Pothos and the Neikea

13. Study hard, play harder

Rose walked in the dorm room and sat on Rey. Like, literally lied on top of her. She took a hold of her textbook and closed it briefly to see what it was. And then she gasped.

"You're studying Civil and Environmental Engineering?" And then she started giggling. "That's Kylo's course, isn't?"

Rey shifted to drop Rose off of her. She fell next to her on the bed.

"Yes. I need to study for that, too, you know."

Her roommate narrowed her eyes at her.

"But I haven't seen you study anything else." Then her mouth formed a tiny 'o'. "Does someone here want to impress Mr. Professor?"

"No… someone wants to keep her grades up."

But Rose started tickling her. She closed her book and threw it on her roommate's bed across from them, and then devoted herself to fake wrestling Rose. After a while that they had tired each other out, they lied back down side by side and stared at the ceiling.

"Rey. You would tell me if there was something going on between you and Kylo, right?"

The question didn't come exactly as a surprise. Rey actually thought it had been very delayed. She was happy that Rose wasn't looking at her now because she almost started blushing.

She nodded. "Yeah. But there isn't. Where did you get that idea?"

"Well, you know. He had come here to find you right after you broke up with Hux."

"Yeah, to tell me to get back together with him. And then we fought. Pretty bad."

"Oh…"

There was a tiny silence, and then Rose spoke again.

"And then it was the whole deal at our board game night. Where you wanted us to suddenly stop hating him."

"No, I didn't say that. It was a moment I kind of… I guess… I realized I didn't hate him that much."

Rose sat up suddenly, making the mattress below them tremble. She pointed a finger at her.

"See? There's also that. You don't hate him anymore, whereas bubbles used to come out of your mouth when you thought about him."

Rey sat up too. But before she said anything, she started laughing at Rose's comment. Bubbles. They lied back down together.

"Well, the guy did tell me about Hux, and all the stuff he did. I can't quite hate him after that. Plus, he total kicked his ass to clear my name," she chuckled.

She felt Rose's elbow nudging her. "That, too. Why did he do that?"

Rey looked at her. "What do you mean? Hux was a total asshole."

"No, I know that. I mean why did Kylo beat his best friend for you. That doesn't seem suspicious to you?" Rey was definitely blushing now. She looked back at the ceiling. "Maybe he likes you, too."

"Hey, hey. No 'too's. I never said I liked him."

And there was silence again. A longer one. Rose nuzzled closer to her, and they were basically cuddling. They did have naps together sometimes. When it was too cold to sleep separately. Or when one of them was feeling down. It was nice. Rey was used to sleeping always alone, whereas Rose was used to sleeping with her sister. Now that she was gone, she had the need to hug and cuddle Rey. And Rey absolutely had the need to hug and cuddle anyone, really. Sometimes she didn't even know who started it; who needed it more. They were holding each other, trying to fix, comfort each other. Rey had Rose for that, so she hadn't really felt the need for someone else. But now, right after a conversation solely about her being with Kylo, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to cuddle with him. He was almost twice as big as Rose. And the idea of getting lost in his embrace made her stomach feel funny. But not the kind of funny she usually felt about him. It wasn't the heat of arousal. It was what she'd heard people call "butterflies".