By Sunday afternoon, Katie was biting her nails in anticipation of Tad and Chelsea's return. For the five days of Thanksgiving, the holiday you're supposed to spend with your family, she had made it through without one person who had been her family for as long as she could remember, and another who was quickly heading towards similar status.
She had been lazing around the common room watching TV since 10am, and while students had been streaming out of the elevators fairly consistently since that time, it was almost 2pm before she saw a familiar head of dark brown hair step out from behind the sliding doors.
Jumping up and chasing the brunette, Katie impressed herself by somehow managing not to trip, but still Chelsea was pushing her key into the worn lock before Katie launched herself into a bone crushing hug. An 'oof' escaped the shorter girl's body at the unexpected attack.
"Miss me?" questioned Katie with a brilliant 'Katie-smile' on her face.
"Apparently not as much as you missed me judging by that hug," Chelsea joked, although Katie noticed a dreamy smile and a faraway look on her roommate's face that she was sure had something to do with a certain tall, dark and handsome best friend of hers.
"Hey Chels, where's your suitcase?"
"What? My uh, suitcase?"
"Yeah, you know that large purple rectangle-shaped bag you put your clothes in when travelling?"
"Oh um, Tad carried it for me," she paused, looking everywhere but at Katie. "He's dropping his stuff off and then bringing it up."
"Tad hmmm?" Katie grinned mischievously.
"Well yeah, I mean we figured it was silly to get two cabs when we could just share again."
"I'm pretty sure you got in a couple of hours before Tad," Katie smirked while waving an accusatory finger at her suddenly bright red roommate.
Chelsea stuttered and stammered, while her cheeks blushed even more furiously under Katie's teasing gaze.
"Spill," demanded Katie as she dragged Chelsea to the floor opposite her. Their best talking had always been done on that floor.
"Well," she paused, meeting Katie's gaze and laughing a little at the expectant glee she found there. With an ever growing smile she continued. "You were right, he likes me. He told me in the cab to the airport that he had a great time on our date and he hoped we could do it again when we got back.
"He asked if we could share a cab on the way back too and, well, I was so caught up in the moment that I said yes without even thinking. Luckily there are shops and a Krispy Kreme at Reagan or I would have been severely bored. Anyway, on the way home he asked me to go to a movie with him tonight."
"Awesome. I told you didn't I?" Katie exclaimed and she squeezed Chelsea's hand in excitement. "So what movie are we going to tonight?"
With an alarmed expression, Chelsea managed to choke out a response that sounded something like "wehfdskjbsdkf…uh we?"
"Oh no no no. No way dude. I have been here, on campus, all ALONE for five days and you guys think you're ditching me tonight to go on a date? Nuh uh, I am so very there."
Chelsea softened at the thought of her still fragile friend spending Thanksgiving alone and resigned herself to the idea of a double date - yes double, because Katie's exuberance could occasionally be likened to that of two small children with short attention spans.
What friend could ever complain, though, when they knew the hell she had recently been through. It was enough for both Chelsea and Tad to have their friend slowly but surely returning to her old self again, and that's something Chelsea would remind Tad of when he learned of her intended chaperone duties.
As Katie and Chelsea skipped ahead of Tad with linked arms, at Katie's insistence of course, he thought about how good his new-
'Well, she's not really my girlfriend...yet.'
He thought about how good this girl had been for both he and Katie. After the way Katie started the school year, Tad wouldn't have believed that the girl who had borne the brunt of a lot of his best friend's emotions would end up helping her to start turning her life around.
'And maybe a give me a reason to turn mine around as well.'
Tad knew he had never been an angel. As a jock and one of the most popular kids in high school, he had only ever been rejected by one girl and a small sigh pushed itself passed his lips at the thought of that girl. Georgetown had never provided him with anything more than quite a few drunken experiences either, and while he would never admit it to anyone, he was starting to admit to himself that maybe he had found a girl to provide him with more than that.
A yell from Katie broke through his subconscious thought stream and he jogged to the corner, catching up with 'his girls' and putting an arm around each of their shoulders.
