Chapter 3
December 10, 2012
"Caddy. Caddy, wake up."
"Jan, what the fuck?" Cady rolled over to face her girlfriend, rubbing sleep from her eyes. "It's like one am."
"Actually, it's one thirty, and I need your help."
"What could you possibly need my help with at this hour?"
"Homework."
Cady groaned and started to roll back over, but Janis grabbed her shoulder.
"Pleaseee? It's the last big assignment of the semester and I haven't even started."
"That sounds like a you problem."
"It is! It is a me problem and I need your help to fix it."
"At one am?"
"It's due tomorrow."
"Janis!"
"Sorry! College is harder than I thought it would be," Janis pouted. "Will you please help me?"
Cady looked at her for a long moment, then sighed. "You are so lucky that I love you."
Janis grinned. "Does that mean you'll do it?"
"Yeah, yeah," Cady grumbled, sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. "What kind of assignment is it?"
"Math," Janis mumbled, making a face.
"I still don't understand why you decided to take a math course if you hate it so much."
"Who said I hate math?" Janis frowned. Cady squinted at her in the half-light.
"Um, you? Multiple times a day? Every day since I met you?"
"Well," Janis said defensively, "Maybe I decided to give it another shot."
Cady snorted. "When have you ever given anything another shot?"
"I gave you another shot after you backstabbed me in junior year."
Cady winced. "Ouch. Point taken. Where's your textbook?" Janis bit her lip. Cady narrowed her eyes. "Janis. Where. Is. Your. Textbook."
Janis squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't know?"
"Is that a question or a statement?"
"Statement?"
Cady tossed her hands up in the air. "Janis! How am I supposed to help you with your math homework if you don't have the problems?"
"I was hoping you'd help me look for it."
Cady put her head in her hands. "I love her, I love her, I love her," she muttered. Janis watched with mild interest.
"What exactly are you doing?"
Cady lifted her head toward the ceiling as though praying. "It's my mantra. I repeat it to myself whenever you're being ridiculous."
Janis squinted at her. "I can't decide whether to be offended or not."
Cady kissed her on the cheek. "Neither, because we're looking for your textbook now. Where was the last place you had it?"
Janis frowned. "Um... the commons? Maybe?" Seeing the look on Cady's face, she added, "I was studying during lunch but I got distracted, and I don't think I remembered to grab it before I went to my next class."
Cady nodded slowly. "Okay. Okay. But aren't the commons closed at night?"
Janis flashed an evil smile. "Come with me."
"Janis, this is insane," Cady hissed. They were standing at the entrance to the commons, Cady watching as Janis fiddled with the locks on the doors.
"Maybe. But I need that textbook." Janis finished with the locks and turned to Cady, grinning. "Care to do the honors?" She gestured toward the doors.
"And get my fingerprints all over the handles? No thank you."
Janis rolled her eyes. "No one's gonna care that we broke in. We go to this school, it's not like we're really trespassing."
"I beg to differ."
"Babe, stop worrying so much. We're gonna be fine." Janis kissed Cady's nose lightly. Cady tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile.
"Okay, but we have to be quick." Cady gripped one of the door handles and pulled, and the door swung open easily. "Do I want to know how you learned to pick locks?" She whispered as they slipped inside.
"Probably not."
Cady nodded. "You take that side, I'll take this one."
There was silence for a few minutes as the girls searched under tables and chairs. Then suddenly, a bright light sliced through the room.
"Is someone there?" The voice of a security guard rang through the room. Janis stuck her head up from under the table where she'd been looking, meeting Cady's eyes from across the room. Cady's eyes were wide and full of I told you so' s. Janis flicked her gaze to the cafe in the corner next to her and Cady gave a tiny nod. Slowly, the two girls made their way through the maze of tables and crawled behind the counter.
"Janis Sarkisian, I swear to God if we get caught-" Cady's angry whispers cut off abruptly as the flashlight beam swept the room again, and despite herself she found her hand reaching for Janis's.
They sat there in the dark as the sound of the security guard's footsteps faded away into the night.
Janis counted to ten, and when she didn't hear any more noises, she slowly stood back up, pulling Cady with her.
"Jesus fucking Christ," Janis released a giant breath. "That was terrifying." She glanced over at Cady, who looked utterly shell-shocked. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dragged you into this."
Cady shook her head. "No, that was actually... kinda fun."
Janis raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
She shrugged. "I mean, if you don't think about how close we got to being kicked out of college, yeah."
Janis took a step closer and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend's waist. "Well, I'm glad I didn't traumatize you."
"It would take a lot more than that to traumatize me," Cady teased, threading her arms around Janis's neck. Janis pressed a kiss to her lips. When she pulled away, something caught her eye.
"Wait a sec," Janis murmured, leaning down under the counter to take a closer look. There, on one of the shelves, sat her math textbook.
"Thank God," Cady murmured from over Janis's shoulder. "Grab it and let's go back to bed."
"I think you're forgetting that I still have to actually do the assignment," Janis reminded her, standing up with the textbook in hand.
Cady tilted her face up toward the ceiling. "I love her, I love her, I love her..."