Things being more beautiful than they really are

On that warm sultry night

"I can't believe I've known you for a year!"
Ilana leans in to hug Max, the two are laughing hysterically. Max reaches for her phone. The time is 23:58.

"It's not a year yet, we have two minutes" Max waves her phone in lIanas face, attempting to show her the time.
"It's basically, literally twelve"
"Basically, literally?" Max jokingly mocks.

"Yeah, that's basically, literally a thing people say"

"Who are these people?" Max questioned.

Ilana looks at Max, confused by her question, as if the answer was perfectly obvious.
"Sister Dunn" Ilana replies. the two burst out in a fit of laughter again.

Ilana props herself up, trying to contain her laughter. "Ok stop, this is a serious moment in our friendship Max. I want you to know that you've become a very big and important part of my life, It's hard to remember when you weren't apart of it"
Max scrunches her face up in revulsion. She leans away from Ilana, pushing her self down into the sheets of the bed. "You know how I feel about emotions" Max says, her face still in a state of disgust.
"Max stop that, I love you and I know you love me too" Ilana teases, propping herself up on her knees and poking at Max's stomach.
"You're very loud right now" Max slaps at Ilana's fingers.

The room fills with a silence. Ilana opens her arms for a hug. The two stare at each other until Max hesitantly gives in to the hug, pushing her body in towards Ilana's. "I knew she loved me back" Ilana loudly announces to the room. A small giggle escapes Max's lips.
"Does thee lady Max profess her love for thy lady Ilana?"
"Yes she does" Max mumbles back.

"Hey max" Ilana whispers.

"Hey Na" Max replies.
"There's nobody else I'd rather be roommates with than you" Ilana squeezes her grip around Max a little harder. "Isn't that obvious" Max jokes. Ilana falls back, throwing Max from out her arms. They begin laughing once again.

Suddenly a loud knock on the door startles the girls. Ilana jumps up from off of Max's bed, and flings herself into the bed five feet besides it.
A tall and fair woman enters, dressed in a nuns habit. She looks young, a little older than Max and Ilana. Some of her long, golden brown and wispy hair is poking through her black veil.

"Girls, are we sleeping?" She asks, although it seems she already knows the answer. Her voice is elegant and soft. She's met with no reply from the girls.
"I know you're not"

Ilana slowly lowers her duvet from over her face.
"Sorry sister Anastasia" she offers her apology with a small titter. Sister Anastasia enters the room further, closing the door quietly behind her. "The lamp being brighter than the sun is quite a giveaway" Anastasia smiles.

Max and Ilana look over at one another, smiling from cheek to cheek. Anastasia makes her way over to the lamp to switch it off. She moves like a angel, her hands hold each other gently behind her back. Switching off the lamp, Anastasia turns to Ilana, pressing her hand firmly against her forehead. "I take it your fever and headache has fled" she says. lIanas eyes flutter as she moves her head away from Anastasia's hand. "So you'll be coming back to classes tomorrow?"
Ilana hums in response. "Good. Now goodnight girls, you don't have to sleep but keep the noise down; the other sisters aren't as lenient" She warns, once again heading towards the door and then disappearing as she closes it behind her.

Ilana let's out a loud groan. She makes no effort to stay in her bed; she jumps out of hers and slips under Max's sheets, turning on her side. Their noses inches apart.

"A fever and headache?" Max asks, confused. Ilana turns onto her back, avoiding the question.
"Na" Max persists, but again she's ignored.
"Na, what the fuck. Talk to me" Max is met with silence for a third time. She feels herself becoming quickly frustrated. "What? It's nothing, I just wasn't feeling very well" Ilana finally answers, her voice and tone have changed from before. "You never said you were feeling ill, why would you lie to me?" Max grows suspicious.
"It was barely a lie, I just didn't want you to be worried about me" Ilana keeps her eyes glued to the ceiling. "Plus, time apart makes the heart grow fonder" she adds.

