'Hey, so... this new Talyn, does she sleep with her mouth open to the extent you'd think she'd catch flies?' I asked the rival who walked alongside me, inspecting the document I'd curated in class on my phone as we walked.

'Wait, did I do that?' she asked, attempting to raise an eyebrow at me. I immediately stepped towards her and pressed my finger against Talyn's eyebrow, pushing it up. 

'There,' I breathed, standing on my toes as my eyes were suddenly drawn to hers. Her offended expression quickly curdled itself into something adjacent to fear, or something else. I quickly stepped away.

'Hehe, if I tripped just then-' I chuckled nervously, fiddling with the strap of my bra which had suddenly slid off my shoulder. What was this tension?

'Alda, are you sure your friend's straight?' Talyn asked suddenly, her voice betraying a meekness I'd never once heard from her before. What was this all of a sudden? Was she into Kelsie? Join the fucking club, dude.

'Oh, believe me, I've tried to get her to see the error of her ways~' I waggled my eyebrows at her with mock-seduction, letting the loose strap slide off my shoulder again. Talyn looked away, suddenly finding the pavement very interesting. 

'Allie, do you want a girlfriend? I mean, uh, do you have a type-' she sputtered, still turned away, and it was difficult to register what exactly motivated her to ask that.

'I mean, you know as well as I do that girls are the best, right? And, uh, anyone but you, mushroom cloud~' I teased, and I watched as Talyn's fists clenched, her bangs curtaining her gaze completely. She looked like a bomb rigged to blow. Seriously, what was with her?

'That really doesn't narrow it down much, Al,' she snapped, her stiff position unchanged as she walked. Wait, was she seriously asking me what my type was? Weird. 

'Oh, you're serious. Ok, then I like blondes with swampy green eyes who can, and will, beat the shit out of me. Y'know, like what Spike says, "I love the kind of woman that will actually just kill me."' I continued teasing, beaming at her slyly. 'That what you wanna hear~' I asked playfully, attempting to shove my hands in my pockets to mimic Spike Spiegel, before realizing I was wearing a pocketless dress. 

Yes, I knew I was describing Talyn. Yes, Kelsie was my "type" (and that wasn't going anywhere), I just reveled in the prospect of fucking with her. Messing. Messing with her, yeah.

'Ok, well, I literally don't know anyone like that,' she mused, head held higher and fingers clutching her lower lip. She looked strangely determined, her walk slightly quickening. 

'Wait, are you trying to set me up? Y'know that only works if you have friends, right?' I explained tauntingly, matching her pace again. 'You can't get rid of me that easily,' I gloated, swinging my head back as I marched forward. 

'You saw right through me. You've got too much flirtatious energy that you need to direct somewhere that isn't at me, of all people,' she explained like a clinical diagnosis. Did I really do it all that much? Sure, the hand thing was a little... but, c'mon, really?  It was just so much fun to get a reaction out of her.

'So... what you're saying is... I'm a natural romantic,' I concluded, grinning at her. She promptly rolled her eyes.

'What I'm saying is you get on my nerves,' she corrected me through gritted teeth. Suddenly, her eyes seemed to light up, a glimmer of mischief shining though. That was never good.

'Hey, so... are new Alda's boobs asymmetrical?' she inquired, adopting the same investigative tone I had used earlier. Where the fuck had that come from?

'Huh?! Why the fuck would you ask me that?!' I sputtered, holding my arms up to my chest.

'You've been fiddling with your left bra strap, and when we were younger your-' she explained with a smirk, and I could feel myself burning up. Like, my skin was physically hot against my arms. She fucking noticed?! Not just the bra strap thing, but my teenage breast size discrepancy?!

'My tits are perfectly symmetrical, thank you very much, Talyn!' I squeaked at her, my arms tightening around my chest.

'Whatever you say~' she teased, clearly not believing a word I said, despite my protests being very much factual.

'Well, if you wanna confirm so bad, you've gotta at least treat me to dinner first, pervert!' I jested weakly, trying to reach some higher ground in this exchange, while my body burned hot like the sun. Now I knew how Anakin felt, and Talyn may as well have just sliced off my legs. They sure felt like molten mush.

'What, you gonna wear the suit?' she mocked, raising her eyebrows at me. What suit? I didn't own a sui- fuck.

'Lalala, can't hear you, and I don't look good in suits~' I protested, clasping my hands over my ears in attempt to block out whatever calculated attack escaped her mouth next. I was so glad it was later, or else we would've looked like a couple of nutcases to any onlookers. God, I was not looking forward to our dormitory doom.

