HOMECOMING

Part One

Life

Cry with me, make my day
Tomorrow all will be gone
All the sweetness and all the fun
No, I don't want to know...

-The Gathering, “Leaves”

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, room 106
10.45 am - Kayley

On the last day of the year, Kayley Moore woke up alone. The dreary grey light that fell through the crack between the curtains was shining right in her face, and so she groaned and flung her arm over her face to protect her eyes from the intrusive light.

The second thing she registered was that Jenni was not lying next to her. She rolled over on her side and checked the dormroom.

“Jen?”

No answer. There was only emptiness and mess in the room, aside from herself.

Kayley sighed and fell back into the pillows of Jenni’s king-sized bed and wondered why her lover was not next to her. /Probably nothing to worry about,/ she told herself. /She just woke up early and went out./ It was a suitable explanation, as good as any. Then why did she feel so troubled? Jen was her own person. In fact, Kayley did not know anyone as independent and strong-willed as her lover. Jen went her own way, and damned with the consequences. The fact that no one was able to put a leash on her was one of the things that attracted Kayley the most.

It was just that this was the first time.

And it was because of their talk last night. Because of the confessions.

No, she shouldn’t think like that. Jen had said that it was all cool. She had been quiet and respectful throughout the whole ordeal, and later she had been gentle and sweet throughout the lovemaking. There had been no irritation, no malice. No hint whatsoever that what Kayley had told her made her leave.

And besides, Jen wasn’t the kind of person who’d let her ex-lover chase her out of her own room. So these worries and thoughts of doom were utterly ridiculous. /You’re just still messed up and hormonal over last night,/ Kayley told herself.

A glance at the alarmclock told her that it was nearly eleven in the morning. /Time to get up./

Tonight was the New Years party and she had promised to help out a little with the decorating, so she’d better get up and do something. She didn’t like Nathalie and her endless harping, but at least it was better than hanging around and watching TV all day.

Kayley threw the white sheets off her and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She sat up and covered her face in her hands for a moment, looking very much the epitome of someone who should get up but doesn’t want to. It had been way too late last night. And they shouldn’t have opened that bottle of whiskey, either. Kayley ran her hand through her platinum-colored short hair and yawned lazily before she got up and did a few stumbling steps to the sink.

Leaning heavily onto the sink, she stared at her own pale and drawn reflection in the mirror. Her short hair was sticking out everywhere, but thankfully it was nothing that a quick shower couldn’t fix. It was the paleness of her own skin under her eternal tan and the bloodshot eyes that worried her. /Man, do I look like the epitome of a hangover./ She grabbed the bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet above the sink and quickly took two out. Filling a glass of water, she popped them and then stumbled over to the coffeemaker.

First, coffee and a cig. Then she’d see about the rest she’d have to do today.

Man, she did not look forward to Nathalie scolding her for being late, but she’d just have to live through that. Nothing to be done about that. Last night had been necessary, and Nat could just stick it for all she cared. It wasn’t as if there was any obligation in helping out with that silly party that Nathalie insisted on throwing.

Kayley reached into the pocket of her jeans that were lying on the ground. Her jeans weren’t the only piece of clothing that was littering the floor. Jenni owned a lot of clothes, and she wasn’t exactly the most disciplined of people where it came to cleaning her room. She always said that she had better things to do with her life than cleaning her mess, and Kayley had laughed at that, inwardly agreeing. Her brown gaze slid over the mess of clothes, papers, makeup accesoiries, books and all the other stuff that Jenni had lying around, and thought how lucky her lover was to have a dorm room all for herself.

Kayley shared her own room with a quiet girl called Carmen. There were worse roommates to have, she supposed, but the problem was that Carmen was rather meticulous about her own stuff and therefore obliged Kayley to be the same. The first time that Carmen had cleaned her mess, Kayley had yelled at her. Of course, Carmen had just did it to be nice, and because she couldn’t stand to live in a place that looked as if a bomb had just went off (she was a sweetheart like that), but Kayley couldn’t stand people touching her stuff. And because she didn’t want it to happen again, she had made a point of actually keeping her own part of the room semi-neat. After that, they hit it off nicely enough and kept their irritations to a minimum.

There it was. She fished up a rather battered package of cigarettes (damn, had she put them in her backpocket again? Stupid, stupid. She always forgot about that and then proceeded to sit on them) and stuck one between her lips. The search for her lighter took somewhat longer, before she flicked on the cigarette and inhaled deeply. She smiled contently. /No day has truly begun without a cigarette in the morning,/ she had once told Jenni, and she still meant it.

On the dresser next to her, the coffeemaker startled rattling. Kayley got up and put a mug underneath, so the coffee could trickle into her mug. Immediately, the scent of freshly made coffee began to fill the room (which had been rather stale up until now). “Much better,” Kayley murmured, getting up from the bed to open the curtains.

Grey-white light streamed into the room, making Kayley squint her eyes against the diffuse light and bathing the room into an unforgiving bright light. It was the light of a clouded sky that might bring snow later on today. “Goodmorning, world!” Kayley brightly greeted the empty pavement below Jenni’s window. There was no one out and about yet, and no one ever looked up, but suddenly Kayley was all too aware that she was standing in only her underwear before the window, so she quickly turned back to the coffeemaker and took her now-full mug.

Sipping from her coffee, Kayley went over the day before her. It was the last day of the year, and tonight most of the people in the dorm who had not went home for the holidays would come to celebrate New Year. Naturally, this had been Nathalie’s idea. She was always trying to get the students together. It felt as if Nathalie just had the need to be part of a group, and even if there wasn’t one, she’d create it. Unfortunately her get-togethers usually had this forced quality that made Kayley leave early from such occasions. In the three months she’d been at this dorm, there had been as many of these get-togethers.

Well, one of them had introduced her to Jenni, so she supposed they weren’t all that bad. It was one of her fondest memories. Strange to think that it had been Nathalie who had triggered it – the ‘New Schoolyear’ party that was meant to introduce all of the new dormstudents to each other. /It’s a good way to get to know each other,/ Nathalie had told her when she’d delivered Kayley the invitation personally. /You’ll meet loads of new people./

Well, she hadn’t had anything better to do, really, so she had gone to the party. Back then it had been September and it had still been warm. She had spent most of the night outside with a bottle of vodka, some cola to mix it with, cigarettes, and whoever wanted to sit next to her. The music that they were playing was far from what she normally listened to and she wasn’t feeling very social anyhow.

It wasn’t until the gorgeous girl she had seen before on the party sat down next to her that things suddenly became interesting. She had been sitting with her back against the brick wall, overlooking the terrace in the colors of twilight, smoking her cigarette. She had been quiet, withdrawn. Memories and feelings of déjà vu had been plaguing her – of herself being anti-social at parties after what happened and her friends and other partygoers asking her: ‘Kayley, won’t you join us? Don’t be such a spoilsport!’ – and she wasn’t feeling all too happy. She was just still inside. She did not want to move, because it felt that if she’d move, she might trigger some feelings that she did not want to deal with. Not tonight, dammit. She was supposed to party and get to know people. She’d made a new start, remember?

But then this girl came to sit next to her. Thick lightbrown hair, iceblue eyes with long dark lashes, a smile to die for and a body that Kayley instantly envied. “Hi,” the girl said, smiling that brilliant smile.

Despite herself, Kayley had found herself smiling back. “Hi.”

“So,” the girl said, stealing a cigarette out of Kayley’s package and lighting it, “you’re cuter than any of the guys here.” She inhaled and grinned a devil-may-care grin that Kayley would later grow to love so much. “Want to go to my dormroom and have sex?”

And Kayley, not having had any lesbian or bisexual thought in her life, had blinked just once and said: “Okay.”

It had been the beginning of their relationship. Or, was it okay to call it a relationship? It had been three months and they still enjoyed themselves. Oh, over the course of the weeks the rumours had reached her, of course. People called her ‘Jenni’s new fucktoy’ and she just shrugged it off. Jenni was one of the prettiest girls in the university, rich, gorgeous, and independent. People were jealous. Especially the boys of the Souteast dorm – they were the ones who had probably started to talk. Jenni might suck at keeping relationships for longer than a few weeks, but she would never cheat on the one she was with. Instead, she’d just dump her current lover painfully and move onto the next. Throughout the whole time that Jenni chose to be around her, Kayley had been bracing herself for that moment, but so far that moment had not come yet.

/And it won’t come today,/ Kayley told herself, putting down her empty mug of coffee. /She said she’d be at the party, didn’t she?/ She killed her cigarette in the ashtray and threw on one of Jenni’s robes (which had been draped rather ungraciously at the deskchair before Jenni’s computer), grabbed a towel from the closet, and then left the room to get a shower.

Time to set out into the world and get something today. Perhaps that after a shower she’d be less emotional, clearer, and her headache would be gone. Although that was most probably too much to hope for.

Yawning that same lazy yawn again, Kayley closed the door behind her and set off to her next goal of the day.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, Lounge
11.21 am – Aimee

The taste of wine was sweet on her tongue. Aimee la Bretionaire took another gulp from the bottle and smiled vaguely at the taste of home while she watched some guys tugging at crates of beer. “You can set them over there, in the kitchen,” she told them rather unhelpfully.

One of the guys shot her a dirty look, but she just smiled back sweetly. These guys were paid to deliver the goods that Nathalie had ordered at the online supermarket, they shouldn’t expect anyone to help them out. And so Aimee was sitting crossed-legged on the dinner table with her bottle of wine to keep her company. Most of the dorm was still sleeping, but Aimee had been up early. It was the last day of the year and she was planning to become completely wasted.

She missed home. And very muchly so. During New Year, she had always been with her family and friends in Paris, but this year this was not the case. Her parents and she had sacrificed an insane amount of money to let Aimee study abroad, and they simply did not have the money to let her go home for the holidays. Aimee had taken a temp job next to her study to see if she could afford it that way, but it had not been enough. Now she was just rich for a student, but not rich enough to go back to Paris between Christmas and New Year.

She had done the only thing she could think of: to use that money and find that one store that sold her favorite wine. It was the same brand that they drank at home at dinnertime. When she was smaller, they had watered down the wine for her, but ever since her teens she had drank this wine at dinnertime and a few glasses in the evening. So drinking this wine at New Year gave her a taste of the home she so sorely missed. And it tasted good, even though it made her more than a little melancholy.

“Are you drinking /already/, Aimee?” An incredulous voice asked.

Aimee turned to the girl that was crossing the living room of the dormitory. Her white-bleached hair was still wet, and Kayley looked healthy and awake and freshly showered. “As you can see,” Aimee grinned, holding up her bottle.

“Nat will kill you if she sees you’re drinking her alcohol reserve for tonight.”

“I’m not,” Aimee said. “I bought this wine for myself.”

Kayley came to stand next to her. On a closer look, she looked rather tired. “Why are you drinking so early in the morning?”

Aimee shrugged. “Because I feel like it.”

“Have fun,” Kayley told her, waving at the supermarket deliverers who left through the dormitory entrance. She was watching Nathalie in the kitchen, going through the crates to inspect whether everything she had ordered had indeed arrived. “Only make sure you don’t puke and pass out on the floor. I’d hate to clean up after you.”

“Pas de problème,” Aimee answered, lifting her bottle for another gulp. “Do you have any cigarettes on you?”

Smiling, Kayley got a crumpled package of marlboro’s out of her jeans and handed it to Aimee. “There you go. The cigs are crooked, but you can still smoke them. I sat upon them last night.”

“Those poor cigarettes.”

Kayley rubbed over her eyes and smiled. “Indeed.” She sat down on the table next to Aimee, looking at Nathalie who was being a busy-body with the party food in the kitchen. “Man, that Nat is being way too active in the early morning.”

“It’s nearly noon,” Aimee pointed out, lighting her cigarette. It was indeed rather crooked, but it still did the trick. Wine and cigarettes. God, she was going to get wasted today.

Kayley laughed. “Which makes it alright, of course.”

“It is what I am telling myself since I started drinking.”

“That’s what I figured. Why are you drinking already, Aimee? I know that the French are supposed to love their wine, but I’ve never seen you touch a bottle before 4 in the afternoon.”

