In the Labyrinth
B
September 19
"Uh, am I interrupting?" Karli asked, only one foot in the room, hand still on the knob.
"No, no, come in," said Jerry, waving to her from his desk with a smile. Between them, Jass sat on Bobsom's lap, back to Karli, stradling him, legs glaringly bare beneath a hiked-up skirt that scarcely covered her butt. Her shoes were off, and her socks were on, suggesting that the bit of balled-up fabric tucked into her right shoe—
Karli blushed, hesitated. Jerry waved again, ushering her in.
"Close the door," he said.
Karli quickly obeyed, shuffling in and pulling the door behind her.
"I guess it's not quite a public spectacle," she said with a lame laugh, hoping the joke would lighten an atmosphere heavy with kissing and panting.
"Helps keep the mana in," corrected Anatoli. He didn't look up from Reform or Revolution as he spoke. He was a first-year like the rest of them, but he had been here before the others, and he seemed to have an intuitive understanding of the vagaries of Jerry's experiments.
Onson locked eyes with Karli from his spot by the window where he had been tending to his orchid. He smiled as if to say he had appreciated her joke. He was good at that, had been good at that from the start.
Raul and Rey were in class, and with Jass in Bobsom's lap, there were four empty chairs. Karli didn't know which seat to take, which way to face, which direction to look, but she also realized she wasn't uncomfortable. She loved Jass, and she loved Bobsom, and Jass and Bobsom loved each other. Karli didn't know what it was. Maybe it was a deep-seated voyeurism. Maybe it was the hypnotic quality of Jerry's gentle humming. Maybe it was just the overwhelming beauty of the orchids.
Karli sat down directly adjacent to Bobsom, patted him on the shoulder, and felt at home.