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This is what I deserve, thought Lauren. The crappiest denouement to this crappy night.

It was beginning to snow. The tiny flurries rained down on her headfur, coming to rest on her shoulders. The ground underneath her feet as her pads crunched the tiny icicles already forming.

She sighed, knowing she'd be nice and frozen by the time she got back to her room. She could feel her tail arch and the fur stand on end at the thought as it flicked to and fro with each step she made. Shrugging, she glanced back for a moment at the monolith that was Denby Hall.

Some lights were still on in the windows, spread out across the dormitory's four floors. But Lauren's eyes trailed towards one sitting at the end of the third floor. It faced the parking lot and pathway leading out towards the college's main campus.

Lauren stood looking at the tiny square of light until it extinguished, going out with not a care to the rest of the world. Guess she finally went to bed, the cat thought. She was too far away to hear Mack, but she could imagine her routine at this moment, picturing Mack beginning to settle into bed, cuddling up against her teddy bear she'd nicknamed Beary, and then would begin the process of drifting off to sleep. She could see the Creative Writing major tying her long dark hair into a bun behind her and pulling on her sleeping mask, and just like that, going out like a light for the next few hours--at least until her alarm tore through her mind and woke her up, and she would do the cycle all over again.

Things are changing, Lauren sighed, putting her paws in her jacket pocket as she continued her walk back to her own room. She tied her scarf around her neck when the wind began to pick up,prickling at the exposed areas of her fur and ears.

#

Earlier that evening, Mack had called Lauren to come over for their Wednesday tradition of bad horror movies. Mack's collection, videotapes with fading and cracking covers from studios long gone and forgotten, had more than enough entertainment with crazy titles such as Skidmark!_and its sequel, a well thought out piece of art entitled _Skidmark 2: Tread Again.

Lauren stopped herself in front of the door, her knuckles inches from rapping the wood grain. Her heart palpitated, and fluttered like a butterfly in her chest; her tail twitched nervously to and fro at her sides, the tip of which drummed a rhythm on the dormitory floor. Mack's door was decorated with the name of both her and her roommate above their whiteboard; a crude stick drawing of the two students holding hands greeted anyone who came to stop by, Mack's caricature being noted by her large round glasses and large floppy ears.

Behind her she could hear the heavy footsteps of the other dormresidents scurrying up and down the hallway, some hustling and bustling in and out of their dorms. Her ears perked with the snippets of conversations she caught, most of them regarding the newest release on the Playstation and Xbox. Others mulled about in the hall,pulling last minute hail marys on projects; and others still were in the midst of what Lauren called "the Breakup Dance". Theindividual in question sat outside their dorm room, taking long drags on their cigarettes and listened to their boyfriend (or girlfriend) outline all the things wrong in their relationship. Lauren was happy to be invisible to the other students. She enjoyed this fly-on-the-wall view with everyone minding their business and taking no heed of her being part of their dailies.

Most of them were getting ready to leave the college this weekend for the big ski trip. Lauren wasn't interested; her plans if she didn't go home mostly revolved around her own dorm room. All that ice and snow...the cat shook and shivered at the thought.

The doorknob's internal gearship turning and tumbling brought Lauren back out of her mind. She didn't have another second to prep herself when the door creaked open, and Mack poked her head out from the other side.

"Lauren! I thought that was you out here!" Mack said, her smile already beaming like a light into Lauren's face. Christine "Mack"McKinley wasshorterthan Lauren by several inches. The mouse'syouthful face was framed by long dark hair that draped around her shoulders like a cape. Her bright smile was one that would drag a bad mood kicking and screaming out of the room.

The cat grinned. Sheher paw in front of her face, shielding herself from Mack's blinding visage.

"Got dang can you turn down the spotlight? Your teeth could light a Tom Cruise premiere!" chided Lauren as she stepped inside.

The division between Mack's side of the dorm and her roommate's was striking. There was an old couch with a fading floral pattern when you walked in. In front of the couch was an old Sanyo television. Underneath was Mack's beloved VCR. Several videotapes awaited her viewership. For contrast, her roommate, an engineering major, kept her side of the room tidied. Not a hair was out of place, nor were any of her textbooks on her shelf strewn in various degrees of readership. Mack's books were everywhere; her stopgap attention span leaving her in several stages of readership in her texts. Lauren had long deduced that the likelihood of Mack actually finishing one were slim to none.

Lauren's feet crossed onto Mack's carpet. Mack snuck up behind Lauren, catching her off-guard. Lauren blushed, and her whiskers relaxed from their fervent twitching. She held back a purr that was rumbling in her throat.

"So I just got this today off eBay!" she said excited, breaking her embrace of Lauren. She sprinted over towards her desk, grabbing a package. She handed it to Lauren.

"Skidmark 3?" she said, the tone of her voice unimpressed.

"Director's cut!" Mack continued. "The director, Antonio Spinelli wasn't happy with the original. So he released this version in France, Germany, and Italy."

"Wow," Lauren said sarcastically, handing the videocassette back to Mack.She settled herself on thecouch. "Who the hell even asks for three movies about a serial killer tire anyway?" she asked, and turned her head to look at Mack, noticing she was wearing her Skidmark t-shirt from the last time she went to the local horror movie convention.Mack shrugged and grinned sheepishly, bending over and putting the video inside her VCR. She hopped over her coffee table and sat next to Lauren, folding her legs inward and grabbed the remote control.

"And....PLAY!" Mack said.

