Eliza walked home with an extra pop in her step. The air was still warm with a shower of sunshine bathing the sidewalks and she was surrounded by flyers for Halloween attractions. A haunted house down in Phoenix that might “kill you from fright.” A local band's night with the theme of Dracula (“bring your sharpest smile!”). A city ghost tour of all the most haunted parts of Flagstaff Arizona-- which Eliza assumed was mostly saucy stories about femme fatale prostitutes and outlaw cowboys.

She shook her head at each one as she left campus, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face as she walked home. The soft breeze tickled her neck and it was easier to stand a little taller as she passed other buzzing students and bike racks and a homeless guy snoozing peacefully on a bench.

She had taken her second midterm for the semester in her Comparative Art History class. Her hands had literally been shaking as she flipped over flashcards that morning at breakfast, but she had managed to fill five whole pages for the essay portion.

She was the last to finish, but that also somehow felt like a small victory. She had a lot to say about the trajectory of Japanese and Chinese art during industrialization and it apparently paid off. Eliza was practically humming to herself by the time she made it upstairs and to her apartment.

She stretched and flopped down on the couch before checking her phone. It was a Thursday night and only a few days from Halloween itself which Joany reminded her that they still needed a 3-part costume for. Seb wanted them to go as the Mario Bros with him as Princess Peach (for the sake of irony!), but Joany was dead-set on them all being monster movie creatures.

Eliza rolled her eyes at the messages and only jumped when she heard someone else shouldering their way into the front door. “Hello?” She called sharply as if a burglar was going to come in in the middle of the day to steal from broke college students.

A dark-haired compact young woman kicked the door open with groceries in her arms. “Oh!” Eliza went to help her. “Mickey! Good to see you.”

In all honesty, she hadn’t seen much of Mickey since their talk a couple weeks ago. The other girl just gave her that same capsizing loose smile. “Oi, Eliza, there you are, I thought you moved out.”

Eliza blushed gently and went to the door to hold it open as Mickey brought in her bulging bags to deposit on the counter. “Nope.” She said but it came out a little too wobbly. “Just busy.”

Mickey started unpacking her pasta and onions and herbs and actual cooking supplies. She glanced over her shoulder. “It’s been awhile.”

Eliza tried to smile back, but just ended up shuffling over to the couch and sitting down. It would probably be rude to leave then so she just watched her from across the space. “How’ve you been?”

Mickey shrugged. “Same old, same old.” She said, but it didn’t sound genuine. “How about you?” She asked lightly, “Go anymore rounds with some germs?”

Eliza exhaled slowly. “Luckily not.” She said and flexed an arm. “I’m feeling healthy as a horse. No more, um, collapsing.”

Mickey chuckled as she put her eggs in the fridge. “You’re lucky you got better so quickly. I used to get sick as a kid for weeks on end, it sucked ass. And my stepdad would drive me to school anyway with me sniffling and wailing to stay home and he'd hum the funeral march as we parked. Ugh.”

Eliza coughed. “Funeral march?”

“I was very melodramatic.” She said with a fond smile. “But I do so many vitamins now. You wouldn’t believe what kind of Hulk shit your body can do with enough vitamin-C supplements, I’m telling you.”

Eliza watched her carefully and cocked her head to the side. “Are you into health?” She asked and then cringed as she felt like the awkward middle-age mom at a party interviewing her young hip relatives about their lives.

Eliza looked back at her as she finished unpacking her groceries. “I guess.” She said slowly. “When I first moved out on my own I just didn’t want to get sick like I used to. A misguided rebellion too you could say. Like, take that mom! I know what a vegetable is now, I bet you feel pretty silly having fed me cake and chicken nuggets every day of the week. Like, fuck you, watch me eat a carrot.”

Eliza snorted and tried to study Mickey and take her apart a little bit. “You’re a regular Johnny Cash.” She lifted her chin up. “And your cooking smells delicious so I think you’ve won, honestly.”

“Well thank you, I try.” Micky smiled back at her. “Plus, I gotta keep the money maker looking good.” She leaned on the counter, stuck her ass out and shook it back and forth. Eliza bit the inside of her cheek, hard and looked away. She was pretty sure she squeaked as well. Like a mouse. Mickey noticed. “Sorry, man. Just joking around.”

“No, no, it’s good!” Eliza covered her face. “Sorry. You must think I’m such a prude.”

“No way.” Mickey rubbed the back of her neck. “That’s on me. I never know when I take things too far.”

Eliza squirmed in place. “It’s cool!”

Mickey gave a strained smile and walked over to her. “So, um. You wanna come out with me and my friends tonight?”

Eliza looked up and her face was still hot and prickly. “Where?” And why? She didn’t ask the last part.

Mickey lit up at her interest. “We’re just going to this Mexican place with the best margaritas in town. It’s their happy hour until 5pm and they do these crazy tiny taco specials.”

Eliza sat up straight. “Uh, I might not drink too much with class tomorrow…”

“Don’t your classes start in the afternoon? I mean, it’s totally your call.” Mickey walked over to her. “But I was serious about getting to know each other after all this time.”

Eliza’s heart did an entire somersault in her chest from the suggestion. But I’m not cool enough for you! She wanted to shout, but restrained herself. Hadn’t she just passed a test with flying colors?

And Seb was off with his skate park friends and Joany was doing something with her pottery crew. Eliza loved her friends, but she was always self-conscious about the fact that they all had other friends and she didn’t.

“Alright.” She forced a grin. “That sounds fun! Thanks for inviting me.”

Mickey puffed up. “Yeah, of course.” She waved a hand. “Imma go change and then we can head out.”

