Sarah's apartment was pretty near to where both college and work were, and I had to admit it felt a bit weird to be in that area in the evening.
"You came!!" the blonde greeted me as she opened her front door.
"Hi El!" Mei soon after joined, wrapping her arms around Sarah's waist from behind.
"Hi" I said, actually strangely happy to be there.
"Come in, everyone's already here" Sarah moved to the side so I walked in.
The apartment looked quite new, a beige parquet floor and white walls extending in the whole place. Groups of people talking to each other were scattered around, probably about fifteen in total.
"This place is nice! There's something cozy about it all" I observed.
"Yeah, I'm honestly really glad to have found this place. My bank account is a little less glad about it" she chuckled. "There's usually five of us here so rent is not too exaggerated, but still. Although recently there's basically been a sixth flatmate" she turned towards Mei.
"Shut up" she laughed, giving her a quick kiss. "Don't listen to her" she told me.
"It's okay" I giggled, refraining myself from joking about knowing something about spending lots of time at your girlfriend's house.
"Before you ask, I don't really know what the plans for the evening are" Sarah added. "I just wanted to take advantage of the fact that all of my flatmates were away and invited a bunch of friends. We just ordered food and there's plenty of drinks in the kitchen"
"Sounds good" I said, looking around. Everyone there seemed genuinely nice and not scary like most people our age I'd encountered parties and stuff. Maybe the few years difference between us really did make a change.
"I was gonna joke about everyone here being slightly older than you and Mei but I realized it's nothing compared to-" Sarah started to say but luckily stopped herself before making the situation worse.
"Huh?" Mei asked as I just stared at the blonde, petrified, my heart suddenly beating way faster than a few seconds before.
Before anything else could happen, a familiar voice came from behind us.
"Hi Ellie! I'm glad you came" Maya appeared at my side.
"Hi Maya" I just managed to say, with a slightly shaky voice.
"Why are you all looking so weirdly confused right now?" she asked, amused.
"Uh, Sarah made a joke I didn't really get, I think? Something about older people" Mei shrugged.
"Oh, yeah, it's an inside joke between us" Maya readily said. "Right Ellie?" she laughed, playfully hitting my arm.
"Yeah..." I faked a laugh, surprised at her actually trying to help me in that situation.
"Fair enough" my friend luckily didn't question it any further.
"You know, spending so many hours working confined to a small space leads to shitty jokes" Sarah agreed, soon before someone audibly called her from the kitchen. "Sounds like someone needs me" she sighed.
"It's probably people asking where to get more alcohol" Mei scoffed as she followed her girlfriend.
"Thank you for...saving the situation, I guess" I told Maya once it was just the two of us.
"No worries" she chuckled. "I figured Sarah had said something dumb just by your face"
"I kind of froze" I laughed.
"Yeah, she's not good at keeping secrets. Thank god I didn't tell her anything of what you told me about you and Mei"
"You didn't?" I asked, surprised.
"Nope" she said, equally confused. "You thought I had?"
"Kind of. You know, I haven't exactly gotten the best impression of you in these months" I said, not caring about how insensitive that sounded.
"Fair enough. But no, I didn't say anything. Anyway, you want me to show you around? I was just talking to some people who are also my friends, you should meet them" she suggested, pointing towards a group of five people sitting on the couch and the chairs around it.
"Sure" I said, resigned to the fact that I was going to have to talk to people at some point. And maybe socializing wasn't such a bad thing.
The rest of the evening went surprisingly well, all the people I talked to were doing master's courses at my same university, two of them graduated in the same major as mine and were really interested in hearing how I was getting on, also giving me a few tips.
I feared that Maya would make some weird comment when we talked about professors, but she didn't. Maybe she was honest about not acting as annoying as she did in the past anymore.
Spending time with her around other people made me realize that if it wasn't for what happened, we would have probably got on really well with each other. I found myself agreeing with most things she'd say in conversations, and she was more outspoken with others than I thought. She'd usually only be like that with me to make fun of me or make comments.
