It was now a few hours before Jessica's party.

Both Qinny and Maya were busy dolling up themselves, causing a pile of clothes, makeup pallettes, hair stylers and thingamabobs all over the room.

"Okay but you need to look so good that Brennen physically cannot look anywhere else all night," Maya said from her bed, where she was simultaneously doing her eye makeup and scrolling through her phone with the multitasking energy of someone who had never once in her life been on time.

She had been late to everything since 2019.

"I'm not trying to look good for Brennen specifically," Qinny said, holding the blue and white striped dress against herself in the mirror for the third time. "I'm dressing for the theme."

"Are you sure about that though, girly?"

"Well, I'm doing my best??"

"Seeing how you've changed twice, I admire the effort really."

"It's just that, the first one was too casually coastal."

"Casually coastal?"

"And the second one is too try-hard coastal." Grabbing another dress, Qinny showed it to Maya.

"Now this though, I'm not coastal-ly sure," She joked.

Maya sighed and put her phone down. 

"If you say 'coastal' one more time, I'm going to lose my mind."

She glared at an amused Qinny properly. Then at the dress. 

Observing.

"Hmm... I think this is the one, babes," she said.

"You think?"

"It's totally giving main baddie energy. Wear it."

Qinny looked at her reflection for a moment.

Then at Maya.

"Is that a proper compliment?"

"It's the only good one after all the other coastal chaos." Maya rolled her eyes, and went back to her eye makeup. 

"What else did Brennen say about the party?" Maya wondered, then scrolled through her chats, searching for the invite she's gotten.

"Just that we got invited. Coastal theme, pick up at six."

Maya paused.

Lowered her brush slightly.

"Ugh, it's so lame that all guys are like that. Sparing the deets and whatnot."

Qinny chuckled. "Yeah i guess, I got used to it by now though."

"Yeah I wouldn't like that, girly. Ugh. Men are all the same. 'Party tomorrow.' That's it and barely any details. Meanwhile we need at least twenty-four hours to emotionally AND aesthetically prepare. You can't manage all this in a day, m'kay."

Maya ranted, gesturing to her reflection in the mirror from head to toe.

"Hmm," was all Qinny managed to reply then asked how Maya got her invitation to the party.

Maya was doing her eye makeup but responded, "Oh, I got invited through the UMS Social Society group chat. Y'know, the one that is up to date on every single social event on campus. So yeah, but it also makes sense if Brennen got one through the football side since Jessica is one of them too."

Qinny nodded, pulling the dress on properly now.

Maya was quiet for a moment.

Jessica. Social Society. Football crowd.

Which meant... Yris would probably be there.

Which meant—

She glanced at Qinny, who was smoothing the white-blue gradient dress down in the mirror with the focused energy of someone not thinking about anything in particular.

Maya thought about saying something.

Considered it properly.

Then thought: her boyfriend might not even come. Yris went to things without Dorian all the time. Maya attended a few parties where Yris was but Dorian wasn't. And even if he did show up, it was a big party, so it would be fine. Since Qinny was going with Brennen, everything was completely—

"Oh come here," she said instead, getting up to help with the zip. "You're going to pull a thread doing it like that."

"Thank you." Qinny sighed, annoyed at the zipper.

Maya then observed Qinny. Her dress, makeup and hair, everything, "You look good."

An all-smiles Qinny turned back to the mirror. Smoothed the dress once more.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Maya put her hands on Qinny's shoulders from behind, looking at their reflection together. "All there's left to do is for YOU to have fun."

Qinny laughed. "Fingers crossed."

"Be confident babes, you already look smokin'." Maya released her and went back to her own getting ready, which by conservative estimate was going to take another forty five minutes minimum. "I'll see you there eventually. Don't wait for me."

"I never do."

"Rude and true." Maya pointed at the door. "Go."

Qinny grabbed her bag and went.

Maya watched the door close.

Picked up her eyeshadow palette.

Put it down.

He's probably not going, she thought.

Picked the palette back up.

But if he does... how would things unfold?

Brennen picked her up at six looking exactly like he'd described — blue button-up, neat, warm, the specific version of himself that always made everything feel uncomplicated.

"You look amazing," he said immediately.

"You scrub up well yourself."

"And our outfits match!"

He grinned and planted a soft kiss on the side of her head and she let herself just be here for the drive over. Radio low. Windows cracked. The city going gold in the early evening.

It was nice.

Genuinely nice.

The Grandos Hotel rooftop was beautiful.

Jessica had gone completely all out — string lights draped across every railing, white and blue paper lanterns hanging overhead, low tables scattered with shells and candles. The KK skyline sat behind all of it, city lights beginning to flicker on as the sun finished going down.

Qinny stepped out of the lift and felt the sea breeze immediately.

"Oh wow."

"Right?" Brennen squeezed her hand. "Jess went crazy this year."

The rooftop was already half full — football crowd mostly, faces Qinny recognized from sidelines and team events. She smiled and said the right things and let herself be pulled into Brennen's orbit the way she always did at these things.

It was fine.

She was having a perfectly normal time.

And then she turned to grab a drink from the table near the entrance just as someone came through the rooftop door from the other direction and they nearly walked directly into each other.

Qinny looked up.

Dorian looked down.

One second.

The specific kind that had too much in it.

He was in a white linen shirt, sleeves pushed up, a thin silver chain resting against the open collar, and it suited him. Enough that she'd noticed before she meant to.

Except his expression did the thing.

The barely-there recalibration. The one that meant surprised and had immediately decided not to be.

"Oh," Qinny said.

