down, then laughed. “No. I’m a musician, not a painter. Derwin did them for me. They’re awesome, aren’t they?”

“Yeah, super cool.” 

“You can meet him if you ever want to come to one of my gigs,” they offered. 

“I still can’t believe you have gigs . But yeah, I’d love to meet him.”

Raine smiled. “Yeah. I’d love if you came.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Okay.” 

“Okay.” Raine glanced down at their notebook. “We should focus. This isn’t the biggest project, but we don’t have forever either.”

“Yeah. The book. Yeah.” 

Eda glanced down at her phone to see a new message from Darius. 

Darius: just a heads up Eber and I are out in town

Eda: why are you telling me this

Darius: because if you go to dinner with Raine it’ll just be you two

Eda: why does that need a heads up

Darius: you tell me, edalyn clawthorne

Eda: i’m actually going to block you

She switched to the new contact she had for Luz.

Eda: want to eat dinner with my roommate and i tonight in the dining hall

Luz replied near immediately. Eda wasn’t surprised.

Luz: YEAHHH that sounds AWESOME

Luz: can i bring my friends willow and gus xD

Eda: the more the merrier

Luz: AWESOME see you there!!!!

Eda tucked her phone back in her pocket and reopened the book. She wasn’t about to thank Darius for anything. 

They stayed a little later than most of their classmates to get a little more done on the paper. Raine checked their watch—and of course they wore a watch now, a little gold thing—and grimaced.

“We should probably just go to dinner now,” they said, glancing up at Eda. “We don’t have a ton of time.”

Eda nodded and started packing up their stuff. Raine slung a tan messenger bag with a few music pins on it around their neck. 

“I know a shortcut to the dining hall from here, actually,” they said. “Follow me.” 

They led Eda down a path that had some stepping stones on it, partly overgrown by moss. It was a narrow cut between the corners of two buildings, but their path spit the two out right in front of the dining hall. They smirked at Eda triumphantly. “Told you so.”

“Not that I ever doubted you, of course.”

“Of course not.” 

Eda spotted Luz as soon as she walked in the dining room. Mostly because Luz spotted her first and was waving frantically to get her to notice. She gave a quick wave back before tapping Raine on the shoulder. 

“Hey, since Darius and Eber aren’t here, do you want to sit with a few of my new friends?”

“Darius and Eber aren’t here?” Raine looked surprised. “But sure. If they’re you’re friends.”

“Darius didn’t text you?”

Raine shook their head. 

“Weird. He texted me,” Eda supplied unhelpfully.

Raine rolled their eyes. “He’s an enigma.” They walked over to the vegetarian section and started piling some sort of eggplant fritters on their plate.

Eda had forgotten that Raine was vegetarian. She’d forgotten a lot of things about Raine that were all hitting her at once, and it was overwhelming. She got her Apple Blood and a bowl of mac and cheese and signaled for Raine to follow her to Luz’s table. 

Luz was just as excitable as she had been that morning—possibly more so with her friends with her. 

“Is this your roommate?” she asked Eda.

“Yeah, this is Raine,” Eda said, giving them a quick glance.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Raine said. 

“Eda asked if you could come sit with us,” Luz said, tapping her hand on the table. 

Raine gave Eda a head tilt as if to ask if she planned this. Eda studiously ignored them. 

Luz seemed to not notice at all. She gestured to a short girl with tight braids. “This is Willow! She’s my roommate. And this is her friend Gus.” She pointed around Willow to a boy with short dreads and a blue shirt. “And my friend Gus. Sorry Gus that came out wrong I didn’t mean—”

“You’re good, Luz,” Gus said, laughing. 

“Nice to meet you,” Raine nodded at them. 

“What’s your major, Raine?” Luz asked.

“Music and English,” they replied. “I play the violin.” 

“That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to play the drums. I think I would be good at them.”

The two chatted about music for a bit longer, and Eda finished her noodles. 

“So, that’s the story of how I switched from a drama kid to a pit orchestra kid,” Raine finished.

“What musical was it again?” Eda asked through a mouthful. “Cats, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, that was it.” 

“Wait, you guys were friends in high school?” Luz asked. 

