The Thin Line

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/14012280.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Category: F/F
Fandom: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Relationship: Evie/Mal (Disney)
Character: Mal (Disney), Evie (Disney), Jay (Disney), Carlos de Vil
Stats: Published: 2018-03-18 Words: 9022

The Thin Line

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi

Summary

Otherwise known as "Mal's Declassified College Survival Guide to Waking Up in Bed

Next to Someone You Hate"

Mal didn't exactly wake up that morning.

It was something more akin to a chain being wrapped around her head, given a violent tug, and
then Mal being dragged from unconsciousness to consciousness through a field of gravel and
broken glass. She almost didn't dare to open her eyes, as what little morning sun she could see
through her eyelids gave her enough of a headache already. Or maybe it was the faintly twittering
birds outside her dorm room giving her the headache. Or the pillow underneath her that felt like a
slab of concrete. Or the weight on her chest that wasn't doing her aching body any favors.

But something was off. People didn't wake with uncomfortable weights on their chests, even after
long nights of drinking like the one some functioning part of Mal's groggy brain was starting to
remember she had the evening before. And Mal also didn't leave the candles in her room burning
overnight, which meant the deliciously fruity smell tickling her nose had no explanation. She really
didn't want to, out of fear of burning her weary eyeballs straight out of her sockets if she did, but
Mal decided to fight against the agony and the flashing neon "Don't Do It" signs in her head to
force her eyes open. Naturally, everything was blurry, her vision no real help.

Every blink was like a bolt of lightning behind her lids, but it worked. Soon enough everything in
her world was crystal clear.

Including the bed of blue hair resting soundly on her bare chest.

Mal screamed. The girl on top of her snapped awake and screamed. The two of them bolted upright
and away from each other, grabbing wildly at Mal's sheets and fighting to cover themselves. The
only clue Mal needed was the blue hair, but even still her heart waited until she saw the face before
it kicked itself into a frantic high-speed gallop.

"You!!" she yelled.

"You!!" the other girl yelled right back, the expression on her stupidly flawless face absolutely
bewildered.

Oh, Mal prayed that she was having a nightmare, and she was not the praying sort. Evie, in her
bed. Evie, the vain girly girl who would be all over pink if she wasn't so into blue. The exact sort of
girl Mal hated, with her stuck-up nose sniffing out the latest fashions or getting lost in the fumes of
fresh nail polish.

"...Tell me you're wearing something under there," Mal practically squeaked.

Evie had to check as if she couldn't already tell, peeking down the covers.

"...I'm not," she squeaked back.

Evie, the vain and horridly self-centered bimbo, naked with Mal in Mal's bed.

"Tell me I'm still asleep," Mal squeezed her eyes shut tight, willing it all to disappear by the time
she opened them again.

Now Evie's head hurt, and not just from the profuse amounts of alcohol consumed mere hours
before. Mal, the goth-wannabe who was always too busy being "edgy" to slap on some lipstick or a
nice dress every once in a while. Evie couldn't stand her with that try-hard punk rock attitude and
foul personality. And now she was naked in her bed.

She wouldn't answer Mal's request to assure her this was all a horrid dream. She couldn't.

"Oh holy shit..." Mal buried her face in a hand. The sheets fell away from her a bit.

"Mal," Evie bluntly said, turning her head.

Mal peeked through her fingers and saw, yanking the covers back up to her neck with a sharp
intake of breath.

"Alright, so, this doesn't mean anything," she talked quickly, desperately. "This pounding in my
head? Hangover. Massive, killer hangover. So as drunk as I obviously was last night there's no way
I could've...we could've..."

Evie looked out across Mal's dorm room, where she recognized her own expensive clothes strewn
about in a path from the door, to the desk chair, to the top of the tv, to the foot of the bed. In fact,
she was sure that was her bra thrown over Mal's lampshade. How drunk must she have been to
stoop so low as to sleep with a lowlife as crude as Mal.

"Sure, Mal. The night was harmlessly innocent and we just innocently took our clothes off before I
innocently fell asleep on top of you," Evie rolled her eyes.

Mal didn't like the way Evie said her name, like they were friends. They weren't friends.

"I think I need a shower," Mal shuddered.

Evie positively fumed.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she demanded. "Who do you think I am??"

"A repressed memory waiting to happen," Mal grumbled, scanning the room for her own clothes.
"Okay, listen Blue Barbie, we aren't going to mention this to anyone, ever. Got it?"

"Please, as if you're something I'd like to brag about."

Evie made damn sure Mal heard the pointed way she said "some thing" and not "someone". Mal all
but snarled, reaching over to snatch the bra off her lamp and fling it at Evie like it was a used
tissue.

"I believe this is yours," she chided.

Frilly and lacy. Sure as hell wasn't Mal's. She cast her narrowed green eyes away as Evie let the
sheets drop and started to fasten her bra. God, Mal didn't want to think about it. She didn't dare
think that her hands or her...her mouth might have been anywhere near what was hidden under
Evie's bra. No. No way in hell. Mal was going to stay blissfully in denial in a land where she and
Evie just drunkenly passed out naked before anything could happen. Mal was a college student, she
didn't have the money for therapy.

Then Evie was up, searching out the rest of her clothes while Mal found her t-shirt within arm's
reach and shrugged into it. They dressed in silence, bitter silence, and it was the first time in Evie's
life she wished she didn't put together such flashy ensembles on a day to day basis, she had far too
many pieces and accessories to track down in Mal's dingy dorm. It meant she had to linger for
much longer than she wanted to, but eventually she found herself dressed, phone and purse in hand.
Mal, turning bright red upon discovering she couldn't for the life of her find her underwear, stayed
tucked beneath the covers as Evie saw herself to the door.