Eliza tried to clamp down on her thoughts before they got away from her the second Mickey left the room. Be cool, be cool, be cool. She chanted to herself to no avail.

“I’ll go change too!” She said before running to her room and trying to find something that didn’t make her feel like her thighs were entire planets with of their own orbit. She settled on a loose maroon shirt and some high-wasted jeans that she didn’t feel like would pop open a top button if she bent over in them.

She probably spent way too long in front of the mirror trying to get her curls to look refined instead of like limp pieces of spiral noodles. She ended up just putting her hair up in a high ponytail, nodding at herself once, and then heading outside.

Mickey was waiting for her with an appraising look. “And here I thought you only owned college sweaters.”

Eliza blushed again and she wished she would stop doing that. “I don’t own that much college gear.”

Mickey shrugged. “I’m just saying, I’ve seen you in that grey shirt with Louie on it at least once a week.”

“It’s just comfortable that’s all.” Eliza tried not to look at Mickey who was now in a neon orange crop top and jean shorts with a rainbow belt. A sliver of her skin basically glowed between the two bits of cloth like a river of milk begging to be drunk. Eliza absolutely did not think of running her tongue along it.

She looked at the ceiling instead and imagined licking that-- which seemed to help.

“Come on, Louie the Lumberjack lover, let’s go.” Mickey said and Eliza almost jumped out of her skin as she weaved their arms together and pulled her to the door. “Got your ID?”

“Of course.” Eliza stammered. “And I’m not a lumberjack lover. It’s just usually the most convenient shirt on top of the laundry pile.”

“Eliza Riviera those are some of the most telling words you’ve ever said to me.” Mickey said and pulled them out into the hallway before locking the door behind them. “And lumberjacks are damn hot. The muscles? The ax? The rugged dirt all over them? Absolutely.”

“Covered in tree sap, yeah.” Eliza said flatly.

“That you can lick off.” Mickey winked over at her and Eliza tried to suppress a shiver. Maybe she should have stayed home.

“You do not want to lick tree sap.” Eliza tried to pull back and shift into second gear-- the least sexy of the gears. “It’s poisonous.”

“Sounds like someone has no sense of adventure.” Mickey kept teasing her as they made their way downtown and discussed the merits of lumberjacks as erotic mascots.

Eliza was worried at points things would get awkward or long tense silence would pass between them (Eliza was well-practiced at creating long tense silences), but it seemed to run smoothly. She was giggling and flushed by the time they arrived at a squat long building with a stucco outside. It was only when they got inside the noisy dim space and were waving at a collection of four people did she freeze.

“Oh,” She said softly as she remembered she was meeting new people that day. She didn’t particularly enjoy meeting new people without a couple days preparation and a set of pre-arranged topics she could turn to. Like the genetic differences in New York City rats. Or Mars rovers.

She completely forgot all her facts about the Mars rovers at that moment.

“Eh! Mickey mouse,” A girl with wavy electric blue hair waved at them. Next to her was a young man with a youth pastor-look to him except for the weed symbol on his t-shirt. At the other side of the table was another man with snakebites and a dark tattoo climbing up his neck, and a small girl with elaborately braided hair piled high on her head. Eliza also couldn’t help but notice they were all extremely attractive.

Do hot people all hang with each other?! She had a sudden dropping feeling in her stomach.

“Everyone,” Mickey didn’t seem to notice her discomfort as she presented Eliza to them. “This is Eliza, my roommate. And she was just saying how she votes that I be a sexy lumberjack for my special Halloween live stream.”

“I did not.” Eliza snapped just to save her dignity.

“You’ll have to out-argue me then,” the neck-tattoo man said, “because you can’t beat sexy crab. I’m telling you, it’s all in the pincers. The danger. The hard bony exoskeleton.”

“Nate, you’re going to die single. I’m Bailey by the way,” the girl with the wavy blue hair put her hand out. “Nice to meet you.”

Eliza smiled and shook her hand and they went around the table. They were Bailey, Logan, Nate, and Tambara-- “Don’t call me Tammy, I’m not a white mom at a grocery store.” Tambara added with a smile on her lips at the end. She had a truly breathtaking smile.

“You’d be so good at it though!” Mickey said with a laugh and took a seat at the table next to Logan. Eliza ended up at the head of the long table surrounded by five other people she barely knew. She felt very small at that moment and started to clam up.

Tambara leaned toward her. “What do you drink? We’re all trying something new tonight, but any one of the margaritas are good here.”

Eliza's eyes seemed to bulge out of her head as she looked at the very long list of drinks. “What do you recommend?” She said politely and looked over all the different margarita combinations. There was even a shrimp one.

“Strawberry.” Logan, the weed youth pastor, said and Eliza noted the distant accent he seemed to have. “Strawberry or bust.”

“Try the classic.” Tambara added, “it’s got this minty aftertaste.” They all each made an argument for what she should try which made Eliza at least settle a bit.

“How about.” Mickey reached for the menu and brushed against Eliza’s hand. “One of everything! My treat.”

Eliza paled. “I’ll start with a classic and then we can see how many you can get in me.”

“Is that a challenge?” Mickey’s eyes flashed toward her and Eliza wished she hadn’t spoken, but decided she might as well push back a little.

“Sure.” She nodded. “I don’t have class until one tomorrow. Might as well, my first Thirsty Thursday!” She said with a snicker. “I am a senior. It might be about time.”

They whooped. “That’s the spirit!” Nate slapped her on the back.

“Your first?” Bailey gawked. “Oh get her at least a blueberry one on me. This girl needs to catch up.”

Eliza got the first drink in front of her with a thick salt rim, and so the night began.