The Tangled Webs We Weave

“Oh, I know! That boy has a body that is completely to die for. I know I wouldn’t mind getting detention sometime in the next week or two if I’d get paired up with him!”

Groaning inwardly, other occupant in the room immediately stopped what she was doing to throw on a pair of headphones. The last thing she needed to hear was her roommate talking about her latest flavor of the week. As she went to do so, a grey furry head butted her hand so she paused what she was doing to pet it. Damn cat.

“… Ew! Are you serious!? How could he touch someone as nasty as her?”

“How could he touch someone as nasty as her?” the other girl mouthed mockingly, rolling her eyes and curling her lip in disgust. Drama queens. Always talking about who was ‘in’ and who was not, what was cool, and was not. And of course most importantly, who was sleeping with who. Like they were the rightful judges of everyone’s life. Right.

“Are you serious? Like, oh… my God! I can not believe that you just told me that!”

With a small sigh of annoyance, the girl stopped petting the feline to finish throwing her headphones over her ears. She couldn’t take anymore of this shit. If her IQ dropping from the sheer stupidity of this side of the conversation didn’t fuck her up enough, then her roommate’s shrill voice would. It was like fucking nails on a chalkboard.

Already wanting to forget about it, the girl reached over and underneath her bed, biting her lip in concentration until her fingers finally stumbled across the wooden box she was looking for. Grasping it, she sat back up, lifting the lid and pulling out a rolled up ziplock bag, and a metal tobacco grinder with a yin-yang symbol on it. Once she had these, she looked around for another couple seconds in thought, until she spotted a text book and grabbed it. Dusting it off with the back of her hand, she crossed her legs and set the book in her lap, unrolling the bag and grabbing a green plant-bud from it. Pulling the grinder apart, she set the bud inside of it and pushed them back together, twisting the two parts in different directions in a continuous motion.

“Daniels?”

Completely not even hearing her roommate over the sound of the music, the twisting motion continued until the girl was satisfied, pulling the two parts apart and flipped them facing downward, letting the once bud to fall out onto the book in a leafy-powder pile. Then she began to pick out the seeds.

“…Daniels?”

Once the pile was properly de-seeded, the girl opened up the drawer to her nightstand, and pulled out a glass pipe. Taking a ‘dry hit’ to make sure the piece wasn’t clogged, she seemed satisfied, and started to put the plant into the pipe.

“ …TABITHA!”

Nearly jumping out of her skin with fright, Tabitha Daniels’ eyes widened to the size of saucers momentarily until she realized who was trying to get her attention. Fear quickly replaced by anger, she tore her headphones from her head, getting even more irritated when the wires got caught up in her curls. “What!?” she demanded.

The blonde girl sitting across from her scowled. “What have I told you about smoking that nasty shit in here? It makes everything in here just… smell,” she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

The brunette quirked an eyebrow. “…And?” she asked. “I burn incense to cover the odor. The room has been smelling like this before you even became a student here. Deal with it.”

“Well does the Headmistress know that you keep that illegal shit in here?” the blonde retorted, a sneer on her face. Tabitha wanted to laugh in her face, but kept it down to a mere chuckle. Christ, the girl really did think she knew it all. Either that, or took her for that stupid, one of the two.

“Does the Headmistress know that you have a mini-fridge in here full of alcohol? Does your girl Jenny know that you gave her boyfriend head last weekend? Does anybody know about the pregnancy test that I found in the trash in the bathroom, that I know I didn’t take?” she fired back, smirking as she watched her roommate turn pale. “I think the last thing you need to worry about is what I’m doing, sweetheart. Keep my secrets, and I’ll keep yours. In the meantime, I suggest you mind your own damn business.”

Completely flabbergasted, the other girl sputtered, going from white to red. “With as much as you get any, I’m surprised you even know what a pregnancy test is for,” she spat out, trying to save what was left of her dignity, until she picked up her cell phone again that was laying on her own bed. “Jenny? I’ll be down there in a few. Yeah, it’s okay. My roommate is just being a bitch, again. Alright. Chow, darling. ” Flipping the phone shut with a snap, the blonde stared down the brunette.

“Just… don’t burn the damn dorm down.”

“I’ll try not to, but if need be, I’ll just keep the fire contained on your side of the room, Lindsay.”

“I am seriously, like, not even kidding.”

“… Who said I was?”

“Daniels, I am seriously not even kidding.”

“Dude. Shut up. Get out of here. You’re making me want to punch you in the face. I am seriously not even kidding.”

