Chapter 23
- The next morning Michele had slept late. Still naked and on top of the covers, she hadn't even stirring as Annie dressed, gathered her things, and made her exit. Nancy had found her at lunch, she and a girl named Sue from the yoga class had asked to join her. She of course agreed. The conversation was light and fun. Annie wondered at Nancy's easy grace, comparing it to Michele's fraught ambivalence. She touched the top of her head where Michele had held her the night before. It was still tender, there was a raised lump. "Annie? Hello."
- The other two girls were looking at her curiously. Nancy with a crooked grin. "Sorry?" "I said do you want to go together to the house party?" Annie blinked, confused. "House party?" Nancy frowned. "Yeah. Tomorrow night," she sounded a little concerned now. "Michele said she was going, so I figured you were too?" "Oh yeah, I'd love to - but I have to come later," she lied. "I made a study date at the library." That seemed enough to dispel whatever worries Nancy might have felt. "Right on. But you're coming right?" "It's going to be fun," Sue added. "Yeah. Where is it again?"
- ... Annie worked at the library until till closing time that night. When she got to their room, the blinds were drawn. Michele was still up, but dressed in her old man pajamas and reading by her bedside light under the covers. Annie greeted her, and got a "Hey" in reply, but she didn't look up or otherwise engage. Annie felt hollowed out as unpacked her things and went over her next day's schedule. Unwilling to credit herself with anything but average smarts, Annie thought of herself as a grind, and was proud of her workmanly ('workwomanly?') study habits. She had grown up in the chaos of her mother's emotional dramas, and wasn't allowing Michele's moods to get in the way of her classwork any more than she had allowed her mother's to. She stripped to her panties. Pointedly displaying her little tits and puffy erect nipples, something she never would have done, even just a few days before. She turned off her desk lamp and climbed into bed. Michele switched off her light almost immediately. The two lay silently in the dark for a very long time. Annie was unsure who fell asleep first. ...