Eda glanced at Raine. “Uh. Yeah, friends. In high school.”

Luz narrowed her eyes. “Why’d you answer like that?”

“Like what?” Eda played dumb.

“You’re hesitating like there’s more to the story. Were you guys secretly enemies?” She glanced back and forth between the two of them.

Willow placed a hand on Luz’s arm. “Luz, you just met them. They’re allowed to be a little awkward.”

Luz ignored her. “OH!! Or lovers!!” 

Eda sighed and leaned her forehead against her hand. “Yeah. Cat’s out of the bag. We dated in high school. But we’re not dating anymore.” She gave Luz a look that she hoped implied ‘so don’t expect anything.’ 

Luz looked very surprised, despite that being her exact guess. Eda noted that Willow didn’t look particularly shocked. 

“Wow, you guys—I mean, sorry. It was actually kind of rude of me to ask that. Sorry.” Luz sounded genuinely sheepish. 

“Don’t worry about it, kid. You just got excited,” Eda said. “Tell me about your other classes, how about?”

Successfully redirected, Luz started talking about an art elective she was taking. Eda glanced over at Raine briefly, but they were intently staring across the table at Luz. She looked down at her empty bowl of pasta. 

Oh god, she’d made it awkward again. After all the work she’d done. 

Raine and Eda walked back to their dorm together in relative quiet.

“Luz is nice,” Raine commented. “Certainly very excitable.”

“Yeah, um,” Eda said. “She definitely is. Sorry about the whole….the whole thing.”

Raine shrugged. “Wasn’t your fault. Wasn’t Luz’s, either. We don’t have to be awkward about it.” They finally looked at Eda. “We’re adults. We can be adults about it.” They looked down at the sidewalk again. “And I’m not…I’m not ashamed that we used to date. It’s a fact of life, isn’t it? And we’re friends now.”

“Yeah,” Eda said. “I’m glad we’re friends.”

Raine smiled slightly. “I am too.” 

Eda finished filling out a survey for Study Skills before playing around with some new story ideas she had. She had a few good ideas, but none that she could quite get to work. Eventually, she noticed the clock and stood up.

“We should go to bed soon.”

Raine stretched back in their desk chair, yawning. “Probably a good idea.” They grabbed something from their closet and walked into the bathroom, emerging with music-note pajamas. Eda held back a smile. 

She didn’t bother going into the bathroom to throw on a ratty old t-shirt and shorts. 

After brushing her teeth and making a vague effort to brush her tornado of hair out, she sat cross-legged in bed waiting for Raine to flick off the light switch.

Eda had always been able to see pretty well in the dark, so she winced watching Raine bump into their bed in the dark. 

They let out a pained laugh. “Not having my glasses in the dark doesn’t usually work out very well.”

“Go, like, a little to the left,” Eda directed. 

They felt around and were finally able to hop into the bed that was just a little too far off the ground to get into gracefully. “Thanks.”

Eda imagined they couldn’t see her, but she could see them smiling the slightest of smiles. She lay back in bed.

After a few minutes of quiet, Eda rolled over to face Raine’s bed. “So, how have you been doing?”

She heard them roll over to face her too, despite the darkness. “Like, today? Or before this?”

“The last couple years, I guess. It’s been a while.” 

They laughed quietly. “It has.” They paused for a moment. “I’ve been good. I have Darius, and Eber. And I do really like music and english. What about you?”

“I spent most of my time getting my life together academically, to be honest. My—uh, I’ve got a cousin who adopted a kid. His name is King. I babysat him a lot while I was in community college. He kinda idolized me and it made me want to do better.”

“I bet he misses you,” Raine said.

Eda was startled into silence for a moment. “I hope he does.”

“Did you have a lot of friends at community college?”

The silence between questions and answers was becoming comfortable. Eda took her time to answer. Instead of looking at Raine, she stared at the ceiling. 

“I had some acquaintances. I went to a lot of parties. Had a couple failed flings. No real—nobody I still really talk to. I’m glad I have you and Darius and Eber now, though. Or I guess again.” 

“That’s too bad. I would have wanted to meet them.” 

Eda could hear Raine shuffling around in their bed. 

