In Halls

Bastards

"I am coming down there right now to give all those stuck up bastards a piece of my mind!"

"Sophie!" I protested. It was Saturday morning (or as close to morning as Sophie could be persuaded to wake up) and I was curled on my bed, phone in hand. Just the sight of Sophie's face was enough to make me smile, and I'd just been recounting all my week's woes, exaggerated for comedic effect.

"What? You are clearly in desperate need of my talents. Christopher, Tara, even that slimey back-stabbing Elizabeth character..."

"She's not back-stabbing or slimey!" I giggled. "Honestly, I think she's nice, she just messed that one up a little bit. It's not a big deal, anyway, I was exaggerating it. I don't want you to think my whole Uni life is just relationship dramas."

I adjusted my pillows and sat up in bed. I'd been up already this morning, but there was something luxurious about curling up and ignoring the outside world for a bit. And the outside world at the moment did seem to be filled with far more relationship drama than was strictly warranted.

Sophie shrugged.

"Babe, you're overdue for some boy trouble. You've not had anything in your life since –"

"Fuck Derek!" I said, interrupting her before she could even finish the train of thought. Sophie coolly raised an eyebrow.

"Case in point. You're an appalling judge of character and I need to come over there to suss these people out for you, not to mention dishing out your revenge."

I longed to see Sophie. It felt like so much more than a fortnight since we last met up, and she hadn't always been easy to get hold of. She'd had her hair done in new long box braids, and she hadn't even sent me a picture. Never mind, she didn't need my opinion. It looked awesome.

"I can't drag you all the way over here just because a guy doesn't want to go out with me," I said. I had to be able to survive on my own here, after all.

"Why not?" asked Sophie.

"Because you are far too busy being a badass arts student to worry about your pathetic, unattractive old friend! Besides, I'll be starting my job soon and neither of us will have the time," I said, inwardly regretful to be arguing against the thing that I most wanted. I could do with a nice, restorative Sophie hug right now.

"Girl, I am telling you I want to see you," said Sophie, and I could tell that this was an argument that she was going to win. It probably didn't help my case that I was desperate to see her anyway. "Like, not this week, but I could make it down the week before Halloween or something?"

I could make up a bed on the floor, I thought, eyeing up the space. We could go to those charity shops and maybe find a classy cocktail bar for the evening. A classy cocktail bar with a good student discount.

"You're sure?" I asked, trying to sound like I wouldn't be crushed if she changed her mind.

"Totally! Oh, I have this humanity in nature thing I have to create for my portfolio, maybe I could base it off your plants!"

Well, that was a way to bring my mood back down.

"Sophie... the plants..."

Sophie gave me a dark look.

"Have you been torturing my plant babies again?"

Sophie had experienced many highs and lows in the lives of my plants. Particularly the spider plant. I'd been nursing it on my bedside table, but so far it didn't really look like it was bouncing back, and the other plants weren't doing much better. The kitchen herbs were alright, but I suspected Ed had a hand in that. I held the spider plant up for her now, grimacing.