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All things considered, Wednesday was having a very pleasant day. It probably wasn’t very apparent looking at her, but a careful observer would have noticed the relaxed jaw and soft eyes, drawing a slight contrast to her usual tense and upright posture. She was walking back from class to her dorm room after a relatively light day, and she ascended the stairs with the slightest spring in her step. However, when she unlocked her door and set her things down, her jollity gave way to concern.
Enid, her roommate since their freshman year of college, was laying in her bed with an unfocused expression that Wednesday had learned to associate with emotional turmoil. In addition, Enid hadn’t noticed Wednesday entering the room, which further increased her concern. Under normal circumstances, she would have been subjected to a brief yet violent embrace from the blonde soon after putting down her bags.
Wednesday sat down on Enid’s bed by her side.
“Hey, Wednesday.” Enid smiled, and after a moment, sat up. She leaned into her, resting her shoulder against Wednesday’s back but not quite putting her full weight down. “How was class?”
“You are upset,” Wednesday said. She had a tendency to be rather blunt. Thankfully, Enid had been her roommate long enough that she didn’t take offense to the change of subject.
“It’s nothing, really. Just a surprise call from you-know-who.”
Wednesday’s lip curled in disgust. She had made her opinions on Esther Sinclair clear more than once before, but felt that it would be better this time to get Enid to speak. She usually had plenty to say when correctly prompted.
“What did she have to say this time?”
“Oh, you know, just pestering me about my grades, reminding me how much better my brothers are doing at everything, complaining about me going to school here instead of back in California. I told her I like it here, and you can imagine how well that went. She just had to interpret that as me being ungrateful for everything we have at home, and like, I’m not going to tell her this but obviously I would never want to live at home even if I went to UCSF like she wanted, because god knows I’ve had enough of her already.”
Wednesday nodded. “Your baseline mood is indeed more negative when you are at home.”
“Hah, how would you know?” Enid lightly bumped Wednesday with her shoulder, careful not to knock her off the bed.
“When you stayed with Yoko over summer break, you used more positive vocabulary in our texts than you did during previous breaks, as well as-“
“Okay, okay, Detective, I get it.”
Wednesday was a bit upset that Enid didn’t want to hear the rest of her observations, but she moved on in favor of more pressing matters.
“Is there anything you would like me to do?”
“I’ll be fine, Wednesday, besides, you have to go to fencing now, don’t you?”
“My reputation would not greatly suffer from being late to one practice.”
Enid wrapped her arms around Wednesday, squeezed lightly, then laid back down. Wednesday made a conscious effort to relax her shoulders.
“That’s really sweet, Wednesday, but I promise I’m okay. I was just in my head for a bit-“ Enid yawned. “I’ll probably take a nap or something.”
Wednesday nodded, then got up to gather her fencing equipment. Walking to the door, she passed Enid’s bed again, and hesitated.
Enid made a heart out of her hands and smiled. “Go kick Bianca’s butt for me.”
Wednesday nodded and walked out the dorm, locking the door. Even after two years of living together, she had yet to fully adjust to Enid’s affectionate gestures. Hugs were generally predictable, and Enid usually gave her enough advance notice such that she could force herself to react accordingly. Nevertheless, Enid defied all of Wednesday’s attempts to encapsulate her behavior into predictable patterns of physical touch.
Her unpredictability was one of the things Wednesday appreciated about her, but it made her dangerous.
Wednesday had successfully concealed her romantic feelings from Enid for over a year, and the most difficult part was toeing the line between accepting enough of her affections to placate her and maintaining solid boundaries.
At first, the two girls butted heads constantly as they navigated their first semester of college together, but before long, they had become good friends, and with that friendship came a willingness on Wednesday’s part to accept Enid’s constant touch.
Yet a part of her felt guilty at the idea that she might take advantage of Enid’s affectionate nature, deriving pleasure and comfort that was not meant to be given. After all, Enid had only ever shown romantic interest in men in the time Wednesday had known her, and although it had been a while since Enid had actively sought out a romantic partner, Wednesday was nevertheless afraid of disrupting their friendship. She was lucky to have a friend as considerate, attentive, and kindhearted as Enid was.
Even if she yearned for more.
——
Enid tossed and turned in her bed. Despite being super emotionally exhausted from her call with her mom, and despite the fact that she went to bed at, like, 1 a.m. the night before, it was taking a bit of time for her body to get the memo that she needed a nap.
…plus, she felt a little guilty about Wednesday. For one, even with how upset she had been, she was still observant enough to have noticed that she had caught her roommate off guard. She could tell Wednesday was trying to play it cool for her sake, but she still felt a little bad. She tried to convince herself that it wasn’t that big of a deal, though, given that Wednesday had on multiple occasions told her that she didn’t mind.
The slightly bigger problem was that she hadn’t exactly been truthful about what the phone call was about. Well, everything she said was true, her mom did complain about all those things, but what had really upset her was when her mom turned her focus to Wednesday. Apparently Enid had mentioned her one too many times, because all of a sudden her mom had all too much to say about her ‘creepy little roommate’.
She wasn’t even sure why she didn’t bring it up. It wasn’t like Wednesday cared what Enid’s mom, or really anyone for that matter, thought about her — also, she literally hated Enid’s mom.
Enid figured she should probably stop worrying about it. Wednesday probably already knew her mom didn’t like her, and as for the hugging thing, she trusted that Wednesday would tell her if anything made her uncomfortable. Even though she was reluctant to talk about anything involving her emotions, she didn’t seem to have any problems with her boundaries. Enid giggled softly as her mind replayed the memory of when she visited Wednesday at her fencing club. She had been lucky enough to witness the first, and last, time a guy tried to flirt with Wednesday during a club session.
As she drifted off to sleep, Enid idly thought that it was a bit strange how Wednesday hadn’t ever dated anyone since they had known each other. Then again, maybe it wasn’t that surprising given that Wednesday could be… a bit antisocial. She told Enid she didn’t have any friends, which probably wasn’t literally true, but if she didn't know Wednesday better, she might have believed it. At least Wednesday’s lack of a love life meant Enid got to spend lots of time with her. That was always nice.
——
“Absolutely not.”
“Come on, Wednesday, I swear it’s good!”
Wednesday wrinkled her nose. “I keep hoping one day your tastes will improve.”
Enid pouted. “I bet you’ll like it, it has demons, you like demons, right?”
“I like them less when they are singing nauseating pop songs.”
“The songs are the best part!”
Wednesday rolled her eyes, but acquiesced, taking her seat on the floor beside Enid. Despite her complaints, she never truly rejected any of Enid’s selections for movie nights, and unfortunately, it seemed that Enid was well aware of this. To her credit, Enid always tried her best not to pass out when it was Wednesday’s turn to pick the movie, despite her aversion to murder, gore, and ‘creepy ass music’.
Enid pressed the space bar on her laptop and leaned back against her bed, a huge bowl of zebra popcorn in her lap. Wednesday popped a small piece of black licorice in her mouth as the movie began, but her attention did not remain on the movie for very long. As the opening song played, Enid began to bounce and move around while lip-syncing, catching every lyric with ease.
Wednesday forced herself to look away from the other girl’s lips. Enid had a tendency to occasionally monitor Wednesday’s attentiveness when it came to movies she was particularly emotionally attached to.
It turned out to be a very timely decision, as Wednesday felt Enid’s gaze upon her as the scene transitioned from action to dialogue. Wednesday obediently kept her eyes on the laptop as Enid animatedly pointed out various details in the film.
“How many times have you watched this movie, Enid?”
“…I’m not going to tell you.”
