Nightlife ✓

19 | invite

RILEY AND SOPHIE WERE CURLED up on the couch together when I came back to the dormitory.

After I stepped out of the elevator, into the common room, I let out an unrestrained yawn and collapsed on the couch next to them. Wednesdays sucked.

I had come home from my Histology midterm test, which started after lectures finished for the day. I had just enough time to catch the dinner service at the dining hall, but now my full stomach was making me sleepy—when I was supposed to revise for my Biochemistry and Toxicology tests tomorrow.

"Rough day?" Riley asked me sympathetically.

"Not any rougher than usual," I yawned again, rubbing the blurriness out of my eyes. "I cannot wait for midterms to be over. I cannot wait for fall break."

She looked up from the TV screen, eyes sliding over to me. "You're here for the first weekend of it, right?"

"Yep. I fly to New York on the first Tuesday," I told her. There was a calculating glint in her caramel irises, and I pushed myself up higher on the couch. "Wait. Why are you asking?"

Sophie chuckled at my defensiveness, while Riley suddenly looked sheepish. She cleared her throat and pushed her glasses more securely onto her nose with her index finger.

"You remember Callum, right? He is hosting a Halloween party at his flat, and he's invited pretty much every person he knows, with a plus one," she informed me. "We'll go to SciBall on Friday, and Callum's on Saturday."

I did remember Callum. He was Quen's friendly bandmate, who seemed to immediately notice that I fancied Quen when he first met me. He helped me sneak into one of their symphonic orchestra rehearsals when Quen was too insecure to invite me himself.

"We were thinking we could bring you and Vivian," Sophie suggested. At my immediate look of aversion, she explained, "It won't be awkward, especially since Callum knows you already."

Upon hearing that, Riley's gaze flickered over to me. I knew we were thinking about the same day. The day of theorising about Quen and the day I decided to let go. I had only mentioned Callum in passing, a detail was woven into a longer, larger rant about Quen. The moment when I tagged along to their pep band rehearsal was just one thread within the tapestry.

I had been surprised to learn that she and Callum were in somewhat the same social circles. They seemed so different. She was calm and bookish and Callum was, in her words exactly, the annoying drummer.

But they—Quen, Riley, Callum—were all connected through Sophie, who I got the impression was a force of nature when she wanted something. Her wide, brown eyes stared at me; that mixture of expectation and hope made me feel guilty at even the thought of declining the invitation.

"We met exactly once," I said carefully, emphasising the non-existent friendship between Callum and me. Sure, he was nice and funny, but I didn't go to parties at strangers' houses anymore. "I don't really know anything about him."

"We're pretty much the outsiders with all his college friends," Sophie muttered. "There'll be like four Carsonvillers excluding the host, and forty others. I'd appreciate more people I know there, you know?"

I felt for her. I knew how it felt to be singled out among a crowd, but in my case I couldn't complain because it was my job. I nodded, "I understand, but—"

Riley suddenly perked up and announced, "Four people? So Zoe is one. She messaged me the other day asking about what I was bringing to drink."

Sophie counted to three on her fingers, saying, "You and I make three."