"This never happened," Evie said with finality, hand on the doorknob.

Mal couldn't even remember last night at the moment. For all she and her denial knew,
nothing did happen.

"This never happened," she sharply agreed.

"You and I did not sleep together."

"You and I did not s—" Mal couldn't even bring herself to utter it. "...You and I did not do that
thing you just said."

"My fashion illustration class is in half an hour, I'm going to go to it, study hard, and forget all
about this."

Mal had to stifle a scoff. Evie, studying hard in a class called "Fashion Illustration".

"You do you," she said mockingly, beginning to wave Evie away before freezing and wishing she'd
chosen a better phrasing.

"I will," there went that stuck-up nose of Evie's. "Because there isn't a daiquiri in the world strong
enough to get me to do you."

She whirled out the door without further ado, speeding defiantly through her walk of shame and
smugly grateful that Mal wasn't popular enough for anyone to recognize that Evie was coming out
of her room.

Unpopular Mal flopped back down onto her bed when she was finally alone, pillow pressed tight to
her face to muffle a scream of unmitigated horror.

Unmitigated horror had no shelf life. Mal was grimly finding this out as her morning from hell
dragged on. A shower with scalding hot water, her music blaring through her speaker, cereal in her
dorm to avoid the chances of going down to the school cafeteria and breathing the same air as
Evie. And with each passing minute, her memories coming back more and more.

It was a birthday party, some big thing on the other end of campus for one of Jay's football
buddies. Mal didn't party, no no no, but Jay was still new to the team and wanted Mal to tag along
as a friendly face. The room, the hall, and practically the entire dormitory smelling of alcohol was
Mal's first clue, but it was a party. She was there. Jay was there. Jay's best friend Carlos had also
been drafted as a "friendly face". And Carlos just so happened to be friends with Evie, whose radar
was probably always attuned to a party so long as she didn't have nails to dry or shopping to do. So
all the ingredients were there—Mal, Evie, and a football team's rather loose interpretation of an
open bar.

That much she remembered for now. Part Two of her tragic backstory—in which Mal, Evie, and an
open bar somehow equaled a one-night stand when the girls flat out despised each other—would
have to be unlocked in the later afternoon hours. When the aspirin kicked in, the aspirin Mal
downed after she remembered too late that hangover plus blasting music in the shower was a
terrible combination.

"You look like shit," was Jay's version of concern when he fell in step beside Mal as they crossed
the campus lawn on their way to their first classes.

"Rough night," Mal grumbled, again finding herself wishing for a better phrasing.

It better not have been rough. Say she slept with Evie, sure, but say she got wild and freaky with
Evie...Mal blocked out and shut down the startling recollection of the fact that she still never found
her underwear. And then, through the lingering hangover haze, it hit her. Like a slap in the face.
Which would honestly be more welcome than this entire situation.

The party. Dozens of people. If anyone saw her leaving with Evie...

"Hey, speaking of the party..." and speaking of speaking, Mal's dry throat was having trouble with
it.

"You don't remember it, do you?" Jay chuckled. "I don't know, Mal. I lost track of you after a
while. I'm sure you ducked out early, though."

"Sure," Mal said far too quickly.

So Jay didn't have a clue, that was a good first start. Not for Mal uncovering how her night
descended into madness, but for Mal making sure nobody but nobody found out about it. That was
also considering she stopped shuddering everytime she pictured waking up with Evie on her. Like
she was a goddamn pillow.

Art history was her first class of the day, where she planned to set her phone to record the lecture,
prop a textbook in front of her face, and nap away a monotonous fifty minutes and at least some of
the throbbing in her head. She would've skipped the class entirely, but she couldn't let that airhead
Evie show her up. Two could fight a hangover and play it cool. So long as the sun left Mal's poor
eyes alone with its hideously glaring light. But napping didn't come easy to her, not even with the
professor's drawl droning on and on at the head of the room.

It was a bit like stepping from a steamy shower and wiping the fog off the mirror. Arms folded
across her desk and head buried in the nice, muffled darkness, what should've been flashes of
unconsciousness as Mal drifted off were really flashes of memory. The Part Two of her tragic
backstory. She didn't see it from her own eyes, but sort of from above, like she'd actually died last
night and was now in Hell, damned to watch herself sleep with Evie for all eternity. Yep, sounded
like Hell to her.

She saw Evie, fruity-girly drink in hand, sauntering down the hall and through the music to her.
Mal, beer number who-knows-which in her own hand and eyes hazy, just looked at her with an
unfocused gaze. They drunkenly talked. Mal didn't know about what. And then they weren't just
talking, soon they were laughing. That definitely had to have been beer number three or four,
Barbie Girl wasn't witty enough to make Mal laugh any other way. And then...god, it was like
watching a horror movie. Evie leaned in, whispering something in Mal's ear, her hand and
ridiculous nails running along Mal's arm—it was almost enough to make Mal swear off alcohol
forever.

Then Mal remembered the walk across campus, it passed in a blur. She and Evie still talked, still
laughed, swayed a little as they crossed the grassy lawn, but they more or less remained civil. So
far, so good.

Until Mal also recalled when they reached her dormitory hallway, where innocent talks and
drunken laughter somehow turned into Mal pressed back against the wall. With Evie's lips and
Evie's body roughly against her own.

Somehow, in that one moment, Mal was more appalled and disgusted at the thought of her and
Evie kissing than she was at the thought of them sleeping together. She really wished the memories
weren't flooding back with quite so much force, she was hungover and drowning with no way to
keep herself afloat. And god, it was just like watching a horror movie.

