Xaviers!

((open thread))

It's a late evening in the common's room and upon first glance the room looks deserted. The television and the lights are both off and it's pretty quiet. A second glance might reveal Sofia stretched out on the couch furthest from the door, but she was pretty easy to miss.

She was probably just taking a nap. That was a nice, normal thing to be doing, right?

Nailah walks into the room from outside and fumbles for the light-switch. She looks surprised when she spots Sofia, letting out a small surprised yelp at the unexpected skellington-face.

As the lights go on, Sofia suddenly scrambles to a position where she's sitting upright. She smooths out her shirt, blushing furiously, "Nailah! Oh, wow. Umm...Hi."

Her lipstick is slightly smeared and her hair is a bit mussed up. It must have been a pretty intense nap!

"Hi..." she says almost carefully. "Sorry, I didn't mean to... wake you up?" she says, the inflection suggesting that by the end of the sentence she's not so sure Sofia was asleep anymore.

Sofia laughs, "It's okay. I was...just resting. It was a long day, yeah?"

"You got a little... uhm..." she mimes at the corner of her own mouth.

Sofia swears and rubs her mouth. She's practically blushing hard enough to be seen through her heavy makeup now.

"Where you... making out with someone?" she stage-whispers, looking around to see if somebody is trying to sneak out of the room or is hiding behind the couch.

"Oh, god. This is so embarrassing," Sofia says. "...Look, you can't tell anyone...."

"About what?" she asks, then suddenly gasps. "Is there someone invisible around!?" she asks, looking even harder as if that would somehow let her see an invisible mutant.

"Not exactly?" Sofia says, "I...have a girlfriend. Her name is Regan and she's...sort of dead?"

Sofia smiles in a very embarrassed sort of way.

"W-what? How does that... dead?" Nailah blinks. "And you were... making out with her?"

Sofia nods quickly, before covering her face with her hands, "It's complicated...."

"...You're not helping," she grumbles.

"I... I'm sorry? I'm not the one who was making out with dead people in the common room."

"Oh, no! I wasn't talking to you! Sorry," Sofia says. "It's Regan. She's kind of laughing her stupid dead ass off about this."

She makes a face at the space on the couch to the left of her.

"How is that... I mean... Can she see me?"

"Well, yeah," Sofia says. "She's a pretty powerful spirit. She could probably even manifest enough so you could see her if she wasn't so lazy."

Something gives Sofia a slight shove and she laughs.

"Holy crap, you weren't joking! There's actually a dead person here? That you were smoochin?"

Sofia rubs the back of her head, "Yeah. I mean, I know it's...sort of weird, but..."

Sofia smiles softly, "We've been together for a long time."

"That's... kind of sweet. And romantic..." Somehow not being confronted with it directly is helping Nailah deal with this whole same-sex relationship thing better.

Sofia laughs, "Yeah. Sweet. That's what it is."

She turns slightly towards where Regan is, "Oh? You're bored? I'm so sorry."

She laughs, "Fine. Good night, sweetie."

She makes kissy faces towards her invisible ghost girlfriend, but is pushed backwards. She laughs briefly and appears to watch something move towards the window before smiling back at Nailah.

"Sorry about that. Regan...sort of hates everyone," Sofia says. "She just hates me the least."

"It is a little bit though. You seem pretty adorable. Well, the bit of it I can see anyway."

"And you really don't think it's...weird or anything?" Sofia asks.

"Well... does she look like she's from, like, The Grudge or more Patrick Swayze in Ghost?"

Sofia laughs, "Maybe if Swayze was an emo girl in a ratty old hoodie."

"But not, like, all freaky and zombie-like? Cause than it's more romantic... Where you two together when she died? Did your love keep her spirit near you?"

Sofia's smile fades a bit, "I...that's hard to talk about."

"But yeah. I did know her before she died. And we...it was complicated," Sofia says.

"Ooh, you didn't get along? Well, that's still pretty neat, yeah? Her heart knew what she wanted so she didn't pass on because she was destined to be with you!"

Sofia laughs, "I think you've been reading too many teen romances, yeah?"

