I frowned. "What?" I had been starting to feel better, but now I wasn't so sure.

"The other night when we all went out. Lark made out with some random guy on the dance floor. Like, hardcore, groping, disgusting, making out. At one point, I thought she might go home with him."

"Lark? As in the Lark who just sprinted to the phone to talk to her long distance boyfriend? As in the Lark who's soooo in love? As in the Lark whose boyfriend is coming here for a week before Christmas to look around?" I asked.

"Yeah, I didn't think you'd take it well," Tricia said.

I had rolled my eyes at Lark's long distance relationship more than once in the last few weeks. For a girl who claimed she was so in love with her boyfriend, Cal, she spent a lot of time ogling and talking about other guys on campus. Like, a lot of time. A weird amount of time. At first, Tricia had said that Lark was probably just horny because she wasn't getting it regularly anymore, but then we'd started to wonder.

"Why are you telling me this now?" I asked.

"I think the shit might hit the fan later. Jill mentioned that she didn't think Lark should be dating Cal if she was just going to cheat on him anyway. I think she meant it to sound like helpful advice, but you can imagine the way Lark took it."

Not well. Lark would not have taken that well. I had also come to realize that no matter what I thought about Lark's relationship with Cal, it was the one subject that could not be broached with Lark without incurring some sort of wrath. She either lashed out or she shut down. I'd learned it wasn't worth saying a word about him one way or the other. That's nice, Lark had become my go-to phrase about anything to do with Cal.

"Was Jill drunk? Why would she say that?" I asked.

"Well, it annoys you and kinda annoys me and we aren't in the room when she's talking to him most of the time. It must be a little frustrating to hear her saying one thing to him and acting completely differently here," Tricia said.

A little frustrating? I probably would have blown my top by now. I can see how Jill might have felt the need to say something.

"Maybe it'll blow over?" I suggested.

"Maybe," Tricia agreed, but we both knew that Lark was like a dog with a bone when something was bothering her.

By silent agreement, we started doing some work in our room. Tricia opened the pass through so we'd hear when Jill came back from Tom's. We could hear the murmur of Lark on the phone with Cal. Her tone of voice with him always made me want to puke. 

They'd been dating for five years and he'd been her first everything, according to Lark. She claimed he'd also be her last everything, but already that wasn't true. I sort of wondered what she was like around him in person. What mask did she wear around him? I had a hard time believing that he saw her the way that we did.

"Do you think part of the problem is that she's an only child?" I asked Tricia, keeping my voice down.

"Yes," Tricia said, without looking up from highlighting her book. "Of course. She admits she never had to share anything with anyone ever. Sometimes I think she just likes having a boyfriend to fall back on. He's her British Columbia safety net if this adventure in Ottawa doesn't work out."

I hadn't thought about that, but it made sense. 

We heard the external door open and close to their room and we both held our breath. We could hear the handset from the phone clattering back into the cradle. That was loud. That wasn't good.

Tricia motioned to the bathroom door and I moved over to unlatch it quietly. It was bad to listen in to their conversation, but it made it a little easier later to pick a side if we knew what had been said. Or at least that's how I justified it as I opened the door enough for their voices to drift in. Lark hadn't closed their bathroom door tightly.

Tricia picked up her stuff off her bed and came over to sit next to me on mine. She looked at me and held a finger to her lips. I looked at Tricia and grinned a little, but then felt bad. I didn't understand how Jill had ever thought she'd be able to wedge herself in here; it was too late.

At first, all we could hear was murmuring voices, but it escalated quickly.

"It was a bitchy thing to say. My relationship with Cal is none of your business," Lark's voice was raised, angry.

We couldn't hear Jill's reply. I imagined her huddled in a corner of her bed, sullenly participating in the battering she was about to receive. Lark sounded like she was just winding up.

"Should we go in and break it up?" I asked.

Tricia shook her head. "Maybe they just need to have a good fight and get it all out in the open."

I highly doubted getting their true feelings for each other out in the open was a good idea. How often did that really work? I always thought it ended up being a bit of a snowball effect, where people said things they didn't even really mean because they were on a roll with being mean. Why not say it? 

Their voices escalated and I finally heard Jill fighting back.

"You can't just go around sleeping with anyone you want and making out with anyone you want and then calling up Cal and shouting that you love him from the rooftops. It's not fair to him," Jill exclaimed.

"Shut up. You don't even know him," Lark dismissed her, her voice was sharp and angry.

"I know you," Jill said and there was something in her tone.

Uh oh. That's not good. Back away, Jill. I stood up and, without looking at Tricia, I barged into their room through the toilets. I hadn't thought about what I was going to say, just that they needed to stop arguing before one of them said something they couldn't take back.

"Uh," I stumbled. They both stared at me, clearly angry, on the cusp of something explosive.

"Let's go out for a drink," Tricia said from behind me.