Wednesday couldn’t resist the temptation to glance over at her roommate, who looked quite embarrassed. It was rather endearing, in a way. As much as they disagreed in matters of taste, Wednesday found Enid’s dedication to her interests admirable. She held a level of passion that often inspired surprisingly astute analysis, regularly giving Wednesday insightful commentary and-
And she was back to watching Enid instead of the movie. She quickly reasserted control over her body, turning back to watch what Wednesday assumed to be the inciting incident of the film’s plot. She felt as though she could already predict the rest of the story’s events, but that didn’t bother her as much as it might have. She always appreciated the tension brought about by inevitability. She was a bit less pleased when the obvious male love interest made his appearance, however. Especially when Enid made a small comment about his physical appearance.
…Regardless, she was determined to enjoy the movie as much as she could.
——
Enid sniffled as the movie’s climatic number came to an end.
“They just love each other so much…”
“Yes, the power of friendship prevails once again.”
Enid scoffed and bumped her shoulder against Wednesday’s.
“Come on, aren’t you even a little moved?”
Wednesday didn’t respond, so Enid sulked a bit and scrounged through her bowl of popcorn kernels for anything edible.
“…I did enjoy the movie. Its exploration of self-hatred and generational trauma was surprisingly well-executed.”
Enid turned to her and smiled wide enough for Wednesday to see the popcorn stuck in her teeth.
“I told you it was good!”
Enid tried not to take it too personally when Wednesday didn’t like her movies, but she couldn’t help being disappointed sometimes when her roommate didn’t see what she saw in them. This time, though, she reveled in her accomplishment. She hadn’t been able to find a movie that would make Wednesday cry yet, but she had been watching her carefully after the big twist, and she swore she saw Wednesday holding her breath, so that counted as a win.
Movie nights always made Enid feel closer to her roommate, and for a moment, she thought about how lucky she was that Wednesday wanted to do these things with her. Oh, sure, Wednesday complained sometimes about ‘frivolous traditions’, but it was on nights like these that Enid could tell the other girl really did care about her.
Though, part of that feeling of closeness might have come from the fact that Enid had been staring Wednesday in the face for a bit too long. Oops. She did that sometimes when she was thinking about Wednesday, and then she would say-
“You are staring.”
Yeah, that. It was a little embarrassing, but Enid couldn’t help zoning out sometimes. Anyway, she eventually looked away and got up off the floor. Or tried to.
“Owwwww, Wednesday help me up,” Enid complained as her numb leg buzzed. She reached out her hand to Wednesday, who had already stood up, and the other girl curled her lip at the sight of Enid’s sticky chocolate-covered fingers. Enid pouted a bit, but stuck out her other hand.
“Seriously, how are your legs not asleep, we’ve been here for like two hours, ugh.”
“We have been sitting for just over 90 minutes, and my legs are perfectly functional, as always, because I do not sit with a suboptimal weight distribution like you do.”
“There’s no way you have a special technique for sitting on the-“
She was interrupted by her phone making a loud pinging sound. Enid fumbled her phone out of her pocket with her non-chocolately hand and opened the message.
“Agnes says ‘party at my dorm. drinks and snacks, bring wednesday xoxo’.”
“Tell her I’d rather die.”
“You’re so mean to her.”
Wednesday arched an eyebrow. “Didn’t you call her a ‘creepy psycho stalker’?”
Enid sat down to text her back. “That was before we were friends, silly.”
“I’m not going.”
Enid looked up from her phone and pouted silently.
“I have no desire to be around inebriated teenagers when I could be resting-“
“Come on, it’s Friday, and it’s not even that late! You’re lucky I picked a short movie.”
Wednesday scowled. “Enid.”
“Wednesday.”
“Absolutely not.”
“It’ll be fun,” Enid said, and punctuated the statement with a playful wink.
Wednesday stared at her.
After a moment, her shoulders dropped as she let out a dramatic sigh.
“…Very well.”
——
Despite what she might have told anyone who asked, Wednesday did have a bit of a soft spot for Agnes. She admired how the young girl manipulated others through careful observation, uncovering their weaknesses and exploiting them to expand her social circle. Depending on the circumstances, Agnes could be a fawning sycophant, a reliable confidante, or a vulnerable young girl.
With Wednesday, unfortunately, she had committed to playing the thoroughly unwanted role of a wingwoman. Despite Wednesday never acknowledging her feelings for Enid, let alone telling anyone about them, Agnes had clearly jumped at the opportunity to get them drunk at a party together.
Naturally, Wednesday refused to play along, so Enid was the one practically bouncing around Agnes’ apartment suite, singing along to inane pop songs and somehow befriending everyone there. Wednesday sat in an armchair in the corner, watching Enid with bemused curiosity and everyone else with thinly-veiled disgust. Her gloomy demeanor and refusal to leave her chair kept most of the partygoers away from her, but of course, she wouldn’t remain so lucky forever.
“Hey.” A fairly tall boy with long brown hair had walked up to her. She glared at him.
Undeterred, he took a sip of an edgy-looking canned drink, then stared at her.
“I’m Xavier. What brings you here?”
“None of your business,” Wednesday said, then regretted it as he smiled.
“Aw, don’t be like that. Why don’t you come- ow!”
Xavier stumbled as Enid bumped into him harshly, stumbling and catching herself against the wall next to Wednesday's chair.
“SORRY! I’m sor- oh em gee Wednesday! You should come dance-“
“No.”
“-it’s sooooo fun, and the punch is really good, Agnes got that blood orange flavor I told her about, you remember, the one from… uh, I don’t remember where.”
Enid continued rambling, giving Wednesday a list of everything she had drank in chronological order, telling her a bunch of names she resolved to forget as soon as possible, and thankfully completely ignoring Xavier.
Wednesday watched her intently, nodding when appropriate and joining Enid in ignoring Xavier. After about two minutes of not being acknowledged by either girl, he walked off.
“-and, like, apparently her boyfriend was two-timing her so they broke up and before he moved out he invited his other girlfriend over to their shared apartment??? Isn’t that sooo crazy, and like, after that, she…”
Enid trailed off as she looked down into Wednesday’s eyes, then down to her lips, then all the way down her dress, and then she stared at the floor for a bit before snapping back up to meet Wednesday’s gaze.
“You should come dance with me!” Enid yelled, her control over her volume long destroyed by the alcohol.
“I would rather not.”
“Pleeeeease, Wednesday?”
Wednesday blinked. Truthfully, the idea of dancing with Enid made her stomach crawl. In part, because her dancing experience was limited mostly to ballroom dances that she had been forced to partake in by her overly excitable father. In part, because going out into the living room would result in her likely bumping into a lot of sweaty, intoxicated, and overly loud teenagers.
In part, because she would be dancing with Enid Sinclair, whose unpredictability was heightened by her likely excessive alcohol consumption, therefore almost inevitably overwhelming Wednesday with her affections. She steeled herself to reject Enid. However upset it might make her, she knew she could not risk it.
“Enid, go have fun without me. I’m sure you can find someone else to dance with.”
Enid pouted and leaned down, grabbing both of Wednesday’s hands in her.
“But I wanted to dance with youuu, Wednesday. Pretty please?”
Enid’s eyes watered dangerously. Wednesday felt her resolve crumble around her and fall to the floor. She sighed.
“Fine.”
Enid cheered, abruptly pulling Wednesday up by their joined hands with surprising speed. Wednesday caught herself before she tumbled straight into the taller girl. Enid let go of one hand, leading Wednesday by the other to the drink table. She snatched a cup of punch, and moved to take a sip.
“Enid, don’t you think you’ve had enough already?”
Enid rolled her eyes, but stopped drinking. “Party pooper. Drink it for me?”