"Regan was my best friend when we were kids," Sofia says. "We grew up together, she was even there when my powers manifested, y'know? And I never really thought of her in that way, but still...when I left for the Institute, leaving her was hard. Whatever else, she was my best friend, yeah? It's hard to leave that behind."

"After my first year, I came back for the summer. Regan had new friends and...I guess we had grown apart a little. We didn't see each other much," Sofia says. "Finally, I go to visit her? And...she's just Regan. She's not acting all snotty, like she was with her new friends, she's just this cranky lil' redhead in her favorite hoodie."

Sofia smiles, "I remember, I was in her room and sitting on her bed, watching a movie. And it's all awkward 'cause we haven't talked in, like, forever. And I had never even thought about...you know, girls or anything like that, but I'm sitting there and she's looking all sour-faced and for the first time I'm thinking about how beautiful she is and how much I missed her."

"So, I kissed her," Sofia says. She smiles at the memory, "And she freaks out. Like, 'What the fuck are you doing?' and I just apologize and run home. I was so embarrassed and scared, I left my shoes over at her place, yeah?"

"She was so mad. She comes over, not fifteen minutes later, and storms into my room and just throws my shoes at me. She yelled at me and called me an idiot," Sofia says. "And then the next thing I know, we're kissing again."

"And that's how it all started," Sofia says. "It was messy and complicated...especially since I had to go back to the Institute. But we were...well, we weren't happy. Sometimes we were happy and sometimes we would fight and sometimes we..."

Sofia blushes, "So, yeah. Anyway. We were gonna try to do the long distance thing, but it sort of fell apart. She cheated on me with her cheerleader friend and we had a big fight online about it. And I was so angry at her. I thought I hated her."

"But then she died," Sofia says. "We don't know how. She doesn't remember and her body was never found, but all that anger? It just...it sort of twisted up and I just felt sick, yeah? Like, I spent so much time being angry at her and it was just a waste 'cause now she's gone and it doesn't even matter."

"I went to her funeral and I was bawling," Sofia says. "I couldn't keep it together. And they were showing all these photos and none of them looked like her. She's wearing makeup and dresses and cheerleader outfits. I wanted to scream, 'Who the fuck is that?', yeah? And I almost did. But then I feel someone holding my hand and there she was. Still wearing that damn hoodie and still looking like a cranky bitch."

"And we've been together ever since," Sofia says. "Something like....three years now? Whatever. Point is, I don't think it was destiny or anything like that. It's too messy. I think it's just two people who like being with each other. Even when one of them is dead."

Nailah is definitely not tearing up when Sofia gets to the funeral part. That's just some dust in her eyes that she's wiping out of the corners of her eyes. "That's so sad and sweet..." she sniffs.

Sofia smiles sweetly, "You're just a big softie, aren't you?"

"No, shut up." she chuckles softly. "It's just a really sweet story. And it's not weird at all that you're dating a ghost."

"Thanks," Sofia says. "I mean, I know I shouldn't care, yeah? But...I don't know. It's hard being different."

"I guess the people here understand that pretty well though."

"Well I guess it'll look a little strange when you're making out with her in front of people. All blahalhablahbla." she says, making exaggerated kissing-noises with her open mouth.

Sofia laughs, "That's probably exactly how it looks too. God..."

"We usually try to keep the PDA down 'cause of stuff like that, but...have you ever dated anyone?"

"...no." she admits a bit sheepishly. The last time that had come up hadn't gone great, but Sofia seems like she won't be an ass about it.

"It is a little like being crazy," Sofia says. "It's not a logical thing. It doesn't make sense. Sometimes you just go for it, yeah?"

"Right... Love makes you a little crazy, everybody knows that." she nods.

Sofia shakes her head, "I'm not talking about love. Love is pretty calm, yeah? It's enjoying being with someone all the time and every day, yeah? Nah, being crazy is all about lust."

"And being crazy it isn't always fun. It's embarrassing and it hurts and it can make you sad or angry, " Sofia says. "But god, it can be fun too if you just kind of let go and go with it."

"Oh... Uhm... I guess. That sounds like it'd be fun. Like an adrenaline-rush, yeah?"