The Dreams

Chapter Seventeen

At her mother's insistence Rina agreed to withdraw from college for the semester. She missed so many classes even before her hospitalization that she could not imagine catching up in the time she had left. Her mother still treated her as though she could barely handle going up and down the stairs, so she was a bit shocked when her mother left so much of the process for her to do on her own.

She put it off for as long as possible, but nothing changed enough from one day to the next to alter the course she now took. Now she was almost out of time, and her prospects for returning to her classes this semester were still as unlikely as ever. Finalizing the paperwork and actually ending her college career — even temporarily — just felt wrong. It bothered her even more than still having her activity restricted by Mother.

The stress of not being able to do the things she wanted to do either due to her mother's limitations or just the limitations of reality left her feeling jumpy. She needed some sort of distraction.

Inviting Hibiki over again might be asking for trouble. Tempting fate by bringing him over again so soon would almost certainly end in disaster. Instead she would have to invite over someone her mother would never object to seeing. She called up Corine and made plans for her friend to stop by once her classes were over for the day.

About a half hour later she received a text from Corine stating that she had decided to blow off her classes for the day to have some bestie time instead. Rina knew better than to protest against this change in their plans. They had hardly had any time to hang out together in weeks so a few extra hours would not hurt at all. Corine had a way of making her forget her problems for a while and somehow also making it easier for her to handle and confront things she might otherwise consider impossible. Right now she needed a big old dose of confidence so she could tell herself she was doing the right thing, and maybe even believe it.

Corine showed up before Rina reasonably expected her to arrive, and she brought along with her a ton of stuff that she most certainly had not mentioned either on the phone or in her text message. Rina worried that she might be in over her head. She felt a lot better, and now felt as though she could do pretty much all of the things she wanted to do, even if her mother tried to forbid her from pushing her limits. Corine had always challenged her limits, and now she did not know if she could take it. Even at her full strength Corine's antics exhausted her.

She did not waste any time before getting to the bottom of things. "What on earth did you bring with you?"

"Just some stuff to make up for lost time," Corine said flippantly. "We have weeks worth of girl time to make up for today."

"Oh no," Rina whispered as she backed up and sat down on the couch. "I thought we were going to watch trashy tv and eat junk food. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, we can do that too. I just brought along some extra stuff. We've got to make up for a lot of lost time in one day so we need to really make sure the time counts."

"Corine, I need to know what sort of extra stuff you brought along so I can decide if I'm going to play along or make a run for it."

Corine stuck her tongue out and unzipped her duffel bag to display the contents to Rina. "I've got chick flicks, pajamas, chocolate, nail polish, and make up. What did you think I had in here? If I wanted to get you drunk I'd at least have the sense to take you back to my dorm with me. No point in getting you in trouble with your mom."

Rina relaxed a bit. Most of those things were harmless enough. The make up was the only one she had any real reason to want to protest, but those items in combination with Corine herself could only spell disaster for her. It was not that she disliked girly things, but she did not tolerate a lot of girliness all at once. On the other hand, her dear friend Corine adored all things girly and did not understand the concept of spreading girly activities out over the course of days or weeks. Once she decided to have a girl's only day everything would happen at once.