Chapter 89: Girls’ Day

Saturday morning started out quiet, exactly the way Roxanne had hoped it would. She had barely drifted into a second round of sleep when the door burst open and Isla marched in, already dressed, hair done, and radiating far too much energy for the hour. "Get up," Isla announced. Roxanne cracked one eye open. "Why?" "Because we’re leaving," Isla said. "Where?" Roxanne mumbled into her pillow. "Out," Isla said, as though that explained everything.

Tessa appeared in the doorway a moment later, carrying a bag slung over one shoulder. "She said you’d complain," Tessa said. "I wasn’t informed," Roxanne groaned, dragging herself upright. "Exactly why we didn’t inform you," Tessa said, grinning, and Roxanne gave up fighting it, swinging her legs out of bed with a resigned sigh.

They weren’t headed anywhere grand, just the small shopping district that sat outside the academy’s main gates, strung with lanterns and lined with little shops selling clothes, trinkets, and academy souvenirs nobody actually needed. ℯℯ𝘭.

Serena joined them near the gates, already carrying a small coffee from somewhere, falling into step beside Isla with the easy familiarity of someone who had clearly done this before. The four of them made an odd but comfortable group, Isla teasing Roxanne the way only someone who truly knew her could, Tessa bouncing between stores with restless competitive energy, and Serena moving through it all with a kind of polish that came from years spent around royalty and its endless social expectations, never once making the rest of them feel out of place.

They spent the better part of an hour browsing racks of clothes and tables of small accessories, with Tessa occasionally holding things up just to get a reaction, and Serena eventually steered Roxanne toward a section of dresses meant for the upcoming student social. Roxanne rejected the first three options outright, wrinkling her nose at each one before Serena had even finished holding them up to the light.

Tessa pulled something ridiculous off a nearby rack with obvious delight, all ruffles and an alarming shade of orange. "This one," she announced triumphantly. "Absolutely not," Roxanne said. "You haven’t even tried it," Tessa protested. "I can see it," Roxanne said flatly, and the whole group dissolved into laughter loud enough to draw a few curious glances from other shoppers.

By early afternoon, laden with bags and thoroughly worn out from browsing, they stopped for lunch at a small café tucked between two shops, and the conversation drifted, as it always seemed to, toward boys. Tessa leaned across the table toward Serena with obvious delight. "You’ve known the Moonstones forever," she said. "Which one was the worst as a teenager?" Serena didn’t even pause to consider it. "Liam," she said immediately, and Roxanne laughed so hard she nearly knocked over her glass.

Serena spent the next several minutes recounting embarrassing stories from the brothers’ childhood, each one more ridiculous than the last. Lucien had apparently once lectured an entire birthday party on proper etiquette before he was even old enough to understand what etiquette meant.

Roshan had spent most of his early years quietly watching everyone else play rather than joining in himself. Liam had gotten into so much trouble that the household staff kept a running list, and Kai had turned every single childhood game, no matter how trivial, into a fierce competition he refused to lose.

Listening to it all, picking at the last of her meal, Roxanne realized something she hadn’t fully considered before. These four people she knew now, the ones who ate breakfast with her and argued over Moonball and walked her through dark corridors without a word, had existed long before she ever arrived at Moonstone Academy. It made them feel more solid somehow, more real, less like figures who revolved entirely around her own story, and more like whole people she was only beginning to understand.

Eventually, inevitably, Tessa asked the question Roxanne had been quietly dreading all day. "So," she said, far too casually, "which one do you like?" Roxanne nearly choked on her drink. "None," she said quickly. Isla raised an eyebrow across the table. "That’s a lie," she said, not unkindly. Roxanne sighed and set down her glass. "I like all of them differently," she admitted, and the honesty of it surprised even her.

Serena didn’t tease her the way Roxanne half expected her to, setting down her fork. Instead she said, gently, "Then don’t force yourself to decide."

Roxanne looked at her. "What if I hurt one of them?" she asked, voicing the fear that had been sitting quietly in the back of her mind for weeks. Serena considered the question seriously before answering. "You can’t promise people they’ll never get hurt," she said. "You can only be honest about what you feel." It wasn’t a complete answer, and it didn’t need to be, but it gave Roxanne something real to turn over in her mind for the rest of the day.

The conversation shifted again as they finished their meal, settling into something softer. Isla asked whether Roxanne had ever imagined having friends like this when she first arrived at the academy. Roxanne thought back to her first day, the long drive, the stares in the hallway, Dorian and Arabella and the sharp, constant feeling of not belonging, of being certain that Moonstone Academy had never really been meant for her at all.

"I thought I’d spend the whole year just trying to survive," she admitted. Tessa looked at her, curious. "And now?" Roxanne smiled, surprising herself with how easily it came. "Now I complain about homework," she said, and the whole table burst out laughing, loud enough that a waiter glanced their way, though underneath the joke sat a quiet truth about exactly how far she had come since those early weeks.

As they wandered past another row of shops, bags now heavy enough to leave marks on their shoulders, they overheard a group of younger students chattering excitedly about the Friday night student social. Tessa declared immediately that they were absolutely going, and Isla agreed without hesitation.

Serena offered to help Roxanne pick out something to wear, and Roxanne insisted she didn’t need any help at all. Nobody listened to her, and the three of them began debating colors and styles as though she hadn’t spoken at all, already pulling up pictures on their phones for reference.

On the walk back toward the academy, Roxanne and Isla fell slightly behind the others, their shopping bags swinging gently between them.

"Are you happy?" Isla asked quietly, out of nowhere. Roxanne looked at her, and found the question surprisingly hard to answer right away. After everything that had happened since she first arrived here, after everything she’d survived and built and grown into, she finally said, simply, "Yeah. I think I am." Isla smiled at her. "Good," she said. "You deserve that." There was no dramatic moment, no tears, nothing that needed fixing, just two friends walking together in the late afternoon light with their bags bumping gently against their legs.

They returned to the academy carrying their bags, arms sore and feet aching pleasantly, and as they stepped into the dormitory, Roxanne’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She glanced down to find a message from Liam. Are you alive? it read. Another followed almost immediately, buzzing against her palm. Jace says girls’ shopping takes six hours. Roxanne typed back without thinking twice, smiling a little at the screen. Tell Jace he’s right.

A third message arrived before she’d even managed to put her phone away. So... did you buy something pretty for Friday? Roxanne stared at the screen for a long moment.

Isla leaned over her shoulder to read it, grinning instantly. "Oh, he’s interested," she said. Roxanne locked her phone quickly, dropping it onto the bed, pretending not to notice the warmth creeping up her neck. "He’s annoying," she said. Isla’s grin only widened, practically glowing with satisfaction. "You smiled," she said, and Roxanne had absolutely no good answer for that, so she simply turned and headed for the stairs.