Aimee regarded her neighbor for a moment and then sighed. “Nostalgie,” she answered, not being able to think of the English word that quickly.

“Nostalgia? Oh, you’re homesick.”

Aimee nodded. “I’m always home during the holidays. Paris is wonderful around Christmas… there’s a reason they call it the city of light, you know. And I miss my family and friends. I did not know it would be this hard to be so far away from home.”

“And you’re here for the whole year, aren’t you?” asked Kayley. There was a bit of worry and sympathy showing in her brown eyes. Aimee felt absurdly grateful for the kindness.

She nodded. “Until summer.”

“Tough. I’m sorry, Aimee.”

“It is alright, I guess. Thanks for listening to me.”

“I can hear the wine on your tongue,” Kayley smiled vaguely. “Your accent gets heavier.”

“It happens,” Aimee grinned back, making careful note of her pronunciation now. “How are you doing on your first holiday away from home?”

“Great, just great.” Kayley said, suddenly tearing her goldbrown gaze away and staring at the adjacent wall. “I don’t have to go home. There’s no place I’d like to be less right now.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. That’s totally opposite to what I am feeling,” Aimee said. “Do you have problems at home?” She had kind of liked her dorm neighbor from the moment they both moved in, but they had never had the time to socialize for longer than a few minutes because Jennifer was always hogging Kayley to herself. It was a pleasant surprise to be able to get to know Kayley a little better.

Unfortunately, Kayley shrugged. “You could call it like that. You know, I’m going to see if Nat needs any help.” And with that, she killed her cigarette on the formica ashtray that was standing in the middle of the table. Sliding off the table, she barely spared a second look at Aimee before she walked over to the kitchen.

Aimee watched her go and wondered what she had done wrong.

She shrugged and drank deeply from the wine that reminded her so of home. Indulging in nostalgia and melancholy, she drank until she had finished the whole bottle and her head was pleasantly abuzz. It was the only way she would be able to live through the whole New Year’s celebration: roaring drunk. She did not care about socializing and partying. All she wanted was to get really sick and then sleep off her hangover.

No matter that the rest of the dorm who was here for the holidays would be having fun. No matter the copious amounts of alcohol, tinsel and party lights. Or the booming music and everyone dressing up prettily. Or the fact that Kevin was supposed to show up tonight. She liked looking at him because he reminded her of her ex-boyfriend at home, but that would have to wait until another night. She did not think she could stand it tonight. Or today, even. There was still more than twelve hours to go before midnight and the beginning of the new year.

It felt like it was going to be a long, long day.

Friday 31 December
NorthWest Dormitory, room 105
11.35 am - Birgit

There were dreams. Confusing, tinged with information from the real world, but darker. As if there was something she could not quite grasp, something she was overlooking. In the dream she was running, panicking, scrambling, trying to find out something before it was too late. There was a sense of urgency that made her toss and turn around in her bed. She was breathing shallowly and frowning in her sleep, wanting to get away from it all-

Until the world exploded into a male voice booming out of speakers that were cranked up way too high for any way of comfortable listening.

Birgit Dielmann shot up so quickly that she nearly rolled out of her bed, her pulse racing and adrenaline thundering through her veins. “What the FUCK?” she screamed, breathing heavily. She looked up at a not-so-very apologetic roommate.

Crystal was standing next to the stereo and shrugged. “Sorry. I had no idea I had set it so loud.”

Insincerity was dripping from her voice and indicated she had done it very much on purpose. There was nothing Birgit could do to prove it, so the next thing she felt was a horrible anger. “You scared me near to death, stupid idiot,” she grunted.

“Well, at least you’re awake now. You were talking in your sleep.” Crystal shrugged. Her auburn curls danced on her shoulders as she turned around. “Anyway, I’m off for breakfast.”

And all Birgit could do was watch in helpless frustration as her roommate left the doom and closed the door behind her. She fell back in her pillows and rolled over on her back. Oh, the /nerve/ that Crystal had, behaving as if Birgit should feel grateful for that horrible way of waking up. It was true, her dreams had not been fun – she knew that much, even though they were fading already and just leaving her with an unsettled feeling… but Crystal was just twisting her pestering into a noble act, and that was what bothered her.

It always seemed to be this way.

Living with Crystal in one room was pure hell. They were both strong personalities with very specific thoughts and outlooks on life, and they simply did not match. Of course was that the risk of rooming at campus. There are chances that you become the best of friends, but there’s also a chance that the chemistry between you and your roomie does not work out.

This was the second year that she was rooming with Crystal. She had tried to arrange to get another roommate before the summer holiday, but the faculty had been unimpressed by her recount of how she and Crystal did not get along. They had told her to get over it and that she was an adult and thus should behave herself that way… but that they’d see what they could do.

And of course, after a summer vacation in which Birgit had totally relaxed and recharged again, she found herself assigned to the same room. Roommate: Crystal Destiny Pittston. Dammit.

It was as if the tension had never been gone. She immediately clamped up again, boiling with frustration and feelings that even bordered on hate. She just could not help it. They were too different, and Crystal had a mean streak that was a mile wide. Oh, she always remained civil and icy cool, but there were this cheap shots and twists that always got Birgit in the embarrassing or the helpless position. Preferably in public, of course.

Birgit sighed and sat up again. Well, nothing to do about it: she was awake now. Maybe she should go for breakfast as well, although she did not really look forward to facing Crystal in the kitchen. Maybe she should laze around somewhat more and read a bit or listen to a bit of music.

Running a hand through her tangled black hair, she got up to see what she could wear. Deodorant and a dunk of her head in the water-filled sink took care of the last remains and scents of sleep. She stood before her closet, hesitated for a moment, and then got her black fake-leather jeans and an equally black top. She didn’t feel much for her gowns today, she just wanted to hang around and relax. Tying her long black tresses back, she sat down on her bed and grabbed her mp3 player from her dresser. Unlike Crystal, Birgit /was/ a social kind of person that did not want to impose her music onto other people. She did not have a stereo, only her computer and her mp3 player.

She also got her journal out of her dresser and opened it with the key that was hanging on the necklace around her neck. Another Crystal-proof device. She had been stupid enough to let her journal lie about only once, in the beginning of her horror-filled roomie history. When she had entered the room, she had found Crystal and her then-boyfriend in tears of laughter over the contents of her diary.

“We will dance / in the shadows / enraptured by the feeling / forever in our hearts…. Christ, what /is/ this shit?” Crystal was just wiping the tears of laughter from her face and happened to look up to a mortified Birgit standing in the door opening. There was no embarrassment from Crystal, for being found in this compromising situation. “Oh, there you are. Did /you/ write this?”

Later, Birgit could not recall how she had reached Crystal and her boyfriend. She was suddenly standing right in front of their noses and snatched the journal out of Crystal’s hands. “That’s /mine!/” she had hissed. “Didn’t your mother tell you not to touch other people’s stuff?”

“It was lying wide open on your desk!” Crystal protested, the light of amusement still shining brightly in her bright green and devious eyes.

“Then /still/! How could you, you stupid bitch!” she had raged and shouted, and in the end it had not helped anything. In the end she had just resigned to buy a journal with a lock, and she wore the key on a chain around her neck. Crystal-proof. Damn bitch.

Birgit took the cap off the pen that came with the journal and wrote:

“Dear Journal,

Even the last day of the year started with another bout of Crystal-filled insanity. Sometimes I wish she’d just fall down the stairs and break that pretty neck of hers. I can’t stand being in this room with her, having to live with her all day. Perhaps I’ll file another plea with the faculty, because I don’t think I’ll be able to survive another year with her. Maybe I’ll kick her down that stairs before the year is over.

I did not think that hating was possible for me. Hating is such a powerful and deep emotion – it’s the other side of the medal of love, and just as I am convinced that true love does not exist, neither does true hate… but I’m beginning to get awfully close.

I’m beginning to understand why people kill each other. It would be so wonderful to be free of her pestering, of her taunts and her degrading comments. She is tormenting me and we both know it, but I can’t just break out of it. I want to be free of her. I’m starting to understand how desperate people feel. I can’t take this for much longer. So I have three options: I can get myself assigned to Room 109, which is empty anyway; I plot a horrible revenge on her that will accomplish nothing but make me feel better for a short while; or I grab my katana and stab her to a gory and messy death. Heh, I’m in a morbid mood this morning.

I think I’m going for the first option as my New Year’s resolution.

Love, Birgit.”

She leaned back against the wall and sighed deeply. Closing her eyes, she indulged in the music for a moment. The grunts of the lead singer were ringing in her ears, as did the screaming guitars, but it felt good to lose herself a little and to avoid thinking and the tension and the anger for a moment.

Above her, her katana was hanging. Birgit tilted her head so she could look up to it. It was decorative, of course. The tip of it was blunt and as relatively harmless as a sword could be. Even though the tip was blunted, the blade was still slender and thin and rather sharp. The blade could still rather effectively slide through someone’s ribs if one would just thrust hard enough. The katana was a birthday present from her parents. She had done fencing for a few years and wanted to know how it would feel with a true blade. She had discussed that one day at the dinner table, and her parents had acted on that vague wish to her utter surprise.

On the day of her 19th birthday last August they had given her the katana and she still loved the present up until today. It was wonderful just to feel the weight of it in her hands and to look at it. It was the best birthday present she’d ever gotten.

Crystal hated it of course. /Why the hell would you want a sword above your bed?/ she had inquired.

/Because I like it,/ Birgit had sullenly answered. Already she felt as if the glorious moment of hanging the sword over her bed had been spoiled. Crystal was very good at that.

/I don’t think I like it. I don’t want a stupid sword in my room./

At that, Birgit had turned around, eyes ablaze with anger: /Well, fuck you. I don’t care about that. This is my room too. I don’t make any comment about the half naked black guys that are hanging over YOUR bed, am I?/

/At least they are nice to look at,/ Crystal had said, wanting to have the last word. Birgit had simply not answered anymore, and the katana had remained right where it was. It was one of the only arguments that she had won in the past year and a half.

A tragically low number of victories, but that still didn’t diminish the shine of the victory on itself. Birgit smiled up at her katana and thought of victories and blades, until her stomach started rumbling and pleading for breakfast. Or lunch. Or just any food in general.

Crystal was probably done having breakfast anyway, so now was as good a time as any to have some cereal. Her own milk was past its due date, so she’d have to steal some out of the common kitchen so she could have breakfast. Maybe watch some soap opera’s afterward. Well, that sounded as good to her as anything.

Locking her diary and stuffing it in her dresser, Birgit got up and set out on her quest for breakfast.

Friday 31 December
Northeast Dormitory, showers
11.56 am – Ethan

The water was hammering on his shoulders. It was scalding hot, rendering his skin bright red where it fell, but he was too listless to try and regulate the water temperature of his shower. The shower cabin was filled with steam and the poor ventilation made for labored breathing, but it was just what Ethan needed. Water. LOTS of water.

He was sitting under the shower, knees pulled up and his head resting on his arms. He had his eyes closed and tried to sit as still as possible in the vain hope that his hangover wouldn’t descend on him with all its horrible might if he’d just keep really quiet. A vain hope, indeed. While the water was hammering on his shoulders and the outside of his head, his hangover was hammering on the inside. It felt as if his brain was bruised.

Ethan groaned and curled himself to a tiny ball. He felt miserable.

It had been his own bright idea to start doing tequila shots – he remembered that. It was also one of the only things he remembered vividly. Everything that happened afterwards had just been one hazy blur of images and laughter. Hadn’t Johnny taken that gorgeous blond girl elsewhere to make out and do god what else? He hoped that they’d gone inside somewhere; it had been bloody cold outside last night. Even the alcohol had not kept him warm on that stagger homewards from the pub. By the time he had somehow climbed up the emergency stairwell and forced the fire exit open, he had been completely chilled to the bone.

He should have drunk some water before he had gone to bed. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But he had been so damn cold that all he wanted was to slip under the covers, curl himself into a ball and wait for the room to stop spinning or to lose consciousness, whatever would come first. In the end, it had been the latter. He had woken up the mother of all hangovers an hour ago. The most active thing he had done so far was staggering to the showers, curse himself and the world, and opening the tap at full force, so he could shower. Thank God that the showers didn’t work with a boiler, because then the warm water would have run out half an hour ago. He’d been here for ages, and he planned to stay here for quite a while longer.