Don't kiss her back, don't kiss her back, don't kiss her back...

But last night's Mal was far too drunk to listen. And damn, did she kiss Evie back. She remembered
they didn't even make it inside Mal's dorm before they started trying to get each other naked, and it
was a wonder the trail of clothes in Mal's room that morning didn't start out in the hallway. Mal
had been multitasking, not breaking a single kiss as she all but tore Evie's jacket off of her, fingers
unclasping the buttons and tugging it off her shoulders. They were still on each other when Mal
had miraculously fumbled the door open with her keys, where she shut it behind her with a foot so
she wouldn't have to tear herself away from Evie's soft, stupid lips. The clothes coming off, the two
throwing themselves onto Mal's bed...and then that was the last of what she remembered,
everything afterwards a blissful blank.
Thank goodness. Mal didn't need to recall the actual act in grim graphic detail, the opening number
alone was horrendous enough.

How could she have done this? How could she have done her?? Those and other relative questions
pinballed around her head for the rest of her lecture and the rest of the morning, really, splitting her
skull even more than lingering beer was already splitting it. Her room should have been a restful
retreat, where she could just drop her bag to the floor and flop lifelessly onto her bed, but that was a
hard thing to do knowing her bed was no longer a sanctuary now that...now that certain traumatic
events had transpired beneath the sheets. If Mal weren't Mal, she would've burst into tears. As it
were, Mal was Mal, and in lieu of tears her go-to reaction was to put her fist through a wall.

An aching body put the wall punching on hold, as did the knocking at her door that felt and
sounded like a fleet of jackhammers drilling through her head. Mal had just collapsed at the desk to
give a nap a second try when she heard it, and groaned all the way to her feet and to the door.

Evie had obviously wasted no time in changing out of the same clothes she had on last night, Mal
saw that when she opened the door. Barbie of course made a pit stop to her own dorm that morning
before she trundled off to her fabulous fashion illustration class. Mal looked her up and down, a
suede jacket over a short dress and thigh high boots.

"Sorry, I don't want whatever you're selling," she snidely remarked.

Evie wouldn't let herself be fazed.

"Not selling. Returning. Apparently these have been sitting in my purse all damn morning."

It was the same purse Evie carried the night before, Mal could tell. Not because she recognized it,
but because Evie opened it up and procured a familiar pair of missing underwear. Mal's blood
turned to ice in her veins. She was living an absolute nightmare. She snatched her underwear out of
Evie's hand and flung it away in one fluid motion.

"Mal, we need to talk," Evie told her.

Mal held up a finger.

"No, we do not. We need to forget this whole thing ever happened, remember?"

"Well, I can't," Evie snapped, scowl settling into place.

Her memory had come back in flashes throughout the morning too. The party, Mal whispering in
her ear, Mal's hand running the length of her arm, Mal backing her against the corridor wall and
hungrily getting at her lips.

"Listen, Mal—"

"You need to stop saying my name like that," Mal didn't appreciate the thought of them getting
quite so casual.

Evie's scowl turned downright wicked in a flash.

"That's not what you said last night," she rasped.

Mal bristled, much like a cat with a squished tail.

"Alright, you dropped off your twisted little present, now why are you still here?" she demanded.

"I want you to have coffee with me."

"Y— ...you fucking what?"

Evie sneered at Mal's boorishness.

"I told you we were going to forget it. But obviously, we can't," Evie started to explain.

"Who says I can't? As if I've spent my entire morning thinking about..."

Mal's reflexive shudder gave her away.

"Exactly," Evie haughtily said, knowing she had the upper hand. "It's no secret that you and I do
not get along. You're rude, and crass, with no sensitivity or style, and—"

"Get to the point," Mal deadpanned, crossing her arms.

"But in spite of my borderline hatred of you, something possessed us to get together last night, and
I want to know what that something is."

Mal rolled her eyes, finding it unbelievable that she had to stand here in her doorway and listen to
this crap.

"I'll tell you what it was. Tequila and Corona, Evie. We were drunk! Drunk people do stupid
things! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out!"

"They say the drunk you is the real you, and I need to find out if the real me has some devious
thing for you so I can smother her to death as soon as possible."

"This is freaking ridiculous, but if it'll get you to shut up and quit aggravating my headache, fine.
We'll have coffee, we'll figure out what the hell happened between us, and then I can burn my
sheets and move on with my life."

Evie viciously narrowed her eyes.

"You're vile," she flatly told her.

Mal's smile was positively evil. She could play Evie's nasty little games too.

"You remember that the next time you want me on top of you," she slammed the door in Evie's
face, regretting it only for a minute as the sound rattled her weary head.

She would kill to stumble upon a magic lamp right about now. Genie, turn back time. Genie, erase
Evie from existence. Genie, invent an instant migraine relief pill.

The typically pale Mal was all but drained of color entirely by the time she met Jay in the cafeteria
for lunch before her next class that afternoon.
"...You got wasted last night," Jay finally guessed with a grin, sliding his lunch tray across the table
to Mal.

Mal didn't have the strength to argue, head buried in her hand.

"I got wasted last night."

"Damn, and I missed it?" Jay chuckled. "I should've kept a better eye on you, that would've been
something to see."

"Sure it would," Mal rubbed her head.

"You really look like shit," Jay munched on a fish stick. "Maybe you should skip class."

And give Evie the satisfaction of handling her hangover more gracefully than Mal? No way.

"...Hey Mal, what's your deal? So you're hungover. You're a college kid, it happens. You're acting
like it's the end of the world."

