Checked for continuity, grammar, and spelling: May 3, 2011.

Chapter Fourteen: Peeping Hot Chocolate

On the ground floor of the dormitory was located a large common room. There, amid couches and beanbags, in front of the low quality widescreen television, lounged the majority of the dorm population. To have so many in the room was probably a fire code violation, but no one cared. Someone had dredged up a tattered, bootlegged copy of Ziggy Stardust, deciding it would work well enough for the movie of the night. Though only a handful of students were genuinely interested in watching it, the rest had nothing better to do (nothing better including, of course, papers due by 2 p.m. the next day). So there they sat, or slept as the case was for three or four.

Ironically, the handful of genuinely interested persons were not actually watching the film. They sat toward the back of the room near the double doors, which afforded them clear view of the foyer and stairwell. Any time the front doors opened and they heard someone enter, they leaned back as one to see who it could be.

The hours passed, and Ziggy turned into a Pong tournament. Finally, as the second round was drawing to a close, the watchers saw a slightly dazed young woman make her way up the stairs. Kara grabbed Agnes by the shoulder and whispered, "She's back." Agnes, who was intently watching the little ball go back and forth on the screen, promptly screamed, bolted off her chair, and landed in a heap on the floor. All eyes turned to the lone figure of authority in the room, now sprawling gracelessly on the ground.

She eyed them back. "Hm... Interesting reaction. I'd best note this down." Thus said, she ran from the room, her fellow watchers exchanging innocently knowing looks. The others simply went back to the game as though nothing had happened. This was, after all, a normal occurrence when dealing with Agnes.

Sarah fumbled with the keys to her door. She was lost in thought and did not notice someone run up behind her, skid to a halt, and casually lean against the wall.

"Ground Control to Major Williams." Agnes grinned as a very startled Sarah jumped nearly as high as she herself had not two minutes before. Sarah, however, managed to remain on her feet.

Sarah blinked at her friend, willing her heart rate to slow down. Furrowing her eyebrows, she stuck the key in the lock. "Hey. Bowie high turned you into the Cheshire Cat or something?"

"Mm... definitely 'or something'. Though you missed a great turnout for Ziggy. Normally it gets boycotted after the first song."

"Must be a hand-in date tomorrow. Dare I ask what the 'or something' is?"

Agnes put her hand over her heart and pulled a wounded expression. "Ach, I am hurt that you need to ask. I should think it was obvious."

Sarah sighed good-naturedly. "I was hoping for the less obvious. My fridge, or yours?"

"Depends on the required provisions. Coffee? Tea? Hot chocolate with marshmallows? Ice cream? Stiff drink?"

"Hot chocolate. But I'm out."

"Ok. Pajama up, Corporal, we'll rendezvous on your couch in ten minutes."

"I wonder if I should be upset at being demoted. Wouldn't it be easier just to go down to yours? You have the better kettle. Besides, mine is probably still a soggy mess."

"No it isn't; you get to do my laundry this week. Plus all my mugs are dirty."

"Right," Sarah nodded, unsurprised Agnes had taken care of her room and the medium of payback had been decided. "See you in a bit."

"You've got to be kidding." Agnes was looking at Sarah as though she had grown a second head.

"Look, Hot Chocolate Talks without marshmallows is like a corporal crime or something. You don't have any, and these are the closest things I've got. Besides, they are made out of marshmallows. It says so right here on the box, see?" Sarah held out the small cellophane wrapped box to her friend.

"Yeah, but Peeps? They're covered in sugar!" Sarah shrugged in response, ripped open the packaging, and popped a yellow chick in each mug. Agnes looked at her askance. "I worry about you sometimes, Williams. You know this, right?"

"Without a doubt. But that's fine. Neon green with fuscia stripes or crickets with Santa hats?" In true dorm style, none of Sarah's dishes even remotely matched.

"Crickets." Taking the proffered mug, Agnes stretched out on Sarah's couch and blew on the steaming liquid. Sarah crouched by the stereo and plugged in a cd. She fiddled with the balance and volume for a good five minutes before Agnes finally lost patience. "Williams, enough already. It's loud enough and it sounds fine! Just sit down and tell me how it went!"

