FEMALE DORM

5TH FLOOR HALLWAY

ROOM G5AB

Of all people to be exiting her dorm room at 3 in the morning, Trent wasn't even on that list. But alas, here he was. Max was more than surprised to catch the gloomy male at the entrance just as he closed the door of the room behind himself. The slight dip in expression at being caught didn't go unnoticed by the brunette. "Should I even ask?"

He gave a dismissive look, his words stern. "Max. Don't"

She shrugged in surrender. Max was sure that Trent wasn't going to give her answers, but her dear roommate cannot escape her interrogation.

"When are you going to tell her, Trent?"

Her words paused him. He knew exactly what she was referring to but he just couldn't bring himself to. With a cold voice, he warned,

"Max"

"You can't keep lying to yourself, you know. She will find out one day"

With a silent goodbye, the male quickly excused himself, hoping not to run away from the discussion and not into any other female on his way out.

The sight of the fast-asleep girl greeted Max as she entered her shared room. The interrogation would have to be shifted to the morning.

Quietly, she strolls to her side of the room surrounded by books on the built-in wall shelf. Flopping unto her bed, she makes room for herself, pushing away littering books. As her head hits her pillow, the memory of the last hour floats into her head, a smile etching unto her face with a green jacket in her arms.

"Bridget Ponds...I think I'll have you around for longer" She thinks to herself, her finger grazing over her lips.

**************************

Elise POV

"Eli... wake up"

A distant voice reached my subconscious but I pushed it out. I'm too sleepy to come back to reality.

"Five minutes more"

Even with my one-sided negotiation, the voice persisted, gradually getting louder until it pulled me out of my dream state, a headache accompanying me. A grumble escapes my lip, my hands set to rubbing sleep from my eyes to take a glance as to who spoilt my wonderful dream.

I groaned into my pillow. "Max... why?"

"Why what?"

I let out a yawn, pushing myself up into a seating position, a black fabric falling into my lap.

"Why did you have to wake me up? There is no lesson today and my head hurts".

Despite my grogginess, I could remember that we were given the day after the ball as a free day to recuperate. It was quite predictable that no one would be in good shape for classes after a full night of partying.

"Elise Redfox, it's–", she steals a quick glance at the wall clock, "2:13 pm in the afternoon. The day is almost over!"

And here I thought it was around like 6pm or something. The day is too bright. I wanna sleep more.

"I have at least 10 more hours before the day is over"

Max pulled the blanket off me, leaving my legs exposed to the coldness of the room. She was clearly getting fed up by my witty words to defend my laziness.

"To be precise, 9 hours and 47 minutes. Besides the point, don't you even think about going back to sleep"

Feeling more awake, my eyes took in Max's appearance. Opting for the school's play wear, a black zipper cardigan with matching long pants, she completed this laid back style with navy blue crocs.

Successful in waking me, Max walked back to her corner of the room, shuffling through her collection of books.

"By the way, why did you fall asleep in your dress?", a hint of usual monotone in her voice.

Her mention of that called my attention to my own appearance. I was still wearing my white dress from last night, which was unlike me. Inspecting the black clothing resting on my lap, I discovered that it was a coat. It was however too large for either Max or I.

"Max, this coat doesn't belong to me"

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Max, still engrossed in her search, took a moment of silence before responding, "A coat? It could be for Trent"

"Trent? Why would it be with me then?" I felt confused at her response. The correlation between me and the coat wasn't adding up in my brain.

"Well, he might have left it behind. He was here–"

Max's attention broke, gasping at the realization that she wasn't sure if she should have spoken about Trent's presence in their room the previous night.

"He was here?! Why? What was he looking for? I don't remember him coming" That took me by surprise. What could have made Trent come into our room?

"You don't remember? Elise, what do you remember from last night?" Max asked curiously, giving her attention to me, while adjusting her glasses further up the bridge of her nose.

I found myself searching through my file of memories for the events of last night but most of them were a blur. The hours between waiting for Trent at the table and waking up a few minutes ago was clouded. I couldn't bring myself to clearly remember.

"I remember waiting for Trent at our table and having a cup of some weird juice. I think I remember dancing at some point"

"Weird juice?", she steps down the ladder of her shelves.

"Yeah, it was on our table. It tasted nice but it had a burning feeling in my throat" My hands played with the buttons on the coat, instinctively. The cup which I assumed belonged to Trent. Hence why I saw no harm in taking the contents.

"Burning feeling... Eli, you drank alcohol. That would explain the memory loss and the headache" Max solved the riddle of my predicament, stepping away from her mountain of books.

"Alcohol? I have never had that before. I practically downed the whole cup"

My first encounter with booze and it wasn't even intentional. The memory of me downing it made me chuckle.