She didn't dare risk telling him the truth. Not even with the stipulation of omitting Evie's name and
referring to her as "doing something stupid".

"Killer headache, Jay," she grumbled instead, playing with her food the way her mother never
taught her not to.

Killer headache indeed. Killer headache happened to be striding right for the table in a pair of thigh
high boots.

"Hey guys," Carlos dropped his backpack onto a chair, with Evie standing close behind him.

Mal and Evie met each other's eyes from across the table, but without the off-camera swilling of
softly fluttering music that metaphorically accompanied such an act. More like grinding, screeching
death metal.

Such a big happy family they made, sitting around the lunch table. Jay and Carlos, the best friends.
Mal and Evie, the...Mal didn't even want to know what kind of title a one-night stand and months of
mutual disdain earned them. The boys knew all about such disdain, of course. If not from the
earfuls Jay got from Mal or the earfuls Carlos got from Evie, then from the acrobatics they found
themselves constantly pulling to avoid a storm of glared daggers, or from the never-ending disses
and snide jabs Mal and Evie just had to throw at each other. Carlos would never forget the day
physical blows were almost exchanged when Evie's coy smile asked for an opinion on her outfit
and Mal promptly told her the hooker on the street corner wanted her clothes back.

But they were all adults, Jay and Carlos knew they were all far past the stage in life where they
could lump Mal and Evie into a get-along sweater and stand them in a corner until they played
nice. They didn't ask that the two girls be friends, all they asked was that they kept it civil enough
to avoid needing referees to intervene.

"Jay, that party last night was great," Carlos said, blatantly ignoring the matching death rays
shooting from eyes of green and eyes of brown.
"Yeah, great," Evie muttered, checking her hair in her compact mirror.

"Fucking peachy," Mal felt compelled to add. "Could've done with a doorman, though. They just
let anyone into that party."

Funny how Mal's "anyone" seemed to have the same number of syllables as "Evie".

"Must have been fun for you, Mal, finally getting a chance to be let out of your kennel," Evie
smoothly said, smiling brightly and snapping her compact shut.

"And you just love getting down with the dogs."

For a horrifying split-second, Mal worried she might have gone too far. Not concerning Evie's
virtue or feelings or any nonsense like that, but her words accidentally tipping off the boys to the
whole illicit ordeal. But thankfully for her, Jay and Carlos had food in front of their faces, and were
never the wiser of Mal's scathingly clever little wordplay. If it were possible to mute an entire
person, Evie would've done so. As it were, she merely held her pretty head high and blocked out
Mal's existence completely.

"Jay, do anymore of your football friends have birthdays coming up?" she asked. "I'd love another
party."

She means she'd love to be the gift, Mal snidely thought to herself.

"No more birthdays, but I'm sure we'll find something to celebrate," Jay chuckled.

"...You know, I'm really not all that hungry," Mal made a show of shoving her untouched tray over
to Jay.

She rose to her feet, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"See you, Mal," Carlos kindly said.

"Yeah, later," Mal waved without looking back, shuffling off across the lunchroom to the beat of
the pounding in her head.

Evie waited, watching her leave and holding back until she was a decent enough distance away
before she too excused herself and left the boys behind at the table. Mal didn't even realize Evie
had tailed her until one tantalizing voice stood out among the din of other voices in the cafeteria.

"Smooth move back there with your slick little comments," Evie disdainfully chided, eyes
narrowed despite Mal not looking.

"It just slipped out. Much like my sanity last night."

"You know, you could save yourself so much trouble if you'd just drop the defensive act and admit
I'm the best you've ever had," Evie knew how to push all the right buttons, work all the right
nerves, and her downright evil smile as she let the words glide past her lips proved it entirely.

Mal stopped dead in her tracks; if Evie had been any closer behind she would've pummeled right
into her. Mal wanted to snap, to just flip the fuck out and unleash wrath like a slumbering dragon
lurked within her, but no. Playing Evie at her own game was just too deliciously fiendish. So she
turned swiftly on her heels to face last night's mistake, easygoing grin masking the emerald flames
in her eyes.

"I don't even remember it, Evie. Total blackout. Shows how good you are."

Oh yes, playing Evie at her own game was the far superior option, for now she was the one with
dragon fire flashing across her face, her full lips sneering with a hideously appalled
"How dare you!" waiting to lash out. But Evie had talent, an unparalleled poise that doused the
flames and turned that deadly sneer into the same serene expression that Mal had painted across
her own face.

"...Please, baby," Evie leaned in close, shadowed eyes half-lidded as they traced every line and
plane of Mal's features. "As if you could forget this."

She whirled, hair flowing after her like a shampoo commercial come to life, wafting the scent of
strawberries into Mal's face. The same mysterious scent that had drifted over Mal that morning
with Evie's head nestled on her chest.

And then the girl strutted away, hips working and perfect ass showing itself off just a little too
much for it to be a walk for anyone else's benefit but Mal's. Mal wished she had raged. Snapped,
flipped the fuck out, and unleashed her wrath, anything to wipe that infuriating smugness clean
from Evie's slate. Mal wished she'd let the dragon loose. And as long as she was on the subject of
wishing, she again longed for the luck of finding a magic lamp hidden somewhere in the cafeteria.
Genie, turn back time. Genie, erase Evie from existence.

Genie, invent an instant migraine relief pill.

When Mal woke up the next morning and remembered she'd stupidly agreed to have coffee with
Evie, she almost missed the hangover. As she got dressed, she imagined the worst was behind her,
but life and its cruel sense of humor was determined to prove her wrong.

She remembered.