'Yeah, you'd look better in one of your pretty dresses, anyways,' she said softly, and my ears burned so hot I had to tear my hands off them. Was that- genuine? Couldn't be. Ah! Get out of my head, man!

'Ok, well I heard that- stop teasing me!' I begged Talyn, poking at the red-hot flush that had suddenly welled up on my face.

'Lalala, can't hear you either~' she retorted, covering her ears in kind as her pace quickened along the path.

'Well, guess what? When I called you a fat-ass prostitute that was me trying as hard as I could not to compliment your great ass in those jeans!' I jabbered, trying my best to disarm the hag completely. Damn this fucking mouth.

'Can't hear you~' she continued, her tone tinged with mischief. Thank fuck.

With that, we continued covering our ears like toddlers, waddling along the path to our designated college residence. 

At some point, our childish game seemed to devolve into a karaoke session of Venessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles," substituting the string parts for "la la la la la"s. It was so fucking stupid, I felt like we only kept it up so we wouldn't laugh so hard we'd pass out on the pavement.

● ● ●

'La la la la la~' I trilled, passing it to Talyn.

''Cause I need you! La la la la la~' she shouted, before bridging to me.

'And I miss you! La la la la la~' I shouted back, absolutely lost in the rhythm as Talyn and I started to harmonize the next line. I started to wonder if I'd accidentally purchased an alcoholic Dr. Pepper, somehow.

'And now I wond-' we started in unison, leaning in and smiling at each other. The proximity wasn't awkward this time, though, and the gleam in Talyn's eyes and her smile only made mine glow brighter.

'Oh- we're here,' Talyn noted, her tone suddenly flat, almost disappointed. 

'Wonder~ Oh, yeah. Well, that was stupid,' I finished, catching myself as I looked up at the building before us. Ah, brutalism at its finest. A two-story, grey, cubic residence hall that just screamed cutthroat academia. 

'Yeah, so stupid,' Talyn giggled, glancing around for the building's entrance.

'You leave your stuff in the lobby, too?' I asked Talyn, and she nodded as we both made our way to the entrance. Talyn pushed the glass door open, like she had before, and we both scrambled in to locate our suitcases. 

'Room 203, girls,' the somewhat jaded receptionist instructed the two of as we wheeled our suitcases to the counter, passing us our keycards and sending us off. Dormitory doom it was. I noted Talyn's suitcase was one of polished leather, clearly some kind of hand-me-down from a relative, while mine was your typical black store-bought fabric model. Hey, if it weren't for American Airlines, my fancy bag would be in-tact, too.

As we carried our luggage up the stairs and into the hall, each of us stood before the dormitory door. I was hoping it was at least a little less infested than the one I shared with Kelz on the other side of the campus. 

With that, I stepped towards the door, before hearing a loud, horrible, squelching gurgle that thundered through the hall.

● ● ●

'Oh, opossums, that's so much worse than silverfish!' I cried, clutching at the sides of my head. Talyn remained silent, standing back from the door. I mean, fair enough. Rabies were a pretty big whoop. 

'Um, Al,' Talyn started, her voice a squeak. Was she really that terrified? It's not like they were snakes.

'Not now, Kitten, Daddy's hunting for possums,' I told her in the best Prince Charming voice I could muster, cringing at myself before sprawling onto the floor and peering under our dormitory door.

I glanced up at Talyn from the floor - thankful she was wearing jeans - and noticed that a peculiar expression painted her face. Was that, embarrassment? Why would she be embarrassed, mortified, even, of her newfound fear of rabies? 

'That wasn't a possum,' Talyn continued, while I did a weird pose on the floor; as if surrounded by rose petals on a queen-sized bed. Hell, she was just as red as a rose. What else could've made such a loud, weird gurgling- oh.

'You skipped lunch to study in the library, and now you're embarrassed because your stomach scared the shit out of me' I concluded, propping my chin up on my hand as I lay on the carpet.

'That and you were crawling around on the floor practically flashing me,' Talyn added, pointing down at me. It was then, and only then, that I noticed half my dress was snagged on my thigh, and squealed before springing up.

'So, about my dinner offer...' I proposed softly, holding my hands in front of my crotch like a cartoon character that didn't have anything to hide in the first place.

'Wow, real smooth, flash me the goods then invite me to dinner... isn't it meant to go the other way around?' she jested, looking me over with a shit-eating sneer. 

'Shut up, I'm being nice,' I grumbled as I tapped my keycard and pushed my way into the dormitory.