Thalia reiterated that she had not been drinking, but Desdémona pressed her until she eventually confessed. I knew it! She thought, but then struggled to digest the whole of her dialogue.
“So, you decided to quit drinking, but you had a few drinks, but you didn’t get drunk? Forgive me if I’m wrong but… that doesn’t really make sense.” Mona spoke the words, but they did not convey passive aggression, only her raw thoughts. It was simply a pet of her demeanor.
“Inessa Duman? I think you’ve mentioned her. She’s tied to someone else you know somehow, I just can’t place it.” Desdemona thought aloud, trying to remember where else she might have heard that last name. Vaguely, her mind saw an image of the prior night’s drunken speech by some other student… but Mona moved past it. At least Thalia hadn’t drank as much as he did, that was for sure. But noooo… who was the person she thought of?
Then again there was that evening over the past summer when Thalia told Mona about that boy she liked over poolside snacks. Thalia was wearing a cute yellow bikini, and Mona wore a red and white pinstripe one-piece, eating slices of watermelon with Tajin, their feet swaying in the water as they sat on the edge. Back then, they had only met a few weeks prior, so when Thalia talked about her love interests, Mona giggled, rooting for the love story to end with a happily ever after. Nowadays, Thalia would talk about her day, and Mona’s eyes would trail down to her lips.
Desdemona wondered what house that guy belonged to, and who it was that tied to Inessa. Her fragmented visions indicated at him, but she did not know whether to believe it. Mona’s magic, especially after the prior night, was especially weak. And when her magic was weak, her mind tended to craft false illusions. Either way, it wasn’t that important, not at all, so she moved on.
“But I didn’t see you anywhere, I didn’t know you came, where where you?” Thalia questioned, curious to see who Desdemona was with if anybody at all. There was a reason such a thing was of special interest to Thalia, and It was due to the fact that Thalia did not really know if Desdemona was really close to anyone else besides Thalia. Sure, Thalia saw Desdemona interact with people occasionally, greeting them with friendly smile and way too friendly hugs but that was just because Desdemona was Desdemona, not because she was necessarily friends with them- though in Desdemona’s mind she probably already considered them friends. “Who were you with?” Thalia changed the way she asked her questions, to hopefully make it more understandable.
“I saw a lot people!” She assured her with gentle enthusiasm. “I wasn’t with anyone specifically, but first I met Raven, who is this nice but scary girl in quantum. I think she’s probably someone it’s safer to be nice to,” Mona shared. Even though Raven had not behaved very outwardly intimidating, she had that look in her eyes that made even Mona a bit nervous. “And then I met Atlas, who was very nice, and very strange, and his not-girlfriend Esther. Did you see that girl that fainted? That was her, and I intervened to see if I could help her.” Desdemona, within this very covert conversation, did not really think much about her words as she said them. Her thoughts happened as she said them.
“She disappeared right after, but I think I healed her!” She said with a bit of pride, even though she knew she most likely shouldn’t use her healing powers on just anyone. They were meant to be targeted, and only used in emergencies, she knew that. But just as easily as she agreed to please her parents by following their rules, she tried to please everyone else, too.
“He told me their whole love story too, I think. Some of it was really crazy!” She moved on, not wanting to necessarily retell the whole thing when other people could hear, and she had already revealed his name. It was a bit perplexing how Desdemona had a sense of propriety in that way, and that way only.
“But of course I went!” She trailed back to what Thalia said earlier. “I was looking for you, but, you know. I didn’t want to intrude on any of your other plans,” Desdemona said in a low voice. “I just went mostly because Mom and Dad said I had to last minute.”
Mona considered objecting to Thalia’s changing of the subject, but then she asked another question, and the girl just went along with it. “It’s been good,” she replied. “I’m excited for classes! And I decorated my dorm already, the green of my room doesn’t really go with Cipher’s purple theme but I like it anyway. I don’t feel nervous because of school at all! Though, I guess maybe I’m nervous about how my magic is going to work today… I really strained myself last night…”
Desdémona tilted her head down, and did her best to shut out thoughts of the fire. A part of her wished she knew what it meant, but the rest of her was too scared to find out.