"What the fuck are you talking about Ilana? You said you couldn't come to classes because of private study with father Cian - -
"Oh my god Max, why do you always have to swear?"

"Is this about Abigail?"

"Literally no" Ilana becomes defensive. She rolls her head to the side and looks at Max wide eyed.
"You can't skip classes because of her, she's a fucking loser!"

"Max please, can you not swear for literally two seconds"

"One, two. Fuck fuck fuck"

"Are you seventeen or twelve?" Ilana asks, growing frustrated.
"Na, you are what Abigail wishes she was, she's just insecure and it's so obvious. That's why she's a bitch to you, don't you see that? Because I do, everyone does" Ilana doesn't respond. She sits up before removing herself from Max's bed and crawling back into her own. The two lay in the silence of the night. Small sounds of sniffling start to come from Ilana's bed. It's obvious she's crying, but she tries to conceal it by holding her breath.

"Na?" Max calls out to her in a whisper. When she's met with no reply, she slips out of her bed and into Ilana's. The sniffles become more frequent and Max knows now that Ilana is crying.
She attempts to comfort her, but struggles to find the right words to say. Ilana's hair trails on her pillow, tickling Max's cheek as she rests her head behind Ilana's.

"I wanna go to sleep" Ilana's voice is gentle and almost rueful. She pushes herself further away from Max, closer to the cold wall that her bed is pushed up against. "Could you just leave me here to sleep?"

"Why won't you talk to me?" Max asks. There are seconds of silence. Ilana's throat burns and her eyes become more teary, she tries to push the lump in her throat down but it grows heavier as she tries to answer Max's question.

"Na" Max presses.
"You wont ever understand" Her voice breaks sounding brittle as she finally gives into Max's perseverance.

"Understand what?" Max replies.

Ilana's mind went back to two nights ago. Her and Max were stood at a empty bus stop during the dead of night. They both had on short skirts, Ilana's shorter than Max's. Ilana had on a off the shoulder cream white top, accompanied by a real pearl necklace. It was small but could catch the eye of any mere man or woman. Her honey blonde hair was tied back into a mid ponytail, she looked delicate and as radiant as a flower.

However Max's wavy, dark black hair was wild and untamed. She wore a tight black top with a v shaped cut, and a golden cross necklace.

It was the night of a scorching day, the air was still warm and sultry, but there was a slight cool breeze beneath the shadows of the trees.

"I'm sorry" Max muttered, as she looked off to the distance, staring longingly at the grass fields.

"Wow great apology Max, that kind of emotion means so much to me, truly" Ilana's sarcasm turned Max's attention from the fields to her.

"Really Ilana? I shouldn't even be apologising. I have nothing to be sorry for—I only said sorry because clearly that's how you want me to feel"

Ilana scoffed.

"Always so scared of being an imposition, a bore" Max added.

"Wow, really Max? You left me all night because I am just a bore to you and to everyone else, so I have the right to be mad and to want an apology for being ditched like a shit stained shoe"

"You don't think all night is a bit of a stretch? I was gone for maybe an hour. I asked you to come but you don't smoke because you're all holier than thou"  immediate regret set in, Max wanted to take back her last comment, but knew she couldn't.

There was a deafening silence, the sounds of crickets louder than ever. Ilana nodded her head slowly, visibly hurt.

"Na I didn't mean that, I'm just - -

"I know what everyone thinks of me, but you—I'm not—I'm not what everyone thinks and I thought you knew that" Ilana's voice grew weak. She waited for a response but got nothing back in return. Max's face was remorseful as the night was black.

"I wasn't even invited tonight, nobody even wanted me there, clearly not even you" ilana said, her words broken up by the brittleness of her voice.

-

Max laid her head on top of Ilana's. She refused to leave her side despite Ilana's request. "I won't go back to my bed tonight, even if you
dont want to talk to me"