Hovering on the verge of half-sleep and hangover-induced unconsciousness, he nearly fell over in shock when someone suddenly started banging on the door of his cabin. “YO! Ethan! You in here?”

Kevin.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Ethan croaked at his friend.

“Are you okay in there?” There was laughter in his friend’s voice, Ethan could hear it. Mirth at his misfortune. Ah well, that was what friends were for. To hold you while you are vomiting, and to laugh you when you have a hangover. Ethan could recall several instances where the tables had been turned.

“Hangover.”

“Well, no big surprise there. You liked that tequila a little too much last night, buddy.”

“No shit.”

A new voice announced itself: “Hey Ethan!” The words went with two accompanying bangs against the door. “You coming to the New Years party tonight?”

“What?” Ethan looked up dumbly at the tinged glass before him. Through the glass, he could make out the vague forms of his friends. Party? Thinking was like swimming through honey. Slow, sticky, as if he was fighting himself through a river of honey that should have been sweeter.

“Northwest Dorm is throwing a New Years party tonight,” Johnny called out over the racket of the running water. “Everyone’s invited, there’ll be lots of booze. You coming?”

“Dunno.” More booze was about the last thing that Ethan would want right now. Ever since Christmas Holiday had started, he had been constantly going out and getting himself wasted with the boys. Maybe skipping a party would be just what he needed.

“Aw come on, it’ll be fun!” Johnny pleaded. “There’ll be girls and booze, what else do you want?”

Kevin’s laughter rang through the bathroom as he chimed in: “Yeah, you only live once!”

“Whatever. I’ll get back to you about that, okay?” Ethan called back, finally reaching up to add some cold water to his shower. He felt like he was burning up. “Now can I please finish my shower?”

His friends left him alone. He felt a rush of cold air when the door opened and they left the bathroom, leaving silence in their wake. Blissful silence. Ethan took his showergel and a deliberate amount of it, and started to lather himself up without much enthusiasm. Time to get up and do stuff… and maybe beg the guys for some aspirin. Preferably a lot of it.

Then again, he thought while rinsing himself off and closing the tap for the shower, maybe he should try and put it to the test to see how his body would respond on more alcohol. They said that hangovers were just your body saying that it was dehydrated and that it was in withdrawal from alcohol. Maybe he should just try and see how it worked. He had to admit that he was not exactly jumping at the notion to drink even more alcohol, but if it worked…

But first he’d drink more water.

/Hell, my brother would laugh himself to death if he’d see me like this,/ Ethan thought, reaching out for his towel. /Here I was saying I’d never be an alcoholic student and looking down on his student life… and I find myself trying to test out the more-alcohol-reduces-hangover theory. Who’s the alcoholic now, Nate?/

Grinning, he reached around the corner and his hand slid over the damp tiles in search for the towel, but he couldn’t find it. Frowning, he opened the door to see whether he had dropped his towel and his t-shirt and underwear outside the cabin in his hangover-induced stupor, only to find that he had… but his towel was not there anymore.

His clothes were, and so were his slippers, but his towel was missing.

/Damn those-…/

“KEVIN!! JOHNNY!! Damn you!”

Friday 31 December
Northeast Dormitory, showers
12.59 - Erin

"Turn around," Lawrence told her gently, "so I can wash your back."

Around them, steam was billowing and water was streaming. They were standing under the shower together, snuggled up in each other’s arms. The shower cabins were really too cramped to share the cabin, but so far Erin and Lawrence had always cheerfully ignored that fact. They weren't about to let a pesky small cabin separate then where it came to showering together! In Erin's mind, there weren't many better ways to spend half an hour. She could think of some, but not many.

Erin looked up at her boyfriend, at the water dripping from his blond hair and the light sparkling in his grey eyes, before she turned around obediently to give him access to her back. Soon after she felt Lawrence's hands slide over her shoulder blades, leaving soapy foam in their wake. His hands did their magic over her whole back and she languidly leaned into his soft touch. “You’re always much more meticulous about cleaning my back than I usually am in the shower, Rens,” she smiled, looking at him from over her shoulder.

Lawrence laughed. “Ah, but that’s because I enjoy it more than you do,” he said, giving her buttocks a playful pinch. She yelped in protest, but it was all good-natured. “Ready to rinse, baby,” he announced.

When Erin was all rinsed off, she took up the shower gel and squirted a copious amount of it on her hand palm. “My turn. Turn around please!”

He turned, so she enthusiastically returned the favor. As she rubbed the gel into his skin, she contemplated for the gazillionth time how lucky she was to have Rens here with her. She loved him so insanely much. When they were together, the most mundane and stupid things in life became a joy to live through. Together it seemed as if the whole world was brighter, the colors were more vivid, and Erin just felt more… alive.

To be separated, when one of them would go home again, felt so bad that it nearly physically hurt. She just missed him so much if he wasn’t there. He lived only a block away, across campus, but it might have been half a world away, the way it felt to Erin.

She hugged her boyfriend from behind, freckled arms slithering around his waist as she rested her head against his back. She held him like this for a few minutes, watching water and soap rivulet over his pale skin, before she murmured: “I love you so much it nauseates me sometimes.”

He responded to her embrace by turning around and holding her close to him. The hug was warm, wet, and infinitely comforting and wonderful. “Love you too,” he said, rather unnecessarily.

They stood for quite a while under the falling curtain of water, enjoying each other’s close presence and the intimate moment, until Erin finally admitted: “We should probably get out, or we’ll be all wrinkly.”

It took another while for them to actually get moving.

They dried off quickly, rubbing their skin dry before the cold air could turn it to goose bumps and ruin the pleasant warmth that was infusing their bodies now. “You know,” Lawrence mused, putting on his boxer shorts. “We could just go back to bed and cuddle until it’s time to go to the party.”

Erin, who was struggling with her t-shirt, just looked at him incredulously. “You think that’s okay? I mean, with Johnny and all? Won’t he be annoyed if we just lie around in bed together all day?”

“Fuck Johnny,” Lawrence shrugged. “He was out all night and came home with the smell of liquor on him. And he just got up and terrorized Ethan out of the showers. Didn’t you hear him scream?”

“I guess I was still asleep.”

“Anyway, he’s out with his friends. I don’t care where he is. And frankly, that dorm room is mine too.” He put on his royal red bathrobe and grinned that wonderful grin of his again. “And if I want to have sex with my girlfriend in my own damn room, then that’s my own damn right.”

Erin, now dressed in only a string and a babydoll shirt, wrapped her arms around her boyfriend and kissed him. “Well, you don’t hear me complaining.”

“Good,” he noted, and kissed her back.

They made their way through the hallway giggling and playful, quick to make their way back to Lawrence’s warm bed before they’d cool off completely. Thankfully, room 118 was located right across the hall, so they did not have to venture into the cold for very long. Slamming the door behind them, they were relieved to notice that indeed, Johnny was not present.

They made good use of the empty room. It was quick and passionate, and Erin felt relief for being able to indulge freely into the act, instead of trying to find secluded spots or being really, really quiet. Sometimes, the restraint made things more interesting, but Erin was not a big fan of it. The notion that either Johnny or Julia (Erin’s roomie) might wake up or enter the room at any given time took the fun out of it. The excitement of it all wore off pretty quickly, too. All in all, they had gotten pretty proficient in finding good spots throughout the two dorm buildings and even the university itself, but in the end it didn’t weigh up to having a dorm room all for yourself.

It was a pity that Lawrence did not have a kingsize bed, but they didn’t need that much space, and all in all Erin rather liked to be snuggled up so closely against him in the aftermath of it all.

They dozed off together, warm and comfortable. It wasn’t until Erin woke up for the second time that she suddenly remembered that she had promised to help Nathalie out with the party. /Should I? I’ve let her down already anyway./ A glance at Lawrence’s alarm clock informed her that it was past two already. Most likely, Nathalie had already the whole Lounge organized and decorated, and her own presence would only be superfluous anyway. And it was not as if she wanted to leave her current comfortable position.

She listened to Lawrence’s deep breathing, felt his warmth and made her decision.

So Erin closed her eyes, laid her head back on the pillow, and snuggled up closer to Lawrence. Nathalie could suit herself. Some things were important than hanging tinsel and balloons into Lounges for a stupid party.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, room 110
1.45 pm – Martine

There are moments of helpless frustration in anyone’s life. Moments when you can only look on and watch everything go wrong without being able to do something about it. Moments that everything you’ve worked so hard for goes down the drain and the house of cards you’ve been building collapses because someone else closes the door behind you and that gust of wind blows everything apart.

Martine Goldberg was experiencing such a moment. She was not too happy about it, either. “GODDAMMIT!” she screamed, jumping up from her spot on the beanbag before her small TV. She threw the controller she was playing with in the corner and crossed her arms in frustration. “I’ll get you next time, you son of a bitch!” she spat at the television.

Her roommate Susan, who just entered the room, happened to oversee the scene and burst into laughter. It /was/ a funny sight: Martine in her pink pajama’s, hair unkempt in a messy bun, bristling at her Playstation and the TV before her. She did not really make for a very impressive sight, despite the colorful language she was producing. “You still did not manage to nail that endboss, I assume?” Suze asked dryly, when Martine whirled around and gave her a glare.

“No,” growled Martine. She picked up the controller from the corner of the room and checked it out to see whether she had happened to damage it. Thankfully, it seemed that she had not. “But I’m not giving up. I vowed to have him killed by the end of the year, and so I shall battle.”

Suze dropped her bag on the floor and sat down at her desk to start up her computer. “I assume we won’t see you at the party tonight, then.”

“I’d rather have it done before tonight. If I don’t, I think I’ll throw my controller through my TV screen in frustration and I don’t think I have enough money to replace the damn thing,” Martine confessed darkly. She looked at the screen. It said:

GAME OVER.

PLAY AGAIN? YES/NO.

Martine selected the ‘yes’ option. Thankfully, she had saved just before the battle and could just start over again. Her strategy had worked so far, until that bloody endboss thought it had been a good idea to use some kind of vampire attack she had not seen before and drained the life from the healer in her party. That had heralded the end of her battle… for the millionth time.

“Damn you, Weapon. I’ll get you this time,” Martine promised the creature of polygons and too many health points on her TV screen.

“Now only if you could do it in silence…”

Martine did not even glance up from the screen, where battle music started playing and the screen swirled into a battle transition. “Ah Suze, shut up, you know how I am when I’m gaming.”

“Exactly,” Suze said dryly, opening up a document with information for her exams.

Martine knew that Susan had some heavy exams due for after Christmas Break. “You need to study?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“Oh, no problem,” Martine said, throwing a fire spell at the endboss. He seemed not too fond of fire, it damaged him more than the generic ice or water spell. “I’ll shut up then. You want me to use headphones?”

Martine heard Susan’s smile. “No, it’s okay. Maybe the battle music will stimulate me.”

“Good luck, then.”

“Haha, you too.”

And so two battles ensued in room 110: Martine against the endboss, and Suze against her study material. For a while, the room was completely silent but for the sounds of the videogame, until Martine suddenly exclaimed: “Oh yes! Gotcha! Ha-ha, you’re doing down now, aren’t you?”

Suze pushed her chair back and came to join Martine to watch the endboss crumple and shimmer, before he vanished. The screen played a victory melody and Martine pumped her fists in the air. “Who’s da man? I am! Whohoo! Told you I was going to make it!”

“Took you long enough,” Suze smiled at her. As always, Suze’s smile lit up her whole face, and Martine found herself smiling back. They had gotten off to a bad start initially, but over the past three years they had learnt to accept their differences and even sported a polite interest in each other’s pastimes these days. Martine made a point to inquire about Suze’s tennis matches and her relationship with Dennis, and Suze on her part didn’t get annoyed about Martine’s internet and gaming addictions. It all balanced out in the end, and they fared well by it. “Don’t forget to save your game, by the way. You don’t want a repeat of last time, hm?”

“Good one,” Martine nodded. She clicked through a few menu’s with a speed that Suze could barely follow, and a /bing!/ accompanied the GAME SAVED that appeared on the screen. “Now, as for the rest of that damned dungeon…” She sat back down again and heard Suze do the same as the legs of her chair scraped over the carpet.

