DEFEATISM

03

Galilee has noticed that when she drinks, she typically wakes up early. She rarely drinks so much to get hungover, and so her body pulls her out of consciousness early. Since it is December, the sun is not up yet when she is. Next to her bed are the polaroids, which she flips through. Galilee is happy she paid for a more extensive version of the camera that came with a timer. There are two photos of the group together, with one at the beginning of the night and one at the end. She smiles.

Though it makes her unhappy, Galilee gets ready. She braids her hair into a milkmaid braid after showering, and she pulls on a sweater tunic and jeans. Her quiet rebellion is wearing a red sweater since her family's colour palette is supposed to be soft pastels. They'll make her change, she assumes. Yet, she doesn't care all too much.

After doing the subtle makeup that will brighten her face for their vlog camera but will appear as though she isn't wearing makeup to the untrained male eye, Galilee sighs. Her family won't be here for a few hours, and there are going to be enough people who are hung over. With her wallet, her winter coat and boots, Galilee makes her way downstairs. The Food Services Unit will be shutting down production today, so as long as she gets to the coffee shop on campus, she'll be able to pick up drinks for people. In their office, they have a box that they usually use to make easy drink deliveries.

Galilee gets to the main floor first, however, to make sure it's worth it to wear her clunky boots. Much of the first floor is entirely glass, including the front doors. When she peers out into the dark morning, she drops her keys. They hit the ground with a clang.

~~~

It is very rare that Darlington feels this way. He had a drink with the group, and then Maverick and Moonie wanted to do one more shot, and Darlington cannot say no to Maverick and he can certainly not say no to Moonie. It had been over an hour, and Darlington, mistakenly, thought that one more shot couldn't hurt. It definitely hurts this morning.

Someone is banging at his door. He hears the thud and rolls out of bed. It's dark out still. At least he knows it's not a student today. Darlington pulls his staff hoodie over his shoulders and presses a dull hand to his head.

"Coming," he manages to say, after a second knock.

Once he has on some slippers, he makes it to the doorway. He opens it and sees Galilee on the other side. The hallway lights are perhaps the most painful thing that he has looked at in quite some time. He presses the back of his hand to his forehead.

"Sorry," she manages, "I just... is this worth calling the super over the weather?"

"What?" Darlington says.

"I just... the coldest it ever usually gets in Utah is 20 degrees, but it's really cold out, and there is a lot of snow."

Darlington, having mostly grown up in upstate New York, knows that it can get even more frigid.

"It's fine, Gally," Darlington says, and when he sees her knee jittering, he sighs, "here, I'll look out my window."

So, Darlington goes back into his room. Gally stands just inside the doorway and turns on the light. Darlington opens the blinds, which are pretty shit at keeping light out, and sees nothing but grey fog out the window.

He rubs his eyes. It's not fog. It's snow.

"I was on the ground floor," Galilee says when he doesn't speak at first. "It's got to be half a foot of snow out there already. I think Benedict mentioned something about a snowstorm that was supposed to hit in a few days."