Wednesday gave her an incredulous look.
“It’s basically, like, juice, there isn’t that much alcohol I swear. I know you don’t wanna get drunk or anything, don’t you worry, bestie.”
Wednesday very slowly took the cup from her, and reluctantly took a sip. She shuddered.
“I think I would prefer to drink actual blood.”
Enid giggled and tried to take the cup back, but Wednesday pulled her hand away. After some quick thinking, she put the cup to her lips and emptied it.
“No more alcohol for you tonight, Enid Sinclair. You have had entirely too much.”
Enid tried to look annoyed, but a wide smile broke out on her face after not too long. She dragged Wednesday across the room, closer to where Agnes’s bluetooth speakers were blaring away. Enid finally dropped her hand, then proceeded to raise her arms and start… dancing.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m dancing, sillyyy. Come on, like this.”
Wednesday allowed Enid to move her arms around as though she were a ragdoll, or a cat in one of those dance videos Enid always insisted on showing her. It was… tolerable. A bit awkward, especially when Enid moved one of her arms in a direction that it surely was not intended to move in, but otherwise, Enid seemed satisfied with their ‘dancing’. Inevitably, someone bumped into Enid, pushing her into Wednesday, and Enid instinctively let go of her arms and wrapped her arms around her roommate. Wednesday stumbled and grunted in surprise before catching herself and slowly pushing Enid off of her.
Wednesday felt eyes upon her, and glanced around the room. She met Agnes’s gaze. The younger girl was standing in a corner on her phone, looking at Wednesday with a wide-eyed, evil grin. Wednesday glared at her.
“Mmm, whatcha looking at, roomie?” Enid slurred. She exaggeratedly turned around to follow Wednesday’s gaze, then waved excitedly at Agnes, who smiled and waved back before going back to looking at her phone.
After another minute or so of Enid bouncing around and Wednesday watching her bounce around, the upbeat music from Agnes’ speakers gave way to a slower tune in 3/4, sung by some male pop singer whose name Wednesday couldn’t recall. Enid lit up and started shaking Wednesday’s hands vigorously.
“Oh my god Wednesday let’s dance!! And you can’t say no because I knowwww you know all those fancy dances so you have to dance with me!”
This was exactly why Wednesday should have stayed in the armchair. She made a mental note to somehow get revenge on Agnes for putting her in this situation, then wracked her brain for any possible way to reject Enid without leaving room for counterarguments or raising any questions that she might find difficult to answer.
“Hey.”
Wednesday snapped her attention towards the boy who had just walked up to Enid and was blatantly ogling her. Without any conscious thought, her hand was placed possessively to Enid’s waist, yanking the taller girl closer to her as she gave the boy a withering glare. He quickly found someone else to bother.
Enid giggled and put her hand on Wednesday’s shoulder, then started swaying back and forth.
“Enid, stop flailing around,” Wednesday grumbled. “Just follow my lead.”
Enid took her hand off Wednesday’s shoulder just long enough to give a goofy salute, then settled into the dance. Wednesday led her around in a simple box step, taking care not to trip over any cans on the floor, and gradually fell into the rhythm with Enid. The surrounding area and people in Agnes’ cramped apartment melted away, and Wednesday met Enid’s eyes. On impulse, she guided the taller girl into an underarm twirl, scoffing bemusedly when Enid almost tripped and fell on the way back into her hold.
“Wednesday, did I ever tell you that I, like, super love your dimples, like they’re soooo cute I love it when you smile even though I like never see it, you know? Or maybe it’s because of that, I dunno. Like it’s more special that way.”
Wednesday became aware that she was smiling, and fixed her expression with a scowl. “I do not have dimples.”
“Whatever you say, bestie,” Enid teased.
Wednesday rolled her eyes.
After another minute or so, the music mercifully changed back to something more upbeat, and Enid took her hand off Wednesday’s shoulder. An annoyingly insistent part of her brain mourned the loss. Not for long, however, because Enid soon dragged them over to the couch and plopped down, mouth breaking wide open in a deep yawn.
“Get up, Enid,” Wednesday said, “I did not agree to a sleepover.”
Enid rolled her eyes, but allowed Wednesday to pull her up off the couch. Grumbling, she walked with Wednesday over to the corner where Agnes was chatting away with one of her roommates.
“We’re leaving,” Wednesday said curtly. Agnes took a conspicuous glance at Enid’s hand, which had been firmly joined with Wednesday’s for about five minutes at this point.
Enid, oblivious, gave Agnes an awkward side-hug and mumbled something about the party being nice.
“Enid, you can let go of my hand.”
“I don’t wanna.”
And that more or less settled that. Thankfully, Enid had sobered up enough that Wednesday wouldn’t have had to carry her home, but as they walked out of Agnes’ apartment and made their way home, Enid refused to let go of her. Even when Wednesday tried to relax her hand and let it fall limply out of Enid’s hand, Enid seemed oblivious and maintained an iron grasp. So, she resigned herself to holding hands with her. Enid could be rather clingy at times, it turned out. Wednesday’s traitorous pulse quickened at the thought, some amount of pride coursing through her body at the idea that Enid wanted to cling to her. She forced herself to smother the thought and bury it.
The hardest part of the situation was that for once, Enid wasn’t talking. Seemingly overtaken by fatigue, she was content to let Wednesday ruminate over the night’s events in silence. Wednesday felt, briefly, that it was rather cruel of her.
Wednesday opted for the elevator for rather obvious reasons, and before long, they were back in their room. They brushed their teeth together in silence, Enid finally letting go of Wednesday’s hand, then they walked towards their beds. Before Wednesday could lay down, though, Enid trapped her in a light embrace.
“Thanks for coming tonight, Wednesday, I had sooooo much fun.”
And then Enid did something that Wednesday wasn’t sure she would be able to forgive. She leaned down slightly and pressed her lips to Wednesday’s cheek, and before she could react, or move, or think, Enid had already laid down in bed.
“G’night Wednesday, love you…”
Before long, she was snoring.
“…goodnight, Enid,” Wednesday whispered, a bit hoarsely, then sat down on her own bed. The hugs, the drink, the dance, the hands, the kiss — it all came to her at once, and molten shame overtook her, followed by anger.
Agnes had made a fool of her, and Enid had made a mess of her.
She clenched and unclenched her fists as she tried in vain to regain control over her heart. Wednesday was ashamed of herself for allowing Enid to care for her so blatantly all night. She was disgusted with herself for allowing herself to like it. And worst of all, she was afraid that if given the chance, she would do it all over again.
And of course, her eyes had wandered back to the sleeping girl, as they were wont to. She tore them away and laid down, placing her arms on her chest. Wednesday squeezed her eyes shut, but sleep did not take her for a long time.
She could still feel Enid’s lips on her cheek.
——
Enid groaned as she tried to rub all the fuzz from her eyes. It had been a good minute since she had drank that much, and she was very glad it was a Saturday.
“Ugh, Wednesday?”
There was no response. Enid turned to look, and Wednesday’s bed was empty. That wasn’t really that uncommon, though, Wednesday sometimes liked to go to the library or the music room to work on whatever. Enid craned her neck a bit more, and yeah, the cello was gone, so Wednesday was probably just practicing. Enid kinda wished she would just practice in the dorm, but they’d probably get a noise complaint or something.
Also, Enid had a pretty bad headache, so maybe that would be a bit too loud for now. Who knew that getting wasted on a stomach full of mostly popcorn and chocolate would be a bad idea?
She ignored the pounding in her head and stumbled out of bed to the mini fridge and grabbed some Gatorade, then fumbled around in her desk for some ibuprofen.