But I still needed to be careful around her. I was fine with being her friend, kind of, but only as long as that didn't interfere with me and Sam in any way. I was ready to break all contacts immediately if that happened.
Overall, I genuinely was enjoying myself so much during the evening that I didn't check my phone for hours, until I noticed Sam had texted me.
sam<3: Are you taking the subway alone when you come home?
you: yeah, i guess so
you: it's always full of people on saturday nights anyway, don't worry about it
you: if that's why you asked
sam<3: I can come and pick you up if you prefer, you told me it's near your work anyway, right?
you: noo babe don't worry
you: it's almost midnight, i'm not gonna make you go out and drive at this time
sam<3: You know I don't mind, love
sam<3: I can come in like an hour if you text me the address
you: you really don't have to :')
you: i'll accept though, an hour is perfect
you: thank you, i love you <3
I only looked up from my screen, still smiling at the texts, once someone loudly exclaimed "Get a room".
And I realized maybe they were right once I saw Sarah and Mei making out quite enthusiastically, you could say.
"Sorry" the blonde mumbled as the two burst out laughing. "Got carried away there"
"Yeah" Mei cleared her throat. "I'm gonna go use the restroom for a sec. I'll be right back" she added, getting up from her lap.
"Go ahead, I'm gonna stay here baby" she said, moving to the seat next to mine as everyone already moved on from making fun of the two. "How are you getting on?" she asked me.
"Well, actually. I'm happy I came" I smiled.
"I told you it'd be fun!" she patted my shoulder.
"Guess you were right" I chuckled, recognizing she was quite tipsy from her voice.
"Also, uhm. I'm sorry about before. You know, the joke I almost made. I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay" I interrupted her. "Could have gone worse, Mei didn't understand"
"True" she said, looking as if she wanted to say something else but remaining silent.
"What?" I laughed.
"Nothing. It's just that...I'm like, not sure I'll be able to keep such a secret from Mei for much longer. You're gonna tell her at some point, right?"
"I...I guess so. But please do not tell her, whatever you do. Please" I said, slightly panicked and hoping she was just saying that because her mind wasn't completely lucid.
"I'll try not to. But don't blame me if it accidentally slips out at a certain point" she shrugged.
"Sarah..." I turned more serious.
"Ellie" she said, amused.
"Please don't tell her anything. I'll tell her when the time comes"
"Of course, of course. But she's your friend after all, she deserves to know such a big thing about your life" she continued.
"I...I know she does. But not right now, I don't want to-" I started to say as I saw Mei approaching us.
"I'm back" she said, sitting back on her girlfriend's lap. "What you talking about? You look distraught, El"
"I just asked her if she could work an extra shift, but she wasn't too enthusiastic about it" Sarah said.
"Yeah" I laughed. "I was annoyed at her talking about work on a Saturday evening"
"She's right, stop talking about work baby!" Mei luckily agreed. "And the two of you need to stop being so secretive around me, don't think I haven't noticed"
"Don't know what you're talking about" I said, trying not to show my nervousness.
"Whatever. Let's talk about more fun stuff" my friend just changed the subject.
And luckily listening to the two talking about their spring break road trip was entertaining enough for me not to think about the conversation we'd just had.
I was really glad to see Mei so happy with Sarah, the two seemed a perfect match. And I liked to think I could take some credit for it, since I was the one who introduced them to each other.
"I hate to interrupt you girls" I said as almost an hour had passed, other people having gathered around us to listen to their stories too. "I think I'm gonna have to leave now, I don't wanna be in the subway alone too late" I felt stupid for even having to make that up, but it was a convincing excuse.
"Wait, no! You can stay here for the night, there's still a free bedroom" Sarah said.
"It's okay, I don't mind. Really" I used the most reassuring tone I could have.
"You sure?" Mei asked.
