One Night

Chap***

Audrey

A month passed, and the days were a blur. Senior year was no joke-constant essays, projects, and exams, each one more difficult and time-consuming than the last. I watched myself and my friends slowly crumble, already yearning for the end of

the semester.

But each week, I had something that would drive me along.

Every Friday night at ten PM, like clockwork, I would slip away to meet Edwin in our hidden room in the basement.

Often we would spend the entire night making love, our bodies moving together in a dance we were quickly perfecting as the weeks went on. There were always movies and games and books and snacks to enjoy, but we mostly just enjoyed each other, memorizing every part of one another.

Still, it wasn’t all fun and games. As our weekly meetings went on, I began to grow restless; Edwin wasn’t any closer to handling the Fiona situation, and thus we never had the chance to leave our little basement room.

I wanted more. I wanted to be able to walk down the street together, hand-in-hand. I wanted to spend the night in his apartment, ruffled sheets and the smell of old books. I had fallen in love with him. I hadn’t said it out loud yet, but I knew it

was true.

We still had the matter of our differences in status at Grayspring of course, but… It could be handled. I had done my research, and there were procedures we could do through, papers that just needed to be signed if we wanted to be together. I wasn’t taking any of Edwin’s classes this semester, and I wasn’t TA’ing for him.

It could work.

But whenever I broached the subject, his response was always the same: “Soon, Audrey. Be patient.”

Yeah, well… My patience was wearing thin.

More than that, though, the guilt of lying to my friends was eating away at me. Especially to Tina, who kept giving me suspicious looks every time I slipped out of my dorm on a Friday night, dressed like I was going to the club.

“Another Tinder date?” she would ask, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah,” I would lie, hating myself a little more each time. “Just a casual thing.”

The gifts from Edwin didn’t help. He had started bringing me expensive, high-quality fabrics for my sewing projects from his personal sewing room-little treats to make me smile, he said, even though I told him he didn’t have to.

He had started doing it after I had begun pestering him about Fiona. I knew he was trying to butter me up, but it worked

anyway.

When Tina noticed, however, I had to claim I had bought them myself.

“But how can you afford this?” she asked one day, running her fingers over a length of fine silk that probably cost more than a month’s worth of cafeteria lunches. “This is top-notch fabric, Audrey.”

I shrugged noncommittally, avoiding her eyes. “I’ve been saving up. You know, from my internship stipend.

Tina’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t push further. The look of disappointment on her face, though, was almost worse than if She had flat-out called me out on my lie.

09:29 Thu, Sep 19

***

As Halloween approached, the excitement on campus was palpable. Everyone was talking about the big festival and bar crawl downtown. There would be vendors, live music, a costume contest, even a haunted house.

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It was one of my favorite yearly traditions, one that Tina and I had always attended together. And this year, our entire group would be together. I had already started working on my costume weeks ahead.

That Friday, after Edwin and I had finished another intense round of lovemaking, I broached the subject. We were lying tangled together on our makeshift bed, my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat slow down.

“So, the Halloween festival is next weekend,” I started, tracing patterns on his chest.

Edwin hummed, his fingers playing with my hair. “What about it?”

“Will you come with me?” I said, propping myself up to look at him. “I’m making a Little Red Riding Hood costume. I was thinking-

I’d already pictured us together; me as Little Red, and Edwin as the big, bad wolf, complete with an all-black suit and a mask. I could already imagine the way his eyes would glow yellow as they met mine from across the bar.

His face fell slightly, and I felt my heart sink before he even spoke. “Audrey, you know I can’t. It’s too risky.”

I sat up fully, pulling the blanket around my bare chest. “But it’s Halloween. Everyone will be in costume. No one would even know it’s you. We could just meet up for a few minutes…”

“It’s better if we keep our meetings to this room,” he said firmly, his voice leaving no room for argument. “We’ve been over

this.

I sighed, pulling away to gather my clothes. Edwin watched me, propping himself up on one elbow.

“Where are you going?”

“It’s late.”

“Audrey..

