A surprise weekend update to apologize for the recent sporadic updates.
This semester has been very busy, but I'm doing my best to keep up with my writing, too.
Thank you all so much for your support.
It means more than you'll ever know.
☾ ☾ ☾
Enid paused in her packing to stretch and pull her hair into a bun.
Looking around the nearly barren room, she felt something rustle between her ribs.
Excitement, worry.
Her week was up.
She fell onto the mattress with a sigh, pulling her phone from underneath a stack of music sheets.
Typing in the numbers she knew by heart, she hummed as the dial tone sounded.
"There's my girl. I was wondering when you'd call." The warm accented lilt of Fiona washed over her.
"Hi, Fi." Her voice was soft as she smiled.
"How are you? How's uni? Are you eating and sleeping enough? Make sure you're taking your vitamins." She immediately began her loving interrogation.
Enid giggled at her matronly concern.
"Yes, yes. I'm doing well. University is great, I've got high scores in all of my classes and its nearly midterms. How are you? How is everyone?" She asked, absentmindedly playing with a loose thread on her sweater.
"Oh, we're the same as always. Everyone sends their love. It's so strange not having you here, the home is so empty. Chef Gareth's wife just got the news that she's having another little boy! We're all quite excited about it. It'll liven the place up again." She could hear the smile in Fiona's voice.
"Awe, how lovely. Please pass along my congratulations. I'll have to send over a little gift for her." Enid said, thinking of the toy shop in the downtown area.
"So, have you met any boys?" Fiona asked mischievously.
"Yes, Fiona. There are many boys in my classes." She laughed at the woman's antics.
"Hush, you know what I meant! Any boys that piqued your interest? Or girls, I guess." She could almost see the older woman's smirk.
Enid sighed as she stared up at the ceiling, trying to find a way to answer.
Her eyes wandered to her cello in the corner and she felt the ghost of Alexander's fingers along her arm.
She didn't want to lie.
Because she definitely was interested in someone.
But it wasn't a boy.
It was three men.
"Yeah, there's someone I've been seeing. He's in my psychology and writing classes. And my music class, too." Enid bit her lip, trying to stay as close to the truth as she could.
Fiona's responding squeal nearly burst her eardrum.
"Tell me all about him, child!!" She urged demandingly.
"Well, he's tall. He's an upperclassman. He's a brilliant musician, writer, and he has the most incredible mind. He knows so much. But I feel like he's out of my league. He's experienced so much in life, while I am just beginning. And there's some social issues that make it so that our relationship is viewed as wrong..." Enid rambled, all her worries tumbling out.
Fiona always had a way of squeezing all her thoughts out of her.
"Social issues?" Fiona asked, confused.
Cursing inwardly, she scrambled to think of something to say.
"Um, because he's a senior and I'm a freshman." She stuttered.
"Ah, I see. Well, little flower, I don't think age should be a problem. If two people truly care for each other, then it doesn't matter. As long as they're both adults, of course. And since you are an adult, my dear, it is completely up to you who you choose to love. As long as he treats you well, I don't care how old he is." Fiona's reassurance meant more to her than she could ever say.
Even though she only thought it was around a four-year age difference, she had still said all the things that Enid had been needing to hear.
"But what if everyone else looks down upon it?" She murmured.
"No one else matters but the individuals in the relationship. As long as you are being loved and cherished, anyone who protests is just jealous and bitter." Her motherly advice wrapped around Enid like a hug.
"I really miss you, Fi." She said, trying to swallow down the tears flooding into her eyes.
"I miss you more than you'll ever know, little dove. You are my sunshine and my bundle of joy." Enid's hold on her tears gave out as a few trickled down her cheek.
Fiona heard the soft sniffles on the other side of the phone and sighed.
"Look out the window." She instructed and Enid sat up to do so.
Her small frame settled on the windowsill beside her bed, taking in the lit campus.
Stars speckled across the sky, a cold Autumn breeze dancing through the trees in the distance.
She thought back to the nights she would spend with Fiona in the observatory, looking at the moon through her father's telescope.
"Can you see the moon, Enid?" Her question startled Enid from the reverie.
"Yes, it's so bright tonight." Her response hushed.
"I'm looking at the exact same moon, my dear. No matter the distance between us, we'll always see the same one." Enid smiled as more tears trailed down her face.
"I love you, Fiona." Her fingers coming up to rest on the freezing windowpane.
"I love you, child. Promise to call me more often." Fiona said gently.
With a promise and a bid goodnight, she hung up the phone.
