Polarized

A Fairly Eventful Dorm Party

“Calias shrire, osebrord.

Rycri jawiel, pecazien, ipotetiel, kufro.

Rokia hoshy, zilius, noprepien, ophebrilia, uwyewo…” 

“I’m sorry, but what is going on?!” 

The crowd backed away from Alexis, who was kneeling by a circle drawn with chalk on the floor with a couch cushion in the center. A ring of plushies encircled the couch cushion. “Does she actually know what she’s doing?” A girl in the crowd queried. 

“Of course she does. Look at how effective her Cayto-summoning ritual was!” Ivan shouted, gesturing at the newcomer by the doorway. A stunned expression crossed Cayto’s face, and he stared at the floor self-consciously.  

Alexis laughed. “Actually, that was supposed to summon an eldritch abomination from the underworld,” she corrected. “But results are results.”

“I don’t see a difference,” a boy quipped, earning a few snickers from the crowd. Alexis shook her head and stifled a laugh. 

“Okay Joshua, very funny,” she said in the same tone of voice as that of an exasperated mother responding to her children bombarding her with inappropriate questions. Then she turned to Cayto. “Thank you very much for attending my dorm party. Sorry about the other partygoers, I hope they don’t bother you too much. Don’t worry about people treating you differently because of the incident the other day either, as I explained to everybody here that you apologized, I accepted it, and we’re on good terms now, no hard feelings. They seem to be taking it rather well. Anyway, leave your shoes by the door, hang up your jacket on the coat rack, and enjoy your stay,” she instructed Cayto while he removed his rain boots. Then Alexis looked out the window, where the rain pattered onto the sidewalk. “My, my, the weather outside isn’t looking too hot, is it? Hope the rain clears up soon…”

Feeling more than a bit out of place among the crowd, Cayto sat on the floor by the corner. Why am I even here again?

Oh yeah, I wanted to make things up to Alexis after insulting and shocking her and everything. Since she told me that all she wanted was for me to attend her dorm party, I felt bad saying no—

“Would you like a drink?” A girl asked, pulling Cayto out of his thoughts. He started in his seat. 

“Sorry, I’m underage.”

The girl laughed. “I meant if you’d like to drink water or juice or soda or something like that. Not alcohol, of course.” 

Cayto stared at the ground. Not even a minute in and I’ve already made my first blunder…

“Water, please,” he requested. Then the girl walked off into the kitchen. 

A moment later, Alexis approached Cayto with Skye in tow. The former smiled. “Hey, I brought Skye over here!” Alexis announced. “I know you both dislike small talk, so why won’t you bond over that? I’m sure that would make for some riveting conversation,” she joked. Then she left Skye behind with Cayto. 

Skye was the first to speak. “Oh, hey Cayto,” she greeted, speaking so softly that he could barely hear her. 

“Hi.” 

“Is there anything you want to talk about?” 

“I’m not sure.”

“Neither am I.”

A minute passed with nothing but awkward silence between Skye and Cayto, which was eventually broken by the girl from earlier coming back with their drinks. “You requested water, right?” She asked, handing Cayto a paper cup full of water.