Sarah looked up, startled. Truth be told, she had gotten lost in thought and forgot Agnes was there. "Oh. Um. Well... What do you want to know?"

Agnes restrained herself from strangling her friend. "Are you doing this on purpose? Ok, I don't need a word for word recap, just a play by play in brief. You are obviously prepared to do a long night of contemplative analysis and, as your best friend, it is my duty to give you assistance."

Sarah giggled. "Duty, eh? Are you going to start singing that song from Pirates of Penzance?"

"Of course not! There is no orchestral track to support me. Though, if Kevin Klein is going to be my Pirate King..." This time, both erupted in giggles. After they calmed down, a summary of events proceeded.

When Sarah finished, Agnes was silent for a long moment before she sighed. "Wow." She swirled the dregs of her hot chocolate and half melted peep before tipping it all into her mouth in one fell swoop. "Wow," she said again, setting her mug down. "Ok, let me make sure I have this straight."

"Ok..."

"When you were fourteen, you met some guy once who ended up hurting your feelings somehow to the point that you held it against him for years. And then he goes away, returning unannounced and uninvited, but apparently not unwanted, with the specific purpose of courting you?"

"Yeah..."

"And he definitely wants more than friendship?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure about that."

"And he is willing to take things as slowly as you are wanting to?"

"Uh huh."

"But you're still hung up on this thing he did and don't know if you can trust him?"

"Yeah, kind of..."

"But he knows about your hang-up and is okay with it?"

"So he says..."

Agnes paused, her brow furrowed. "Alright Williams. Answer me this. If you didn't have this hang-up of yours, would there be any problem?"

Sarah opened her mouth to say something then shut it again. In her mind, she played over everything she knew about Jareth, which, really, was not all that much. He's the Goblin King. He does magic. He doesn't live in this world. He might not even be human. He has to be way older than me, even if he doesn't look it. And he's the Goblin King. Would I be ok with all that? Well... She opened her mouth to tell Agnes there would be a few problems, but what came out was, "No, none at all." She was mildly surprised to realize that her answer was the truth.

"Hm. Out of curiosity, what, exactly, did he do to you all those years ago?"

"I... It's complicated."

"Sar," Agnes leaned closer, concern in her eyes. "He didn't... I mean... you know..."

Sarah's eyes widened as she realized what her best friend was asking. Or, trying to ask. "No, no, no. Nothing like that."

"Are you sure? You can tell me if he did, you know."

"No, honest. He didn't. If that was the case my 'hang-up' would definitely be something other than a 'hang-up'." Sarah sighed, trying to figure out how to explain what had happened without actually explaining what had happened. "Do you remember, all those years ago, when I told you about the dream I had of the man of my, well, dreams I guess?" Agnes nodded. "Well, this is him. Only I didn't dream him up, he really existed. Which means everything I dreamt about actually happen. Because I didn't really dream it, I just thought I did."

Agnes nodded again. "That happens. Read a case study once. Anyway, please expound."

"Ok. Basically, I had this huge crush on him. This was back before I got on well with my stepmother and brother. I was such a spoiled brat then. He made me realize that I was behaving like a child even as I demanded I be treated like an adult. At the time, I thought he was a real jerk about it. Really mean. Over time, that sort of went away. I still think he was being a jerk, and he acted just as spoiled as I did. But it was honestly the best way anyone could have got through to me. I never really forgave him for that. Even though he was right."

"But what does that have to do with you trusting him?"

"Well..." Sarah hesitated. How do I explain this one? "He made me believe something ridiculous."

Agnes watched as Sarah blushed. It isn't even her 'I'm lying, don't you see my ears turn red' blush, but her 'I find this horribly embarrassing, are you really going to make me tell you?' blush. Why yes, Sarah. What are best friends for? "And that something was?"

Sarah looked at the evilly innocent grin on her friend's face. "When I taught you how to do that, it was under the proviso that you would not use it against me."

"Wasn't in writing. Wouldn't sign it if it were. Well?"

