Sugar and Spice

The next time Alexis saw Mitty was, peculiarly, not in her class.

No, the next time Alexis saw Mitty was in the campus library the day following their text conversation, which meant that Alexis was not ready to face her. No, not at all. One night was not nearly long enough to recover from a bad text!

Haldwell Uni’s library was what one would expect from a place of learning; books of all kinds adorned shelves of all sizes, lining the walls and creating walls themselves to make some sort of maze of literature. The scent of coffee and old pages filled the air, and coupled with the warmth emanating from the heaters, gave the library the serene, cosy atmosphere typical of the establishment. There were bean bags near the shelves for those who liked to be engulfed in their reading spaces, and regular chairs for the regular types.

Mitty was a regular type. Today, Alexis didn’t want to be.

She sat in a bean bag at the other end of the library, her view of Mitty obscured by the romance section. There was no way Mitty would find her here. She thumbed her phone cover, unsure what to do with herself. She knew how she must look, hiding from her partner when they both clearly had enough free time to be working together on their assignments.

For shame, Lexi. For shame!

But she couldn’t speak to Mitty yet. That ‘ok’ flashed in her mind again and again, flooding her with rejection anew. It was like she enjoyed hurting herself. If only she could figure out what had set Mitty off.

You could just ask her.

Alexis threw the nearest book up to her face and thrust open the pages, trying not to pout. Stupid common sense, why did it have to speak up all the time? She just wanted to be a dumb girl in peace. Besides, you couldn’t ask Mitty anything outright. Not when her eyes flayed you just for looking in her direction.

Well… you couldn’t ask her to her face, but…

Alexis unlocked her phone and pulled up the messaging app. Seeing that ‘ok’ from their last conversation made her wince, but Mitty’s cute unicorn icon softened the blow just a little. There was no way someone with such a sweet profile could be so intentionally mean, right?

The fact remained that, despite Alexis being so jumpy towards her partner, she wanted to patch things up. More than that, she remembered how she’d felt before Mitty had shut her down. She remembered how she’d felt when Mitty showed up to class. She remembered the night she’d spent in her room, reading over old messages from those she no longer spoke to.

She remembered being alone.

Alexis’s ears flattened against her head as she mustered up the energy to type. Mitty probably had her phone on her and would see it right away. Better to have this conversation behind the safety of the romance section and a bright screen.

You chicken.

Lexi♡: Hello, Mitty. I just wanted to ask, did I say something to upset you last night? If so, I’m sorry.

She closed her phone and waited. Since she was far from Mitty, she couldn’t hear a ringtone of any kind. How absurd it was that they were in the same room, on the same floor, and Alexis had to do this just to talk to her. How absurd, and how cowardly.

Her phone chimed quietly enough to not disrupt those reading or working nearby. Alexis made sure to set it as such; best not to draw attention to herself and annoy others, especially not in a library. She unlocked her phone and read.

Mitty: yeah kinda but dw about it

‘Dw’ about it? ’Dw about it?’ Of course Alexis was going to worry about it! She’d upset her partner, for Vacerus’ sake, and completely unintentionally at that!

Lexi♡: Are you sure? I just don’t want to do it again.

Mitty: yea im sure. If u do it again ill tell u

Lexi♡: Oh, okay… thanks…?

Mitty: np

Brevity, thy name is Mitty. Alexis wasn’t sure how to feel, but at least a little of the weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Still, could Mitty be any harder to read? Why did she have to text so plainly? It was hard enough reading her face to face, and that was one of the few strengths Alexis had! She couldn’t deny this was definitely progress, though, and that cheered her enough to continue. Why stop when she had Mitty’s attention? At least this way, she didn’t have to see Mitty’s scary gaze judging her.

Lexi♡: I like your icon, btw. The unicorn is super cute!

A pause. Had Mitty put her phone away? But before Alexis could do the same, Mitty’s text bubble popped up.

Mitty: thanks.

Another pause.

