21.)

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

Blossom's reluctance to talk about her weekend was definitely cause to make her best friend suspicious, especially because Blossom was actually trying to avoid talking about it instead of just playing coy.

Besides, Blossom actually seemed… somber. That wasn't like her at all.

"I called you twice," Becky said sharply, wagging her finger like she was talking to a dog or something. "We had a meeting about the house chores. One of our pledges left. AND. We need to figure out what to do for Homecoming next month! You're supposed to be helping with this stuff, Blossom."

A sorority sister taking a few days off wasn't ordinarily a big deal. Actually, this time it wasn't a big deal either. Becky wasn't even an officer; she was just worried about her friend and piling on Blossom's responsibilities seemed like a good way to figure out what was going on.

"Maybe I was interviewing a new pledge?" Blossom offered, hypothetically, hoping that maybe framing this with responsibility in mind would be enough to get Becky to back off. Unfortunately, it didn't go the way she planned.

"Is that what we're calling it when you seduce a cutie at the bar and take her home? Interviewing?"

"I mean, I am measuring certain skills and talents, aren't I?" Blossom smirked.

"You're such a slut."

"But in a good way, right? And maybe I was just being a slut all weekend?"

Becky had joined the sorority around the same time as Blossom, and the two had been pretty good friends ever since. A lot of Becky rubbed off on Blossom and vice versa; Blossom grew a little more aware of her actions and Becky got a little more extroverted. It was a good trade. Balanced.

"Seriously," Becky said sharply. "Just keep me in the loop, okay? It doesn't inspire confidence when I have to take you to pick up your car in the middle of nowhere."

"That was one time! You know I'll keep you in the loop." Blossom gave a reassuring smile, and Becky rolled her eyes.

"Except when you don't."

"Alright, maybe I wanna talk to you about something." Blossom paused on this and took a deep breath. "About the weekend. But this is like... best friends, if we were little kids this would be a pinky promise, kinda thing."

Becky blinked in surprise. She was so used to going back and forth with Blossom and not getting anywhere, that this slight concession seemed so grand in scale. She quickly nodded her head. A secret? Was Blossom trusting her with something like that?

"Of course! What can I do?"

"So I spent the weekend with this girl," to which Becky's eyes lit up and Blossom hushed her by raising her hand because she had a lot more to say, "and she's super cute, sweet, really shy and awkward but like in that cute way?"

"Like those girls who dress up as video game characters?"

"What? Kinda? I guess. Anyway as it turns oooouuuutttt... I was a super mega bitch to her in high school. Big surprise, right? I was a big mega super bitch to everyone in high school."

"Hm..." Becky's mind was trying to put the puzzle pieces together, but unfortunately Blossom's high school was pretty close by. Half the girls on campus came from that school. Shy, cute, awkward... no one in particular was coming to mind. And it was a girl! Usually Blossom favored guys. Becky wanted to ask her name, but Blossom wasn't the type to share that kind of thing.

"If she is still holding a grudge," Becky offered, "then she's not good enough for you anyway. She should be able to recognize that you're not the same person as you were back then."

"Well... it's more complicated than that."

How much more complicated? Blossom had to keep her spheres of separation in her head to stop one world colliding with the others. Careful word choices.

"I… don't know her name."

Deep pause. Awkward silence.

"And it wasn't until we'd spent most of the weekend together that she called me out on it and I choked."

"Classic Blossom..." Becky sighed. "You should have written it down somewhere. Like, you could have made a contact for her on your phone or something." Becky did that a lot: gave solutions for past problems.

"I could have done that if I knew her name in the first place, but I don't."

And that was a Blossom issue. She could identify that she'd made this girl's life miserable in high school, but not know her by name. She was honestly pretty pissed off at herself, because there was no way Mia didn't think she was just some shallow vapid bimbo fangirl.

"I really like her. I feel like we had something, and I fucked it up."

"Oh..." Becky paused for a moment, taking in that new information. So she hooked up with some nameless girl and now she had feelings for her?

"Listen, you aren't this kind of girl," Becky said. "You don't chase after people. If she wants another chance with you, then she can seek you out! If not, then clearly she's not interested."

"Even if she were interested," Blossom groaned and grumbled, "she's too caught up in her own head to do anything about it. So here I am, having fucked up, and she barely said a word to me the whole drive home. And you're right, I don't chase people, so how am I supposed to chase her? I don't even know how. What do I do?"

Becky took Blossom's hands in hers. She looked Blossom in the eye and tried to be as serious as possible.

"You can't just save this random girl from herself. She's gotta make her own decisions. You wanna know what to do? Forget it. She'll find you or she won't. But you're better than this."

How the heck did Blossom even begin to articulate how she was feeling without her spheres colliding and collapsing? It was so frustrating, because she knew her best friend was right. She didn't chase. People chased her. Boys. Girls. Enbies. Subs. Doms. Tops. Bottoms. Switches. People wanted her and for all the reasons that they did, Mia just... didn't.

"She spent a long time worrying that I was just... going to prank her, or blackmail her, or take advantage of her. And I just got her to trust me, and... it's so fucking... ugh."

Becky pouted. Her advice wasn't working and it felt a lot more like Blossom was intentionally not listening to her. She let go of Blossom's hands.

"Let's go out tonight? Me and you. We can forget this dumb girl and have our own good time. Okay?"

Blossom wanted to argue that Mia wasn't dumb, but she could also see Becky starting to feel discouraged and she was pretty determined not to pick up Mia's bad habit of internalizing everything and getting stuck in her head.

"Okay but you have to wear that pink dress."

"The one with the stripes?"

"No, the one with the frills."

"Ugh. Okay, deal, but no more talking about this other girl tonight - tonight is about you and me."

"Okay."

She could agree to that. Besides, Becky might not have been the right person to try and talk about Mia with anyway; Becky had only known Blossom at her best. She didn't know gawky middle school braided braced-faced girl Blossom. Fuck, if only Mia could have seen her back then, there wouldn't have been any tension at all. They would have probably been friends.

But tonight wasn't about Mia. It was about Blossom and Becky, out and having fun. Or, it would be, until Blossom was drunk enough that she couldn't be held responsible for her actions.