Chapter 79: The Hole

POV: Carly

She had been in the library for forty minutes and had read approximately one page.

She had the grimoire open in front of her and her notes beside it and her pencil in her hand and she had read the same paragraph four times and retained none of it because her brain was currently occupied with the party that was happening in approximately three hours.

She tapped the pencil against the paper.

She was fine.

She was going to be completely fine.

It was just a party. With vampires. The vampires who had spent five years on the other side of the cafeteria looking at her like she was a category of problem. In a building she had never been to. With Aurora.

She tapped the pencil harder.

"You're going to break that." Katy said from across the table without looking up from her textbook.

Carly stopped tapping.

She looked at the grimoire.

"He invited you right after the locker room thing didn't he." Katy said. Still not looking up.

Carly's face went immediately warm. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Katy looked up.

She looked at Carly's face.

"He absolutely did." She said.

"Can we focus on something else." Carly said.

"Like how you're about to walk into a room full of vampires who until last week actively despised you." Katy said.

"That is not more comforting than you think it is." Carly said.

"Aurora's going to be there." Katy said.

Carly set the pencil down. "I know."

"And you're okay with that."

"I trust him." Carly said.

Katy looked at her for a moment. Something moved through her expression that was more genuine than her usual.

"Yeah." She said. "I know you do." She closed her textbook. "I'm coming."

Carly blinked. "What."

"To the party." Katy said. "I'm coming."

"You don't have to—"

"I haven't been to a single event at this school since I transferred and I am not missing this one." She was already stacking the books. "Also you are absolutely not walking into a room full of vampires with your boyfriend's ex without backup and I am the backup."

Carly stared at her.

"Furthermore." Katy said. "If you think I am going to let you show up to a party where Aurora is going to be dressed in whatever that is." She gestured at Carly's current outfit. "You are wrong."

"What is wrong with what I'm wearing." Carly said.

"Nothing if you're going to the library." Katy said. "Which you are leaving right now."

She had all the books under one arm and was already standing.

The librarian looked up from her desk.

Katy looked at her.

"Shush." She said preemptively.

The librarian made a sound of outrage.

Carly grabbed her bag and followed Katy out before she could cause an actual incident and thought that having Katy Spears as a friend was simultaneously the most exhausting and most reassuring thing that had happened to her this semester.

POV: Katy

She had the outfit sorted in twenty minutes.

The little black dress in the back of Carly's own wardrobe that Carly had apparently owned for two years and never worn. The heels that Katy had lent her for the date which were already here. The red lip that she applied herself because Carly kept saying it was too much and Katy kept saying it was exactly right.

She stood back and looked at the result.

She was right. She was always right about this.

Carly looked at herself in the mirror with the specific expression of someone who was surprised by what they saw and was trying not to be obvious about being surprised.

"You look incredible." Katy said. "Aurora is going to hate it. That's the goal."

"That's not the goal." Carly said.

"It's a secondary goal." Katy said. "The primary goal is that Niko sees you walk in and forgets every other person in the room."

Carly met her eyes in the mirror.

Katy looked back.

Something passed between them that was not words. The specific understanding that came from being around someone long enough that the things you did not say started being as clear as the things you did.

Katy looked away first.

She went to her own wardrobe and found the deep green top she had been saving for something worth saving it for and decided this qualified.

She thought about The Hole.

She had not been back since the semester started. Had been managing her schedule and her intake carefully and had been doing fine. Tonight was going to require a certain amount of navigation. A room full of vampires and blood and the specific sensory environment of a party was not uncomplicated for her.

She was going to manage it.

She always managed it.

She also thought about the fact that Niko had greeted her in Bulgarian. Had known her full name and her origins before meeting her. Had looked at her with that specific quality of attention that said he had filed her away already and was watching to see what she did with the information.

She was going to be watching him just as carefully tonight.

She finished getting dressed.

"Ready." She said.

Carly took one more look in the mirror.

Then she nodded.

They walked out together into the Black River Falls evening and Katy thought that this was going to be a very interesting night in ways that had nothing to do with Aurora.