Her voiced bellowed, the shocked expression of her face scared me, "At once?"

"Yeah..." I sheepishly replied.

Max let out a sigh before walking up to me with a glass of water.

"Drink this, it should help a bit. We also need to get food into your body"

Knowing better than to argue, I took the glass out of her hand, whispered a quick thank you and drank the whole cup of water. The question of Trent's mission in our room nagged at the back of my mind.

"Do you know why Trent came into our room?", I asked, wiping my mouth clean with the lace of my sleeve.

"I don't have an answer to that. He was leaving when I got to the door. You would have to ask him yourself"

"Okay, I will" For some reason, I believe that Trent had the key to unlocking my blurred memories of the previous night. I just have to swallow my pride and ask him, also return back his property.

My tummy rumbled at that moment, "But first, I need to eat something. I'm starving. I'll quickly take a bath and we can go, okay?"

"Hmm"

Max replied in affirmation, balanced on the ladder attached to the shelves, fixated on her book search.

*********************

"I want to assume last night was quite eventful from the look on your face"

Hannah's pale cheeks turned red in response, her eyes shyly roamed around.

I shared a mischievous look with Max who was walking to my right, before both our eyes fell on the blonde to my left. Since our unplanned meeting on our hallway with Hannah on our way to the cafeteria, she has had an exhausted look. The faint bruises on her neck that she tried to hide with her goodies already caught my eye, and Max's also.

"That obvious?"

With a finger I tapped the side of my neck, pointing out her bruise. Her eyes widening at realization.

"That Ghoul! I told him–"

I cut her off quickly before she goes into a ramble of details.

"Hannah stop! I really don't want a mental picture of you and Senza's extracurricular activities. Seeing your public display of affection is torture enough"

I shake away any probing thoughts about those two. I don't even want to imagine what happened last night.

"Eli, it is not torture. By the wayyy, I wasn't going to spill details of our hot and spicy night", she whispered the last part of her words sexily, her hands gliding down mine. I shrieked away from her, clutching unto Max.

"Max, please knock me out with your book"

Without hesitation, she agreed, "Gladly"

My eyes bulged out and I stopped the brunette's hand midair before it came down on me.

"Wait! I'm just joking. No need to get physical"

Max smirked, casting a glance at Hannah who had a big smile on her face. The blonde added,

"I know one person who would love to see such violence"

My eyebrows furrowed together as I thought about the short list of people that have a vendetta against me.

"Who? Trent?"

"Bri. What does Trent have to do with this conversation? You both barely even speak to each other. Speaking of boys, I saw you and Samuel talking last night. Are you guys getting back together or what?"

Hannah wasn't aware of I and the white-haired boy's frequent interactions. I also wasn't aware that my interaction with Samuel was seen. A glance at Max and I realized my mistake. She held a surprised but questioning look at me, unaware of what Hannah revealed. The whole Trent issue caused that piece of information to skip my mind. I forgot to tell Max about my encounter with him.

Quickly, I cleared every hint of rumor

"No, we aren't. He asked if we could at least be friends"

Max looked unconvinced for some reason, her eyes motioning me to continue while Hannah said the words, "And?"

And?

"What did you say to that? Did you agree?", her voice laced with interest.

"I mean...yeah. What else was I supposed to say to him after all that had happened. I decided to let the past be the past. We can try to be friends"

I tried to sound convincing enough, not to them but to myself. Our legs took us into a rather empty hall room, the smell of pastries welcomed us. Before long, our trays were filled and we were seated enjoying the delicacies.

"Any idea what room Trent is in?"

"Why? Did he do something to you?" Hannah's bright blue eyes looked at me in question.

I dusted crumbs off my fingertips before lifting the black cloth up, solidifying my answer.

"I want to return his jacket to him" and talk to him about last night. The last part, more to myself. Hannah can be quite inquisitive, I can't have her digging for more information than necessary.

"That's right beside Senza's. Although, I don't know the exact room number. If I remember correctly, he should be Tome's roommate. I could take you there if you don't mind "

I knew I could count on her for such types of things. Her extroverted personality allows for bits and pieces of various information to be available to her. A brief glimpse of an unreadable expression passes through Max's face.

"Hannah, you are a lifesaver"

Max cuts in, a smug look on her face, "Or she just wants an excuse to go to Senza's room"

"Max! That's not true. I want to help our dear Eli here". She hugs my head close to hers, cooing and patting the side of my head.

Our inquisitive eyes simultaneous turn towards her, "Are you coming with us?"

"No. You two go without me", she said dismissively, her hands pushing around the food on her plate.

"Okay"

..........