As she fastened her bra, the merciful veil of not recalling the "doing it" part of "doing it with Evie"
lifted, and memories of the already infamous night suddenly filled her mind. Again, she almost
missed the hangover.

Evie's legs around her head. Two fingers deep inside Evie. Evie naked on top of her, grinding,
grinding, grinding, until Mal forgot her distaste for speaking each other's names like they were
friends and decided instead to make great use of Evie's. Oh. Hell. Mal and Evie didn't just
fuck, Mal had fucked her too. She was so very much hoping that wouldn't be the case. That she
could blame it all on Evie being the shameless vixen that she was and herself being the poor
hapless innocent that she was, but no. Mal just had to go and return the favor.

Her purple leather jacket served as a comfort as she headed off campus, something safe and
familiar like bringing a friend along to stand by her side as she faced that blue devil. Mal arrived to
the coffee shop first, finding a table by the window and sitting for all of three minutes before her
growling stomach had her getting coffee and a breakfast sandwich. When Evie came through the
door in damnably tight jeans, she spotted Mal right away, face already settling into a glower as she
walked over to meet her.

"You couldn't even wait until I got here before you ordered?" Evie demanded, standing over Mal.

Mal shrugged, having another bite of her sandwich.

"It's not a date," she pointed out.

"No, it's a common courtesy."

"Well I know how Her Majesty doesn't associate with anything common, so..."

Evie dropped her purse to the table with a disbelieving "Ugh". Oh, how she couldn't stand Mal and
that repulsive attitude of hers.

"Whatever. I'll be right back," she told her, leaving for the counter to order for herself.

Minutes later she came back with a blueberry muffin (of course) and a latte smelling strongly of
cinnamon as she sat down across from Mal and took a sip.

"...So what is this all about?" Mal shrewdly asked, jumping right into it with suspicion narrowing
her eyes.

"Me trying to figure you out," Evie said right away. "Trying to figure out why, with an entire
dormitory full of people, I drunkenly gravitated towards you."

"I'm cute," Mal dryly said, rolling her eyes as Evie settled in to analyze the entire night.

"You're irritating is what you are. Foul-tempered and just plain rude, Mal. You're always looking
down at me just because I'm into clothes, makeup, and fashion."

"You're shallow," Mal interrupted.

"Am I?" Evie raised an eyebrow. "You don't even know me, Mal."

"I know that you look down at me because I'm not into clothes and makeup and fashion, and that
makes you shallow."

Evie picked off a piece of her muffin and ate it.

"It makes you judgmental and pretentious to think that those are the only things I care about," she
argued.

"You've yet to prove me wrong."

"I love college. I'm really good at science and math. I spend more nights in my dorm studying than
I do partying. My fashion courses aren't just blowoff classes, I want to be a designer, and it's a lot
more work than you think. Don't you like to call yourself an artist?"

Evie said those words with a bit of a bite, and Mal bristled at them.

"I am an artist," she firmly corrected.

"Then you know about color. Form, texture, shape, line. All of that goes into fashion too, Mal.
Clothes are art, and I don't see how you can diss it just because it's not art in one of your
sketchbooks or painted on one of your canvases."

Feisty. Only Evie would rile herself up like that in defense of fashion. Mal didn't dare admit that
she had a point.

"And besides, you certainly didn't find me shallow at the party, whispering in my ear and running
your hand along my arm," Evie added.

Mal's eyes went wide for reasons other than coffee.

"You were the one whispering in my ear and running your hand along my arm!" she insisted.

"Oh please, you came on to me."

"No, you came on to me!"

"You had me backed against the wall and making out with you the second we were in your
building!"

"You're head is emptier than I thought, Evie, I was the one backed against the wall while we made
out in my building."

Evie shook her head with a frustrated huff.

"We're agreeing to disagree," she said after more latte.

"Then in the spirit of this ridiculous camaraderie, let's agree that you and I were just one big
mistake," Mal told her.

"Obviously, but the point is that the mistake happened in the first place."

"Well it's not going to happen again, so we don't need to make this big deal out of it."

"Mal, I've officially seen you naked. You'd think you'd quit being so hardheaded already!"

"I'm trying my best to forget about you and you just want to keep pushing it!" Mal snapped. "We
went to a party, we got drunk, we had sex. It happens, the world does not stop."

Strange how Mal could speak such words when yesterday's Mal didn't believe them in the slightest.
Color her world over and annihilated when she opened her eyes that morning to find Evie in bed
with her.

"Good, now I can add 'stubborn as an ass' to my list of things I don't like about you," Evie chided.
"It's a long list, Mal."

"And what's on the list of things you do like? Two fingers or three?"

Evie was done letting that girl get to her.

"Of course you'd have to ask. You couldn't hear a thing with your head between my legs."

"Heard you screaming my name well enough."

Evie smirked, admittedly impressed.

"Cute, Mal. Thanks for at least coming this far," she said.

"Not at all. There was breakfast involved," Mal blithely told her.

She stood up, taking her sandwich and coffee with her.

"Tell Carlos I said hey," she wickedly said to Evie.

"As if Carlos will ever know I saw you today," Evie vainly flipped her hair back.

"Will he know you saw me naked?" Mal taunted as she walked away.

"It'll be a cold day in hell," Evie said over her shoulder.

As short as it was, Mal was glad she agreed to coffee, really and truly.

Anything to clear her head and help her remember just how much she despised that Barbie doll.

You'd think word of a party would send Mal bolting at least fifty miles away from campus, you'd
think for sure she would've spent her two and a half weeks learning a little lesson from her last
cruel teacher of a party. But Jay hadn't been lying when he told Evie they'd eventually find
something to celebrate, and when his team came out the winners of last night's football game, a
proper party was in order for Saturday. In her defense, Mal thought she had learned her lesson, but
Jay's eager face was just impossible to say no to. The team had pulled out all the stops and turned a
losing game into a win, it was a momentous occasion and he wanted his good friend to be there in
all the festivities.