A swell of relief washed over me. Tricia hadn't left me hanging out to dry in here. She hadn't wanted to come in, but the roommate code meant that she needed to back me up. Sometimes that code came in damn handy. It also meant Jill was breaking it by imposing her morality on others (Lark's words that night - I should have known...).

Lark grabbed her coat and looked at Jill. "If you can stop being all judgy, you can come. Otherwise, don't bother." She put on her coat in one swift movement and left the room.

Tricia followed after her calling, "Lark, hey, wait up."

I paused in the doorway and looked at Jill. "Did you want to come?" I asked.

"No," Jill said, but there were tears in her eyes. 

A pang of remorse for her hit me in the chest but then sealed it shut. She picked the wrong person to take to dinner and that was her fault, not mine.

I jogged down the hall to catch up with Lark and Tricia. As I was walking past Rob's room, his door swung open. He was standing there, watching us wiz by in a huddle.

"Where are you ladies off to?" he asked.

Lark turned around and looked at him. Her blue-gray eyes were blazing. "No boys allowed. Especially boys who can't make up their mind."

My face heated and I wanted to punch Lark. God, she was insufferable when she was wound up.

"What?" Rob asked, bewildered, looking at us all, his eyes finally connecting with mine. "What is she on about?"

"I have no idea," I lied, shrugging my shoulders and pushing Lark out the door. As soon as the door shut and we were clambering down the stairs I said to Lark, "That was dumb. Don't say anything to him again, okay?"

Lark shook her shoulders and her arms, as though loosening them up for a fight. "I'm just so wound up right now. I just want to punch someone. I'd go back and punch him for you." When she turned to look at me, her eyes weren't blazing quite so much, but they were still a little wild. 

"No, Lark. Do not punch him," I said, shaking my head.

Tricia laughed. "I am kind of with Lark on this one. The guy is dense."

I sighed. I was not going to win this, so I might as well change the subject. "How was dinner with Jill's parents?"

Tricia sighed. "It was okay. They were nice enough, I guess. It just seemed kind of obvious to me that we have nothing in common with Jill. Everything they talked about with her was boring to me."

Lark grinned. "Oh, my God. So much. Thank you. I was bored out of my skull." 

I wasn't sure Lark was the most reliable source after her blowup with Jill. I also knew that Jill wasn't her favorite person at the best of times. She certainly seemed to like Tricia though, which sometimes made me a touch jealous. I tried not to think about that much; I couldn't do anything about it.

We went to Roosters and ordered one drink each and then found a booth. We talked about our journalism classes, all the strict rules and how we were all going to flunk out of the program. Then, I looked over and saw Faith coming through the door with her boyfriend, Paul. I left the girls and ran over to her, enveloping her in a huge hug.

She laughed as I lifted her off the ground. Faith ran her fingers through my hair and grinned. 

"It does have a faint pinkish glow to it, still," she said. 

"Yeah, I know. It sucks. I'm hoping it's gone by next Thursday or my mom will be pissed that I dyed it," I said.

"It was free, though, so she can't get too pissed. You didn't waste money on a terrible dye job," Faith said with a smile.

I laughed and chatted with her for a few more minutes before heading back to Lark and Tricia. I slid back into the booth, and Lark was sipping on her drink. She motioned to Faith and her boyfriend with her head.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"Faith, from my swim team and her boyfriend, Paul," I said looking back over at them. Faith waved, and I motioned her over.

"Her boyfriend is yummy," Lark said. "He looks like a mountain man."

As Faith and Paul made their way over to the table, I had to admit that he did look like he'd bought all his clothes at Mountain Equipment Co-op. He was tall and broad and, upon further inspection, very attractive. I don't know why I didn't notice before. I also couldn't believe that Lark was saying that after just getting in a massive fight with Jill. 

Faith and Paul joined us for a couple drinks. Faith and I laughed uncontrollably as we recounted our exploits initiation night. We couldn't believe we were back drinking already.

We headed back to residence once we finished our beers. Lark seemed to have cooled down and I was hopeful maybe she and Jill could call a truce. When we got back, Jill was gone and Lark wanted to call Cal back to finish their conversation. I wasn't sure what else she had to say to him, it wasn't like she could tell him the truth about her fight with Jill. 

That night, as Tricia and I laid in bed, listening to her Solitudes CD on repeat, I called over to her, "What if they can't get along again?"

"I don't know," Tricia admitted. "I hope it doesn't mean we listen to them screaming at each other for months." She paused and then continued, "I think the best case scenario is that they start avoiding each other."

I wasn't sure what was 'best case' about that for either of them or even for us. If they couldn't get back on even ground, we were all going to suffer.

Just as I was about to drift to sleep, Rob's bewildered expression from earlier popped into my head. How could someone so smart be so dumb? Anil said he couldn't stop talking about me, but yet he seemed to be avoiding me ever since we'd spent the night talking on the couch. 

Men! 

I pushed him back out of my head, turned over and counted sheep until I fell asleep.

Author's Note:

What do you think of Lark and Jill's fight? Should Liz have let them battle it out instead of interfering? What do you think will happen to their group of four?