Charlie sighs as they sink back into their chair, the glow of the lamp doing naught to continue illuminating their side of the room, bulb stuttering over their half finished essay like a death knell. Annika stirs in the bed on the far side of the room, her hair catching the weak light and turning her raven hair chocolate. Charlie holds their breath. She doesn't wake, only turns over, facing the window on the far wall and muttering something about giant sea monsters.

Charlie turns on their phone, ignoring the ache in the bottom of their stomach. They know they shouldn't have gone to that Halloween thing, with all that sugar around, all the calories and the carb-heavy beer -- they had one shot of vodka and a cupcake, because Isla had forced them to, designating the cupcakes as chasers, and that was already over their 500cal limit for the day. They check their teeth in the black mirror of their turned off phone screen, teeth still stained Frankenstein green from the icing. They text Alice, ignoring the blinking time at the top of the screen, 2.13am, like a condemnation of their compounding bad social decisions and procrastination that means this stupid English essay is due tomorrow with no extension in sight.

Charlie: hey?

Charlie: u awake?

Alice's pink cursor blinks to life lazily after a few minutes, the 'typing' bubble bouncing up and down for what seems like an age.

Alice: yeah. u good?

Charlie: essay killing me. i think im fucked.

Alice: :( you wanna come over?

Charlie: is marla asleep?

Alice: fuck knows. she disappeared after the party

Charlie: probs w/ julian ;)

Alice: ew.

Alice: come over.

Charlie does, slipping the essay and their pencil case beneath their arm, venturing out into the cold corridor as the door shuts behind them. They pray they haven't woken Annika. She's not a snitch, but she also doesn't play about her beauty rest. The dorm numbers crawl past them, until they reach number 18 and raise their fist to knock before sense gets the better of them. They shoot Alice a text, and almost immediately the door swings open and Alice's face greets them. Her frizzy hair is tamed into a ponytail, and her nightgown is long and floral. She looks sort of like a Victorian ghost, illuminated only by the pale blue light of the laptop next to her.

"Hey," she whisper shouts, raising her arms to hug her guest. The small thin scars that run the length of her forearms are faded now, relics of her fourteenth year when she was stupid and sad.

"Hey," Charlie smiles, flopping down on the bed next to her. "Help me out, Lis. 500 words. Ambition in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein."

Alice smirks, face appearing directly in front of Charlie's. "Oh, shit, Charlie. You didn't think I actually had a clue on how to help you, right?"

Charlie sighs. "I guess I did."

Alice goes to switch on the main light, making Charlie cringe. "Well, I--" she pauses, taking in Charlie's face, their sunken eyes ringed in dark purple. "Do you want a makeup wipe for that?"

"For what?"

"For the..." Alice motions to her own eyes. "Your costume makeup. The eyeshadow."

"I wasn't wearing any eyeshadow," Charlie stutters.

Alice lunged for the bed, taking in their shrunken frame, grasping their wrist. Her fingers cover their entire forearm easily. "Shit, Charlie. Are you okay?"

Charlie thinks if their Halloween costume, half of a group ensemble. Alice had gone as Death, and they had gone as Famine. They could only smile at that.