And he wanted his best friend Carlos to be there too. Which in turn led to Carlos' good friend Evie
being there. Mal knew better than to cling to the foolish hope that she might not show, so lounging
out on a sofa of the frat house that oh-so-generously hosted the party, she did the next best thing—
steered clear of the alcohol. It was a long night of sitting on her phone, going deaf from the music,
and being bounced on the couch when Jay periodically flopped down next to her to check in and
chat.

Carlos arrived nearly an hour after Mal, and her eyes somehow lifted from her phone the moment
he stepped through the doors, finding him right away through the dancing crowd and crappy party
lighting. No Evie. Of course not, how could Evie arrive to a frat house without a fashionably late
entrance in a dazzling outfit and toting her own personal spotlight? Mal had better things to do than
be dazzled, so as Carlos joined Jay's side she went back to her phone, where she'd slyly been
watching Netflix all evening. But becoming engrossed in her shows didn't stop her from noticing
when heads began to swivel, when attention began to turn, and before her curious jade eyes even
found her she knew Evie had just arrived.
Either no one told her that a football/frat party was not a red carpet affair, or she simply didn't give
a shit. Mal could easily guess which one was more likely. The cobalt blue dress went down to her
knees and tightly hugged each and every curve along the way there. So very tightly. She took
flawless makeup to brand new levels of perfection with dark lipstick on full lips and black
eyeshadow dusted across chocolate eyes. Mal had really slept with that.

With Carlos now at his side Jay swung by for another Mal visit, offering one lone beer that she
was admittedly a little tempted to take, but ultimately passed on.

"How come you're not dancing?" Carlos loudly asked over the music.

"Come on, you know parties aren't my thing," Mal chuckled. "And neither is dancing."

Dancing. Like the word served as some kind of subliminal reminder, Mal's gaze looked passed the
boys and across the room, where Evie was dancing with campus frat-douche Chad. Tall, blonde,
and what he and he alone considered handsome. Or, well, maybe Evie considered it too, the way
she was leaning in closer and closer to him.

Mal didn't know what sort of sixth sense she developed as the party went on that kept allowing her
to look up and instantly find Evie among the throng, or more accurately, Evie and Chad. Evie and
Chad talking by the drinks, Evie and Chad laughing, Evie softly touching a hand to Chad's shoulder
as an easy laugh turned more flirtatious.

Mal hadn't touched a single drop the entire party, so she had no idea why she couldn't remember
suddenly bounding to her feet and cutting her way through the crowd. Or what it was that made her
heart do the organ equivalent of clenching into a threatening fist when Chad slipped an arm around
Evie's waist.

"Hey," Mal casually said as she sidled up to the two of them, like she'd been there the entire time
and had just returned from getting another drink.

Mal had the fabulous fortune of being able to say she didn't socialize with douchebags, and Chad's
confusion as to just who the hell she was was clear on his face. Evie beat him to saying something.

"Oh, it's you. I didn't realize you were here," her icy voice was indifferent to Mal's presence.

"Well, I'm here," Mal said sharply.

"Yes, you're here. Now go over there," Evie shooed her away with a wave of the hand.

"Art kid? Ew," Chad looked Mal over, her ripped jeans and t-shirt and trusty leather jacket. "Beat
it."

"Don't tempt me," Mal warned him.

She took Evie by the arm, turning her away from Chad a bit.

"How about a dance?" she asked.

"With you?" Evie's nose wrinkled at the thought.

"With me."
Mal pulled Evie away some more, but Evie didn't put up as much of a fight as Mal would've
expected. That's not to say Evie was exactly thrilled with being led away from tall, blonde, and
maybe handsome, but she let Mal tote her along anyway out across the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?" Evie seemed to come to her senses at some point and yanked her
arm free.

"What the hell are you doing, wasting your time with that asshole?" Mal demanded.

Evie stared at her for a moment, utterly lost.

"...Great, you're drunk again," she guessed. "How much have you had?"

"I haven't had any, genius. I could ask you the same question, hanging out with that guy."

"It's a party, Mal. I'm mingling."

"Mingling with the ding-a-ling."

"Well I have to keep up my track record somehow, don't I?" Evie shrewdly tapped a finger to the
center of Mal's chest.

Mal suddenly caught herself. Took one giant mental step back and actually let herself listen to
Evie's question of what the hell she was doing. What was she doing? Chad was a creep, and Evie's
flirting with him only further proved her airheaded nature to Mal. So why the hell did Mal swoop in
with her stupid rescue routine? And while she was on the subject, why the hell did Evie's hands on
Chad and Chad's hands on Evie light a fire under her that sent her in charging?

"And what do you care who I'm flirting with? Since when are you my babysitter?" Evie
questioned.

Mal didn't care who she flirted with. Couldn't give a tiny rat's ass. But Chad was a different story
entirely.

"Prince Charming over there is a sleaze, and no way does he deserve you," she answered.

No way did he deserve that body, laying in wait underneath the smooth lines of that dress. No way
did he deserve that electrifying touch, that raspy voice in his ear.

"You're just out to ruin every aspect of my life, aren't you?" Evie wondered.

"As if you're worth my time."

"As if you're worth mine."

As if Mal didn't suddenly understand what it was that pried her loose from her seat and roughly
shoved her in Evie's direction.

