Callie had chosen the movie, which meant nobody else had any say in any aspect of the evening, including where they sat, what snacks were acceptable, and whether talking during the film was allowed. The answer to that last one was no, talking during the film was fine for Callie.
Katlyn had tried to explain, twice, that this was acceptable behavior. She had not won.
The movie was forty-five minutes in. Callie had provided live commentary for approximately forty-three of those minutes.
"Okay but why did she go back to him," Callie said, with the energy of someone who had been asking this question internally for the past ten minutes and had finally decided the question needed an audience. "She already knew what he was like. Is she stupid? Is she retarded?"
"I would hate being seated next to you in a movie theater."
"Don't say that! I know how to act during the movies!" Callie defended herself. "Zoey. Zoey, back me up."
Zoey was eating a piece of chocolate. She looked at Callie. She looked at Katlyn. She looked back at the movie.
"I think she went back to him because she wanted to," she said.
Callie pointed at her. "See! That's my point! She wanted to! And the movie acts like wanting to is a valid reason when the entire first hour was about how badly he-"
"The entire first forty-five minutes," Katlyn said.
"The first hour, I'm rounding up-"
"You're rounding up by fifteen minutes, which is not rounding, that's a different movie."
"Katlyn, I will throw a cracker at you."
"Please don't mess up Zoey's room by throwing good crackers."
Callie kept talking and Katlyn kept issuing corrections as the movie went on. Zoey sat with her back against the headboard and her knees up and watched both things at once. The movie and these two people who had been in her life for a while now and who were sitting on her bed right now on a Thursday night because they wanted to be there and for no other reason. She ate chocolate combined with their crackers.
At some point the movie reached a scene that was actually tense enough to shut Callie up for a few minutes. The quiet was interesting, you could hear the film properly without the commentary and it turned out the film was good when you could hear it properly. Callie held her breath through the tense part and then exhaled dramatically when it resolved.
"Okay," she said. "Okay, that was good."
"It was without you talking every second through it," Katlyn agreed.
"She should still not have gone back to him though."
"Yeah, she was acting like a dumb bitch. But dumb bitches need love too I guess."
"Dumb bitches need love too! Oh my god, why do I feel like that defines me?"
Inner Zoey couldn't help but laugh, causing both Callie and Katlyn to look at her.
"Oh my god, Zoey did not just laugh at me calling myself a dumb bitch! Zoey!"
"I didn't mean to…" Zoey tried covering her mouth, but Inner Zoey only laughed harder.
"Zoey!!!" Callie pounced on her, shaking her. "I was clearly freaking joking but you really think I'm a dumb bitch?! Listen! Just because I don't make the best choices for boyfriends doesn't mean you can think that! I'm young, hot, and blonde! I can freaking afford a few relationship mistakes right now!"
"A few? There was Brad, Chad, Kyle, Logan, Ryan, Blake, and… am I missing anymore?" Katlyn listed, causing Inner Zoey to laugh even harder.
"Oh my freaking god! I hate you Katlyn!" She threw a pillow at Katlyn's face that she caught with her hand. "And you too, Zoey! You're supposed to support me!"
"I can't support bad decisions." Zoey shook her head through the watering of the eyes.
"We wouldn't really be your friends if we did." Katlyn smirked.
"It's not my fault! I know those types of guys aren't good for me, but I can't resist! It's like my brain is saying one thing but my heart is screaming another and I can only hear my heart. And like after the relationship is over is when I can hear my brain."
"Yeah, we know. It's called stupid bitch syndrome." Katlyn told her.
Zoey laughed even harder and the tears finally released from her tear ducts without her control. Callie swore that this would be her last summer be a stupid bitch. Neither Katlyn or Inner Zoey believed her. But they acted like they did. Callie loved stupidly, giving it to men that clearly didn't deserve it. Inner Zoey definitely thought she was a dumb bitch. She's popular, hot, beautiful, smart, athletic, and nice. She could have any guy she wanted. There were thousands of actual nice men she could go for who'd probably want to marry her in a week. But she chose the ones that would never do that.
'That's the definition of a dumb bitch!' Inner Zoey argued.
'It's not nice.' Zoey argued back.
'The truth isn't always nice!'
Callie tucked her legs under her and turned slightly, looking at Zoey.
"How are you actually doing?" she said, shifting the convo.
Zoey thought about it.
"I'm doing better," she said.
Callie watched her face for a moment. Katlyn was also watching, quieter about it.