"Don't worry ladies, I'm right here," he said in his best pseudo-sleazy voice.
Without skipping a beat, Katie turned in towards him and ran her finger slowly down Chelsea's arm, declaring to Tad that they weren't worried when he wasn't there.
Chelsea stifled a giggle as a look of shock registered on Tad's face.
"Don't worry my friend, I am just joking. I won't steal this one from you too," Katie finished, winking at him and taking off up the stairs into the movie theatre.
As Tad stood dumbfounded, Chelsea could no longer keep the laughter back and she doubled over clutching her stomach.
"Chels, meet the real Katie," Tad said with a wry, but inwardly pleased, smile as he held out his hand for her to take.
Katie turned around and smiled at her friends as they approached her hand in hand.
"So, the last Matrix or Elf?" she questioned the burgeoning couple, then without waiting for a response she continued. "I think we should see both. See, we can buy tickets to the 8.20 session of Elf and then sneak into The Matrix afterwards. Cool? Okay, let's go."
Tad and Chelsea looked at each other with raised eyebrows and smiled, enjoying being caught up in Hurricane Katie.
As they lined up for tickets, Katie heard someone call out her name and she turned to see Taylor, waving at her from outside the bathrooms. Throwing some money at Tad and requesting a diet coke and packet of milk duds, she wandered over to Taylor and leaned against the wall.
"Hey Katie."
"What's up Tay? Are you here with friends?"
"Yeah, the boys are dragging me to see Gothika," Taylor shook her head with a resigned smile.
"That sucks. How are the guys? Is Shaun still dating that Abercrombie model?"
"Oh no no, he got bored of him after, oh I don't know, a week," she laughed. "Paul's dating this theater girl called Naomi but Riley's still my same old Riley-boy, too shy to talk to any of the cuties at Pride."
"That sounds just like him," Katie intercepted. "Somebody needs to teach that boy how to relax, perhaps with an extra special batch of brownies if you know what I mean."
Taylor giggled at the idea of sweet, innocent Riley getting stoned as she noticed Tad and some girl waiting a discreet distance away and pointed it out to Katie.
"Oh yeah, I'd better go. That's my roommate, Chelsea, by the way. Her and Tad have a budding romance," Katie grinned and rolled her eyes. "Hey we're seeing Elf now, but if you wanna join us after we're sneaking into the Matrix. I think it's in 2."
"Okay, I'll chat to the guys. Enjoy your nice, normal, not psycho scary movie."
Katie laughed and, as she walked towards her friends, she tossed out, "You'll be fine Tay, besides you know Riley will be curled up in your lap screaming like a girl. Focus on him!"
Thanks to a few minutes of begging, and a lot of 'I owe yous' , Katie agreed to let Tad take Chelsea for a coffee after the movie and walk her back to the dorm alone. It was the least she could do after crashing their date so she linked arms with Riley, who along with Taylor had met up with them for The Matrix, and the three waved the lovebirds off before heading back towards campus. Katie and Taylor spent the whole journey endlessly debating the movie they had just endured - Taylor had loved it, Katie not so much - and decided they should do a Matrix marathon when the DVDs came out so they could settle the score on a few contentious questions of continuity.
Eventually they reached Village C and she bid her new friends goodnight, with a promise that the gang would get together for a mid-week coffee. As Katie entered her room, she smiled as she thought about the day, the tentative steps she and Taylor were taking towards a friendship, and the not so tentative bounds Tad and Chelsea seemed to be taking.
If anyone were to ask, she could almost say that she was approaching a place of, dare she say it, happiness. Her heart may not have mended yet, but she was finally looking to that light at the end of the tunnel with calm apprehension rather than abject fear.
Setting her keys on the desk, Katie disturbed the soothing rotations of her Windows screensaver and out of habit, flicked her eyes over her AIM buddy list. A look of shock, amazement and terror flashed across her features as she froze mid-movement, barely comprehending what she was seeing.
Jessie.