She then flopped back onto her bed and pulled out her phone. There were a couple messages from her mom, which she didn’t really want to open, about fifty from Yoko that she didn’t quite feel awake enough to dig into yet, and a few from Agnes. Enid cocked her head curiously. She hoped that she hadn’t done anything super embarrassing at the party, but why else would Agnes have texted her? The timestamp looked like it was from right after they would have left, so she just had to hope Agnes wasn’t mad at her. She really liked Agnes. Well, actually at first she thought Agnes was weird and creepy for kinda stalking Wednesday and also probably everyone else at the party, but she had eventually figured out that Agnes just wanted people to like her, and Enid kinda got that. Nowadays, Agnes was working a bit on being more herself, at least when she was with Enid, though ‘herself’ was still a bit weird and creepy, but like, in an open and endearing way. So that was an improvement.
Anyway, she opened Agnes’ texts, and frowned.
“looks like u had lots of fun tonight”
“get home safe x”
Enid wasn’t sure if Agnes was trying to tease her, or if she was being overly cryptic about something, or if she literally just meant that it looked like Enid had fun. She thought back to the party. She remembered getting there and seeing Wednesday immediately ditch her to go sit in a corner, which was pretty typical and didn’t bother her that much, she liked knowing that Wednesday was in the room and getting to look over at her once a while even if they weren’t talking, but then it started to get a little fuzzy. She remembered talking to Agnes a bunch, and drinking a lot of punch, then seeing some ugly annoying ass guy talking to Wednesday and feeling jealousy writhe inside her and-
Pause. Not jealousy, Enid was just protective of her roommate, and like she knew Wednesday was obviously way too attractive for that guy from the party, like, objectively speaking.
Then she remembered asking Wednesday to dance. Remembered Wednesday taking her punch from the cup she already drank from and letting it stain her lips the slightest red color. Remembered the dance. The twirl. The hands.
The kiss.
Oh no.
Oh, no, no, no.
This was really, really bad.
This wasn’t a crush, right? Because Enid had had crushes, well, she hadn’t for a while, but she used to get crushes on random guys from her classes occasionally, and like, okay, she didn’t always have the best taste, but sometimes they were cute, okay?
Nope. There was no way. Enid could absolutely not have a crush on her amazing roommate who was also her bestie that she lived with. No way. She didn’t even like girls that way? Probably?
She remembered Wednesday’s hand on her waist.
Fuck. Maybe she did.
She quickly opened Yoko’s texts on her phone, and completely ignored them, sending her own messages frantically.
‘YOKO’
‘EMERNRFGY’
‘FEELINGS EMERGEBCY’
‘CALL ME’
‘HELPPPOP’
She threw her phone down and buried her face in her pillow. After a minute of getting no response, she sighed and emerged, scrolling through all the texts Yoko had sent her before. Maybe if she just reacted to every single message it would annoy her into responding.
Nope, didn’t work. Enid gave up and started actually responding to her messages properly. Everything was going to be fine. She did not have a crush on her roommate and if she did she would just pretend she didn’t until she didn’t and everything would be-
Enid’s phone rang. She answered it and quickly put the phone up to her ears.
“Yoko how did you know you liked girls??!?”
There was a pause. Then Enid had to move the phone away from her ears because Yoko’s hysterical laughter was making her head hurt. She grumbled and put Yoko on speaker.
“Stop laughing and answer me!”
Yoko took a deep breath.
“The same way I knew you liked girls. Gay ass.”
“I am not- fuck, maybe I am I don’t knowwwww.”
Yoko sighed. “Oh, boy. What happened?”
Enid groaned and rolled onto her back.
“Last night Agnes invited Wednesday and I to her dorm for one of her parties and like I maybe got a tiny bit white girl wasted and this guy was talking to her and I got super angry and ran over and made her drink punch and dance with me and then we went home and I maybe might have kissed her and passed out-“
“You kissed her and you’re still confused?”
Enid jolted. “On the cheek! I kissed her on the cheek I wouldn’t just like, do that that’s super…”
She fell silent, suddenly overcome with a vision of her roommate’s lips. She thought about what it might be like if she did. If she had Wednesday’s hands on her hips, pulling her closer. If she-
“Enid? Earth to Enid?”
“What???”
Yoko chuckled. “I can’t believe it took you this long to realize how down bad you are for her.”
Enid’s eyes bugged out a little bit at that. “What do you mean??? I have definitely not been down bad-“
“Girl, are you for real? I swear you haven’t shut up about her since you met her. You literally talked to her almost as much as you talked to me over summer. When you were living in my house.”
“Okay, that’s an exaggeration. I talk about her a normal amount, I literally live with her.”
Yoko sighed. “Whatever you say, Enid. You talk about her like you used to talk about the guys you went out with, which, by the way, you haven’t done in like a year and a half. Wonder what that’s about, huh?”
Enid flushed. “Maybe I just have more self-worth now.”
“Sure.”
“I just had better things to worry about! Plus why would I need a boyfriend when I have Wednes- ohhhhhhhhhh.”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
“To be honest, I kinda wondered sometimes if you two were, like, already dating. I know you would have told me, but I mean you hang out together all the time, you have movie dates-“
“They are not dates!” Enid squeaked.
“Yeah, but you’d like them to be, don’t you?” Yoko fired back without hesitation.
“Ugh, Yoko you don’t get it. Wednesday, like, hates romance, and even if she didn’t she would never like someone like me, like we’re literally polar opposites. I can’t have a crush on her because it would literally ruin everything we have, and I just…”
Enid trailed off as all the adrenaline and euphoria of her feelings melted away, and she felt a feeling of hopelessness settle at the realization that this crush was something she would actually have to deal with.
“Enid, I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“No, Yoko, it won’t! I probably definitely violated her boundaries last night and she totally hates me now!”
“Slowww down, girl. I assume you’re freaking out because she’s not home? And you think she’s, like, mad at you for kissing her cheek?”
“Yeah. I mean I know she’s just out practicing right now but I just-“
“Have you tried talking to her?”
“Well, no, I kinda just woke up-“
“Girl, you’ll be fine. If she was mad at you, I’m pretty sure you’d know. I swear you two bicker like an old married couple, the amount of sexual tension on your FaceTime calls-“
“Stoppp, we do not have ‘sexual tension’, she’s just like that.”
Enid could practically hear Yoko’s eyebrows shooting off her face.
“Is she ‘just like that’ with her other friends?”
“Ugh, I can’t stand you,” Enid grumbled.
“Come on, at least think about it. I’m not saying you have to confess your undying gay love just yet-“
Enid rolled her eyes.
“-but you should at least give her a chance instead of just making assumptions.”
Enid reluctantly pondered Yoko’s words. Technically, she had a point. From what Enid could remember, hadn’t really gotten angry with her at the party, and she hadn’t left a note saying that she hated Enid and wanted to move out or anything like that, so she probably wasn’t too upset about it. Enid frowned, though, as she thought about it more and realized that maybe Wednesday was, like, letting Enid overstep her boundaries to maybe spare her feelings? It didn’t seem like a particularly Wednesday thing to do, but she was probably definitely Wednesday’s best friend so maybe she was worried Enid would be mad if she said no? And Enid was pretty drunk so it’s not like she would have noticed any signs that her roommate was uncomfortable, so she probably really made her uncomfortable. Shit.
“Oh, god, Yoko do you think maybe she let me do all that stuff because she like thought I’d get mad at her-“
“Girl, are you listening to yourself? Isn’t she like the most stubborn person ever?”
“But-“
“Enid. The only way to know for sure is to just talk to her.”
“…okay but that’s scary.”