"Really?" Callie said.
"Yeah." Zoey turned the slightly melted chocolate she was holding over in her fingers. "Keeping busy helps. But." She paused, finding the right words. "I'm okay. I mean it."
Callie moved the distance between them and wrapped her arms around Zoey from the side, her head dropping to Zoey's shoulder, solid and warm and completely without warning.
Zoey let her. She put her arm around her.
"Okay," Callie said, into her shoulder. "Okay, good. You're allowed to be okay."
"I know."
"I just wanted to check."
"Thanks."
Katlyn, from the other side of the bed, did not make a sound. She just held out the cracker box toward Zoey's free hand.
Zoey took a cracker and combined it with her chocolate.
…
They were gone before midnight. Katlyn had a date with her actual girlfriend. Callie said she'd text tomorrow. Zoey cleaned up the bed, blankets back where they went, laptop closed, and bed cleaned of crumbs and other snacks.
She checked her phone.
She had thirteen unread messages. A lot of them were in the group chat she'd put together for the magji crowd. Alexander had immediately started using it to share memes he thought would make sense in the magji world. Lindsay used it for pretty much the same. Jacky had found the reaction feature and used it aggressively on everything. Caroline had been formal for exactly two days before Jacky dragged her down to sea level. Joseph used it sparingly and usually only when someone directly called him out.
And then there was Tiffany.
Zoey had added her before the Poison situation blew up because it had seemed like the smart thing to do at the time. The timeline on what happened after that was: Zoey got swallowed by the worst three months of her life, emerged on the other side, and had not had a chance to explain to anyone in the chat who Tiffany was or why she was there. By the look of the chat history, Tiffany had introduced herself, told them she was Zoey's best friend/lover/wife, and everyone had just... accepted this and moved on. Alexander had apparently welcomed her enthusiastically. Jacky had reacted to the introduction post with three different emojis. Lindsay didn't believe her on the lover/wife part and Tiffany forged a marriage license with both of their names on it. Caroline's response had been polite and friendly. Joseph had simply welcomed her.
She scrolled up to the current messages.
[Alexander]: okay so hear me out. daemon case. probably nothing crazy but definitely something. remnant situation. turns out word got around to other cities that Poison was building some kind of empire and declared herself the first daemon king in a century. and some of the daemons who heard about it are... coming to join? like right now? they just started showing up at the edges of Krey
[Alexander]: they don't know it's over. they heard the rumors before it got out that the whole thing collapsed and now they're migrating toward krey like oh cool age of daemon time
[Jacky]: LMAO these daemons are about to help me become an A-grade magjistar! Let's go smash some heads!
[Lindsay]: It should be manageable. what's the count
[Alexander]: Peacekeepers tracked six confirmed so far. possibly more incoming.
[Caroline]: I'm available. I'm willing to purify this world of more daemons.
[Jacky]: yeah I'm in. haven't killed anything good in a while and I'm getting restless
[Lindsay]: I'll need to add it to my schedule but yes
[Tiffany]: OH OH OH I'm absolutely in!!! I can be there whenever!! I've been waiting for an excuse to visit Zoey anyway!! Is this like a formal invitation or do I just show up? I can just show up!! I'm very good at just showing up!!
[Alexander]: @Zoey? You there?
Zoey read through it again. Daemons migrating toward Krey to join an empire that had been destroyed. They were walking toward the person who ended it, not knowing she was the one who ended it. There was something darkly funny about that if you looked at it from the right angle.
She also thought about her mother's room. The monitor. The fifteen minutes every morning. The magji world was wider than most people knew. She'd spent two years learning how wide. There were things in it that standard medicine didn't know existed. There were healers and tools and daemonic objects with properties that had no equivalent in the world Alicia was currently being treated in.
She'd been thinking about this since she got home.
She typed.
[Zoey]: I'm in. when is it?
[Alexander]: this weekend? saturday?
[Zoey]: Works for me
[Jacky]: LEZGOOOO
[Tiffany]: YAY!! I'm already packing!! This is so exciting I get to meet everyone in person!! Well I already met Joseph and Caroline but now I get to meet the others!! This is basically a friend group field trip!!
[Jacky]: how strong are you
[Tiffany]: Super duper strong
[Joseph]: ...
[Alexander]: She certainly has the mindset for hunting daemons.
[Lindsay]: Alexander.
[Alexander]: I'm just saying.
Zoey put her phone down on the bed.
She looked at the ceiling for a moment.
Saturday.