Some small, small, bitterly depraved sense of jealousy. The thought of Chad getting to wake up
next to Evie that next morning, or Chad getting Evie out of that dress and under his sheets.
"Fine, forgive me for trying to stop you from making dumb mistakes," Mal scowled, backing away.

"I already made one two weeks ago, but I appreciate the effort."

"You're an unbelievable snob!"

"You're a ridiculous freak!!"

They were the unbelievable and ridiculous idiots who somehow ended up stumbling into Mal's
dorm building yet again, where the age old question of who pinned who was answered with Evie's
back pressed to the wall and her lips pressed to Mal's.

"Where's the zipper to your dress?" Mal asked, breathing hard with her hands slipping ticklishly
down Evie's sides.

"Find it in your room."

Mal's room, the room which was once again seeing Mal and Evie come crashing through the door
in an unbalanced whirlwind of hungry kisses. Evie wasn't one to be pinned so easily, and found her
revenge in closing the door by shoving Mal up against it, the rattle of it slamming shut jolting the
both of them as Evie pressed her body close to the one she was sure was a ridiculous freak back at
the frat house. Mal groaned with the feel of Evie's breasts against her, and how Evie only kissed her
harder.

"We didn't get that dance," Evie mumbled against her lips.

Mal found the zipper.

"We're about to."

Her dorm was dark with closed blinds and the night outside the window, but still the two made it to
the bed in one piece like they knew the way together by heart. For her hatred of fashion, Mal
certainly seemed to know her way around a dress, and Evie's had fallen to a bunched-up pool on
the floor in no time flat.

Flat, as in Mal flat on her back, her clothes again flung haphazardly around the room with Evie on
top of her. Warm skin and warm lips and warm wetness down dangerously low. Here was
something Mal needed to experience sober—just how perfectly the confusing puzzle piece of
Evie's body fit with her own. Like Mal had been designed to be underneath her. She writhed
desperately, hips grinding up into Evie's, and Evie burned inside and out with the desire to touch
Mal. Her fingers, with their perfectly trimmed sapphire nails, slipped in between them, tracing a
path down Mal's stomach. She got a feel for just how wet Mal was, how ready she was to make the
same "mistakes" all over again.

"E..." Mal squeezed her eyes shut and whined as dark lips claimed their territory on her neck.

E. A nickname. As if they were friends.

"What, M?" Evie dared to ask so very casually and teasingly, like they both weren't ready to
explode with tension.

"Don't you 'what' me, with your fingers in my—"

"They're not there yet, baby," Evie interrupted. "You could...I don't know...drop the attitude and
ask nicely?"

Mal was briefly too distracted by the feel of Evie in her arms, fingers holding tight to tensed
shoulder blades. But a hand wandered, finding its way into silky blue hair and gripping tight.
Tugging like the soft strands were reins and angling Evie's head just enough so her ear could be
whispered into.

"...Please, E."

Well, she asked nicely.

Two fingers dipped inside Mal and her body arched up into Evie's, charged with electricity. A
stuttered moan escaped her as the rhythm was in, and out, in, and out. She was helpless under the
thrusts, her fingers curled in Evie's hair while Evie's fingers curled inside of her.

Evie was good, so very good as her fingers and thumb worked right where they needed to,
sometimes indulging in the sounds slipping past Mal's parted lips, sometimes muffling them in
rough kisses. This was what had made Mal's blood boil back at the party, the thought that anyone
but her could be doing this with Evie, the thought that anyone but her could share in Evie's body.

Evie was watching Mal's face in the dark, watching how Mal looked back at her with half-opened
eyes. And she listened to her hot, heavy breathing. What a turn-on. Mal couldn't get enough,
rocking herself against Evie's hand in time with her fingers. Even hotter.

Evie was a designer, a seamstress. In short—good with her fingers. With two of them only pushing
deeper inside Mal and her thumb circling, she wondered if she dared try for a third. Making Mal
scream her name to the entire dormitory would be a delicious little payback for all the shit Evie had
to put up with from her.

In spite of being drunk as a skunk the last time she experienced it, Evie found herself oddly well
acquainted with the way Mal looked when she was about to come. She timed it perfectly, watching
for Mal's eyes to flutter shut, listening for her breath to hitch, feeling her whole body stiffen and
tighten, inside and out. And then Evie stopped, drawing her fingers back and leaving Mal right
there on the edge.

"Evie!" she whimpered.

Oh, how Evie liked to hear her name that way, a begging and pleading whine from deep within
Mal. If Evie was being honest...it was really very cute. She apologized with a kiss, deep and
surprisingly sweet.

"I'm sorry, M," Evie chuckled. "But I'm not going to pass up the chance to torment you."

Mal squirmed, so, so close but still so far.

"Please," she panted, grudgingly keeping in mind Evie's request to ask nicely.

Mal was so nice and soft, from lips to body to moaning breaths. Evie couldn't help but kiss her
again, and again. First on those pouting lips before she kissed along Mal's neck. Mal, dying where
she lay, let her head fall to the side so Evie could get at every inch of her.
And that's exactly what she did. Her lips explored their way down Mal's entire body, thoroughly
enjoying her journey through the valley of Mal's breasts with long licks, hard sucks.

"I am going to kill you," Mal growled, losing her mind.

"How? Like this?"

Evie slipped down and kissed just below Mal's belly button, entirely too close for comfort.

"...Or like this?"

She let her tongue take over where her fingers had played, head squarely between Mal's legs for
only seconds before that breath hitched and that body stiffened, and Mal finally got her release with
Evie's name dragged out into a longing moan. Stiff no more, Mal calmed, her head swimming as
Evie looked over her to take in the sight of her red and relaxed face.

