Great Girls(Victoria Pedretti)

C. 3🕰

When I reached my dorm hall, I was confronted with a piercing scream coming down from the Lilah Wing, where Claudia and I resided. Students were standing on both sides of the hallway and looking in the direction of our room.

"Oh, my God," I muttered, running down the white wood-paneled hallway. While I was sprinting like Usain Bolt, I heard gasps and murmurs as I was passing everyone.

Before I could make it to my room, I spotted Paul racing down the foyer, passing me by. My eyes followed him, but then they averted back to the atrocious voice that happened to be Claudia's.

"Yeah, you better run, you cheating sack of—Sallie!" Claudia yells as we both were meeting each other halfway.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were at work," she said in a curious and not in a tragic tone. "Well, I left early so that I could get ready for the Halloween party at Theo's, but before he canceled at his house, I went to go return some books at Preston. Then I got some coffee and a croissant, and while I was on my way back to my car, Crush told me that you were crying in our room. He told me everything."

"My God, can you talk a mouth full? Tell me, does your mouth get dry often?" She asked as if she hadn't just chased her ex down. I didn't say a word; I just stood there. Claudia's eyes shifted to the side, and the words that came out of her mouth was, "Alright, everybody, you can go back to your rooms. The Maury Show is over now! Go on now! There's nothing here to see!" And with that, Claudia's little speech had reached the students, and everyone went about their business as if nothing had occurred.

"Sallie, I am so glad you came here. I've got our Halloween costumes picked out for tonight." Claudia babbled, pulling me by my hand as my keys jingled in the pocket of my jacket.

The room was a mess. It looked like a pig-sty. You couldn't pay Marie Condo to come and clean in here. Clothes were lying on both sides of the room, music CDs were out of the cases, the television had a bra hanging over it, the shades on the window were broken, toilet paper was hanging from the ceiling fan, and the pillows on Claudia's bed were half empty. The feathers were sticking out of them.

"Jesus, Claud. If I didn't know any better, I'd assume you were Frank Ocean, and a tornado had flown around our room."

"Well, since we're assuming," she says as she picks up a broken wooden hanger. "Can you excuse the mess it made?"

"Haha, very funny. I'm laughing my ass off. Seriously, Claudia. What did you do? I mean, look at this room! If Serena finds our room like this, she's going to scream her head off! This is a fire hazard!" I said.

"Girl, please. You know Serena loves us to the moon and back. She's practically a sister." Claudia says, throwing the hanger in a garbage bag as she picks up excess trash off the grey carpet. "Yeah, I'm not so sure that watching someone almost get struck by lightning is something a sister would do. Although, my sister did almost try to press me to death when she told me that my Polly Pocket shoe was behind the couch."

Claudia stops cleaning up to look up at me, "You never told me that you had a sister?" I didn't say anything. I just stood there and let the air fill with silence. Of course, I had a sister, but I wasn't going to tell Claudia that. I just wanted her to spook out a little to get her to come back to her senses.

Claudia shook her head and said, "Well, anyways. Since Paul railed that bimbo at Circus Fitness in the men's locker room, I decided that now would be the perfect time to pick out an outfit for Theo's Halloween Party." She put the half-full garbage bag on her unmade and clutter-occupied bed.

I stood there in the middle of our room, dumbfounded and perplexed as Claudia skipped to her closet and took out two plastic cleaner bags with wired hangers.

"Wait a minute, Claud. Just a second. Please, tell me you're the same Claudia Nightingale who I met a year ago and wouldn't let me turn out the light at night because you were afraid of the Boogeyman from Don't Look Under Your Bed." I said, sitting on my bed that was also filled with junk.

"What's the matter with you?" Claudia asked, laying the bags on top of her pile of clothes on her bed. "What's the matter with me? What's the matter with you? Why are you not crying? Crush told me Paul cheated on you. I thought you were having a meltdown; I thought—I thought you were going to hurt yourself." I confess with my hand over my heart.

Claudia glanced at me with her amiable eyes and walked over to my bed. She cupped my cheeks and said, "Aw, honey. I'm just fine. Besides, if you think I'm going to let some seven second, sloppy second, no lip, grasshopper ruin my Christian Dior mascara, you've got the wrong girl."

"Oh, sweetie. I'm so glad you're okay."

"The person you're thinking of would be my older sister, Monica," she says as she takes her hands off of me and walks over to her bed to pick up the costumes. "She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Jacob. She's pregnant again. I swear that girl pops out babies like toast from a toaster oven."

I rolled my eyes at Monica's foolish words, chuckling as I began helping her out her belongings away and back to their original space before things got out of hand.

"So, um, before you tell me any more about this costume. I have to let you know that there's been a change of plans."

"I'm listening," Claudia mumbles, stuffing a ripped up teddy bear into the garbage bag. "Theo canceled last minute. Something came up with his family, and now I have got to be Superwoman and save the day by letting two-hundred and fifty people come to my house and loiter around my house smelling like booze and Doritos."

"Oh, yeah. Does your mother know?" Claudia interrogated while closing one full garbage bag and carefully opening another bag as she had just gotten her French manicure tips done yesterday. "Well, if you must know, the professor is in Cheshire at an English convention. She won't be back until Sunday." I replied.

"Well, that'll be good. That way, you won't have to scramble about how late you're going to be or come up with some sort of excuse again not to attend Theo's party." Claudia smirks with raised eyebrows.

"Okay, in my defense—well, I guess there really is nothing in my defense except for the fact that I don't like going to parties. I mean, let's face it, Claud. I'm an antisocial pessimist." I confided.

Claudia, holding up the costumes that were covered in a black plastic bag, says," Okay, listen, Alessia Cara. You need to learn how to let go and squeeze anxiety by its balls and tell it who's the boss."

"You know what, you're right. I should just allow myself to relax and...oh, my God, " I said, covering my mouth in shock at what I had made its way into my eye view.

"What's the matter?" Claudia asked. As little tears began to form in my eyes, I pointed to the broken fish bowl by the window where my clownfish Dorothy used to dwell. That was until I found her lying on the white window sill, flapping around and holding onto the short and bittersweet moments left of her life.

"You killed Dorothy, " I whimpered.

a/n hey angel cakes. i hope you voted or plan to vote soon as i did today. anyways, i know i said that i would update this morning, but obviously, as you can tell, my schedule was a bit busy today. i wanted to inform you all that pedretti's character will be introduced in the next chapter. just wanted to give you all a heads up. okay, love you. good night☁️