The sound of the TV washed over her. Students talked and laughed, lived and loved, around her. It all seemed oddly hollow, distant. Was she really part of their world?
Maybe she should go home and watch the aurora shimmer in the Realm's otherworldly sky. Maybe that was were she belonged.
"Can we talk?" Mariah slipped onto the stood opposite her.
"I tried," Miranda replied sourly. "You said... let me see if I have this right... that I'm jealous of your extortion racket and that I should be satisfied with all the sex I'm having with Genie."
"OK, you remember the first time we went to the Charity Gala?" Mariah asked.
"What?" Miranda blinked.
"The first time we went to the Gala," Mariah said, "and you introduced me to your friend Jenny."
"Who you immediately accused me to sleeping with," Miranda said bitterly. "I swear Mariah... I swear... the next person you accuse me of hooking up with, I am actually going down on them! If I am going to suffer for it, I should at least get to enjoy it."
"O... OK... deal," Mariah stammered.
"What?!"
"I'm an idiot!" Mariah blurted. "A fucked up, insecure idiot. I should have listened to you. I shouldn't have been jealous. I shouldn't have let myself get so deep in Uncle Nick's business."
"You mean Uncle Nick's organized crime ring," Miranda snapped.
"Madonna! Could you maybe keep that down?" Mariah snapped back. "These stronzos are serious about the whole Code of Silence thing... and yes," she added in a whisper, "the organized crime ring. I shouldn't have gotten involved in that... and everything else that came out of that. I fucked up. I really, really fucked up. I'm sorry, OK. I'm sorry."
"Mariah, I don't..."
"I know," Mariah said. "I know. 'I'm sorry' isn't enough... but I've got to start somewhere."
She took a deep breath, "Miranda, have I lost you?"
"I don't know," Miranda sighed. "I... I love you... but I don't know."
"OK," Mariah nodded. "OK, I'll take that... because it would be worse if you did know and that meant I had. I don't want to lose you."
"I don't want to lose you either," Miranda shuddered.
"We'll figure this out," Mariah said. "I don't know how, but we'll figure this out."
"Together," Miranda said.
"Ummm, you didn't really mean it did you?" Mariah asked. "About going down on the next person I get jealous about... right?"
Miranda just looked at her.
"Right?"
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