“I understand the academic stuff,” Raine said. Eda snorted. “Really, I do,” they insisted. “I know you think I’m perfect. And I guess on paper I still kinda am.” Their fingers tapped rapidly on the side of the bed. Eda could hear it, but didn’t comment. “I get burnt out really easily, though. I finish assignments at the last possible moment. I get sucked into my music for hours. It makes things really stressful.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. It’s just hard.” 

“Yeah. It’s hard.” Eda hesitated, wondering if she wanted to ask. “Have you dated anyone since…”

“I thought I would. I really thought I would.”

“You didn’t?” Eda tried to keep the surprise out of her voice.

“It just never happened.” Raine tapped their fingers faster. “Nobody felt right. It never felt right.”

Eda took that in. She stared up at the popcorn ceiling. The crickets chirped outside. 

“Did I feel right?

“I don’t know. I—I’m trying my best.”

“Is it getting easier?” Eda asked, barely audible. She could hear Raine’s breathing.

“I’m trying my best,” they said. Eda heard them roll over in bed. “Goodnight, Eda.”

It started raining quietly outside. 

Chapter Text

Eda woke up the next morning in a bleary haze. At least she got to sleep in. The nicest thing about Friday nights was that she got to sleep in on Saturday. 

Honestly, this was probably the most sleep she’d gotten on a Friday night in a while. Back in community college she’d spent most of those Fridays partying. 

Instead, she’d spent it eating dinner with freshmen and then talking to Raine at midnight. Eda blinked blearily. Raine. She glanced around. They definitely weren’t in the room. 

She got up and looked around for a post-it. She was kind of getting used to their messages in the morning. Eventually, she spotted a lime green one and picked it up.

Practicing most of today with my group, gig tonight :) 

There was an address for Witchery Jazz Club and a time at the bottom of the note. Eda set a reminder in her phone for it and tucked it into her pocket.

She wondered if Raine would be playing violin or something else. They’d always been proficient in several different musical things, but violin had certainly been their first love. Jazz violin was unusual. Eda was no jazz connoisseur, but she knew that. 

Eda hadn’t seen them perform in several years, now that she thought about it. Probably the last time had been at their graduation from high school. They’d broken up by then, but Eda had watched them perform with the rest of the orchestra. She had known through the rest of their friend group that they’d been offered a solo, but had declined it. 

She didn’t remember the last solo she’d seen them play. But they had played plenty of personal interludes for Eda, back in sophomore year. 

Eda imagined they had improved since then. She couldn’t wait. 

She flicked through her schedule. Nothing. She was glad she’d decided to keep most of her classes on weekdays.

Maybe she’d get breakfast at a bakery or something. No, it was almost lunch already. She looked at the clock. 11:30. Eber and Darius would probably be at the lunch hall soon.

Maybe she’d invite Luz and co. to hang out again. Darius might think they were annoying, but it would probably be fun, Eda thought.

She texted Luz before tucking her phone in her pocket.

She hesitated, thinking. She pulled it out again. She searched up Raine Whispers on Youtube.

There was only one recording from the past two years, and it was a grainy one-minute video in what looked like a restaurant. It only had eleven total views. Eda clicked on it anyway. 

It was unmistakably Raine. Even with the bad quality, Eda would recognize their hair anywhere. They were playing a violin with no sheet music, just walking back and forth across the stage. Behind them there were some rhythm section instruments, but it was clear they were performing a solo.

It was really good. And Raine looked so much more confident performing than Eda had ever seen them.

“You really still have stage fright, Rainestorm??” she muttered to her phone. “I’d never know.”

She tucked it back into her pocket and started walking towards the dining hall. 

She arrived at lunch and sat down with Darius and Eber, keeping a close eye on the doors for the freshman squad. 

“So, are you guys going to Raine’s thing tonight?” she asked through a mouthful of sandwich, trying to sound casual.

Darius raised an eyebrow. “Nah. I’ve got a paper, and Eber is probably going to write half that paper for me.” Eber made an affirmative squeak. “I think you’re on your own for this one. I’ve gone to a couple of Raine’s things, but they haven’t invited me for a while. I didn’t know they had one tonight.”

“What are they like?” Eda asked.

