Mimic

Chapter 15

Emily

I wake up to my phone going off. Kara's calling me.

"Hey," I answer, rubbing sleep out of my eyes.

"Hey! I figured you had fallen asleep," she says.

"Yeah. I took a nap accidentally."

"Well, naptime's over sleepyhead. I'm heading down to your room, and we're going to do something for your birthday!"

I mumble in response.

"You could at least feign some sort of excitement for me," she jokes.

I mumble again.

"I'll see you in a minute!"

A minute or two later, Kara knocks obnoxiously on the door. I roll out of the bed with a grumble and plod to the door. As soon as I turn the handle, she bursts into the room and launches into excited conversation that I'm not awake enough to understand.

"What?" I ask, once she's finished rambling.

"I'm taking you on a shopping spree," she simplifies.

"No, you're not," I answer, sitting back on my bed.

"Yes, I am. One, I'm your best friend, and I have a constant stream of income. Second, it's your birthday, you had a rough day yesterday, and you have a date tonight. I'm taking you somewhere to get your mind off it," she tells me defiantly, putting her hands on her hips.

"How did you—" I can't finish. How does she know about Michael?

"Liz told me," she says, her tone lightening some.

She gives me a second to let it soak in.

"You have a good roommate. She's going to watch out for you." She sits on the bed with me. "You're lucky. I know my first roommate was a disaster."

I chuckle slightly. She had told me about the roommate that hadn't cleaned the room nearly all semester. Kara cleaned her part of the room and let the other part get disgusting. She had said, "If she wants to live in a pigsty, she was more than welcome to."

"Oh, Emmy," she takes my hand, and I feel the wet heat on my face.

I quickly wipe the tears away and turn to face her. "Fine. Shopping spree."

"That's my girl," she says, putting her free hand on my cheek. "I'm going to make you look so good on this date," her tone turns back playful.

"You're only buying me a few things. I don't need a whole new wardrobe," I tell her definitively.

*** *** ***

Several stores and many purchases later, the question I was hoping Kara wouldn't ask gets brought up.

"So, what ability do you have?" she asks as we sit down to adjust all of the shopping bags we've accumulated.

I hesitate, not exactly sure what to say to her or even how much she already knows. She nods, catching on that I don't want to talk about it right now.

"Later?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm an Oracle, which is a fancy way of saying that I can see the future. I think I like my eyes better this way, actually. What do you think?" She turns so that I can see her eyes better.

I noticed her turquoise eyes when I first saw her here, but I hadn't had a chance to mention it yet, or even really think about it for that matter.