To her surprise, Thalia seemed quite against Kiki’s presence at the school. Unfortunately, Desdemona had not quite developed the theory of mind to understand that most people would disagree with that decision, so she was a bit hurt. She decided to answer the girls question about her parents, but no longer did she feel as comfortable as she was speaking in her usual junction of words. At least she didn’t make any mean commentary on them not being her actual parents.
“They don’t like lizards. They weren’t going to take care of her.” She said a bit sadly. Desdémona never actually asked them if they would, but she assumed it by herself, because if their concerns didn’t involve her, there was even less of a chance that they involved her pets. They preferred something else, someone they actually cared about and she couldn’t blame them, there was a reason she could not compete.
In the cafeteria, Thalia explained how they retrieved breakfast from the Wyndham cafeteria; and then smiled at her as they kept talking. For a second, it was fulfilling but she still thought about the girl’s concern about Kiki. She felt like she had broken a rule by bringing the little creature, and that maybe she was being too much to handle in that moment. Sometimes that would happen over the summer, too, when Desdémona asked too many questions and Thalia’s tone grew lazier as she answered them. She figured perhaps she would have to reduce her energy levels here, become a new version of herself at college.
Mona rushed her to the kitchen, where she began to prefer her own breakfast, but when she offered it to Thalia, the girl practically jumped back, furthering Desdemona’s belief that she was bothering her. She was hit with by a pang of self-consciousness, but then Thalia explained herself and it all made sense. Desdémona immediately put the toast back on her plate, and then set the plate on the counter so it would not be too close to them. She had not specified the reason for her intolerance to the texture, but Desdémona knew what she meant. She wished she could do something more about that, but she just had to help to the extent that she could.
“Sorry,” she apologized with the pink stain on the corner of her lips. She expected Thalia to say it was alright, or minimize it or something, but instead she came closer, and Desdémona felt her heart rate accelerate, her cheeks flushing another pink hue. There was a soft look in her eyes when Mona saw them, and the tissues neared her mouth. Following her lead, she dropped her bottom lip slightly down for her to get the spot.
Her nose was wrinkled when she approached Mona, showing how she didn’t want to touch the purple stain. But still, she ignored her distaste, just for her.
Thalia stepped back, and the girlish smile on Desdemona’s face reappeared, preserving a bit of her hope that Thalia and the others at school would get along with her just fine.
Thalia smiled too, which made her smile more.
'There, all clean." Thalia said, her smile growing wider. Now, let’s go meet Kiki, shall we?”
“Okay!” Mona replied happily, and she took her hand assertively to lead the girl to her room.
In slooshy little steps, Kiki approached the girls, and Thalia extended her hand to feed the bearded dragon herself. Desdémona placed a hand on her heart, and scrunched her nose watching the sweet moment, but Kiki had other plans. While she waited for Thalia to set the berry down, Kiki swiftly stole the blueberry away with her tongue, which was a motion that Mona had tried to train her to do with Mona only, because some people were freaked out by it.
“Kiki!” She reprimanded the lizard. “That’s not nice!” And instinctively, she picked the thing up and placed her to rest on her palm, then went to the bathroom, lowering her hand for Kiki to crawl onto the floor. “Go play,” said Mona before closing the door, indicative that Kiki also had a source of entertainment in the bathroom, specifically a small assortment of plants and pebbles. After the wood shut, she said a bit louder, “I will let you out soon! Guests are over right now!”
Then, she sweetly turned around to face Thalia again. “I’m sorry about her, her manners are usually better,” Desdemona stated with a tone that she meant to sound serious, but most likely came of as quite innocent. She knew it was when she looked at Thalia, and Thalia looked back at her, neither of them knowing what to add to that dialogue before Mona chuckled.
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