Darius shrugged. “Kind of boring in general, but Raine’s group is pretty good. It’s a music club. Not much of a party, just kind of a casual performance thing.”

“That’s fine. I haven’t been to a rager in a while anyway.” That was true. Eda hadn’t gone to a super-huge party since a couple months before the end of community college. She’d actually put effort into studying for finals instead, so she could get out of there. 

Darius raised his eyebrows. “Are you looking to be invited to actual parties?”

Eda sipped some dining-hall lemonade. “Are you inviting me?” She paused for a moment. “Not tonight, though, I already told Raine I’d go to their thing and I’m not going to just back out like that—”

“I wasn’t going to invite you to a party tonight.”

“Okay. Good. I was a little worried.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, though. If I hear about something I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks. Appreciated.”

“Maybe you can drag Raine along too. If anyone can stop them from working 24 hours per day I’ll be grateful.”

Eda shook her head. “I’m trying my best.”

She spotted Luz out of the corner of her eye and raised her hand to wave. Luz spotted her quickly and grabbed Willow’s arm, pointing to their table. 

Darius looked back and forth between the freshmen and Eda. “Who are those people?” 

Eber made a noise of confusion.

“They’re friends!! They sat with me and Raine the other day when you weren’t here.”

“Are they freshmen?”

“...Yeah?”

“You seriously invited a bunch of freshmen to sit with you and Raine once you found out we weren’t gonna be there.”

“They’re nice!” 

“I think you’re the most awkward person I’ve ever met.” He saw the look on Eda’s face. “Including Raine.”

Eda studiously ignored that comment and turned toward Luz and the others, who were just arriving at the table.

“Luz! This is Darius and Eber, some other friends of mine.” 

“Hey!” Luz waved enthusiastically.

Darius regarded them coolly. “Hello, freshmen.”

“He hates fun,” Eda said in the sweetest voice she could manage. Darius looked like he wanted to kill her. 

Gus looked mildly confused but amused at the situation, and Willow looked like she was barely holding back a laugh. They weren’t scared away, which was ideal. Eda scooted to the side to give them space on the bench. 

They chatted for a while. Gus and Eber seemed to get along great, which was interesting because Eber didn’t seem to be talking but Gus seemed to be responding. Eda decided not to dedicate too much thought to it. Darius warmed up to the freshmen a little bit. Or maybe Eda was imagining that. Either way, he hadn’t left yet, which was a win in Eda’s book. 

“So there’s this girl named Amity in one of my required classes, and we have to work together on this project, and she hates me for like no reason,” Luz continued with a story. “Every time I try to suggest something she acts like I’m trying to one-up her.”

Eda scrunched her nose. “Reminds me of Odalia.” She glanced at Darius. “Don’t you think so?”

Darius nodded stoically.

“Is Odalia still with Alador, by the way?” Eda asked. “I always thought that one would end badly.” 

“I don’t know what Alador is doing and I don’t want to know,” Darius said curtly. “I hope it ended badly.”

Eda laughed. “Harsh. But understandable.” She turned back towards Luz. “I dunno, kid. Sometimes people are just jerks. But it’s just one project. Don’t give her what she wants.”

Luz shrugged. “Yeah, I know. I can deal with her.”

“Good for you.” Eda finished her drink. “And don’t punch her. I did that in high school and it did not end well.”

Darius nearly choked on his sandwich. “You did not punch Odalia.” 

“I did,” Eda said cheerfully. “They tried to suspend me, but I was technically three feet off school grounds, so they couldn’t do anything.”

“You should go into a career as a bank robber.”

“I’ve seriously considered it.”

Eda sat in her room for a little bit after lunch. It wasn’t like she had much to do. And pretty much everyone she knew was occupied. And she couldn’t arrive 3 hours early to Raine’s gig, no matter how excited she was. 

She put on a podcast and cleaned the room up a little bit. She hadn’t been messy , exactly, but not everything was put away where it was supposed to be. Raine’s side of the room was mostly fine, although their desk was absolutely covered with post-its, stacks of books, and various papers. Eda glanced at one of the stacks, spotted a complex equation, shuddered, and left it alone. 

She sweeped up the floor, and eventually the dorm ended up looking pretty nice. She hoped it would be a nice surprise for Raine. 

