The Smell of Old Books and Blood

Chapter 5: La Crême de la Crême

"Well hello there, sexy woodland creature."

"At least I don't look like mother's worst nightmare. Her son turning into some prostitute."

"I'll kill you!"

"Not if I kill you first!"

"Can you two please stop bickering," Alhaitham sighed, rubbing his temples. It's been hours.

At the sound of Alhaitham's voice, the two narrowed in on him, Kaveh smirking and saying, "At least I'm not showing up to a college party looking like a stiff."

"Ha. Stiff."

And Kaveh wasn't particularly wrong. Compared to the other two, Alhaitham looked very out of place. Kaveh had always appreciated feminine clothing. His top was cropped with long sleeves, completely pink other than the white logo of a cat paw on the top left corner. Underneath was black fishnet, covering (as much as it could) the bare skin peaking out. His shorts were black with garters around his thighs that slightly bulged out from him being- not surprisingly- thick. The garters attached to pink thigh highs that receded into knee high black platform boots.

Tighnari's outfit was much baggier than Kaveh's clothing. And much more floral. His green sleeves hung loosely off his shoulders, dropping slightly over his hands. He wore what was almost considered a dress if it weren't for the way the bottom slowly morphed into shorts. A romper is what it was called? Alhaitham couldn't remember. The deep v-neck just barely left the fennec's chest to the imagination and the fabric was designed to resemble leaves. Around his head rested  a flower crown. It looked delicately handmade and fit perfectly to Tighnari's head. Somehow, little dangly flowers draped down from it and rested softly against Tighnari's hair and forehead.

All Alhaitham wore was a random button up and dress pants...

"If someone had informed me of the dress code I wouldn't be wearing this now. But it seems as if you failed at that," he squinted his eyes at the two, seeming rather annoyed. Kaveh quickly ignored that comment by changing the topic of the conversation, "You remember the story right? Tighnari drugged you with a potion for me that makes you slightly hallucinate and instantly forget seeing anything abnormal to you."

"And what makes you think they'll believe that?" Alhaitham said with a raised eyebrow, to which Tighnari arrogantly smirked and said, "Because it's a special potion I concocted that  Kshahrewar uses all the time to bring their meals to parties. Enough with this. Let's go." Tighnari reached over to take Kaveh's hand in his, pulling him along, leaving Alhaitham to begrudgingly follow. To be honest, once Alhaitham got to his dorm and thought things through, he decided he wanted to keep his memories. He was finally getting the answers to all of his questions and forgetting everything would just leave a big hole in his mind that he'd eventually dig back up, and that'd be an even bigger distraction to him. The only reason he still came along to this party was out of pure curiosity. Curiosity... it wasn't typically something that peaked his interest. He knew the dangers of too much knowledge. But this was something he couldn't leave unanswered.

The three made their way to what looked like an ordinary frat house. But it was silent. Like there wasn't even a party happening. They walked inside, and just as he expected, there was nothing of importance to be seen. But beneath his feet, he could feel small vibrations through the floor. He turned his noise canceling headphones a bit quieter. All that was there was a red headed girl about their age. Maybe a year older. She was sitting at a table, face blank until her eyes locked on Alhaitham. She stared for a moment before looking back at Kaveh and Tighnari. "He's handled?" Kaveh nodded and said, "Yeah. Nothing to worry about. We good?" She twirled her pen between her fingers before looking back down at her paper, scribbling something down and then crossing out two names. "Go on ahead." Kaveh and Tighnari nodded in unison before leading Alhaitham down a flight of stairs. As they walked down, Alhaitham muttered, "Who's that?"