Some more time passed, and Martine had already ventured much deeper into the dungeon when she saw Suze lean back in her chair from the corner of her eye. “Say,” Suze began, turning herself in Martine’s direction, “/are/ you going to the party tonight?”

Martine never took her eyes off the screen as she engaged into another random encounter with an ugly-looking dragon. What it was doing in a prison dungeon was beyond her, but she had to fight it nonetheless. “Yeah, at least for the first part of it,” she said. “You?”

“Yeah, I’m going with Dennis.”

“Should have known,” Martine smiled. The main hero of her party made quick work of the dragon, his blade cut deeply into the dragon and the damage indicator told some happy news. /Yay for weapon upgrades!/ As the dragon crumpled, shimmered and vanished much like the endboss had a while ago and the victory melody rang through the room again, Martine said: “I have a bit of a dilemma, though.”

“What is it?”

“My parents were nagging me that I should visit them at midnight. Spend New Year with them, you know? They’re complaining that they see too little of me.”

“Well, you DO live around the block.”

Martine nodded. She collected her experience points and moved on, turning around corners and walking down stairways that delved deeper into the dark dungeon. “That’s their main beef, yeah. You live so close and you never visit us, they say. And they’re right, I know. But they’re just /always/ saying that so it’s not much fun to visit them anyhow. I’d much rather get wasted with the people of Northwest tonight.”

“I can imagine,” Suze nodded back. “But you know, you don’t have to decide right now. Just go to the party, and if it sucks – god knows that many of Nat’s parties have sucked in the past – then go to your parents. If it’s a blast, then stay and visit them tomorrow afternoon or something. When you’ve slept off your hangover.”

“Hmmm.” Martine’s hero set yet another enemy on fire, and she watched with satisfaction as it burned and the damage indicator told her it was an OVERKILL! . “Die, bitch,” she told it with an evil grin. “Maybe you’re right,” she said to Suze with her normal voice again. “It’s not like I already told them what I would do. And I knew about the party, first.”

“They can’t blame you for wanting to party,” Susan agreed. “All my parents ever expect me to do is to call them at midnight to wish them a Happy New Year, even though they’re three time zones behind us and they’re probably already asleep.”

“Your parents are perfect. All they care about are your good grades and your success with tennis.”

She saw Suze shrug from the corner of her eye. “Sometimes I wish I had your parents. A little attention once in a while would be nice, I think. I mean, Dennis and I have been together for a year and a half now, and they saw him for the first time a few days ago! Kinda weird if you ask me.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask about that. How did the meeting go?”

Another shrug. “It went well enough. They kept asking him about tennis and his studies, as expected. My father liked it a lot that Dennis majors in Math, because he thinks that studying Math means that you’re smart. And my mother was all over his sports. Rather pathetic, really.”

Martine finished off another random encounter and turned to her roommate. “From what you’re telling me they sound really superficial. Is that what’s bothering you?”

“Exactly,” Suze nodded, her pretty face pained. “It’s all so meaningless.” She sighed. “But maybe I shouldn’t complain. They always gave me everything I wanted, you know? I never had to fight for anything, always got everything dumped right into my lap before I could even think of asking for it.”

Martine nodded thoughtfully. “Kind of different from my family life,” she noted. “My father’s in a wheelchair and my mother doesn’t earn a lot of money, so even though I’m an only child they could never provide for a lot but a loving family. I had to earn my scholarship.” She looked up at Suze and grinned. “I guess we all have our problems. Maybe our parents could learn somewhat from each other… your parents could teach mine to let go of me, and my parents could teach yours to hold you a little closer. Funny how such things can go.”

“Yeah,” Suze mused, leaning back in her chair and idly braiding a honey-colored strand of hair, “I was really jealous of you when your parents kept calling you in those first weeks we moved here.”

“And all it did was annoying me. And I looked at all your expensive stuff and envied you right back.” Martine turned back to her game and took her hero and his friends deeper into the dungeon. “Damn, it seems as if this dungeon will never end.”

“Wasn’t it a dungeon game, then?” Suze asked.

Martine chuckled. “Good point.”

Soon, the battle music was ringing through the room again, but somehow the comfortable silence sounded louder.

Friday 31 December
Nortwest Dormitory, Lounge
2.49 pm - Nathalie

Nathalie Dupris always prided herself on her tight control over her emotions. As a member of the student council, the debate club and the youth department of the local government she had learnt the value of reasonable and calm approaches to situations. In the heat of her emotions, people lost all control over themselves and therefore, the argument as well. The icy debater won the battle, Nathalie knew. This was why the only indication of embarrassment, frustration or anger was the flushing of her cheeks. Nothing else indicated that she was fuming, unless you happened to know that Nathalie had a habit of squeezing her thighs in anger, nicely hidden under the table.

And if there was no table to hide her hands under, like right now, she would bite on the inside of her cheek. Her face was hidden by strands of loose-hanging brown hair, so no one could see the pained expression on her face, even if they would stand next to her. She was standing in the kitchen, preparing the food all on her own. Her back turned to the rest of the lounge so no one would even pay her any attention. Some of the students were watching soap opera’s on the telly, draped over the couches and chairs. No one was helping her. Kayley and Aimee were blowing air into the balloons, but their progress was annoyingly slow since Aimee was totally pissed and had to gasp for air every three seconds.

Erin had not even showed up, as she had promised. She was probably off fucking Lawrence somewhere and Nathalie felt the very wild urge to strangle the both of them. She should have known. Erin was so totally enraptured by her boyfriend that the rest of the world had ceased to exist for her. School, home, friendship, it mattered naught to her. As long as she could shag her boyfriend she was happy. And when she was separated from him, all she could do was talk about him and pine after him. But she had /promised/ to help out this time! After their argument the last time Erin let her down, she thought that this time surely, this time…

Tears of frustration and disappointment were brimming in her eyes. Nathalie blinked them away and bit furiously on the inside of her cheek. She couldn’t afford to cry here. Not while she was still in the Lounge. She could snotter and blubber in the confines of her own room later tonight, under the cover of darkness and the absence of her roommate Lisa, but not now, goddammit! Never mind that her best friend had betrayed her for the millionth time. Never mind that the party she had worked so hard for to organize was getting such a lukewarm reception. One would think that her fellow students would lend her a hand in creating something they would enjoy as well, but no.

Behind her, Aimee and Kayley were giggling about something that undoubtedly was alcohol-induced. The next moment, a loud bang occurred when a balloon exploded.

“Told you that balloons and burning cigs don’t mix!” Kayley laughed. Aimee laughed with her; the kind of helpless laughing fit that one got into when one has been laughing for too long a time.

The laughter sounded oddly misplaced compared to Nathalie’s dark mood.

Betrayed by her best friend, by her acquaintances who had agreed to help when she had asked, by her fellow students of Northwest… all Nat wanted was to crawl in bed and sleep until New Year had passed. But no, she did not work that way. She wanted to make this party into a success, even if she had to die to get to that point. She wouldn’t let them get her down. Damn them. Damn them!

“Ouch!”

Blood welled up where the knife had cut in her flesh. The top of her index finger was red within a matter of seconds and she quickly pulled her hand away from the cucumber she’d been cutting, lest she’d stain the vegetable as well. Swearing under her breath, she sucked on her finger. Damn those tears, blurring her vision.

“Are you alright?” someone asked.

Nathalie turned around to the owner of the voice and found the goth girl, Birgit, standing in the kitchen. Her hand was wrapped around the handle of the fridge, intending to open it. “Yeah, I’m okay,” Nathalie said. “Just cut myself.”

“That sucks,” Birgit said, rummaging through the fridge and emerging with a bottle of coke. She took the gap off and drank directly from the bottle. When she put it back in the fridge again, she looked up at Nathalie with an enquiring glint in her dark eyes. “What?”

Nathalie shrugged and turned back to her cucumbers, embarrassed that she had been staring. “Nothing.”

“Why are you so busy with all that food anyhow? It’s not like anyone’s helping you.”

“Yeah, it /would/ be nicer if anyone would deign to help me out.” She couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Behind her, Birgit laughed shortly. It mixed easily with the constant stream of laughter that was emanated by Kayley and Aimee and their balloon adventure. “You could also opt just to distribute crisps and chocolate and popcorn and be done with it. Is a lot easier, saves you unnecessary work.”

“Maybe I’m doing this because I bought the shit and I want you guys to eat it?” Nathalie retorted sharply, looking up from her work again. She glared at the black-clad girl and then added: “I did not beg and plead with the faculty for this budget for naught, you know.”

“You didn’t have to,” Birgit offered.

Nat couldn’t help an exasperated sigh. “No but I did. I almost wish that I hadn’t.”

Birgit hopped onto the dresser and watched Nathalie’s moves for a minute. “I could help you out if you want to,” she eventually said with a voice that hinted of a total lack of enthusiasm.

“No thanks, I’m fine,” Nathalie murmured, finishing up her last piece of cucumber. “But if you really want to do stuff, then go and assist Kayley and Aimee before they collapse from lack of air.” She put the pieces of cucumber into a jar and when she turned to Birgit, she saw that the goth had already joined the others. So much for that, she supposed.

It was decent enough of Birgit to offer some help while no one else did, but the total lack of enthusiasm did not really endear her to Nathalie. It felt forced, as if Birgit was only offering out of sheer boredom. A glance at the television showed that one of the girls had switched the channel to a music channel that was loudly blaring rap music. A genre that Birgit obviously was not too fond of. Yup, so much for that. Man, that was glaringly obvious.

Shrugging, Nathalie opened the bag of cheeseblocks and distributed them in another jug that she sealed with foil. No one would hear any peep from her while she did her job and made this party into a success and a true celebration of the New Year to come. Because then at least she knew that /she/ had given her all to do the best she could, and wasn’t that all she needed?

Well, no. Not really. But it helped.

Nathalie bit on the inside of her cheek and despised the inhabitants of Northwest with a passion.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, Toilet
4.36 pm – Aimee

“That’s right, let it all out,” Kayley’s gentle voice came from afar.

Aimee squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for another round of vomiting. /I should have seen that one coming,/ she thought miserably. Tears were streaming over her face as her protesting and battered body tried to get rid of the ridiculous amounts of wine she had consumed in the past few hours. Two and a half bottles of wine.

“I’m an idiot,” Aimee told Kayley when it was over, not sure whether she had spoken French or English. The two languages were mixing themselves into her mind into one incomprehensible mess that she could not untangle anymore. “Je veux ma mère,” she confessed tearfully, leaning into Kayley’s tight hold upon her.

The bathroom was spinning wildly around her and she was clinging onto consciousness by her fingernails. “Deux bouteilles de vigne…”

“Shh, don’t talk,” Kayley told her, still with that gentle look on her face. “Do you have to puke again?”

“No,” Aimee said, but apparently her body had different ideas. “Yes,” she could blurt out before she had to give into her sickness again. The porcelain of the toilet was stained with suspicious purple stains and Aimee knew they were hers. “Sorry,” she told the stains.

“Don’t be.” It was Kayley who had said it, not the purple vomit stains. Aimee turned to Kayley despite the swaying spin of the room and said sadly: “You must detest me now.”

“No I don’t. I’m here with you, I won’t leave until you’re alright.”

“You’re so sweet.” Tears of gratefulness rolled over her cheeks as one moment she loved Kayley intensely for being there. She had been so sweet and understanding all day, even though she had walked away so suddenly earlier today – Aimee suddenly couldn’t remember when anymore – but she had been sweet during the balloon thing, and she was here right now and she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t… “You won’t leave me alone?”

Kayley squeezed her shoulder encouragingly. “No.”

“I feel so alone,” Aimee sobbed, leaning on the toilet for support.

She heard Kayley laugh in what might be exasperation, but she couldn’t concentrate on it. Once again her body decided to get rid of whatever alcohol was still left in her body, even though the last liquid she had been spewing had hardly been purple-red anymore. It was just water now, tasting sour and sharp and causing more tears to roll over her cheeks.

She felt like a filthy heap of snot, vomit and tears and couldn’t understand why Kayley was still here with her, but she did feel somewhat better. “I think I’m done here.”

“Want to go to bed?” Kayley asked.

