Devil's Plaything

Suspicious Alibis

Mira's daydreams were more upsetting than her nightmares. She had finally gotten a blissfully dreamless night of sleep, only to spend the entire day trying to prevent her mind from wandering to places it shouldn't. She tried to distract herself from worrying about Aiden by thinking about something happy, which inexplicably made her think of Noah. Then, she would try to escape those dangerous Noah-thoughts by focusing on something else, and her mind would then inevitably return to Aiden. 

She couldn't spend too much time by herself today. She couldn't take another minute of glancing over at her phone to see if she had a new text message, getting angry with herself for wanting to talk to Noah, or obsessively using Chloraseptic on her still-sore throat. So, she had proposed to Sam and Charlie that they meet at their spot in the library to do more research after her Physics II class. She had originally thought about proposing that they all just hang out, but she wasn't sure if that was a good idea. The three had obviously become friends, but Mira worried that if they met up in a casual setting, they would realize that they didn't actually have a lot in common. She feared that would prompt Sam and Charlie to decide that Mira wasn't worth helping.

She felt guilty for these likely-irrational thoughts when she saw her two friends waiting for her in front of the library entrance. Sam was laughing at something that Charlie had just said, and the sight of them getting along brought a smile to Mira's face. Sam grinned when he spotted her, and Charlie gave her a cordial nod.

"Ready for battle?" Charlie asked, removing a pen from her pocket and clicking it on. Sam laughed again, and Mira glanced between the two uncertainly. "The pen is mightier than the sword, get it?" Charlie confirmed, looking disappointed that her joke had flown over Mira's head.

Mira nodded. "Yes, that's funny." Her voice was unconvincing.

Sam slowed his laughter. "You had to be there when we were talking about it earlier for it to be actually funny."

"You guys were hanging out?" she asked, surprised. It wasn't as if the two still disliked each other, but she hadn't known that they had become good enough friends to spend time together outside of their trio.

Sam shrugged. "You had class, and we were hungry. We ate at the dining hall together." His tone was light, his demeanor at ease. Not only were he and Charlie just becoming friends, they were growing close.

A too-enthused smile overtook Mira's lips. "That's great!" she exclaimed, reaching up to squeeze Sam's shoulder with her hand. As she realized she may be behaving embarrassingly, her hand froze awkwardly just before she made physical contact with him. She settled for a light pat that was probably worse but grinned fondly at her regardless.

Charlie gave them an obvious once-over and turned to enter the library. Mira followed shortly after her and was disappointed to be faced with the bitter librarian again almost immediately as she walked in. The woman was perched on her oversized chair at the circulation desk, smiling pleasantly at Charlie. As soon as her gaze landed on Mira, she shook her head and pretended that she was suddenly very busy sorting through books.

"Why does that lady hate you so much?" Sam whispered as they made their way further into the stacks.

Charlie turned to them with a mischievous expression. "She thinks Mira is part of a cult."

Mira felt a blush creep up and tried her best to play it off. She knew she cared too much what people thought about her, and she didn't want that bad quality of hers to be so obvious. "How do you know that?" she asked.

Charlie stopped at the same table she always seemed to choose and removed her backpack. "Susan and I go way back," she said secretively. "She's worried you're going to turn me to the devil." She sat down, leveling her amused gaze at Sam and Mira. "She's not that far off, really."