Mitty: :)

Alexis’ eyes bugged out. No way… no way! A smiley face? From Mitty? What? Had Alexis fallen asleep while waiting for her message? She pinched herself; flinched. No, she was definitely awake. Which meant the smiley face was real. Mitty had blessed her with the purest textual emotion of all.

Alexis couldn’t help it; she giggled. She giggled loud enough for a couple of people to look up from their books at her, but despite her flushing cheeks, she didn’t stop. How could she? This whole situation was just so silly! Mitty, scary glary shooting-daggers-with-her-eyes Mitty, had texted her an adorable little smiling face.

Without thinking, Alexis texted her the same face back. It was how she felt, after all. There wasn’t a reply, but she didn’t want to stop there, not after seeing that face from Mitty.

Lexi♡: She’s from Cherry Moon, right? The unicorn.

Mitty: yea.

Lexi♡: I’ve never read it, but I’ve heard it’s good!

Mitty: u never read it?

Lexi♡: No, somehow it slipped past me.

Mitty: u never even picked it up after seeing the cover?

Lexi♡: I was always reading something else at the time and didn’t want to make my massive to-read list any bigger!

Mitty: but its got like… a big ass star and unicorn on the cover of the first one

Mitty: and its pink as shit

Mitty: thats totally ur thing isnt it?

Alexis blinked at the triple texts. She had expected a simple reply at best, but she got a slew of text bubbles instead. She didn’t think Mitty was capable of saying more than a few words. Then again, getting someone to talk about something they were interested in was a sure-fire way to get them to open up, and goodness, did Mitty deliver. It looked like Alexis had found the key to her door, and she sure wasn’t going to leave it locked now!

Lexi♡: I wasn’t aware my ‘thing’ was so obvious! Yes, I do like cute things like that, but seriously I just never got the chance to read it.

Mitty: but would u?

Alexis tilted her head, humming. If she read Cherry Moon, that would be a definite topic of discussion for Mitty, and that was always good. She still had her backlog, and had more to come thanks to her classes’ required reading, but she could make some time to get into a potential new friend’s interest.

A potential new friend…

Even with Mitty’s intimidating demeanour, Alexis found herself wanting to be her friend. And not just one of those acquaintances you kept for a semester before dropping when they left your class. She wanted to invest in Mitty. She wanted what she’d had in high school.

Could she get that with Mitty?

Lexi♡: Yes, I think I would! In fact, I should go look for a copy now.

Mitty won’t walk out on me, will she? Am I allowed to hope?

Mitty: u can bor

Pause. What had stopped her? Maybe Mitty had accidentally sent her text prematurely, but before Alexis could say anything she got a reply.

Mitty: there might be a copy in the library.

Alexis scratched her head. Finding a copy here made the most sense, but that didn’t look like what Mitty had originally texted. Did she know Alexis was in the library? Crap!

She looked up in panic, but Mitty was not standing behind her like out of a horror movie, nor had the bookshelves barring them from each other suddenly turned transparent. It looked like Alexis was safe. She breathed a sigh of relief, putting a hand to feel her heart beating quickly in her chest.

It would’ve been so awkward if she knew I was there the whole time.

It was silly that the only way they could have a proper conversation was through bookshelves and a screen, but it was a conversation all the same. Alexis smiled, rubbing the back of her head. Perhaps after she’d read a bit of Cherry Moon they could have a proper talk face to face, but for now, this was good enough.

She got up from her bean bag to search for the first book.

***

The days before Alexis’ creative writing class passed with her head buried in Cherry Moon. It wasn’t hard to see why Mitty would think she’d like it; even discounting the cute cover, the story itself was engaging and whimsical despite the myriad of melancholic things happening to the protagonist. It had a feeling that despite the worst, everything would be okay.

It was, however, surprising that Mitty would like this kind of story, considering what she was currently writing in their class. Dystopias and whimsy did not quite go together. Yes, people could have multiple tastes, but Alexis couldn’t shake the feeling that it was odd.

“So I’m reading the first book,” she said when Mitty sat down at their table in Room 1B. Rain pattered on the windowsill outside, coating the classroom in a dreary dimness that Alexis felt rather than saw. The lights being on didn’t help, only highlighting the fact that they needed artificial light when it was just the afternoon. A quiet cold seeped through her from the weather, but having someone to talk to mitigated it a bit.