I whirled to face him as I tugged my jeans back on. “I’m just tired of having to keep this a secret all the time,” I said. “Lying to my friends, sneaking around… don’t you ever want more out of our relationship than…” I gestured around us. “This?”

Edwin sat up fully then, his eyes scanning my body. His next words made me freeze. “Is that what this is to you? A relationship?”

I felt my heart start to pound. “Isn’t it?” I asked, my voice suddenly too meek for my liking. “L… I haven’t been seeing anyone else.”

He ran a hand through his hair, looking uncomfortable. “We’ve just been h***ing up.”

Those words hit me like a punch to the gut. Tears p**ed at the backs of my eyes, and I knew I had to get out-away from here-before I cried in front of him.

“I have to go,” I mumbled.

“Audrey-Audrey!” Edwin called, but it was too late. I was already out the door before he could even tug his pants on.

A few minutes later as I hurried back to my dorm and bit back more tears, a rare text came through: “I’ll explain everything next week. I promise.

09:29 Thu, Sep 19

****

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After chewing my lip for a moment, I sent back a quick, cold response: “I’m going to the Halloween festival next Friday, so I’ll be busy. Maybe the week after.”

There was no response.

Just h**ng up. Those words echoed relentlessly in my mind, like tiny knives slashing across my heart. Was that all this was to him? H**king up? Did he even see the same future that I did, or was I just as s** and naive as I had been in the beginning?

I stood in front of my mirror, tugging annoyedly at the too-thick crinoline beneath my heavy velvet skirt. Everything felt too tight, too heavy, too restricting

“Da**it,” I growled, resisting the urge to rip the costume off right then and there and stay home all night.

I had poured my heart into this costume, even going so far as to hand-embroider little flowers and whorls along the bodice of my dress. But without its other half, Little Red Riding Hood just felt like a sad girl in a red

cape.

And this d**n crinoline wasn’t cooperating.

“Audrey?” Tina’s voice broke through my thoughts. She was standing in my doorway, already dressed in her Wonder Woman costume. “Are you okay? You’ve been quiet all day.”

I forced a smile, smoothing down my loose curls and trying to ignore the way that one flyaway kept popping back up no matter how much hairspray I used. “I’m fine.”

Tina frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, clearly not buying it. The plastic leather in her bodysuit squeaked as she moved, a fake whip hanging at her hip. “You know you can talk to me, right? About anything? I feel like you’ve been so distant lately.”

Η

For a moment, I was tempted to spill everything. The words were on the tip of my tongue-about Edwin, about our secret meetings, about how I had fallen for him and gotten in over my head, and all the while he thought we were just h**king up?

But the words stuck in my throat. “I know,” was all I said instead. Thanks, Tina. But I’m okay, really.”

She sighed and threw her hands up in the air, looking annoyed. If you say so.”

We met up with the others and headed downtown. The streets were packed with costumed revelers by the time we arrived, the scent of popcorn and caramel apples already making my mouth water.

Under different circumstances, I would have been thrilled to be here, just as I was every year. The decorations were particularly incredible this year-fake cobwebs stretched between buildings, jack-o’-lanterns sitting on almost every windowsill, and the haunted house had been erected in the square, sounds of screams and laughter echoing down the street.

But I hardly noticed any of it. I clutched my stup**le wicker basket in my hands and scraped my black mary-janes on the pavement, feeling like a child in this costume. Naive like one, too,

At the first bar, I nursed a drink while my friends went to the bathroom, my eyes scanning the crowd. Part of me hoped to see a familiar face behind a dark woll’s mask, even though I knew he wouldn’t come.

Couples danced together in the hazy atmosphere, the music pumping against the walls. That could have been us. No one would have known it was him.

But…

*

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned, expecting to see one of my friends, maybe Tina coming to check on met again.

Instead, I found myself face to face with Fiona. She was wearing a skintight black cat costume that left little to the imagination, her blonde hair cascading over her shoulders in perfect waves.

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Her makeup was flawless, her green eyes enhanced by the dramatic cat-eye liner. Every inch of her body was on display beneath the tight latex as she leaned against the bar, her lips curled up into a sweet smile.

“Nice costume,” she purred.