It was weird. They used to always talk about living together, and now they were, and it wasn’t like anything they’d ever talked about. 

But it was still nice. Eda couldn’t deny that.

She’d missed the last 15 minutes of the podcast, lost in her thoughts. She rewinded it and finished hanging her clothes in her closet. 

She studied what she had to dress up in, and ended up deciding on black pants, a paisley green button up shirt, and a black blazer. It was maybe the fanciest thing she had. It was also maybe too fancy for a jazz club. 

Oh well. Better to be overdressed than underdressed. 

She aimed to get there 15 minutes early, which ended up being good because it was kind of hidden away in an alley and it took her a few minutes to find a parking spot and get in. She slipped in through a heavy wooden door into a dimly lit jazz club. Nobody was on stage yet—so she hadn’t missed Raine’s performance, which was good. It wasn’t peak dinner hours yet, at least not for college kids, so it was relatively empty. Eda took a seat near the stage at a table for two and leaned back, waiting.

Sure enough, Raine and three other students—who looked a little younger than them—stepped out on stage. Raine was holding some kind of cool, modified electric violin. A dark-skinned boy with glasses sat down at a keyboard. A short, blonde girl with a red headband was on drums. And the third underclassman, with a dark ponytail, was carrying a bass. 

Despite Raine clearly being ‘in charge,’ the bassist stepped forward to talk into the mic. Eda smiled to herself. Maybe Raine still had a little bit of stage fright.

“Hello Witches! We’re the BATTS, and we’ll be playing for you tonight!” The bassist pointed to herself. “I’m Katya. Our drummer is Amber, our keyboardist is Derwin, and our wonderful electric violin is Raine!”

Raine waved awkwardly out to the crowd. They seemed to be scanning the crowd. Eda didn’t think they’d spotted her yet, but they turned to the rest of their quartet and started counting in a tune. 

Admittedly, Eda didn’t recognize the song. She’d never exactly been a jazz listener, although she was beginning to feel that she should have spent her dead time studying up instead of listening to Critical Role. 

It was catchy, though. Raine was carrying the main melody, and the other three were carrying a background nicely. Eda closed her eyes and enjoyed it.

When it ended, Eda clapped loudly. She kept her eyes on Raine to see if they would notice her. They were scanning the crowd again. She caught their eye, finally, and they smiled at her. They wiggled their fingers in a small wave, nearly imperceptible to anyone else. Eda returned the gesture.

She tossed a twenty in the tip jar. Raine grinned.

Raine counted off the next song. Eda didn’t recognize it, but she sipped the apple soda the waitress had brought her and enjoyed the show. 

Eventually, Katya stepped up to the microphone again. “We’re taking a quick intermission! We’ve been the BATTS—we’ll be right back!”

The three stepped behind a curtain into a backstage sort of area. Eda pulled out her phone and started to scroll through some photos she’d taken. She spotted some selfies Luz had taken when she’d stolen Eda’s phone at lunch, and snorted quietly. 

“Eda,” a voice said from above her.

“Huh?” She glanced up to see the bar lights reflecting off Raine’s glasses, obscuring their eyes. 

“Come on. I’m giving you a backstage tour,” they said. They grabbed Eda’s wrist and pulled her towards the curtains. 

It was dark backstage, and it took Eda’s eyes a moment to adjust. It was a pretty cramped space, but that was to be expected.

“So, what did you think of the performance?” Raine asked.

“It was awesome. I liked the first one a lot. I don’t know the names of any of them, but they were catchy.”

“I mean, that’s the goal.” Raine looked up at her. She could finally see their eyes. “Man, you’re tall. Are you wearing heels?”

“Yeah,” Eda said sheepishly. 

Raine laughed. “Wow, I didn’t even know you owned those.” They gestured towards the backstage area, where the three other musicians were laughing quietly. “So. Fancy, huh?”

“Pretty swanky.” 

“You’re getting the insider scoop.”

“I knew I shoulda gone into journalism. I’ve gotta take notes.” Eda mimed scribbling something in a notebook, which succeeded in making Raine laugh again.

The rhythm section finally noticed Eda in the small curtained room and wandered towards the two of them.