Mitty looked at her as she pulled out her notebook and papers. “Of what, our required reading?”

Alexis smiled, unsure whether Mitty had done that on purpose or she had genuinely forgotten. “No, of Cherry Moon,” she replied.

Mitty’s eyebrow twitched, and her eyes flickered to the students in the room. Then her face hardened, and she turned on the glare that Alexis was becoming so familiar with. “Shut up,” she hissed.

Alexis’s eyes widened, taken aback. Shut up? What did I say? Her heart dropped and she averted her gaze. “Sorry,” she murmured. “I didn’t mean--”

She was interrupted by a sigh so frustrated that it sounded like a growl. “No, you shouldn’t… ugh!” Mitty threw up her hands, causing some students to turn to them. The glare she gave them in return could cut diamonds. They hurriedly looked away, pretending to mind their own business, but Alexis knew their ears were perked.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine,” she mumbled, trying to ignore the stinging in her eyes. She’d blown it again, and again, she didn’t know how! Why was she like this? Was this why her friends had stopped talking to her after high school? Had she made them mad all that time without realising?

“You…” Mitty’s expression changed when she looked at Alexis again; the glare was still there, but it softened, just a little. Alexis would not have noticed it if she was not currently hyper aware of Mitty and her anger. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“Huh?” Alexis blinked, and something wet rolled down her cheek. Oh, damn it, now I’m crying?

Mitty rubbed her forehead, sighing more quietly this time, but it was still heavy with frustration. “Sorry.” Her tone was clipped, her voice rough, like each word was a spike she was trying to dislodge from her throat. “I didn’t… mean… to upset you.”

Alexis wiped her eyes with the back of her purple sleeve. It sounded like Mitty wasn’t used to apologising. Should she be grateful Mitty managed it? It did lighten the load somewhat, but she still wasn’t sure what she’d done to upset Mitty in the first place. “It’s okay. I just wasn’t really expecting you to tell me to… shut up,” she mumbled.

“It’s…” Mitty leaned in, and Alexis was suddenly aware of how long her hair was, for it spilled down past her shoulders and fell on the table like a river of pink and yellow. There was something mesmerising about it. When she next spoke, it was a whisper. “It’s a kids’ book, alright?”

And you’re embarrassed that you like it. The understanding slapped Alexis in the face. How had she not figured it out? Mitty had an image to maintain, and being a fan of something so childish was sure to ruin it. Her mouth formed an ‘o’ as she stared at Mitty. Being a punk is serious business!

“I see,” she said, and mimed zipping her lip with her finger. “My lips are sealed. We’ll just text about it!”

Mitty stared at her.

Then the corners of her lips twitched slightly.

It was gone as soon as it appeared, and her frown was back, but Alexis couldn’t deny what she’d just seen. Mitty looked down at her papers, then at the nothing that was currently in Alexis’s hands. She raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Oh! Sorry, I’d been so eager to talk I kind of forgot to take my stuff out!” Alexis smiled bashfully before ducking her head under the table to open her bag and take out her things. When she returned, she saw something flash on Mitty’s face before the frown came back. It hadn’t been a smile that time. Her eyebrows had turned up, just slight enough and long enough for Alexis to catch. She knew that expression well. “Um!” she blurted out before she could stop herself. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad!”

Mitty’s frown deepened. Gosh, if she keeps this up she’ll have wrinkles before she’s 30. “You didn’t,” she said, and it was not often Alexis knew when something was a lie with Mitty, but oh, this one was obvious.

She let it slide. It looked like even the thought of having feelings was enough to turn Mitty into her prickly self.

Alexis still wasn’t used to the rollercoaster that was talking with Mitty, but she understood the mechanics of the ride a little better now. It looked like they would have to stick to texting to have a proper conversation for the time being, but that was fine. So long as Alexis was talking at all, she was fine.

Maybe this semester would be fine, too.