"...You really are cute," Evie pecked her lips.

"...I'm pissed as hell," Mal spoke with a quiet breath.

Her last reserves of strength flipped them over, rolling on top of Evie and pinning her down against
the hot sheets.

"Because I'm a tease?" Evie guessed with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow. "And because I play
dirty? All's fair in lust and sex."

"Fuck you."

Evie grabbed at Mal's hair, pulling her in close.

"I wish you would," she whispered devilishly.

And then it was Mal who slipped in between Evie's silky smooth legs, tracing the shape of her with
a vicious tongue. Fisting the sheets in her hand wasn't enough, Evie had to reach down and tangle
her fingers in Mal's purple again, holding her perfectly in place.

"M-Mal..." the name shook on its way through Evie's parted lips.

Now it was Mal's turn to indulge in Evie, weak and needy under the touch of her tongue. Revenge
was sweet, and so was Evie. This time, Mal was going to remember Evie's legs around her head,
the heat dancing as Mal teased her way inside and listened to dainty and frilly Evie suddenly
swearing like a sailor. She let her nails tickle and tenderly scratch down the side of Evie's thighs,
and holy shit did she appreciate the aroused moans and groans she was rewarded with for doing so.
Mal pulled away then, partly to taunt, partly to see how Evie's face flushed for reasons that had
nothing to do with makeup.

And she was gorgeous, all red and breathless with her eyes closed tight, waves of blue spread out
all across Mal's pillow. Ridiculously unfair. She kissed a different set of lips and laughed at the
whining squeaks in Evie's throat, the rumble of her laughter so deliciously good right there against
Evie. One quick flick of her tongue across Evie's clit, then a second, and a third, and Mal felt the
shudders shivering all the way through the girl's body, head to toe. Evie's breaths were shaky,
wonderfully so, and Mal repaid her with a little suck where she needed it most. Gently at first, then
harder, until Evie rocked herself against Mal's mouth, trying to match her rhythm.

Mal didn't mind the tugging at her hair in the slightest, on the contrary, she relished the thought of
what she and Evie might look like in the mirror, messy sex hair and all. Evie might have a fit. Mal
would most definitely laugh.

When Evie ground harder, and harder, Mal knew she was searching for that release, hovering on
the edge and just looking to throw herself off. So Mal didn't give it to her, pulling herself free from
Evie's hold and sitting back on her knees.

"Mal, don't..." Evie writhed.

"Don't what?" Mal wondered with a shit-eating grin.

The last thing Evie wanted was to give her the satisfaction of hearing her say it, but she had no
choice. The heat was just too hot and her body was just too everything.

"Don't stop."

The magic words put Mal right back on top of her, roughly grinding into her with that same evil
tongue slipping into Evie's mouth. The way Mal's skin felt against hers...no words could describe
it. And Evie canted her hips up into Mal's again trying to match that rhythm. Mal felt it building,
some primal and uncontrollable need to cry out Evie's name, and when it finally hit—when Evie
came underneath her like some goddess of desire, Mal smothered that name into the soft crook of
her neck, one of the last sounds before the room fell silent.

Silent save for unsteady breaths, and the impossible quiet grazing of Evie's nails down Mal's back
as the girl got comfortable on top of her. Mal waited until she had thoroughly caught her breath
before she pressed her forehead against Evie's, firmly staring down right into her hazy eyes.

"...Alright, fine. So maybe I like you," Mal petulantly grumbled.

"Maybe I like you," Evie said back easily, very focused on the green of Mal's eyes.

"And maybe we're the only ones in history to ever have a two-night stand."

"That's just called a relationship, Mal."

Well, shit.

"A relationship?" Mal repeated.

"Something you might want to have with me?" Evie's question wasn't just a question, it was a
question with the smallest shred of hope hiding behind the words.

Mal, with Evie. The slightly edgy art freak with the style-obsessed girly girl. What a pair they
would make strolling across the campus lawn; Evie in a designer skirt and Mal with a torn jacket
tied around her waist, Evie and her professional manicure holding the hand of Mal and her black
polished nails.

"That would mean we'd have to start being nice to each other," Mal noted.
"Just a little. Not much. The trash talking is really sexy."

"So...define 'relationship'," Mal toyed with her, a smile on her lips.

"What we already have, but with way more sex," Evie casually explained.

"Sober sex?"

"Well...we can try, but no promises. We're in college, after all."

Mal laughed before asking her next question.

"And I can dance with you at all the parties, or stroll up to Chad when he gets all touchy-feely and
say 'Hey, that's my girl', before decking him in the face?"

"You don't dance, and you don't do parties," Evie pointed out.

"No, I'm mainly just looking for an excuse to deck Chad in the face."

Evie made a show of giving a tired, drawn-out sigh.

"Mal, what am I going to do with you?" she playfully chided.

"From now on?" Mal's kiss was deep and passionate, and yet ever so gentle, her lips brushing
delicately along Evie's before she finished her thought. "...Whatever you want."

"Mm, that's a long list."

Evie let her eyes relax shut as Mal's head came to rest comfortably on her chest.

"Longer than the list of things you don't like about me?" Mal wondered.

"Much longer."

"Hm...okay. So when should I ask you out on a date?"

"In the morning," Evie's tantalizing voice was weighed down with encroaching sleep, breathy and
raspy and sure to drive Mal into a Round 2 if Evie hadn't been so damn pillow-soft.

"Coffee?" Mal closed her eyes.

"Coffee," Evie tiredly nodded.

"If it's an official date, do I have to get all dressed up? Do I have to put on makeup?"

"No, M," Evie chuckled. "Come exactly as you are."

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