Monday, October 17th

20.)

"You've been gone all weekend, you won't tell me where, and you look like you actually got some sun on your skin, so you can't pretend like you were just in your room all weekend."

Lin narrowed her eyes like she was trying to solve an escape room, wheels turning silently behind thick rimmed glasses.

"You know I know something is up."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I sighed. We were sitting across from one another in the cafeteria. Lin lived in a dorm on campus, so she came to the cafeteria a lot more often than I did. She was eating a bowl of Reese's Puffs cereal and I was nauseous from not sleeping.

"Try," Lin challenged.

So I did.

"A sorority girl I went to high school with invited me up to her summer beach home for the weekend."

Lin cocked her head to the side and then pursed her lips, and then raised a finger as she chewed her cereal. Was this a part of the puzzle? Was her best friend messing with her?

"Okayyyyyyy. Why? Was it some A.A. reparations-to-people-you've-hurt kinda thing?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. Sure, there was the Baby Stuff thing, but that didn't mean Blossom had to invite me on a weekend vacation together. Then again, taking me that far away from college meant she didn't have to deal with me bumping into her friends. That was the real reason, wasn't it?

"Maybe it was a sorority dare?" Lin suggested.

I shrugged. I knew that wasn't it, but I didn't want to correct her. Explaining everything was so much harder.

The truth was, as much as I worried about everyone at college knowing I was an ABDL writer, nobody in college really cared about anything. Unless you were a homophobe or an anti-vaxxer, everyone just let you do your own thing. Even sororities - which always seemed like huge communes of vindictive white girls in movies - were really just groups of hot chicks who liked to party. The worst thing that could happen if everyone found out was that I'd stop writing Academy Works. I would be too nervous about who would read it.

I wanted to get the topic off me, and certainly off Blossom, so I flipped the focus onto Lin.

"What did you do all weekend? I didn't hear from you."

Lin allowed the topic to change. She raised her fork (which she insisted was better for cereal than a spoon) as she recounted her weekend.

"Nothing like what you got up to, I'm sure; I was tutoring all Saturday because my morning tutor is worried about flunking their makeup exam, so I helped them study the entire day. And then Sunday morning I failed entirely at adulting and played Final Fantasy in my pajamas."

All-in-all, a pretty typical Lin weekend.

Idioms like that - "failed at adulting" - always had such a different meaning to me. They were so common these days too, like being a grown up was so hard so why not act like children? There was a story idea somewhere in there...

"Are you still doing that Pandemonium raid?"

Lin groaned, which meant yes. She had a group she made with one of her friends back home, but they never seemed to ever get very far. Lin was a go-getter type, and she didn't like when other players slacked off.

"You should play," she urged, like she always did. "You'd be a great healer. And they came out with Sage, which is basically just Elly from Xenogears."

"If I had the money for a subscription - which I don't - I still don't have the time. I'm working on a writing thing."

One of my favorite things about my friendship with Lin was that no matter how much I talked about my writing, she never wanted to actually read it. Between schoolwork and tutoring, she hated to read. I actually found it surprising that she enjoyed playing Final Fantasy XIV, because it seemed like more reading than gameplay to me.

"Well, if you ever get writer's block, you make sure to tell me because I'll get a recruit-a-friend bonus."

Lin never actually ventured to explain what that meant, and her best friend never bothered to ask - it was a good transactional friendship.

"Okay okay okay. So now you gotta tell me about the weekend with the sorority girl. Like. Everything. Tell me everything."

"Well, uh..." Everything? Certainly not. But there were things I could tell her. "We made scones."

"So you made scones," Lin corrected.

Even though she didn't know about the baby stuff, she did know me pretty well.

"I made scones," I laughed. "And we did tanning. And we watched a movie. It was kind of boring?" At least, with that description. The reality hadn't been boring at all.

"What did you talk about?" Lin asked.

"Writing? Sex?"

"Because of all the sex you've had?" Lin teased.

"That part of our talks was mostly one-sided," I admitted.

"Is she your new best friend?" Lin asked.

"I don't even think we're friends." I tried to sound nonchalant about it, but I knew I was sulking a little. "Like you said - it was a reparations thing. I don't think I'll be doing it again."

"No, I asked if it was reparations, and you didn't confirm or deny."

Lin was notoriously good at remembering specifics about conversations, and that was both impressive and annoying.

"So this sorority girl invites you on a weekend away, gets you tanned of all things, talks to you about sex, and you baked scones for her. But I'm supposed to think it's nothing?"

"Why would it be something?" Because Blossom flirted with me all weekend? Because we did a sex roleplay thing? Because she made sure to mention a few different times that she liked girls? She didn't even know my name! It was just a game to her.

Lin raised an eyebrow and I rolled my eyes. If I were gay, I'd be gay for Lin long before I was gay for Blossom. At least Lin and I could be seen in public together!

"Because it clearly was something, and because you're blushing, and I don't think I've ever seen you blush. You don't have to tell me, but if you don't tell me you won't tell anyone."

Lin put her fork down and lifted up her most-of-a-bowlful of cereal milk and began to slurp it happily.

"I am not blushing. It's hot in here." Did people even blush in real life? Wasn't that just a story trope? But Lin wasn't going to let it go.

"I don't know..." I sighed. "It's not like that. I just thought maybe we were getting to be friends. But I was overthinking it."

"Why do you think you're overthinking it? Maybe you're overthinking overthinking it. Maybe it's just as simple as it looks, and you're all up in your head because I'm sure you have a Wonder Years narrator in your head at all times."

Lin put on a deep voice.

"I didn't know it at the time, but Lin was right - more right than she knew."

"Yeah, that's how my internal monologue sounds."

I was able to switch the topic with a bit of social gymnastics, and I found a way to keep Lin from talking about my weekend for the rest of the day. But my story with Blossom didn't end there. In fact, I didn't know it at the time, but Lin was right... more right than she knew.