“Please.”

Kayley nodded and picked up a bucket that was sitting next to the two of them. “We’ll have to get up the stairs then,” she announced and helped Aimee up. The room spun drunkenly (/Like me,/ Aimee thought) around them and she had to fight another bout of nausea, but was finally able to get on her feet and walk for a bit. It went slowly. The first few steps to the stairwell seemed like a ride in a crazy carrousel, but gradually it went better. And that was a good thing, otherwise they’d never have gotten upstairs safely.

During their trek upstairs, Aimee thanked Kayley profusely for just being there, for being a friend, for saving her life – which she was sure that Kayley had done. She’d probably have hit her head on the toilet pot and broken her neck in her drunken stagger to the toilet, but Kayley had supported her through it all. Shit, she just wanted to go home.

“You would love Paris,” Aimee assured Kayley, as the white-haired girl kicked open the door to the hallway. “My door is unlocked,” she added.

“That’s good,” Kayley grunted, dragging the both of them forth. “Thankfully you don’t live on the other side of the dorm and close to the stairwell. You’re getting fucking heavy.”

“Sorry.”

It was a whole adventure to open the door and get inside, but they managed eventually. Aimee leaned heavily on the taller girl and then stumbled through her room only to fall upon her bed. She closed her eyes to block out the swaying of the room. It wasn’t as bad as it had been, but it was still bad enough to make her want to pass out.

“Listen Aimee, I’m going to get you a bottle of water,” Kayley knelt next to her, putting the bucket in place. “I want you to drink all of it when you wake up, and then you’ll have to go to sleep again. Afterwards, you’ll feel better.”

“Okay,” Aimee murmured, wanting to step over that edge into unconsciousness. “Merci.”

“Don’t mention it,” Kayley said, getting up to leave. “I’ll check on you later tonight to see how you’re doing, okay?”

Aimee couldn’t help it. She took that last step and let the darkness swallow her entirely. God, how she wished for home. Her last thought before unconsciousness claimed her was of her mother standing on the balcony, looking out over a beautifully lit Paris with a sweet smile of her face.

She was out before Kayley had even closed the door behind her.

Friday 31 December
Northeast Dormitory, Lounge
4.23 pm – Johnny

His cellphone rang. The melody cut clear and loud through the lounge. It seemed to echo between the walls and reverberate off the ceiling of the Lounge of Northeast Dormitory, where they were hanging out presently. “Sorry,” Johnny murmured to his mates, who were watching TV. He dove for his cell and picked up. “Yes?”

“Hi, this is Katerine,” a female voice said on the other side.

“Um, hi?”

Irritation. “From last night, remember?”

“Oh, of course! Hi Katerine!” How the hell was he supposed to recognize her voice if he had only heard her voice over loud booming music, and later her cries when they were having sex? He couldn’t even remember giving out his phone number to her. “How are you?”

“I got your number from the girl behind the bar,” Katerine told him. “I hope you don’t mind?”

“No, it’s okay.”

Next to him, Kevin and Ethan were giving him curious looks. Johnny mimicked a cringe and the boys laughed. “Problems?” Kevin murmured with a grin.

Johnny nodded to him, as Katerine chattered on: “I was wondering if you were doing something tonight. Thought maybe we could get together or something?”

“Um, I need to check that with my mates,” he hesitated. “Can I call you back in a bit about that?”

“Sure!”

“Okay, talk to you in a bit.”

“But you don’t have my number,” the girl seemed to realize.

Johnny sighed. Shit, she was /really/ blond. Not just her hair. “I have a callback button,” he explained. “See ya.” He disconnected before she could say anything else.

“Is that the chick from last night?” Kevin asked, swirling his cola through his glass.

“Yeah.” Johnny omitted another tragic sigh. “She wants to meet up tonight.”

“You don’t sound too enthusiastic,” Kevin observed.

“I /am/ not too enthusiastic.”

Ethan grinned incredulously. “Why? She’s hot, from what I could see last night. Then again, I was a bit hazy last night so I might be mistaken.”

“She also seems clingy. I did not fuck her with the intention of ever seeing her again. And she asked Leila for my phone number. I don’t think I like that.”

“Point taken,” Ethan nodded, laying the magazine he had been leaving through on the low dresser next to the couch. “Now what?”

Johnny shrugged. “I’ll tell her that you guys didn’t want her to come with us.”

“And why would that keep her from meeting up with you alone?” asked Kevin.

“I won’t let her even get to that idea. She’s not a very fast thinker anyway,” Johnny resolved. “And I’d much rather go to the New Years party with you guys. I don’t feel like having psycho stalkers trailing me.”

“You don’t know whether she is. Maybe she just thinks you’re a hero in bed,” Ethan smirked, as if he did not believe it. “I’m sure that’s it.”

Johnny laughed. “Let’s keep it at that. But I don’t get good vibes from her and I don’t want to run the chance of meeting up anytime soon, so I’ll just say that I’ll go out with you guys tonight. And then I just won’t pick up my phone anymore when she calls.”

“I hope Leila hasn’t told her you’re at Northeast,” Kevin mused. “Then she could really start stalking you. And us. She’d sneak around campus all day long with binoculars and jump you during the night to have wild hot monkey sex.”

“There are worse fates,” Ethan chuckled. “I wouldn’t mind a stalker like that.”

“One that would stalk you and watch your every move?” Johnny flicked his phone open and shook his head laughing. “Well, in that case I’d rather get hot monkey sex elsewhere.” He brought his finger to his lips and indicated for the boys to be quiet as he hit the callback button.

“Hi, Katerine? This is Johnny,” he told her as she picked up. “I’m sorry, I’m with the guys tonight and they don’t want any girls with us. So is it okay if I call you back another time to hang out?”

“Sure,” Katerine said with audible disappointment lacing her voice.

“Okay, cool. Talk to you later then- bye!” He disconnected quickly and then laughed. “Problem solved.”

“You’re horrible,” Ethan told him, getting up from the couch. “Who else wants a drink?”

Kevin lazily waved his hand. “Just bring the whole bottle, man. We’re the only ones drinking it anyway. Everyone else is god knows where.”

“What’s for dinner?” Johnny asked. He had already half-forgotten about Katerine and her quest to go out with him. She had been fun enough for one night, and he had thought they’d been in agreement on that. She had seemed kind of sluttish last night; the kind of girl that slept with every guy she thought was cute. She was also hot enough to make that assumption not a strange one. So either he was a very good fuck indeed, or she was a psycho stalker. Or perhaps both. “What about pizza? Want to order?”

“I don’t have any money,” Ethan said from the kitchen.

“It’s on me,” Johnny decided. “I feel generous today.”

Ethan sat down next to them with the mostly empty bottle of cola. “Not so horrible after all, then.”

Johnny grinned. “You know it.”

Friday 31 December
Northeast Dormitory, room 112
4.14 pm – Brendan

The day passed quietly while Brendan Gainnes sat curled up on his bed with a book. He was all too aware that he should be studying for his Calculus test that was looming over his head. There was one more week to go before D-Day and he just didn’t feel like studying. It was the last day of the year, and he refused to study. Never mind that he’d be sick for the next two days after the New Years celebration. He just didn’t feel like it.

And the fact that his book was maddeningly exciting wasn’t helping much, either. Stephen King’s newest was as gripping, real and horrific as he had hoped it would be. He had waited for a long time for this novel to be released and so far (he was at page 350) it was completely living up to his high expectations.

He couldn’t think of a better way to spend the last afternoon of the year. Happy with himself and the world, the day passed in silence – until his roommate Mike deigned to dash in. He was laughing amiably and was soon followed by his friend Josh. The silence in the room shattered and Brendan couldn’t help a tragic sigh. “Hi guys,” he greeted them, laying down his book.

“Hey Bren,” Mike said with a grin that usually meant trouble. “Guess what Josh is doing tonight?”

Brendan looked up at his roommate friend with a cultivated amount of patience. “You’re not going to the party, then?” /No big loss there,/ he thought.

Joshua nodded. “Yeah, I am, as a matter of fact.” He exchanged a look of mischief with Mike that made Brendan’s neckhair stand on end.

“Okay, you want me to guess?”

Both boys nodded, grinning as if they knew the best secret in the world and were gleeful with anticipation.

Brendan rolled his eyes and laughed. “Okay, you’ve got some cool new drink or drug to try out.”

“Ow, you’re right,” Mike said. “That’s quick.”

“That’s what you get when you’ve been rooming with you for the past four years. So what have you got?”

The way Joshua’s round face lit up spelled trouble. “Acid,” he announced brightly.

Brendan sat up, his book forgotten for the moment. “Aw, shit. You gotta be kidding me?”

“Cool, huh?”

Brendan kept his council about that. He did not mind pot or booze, and he had been stoning with both guys quite regularly over the course of the past few years, but lately he’d been worrying about the two. They did nothing but getting stoned lately, and while school suffered, so did their bodies. Josh had gained twenty pounds in the past year. His hair was greasy and unkempt, and he had not had a girlfriend in ages. And Mike… well, Brendan had seen the warning letters lying around. /Improve your grades or we’ll have no choice but to expel you,/ the letters had said. Signed by Mike’s mentor. He wondered if Mike’s parents had any idea, but he figured that they didn’t. What he had seen of them, they’d be heartbroken if they’d find out. “Are you both going to take that stuff?”

“Naw, just me,” Josh said.

“I’ll keep watch over him,” Mike added. “We thought that’d be better.”

“Sounds smart… but isn’t it safer to do that in a stable and quiet environment? I heard you shouldn’t mingle with people until you’ve done it a few times. Just like with watching movies and stuff. First see what your mind does with you until-“

Joshua’s laughter cut him off. “You think this is my first time?”

Brendan raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“Of course it isn’t. This is my third time. I’ve done it before… tripped on shrooms as well. It’s great. And I’m all cool with tripping. We’re taking the step of tripping around people tonight for the first time.”

“Right.”

“You’re not bouncing with enthusiasm, are you?” Mike noted. He sat down on his bed and grabbed a can of coke out of the mini-fridge next to it. He tossed it to Josh, who caught it nimbly.

“I told you before that synthetic drugs aren’t my thing, Mike.”

“You want a drink too?”

“Sure.”

Another can of cola made the trek through the air before it bounced on the bed next to Brendan, bouncing a few times before it laid still. Brendan picked it up and hoped it had not been shaken too badly. Opening it carefully, he found to his relief that it hadn’t.

“So if it’d be shrooms, it would be okay with you?” Josh asked, seating himself on Mike’s desk chair. He was drinking deeply from his cola. “Ah, blessed caffeine,” he grinned.

“I think I just don’t want to go any further than pot and alcohol,” Brendan shrugged. “Just my opinion. But if you want to waste the New Year’s party by seeing pretty colors, then that’s not my problem. I’ll just go and hit on some girls.”

“The only way a girl will ever hit on /you/ is when she slaps you in the face, Bren,” Josh laughed.

Brendan just looked at the overweight guy and the greasiness of Joshua’s skin and decided not to go into that. Brendan did not fit the standard stereotype of a handsome (or even cute) guy, but he looked good enough to get himself a girl. He /knew/ that. He was tall, wasn’t too pale for an Irishman, and his reddish hair had a nice shade. And he had a good physique. Broad shoulders, flat stomach, a cool tattoo twined around his right wrist.

It was just that ever since Cynthia had broken up with him that his confidence had been shot to hell. Three years was nothing you’d get over in a few months and that was the reason why he had not been dating in the past six months. He was just getting ready to get out again, and here Josh was trying to shatter his self-esteem.

“Says who,” Mike retorted good-humored, having noted the look on Brendan’s face. “When was the last time /you/ got laid, Josh? Oh, wait, I know. /Never/. You are the only virgin in the room here, buddy.”

Joshua’s blue eyes narrowed for a moment, but then he decided not to pursue the issue. He just glared at Brendan for a moment, who was hiding a grin behind his hand and pretended he was yawning. /Score one for the good guys/, Brendan thought. For a moment he was absurdly grateful of his roommate. Mike might have his faults, but he’d never allow anyone to be bullied around. Even when it was his best friend who was doing the bullying.

“Whatever,” Joshua answered at last.

“So,” Brendan said, changing the subject smoothly, “where did you get that stuff anyhow?”