“Mhm. Tough.”
Enid sighed. “Yeah, yeah, fine, I’ll talk to her when she gets home.”
Yoko hummed appreciatively. They talked for a bit after that, and Enid heard all about Yoko’s new least favorite professor, a bit about a new cafe she had discovered, and way, way more information about her and Divina’s relationship than she really wanted to know. At least if Enid ended up somehow getting a girlfriend, she wouldn’t be flying completely blind.
As they said their goodbyes and hung up, Enid lingered on that thought. Girlfriend. She tried to think about what it might be like to have a girlfriend, but her hypothetical girlfriend image just kept getting replaced with Wednesday any time she tried to think about it. Which, to be fair, did at least answer the question of her crush pretty definitively. She could never get very deep in her imagination, though, like some part of her just felt a bit weird about it? Well, not just weird, kind of guilty, like she was somehow violating Wednesday’s boundaries by thinking about her that way.
Then she realized that was a bit silly, and that thoughts could just be thoughts and they couldn’t hurt anyone so she might as well just relax about it.
She closed her eyes and thought about dancing.
She remembered dancing with Wednesday, so that part of the scene wasn’t too hard to fill in, even though she was kinda tipsy at the time so she didn’t really remember everything clearly, but she remembered Wednesday smiled at some point? That should have been surprising, but she knew Wednesday liked that kind of fancy dancing so it made sense. But in her mind, she imagined the dance a bit differently. She imagined that she was following Wednesday’s lead a bit better, and that she let Wednesday twirl her around, then when she turned back, she saw her smile. Saw her smile at her in a way that she couldn’t possibly have in reality, but in her mind, she imagined that Wednesday looked slightly up at her as she smiled, and that her eyes sparkled with a bit of humor, and a bit of love. She smiled back, of course, and continued the dance.
Enid let herself get lost in the daydream, her breaths slowing but her pulse quickening. In her mind, Wednesday looked at her like she was beautiful. They moved perfectly in sync. And when the dance ended, Wednesday moved her hands up around the back of Enid’s neck, stood up on her toes, and… she could practically feel soft lips on her own.
Her eyes shot open, but, of course, there was nothing there but the ceiling. Her hand was resting on her chest, and she could feel her heart pounding as her stomach twisted and hollowed out inside her. She suddenly felt very, very alone, and a bit empty in a way that she hadn’t felt since, well… since summer.
She closed her eyes again. “Shit,” she whispered. It seemed like Yoko was right after all. She had apparently had a crush on her roommate this whole time without even knowing it. Oops. On the bright side, since her feelings hadn’t technically really changed, surely she could just act like everything was normal and Wednesday would never notice. What could go wrong?
——
Wednesday cursed as she stopped playing her cello, letting her hand lay limp at her side. The tip of her bow clattered and tapped against the ground. For whatever reason, her other hand was refusing to cooperate with her, and she was getting rather frustrated with her inability to play properly.
She raised up her bow again and got into playing position, then paused. She raised her bow up further, and as swiftly as she could, jabbed it over her shoulder. She had felt the presence behind her, and her suspicions were confirmed when they dodged her bow, making only a slight noise with their footsteps. She sighed.
“What do you want, Agnes?”
The other girl gave her own sigh and walked into view. Wednesday ignored her, busying herself by practicing the fingerings that had been causing her trouble.
“Just checking on my favorite upperclassman. And here I was thinking you’d be happy to see me. Last night went well, I thought?"
“Yes, your plan to humiliate and torment me seems to have been a resounding success.”
“Oh come on, didn’t you have a little bit of fun? Plus, Enid was all over you-“
“Yes, and it was excruciating.” Wednesday’s normally monotone delivery gave way to a hint of suppressed anger.
Agnes frowned. “But… don’t you like her?”
Wednesday finally turned to look at her, grating her teeth. “Of course I do, Agnes. As you know quite well, and I don’t appreciate you playing the fool.”
Agnes narrowed her eyes slightly, avoiding Wednesday’s gaze. “I really wasn’t trying to upset you, I don’t- wait. You believe that your feelings are unrequited.”
“If you’re just going to keep standing here stating the obvious, then go away and let me practice.” Wednesday’s words sounded petulant and immature, even to her, but she hadn’t quite recovered from the previous night, and having Agnes show up to rub salt in the wound put her off balance.
“But she likes you!”
Wednesday’s eyes widened.
“What are you talking about?” She snapped. “Enid is only interested in males, and even if she weren’t, she would not have any romantic interest in me.”
“And when’s the last time you saw her with a boy?” Agnes fired back.
“Irrelevant. How did you even come to that ridiculous conclusion?”
“She told me.”
Wednesday paused. Then scowled. “No, she didn’t.”
Agnes adopted what could be called a ‘shit-eating grin’. “No, but you believed me for a moment. Besides, it’s so obvious just from the way she looks at you. I was watching last night, you know.”
“Yes, you’re always watching,” Wednesday grumbled. “Because of which, you should know very well that Enid is a very physically affectionate person and feels the need to inflict that affection on others constantly. You should also know that she spent quite a long duration of time making inane conversation with your other guests.”
“She didn’t dance with any of them.”
Wednesday pursed her lips. “I have no need for speculation on this matter, nor do I entertain false hopes. This conversation is over.”
Agnes sighed, and started walking back in the direction she came. Wednesday felt uncharacteristically vulnerable at the moment, and felt in need of solitude in order to get her thoughts in order. However, she was not so stubborn as to realize that Agnes hadn’t meant to hurt her, and that it may have been an unfair assumption for her to make of the younger girl.
“…Agnes,” she called out. She didn’t turn to look, but the cessation of footsteps indicated that she had been heard.
“I… appreciate the intention. Though I don’t quite agree with your conclusions.”
Agnes hummed in response. “Think about it. Maybe you’ll surprise yourself.”
Then she was gone, and Wednesday was alone in the practice room. She set her bow on her music stand, laid her cello on its side, and crossed her arms.
Whatever else she could say about Agnes, she knew that her skills of observation were well above average, as evidenced by her effective use of those skills to gain popularity. She had also somehow gained a certain aptitude in deciphering Wednesday’s moods, something that, aside from Enid, few she had ever met were able to accomplish. Wednesday found the idea that Enid could have romantic feelings for her preposterous, of course, so she was having trouble figuring out why Agnes might have come to that conclusion. It seemed that her argument was based on an assumption that Enid preferred Wednesday over others for physical contact, and this assumption was… not entirely invalid. They were close friends, but from their video calls during the summer, she knew that Enid was also physically affectionate with Yoko, who was also a close friend of hers. Agnes, of course, would not know this, so her judgement was flawed.
…Or was it? Wednesday frowned. Agnes might not know much about Yoko in particular, but neither was she completely ignorant when it came to Enid. She had implied knowledge of Enid’s recent dating history, or lack thereof, and as one of Enid’s new friends, she had been on the receiving end of Enid’s touchiness herself. Wednesday even admitted to herself that she, at times, lacked understanding of certain social cues, especially when it came to unfamiliar social situations, most notably those arising from interactions with other people who did not dislike her.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t reach the same conclusion that Agnes had, as much as she might have temporarily enjoyed such a delusion. While she couldn’t truthfully claim to perfectly understand Enid’s mind, she was able to compare her empirical observations of Enid’s behavior, and while Enid had become closer to her over time, Enid’s desire to be closer had been a constant in her life since long before Agnes knew her. Before, in fact, Enid had seemingly given up on dating, so despite Agnes’ insinuations, Wednesday was likely an irrelevant factor in that decision.
Her logic carved a well-worn path in her mind, and it led to the same conclusion: Wednesday would have to keep her feelings hidden.