"Yeah" I got up. "Thank you so much for inviting me here, really"
"No problem! Thank you for coming" Sarah smiled.
"See you on Monday" Mei added.
"See you" I said, properly greeting everyone else I'd talked to.
I texted Sam to tell her she could leave and and stepped out of the building, the street I found myself in still as busy as a few hours before.
"Hey there" a voice came from my side. I turned to my left to see Maya standing against the building's wall, her phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
I only then realized that she wasn't in the room when I left.
"Oh, hi. Everything okay?" I asked, walking closer to her.
"Yeah, I just needed a pause from all of those people. If you know what I mean" she said, her gaze still fixed on the floor as she took the cigarette to her mouth.
"Yeah, absolutely" I laughed.
"You want one?" she looked up.
"No, I'm good" I said. "Aren't you cold?" I added, noticing that the only clothes she was wearing were black jeans and a matching cropped vest.
"Not really. I don't get cold easily" she shrugged. "What brings you out here if not a good smoke anyway?"
"Oh, uhm" I thought of making up another lie but I'd already told enough that evening. Plus, I couldn't really care less about having to mention Sam to her at that point. "Sam's stopping by in her car...so I don't have to take the subway alone"
"Oh, cool. That's nice of her" she said, not batting an eye.
"Yeah" I cleared my throat. "Are you staying at Sarah's for the night?"
"I guess so, yeah. Hopefully her and Mei don't start making too much noise" she snickered. "It has happened in the past"
"I'm sorry you had to go through that" I laughed, maybe too loudly.
"It's alright, good for them I guess. I'm glad they found each other"
"Same, I'm happy for them" I said.
"More like relieved about your situation with Mei not getting in the way anymore?" she raised an eyebrow. "I'm just kidding" she added before I could complain about the joke.
"I gathered" I chuckled. "I like to think they met thanks to me and that makes me feel some kind of powerful, you know"
"We'll, they did. You should take credit for it" she patted my shoulder, right as I saw a familiar car parking next to the pavement we were standing on.
I internally prayed that the person inside wouldn't roll the window down, but she unfortunately did, revealing Sam with an expression that turned from happy to dead serious within seconds.
"Hey" Maya nodded.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing the two of you together, no matter what" Sam neutrally said.
"Yeah, uhm, see you next week?" I ignored what my girlfriend had just said, my mind kind of blacking out and not liking the tension I could feel between the two.
"See you, have a good night" Maya replied with amusement in her voice.
I walked to the car and sat in the passenger seat without further words.
"Hi" I said once I'd closed the door.
Before she even rolled the window back up, Sam kissed me way more passionately than she'd usually do to greet me, basically pushing me towards her from the back of my neck, and catching me off guard because I'd definitely never felt her tongue inside of my mouth within seconds of kissing her.
"Hi baby" she said right after, starting to drive as if nothing had just happened.
"There was no need to do that in front of her" I giggled, feeling slightly bad for Maya.
"Hm, I don't know what you're talking about" she shook her head. "Did you have fun?"
"Actually, yes. I met a bunch of interesting people, it was nice"
"I'm glad" she looked at me with a smile.
"Please focus on the road, I can't believe how much traffic there is at this time of night" I laughed, not wanting to sound paranoid but reasonably scared. "Thank you again for coming, by the way"
"Don't worry, I know these streets more than you think" she reassured me. "And no problem, you know I don't mind. You're making me feel like a mom who's picking their kid up from a party"
"Well, I always had to ask if people could give me a lift in high-school because my mom couldn't be bothered. I don't think she's ever picked me up from anywhere, actually"
"Did you just compare me to your mom?" Sam snickered, making me realize what I just said.
"Oh god, I didn't mean to say something weird" I rested my forehead on the palm of my hand in embarrassment.
"It's okay, we won't get further into that" she kept laughing. "Not now, at least" she jokingly smirked.
"Don't" I hit her arm, wishing I hadn't said anything but admitting the whole conversation was kind of funny.