It wasn’t that the dinner wasn’t fun, it was fine. Sure, it wasn’t the social event of the year but it was admittedly nice to have an evening dedicated to the Women of Broadripple supporting and celebrating one another in a wholesome manner. Even if Katherine, herself, wanted to kick the chair out from under some of those women, one of which happened to be Gwen Prescott.

Why did she have to look so fucking gorgeous when Kat felt like a pillowcase with makeup on it? She could only imagine just how giddy Damian had felt the moment he saw Gwen that evening, she wondered what sort of elaborate compliments he’d delivered her in his weird, formal manner, probably making Gwen’s heart swell in the process. He looked good too, great in fact. They were a perfect match and looked to Kat as if they should have been on a red carpet before dinner, rather than wandering through the grounds from the dormitory buildings just like she had. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to get the image of Gwen and Damian out of her head as she had done on many occasions since Gwen’s famous pool party. She was drawn away from envious thoughts, however, when a cool breeze chilled the bare skin of her arms and shoulders, making the top of her spine ache momentarily. Stupid dress. She didn’t own a white dress, she hardly owned any dresses in fact and she’d had to borrow one last minute. For a girl that mostly wore oversized shirts and knitted sweaters, she’d come to discover a little too late that her dress was too tight in places that made her want to cry, definitely too short for a girl her height and much, much too revealing for somebody who generally limited her skin exposure to her face and hands, occasionally her arms and midriff if the weather permitted. She felt like an idiot and by all accounts, she was pretty sure she looked like one too. This was one of the reasons, in addition to the fact that she had forgotten to submit a dietary requirement form to the catering team before the evening, that she was sitting alone outside, catching a breather before anybody noticed what a miserable time she was having. 

With a heavy sigh she scrolled her Instagram feed on a bench outside the dining hall she’d escaped from minutes beforehand, claiming that she was going to get another glass of water before she’d left the room entirely. Once she decided that her Instagram feed, full of smiling faces and adorable selfies from girls that were having an awesome night was just making her feel shittier, she set her phone down beside her as the screen went to sleep, leaving her in mostly darkness until the nearest door opened, light from the dining hall pouring out from behind the figure that emerged to join her.

Flick wasn’t particularly interested in spending the remainder of her evening in the depths of an awkward silence between her and Maggie, nor was she interested in attempting to maintain a conversation with the other girl. It was for this reason that she barely hesitated as soon as she’d been given the green light by Jay Foster, launching into a standing position from her mattress with a quick ta-ra! to the other girl before she was out the door.

She didn’t waste any time slinking across campus, well aware that the time she had before she was officially breaking school rules was severely limited. it took her more than a minute to get her bearings, still new to the art of sneaking around the expansive Broadripple campus without daylight to aid her. This was all very exciting really; not only did Flick have somebody to hang out with that hadn’t been entirely orchestrated by her cousin and to add to it, she was pretty sure Jay had drugs on him. If not, she thought, at least it was a bit of fun and a good opportunity to insight a little mischief either way. 

Arriving at what she had calculated as Jay Foster’s window, the exchange student peered inside and felt a sense of relief when she saw him laying on his bed, confirming that she hadn’t played peeping tom to some complete stranger in what could only be called as a sudden abortion of her navigational skills which would have been quite the tragedy for somebody whose family had made their name in seamanship.

“Hiya,” the senior chimed in a hushed tone as she delivered the surface of Jay’s window a light knock, hoping he’d address her arrival before one of the supervising staff did.

“- and then I didn’t want him to see my like-” there wasn’t a good way to put it, she had come to terms with that, “vomit, so I just kind of...I don’t, threw my body at him and like did this weird hug thing but like- I moved him away from the wall and it was really cringey and I keep picturing it, like if anybody saw that,” she shuddered at the perspective of a third party. It must have been unbearably embarrassing to watch play out.  “Anyway, that’s not the important part,” she paused at a very untimely moment to take a sip from her water bottle, perhaps gearing up for the revelation that she happened to think was monumental in nature. She set the water bottle back down on the grass and stretched her legs out in front of her, though her shoulders remained fairly rigid with irritation, “- then he’s like, he’s saying goodnight and I don’t know, I hope you sleep well or like, I hope you had a good time or something like that, I can’t remember but it was nice and then he sticks his hand out,” she flung her hand in the air in front of her, exaggeratedly mimicking the action, knocking the water bottle she had just put down in process, “Oops,” she chimed as she set it back upright, continuing as if nothing had happened a moment later, “-Like a handshake, like I’m at a fucking job interview or something,” she’d never been to a job interview before but she could imagine. “So yeah, I’ll start wearing a tie and carrying a briefcase every time I’m with him, I guess,” she tugged at her school tie as she spoke and then flung it over her shoulder but the fact that she was already wearing a tie almost every time she saw Damian had evidently gone right over her head. “-but I don’t care, it’s just dumb,” she clarified, tipping her chin to warm her cheeks while the sun was still out. Getting a tan was far more important than Damian Fitzgerald, Kat had decided, even if he did make it difficult for her to focus on anything else.

Kat: omg i accidentally made it sound like you were a big shot drug dealer or something?? i got into this whole breaking bad thing idk why i just felt like a bad ass

Kat: anyway this new kid has cash and needs weed...do you have any to pass off? or like anything?? he's willing to pay up big $$$

Felicity: Hope you've survived the week back

“Fucking hell am I glad to see you, lid” Flick announced gleefully without hesitation at the sight of Jay looking more like a drowned rat than the last time she’d seen him but still notably more appealing than at least half of the party’s population. She pawed at his arm without thinking much of it, they were pals now weren’t they? If not, the alcohol in her blood certainly made up for their lack of familiarity with one another,  “- Do they even have parties in Wisconsin? It’s like a load of Martians saw a party on the telly and thought ‘right, yeah, we can do that’ and then came up with this shite,” she said with a laugh as she looked around at the group of partygoers but didn’t see anybody she was particularly keen on dragging with them, though she decided to award Andrea a brief ‘sup nod of recognition due to their earlier escapades. “Shall we then?” she flicked her head in the direction of the door leading into the hallway, “I’ve got a half a bottle of Jack and I’ll bet you a round of shots at the local that you can’t finish it before we get there,”  she offered playfully, a cheeky smile on her face as she set the terms and conditions for their departure. 

Jay F. “Solid”

Chicago rapper Jay F. (formerly JFK) releases a new track. He’s been holding on to this one for a while and has decided to finally let it go.

http://koolthoughtsmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Solid-Final.mp3