“Guy in class got a friend who’s into dealing,” Mike said. He set down his can on his nightstand and grinned. “It’s an interesting idea though – a medical student with drug-dealing friends. Makes a weird kind of sense, even.”

“Remind me never to assign him as my GP, though,” Brendan said, leaning back and picking up his book again. “Well guys, have fun with the drugs. I’ll just stick to booze tonight.”

If Brendan didn’t know any better, he would have thought that Mike was pouting. “Aw, you’re not even going to smoke that wonderful pot that I got the other day with me?”

“I don’t know yet. I might just stick to booze tonight. I don’t want to be sick for the next week, I have a calculus test coming up.”

“You /do/ know that booze makes you sicker than pot ever could, right?” Josh chimed in.

Brendan fought a wave of annoyance. God, sometimes he just wanted pound that little know-it-all in the face. “I am aware. But what are you whining about? The less I smoke, the more there is for you, right?”

“Right,” Mike nodded. “Come on Josh, let’s go have one right now.”

Brendan opened his book again and was glad that they would leave him alone for a while. As his roommate and his friend closed the door behind them, he got the sinking feeling that he’d spend the last night of the year as their babysitter while they were off staring into space. “Joy,” he muttered, picking up the story where he had left off.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, room 103
5.30 pm – Kayley

“Hey Kay,” Carmen’s musical voice greeted her when she entered her dormroom. Her roomie was sitting at her desk. She was dressed in darkblue sweatpants and a white top, intently focused on her computer as her fingers were flying over the keyboard. She had never even looked up.

Kayley grinned at Carmen’s back. “How did you know it was me?”

Carmen turned around and slipped her gold-rimmed reading glasses off her nose in the process. She smiled sweetly. “It’s the way you open the door. Did you ever listen to that? Everyone has a distinctive way of climbing stairs and opening doors. I just recognize yours.”

Kayley nodded, closed the door behind her and let herself fall upon her bed. “Is it okay if you wake me in 45 minutes or something? I think I need a powernap before I can tackle the night.”

“Sure,” Carmen agreed, turning back to her screen again. “You look knackered.”

“I just spent a while waking over Aimee. Man, was she drunk.”

“You don’t sound too sober either, if I may say so.”

Kayley looked up to the ceiling and grinned. Carmen was a perceptive girl, there was no way she could hide anything from her roommate. It was a good thing she was so sweet-natured. “I’ve been drinking with her. She’s homesick.”

“Poor girl,” Carmen said. “The holiday season must be hard on her, being so far removed from her family.” The speed between her keystrokes did not diminish while she was talking, Kayley noted. /Wow, that’s pretty cool./

“Yeah, she was taking it pretty hard.” The bed was wonderful and soft in her back as she sprawled out. Kayley felt herself drift away into the warm embrace of sleep already.

“Forty-five minutes?” Carmen asked again through the clouds of sleep.

“Mmm, yes please.”

“You’re on.”

Friday 31 December
Northeast Dormitory, Lounge
5.30 pm – Ethan

The pizza was horrible. Moldy, greasy, and they’d given him anchovies even though he had specifically asked the guy on the pizza phone to make sure that they wouldn’t be there. “What a hoax,” he muttered. “The taste of those damn things is everywhere.”

“Bad pizza is like bad sex,” Johnny said. His mouth was rimmed with tomato sauce and he was grinning. “It doesn’t exist, you know? Even if it’s bad, it’s still okay.”

Ethan pondered that for a moment, but the association of sex with anchovies was distracting him too much. He just nodded and finished his last slice. “Well, at least it’s warm. And it fills my stomach.”

“Both are fulfilling, even if they aren’t, so to say.”

Kevin laughed and put his pizza cardboard on the floor, zapping through the channels until he found a music channel that showed the music he liked. “Only you could draw that parallel, Johnny.”

“Hey, that’s what I do!”

Ethan laid his empty pizza cardboard on the ground where it joined Kevin’s and then announced: “I think it’s time for a drink. Beer anyone?”

Both Johnny and Kevin thought that was a marvelous idea, so Ethan ran up to get some beer out of the small fridge in his dorm room. Of course there was a communal fridge in the kitchen where food was stocked and things for common use like soft drinks and milk and bread, but Ethan had seen too many beer cans mysteriously vanish to still keep them in the fridge downstairs.

He hated the fact that they were technically stolen, but then again, it /was/ a communal fridge. He probably would have taken the beers and never thought of it, either. So he just kept his beer on his own room and even though he had to take the stairs to get there, he’d rather walk a little for his beer, instead of having no beer at all.

When he arrived downstairs again, his friends were talking about the impending party.

Johnny was just saying: “So if you could sleep with any girl from Northwest, who would you want?”

Kevin leaned back in his chair and said: “Susan, I think.”

“Susan?” Ethan wondered, sitting down next to his friend and offering the both of them a can. “Why her? I don’t think she’s that sexy.”

“Ever seen that body of hers? Man, she has like the most brilliant legs and ass I’ve ever seen. And I like them blondes.” There was a lecherous grin plastered over his friend’s dark face. “So, who would you guys shag?”

“Crystal,” Ethan said. “She’s a bitch but I have this thing for redheads. I think she’ll be a beast in the sack.”

“Jennifer,” Johnny said shortly after. “She’s way hotter than Crystal. And not such a devious bitch either.”

“Hell no, man! She’s an iceberg. At least Crystal’s a nice spitfire,” Ethan disagreed. He took a long gulp from his beer and contemplated the two girls. He liked his girls hot-blooded and temperamental. He liked a challenge. Spirited girls were the way to go. And Crystal was damn hot to boot. She had the most perfect pair of breasts he’d ever seen and dressed accordingly. Ethan couldn’t help lusting after her, even though he did think she should keep her mouth shut.

“I think there’s a lot more to Jenni than people think, really. I know a guy who’s been with her once and she’s damn intense and passionate, he told me. And of course there’s the whole bisexual thing.”

Kevin laughed. “Trust Johnny to have fantasies about threesomes. So who would be the other? Her current fling, whats-her-name?”

“Kayley,” Ethan said. “Nice eyes, but too skinny for my taste.”

“I don’t like the bleached hair,” Johnny confessed. “She’d be much cuter if she were dark-haired like she should be. And yeah, she’s too skinny.”

Kevin shrugged. “I’d do her.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly kick her out of my bed either,” Johnny grinned. “Maybe I could convince her to dye her hair back dark again. Or to let Jenni join us.”

“Now there’s a happy thought,” Kevin grinned back, sipping from his beer. “Although I’d never have thought they were an item if I hadn’t seen them together. Maybe it’s just sex and nothing emotional.”

“Me neither,” Ethan said. “Jenni doesn’t seem the kind of person to attach herself to people anyway. And yet it seems like they’ve been together since the beginning of the school year. Kayley must either be a very, very good fuck, or she’s a terribly interesting person.”

“She dumped that guy I know after three days,” Johnny said, “and that’s kind of normal for her, I’ve been told. By him, so I’m not sure whether he’s a reliable source.”

“Well, you could always give it a try and get them both, tonight,” Kevin nodded. “Although… is that Kayley chick a lesbian or is she bi?”

Neither of them had any idea, so the conversation drifted onto other topics as they consumed their beer and lazed around until it was time to relocate to Northwest. They had no idea at what time the party would start, so they just took it easy until 8 or 9, Ethan thought.

When Lawrence and Erin came out of the stair house and Lawrence dropped himself on the couch while his girlfriend went scavenging for food in the kitchen, Ethan asked: “Are you guys going to the party?”

Lawrence nodded. “Yeah, I guess. It’s not like there’s much to do in town anyway, and I don’t have any money.”

“I really want to go,” Erin called back from the kitchen, where she was surrounded by bread, so Ethan was assuming she was making sandwiches. “Even though Nat will probably kill me, her parties are usually a lot of fun.”

“Why will she kill you?” Ethan asked curiously, when Erin joined them.

She shrugged as she gave her boyfriend a sandwich. “I had promised to help out with setting up the party. But I kinda didn’t.”

Johnny muffled laughter and everyone else was grinning. “You /kinda/ didn’t?” asked Ethan incredulously.

“His fault,” Erin said through a mouthful of sandwich, pointing at Lawrence.

“Oh yeah, blame the boyfriend,” Lawrence muttered good-naturedly, eyes glued to the television.

“You’re just so /easy/ to blame,” Erin giggled, rubbing her head against his shoulder. Then she turned her hazel gaze back upon the three other guys in the room. “So, are you guys going?”

Ethan nodded. “Yeah. We just had no idea when.”

“Oh, I think Nat was talking about starting the whole thing at 9 or something. But we’ll probably hear the music boom all the way over here anyway. That’ll be our cue.”

“And then we have to be fast,” Johnny added, “because then all the booze is still there. We need to drink it quick before everyone else gets to it. Later, people will tell stories about our run to your dorm. The Mad Dash For Northwest, they will call it.”

“You’re bullshitting again, Johnny,” Kevin told him.

“It’s what he does,” Ethan chorused with Johnny, who said: “It’s what I do.”

They all laughed, after which the conversation died down and the five of them watched the television for the evening news.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, room 110
6.21 pm – Martine

Martine saved her game, got up and yawned loudly. That was about enough for today, she resolved quietly. She’d been suffering from a gamers arm lately. The official name for it was RSI, Repetitive Strain Injury, but Martine thought it was better to call it’s by its real name. It usually acted up when she had been playing all day and did not take enough breaks in between. Sometimes the game was so engaging that she simply forgot to take breaks, because she just wanted to play to the next save point or endboss. And today had been such a day. She’d had a productive day where it came to leveling her characters, but fuck if she wasn’t paying the price for it. There were sinews and muscles in her right arm that sometimes felt as if they were on fire, and in addition to that there was this heavy feeling in her arms, as if she were dragging bags of lead around that were tied to her wrists.

“Stupid,” Martine muttered, reaching for her salve. It was supposed to be based of a herb called arnica and it smelled pretty nice, but ever since her mother’s acquaintance had pointed her to it, she had been totally addicted it. It worked like a charm. If she’d rub it into her skin, then the next day the pain would almost completely have passed. Two more days and she was ready to play on.

Suze had left half an hour ago. She had felt cravings for Thai takeout food and had promised to bring some for the two of them, so they could eat it together. “It’s on me,” Suze had promised, “but only if you promise to eat it with me and not with the playstation.”

Martine had laughed at that. “You’ve got a deal.”

She was expecting Suze back any moment, so she quickly changed the channel of her portable to the sitcom the two of them had been following in the past three months, and sat down expectantly. It was nice to reflect on how comfortable they had been with each other today. Usually they barely saw each other because they were both so busy living their own lives (which usually meant that Suze was off god-knows-where and that Martine would be chatting with her friends on the internet or gaming), and all that they did together was sitcoms at dinnertime.

But today it had been the two of them all day long and Martine thought that this was something she could imagine getting used to. Suze /was/ a pretty nice gal after all, despite her disturbing tendency to hang out with uberbitch Crystal. Martine couldn’t understand that /anyone/ would even remotely consider liking Crystal Pittston, but apparently there were people who did. And there were people who were did not want to kill her upon their first meeting as well. Of course, good looks and money did count for something – just look how the boys lusted after Crystal and Jenni in an environment were nearly everyone was reasonably wealthy – but personality was important as well.

And while Jenni was just aloof and disinterested, Crystal had a nasty personality and was not gifted with the biggest of intellects in the world. Martine couldn’t stand her and was glad that she’d been paired up with Susan instead of Crystal when she’d been assigned her roommate. She had talked with Birgit a few times about the horror that Crystal was putting her through and damn, that was not pretty.

Yet no one did anything, not even Birgit. Martine would have complained, threatened and bullied her way out of that room a long time already, but maybe Birgit was not assertive enough to do just that. Or she might be too stubborn to give up. Birgit had a lot of pride, maybe she just did not want to admit that she was giving up.

Martine sighed and massaged her aching right arm. Shit, she hoped that she’d be able to sleep tonight, if at all. This didn’t really feel very good. She knew that she’d been playing like crazy later, why hadn’t she taken some more care with her RSI?

