𝕊𝕥𝕦𝕡𝕚𝕕 ℂ𝕦𝕡𝕚𝕕 ➶

𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟: ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝 ℍ𝕖𝕣𝕖

Moving was harder without a manservant. Luckily, Valentina was only moving up and over a floor... Gomez insisted on doing most of the heavy lifting. While he carried bags up the stairs, Morticia helped her unpack.

Valentina expected a lot more judgment from the older girl. The two had completely different aesthetics. One was bright and preppy while the other was dark and gothic. But she even helped her stack and organize her stuffed animal collection without complaint.

The most she said was, "I look forward to trying to sleep with all these lifeless, glass eyes watching me." Valentina thought that was sarcasm at first, but Morticia sounded genuinely enthused.

"Strawberry Milk Baphomet is my favorite," she gushed once she finally unearthed him from a trunk of lesser stuffies. The fuzzy, pink goat plush was as big as a toddler and just squishy enough to cuddle. "He gets to sleep in bed with me! The rest of the plushies are banished to the wall."

Morticia tilted her head to the side while eying the stuffie her new roommate was lovingly hugging. "I hope your favoritism gives all the other stuffed animals a complex."

That's when Gomez sauntered through the door, carrying the biggest of the steamer trunks. "Here's the last one!" He grunted before dropping it by the foot of her bed. Then his eyes went wide and sparkled with interest. "You have a record player!" He walked over and started flipping through her milk crates. "And quite the collection of vinyls!"

"Yes! Are you a lover of music as well?" Valentina answered from her seat on the bed.

He looked over his shoulder at her, gave her a grin and a wink. "I'm a lover of all kinds of things... Music is definitely in the top ten, though!" Suddenly he pulled out an album, held it up for Morticia to see. "Oh, Tish... She has 'That Old Black Magic' by Louis Prima!"

A smile spread over Morticia's face like butter on warm toast. "That's one of Gomez's favorites."

Gomez quickly unsheathed the vinyl from its sleeve and put it in the record player, before closing in on Valentina like she was a doe he didn't want to spook. "Dance with me, cariño!"

She looked at him, wide-eyed and panicked, scrambled back further onto the bed. "What?! No! I don't even know how!"

He wrapped a hand around her ankle and pulled her back to the edge of the mattress. "Then I'll teach you! There's no time like the present!"

She looked beseechingly at Morticia, but of course the other girl didn't take her side. Instead, she just said, "He's right, you know."

Valentina anxiously glanced back and forth between the two of them before sighing and sliding the rest of the way off the bed. "Just one dance."

Gomez grinned as if she had just made him the happiest man in the world.

"That's the spirit!" He took both her hands and pressed a kiss to the back of each one, before placing one on his shoulder and holding the other up and out. "This song is well-suited to a quickstep! The pattern is slow, quick, quick, slow. You're going to start with your left foot and go back, side, close, side... Then forward, side, close, side."

"Okay... Repeat all of that at a fraction of the speed."

One dance quickly turned into a dozen. Valentina started out sweating from nerves, but her glands went into overtime once she really started to exert herself. Gomez was unfazed by how warm and wet her palms got. His goofy grin did not remotely fade.

Morticia stood by the record player watching them, resetting the needle whenever the song was about to end.

Little did they know, someone else was watching them as well. No one noticed until that person cleared their throat.

In the doorway stood Larissa Weems, her brow furrowed and her mouth set in a stern frown... Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she'd been crying.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said, although she didn't sound very apologetic. "I have one last box of things to grab."

"Of course," Morticia said, motioning to the folded-up black box at the end of her bed.

"Do you need any help?" Valentina asked. She felt uncomfortable around Larissa, seeing as she was living the other girl's dream by being in a relationship with both Morticia and Gomez.

"I don't need your help," Larissa answered, almost hissed. Then she hefted the box up into her arms and left the room, slamming the door on her way out.

Valentina swallowed hard, sagged under the weight of her guilt. She wouldn't be here, part of their relationship, if she hadn't poisoned them with her arrows. Either this thought didn't occur to the couple or they simply didn't care.

There was a brief moment of awkward silence after the record ended. Or, at least, it was awkward for Valentina. Morticia and Gomez looked unperturbed.

Gomez pulled her close again, Morticia put the song back on, but Valentina wasn't in the mood to dance anymore.

"I should go shower," she said, pulling away from the mustachioed boy. "I'm pretty sweaty."

He didn't let her put too much distance between them, however, wrapped both his hands around her waist to keep her close. "Come on, one more dance!" He crowed, obviously still jovial.

"No, no! You'll want one more after that and one more after that... Before I know it, we'll have danced the night away." His lips pursed into a pout, but she would not be dissuaded. "You can dance with Morticia."

"Okay... I'll see you after your shower."

"No, you won't. By the time I get out, curfew will be in effect. You need to be back in your dorm room by then."

"Can't I stay the night? Pretty please?" He gave her puppy-eyes, obviously aiming to use his dashing good looks against her.

"You're very handsome," she sighed, "but no. If you're still here when I get back, I'm calling the dorm mother. Don't test me."