But even as she resolved to carry on as normal, an insistently contrarian part of her mind rejected such surety. It demanded that she keep an open mind to what Agnes had told her. It picked and prodded at her resolve, tempting her to investigate the matter, telling her that next time she had the chance, she should find out just how Enid looked at her, as Agnes had said.
She scoffed. There was no sense in getting lost in saccharine daydreams. Unfortunately, there was no sense in continuing to practice either, with her mind in such a state. At the rate she was going, her bow was liable to warp before she ever picked it up again. She sighed, and put her bow and cello away. Dvořák would have to wait for another day.
Wednesday did not leave, though, instead sitting back down once her cello was back in its case. Some irrational part of her ached at not being able to go back to her dorm, and regretted not having stayed to take care of Enid, who was undoubtedly nursing a hangover, but the more reasonable parts of her mind reminded herself that Enid was an adult who could take care of herself, and that it might not be wise to be around her roommate for a while. The longer she stayed out, though, the more she dreaded the possibility of Enid questioning her.
A thought occurred to her. She removed her phone from her pocket, noting the time, and unlocked the device. There were no notifications. That had been the norm for most of her life, as the only people who contacted her were her family, and she had muted their incessant messages from the family chat a long time ago. However, at some point in their friendship, Enid had successfully badgered her into creating a social media account, which she used as a medium to share with Wednesday all manner of social media posts, videos, and relatively unimportant messages. Enid was understanding of Wednesday’s reluctance to use the application, and had assisted her in disabling its notifications, but Wednesday eventually figured out how to let them through if and only if they were from Enid, and not her insufferable classmates, or the cretins Enid referred to her friends. As such, it was strange not to see any notifications. Given her predictions of when Enid would wake, there should have been at least a couple hours’ worth of messages.
A hollowness tore through her at the thought that perhaps Enid was uncomfortable with the events of the previous night, and regretted her closeness to Wednesday. Or perhaps she was upset with her for leaving her alone?
Wednesday grimaced. Her mind had apparently abandoned her to wallow in contradictory self-flagellation.
Making an effort to think clearly, she reminded herself that there were many possible reasons for Enid not to be bothering her, and moreover that it did not matter what the reason was as if there was anything wrong, she would inevitably find out when she returned to the dorm.
Which, she thought, she should probably do soon, before Enid became suspicious.
——
Enid tried not to jump when she heard the door open. Her thoughts had been going in circles about Wednesday for hours, completely preventing her from getting any of her homework done. Not that she really needed to do homework on a Saturday, normally she would have waited until, like, 8 pm the next day, but she couldn’t exactly just lay in bed daydreaming about her roommate.
Well, she could, and she did for a while but then she got sad and nervous and decided it was better to distract herself. But she didn’t listen to music because her head still kinda hurt, and she didn’t really want to talk to anyone, so here she was doing homework and panicking about Wednesday and here Wednesday was-
“What are you doing?”
Enid jumped a bit in her seat and snapped to face Wednesday.
“Wednesday! Hey! Didn’t see you come in!” She lied.
Wednesday furrowed her eyebrows. “You are acting strange.”
Enid pursed her lips. So much for playing it cool.
“Nope! Just have a headache, you know, maybe I had a bit too much punch, haha…” Definitely not playing it cool.
Wednesday gave her a look she couldn’t quite figure out, then turned away. “Yes, you were quite… tipsy.”
Well. Shit. They were gonna talk about it. Enid groaned. “I’m really sorry, Wednesday.” she started. Wednesday was already sitting down at her desk, but Enid knew she was listening from the way her hands stilled. “I shouldn’t have drank that much, I was kinda out of control and I was totally doing too much last night, and… I don’t know, I’m sorry?”
There was a bit of an awkward pause after that. Normally Wednesday would have reassured her, or scolded her, or said literally anything. Enid started to panic, and opened her mouth to try and somehow make things better, but she was interrupted.
“…You regret your actions from last night.”
“What?”
Enid scrunched up her face in confusion. That wasn’t at all what she had expected. And, like, technically it was true, because she regretted forcing Wednesday into it and making her uncomfortable, but it didn’t really sound like that’s what she meant. And Wednesday wasn’t exactly making it easy for her. She just kept still at her desk and refused to elaborate. It didn’t even look like she was breathing.
Enid got up from her desk and walked across the room.
“I just meant, like, I was having a bit too much fun and I wasn’t really thinking about your boundaries, and I know you’re totally repulsed by touching me or whatever-“
“Don’t be absurd, I-” Wednesday started, then clamped her mouth shut.
Enid sat at the foot of Wednesday’s bed, right in front of the other girl, who was very obviously ignoring her.
“You what?”
“Nothing.”
“Come on, Wednesday, I told you I’m sorry.”
“Then there is nothing to discuss. You can return to your studies.”
She wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but suddenly Enid was very sure that Wednesday was bullshitting her. She wasn’t as sure anymore that Wednesday was mad at her, though she was starting to get a little bit irritated herself.
“Clearly there’s something to discuss if you’re acting like this.”
“Leave me alone, Enid.”
“No. I’ll leave you alone when you tell me what's wrong.”
Enid winced as she heard Wednesday’s teeth grinding.
“I am simply fatigued because of that ridiculous event you dragged me to, nothing is wrong,” Wednesday snapped.
Enid was tempted to let it go and just let Wednesday mope, but she knew that she wasn’t going to get any answers unless she pushed. Wednesday had a habit of letting things fester for far longer than they really needed to, and it had led to some pretty nasty fights. Enid, on the other hand, couldn’t stand the idea of letting things linger.
“Oh, don’t give me that,” Enid snapped back. Wednesday finally turned to look at her, glaring, of course. Enid took a deep breath.
“Wednesday, it doesn’t have to be a big deal. I’m not gonna be upset, I already know you aren’t super comfortable with that stuff and I don’t want you to give up your comfort just because I couldn’t keep my hands to myself.”
Wednesday’s jaw clenched. “I would not have let you do anything that overly displeased me.”
“You let me kiss you, I’m sure that displeased you plenty-“
“Will you stop pestering-“
Enid’s self-control snapped. “Oh. My. God, Wednesday! Just tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it!”
Wednesday slammed her hands onto her desk and stood up, turning her entire body to face Enid.
“I’m the one who’s wrong! You can’t fix it! I’m the one who- who takes advantage of your kindness every day! You make me feel like molten glass, like I can’t stay standing without your touch, like I take some perverse pleasure in letting you hold and shape me! You want to know what was wrong with you kissing me? I loved it! That is what was wrong!” Are you happy now, Enid?”
So, it probably went without saying that Enid had missed some things. She sat there, stunned, trying in vain to process Wednesday’s oddly romantic and probably unintentionally suggestive speech, and while she sat on the bed probably gaping like an idiot, Wednesday let out a shaky breath. Her eyes widened, and she looked away from Enid.
Enid tried to force herself to say something, but she kind of just ended up staring at her. Wednesday was clenching and unclenching her hands, and looking more upset and unbalanced than Enid had seen her in a while.
“I apologize for my outburst,” Wednesday said hoarsely, “I should- I…”
Wednesday turned away and started walking towards the door, but Enid’s brain had finally recovered enough for her to stand up and grab her wrist. Wednesday looked back at her and tried to tug her arm away, but Enid held firm. She also gave her the biggest puppy eyes she could. Wednesday gave her a strange look, like she couldn’t decide whether Enid was the cause of all her problems or their solution. In the end, her shoulders dropped and she finally let Enid drag her back to the bed, where they sat down side by side.