The door opened and revealed Susan with damp hair and a plastic bag in her hand. “Hi,” she said brightly, her cheeks flushed with the cold. “Did you know it is snowing?”

“Really?” Martine jumped up and rushed to the window. And indeed, she could see specks of white twirl through the air. It wasn’t much, but it was snow. “That’s great!” she exclaimed. “It’s been a while since we had snow for New Year.”

“Would have been more fun if it would have fallen for Christmas,” Suze said. She tossed her coat and shawl in the corner and began to stall out the food over the bed. “I hope you like what I got for you.”

Martine smiled. “I can smell it from over here. Deee-licious!”

“Am I in time?” Suze asked, indicating the television. She flopped down on the bed, thankfully taking care that she didn’t bounce the food off the bed though.

“We’re in the commercial break,” Martine said, sitting down next to her and picking up one of the boxes of food. “Nothing much has happened so far… I don’t expect much to happen either. The first episodes of the new season are usually not very interesting.”

“They were watching it downstairs as well,” Suze said just before she took her first bite.

“Who all is downstairs?”

“Nathalie, but she’s busy with the party… Julia came home together with me, I think she’s been exercising all day. Being around her always makes me feel lazy and inadequate. She’s so much more serious about sports than I am!”

Martine grinned. “And who else?” Man, they made her food spicy this time. She liked her spices, she definitely did, but this stuff was hot!

“Birgit and Carmen. I didn’t see Kayley or Jenni anywhere. They’re probably off together again.”

“You think they’ll be coming to the party?”

“Who knows,” Suze shrugged. “They’ve been doing their own thing since the beginning.”

She picked up her bottle of water that had been standing next to her when she was gaming and quickly drank nearly half of it. Ah, that was better! “I hope they will. With the rest of the dorm home for the holidays, it’s quiet enough around here as it is anyway.”

“I heard that some guys from Northeast would be joining us,” Suze said between bites.

Martine nodded. “At least that’s something. Oh, wait,” she waved with her fork in the direction of the television, “it’s beginning again.” Turning the volume higher, they both turned to the television.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, Lounge
6.57 pm - Nathalie

“About fucking time,” Nathalie grumbled as she made her way to the dinner table with her pizza.

The pizza boy had apologized profusely for his tardiness and claimed that it was very busy tonight with people ordering pizza all over the place because of New Year, but Nathalie did not really have the patience to deal with him politely. Any sense of politeness and friendliness had left her hours ago today. Well, at least the living room was nearly decorated now. The balloons and the streamers were hanging, all she needed to make sure was that the Christmas lights would be flickering instead of being their normal steady light source… the candles had to be lit, she had to drag the soundsystem downstairs and plug it next to the television… what else..?

Hell, she couldn’t think anymore. Behind her, the television was blaring with some sitcom that her beloved fellow students were watching, and she couldn’t concentrate on what needed to be done.

Someone had been cooking pasta in the kitchen and no one had done the dishes yet, but Nat would be damned if she’d clean it for them. Especially because she had not been offered a meal, while there /was/ some macaroni left and she had been slaving away for their party all day.

Behind her, the door of the stairhouse opened and Kayley entered the room. She heard footsteps approaching. “Oooh, pizza,” she said. “Nice. I think I’ll order some.”

“Don’t bother. It takes over an hour for them to show up,” Nathalie said glumly. “And the damn pizza is cold, too.”

“If you don’t want it, can I have it then?”

“No.”

Kayley laughed. “I figured so. Well, I guess I’ll go and see what’s in the kitchen, then.” As the other girl turned, a voice from the direction of the television suddenly rang out: “Yo Kayley! We still have some macaroni left. It’s a bit cold and dangy but if you microwave it, it should be still edible.”

It was Birgit, of course.

“Never mind Birgit, Kay, the macaroni is fine,” Julia’s melodical voice rang. The volume of the television was suddenly cranked down, so she could now speak in a normal matter. “She’s just jealous that I’m a better cook than she is.”

Giggling.

“Thanks gals,” Kayley said brightly. Nathalie could hear how she walked over to the kitchen and began to scrape the leftovers out of the pan and onto a plate. “Oh, there’s more than enough!”

Nathalie blinked her tears away and continued to eat her cold pizza.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, Lounge
7.01 pm - Kayley

“I hope you don’t mind me letting you sleep for a little while longer, Kayley,” Carmen said when she sat down on the couch next to the other girls. Her blue-green eyes were large with worry.

“That’s okay,” Kayley said. “I vaguely remind you trying to wake me up at some point.”

Carmen nodded. “You did not want to wake up and it seemed like you needed your rest, so I just let you lie.”

“Thanks. I feel a lot better now.” Kayley chewed on her first spoonful of macaroni. Well, that was not so bad. She’d tasted worse macaroni in her days, most of them prepared by herself. She was a bad cook and hated to prepare any kind of food. Besides, ever since March most food had tasted like ashes to her anyway. It wasn’t until lately that she had recovered her taste for food. And this was even halfway decent. “Not bad,” she commented.

“Thanks,” said Julia and stuck out her tongue at Birgit, who just shrugged and grinned.

“So, what did I miss?” asked Kayley.

“Natalie moping about and not touching any of our macaroni, even though there was more than enough,” Birgit said. She wrinkled her nose and leaned back on the couch. “She always gets intolerable when she’s organizing these parties.”

Kayley grinned. “I actually meant the TV. These episodes are from the new season, right?” She waved with her spoon in the general direction of the television, which was showing one of her favorite sitcoms.

“Yeah. They didn’t show much but flashbacks though,” Julia said. “I think they want to remind us of all that happened last season. So you didn’t miss much!”

“That’s good to hear.”

Silence fell again as Kayley ate her food and the other girls watched the television. For a while, the only interruption was Nathalie stalking past and slamming the door behind her as she went upstairs, until Birgit suddenly ventured: “Hey Kayley, is Jenni coming to the party tonight?”

She froze. Her spoon hung suspended in the air before her mouth for a few seconds. She blinked at it, and then put it in her mouth. She chewed vigorously on her macaroni to buy herself some time to regain her composure again. “Dunno,” she said eventually. “Why are you asking?”

“I thought you might know,” Birgit said. “I was thinking about doing my minor in German. She’s studying Foreign Languages, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she is.” She suddenly remembered what Jenni had answered on her question why the hell she’d study German of all languages in the world. Jenni had flashed that shit-eating grin of hers and had answered: /I guess I wanted to know what language we’d all speak if the second World War would have gone wrong. It’s a cool language though. Perfect for ordering people around./ Sometimes Jenni puzzled and appalled her, but that was one of the reasons why she felt so attracted to her lover.

“So are you two still together?” Julia asked curiously.

Kayley rolled her eyes and sighed. “Yes, I suppose we still are together, if you really want to know. Why do you gals keep asking for updates every week?”

“Because we’re interested, of course!” said Julia, while Birgit nodded enthusiastically.

“It’s fascinating. I think you’re the only lesbian I know,” Birgit added.

Kayley shot the goth girl a sharp look. “Who says I am a lesbian?”

“Oh, you aren’t?” Birgit’s normally so pale cheeks flushed with color of embarrassment. “Sorry.”

“I’ll have you know that my last lover was a guy called Jason. We were together for six months when we broke up.” Memories. Painful memories. Why did she have to say that? She didn’t exactly have to /share/ that information. Very stupid.

“Did you break up because you went to college?” Carmen asked.

“No.” It hurt too much to say more.

“You don’t want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Sorry,” Carmen said. She managed to look both a bit ashamed and worried, and hid behind long tresses of ashblond hair as she stared at her hands.

Kayley smiled a fake smile at her roommate to show that it was alright. “No worries.”

Carmen looked up and smiled that angelic smile back. “Okay.”

Birgit and Julia were exchanging a look that irritated her. When the hell did those two get so buddy-buddy anyway? As far as Kayley know, they barely even hung out together. They were not each other’s type. Even looking at their clothes said it all. Julia: dark-skinned, wearing her prissy hockey clothes, carefully make-upped and looking like the epitome of health and sportivity. And then Birgit: pale and drawn because of the blue-black dye in her hair, wearing black clothes and a ridiculous amount of kohl around her eyes. Kayley usually accented her eyes as well because she felt they were her strong point, but Birgit worked hard to give herself a gothic-like look. It happened all too often that she walked around in corsets and velvet black skirts, as well. Today it seemed as if she had not bothered with that.

“What’s up with you guys?”

“You’re weird sometimes, Kayley,” Birgit said, picking up a can of cola from the table. “Nice, but weird.”

“Look who’s talking,” Kayley retorted. Birgit smiled at her.

“So, are you looking forward to tonight?” Julia asked. She really /was/ in an unusually chatty mood tonight. Kayley noted that they had exchanged more words with each other tonight than they had in the past three months. Then again, she had usually kept herself rather aloof but polite from the whole room but Jenni and Carmen. Maybe it was time that she’d change that. She was feeling better these days.

“Yeah, it’s supposed to be fun, right?” Kayley nodded. “Now that my hangover is gone I feel like I can take on the whole world and party the night away. What about you?”

“Yeah, same here,” grinned Julia, “without the hangover, then. I’ve been training all afternoon so I feel all hyper and doped up on adrenaline now. I’ll probably collapse somewhere later tonight, but until then I’m with you.”

Birgit said: “Aimee has already collapsed, hasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she has. She was /so/ sick.”

“No shit. I know the French are supposed to have some kind of awesome resistance against wine but the amount that she was drinking, man that insane.”

“Anyone else would have been taken to a hospital,” Carmen agreed. “I heard you two in the toilets. It wasn’t pretty.”

“Tell me about it,” Kayley said. She’d had to take a shower afterwards. “Speaking of which, I’d better go check on her to see if she’s alright.” She pushed her plate away and got up. “Thanks for the pasta, girls. I’ll be right back.”

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, Lounge
8.16 pm – Birgit

The Lounge looked gorgeous. Finally, the last of the candles were lit, and together with the flickering of the Christmas lights the room was enveloped in a warm glow that looked almost intimate to Birgit. Nathalie had been stressing terribly the last hour, but in the end they had all given a hand in distributing the food to the dinner table, in strewing pillows everywhere, lighting the candles, making sure the Christmas tree was out of harm’s way for unsteady drunks, everything.

“Okay Nat, you /have/ worked a miracle,” Birgit said. She was standing with her hands on her hips in the middle of the L-formed Lounge and looked around in satisfaction.

A loud bang heralded the explosion of one of the balloons, which had obviously been hung too close to one of the candles. The assembled girls in the room had to laugh at that. “It sounds like a champagne cork popping,” Julia said and smiled. She was sitting on the edge of the dinner table, right next to the bucket with ice and white bubbly wine. “I bet it’s a sign.”

Birgit looked at Nathalie and was relieved to see a faint smile playing around the girl’s lips. Nat had been too damn tense all day long, she deserved some fun. “Yup, the sign is: Nathalie needs booze.”

“Oh, but the party’s not even started yet,” Nathalie protested.

“Time to get dressed then,” Birgit said. “You do want to look pretty for the guys, right?”

Birgit had already changed, of course. Tonight, she was not bothering with gowns – she had just changed into black silver-threaded jeans and a shimmery black top. There was enough silver around her neck and wrists that she made musical sounds if she walked, and she had deliberately dabbed bodyglitter around her eyes. She looked good and she knew it: Birgit was vain and she had spent quite some time admiring herself in the mirror. She thought that she looked good in black and silver, and in this light, no one would be arguing with her.

“Should I?” Nathalie hesitated for a moment. “I mean, I don’t have anything to wear and-“

“I’m sure you have something,” Birgit said. “Come on, prettify yourself. You need to have fun girl, otherwise New Year will suck and you spent all day stressing yourself out over a party that was going to suck ass for you anyway. So you’d better enjoy yourself now.” From the corner of her eye, she spotted Julia’s hand snaked around the bottle of white wine and she grinned: “Quick now, before Julia drinks all of the booze.”

“Hey!” Julia protested. “I was just feeling if it was chilled enough.”

“Right,” Nathalie rolled her eyes at the dark girl and then broke into a cheerful and sunny grin. She turned back to Birgit with an expression that was hard to define. Her face showed a mixture of disgust, resolve and happiness, but there was probably even more. Weird. But what she said was even weirder. “Birgit, for some reason that was just what I needed. I’ll see you in a bit.”