Scowling, Lindsay grabbed her purse, her phone, and stormed to the door, flinging it open so quickly that it smacked the tabby cat that was sleeping in front of it. “MOVE you stupid cat!” she growled, before leaving and slamming the door shut again. Miffed, the cat wandered towards the occupied bed, pausing for a second before jumping onto it, catching the attention from the grey cat, who meowed at him.

“Yeah, Zippo. I know, baby. She’s a bitch,” Tabitha crooned, holding her hand out for the other feline to rub against, who immediately did so. Smokey (the adequately named grey cat), bristled a little bit visibly at his friend receiving the attention, but just continued to lay there. Led Zeppelin just sat there and purred, until an interesting smell caught his attention. Opening his eyes, he sniffed his owner’s fingers, and then followed the scent down until he found the pile laying on the book in her lap. Tail twitching, he stood up again, moving to get his nose close to it. A chuckle came from the girl, and she picked up her abandoned pipe. “I know, baby. That was next on my to do list.”

A spark of flame, a deep breath, and a massive coughing fit later, the brunette’s eyes definitely had a bit of a droop and redness to them. A thick smoke hung in the air around here, and one cat stuck his nose up to inhale it, while the other slunk off the bed and underneath to hide from it. “Moker, you’re so ate up in the face,” she muttered, watching as his grey tail disappeared under her bed skirt, taking another hit as she did so. “… Because this is definitely hitting the spot.”

Exhaling, she sighed and leaned back against her pillows, before glancing at her clock. Christ, it was already 1:30? That meant that her damn English class started in a half hour. She had completely forgotten about that. Groaning, she set the book that was on her lap, onto the floor, and worked on stripping out of her ‘street’ clothes, and into her school uniform, which, much to her dismay when she first got there, was fashioned much after the stereotypical ‘Catholic school-girl’ uniforms. Black shoes. White socks. Grey skirt. White button up shirt. Grey and red tie. Optional red or grey jacket. Such… uniformed bullshit. Once she had changed in her usual five minute time-span, she didn’t even bother to check the mirror before she finished smoking her bowl, and throwing her knapsack over her shoulder. Shit, she never wore make-up, and her hair was an unruly mess no matter what she tried to do with it, so why bother?

…Hell, maybe Lindsay was right. She probably did need to get laid. But around a mess of pretty-boys, it wasn’t like she was high-maintenance enough for any of them. Well… except maybe one of them. But he didn’t necessarily count.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, Tabitha quickly picked up her ‘mess’ before blowing a kiss at her cats. “Bye, boys. Don’t tear up too much while I’m gone,” she said, before leaving, making sure to lock the door on her way out.

It took about ten minutes to walk from her dorm room to the campus, granted she walked at the leisurely pace she usually did. Not necessarily one for punctuality, she stopped at the vending machine to grab a couple munchies, and a bottle of soda, stuffing them into her bag. Damn, half of the time the professors weren’t even there on time, so why waste her own? For roll call? Fuck that. Strolling the rest of the way to her classroom, she reached the door and pulled it open, met by a harsh look from Professor Stevens.

“Miss Daniels. How lovely of you to grace us with our presence. And only five minutes late today! To what do we owe this special occasion?” he drawled, keeping his gaze locked onto the girl. A laugh and sneer erupted from her, and she merely shook her head.

“What can I say? Something in my dream last night was telling me that there was a possibility you wouldn’t be completely wasting your breath today,” she retorted, with a roll of her eyes, before looking around for an empty seat. At first, she didn’t’ think that there was one, until the blank space next to a girl with rust-colored waves was spotted. Quirking an eyebrow, she fought another eye-roll. Great, now she had to sit next to the fucking princess today. “… Although on the other hand, I’m probably wrong. So why don’t I just go and save us both the trouble?”

“Miss Daniels, don’t even think about it,” the professor said, obviously not impressed by her verbal abuse. “You will sit down, and you will stay for the lesson. And who knows? Maybe you will get something through that thick skull of yours today.”

An unlady like snort followed, as well as a sigh of defeat. “Phst. Whatever,” she muttered, turning and walking towards the back of the class, throwing her knapsack down unceremoniously on the table, taking a seat. Scooting over as far away from the girl next to her as possible, Tabitha pulled out a notebook and acted like she was writing something interesting down. For now, she’d ignore the other, and just keep her mouth shut. But so help her, if the other girl opened hers, she was getting socked.

“… This is going to be a long day,” she thought with a sigh.