“Okay, so that was a lot, and I’m kinda still processing all of it, but it sounds like you’ve been holding that in for a while and I’m really glad you told me so maybe let’s talk about it?”
Wednesday dipped her head slightly, and turned away. Enid couldn’t exactly blame her, though, she was having a bit of trouble looking at her roommate herself. She kept having to remind her pounding heart not to make any assumptions about Wednesday’s feelings — she only just realized her own feelings, so it was probably just wishful thinking when she imagined that Wednesday might want to-
Enid shook herself. She really needed to focus. She put on a brave face, and slowly reached over to take Wednesday’s hand in hers. Wednesday didn’t really react at all, even when she laced their fingers together, which was a bit weird. She looked numb to the world. Enid tried again, squeezing her hand.
“Wednesday, I’m not upset. Really. Like, I’m totally holding myself back right now because I feel like I should probably make sure of a few things first but I just need you to know that I am, like, literally on top of the world right now thinking about giving you more hugs. And also I should probably say that like even though obviously I really like physical touch and it helps me and grounds me that’s not the only reason I do it, you know? It’s also how I show my love.”
Enid finally mustered up her courage and looked at Wednesday, who was still avoiding her gaze.
“It’s not wrong to like it. It actually makes me really happy.”
“Enid,” Wednesday rasped. It came out somewhere between a plea and a warning, but Enid didn’t heed it either way. She stood up, still keeping Wednesday’s hand firmly in hers, and stood in front of her.
“Wednesday Friday Addams. I am going to hug you, and you are going to like it.”
Wednesday looked up at her blankly for a moment, then nodded. Enid squeezed her hand, then pulled her up off the bed. She wrapped her arms around the shorter girl, smiling as Wednesday finally returned the embrace, burying her face in Enid’s shoulder. She raised one of her hands up to the back of Wednesday’s neck and rubbed her thumb back and forth, causing Wednesday to shiver and tighten her grip on Enid.
“Is this okay?”
Wednesday nodded into her shoulder. Enid half-expected her to pull away after a bit, but the hug went on and Wednesday only seemed to get more comfortable.
“Enid, why are you bouncing?”
She couldn’t help it anymore, she squeezed Wednesday even harder and squealed.
“I’m just happy, is that a problem?”
“Sometimes I think that I will never understand you.”
Enid thought Wednesday was being pretty ungrateful for all the amazing love and affection she was being given, so she decided to teach her a lesson. She lowered her arms a bit to get a better grip, squeezed, and picked Wednesday right up off the ground.
“Enid, what are you-”
Enid giggled as she tucked Wednesday’s chin over her shoulder, turned away from the bed, and jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding hitting her head on the headboard as she fell in bed and got Wednesday settled on her chest.
“I cannot believe I’m being manhandled in my own room,” Wednesday grumbled.
“Cry about it, Wednesday. You signed up for this.”
“I am fairly certain I did not.”
“Yeahhhh, but you like it.”
Wednesday didn’t respond, but she did snuggle in a bit. She turned her head so she could see Enid, then laid on her shoulder. Enid was so excited to finally have Wednesday so close to her that she was almost able to ignore how she was totally getting her bad angle. Almost. She instinctually imagined how Wednesday must see her just laying there, and she cringed. That just wasn’t going to cut it.
She lowered her hands to the small of Wednesday’s back, then maneuvered and rolled around until Wednesday was below her, ignoring the other girl’s grumbling at her restlessness. She finally got comfortable then, laying down in a position that let her snuggle into Wednesday’s neck, close enough to just barely hear her pulse. She sighed.
“Is this okay?”
“…yes.” Wednesday answered in a small voice after a good couple seconds of hesitation, and Enid frowned. She reluctantly pulled herself out of her little space over Wednesday’s shoulder, and pushed up a bit so she could meet Wednesday’s eyes.
“It’s okay if it’s not. I know I’m pushing it-“
“No. I… like it.”
Wednesday looked up at her, and the vulnerability in her eyes would have stopped Enid’s heart if that was, like, a thing that could happen. Suddenly, she realized the position that she had put them in. Enid gathered up all the self-control she could to resist the urge to look down at Wednesday’s lips. It didn’t work. And it definitely didn’t help that when she looked back up at Wednesday’s eyes, she just barely caught her staring at her own lips. Maybe. She wasn’t 100% positive, and she knew that her judgement was probably off just because she had just realized her feelings and she hadn’t really been able to fully put the idea of kissing her gorgeous roommate out of her mind all day, but some part of her just ached to give up all self-restraint and just lean in. She really, really wanted to. And even though Wednesday always tended to talk about things in a kind of fancy and vaguely romantic way when she was feeling passionate about something, Enid really had a hard time convincing herself that Wednesday meant it in a strictly platonic way when she said she loved Enid kissing her. It really didn’t seem platonic.
But of course, if that were the case, Wednesday definitely wasn’t going to admit it or make a move. Enid was going to have to be bold enough for both of them.
She braced herself on one hand and moved the other to cup Wednesday’s cheek. The naked adoration she saw in Wednesday’s eyes as she slowly caressed her cheek had her suppressing the urge to make some kind of really embarrassing sappy noise. Enid really had to get a hold of herself, but it was pretty difficult when Wednesday finally brought up her arms to wrap around Enid’s shoulders.
“Is… this okay?”
Enid nodded without breaking eye contact. She was close enough to see Wednesday swallow and hear her breathe in shakily before continuing.
“You said that this is how you show love.”
Enid nodded again.
“You… love me?”
Obviously they both knew that Enid loved her, because she loved her friends and said it all the time, but she knew damn well what Wednesday was really asking. And suddenly, she just couldn’t take it any longer.
Enid felt Wednesday gasp into her lips as they met hers, but before she had time to panic and pull away, Wednesday’s arms were around her neck and she was kissing back, locking her lips neatly around Enid’s lower lip. Enid sighed into the kiss, then pulled away for a moment to rub her thumb against Wednesday’s lips, then leaned back in for more. It felt, somehow, even better than she had imagined that morning.
She finally pulled away again to catch her breath. She saw Wednesday below her, just as breathless, eyes widened, and a tinge of redness in her cheeks. A huge goofy smile took over her face, and she leaned back in to pepper kisses all over her roommate (girlfriend?). Once she was satisfied with the amount of kisses she had given, she gave Wednesday one more peck on the lips and snuggled back into her spot over Wednesday’s shoulder.
“I love you so much, Wednesday.”
“The feeling is mutual,” Wednesday said, still a bit breathless. Enid pouted, even though she supposed Wednesday probably couldn’t see it.
“Okay, you have to say it back, now that we’re- um… dating? If you want that?”
“I did say it back. And why wouldn’t I want that? Do you not want to be in a romantic relationship with me?”
Enid huffed. “Obviously, I want to date you, I was just making sure! And, by the way, you know that doesn’t count.”
Enid let out a small gasp, then sighed as she felt Wednesday’s hand coursing through her hair and gently scratching her scalp.
“I love you too, Enid. More than you might ever know. And I would love to be your girlfriend, if that is what you wish.”
Enid smiled.
“I will admit, though, I am surprised. I did not think you capable of concealing your romantic feelings for me, leading me to assume you did not have any.”
Enid stopped smiling. That was kinda rude.
“Okay, first of all, I’m totally sneaky and secretive, so write that down-“
Wednesday scoffed.
“-and second of all… okay this is kinda really embarrassing but the reason you didn’t know I liked you is because I maybe a little bit also didn’t figure that part out until this morning?”
Wednesday froze for a moment, then continued running her hand through Enid’s hair.
“You wasted no time. Very bold.”