As she jogged out of the room and into the stair house, Birgit turned to the others: “Seriously, I don’t understand that girl. She’s a fucking mystery.”

“I think you just bullied her into a party mood,” Kayley said from the kitchen, where she was taking small pizza-rounds out of the oven. She gracefully danced out of the kitchen area and put the plate on the table. “That’s what I think.”

Birgit shrugged. “She was being way too heavy-mooded anyway. What the hell was her problem today? Party-stress?”

A gust of wind made the candles flicker. The girls turned around and saw auburn-haired Erin standing in the entrance door to the patio. “She was probably pissed off because her friend let her down,” Erin announced, stepping inside. She was accompanied by a few stray snowflakes that immediately melted as they touched the doormat.

“Close that damn door Erin,” Julia snapped. “Do you want us to freeze?” She clamped her hands around her upper arms in an attempt to hug herself, shivering. “Shit, it’s cold out there. Is it freezing?”

“I don’t know.” Erin obeyed Julia’s request and quickly closed the door behind her. She looked up with a grin as she took her woolen shawl off, shaking the snowflakes off. “It /is/ snowing, though.”

“Cool!” Kayley said. “I like snow.”

“So, how about we get this party started?” Julia proposed. She was sitting with the bottle of wine in her lap now and held the opener in her hand.

“Hold on for a bit,” Erin said. “I need to talk to Nathalie first, please.” She tore off her gloves, dropped them on the coat rack and zipped her coat loose. “She’s upstairs?”

“Yup,” Birgit said. She waved vaguely into the direction of the stairwell and watched Erin as she left wet footprints on the floor. “Wonder what those two have to talk about.”

Kayley came to stand next to her. She was lighting a cigarette and shrugged. “Didn’t you hear what Erin said? She let Nat down. I think she’s going to apologize.”

Birgit looked at the skinny girl with the white-dyed hair for a moment. Kayley was aware of her look and stared back quietly, meeting her stare calmly. Her dark eyes were completely serene, like a lake at night. /You’re one perceptive shit, aren’t you? You can see right through people./ It only lasted for a few heartbeats, enough for Kayley to inhale her smoke and exhale again, before she smiled an unreadable smile. “What is it?”

“I think you’re right,” Birgit nodded, as if nothing had passed in those few seconds. “Best to wait for them for a while, then.”

“Yeah,” Kayley agreed, sucking on her cigarette.

Birgit shrugged and turned to Julia, only to discover that she had already opened the wine and was pouring it into glasses. “Can I have one?” Birgit asked. Julia flashed her a grin and handed her a glass. “To the New Year’s party,” Julia said and winked.

“Cheers,” Birgit said, turning around so she could involve the whole room into her toast. Julia, Kayley, Carmen (who was sitting on the floor next to the stereo and was quietly sorting out cd’s), the Christmas tree, everyone. The others should be arriving soon, but this moment was theirs. The first sip of wine before the party started.

Of course, at that moment the door of the stairwell opened and revealed Suze and Martine, all dressed up fancily and ready to party. “Ta-dah!” Martine cried out, a huge grin plastered on her friendly face. “We’re here, so let’s get the party started!”

Suze flopped upon a dinner chair and picked up one of the wineglasses. “You were toasting, I presume?” she asked with a mischievous flicker in her blue eyes.

“Looking good, Susan,” Birgit couldn’t help saying. And even that was an understatement. Suze was wearing a white dress and had her honey-colored hair curled up elaborately. She was made up just as glittery as Birgit was, but somehow it looked a lot less excessive than it did on Birgit. /I’m just more extravagant than she is,/ Birgit told herself. /She’s just… stylish, I guess./

But then again, compared to Martine she looked good again. It wasn’t that Martine was ugly, oh no, far from that. But she was just… casual, or something. She was wearing jeans and a red babydoll. Her darkblond hair was made up in its usual messy bun, although her make-up did look pretty. Birgit suspected that Suze’d had a hand in that. Still, in all her casualty Martine still looked cute. /It’s just that I’m prettier/, Birgit thought with satisfaction.

“Thanks,” Suze smiled. She sipped from her white wine and looked absolutely stunning. “Have to be pretty for the boyfriend, right?”

“Oh, he’s going to be /all/ over you, Suze,” Julia assured her.

Another gust of wind and cold announced more newcomers. It was one, in this case. Birgit watched sadly as some candles fluttered and were extinguished by the wind. Before she looked at the door, she already knew who it was.

“Hi Crystal,” Suze waved at the girl in the doorway. “Are you going to join us tonight?”

/Please say no, please say no!/

Crystal barely gave them a look and went straight for the stairhouse. “No. I have phonecalls to make, and then I’m going out.” Reaching the door to the stairwell, she suddenly turned around and grinned over the collar of her bright-red jacket. “I just had the best fuck of my life. No /way/ I’m going to spend tonight with anyone but him.”

/There must be a god after all!/

Next to Birgit, Suze positively squealed. “Oh, who is it? Is it that new guy in Southeast?”

Crystal nodded. “Yup. I’ll tell you all about it in the morning. Now I just have some phonecalls to make.”

Birgit watched Crystal go and raised her glass at her roommate’s retreating back in a mock-toast. /Yay for Crystal’s new boyfriend,/ she thought, and grinned.

Friday 31 December
Northwest Dormitory, room 107
8.23 – Nathalie

Nathalie stood in front of the mirror and smoothed her skirt over her hips. Damn, she had been putting on weight again. How much was it? Five pounds? Too much, anyhow. Her hands tried to smooth the thin fabric but found the wrinkles returning. The fabric was stretching. “Goddammit,” she cursed. She bit on her lip and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Her black blouse looked pretty enough. She looked stylish in that. She had wanted to wear it with this black-and-white skirt, but it simply was not working. Her hips fucked it up. And her belly. Argh! Nathalie poked her belly angrily and sighed. She really needed to work on her weight. After New Year, she’d damn well sign up with a fitness school. Or she’d go swimming. Whatever. This was definitely not good.

She’d never been slender. Hell no, she just had this stocky built and she could live with that, that was okay. After all, her younger sister managed to look just stunning with it. But Nathalie, herself… she was nearly fifteen pounds overweight and she knew it. It did not help that she had never gotten over her teenage acne, either. Nat took a step towards the mirror and let her fingers trace the patterns in her skin. It was not that bad – it could have been much, much worse, she was all too aware of that – but it was just enough to let her skin loose that semblance of creaminess and flawlessness that she so envied on Suze or Jenni, for example. Even her roommate, Lisa, who was butt ugly and much more overweight than she was, had a more regular skin than she did.

She sighed and took off the skirt. She’d just have to resign to the fact that she would have to wear jeans tonight. Tough shit.

And so it happened that she was standing in only her blouse and a slip when Erin suddenly barged in, still in her thick coat and looking as if she’d just come from outside. “Nat… we need to talk.”

Nathalie reflexively held her jeans before her. “Christ, can’t you /knock/?” Then she remembered, and she added: “What the hell are you doing here anyway?”

Erin sat down on Lisa’s desk chair and peeled herself out of her coat. “I’m here to apologize.”

“Oh.” She just continued to put on her jeans and did not elaborate.

“So I’m sorry for not being there for you while I promised it.”

“Again.”

Erin shifted her weight a little and was obviously feeling very uncomfortable.

Nathalie kept quiet. She was not about to make this any easier on her friend. /Do you really think it would be that easy, Erin?/ she thought venomously. /Even Birgit did more than you, you bitch. She managed to make me forget my mood, and here you have to come barging in and dumping a half-hearted apology to me. Well, it doesn’t work like that, girl. I’d wish you had not come here at all./

“I’m sorry,” Erin said dumbly.

Nathalie turned her back to her friend and looked at herself in the mirror. That looked better. The jeans were blue and somewhat faded, but the cut of them was flattering to her thighs and hips, and they looked nice with the blouse. Good enough, she judged in those few short moments, waiting until Erin would elaborate.

No elaboration came. Nathalie gritted her teeth and turned back. “So where were you, then?”

Erin kept her hazel eyes downcast, as if the carpet held secrets the like of which the world had never seen before. “With Rens.”

“Gee, now /there’s/ a fucking surprise! Were you fucking your boyfriend again, Erin?” Nathalie heard her voice rise in exasperation and anger.

“That’s one way to put it,” Erin mumbled, looking up at Nat through her eyelashes.

“Seriously! I can’t /believe/ you!” Watch out, Ladies and Gentlemen. Cover your ears, shouting level has been reached. “What the fuck is /wrong/ with you, Erin? Seriously, I was really happy when you found yourself a boyfriend, and I still would be… Lawrence is a great guy and you’re lucky to have him, but aren’t you going a bit far now? There’s a whole fucking /world/ out there, Erin. And you’re fucking ignoring it.” Nathalie sighed deeply. “And me.”

When Erin did not answer but just continued that infuriating habit of studying the carpet, Nathalie continued, this time with her voice at much more moderate levels: “Seriously Erin, I’m not the jealous type. But you’ve been letting me down for ages now. You have appointments elsewhere, you cancel our dates, and sometimes you just willfully ignore them. What’s a girl supposed to think, Erin? You don’t want to be friends anymore? Fine. But /say/ it then, for god’s sake! At least then I can just curl up and sob miserably for the death of a great friendship until I’m ready to move on!”

Erin looked up now, her hazel eyes boring into Nathalie’s. “I /do/ want to remain friends,” she said passionately.

“Fucking weird way of showing it you got, then!”

“I didn’t mean it to end up this way, Nat,” Erin said. She wringed her hands and sighed tragically. “Seriously, I didn’t. I love you to bits and you’re like a sister to me. I don’t want to neglect you and I want to be your friend, really. I realized what I am doing this afternoon, and that’s why I’m here now to talk with you, Nat… I don’t want to end the year with the feeling that I’ve lost a friend. Tell me what I need to do to make it up to you, and I will.”

Nathalie took a step back and crossed her arms under her breasts. “You seriously think it’s that easy?”

“What else do you want?” Erin asked. She stood up from the desk chair and spread her hands in exasperation. “Tell me! You got my apology; I’ll do anything to make it up to you… what?”

“Okay, let me explain it to you… it’s just this vision I have. You make it up, we go for dinner together or something. And then, next time when I need you… I can’t find you. Or you cancel an appointment again, because you are too busy fucking Rens to be thinking of anything else. It’s all about priorities, Erin.”

“That won’t happen anymore.” Her voice had taken on a pleading note that for some reason tickled Nathalie’s irritation bone. “Seriously. I’m now realizing what I am doing, and I’m going to change my ways.”

“God, you sound like a drunk telling his wife that he’ll never drink again,” Nathalie said. She turned to her vanity and picked up the mascara. “You know Erin, I’m glad you came here. Really, it means something that you’ve come to apologize. But don’t expect me to fall into your arms and just forgive and forget everything you’ve done to me in the past few months. I don’t work like that. Call me skeptical, but that’s just me.” She looked at her friend through the reflection in the mirror and shrugged.

“Was your day that shitty?” asked Erin.

“Well, it doesn’t top the list of happiest days of my life, /that’s/ for sure.”

“Sorry.”

Nathalie lowered her mascara brush and rolled her eyes at her friend’s reflection. “How about you stop apologizing and start doing something about the situation?”

“Like what?”

“Like getting dressed for the party, maybe,” Nathalie smirked. “We’re scheduled to start in a bit and you’re still in jeans and sweater.”

Erin jumped up from her chair. “Oh, good point. I’ll see you downstairs, then.” She darted towards the door, only to turn around when she already had her hand on the door handle. “We’ll make tonight a party to remember forever,” she said, relief twinkling in her hazel eyes.

“We sure will,” Nathalie answered. She turned back to the mirror and finished her eye makeup. Damn right that this would be a night to remember. She had put too much energy in it not to let it be a success. And she would not be the one to ruin it, she vowed. She would just party and have fun, and close off this past year and celebrate the beginning of the next. It felt that with the unexpected appearance of Erin and her lame excuses the rest of the weight had lifted off her shoulders and she could finally relax again. For the first time today, she truly felt like partying.