“These are my underclassmen,” Raine said. “Derwin, Katya, and Amber.”

“Raine’s our dad,” Amber supplied helpfully.

Eda squinted at her. “How old are you?”

“Sixteen. I skipped a few grades.” 

Eda nodded, duly impressed. “Damn. I mean dang. Good job.” 

“We’ve been playing together for almost a year now,” Raine said. “Katya was the one who talked me into doing it.”

Katya shrugged. “We needed a melody. A rhythm section does not a jazz band make.” 

Derwin nodded sagely. “And Raine’s like, really good.”

“Well, I know that,” Eda said. Raine looked embarrassed. 

“Play something cool, Raine,” Amber said.

Raine rolled their eyes. “Fine.” They pulled out their violin, turned down the volume so the whole club wouldn’t hear, and played a quick riff. 

It sounded very complicated to Eda, but Raine did it like it was easy. 

“You’re really good at this, dude,” she said, leaning against a wall.

Raine shrugged. “I mean, it’s all practice. And this is also kind of my job. And my hobby. And my major.”

“I don’t mean I’m surprised. I mean you’re really good at it.”

Raine lowered the violin. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“So, setlist for the second half?” Katya asked, ruffling through a stack of paper.

“We could do some Stevie Wonder now that the crowd’s out,” Raine suggested. “Everyone loves Stevie Wonder. And then the Tom Kubis?”

“Samba Dees?” Katya asked. 

“Samba Dees NUTS!” Amber said, and Raine shook their head in a resigned way. Seeing Eda’s confused face, they pulled a piece of sheet music out of their folder and showed it to her. The title read “Samba Dees Godda Do It.”

“Title didn’t age particularly well,” they said, laughing a little. “But the song is good. I think you’ll like it.” 

“We can throw Watermelon Man somewhere in the middle,” Derwin said. “And then Sir Duke as our finale?”

Raine nodded, organizing everything in their stack. Eda leaned back and watched them make decisions.

Raine seemed in their element. It was nice to see them confident. 

Eda claimed her seat back, which miraculously hadn’t been taken even though the club had gotten much more crowded. She ordered another refill of her soda and turned her seat to watch the band.

She tried to remember the song order that they’d talked about, but she really wasn’t sure which was which. She recognized Sir Duke when they finally got to it, though. It was an excellent finale song—clearly everyone knew it, and they got roaring applause at the very end. The band disappeared back into the backstage area, and eventually Raine came out without their violin. 

They walked over to Eda’s table, straightening their shirt a little bit. They sat down across from her at the table for two. 

“So. Thoughts?”

“I mean, it was great. I liked Sir Duke a lot. I don’t know which one was Samba Dees, but they were all good, so I’m sure that one turned out well.”

Raine winced. “Ah, I messed up one of my solos on that one. I don’t think anyone noticed, though.”

“I definitely didn’t,” Eda assured them. 

A waitress walked over to their table. “Do you want something?” she asked Raine.

“Um, I’ll take whatever she’s got,” Raine said, gesturing at Eda’s drink. 

“Apple soda,” Eda clarified. “And I’ll actually take a refill.”

“Sure, gotcha,” the waitress said, writing that down. As she walked away, Raine raised their eyebrows at Eda.

“Still apple soda?”

“Some things never change,” Eda quipped. 

“I forget you’re not 21 yet.”

“You’re just old.”

The waitress brought Raine’s soda and they gratefully accepted it before turning back to Eda. They shook their head.

“You always seemed like you were supposed to be older than me, and then you never were?”

“Me?” Eda laughed. “I was always being told I was immature.”

“I never said that to you.”

“That’s true,” Eda conceded. “You never did.”

“It was just the way you were so convinced you were in charge. You’re a natural leader.”

“I don’t believe that for a second.”

Raine looked up at her. “You were definitely the school leader in number of detentions.”

“That is not being a responsible leader.”

“I never said responsible. I just said leader. You take chances.”

“That’s true,” Eda said. “I do.” 

“So you’re confident doing things that nobody else has done. Blazing a trail. That makes you a leader,” Raine pressed.

“I guess if you say so.” Eda drained the rest of her drink. “What time are you planning to head home?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was gonna call a taxi, probably.”