"It's stupid."

"Try me."

Sarah groaned, grabbed a throw pillow and covered her face with it. Leaning back, she muttered something into it.

Agnes laughed, leaned over, and snatched the pillow. "What was that?"

"You are so mean to me."

"And you need to speak more clearly. Don't you remember our voice class? 'Diction, peanuts, diction!'"

Sarah laughed. "Ok, ok. He offered me my dreams. Anything, well, everything my heart desired."

"Dude. That's a strange thing to offer a fourteen-year-old."

"Yeah. But then he left and never came back."

"What, you actually expected him to grant that?"

"Well, yeah, but I told him no."

"You told him no?"

"Well, yeah. But only because he told me that if I said yes, he'd take Toby away and turn him into a Goblin."

"... And you believed him."

"Well, I guess... yeah." Sarah sounded rather sheepish.

"What were you o - no, wait. Never mind. You had this really strange sense of reality growing up."

"I did not!"

"Right. That's why when we were in fifth grade, you told the teacher you were late to class because you saw a pixie and had to follow it to see where it went. You swore it was true, and wouldn't retract the story even when sent to the Principal's office."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that."

"See? Strange sense of reality. Continue with the telling. Then what?"

"Well, I said no, and then he changed," into an owl, "and he went away and didn't come back. A part of me wondered if it ever even happened. It was all so fast. And I was just a kid. And," she shrugged. "I don't know. I kind of thought he was in love with me. But if he was, wouldn't he have come back? So I had this huge trauma working through it, but I couldn't exactly tell anyone because would believe me? And now he is back. And... and I don't... I just don't know."

"You met him only once and you thought he was in love with you?" Agnes' head was reeling.

Sarah shrugged again. "I told you, it's complicated."

"I don't doubt that. It doesn't make much sense, though I am sure in your precious head it is as clear as a bell." Agnes shrugged as well. She had known for years that her best friend was slightly mad. But that was part of what made Sarah who she was. "It sounds convoluted enough to still be explained away as a dream, too. Except it is almost too strange to be so. Sounds like a fruitcake to me. Of course, so are you."

"Hey!"

Agnes was lost in wrapping her head around it all and did not acknowledge Sara's outburst. "Whatever it is, the fact remains that he has, in fact, returned. Presumably with an explanation as to why he crushed your young heart?"

"Um, because I wouldn't had accepted the truth if I had known. I was too young to understand."

"Hm..." Agnes gnawed on her lip, mulling it all over. Well... all things considered, maybe it makes more sense than I first thought... Sweeps you off your teenage feet then leaves, inadvertently taking your illusions based on childish fantasies with him. Sounds like he was as interested in you then as he is now, which is a bit... weird. But then rather than take advantage of your vulnerability, especially considering how practically estranged you were from your family, and trying to shape you into some cookie-cutter shell, he leaves allowing you to grow and develop into your own person. He takes the chance that you'll fall in love with someone else and forget him completely knowing that is the only way you will become the woman you have inside you. Probably the woman he saw in you all those years ago. Pausing in the train of thought, she marveled at how she came up with all of that. Agnes, you are far too intelligent for normal society. Absentmindedly, she picked up her mug and attempted to take a drink before remembering she had already finished the contents. "Alright, Williams, as strange as this whole thing has sounded, I will give you one thing."

"What's that?"

"The whole Peeps thing wasn't that bad of an idea. Refill?"

Throwing back her head and laughing with gusto, Sarah took Agnes' cup back to the 'kitchen' to make more hot chocolate. "Assuming I've satisfied your curiosity -"

"For the moment."

"Ok, for the moment, I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Did you honestly get through the entire showing of Ziggy without a single objection?"

"Yep." Agnes grinned.

"Will wonders never cease. The children are developing taste."

"Either that or we have finally succeeded in corrupting them."

Had anyone been around, they would have heard what could only be termed as evil cackling from Sarah's room as opposed to the normal hysterical laughter. However, everyone was still downstairs, eyes still glued to the little ball going back and forth and back again with dedication and focus found only in procrastinating students.