Not a sentence.

"Hey," Dorian said.

Barely better.

Behind him Yris appeared in a flowy yellow sundress, her hair in waves and adorned with pearls, along with several matching accessories on herself. She was already scanning the rooftop with the bright energy of someone arriving ready to be the most present person there.

She was beaming.

"BRENNEN!" She suddenly called out, waving at him across the rooftop. "Well, hello fellow captain!"

Brennen jogged up to them with a lit up expression. "Back at you, Yris! Didn't know you'd be here—" He looked at Dorian. "Hey man, good to see you again."

"Hey, you too," Dorian said.

And just like that the moment folded back into the party and they were four people greeting each other at the entrance like it was completely normal and there was absolutely nothing to explain.

Qinny reached past Dorian for her drink.

Her hand was completely steady.

She was very proud of that.

The party moved the way parties did.

Music. Overlapping conversations. Jessica making rounds looking genuinely delighted at the turnout.

Brennen got absorbed into the football crowd within twenty minutes — that was always how it went. He'd check on Qinny, bring her drinks, pull her into conversations, but the gravitational pull of his teammates at a party was basically a law of physics.

Qinny smiled and talked and held her drink and was perfectly fine.

She was also aware of where Dorian was in the room in a way she couldn't entirely explain and couldn't entirely stop.

He was on the other side of the rooftop with Yris, who was doing what Yris did at parties — laughing brightly, touching people's arms, completely magnetic. Dorian stood beside her doing what Dorian apparently did at parties, which was stand very still and look faintly like he was somewhere else.

Qinny looked away.

She'd looked over three times already.

So this time she was going to look away for real.

Maya arrived forty minutes late in a green co-ord set that had absolutely nothing to do with the coastal theme and everything to do with looking incredible anyway.

She found Qinny within sixty seconds.

"You started without me," she said, appearing at Qinny's elbow with a drink she'd somehow already acquired.

"You said don't wait."

"I said don't wait, not don't save me a spot emotionally." Maya scanned the rooftop with the efficient energy of someone cataloguing a room. "Okay this is really cute. Jessica really—"

She stopped.

Qinny looked at her.

Maya's eyes had landed somewhere across the rooftop.

Her expression did something quick and complicated that she smoothed over almost immediately.

"He's here after all," she said. Very casually. Possibly too casually.

Qinny followed her gaze.

Dorian. Standing near the lanterns with Yris, drink in hand, looking exactly like he always looked.

"Huh? Oh yeah, he is," Qinny said. Also very casually.

Maya looked at her.

Qinny looked at the skyline.

"Hm," Maya said.

"Don't."

"I didn't say anything."

"You said hm."

"Hm is just a sound."

"Maya."

"I'm literally just standing here." She took a sip of her drink. "Having a perfectly normal time."

"Good," Qinny said. "Keep doing that."

"Absolutely," Maya said pleasantly.

"I'm gonna go socialize while you... be you."

She winked, and went to say happy birthday to Jessica.

But not before glancing back once at Dorian across the rooftop.

And then at Qinny.

And thinking: oh this is going to be a very interesting evening.

It was Jessica who derailed everything.

Which, in hindsight, was completely on brand for someone who had managed to relocate a beach to a rooftop.

"OKAY EVERYONE," Jessica announced from the center of the rooftop at half eight, holding a stack of folded papers and radiating the specific energy of someone who had been planning this moment since the invites went out. "PARTY GAMES."

A collective excited noise from the football crowd.

A collective groan from basically everyone else.

"I have everyone's names in here," Jessica continued, holding up what appeared to be a repurposed party hat being used as a draw bowl. "We're doing random pairs. Whatever pair you get, that's your partner for the games. No trading, no complaining, no exceptions."

"What are the games?" someone called out.

Jessica smiled.

It was not a reassuring smile.

"You'll find out when we start." She shook the bowl. "Okay. First pair—"

Brennen got paired with a girl from the Sports Science crowd named Alicia who immediately looked thrilled about it. He found Qinny across the rooftop and gave her an apologetic grin. She waved him off.

Yris got paired with one of the football boys — Barry, tall, easy-going, someone Qinny vaguely recognized from the sidelines. Yris took it in stride immediately, linking arms with him and laughing at something he said.

The bowl kept going.

Maya got paired with someone Qinny didn't recognize who was apparently very good looking based on Maya's immediate expression shift.

And then Jessica reached into the bowl again.

"Qinnara—"

Qinny straightened slightly.

"—and Dorian."

The universe, Qinny thought, had an absolutely terrible sense of humor.

She turned.

Dorian was already looking at her from across the rooftop.

His expression was doing the thing again — that carefully calibrated neutral that meant he was processing something and had decided processing it openly was not an option.

Jessica pointed between them cheerfully. "You two! Together! Come on, pair up everyone—"

Qinny walked over.

Dorian watched her approach.

"Hey," she said, when she reached him.

"Hey," he replied.

A beat.

"Bet your spreadsheets didn't plan for this," Qinny said.

"They sure didn't," Dorian agreed.

Across the rooftop, in completely separate corners, Brennen and Yris had both gone very still.

Neither of them said anything.

Neither of them had any grounds to.

Jessica clapped her hands together in the center of the rooftop, completely delighted with her own chaos.

"Okay pairs, listen up — round one is trivia!"

Qinny looked at Dorian.

Dorian looked at Qinny.

"You better not slow me down, partner," she said.

Something shifted at the corner of his mouth.

"I was going to say the same thing," he said.

They grinned at one another, clearly excited for the first round of games.