Well hi there. I'm completely new to all this, so forgive me if the formatting goes wonky on accident, I promise I'll fix it. Suggestions are nice and all that. Oh, and I rated this baby M in case of later chapters, but for now it's very tame. So, have fun?
"A Night on the Town"
All things considered, a night out was not what Sarah Williams needed. Especially seeing as how it was Thursday, and the biochemistry final-- the final that decided whether she'd scrape through junior year with the GPA that her renewable scholarship rested on-- was scheduled for nine in the morning on Friday, and she hadn't done any studying for it since, well, ever.
This did not matter to Sarah's roommates, Roxanne and Katie. The two friends were entering the last days of their "Bet I Can Lay More Guys Than You Can This Semester" contest, and both were determined to up their final scores by bar-hopping every night that week. Though Sarah had politely declined their invitation to enter the competition, she was nevertheless expected to attend these outings as a dutiful wingman.
"Come on, Sare-bear," Roxanne pleaded sweetly, tugging at Sarah's shirtsleeve with one arm while straightening shoulder-length red hair with the other. "It'll be fun."
"I don't know," Sarah sighed. She looked at their reflections in the bathroom mirror and frowned. Roxanne had already done her makeup and slipped into a gorgeous blue halter top and skinny jeans. Sarah, just back from her nightly jog around campus, was still in baggy sweats. Baggy sweats that smelled.
"Sarah, Roxy's right," Katie called from her bedroom. "a redhead and a blonde are just a redhead and a blonde. A redhead, a blonde and a brunette are, like, the Triumvirate of Sexy."
"Triumvirate," Roxanne cooed, finishing off her do with a cloud of hairspray big enough to double the hole in the ozone layer.
"I haven't even showered yet," Sarah complained. "and I've kinda got this test tomorrow…"
"Boohoo," said Katie, appearing from her room in a slinky red blouse and a pencil skirt. Her honey-blonde hair bounced in tight curls around an impish face. "I've got three tests tomorrow. You don't see me worrying about it."
"Come on," repeated Roxanne. She was already at the bath tub, running the hot water. "just hop in the shower real quick. I'll grab something out of your closet for you to change into."
"I-" Sarah attempted, but Roxanne was already disappearing behind Sarah's bedroom door. "Fine, but I'm coming home at a reasonable hour!"
"That's what she said on Saint Patrick's Day," Katie snickered. Sarah scowled at her without much anger and closed the bathroom door. Steam was already beginning to fog up the mirror as she peeled the jogging pants off of her sweat-soaked legs.
Sarah had a hard time getting mad at Roxanne and Katie. She hadn't known them before replying to their ad for a third roommate, but the past year had made them close friends. Sure, they took the idea of casual sex and ran so far with it that Casanova himself would be left choking on their dust, but when you really needed someone to talk to, they were there in an instant. Besides, if it weren't for them, Sarah would probably never get out. Three years at one of the biggest public schools in the United States, and she still hadn't found a guy that caught her attention.
"Not that I don't know why," she muttered to herself as she squeezed the last of the dollar-store shampoo into her hair. Oh, great. Thinking about him in the shower. That wasn't a terrible plan at all.
The thirteen hours spent in the Labyrinth had been all of six years ago for Sarah. It had been more than enough time for her to realize what a fifteen-year-old babysitter couldn't possibly have: She had met, danced with, and subsequently turned down the physical embodiment of sex.
She'd done it for all the right reasons, of course. She couldn't just let Toby become a goblin, or go through the trials she'd faced just to lose in the final round. And he had probably just been saying all that "mornings of gold" stuff for the sake of winning the game. Besides, even if he had been interested, having her first sexual encounter at the age of fifteen with a being from another world would have been wrong beyond all belief.
Valid as they were, these explanations didn't make Sarah any more interested in the frat boys her friends introduced her to.
The hot water ran out much too soon and began to turn icy. Yelping, Sarah sprung out of the shower and dried off.
"Yeah, it's been doing that," Roxanne sighed, hearing the plaintive cry. She and Katie had been lounging across the sofa watching "The Colbert Report" when Sarah appeared in the living room amidst a cloud of steam. "I laid a top out on your bed. That tight one that you never have the balls to wear."
"Thanks," Sarah rolled her eyes and headed to her room.
"And I lent you a pair of jeans that'll make your butt look good," Katie added. "and Roxy lent you some stilettos. And we both went through your underwear drawer and found the one pair of lacy panties that you own. "
"Touching, but I don't really plan on letting anyone see what's under the clothes, and you know I can't walk in stilettos," Sarah called back. She slipped the powder-pink top over her shoulders and smoothed it down her belly, noting with apprehension how very thin the fabric was. Her hair, the one physical feature that had never given her cause to be angry, was already drying into long, loose waves. She quickly applied some lip gloss and mascara and checked herself in the mirror.
"There," she told herself, "I almost look like I'm interested in meeting somebody."
"Ready?" Roxanne and Katie shouted.
Sarah grabbed her purse and was greeted at the front door by a pair of wolf whistles. Roxanne drew a small glass vial out of her purse and launched an attack at Sarah's neck.
"Jeez, can we tone down on the perfume?" Sarah coughed. Roxanne shrugged and put the bottle away.
"What'd I tell you?" Katie grinned. "No guy in the world stands a chance against the three of us."
"Too bad I'm not interested in any of them," Sarah frowned.
What nobody noticed, scratching at the window as they carefully locked the apartment door behind them, was the owl.