Rising Shards

Oka had most of her stuff unpacked. She didn’t have to actually pack anything in a box to bring stuff over at least, but the quick move meant a lot of haphazard piles, which she could tell Lillia did not approve of and would need to be taken care of as soon as possible. Even with that in mind, Oka was too upset about the move having to happen to bother with that right away. Lillia’s old roommate Elisa Burwell had the top bunk, which meant Oka had the top bunk now.   

“I go to sleep between 9:30pm and at latest 11:30pm on rare occasions when a gaming session goes late,” Lillia explained. “Even so, I will exercise extreme quietness in the event of that occurring, should you already be asleep. Are there any questions or concerns you have?”

Oka sighed and put her head in her pillow. “No, just. I miss…yeah.”

“Understandable,” Lillia said.

“But if I have to move, I am glad it’s with you,” Oka said.

“You are a significant upgrade over Elisa Burwell, that’s for certain,” Lillia said.

Oka at least got a few texts from Zeta before she went to sleep that made her feel slightly better. Thinking about Zeta being sad about the move made her feel slightly a lot worse. Lillia let Oka be alone with her thoughts, getting her noise cancelling headphones on to play a game while Oka stared at the ceiling. When that got old, she got out her phone and stared at pictures of Zeta, but that made her too sad. She needed something to ease into the night in her new room. Lillia’s headphones gave Oka an idea of her own; the phone Zeta bought her came with their own set of earbuds. She plugged them in and started searching her video apps.

Pajama Lara Buttonfelt and Trian the Train were easily available on free sites, but Oka had never had a real plot heavy show of her own to watch on a streaming app. Maybe having that will give me something else to think about. And kind of bookmark this point in my life? Something like that.

Zeta had given Oka her sister’s login for streaming apps. She’d already torn through SpyYasmey twice, and while a third run through was tempting, she was in the mood for something she hadn’t watched at all that night.

A thumbnail caught her eye for one show. It had two girls, one with long hair and one with short hair, looking like they were about to kiss.

They kinda look like Zeta and me.

The show was called Teensly Street, and seemed to be some kind of high school or college drama. It had a huge cast listing, comparable to Tower of Hate and Love.

The idea of having her own shows to watch was nice. Zeta showed her Tower of Hate and Love, and mentioned she’d already seen SpyYasmey. She hoped that she could find one show good enough that she could show Zeta to return the favor of getting her into Tower. Oka clicked play and hoped for the best.

Kalei stared at the text Lillia had sent to Nikki from her phone. She somehow walked all the way from the cold outdoor bench Lillia swiped her phone at back to her dorm room without bumping into anyone. And somehow managed to seem normal when Zeta and Oka returned. Them being super annoying about Oka having to move rooms helped hide the fear, excitement, joy, panic, etc. about what Lillia had sent Nikki. It was nighttime now, though. Zeta was asleep, Oka was a few rooms over. Kalei was alone with her phone with the single word sent to her crush.

“Hey :)”

“Oh my god,” Kalei whispered for about the fifteenth time to herself. “Why did she—”

She jolted as the typing bubbles appeared below.

Nikki saw the message. Nikki’s typing. Typing to me right now. Before that really sunk in, a message appeared.

“Hey :) yourself”

Kalei sat up in her bed. She blinked and read the message a few times. Should she respond right now? Nikki was up at least so why not? She’d been debating this all week. Lillia swiping her phone was kind of an ass move but it did free Kalei from that debate.

“Are you alright???” Kalei texted.

“Yeah dude all good here”

Kalei fell back in bed. Why was Zeta asleep right now? Then again, what would she even ask her for outside of support?

“Like for sure youre good?” Kalei texted.

“It’s still a school at the end of the day, a stupid school with bad morals but they can’t make me do anything I don’t want to. So I’ve been just tuning out any of the Endoran and Terina crap they shovel here.”

“man.” Kalei wasn’t sure what else to say. There was a lot she wanted to say. She wanted to ask Nikki about all sorts of things. But she couldn’t articulate a lot of it. Hell, I’m still not fully there on the me liking girls realizing thing. I’m such a mess.

Then Nikki’s next text made a lot of those confusing feelings explode out all at once, like she’d fallen into a vat of really fizzy soda that was also on fire.

“You know what really helps so far? Thinking about you.”

Kalei basically just keysmashed for a while but didn’t form any words worth sending, and kept deleting it over and over. Nikki sent another message while she was lost in keysmash limbo.

“Hey so I was thinking like they cant stop us from hanging out and stuff. Im just at a different school, it’s not a prison. Its prisonesque but yeah. So I got a show coming up, you interested?”

It only just hit Kalei that she was talking to Nikki again, and now she wanted to hang out? She was tempted to risk waking Zeta up by screaming into a pillow.

“What kind of a show? You do magic tricks?” Kalei was very proud of that one. And luckily, the response made her even more proud.

“ha. Good one. And its a concert!”

“Your in like a for real band???” Kalei texted.

“Im in like 3 hahahaha this one’s like second best but youd still have a good time :)”

Now it felt like someone punched her in her gut but with sparkles. It was a sickening feeling, but also a triumphant one. In the middle of the night, with the only light coming from her cell phone, that smiley face from Nikki confirmed that no matter where Kalei was at in her self-actualization, she knew that she one hundred percent had a crush on this girl. It was weirdly comforting. She didn’t know what label to put on herself, that was a whole other bag. But she definitely had feelings for Nikki that she could admit to herself. In addition to comforting, it also made her feel more like herself. It helped texting Nikki as well. In person Kalei’s normal quick wit and rapid jokes-per-minute rate were debuffed by Nikki’s mere presence. Typing it out, she could get a hold of herself a little better.

“hell yes dude. Name the date and I’ll be there.”