Rising Shards

Oka and I stood with our backs against the wall. We couldn’t hear anything in the room; it must have been a soundproof one, maybe a private space for talks like that. Amara had left shortly after deeming us worthy to guard the door to report to Naomi. I knew I was tasked by Lillia to get Amara to stop bugging Naomi, but it seemed like that would take more than one afternoon to fix. Oka held her hand out and eagerly begged for a handhold, which made me feel a little less scared about whatever Caya was gonna tell us. We both swayed our arms a bit, bumping our backs on the wall, mindlessly burning off nervous energy. I realized in that moment I really wasn’t fully appreciating that I had access to Oka-hand-holding now, and squeezed her hand tighter as I silently vowed to work on that. 

“What do you think she wants to talk to us about?” Oka asked.

“Maybe she wants to give us a trophy for breaking that Starlight Despair.” I said.

“I would like a trophy.” Oka said. “A trophy with our names on it! We could have it on our shelves in our cabin and when we have guests over looking at all the trinkets on our rustic, yet kind of modern looking shelves, be like, ‘yes, that’s such a great story, the time Zeta and I destroyed an Endoran totem mask thing.’”

“Our cabin?” I asked.

“Yeah, you know, our getaway when the world’s too much and we want to just be one with nature, but we also want to have a roof and walls.”

“That does sound nice.” I said, picturing sitting lakeside with Oka.

Not one for romantic imaginings, Caya immediately burst out of the room, jolting us away from hand holding. 09 didn’t really look our way as we left. I didn’t know how hurt Oka was by that; 09 said she wasn’t mad but there was clearly something up with her past what she was telling us.

“Thank you for waiting.” Caya said, patting us on our backs with force I’m sure was light to her but to me practically knocked me off my feet. “Right this way.”

We followed as closely as we could behind Caya, who had a very fast pace just walking normally. She made some small talk with Oka and I about making sure we were doing alright, so I didn’t feel like I was in trouble or anything.

We walked around the school grounds until we were at the girls’ dorms.

“Are we headed back to our room?” I asked.

Caya nodded.  We took the elevator up to my floor.

“Alright, Oka,” Caya said. “Your new room assignment is set.”

“Is that what this is about? Are they actually going to enforce that?” Oka asked. “I hoped you were kidding.”

“Afraid not.” Caya said.

“Oh my god, I totally forgot,” I said.

I forgot that because of some dumb school rule, Oka and I couldn’t be roommates anymore since we were dating. Oka and I had briefly tried to appeal this before our week off, I thought our defenses were pretty strong but Caya didn’t buy them. I had hoped we’d at least get a night together, but again, Caya apparently wasn’t one for romance. She handed Oka some papers, and scanned Oka’s wristband with hers and moved through some projected screens.

“Your new room’s set. Your key won’t work on your old door anymore.” Caya said.

“And my new roommate is?” Oka asked.

“Lillia Cadence, just a few doors down.” Caya said. “Her roommate was one of the Wildfire Hearts defections so there was an opening.”

“Well, that’s not too bad, I guess.” Oka shrugged. “Still wish I could just…” She trailed off as Caya gave a “if you continue talking, I will take it as a sign of disrespect, and you do not want to see what I do when disrespected” look, and Oka stopped.

“What do you need me here for?” I asked, the thought of not being Oka’s roommate starting to sink in.

“You can help her pack.” Caya said cheerfully, or as cheerfully as she was capable of.

* * *

Oka hesitated before putting each item away. I was sitting at the desk with my back turned to her, but I couldn’t help looking her way. Unfortunately, looking her way reminded me she was moving out of our room, and when I was reminded of that as she was packing, I started bawling, and when I started bawling about it, Oka started crying too.

“Oh my god, you guys are being such babies.” Kalei said.

“Shut up,” Oka said before blowing her nose.

“You’re just moving like two rooms over. You can still come over whenever.” Kalei said. “And Zeta can just go over too. Ideally that so I get some peace and quiet from the crying.”

Oka and I just made some crying wails in response.

“Or Oka, you could always just dump Zeta, then come back and have her back as a roommate!”

The instantaneous, much louder crying at the idea of that made Kalei yell until we stopped.

Once we all calmed down a bit, I took Oka’s hands and started reciting the little speech I’d been mentally practicing as she packed.

“Oka, I know it’s gonna be hard to be apart…” I said. Kalei made a fart sound blowing into her arm. “Hey, knock it off!”

“You two didn’t have to do this in front of me, it’s fair game.” Kalei said.

“You didn’t have to be here! Just like…go away!” I snapped.

“I’ll leave after Oka does, because I know you’re gonna be loud annoying-crying after she’s out the door.”

“Zeta’s gonna cry louder when I’m gone,” Oka said, her eyes welling up more. “That breaks my heart…”

“Alright, done, DONE.” Kalei said, gently but firmly leading Oka towards the door. “Just go on a date or something soon?” She stopped before completely pushing Oka out of the room. “Actually wait, please finish packing and leave like within the hour. Please.”