The movie was worse than what Lauren could have imagined. And that was having sat through the previous two entries. The director appeared to have shot with next to no budget, each scene looking cheaper than the last. Gratuitous shots of women in their bra and panties for no reason whatsoever popped up. Lauren assumed their addition was to take the viewers minds off how bad the rest of the movie looked.

But this did not seem to faze Mack not one bit. She screeched and squealed with each passing moment of unbridled gore onscreen. Mack found herself grinning and hugging next to Lauren for protection. The cat had never quite understood Mack's love for horror movies. Aside from Mack's usual smart aleck answer of "Inspiration" for her writing. Whether she was acting scared or not didn't matter. Lauren had come to cherish and enjoy their weekly movie nights.

This moment was no different. The pink inside Lauren's ears reddened as Mack wrapped herself around Lauren's waist.. Her tail waved at her feet, thumping against the couch's base. Mack wound her arms tighter. She squeezed her whenever the killer tire struck, snuggling her head against the feline's chest.

Lauren hesitated as she raised herpaw, placingit on Mack's shoulder.She looked down past the bridge of Mack's glasses and inside the low neckline of the t-shirt, catching a glimpse of Mack's chest fluff. It was only a quick glimpse, as Mack looked up and Lauren turned her head just as quickly. Shepretendedto scratch the tip of her nose with her indexclaw.She cast quick glances back at Mack, thinking that Mack had caught her.Her feline spine and senses remainedon edge for the remaining half hour of the movie. But Mack's eyes were transfixed to the screen, keeping a keen eye on the concluding third act of the movie, still yelping and jumping and cuddling next to Lauren.

Her heart beat fast in her chest, pounding out a rhythm that she could write a song to, and she shifted slightly in her seat.

The film finished. "Thank God!" Lauren exclaimed. Mack stood up and popped the video out, returning it to slumber in its cardboard coffin. Mack yawned and stretched her long arms to the heavens. Lauren tried not to look as Mack's shirt hiked itself up a little bit. Her furrystomach and sharp hip bones exposed to her, and the smallest hints of Mack's undergarments poking up from beneath her khaki shorts.

A brief image flashed across her eyes, of Mack stripping off her t-shirt, and letting it drop to the floor between them. She imagined seeing Mack stand in front of her, her hands on those bony hips of hers as she looked at the cat, beckoning her. And in her mind, Lauren would reach out with her paws towards Mack and pull her towards her, seating the young woman on her lap as their faces inched closer and closer to one another..

It is so not okay to even be having these thoughts __right now_ , let alone looking._

She knew she had to make a change.

"How are you not freezing?!" Lauren asked jokingly, trying to clear her head.

Mack laughed. "I'm from Toronto darlin'!" she replied, doing stretches. "The weather here is like my summer vacation!" Both women laughed heartily, the jovial atmosphere interrupted by the chirping of Mack's cell phone in her pocket. "Hang on," she said still giggling, taking the device out and checking it. Lauren noticed her expression changed, with Mack blushing then grinning as she stood and walked back towards her bedroom, and cast one more glance back at the cat.

"Sorry!" she said softly. "Give me...five minutes, I'll be back!"

Lauren heard her friend greet the individual on the other end, as laughter and heavy sighs cut through the silence like a heavy metal song. Lauren balled her paws into fists and buried them in her knees. Her ears grew hot and slid back behind her head. She looked away from Mack's bedroom door, the minutes feeling like eons peeling away.

Her ears perked at catching little things. A name--Gary--was repeated over and over by Mack, her tone loving and affectionate. She also caught little hints as Mack talked about their lunch dates together, or how good this Gary guy looked at practice.

She continued listening. She heard plansbeingmade, a date for this coming weekend. She heard Mack giggle, protesting going to Gary's parents house for the weekend because of her college load. Lauren imagined Gary's tone beingslick, trusting--a hustler in disguise. He didn't want to scare Mack, as she began easing into the possibility of spending time alone with this mystery man.

I've never seen her...heard her...that happy, Lauren thought. No goddamn way she'd be that happy...that...up __beat...if it was someone else...if it was...someone like me.

She stood from the couch and began to pull on her jacket, when Mack zipped outfrom her bedroom, flipping her phone shut. Lauren took notice of her still blushing face, her cheeks the color of a beet.

"Sorry that took so long!" Mackapologized, then stopped when she saw Lauren dressed. "You leaving already?"

"It's late," Lauren lied, hoping that she sounded sincere. It wasn't totally a fabrication; it was already past midnight, and Lauren knew she had to at least fake an attempt on her essay regarding the artist Francis Bacon at some point before her noon abstract class with Harrison.

"You sure? You usually stay a little longer," Mack said surprised. "Is everything okay?"

Lauren noted the tone in Mack's voice. She sounded hurt and disappointed, but masked it with her usual concern for Lauren's well being, like she always did. This was breaking their tradition, Lauren realized, and that part was eating her up inside

Fuck no everything's not okay. I don't know how to talk to you and I'm screaming in my head right now and just want to get the fuck out of here so I can curl up in a ball and die a little.

"Y-yeah," Lauren managed to say. She began breathing deeply, trying to control herself, hoping that Mack wasn't as up on feline behavior like she was on the words of Chaucer and Eliot. Her feet shuffledpast Mack towards her door. She turned towards Mack before leaving."I'll--see you tomorrow mmmkay? Lunch in the caf"

Mack grinned. "It's a date!" she said.