Turning back to the boxes in her room, she was filled with a renewed strength.
This was what she wanted.
She hadn't noticed it while it was happening, but she had begun to fall in love with these men.
Her heart sliced into three equal areas, one for each of them.
Moving in with them felt right, like it was the next step in their journey together.
They already felt like home to her.
Padding over to her record player, she put on some music to pack to.
She began loading her books into another box when a knock sounded on her door.
Opening the door, she found the three men who had been the center of her thoughts.
Dante leaned against the doorframe; his smirk wide as he took in her polar bear pajamas.
Theodore stood with boxes of pizza in his hands, his face stony but softening as she smiled at him.
Alexander was clutching three beers and a bottle of sprite for her with a large smile.
His perfect teeth gleaming in the fluorescent hallway lights.
"We've come to help you pack, little bird." Dante hip bumped her to the side as he entered her small dorm.
Enid's mind drifted to the last time he was in her dorm.
She slammed the thought process closed.
Her avoidance of any thoughts about the events surrounding the bonfire had become easier with time.
Theodore rolled his eyes at the other man's antics.
"Is it alright if we come in, darling?" He asked politely.
"Of course, thank you!" She stepped further to the side to let the other two men in.
If her dorm had felt small with just Dante, it felt miniscule with all three of them.
"I've sort of been working my way around the room starting with my desk." Enid tried to explain the organized chaos laid across the wooden floor.
"It looks like you've been very busy, angel. Why don't we eat first, that way you can have a break?" Alexander grinned at her as he set the drinks on the counter.
Breathing in the delicious scent of fresh dough and melted cheese, she eagerly agreed.
Dante pulled the desk chair from her bedroom into the kitchen, as she only had two chairs at the kitchen table.
"I don't mind standing and eating. Probably aids digestion anyways." Enid said sweetly, taking the plate of pizza that Dante was handing her.
"No need for that, angel." Alexander chuckled as he pulled her onto his lap, "You'll always have a seat when I'm around."
She blushed as she readjusted her position, one of his arms wrapping around her waist to keep her from falling.
Finally settled, she took a bite of her pizza and sighed in contentment.
"This is the best takeout pizza in the area. It's from the little Italian restaurant in town. Still not nearly as good as mine, but it'll do in a pinch." Dante winked at her.
"It's so good." Her response slightly muffled as she took another massive bite.
"It seems you worked up quite the appetite while packing, Enid." Theodore's dark eyes glimmering in the soft light.
She nodded eagerly in response, leaning over to grab a breadstick from the center of the table.
When they had finished eating, Enid shyly assigned them each with jobs.
Dante was in charge of the books, obviously.
Theodore began packing up her bathroom and Enid tried to hide her blush as he picked up her box of tampons.
Alexander helped her pull the string lights from the wall and took special care to put aside the plant she had bought at the start of the semester and her stuffed panda bear.
By the time midnight arrived, her dorm room looked just as it had the first time she had stepped foot inside it.
The immortals refused her help in carrying her boxes down to the waiting car, instead saying she should do a final check to make sure she had everything.
Turning in a slow circle to look at her empty room, Enid felt as though it was an ending.
The last few lines of a chapter trickling away until it was time to turn the page.
Final notes of a song wafting through the air before another began.
She padded over to the window and took a final glance out at the lit campus beyond.
The room had served her well.
The walls had watched her struggle to adapt to college life, her loneliness and fear at war with her ambitions to start anew.
The desk had overseen countless hours of homework and studying, and a few accidental naps.
Her bed had felt her laughter, soaked up her tears.
This little dorm had watched her grow, watched her begin to fall in love.
Grabbing a pen from her backpack by the door, she stood on the wide window frame.
Up in the corner behind the blinds, she satiated her desire to leave a mark.
Just as she climbed back down, the door reopened.
There, in the bright light streaming through the doorway, were her men.
Each looking at her, their expressions of adoration and care.
She smiled as she walked toward them, stopping to grab her backpack.
"Ready, little one?" Theodore asked, his hand reaching out to grab hers.
"Ready." Enid repeated, sureness filling her.
The window watched as the four silhouettes climbed into the expensive SUV outside.
With a quiet hum, the heater kicked on and filled the silent air.
Bare walls and empty shelves painted in the silver moonlight.
And up in the corner of the window frame, small words were hidden from an untrained view.
Change and change again.
E.M.
☾ ☾ ☾
An ending and a beginning.
Comments fill my heart with joy.
All my love, Sappho ☾