“We could walk together. It’s not too far.”

Raine hesitated. “It’s going to be freezing out there. I know how it is around here at night.”

“We can handle it.”

“Fine. But let the record show that this was your stupid idea.”

“It’s always my stupid idea.”

“It’s always your stupid idea.” 

“It’s freezing cold outside, just like I said,” Raine complained.

“Oh, come on.” Eda checked her phone. “We’re almost a quarter of the way there!”

“At least you have a jacket. I’m wearing a suit. Because I was performing.” Raine was visibly shivering.
“Do you want the jacket?” Eda was already shrugging it off.

“No, it’s fine, I’m just—” Raine cut themself off as Eda set her coat down on their shoulders. “Thanks. Appreciated.” They pulled the jacket around themself like a blanket instead of putting their arms into it. “Are you sure you won’t be cold.”

“I don’t get cold,” Eda said.

“Right. Forgot that you’re weird,” Raine quipped.

“Some of us are just blessed by God and some of us just aren’t as lucky.”

“You’re such a—”

“And we’re almost halfway there! See, it’s going by quickly,” Eda said, grinning.

“Okay.” Raine heaved a sigh. “It’s not that bad.” They shifted their violin to the other hand. “I’m so glad I don’t have to bring my own amp for this thing. Carrying that around would kill me.”

Eda winced. “I can imagine. Those things look like blocks of concrete.”

“About as heavy as them, at least. Although even just the violin and its thirty five cords aren’t exactly light.”

“Do you want me to carry it for you?” Eda offered, almost without thinking.

Raine laughed. “Nah. I appreciate it, but I’m used to it at this point. Thanks for the jacket, though.” They glanced down at it. “Do you still have that varsity jacket that you gave to me and then I gave back to you?”

“Oh, god. It’s, um, probably back at my parents’ house. I definitely still have it, though.” Eda definitely had that jacket somewhere in her closet in the dorm. “I kinda forget that I was such a jock in high school. I haven’t really played basketball seriously since senior year.”

“Really? Not even intramurals at community college?”

Eda shrugged. “It was a small school. Nobody really did much. Maybe if they start up intramurals around here, I’ll join, but who knows if I’m any good any more.”

“You’re still like six feet. That’s an advantage any time.”

“Six one, actually.” Eda glanced at her phone. “And we’re a block from home! The time flies by.”

“Okay, okay, you were right.” 

They turned the corner to their dorm. Raine tapped their card to the keypad and Eda shoved the door open. 

Once they got back to the room, Raine unwrapped themself from Eda’s jacket.

“Here. Thanks. Again.”

“You’re very welcome. I just saved you 20 dollars. From a taxi.” 

Raine rolled their eyes. “My lord and savior.” They pulled off their shoes and jumped up on their bed, crossing their legs. 

Eda was also pulling off her shoes, as well as various accessories that were starting to irritate her. She glanced up at Raine to see them with their arms crossed across their chest, still shivering a little bit.

“You’re still cold,” she said flatly.

“No, I’m fine—”

She threw a blanket at them. “Get warm.”

“Eda, I’ll be fine.” Another blanket. “ EDA! ”

She grinned at them as they poked their head out of the pile. “Are you warmer yet?”

“Yeah, I’m warm! What do you—what was the point—” 

Eda dissolved into laughter, with Raine following quickly. After they’d recovered, they pulled the blankets closer around themself.

“You were right. This is cozy.”

“Told you so.” Eda hopped up on her bed and lay down on her side, looking over at Raine. “Do you want to do something?”

They looked at the clock. “It’s eleven.”

“Exactly. The night’s young.” She glanced around the room for things to do. “I’ve got a puzzle under my bed. It’s got octopi on it.”

Raine shrugged, although it was barely noticeable under the blankets. “Why not? We can set it up on the floor.”

So they set it up on the floor. The carpet was probably solid enough to not ruin the whole thing. In Eda’s opinion, the only differences between the dorm carpet and a hard wood floor were semantic. They might have to step over the puzzle on their floor for the next few weeks, but that was fine. 

