om_main | Dana and Kitty, Monday Night

Kitty laments the scene she made with Arthur, confessing her embarrassment to her roommate. The talk devolves into talk of boys, aliens, and costumes.

This was the best kind of afternoon. Reading in comfort always was. She was in cut-off shorts and a t-shirt, on her stomach, ankles crossed and up in the air as she flipped through the pages of her new book on Einstein. She hoped she could do something so impactful some day.

Of course, before she did, she needed another soda and she hopped up to grab one from her desk. And that was the soda she nearly spilled when her roommate's head appeared through the door.

Kitty ran straight through the door and past her roommate, turning solid on the way by so that the breeze fluffed Dana's hair. She tossed herself onto her bed with a low groan and buried her face in her pillow. "Ugh. I am so, so, so stupid!"

Dana blinked for a moment, and then turned to face the other girl. "That doesn't sound like you. What happened?"

The response was muffled, but audible. "I made a complete fool of myself, that's what! I...liked this guy and he's with someone else but I got all blubbery with him and asked him to dance with me at the party and he's going to figure out if he doesn't know already, ugh, he's going to think I'm a total moron!"

Ouch. Yeah, that sounded rough. Not that Dana had a whole lot of experience with it - not because she never liked anyone, but because they'd never lived anywhere long enough for the guy to find out. Despite her siblings' best efforts.

"That doesn't make you stupid," she pointed out. Because it didn't. If Kitty hadn't noticed, it probably hadn't been all that obvious.

Kitty turned her head to rest her cheek on the pillow, watching Dana from beneath the messy fall of her hair. "He wants me to go to the Halloween party, but how can I go? Everyone has a date! I'll just be standing by myself in the corner like some freak."

"I don't have a date," Dana pointed out. Like anyone would ever ask her on one. Missy called her Minnesota flats; it had been all the more insulting since it wasn't like they'd ever lived there. Her sister had done research in able to tease her.

She sat on her bed and crossed her legs, criss-cross style. "Besides, we don't need dates to go to the Halloween party. It's for everyone."

Pushing up on an elbow, Kitty peered across at her. "I thought you said you were going with Fox."

Dana shrugged a little. "We're going as friends. It's not a date." Yeah, like Fox Mulder would ever ask her out on a date. The idea of him doing that was actually kind of funny, really. It didn't sound like something in his wheelhouse.

Kitty's lips twitched. "Uhm. Doesn't going to a party together constitute a date? I'm pretty sure that's like the first thing I learned from Gossip Girl."

"I'm pretty sure Mulder doesn't know what a date even is," Dana said dryly, trying to hide any hint that she might care either way. Because she didn't. Mostly. "You can come with us and see for yourself."

"Oh, come on!" Kitty protested. "He took you on a road trip with him to a state like, hundreds of miles away!"

"We went on a bus to go see some lights that he thinks have to do with extraterrestrials," the redhead clarified. "It wasn't a trip down there to spend some time at a B&B or something."

Which Dana would never do. Spend a weekend at some hotel with a guy, that was.

Kitty peered at her closely. "Are you blushing?"

If she hadn't been, she definitely was once the accusation had been leveled. Damn it, why did she have to be a redhead? Fair skin, quick to blush and really tough to hide. Plus it clashed with her hair. "No," she protested, even as she felt her face grow warmer.

"You are!" Kitty gasped, grinning and forgetting her encounter with Arthur entirely for the moment. "What did you guys do out there?!"

The response just made it worse, her face could probably be used to cook eggs. Which, of course, Dana knew would just make the response that much worse in turn. It was a terrible Catch-22. "Nothing! We camped out," sort of. They'd sat on the ground outside, anyway. "We watched some lights. We argued over what their cause was. We came home."

Kitty just grinned at her knowingly. "You camped out in the woods with him and watched the stars."

Dana rolled her eyes. "Debating whether some moving lights on a hill could be caused by methane gas isn't really the same as 'watching the stars.'" Actually, it sounded less boring than watching the stars, even though she knew that star-gazing was supposed to be romantic.

"Whoa," Kitty blinked. "You actually saw moving lights?"

The other girl nodded. "Yeah. We actually saw moving lights. I still don't think they are caused by aliens."

"And I still don't think you guys know the definition of 'just as friends,'" Kitty grinned.

"Don't be ridiculous," Dana said primly. "Mulder and I are friends, colleagues maybe. But it's not like...a thing. We don't sit around holding hands and stuff."

Kitty's grinned back at her. "Uh huh."

Stupid albino-pale redhead skin. "Well, you can come with us and find out for yourself," Dana said evenly, tossing her bright hair over her shoulder. "You are going, right?"

The grin faded and Kitty huffed a soft sigh. "Do I have to?"

"Well, I wasn't planning on having to bring you at gunpoint, but if that's what it will take," Dana said, completely deadpan.

Kitty stuck her tongue out at her. "I could just phase. Guns don't scare me."

Dana shook her head, bright red hair swinging about her shoulders. "You aren't seriously thinking not to go just because of some guy or not having a date or something?"

Sighing, Kitty glanced down. "I guess not, but it's not the same. Not like having someone there with me. Everyone will have someone to dance with, and I'll be stuck fidgeting on the edge of the crowd, just like last time."

"If you want to dance, I'm sure people will dance with you." Dana was 100% sure about that. For one thing, a lot of the guys here seemed like they'd been taught to be polite. For another, Kitty was awesome. Besides, dancing didn't require exclusivity or anything. "And I'll be fidgeting at the edge of the crowd, too. So you won't exactly be alone."

Kitty frowned at her. "You're going to dance with Fox, aren't you?"

"Yes. But he also fidgets at the edge of the crowd."

Kitty smiled a little, then sighed. "Fine. I'll go."

Dana grinned, showing dimples - that had been easier than she'd feared. Kitty wasn't crazy, but she could be stubborn. "Great! What do you think you'll go as?"

Blowing upward into her bangs, Kitty rolled onto her back. "I don't know! Mom didn't make a costume this time and it's not like I have the cash to go out and buy something. I'm going to have to scrounge around for something here."

The other girl nodded. That was what she'd landed on, too. "Yeah. But how hard can that be, right?" Famous last words, probably.

"Got any ideas?" Kitty asked her.

Dana gave her roommate a sheepish kind of look. "Not a one. Yet, anyway."

"Well. We're just going to have to brainstorm." Sitting up, Kitty reached out to grab her laptop off of the end of her desk and hauled it to sit in front of her. "With a little help from the Internet."