Enid wasn’t really sure if Wednesday was making fun of her or showing her appreciation, so she just assumed it was the second one and chose not to get offended. She also just wanted to change the subject because if she thought any more about the number of times she should have realized her feelings she would probably die of embarrassment.
“What about you, huh? How long have you been angsting over your super secret undying gay love for me?”
Wednesday didn’t seem to appreciate her phrasing, if her making a fist and harshly tugging at Enid’s hair was anything to go by.
“Ow.”
“I was not angsting. Concealing my romantic feelings was the only logical option given your past dating preferences and lack of apparent interest.”
“Okay but how long, though?”
Wednesday fell silent for a moment.
“…it has been sixteen months and nine days since I first realized.”
Enid’s jaw dropped. She reluctantly pulled herself out of her comfy little spot to gape at Wednesday.
“Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack.”
“Wednesdayyyyy…”
“It was the only logical thing to do.”
“The only logical- you should have just told me! We’ve talked about this, Wednesday, it’s not good to bottle everything up-“
“I could not risk losing you as a friend. I did not wish for you to think that I was… taking advantage, or acting with ulterior motives.”
Enid’s heart sank. She leaned in to kiss Wednesday softly, because she was allowed to do that now that they were dating, then laid back down.
“Wednesday, I would never have thought that. Even if I somehow didn’t feel the same- wait, did you think that? Is that what you meant by… oh, Wednesday.”
Enid sighed.
“You’re so silly sometimes. I cannot believe you’ve been pretending not to like hugs for sixteen months and nine days.”
Wednesday scoffed.
“I don’t like hugs. I just like you.”
“Well, you better not get tired of me, then.”
It was meant as a joke, but it held just a hint of insecurity. Enid wasn’t really in the habit of hiding her feelings, and this was one of the many times she wished she could hold it in a bit better like Wednesday could. She didn’t mean to ruin the cute moment they were having, but of course Wednesday noticed and looked at her with an unreadable expression.
“I could never. In fact…”
Wednesday paused, seeming like she was thinking hard about something, then shifted to find Enid’s hand and squeezed gently.
“It is still somewhat shocking to me that you love me in this way. I truly never thought that I would be able to… hold you, like this.”
Enid smiled. “For someone so smart, you really are a bit dumb sometimes.” Wednesday was looking pretty offended at that, so Enid hurried to finish her thought. “I just mean, like, I totally would have been fine with this ages ago. Like, wayyyy more than fine. In fact, I’ve decided I’m mad at you for waiting so long now.”
Wednesday rolled her eyes, but it seemed like she couldn’t hold back a small smile.
“Forgive my boldness, but I believe you will have plenty of time to enjoy this.”
Enid blushed. She could definitely get used to this new side of Wednesday.
——————
Wednesday frowned at her laptop. As she had expected, her assigned partners for her genetics lab were woefully incompetent. To such a degree, in fact, that she resigned herself to spending the rest of the evening revising and re-writing their entire lab report. She hadn’t even made it through the introduction before the painful lack of attention to grammatical convention gave her a headache.
The door clicked and rattled around. Thankfully, it seemed as though she would have a very welcome distraction from her work soon.
Enid opened the door and practically tumbled inside, and Wednesday’s spirits were instantly lifted.
“Hey, babe.”
Wednesday’s lips curled up slightly in response to the term of endearment.
“Hello, Enid.”
“How’s your homework?”
“The prospect of spending my night correcting these imbeciles’ poor English fills me with dread, and not the kind I enjoy.”
Enid sighed and leaned down to kiss Wednesday’s cheek.
“That sucks. Wanna hear about my day?”
Enid sat down on Wednesday’s bed, and it was clear that there was only one possible response to that question. Wednesday partially folded her laptop screen and turned to Enid, giving her her undivided attention.
Enid had been her girlfriend for one month and 13 days, and it was everything Wednesday hadn’t known she needed. Agnes had been predictably smug when she heard the news, but other than that minor inconvenience, their relationship had been and continued to be quite free of any issues. Enid had successfully convinced her to work on improving her communication skills, especially regarding her own feelings, and Wednesday was rewarded with more closeness and affection than she had thought she would ever know what to do with. Their history as close friends and roommates allowed them to sidestep most of the usual growing pains that came with new romantic relationships, and Wednesday felt that it had never been easier to exist around Enid, or perhaps even to exist in general.
Enid gave her usual debrief, explaining in chronological order every single piece of gossip she had heard that day, including cursory profiles of every involved individual that Wednesday hadn’t met yet, followed by a detailed breakdown of everything she had had to eat and drink that day. Enid swore up and down that the cafe she had discovered earlier that day offered ‘literally the best hot matcha I’ve ever had in my life’. Wednesday took her word for it.
Wednesday was listening to Enid tell a story about an amusing incident in her chemistry class involving a great deal of male stupidity when her phone played the notification sound corresponding to a text from her mother. Enid stopped her retelling immediately, and Wednesday started to regret having explained her ringtone categorization system to Enid in great detail. Enid often encouraged her to lessen the distance between herself and her family, and while Wednesday could admit to herself that Enid’s advice was thoughtful and pragmatic, it was still annoying.
Wednesday rolled her eyes and reached for her phone, deciding to forestall the inevitable ‘she doesn’t text you a lot so if she’s texting it’s probably something important and what if someone’s dying Wednesday???’ in lieu of reading her messages.
“My mother has requested that I invite you to the manor over the coming break.”
“Wow, ‘the manor’ you’re such a rich girl, Wednes- wait.”
Enid’s eyes rapidly widened until they were practically bulging.
“Oh, god. Oh, my god. Your parents want to meet me. I’m meeting your parents.”
“Unfortunately.”
Enid glared at her.
“You’re not helping! Oh my god Wednesday what do we do?”
“I don’t understand what you’re asking.”
“Well if I’m going to meet them I have to be ready so I make a good impression and they don’t hate me and tell you to break up with me or something-“
“Enid.”
Wednesday frowned. She supposed she should have anticipated this reaction given Enid’s tendency toward insecurity, but it hadn’t occurred to her that she would be worried about such a thing. Wednesday felt that it was fairly obvious that her family would love Enid just as much as she did.
“There is no need for you to worry.”
She got up from her desk and walked towards Enid, then placed her hand on her cheek.
“You need only be yourself, mea apricaria.”
Enid leaned into the touch.
“You may not have much in common with my family, but they will adore you all the same. They have been nothing but supportive since I informed them of our relationship. There will be no tests, or interrogations- well, not for you.”
Wednesday grimaced.
“I am sure my family, especially my father, will have no shortage of questions for me. He has always been nauseatingly hopeful that I would find love one day.”
Enid laughed softly.
“And have you?”
Wednesday made eye contact with Enid. Enid’s startlingly blue eyes sparkled as they returned her gaze. She smirked.
“What do you think?”
Enid took Wednesday’s hand in both of hers and gave it an exaggerated kiss.
“I think you’re a big lover girl at heart.”
Wednesday rolled her eyes. She would never refer to herself with such a trite term, but Enid was right. She had loved Enid before she could even admit to herself she was capable of love.
She loved Enid so much that she was looking forward to bringing her back home, even knowing that her family was bound to be insufferable about it. The thought of Enid spending time with her family, of her mother taking Enid on a tour of the greenhouse, of her father teaching Enid to fence and dance as though they were the same sport, of her brothers excitedly showing Enid their collections, made her heart feel full of a warmth that only Enid had ever made her feel. She also knew that her family would stop at nothing to get to know Enid, bright colors and all.
Yes, there was no question that soon, Enid would be seamlessly integrated into the Addams family in all but name.
(For the time being.)