Raine dragged the blankets down from the bed and stayed wrapped up in them. Eda dumped out all the pieces and started turning them over. Raine started sorting the corner and edge pieces out. 

After a few minutes of silent work, Eda stood up. “It’s too quiet. We need music.” 

“Sure,” Raine murmured, intently staring at a few edge pieces. “What music?”

“Oh, I’ve got ideas,” Eda assured them.

“Worrying.”

“Just trust me.” She fiddled with a Bluetooth speaker that she’d found buried in one of her bags. After a moment, she got it working, and a familiar trumpet section started playing across the room.

Raine glanced up, grinning. “Is this Sir Duke?”

“Of course.” Eda sat back down, dancing in place a little bit. Raine hummed along to the melody.

They finished up a whole side while Eda was still sorting things out. 

“Damn, nice,” she said, glancing up at them. “We might get this done faster than I thought.”

“It’s the hype music,” they quipped. “This is my favorite part. It’s my solo.”

“Well, we should dance, then!” Eda exclaimed. She stood up, reaching for Raine’s arm to pull them up too.

“Nope, nope, I don’t dance, I play the music,” Raine protested, desperately grabbing for the blankets that were falling off their shoulders. 

“You can dance. You were a theater kid. I know. I was there .”

“Not anymore, I don’t—” Raine was cut off by Eda twirling them around.

“See? It’s fun!” Eda crowed, pulling away to move her hands awkwardly. 

Raine did the exact kind of dance that Eda remembered them doing at school dances, but she didn’t comment on it. Instead, she put her hands over her head and spun around, dramatically leaning against her bedpost to end the song in a pose.

“Oh my god, we probably look so dumb,” Raine said, laughing.

“To who? Nobody’s watching.”

“True,” Raine admitted. “It was a little bit fun.”

“A little bit! I’ll convert you to dancing yet.”

“Good luck. For now, I’d like to work on this puzzle,” Raine said, sinking back down to the floor as the radio segued into a different jazz song.

“Sure. But we’ll take another dance break soon, right?” Eda asked, smirking. She sat down cross-legged back in her own spot.

“Don’t bet on it.” Raine put another piece down in exactly the right spot. Eda scrambled to catch up.

After the two of them (mostly Raine, although Eda was trying her best to help) finished the outline, both of their phones pinged at the same time.

“Darius probably made a group chat,” Raine said, grabbing theirs. “Yep. It’s Darius. The chat is you, me, Eber, and him.”

“I’m renaming the group chat,” Eda said. She changed the name to ‘Totally Real Witches’ before reading Darius’s actual message.

Darius: hey there’s a party next weekend (saturday) if you guys are interested at all! eda mentioned she wanted to hear if there was something available

Darius: maybe eda will finally convince you to come out with us, raine

Eda saw Raine shake their head at that message before looking up at her. 

“I mean, are you free?” they asked. “I can check. I usually have a lot of work to get done, though.”

Eda knew she was free, but she checked her calendar for the sake of it. “Yeah, I can go. Do you wanna come with?” 

Raine scrolled through theirs. “Yeah, I’m free.” They sighed. “Fine. Darius has been trying to drag me out forever.”

Raine: sounds fun! we’ll be there

Darius: YESSSSSS

“It actually will be fun,” Eda said.

“Yeah, probably. But I hate giving Darius the satisfaction.”

“True.”

Raine kept putting piece after piece in the puzzle. Eda shook her head. It was like they’d done it a million times before. 

Eda glanced up at the clock after a while. “It’s midnight.”

“We’re going quickly,” Raine said, sliding a group of pieces into the center of the puzzle. “We can finish it.”

“Yeah, probably.” Eda crossed her legs and leaned back against her bedframe. “Do you want apple cider? I can use the coffee machine.”

“I would love apple cider.” 

They finished the puzzle at 1:30. Really, Raine finished the puzzle at 1:30—around 12:30 Eda had pretty much given up on trying to help and had just sat back with her cider. 

“Wow, it’s late,” Raine said, yawning. “Sorry for making you stay up.”

“You didn’t make me do anything.”

“Still. You’ve gotta be tired.”

“Not more than you after playing two hours of music tonight.”

“True. I win the sleepiness competition.” Raine yawned again. “We should go to bed.”