Nia looks at me expectantly, but at that moment I'm unable to even manage a nod. Everything she said makes perfect sense, and I feel like kicking myself in the head for being so blindly and stubbornly divine-wary that I failed to even consider someone even part god could've been behind the whole thing.
"Dude? Are you okay?"
I raise my head and tell her bluntly: "No."
Nia grabs a lock of her pink hair and starts chewing on its ends. A moment later, she exclaims excitedly, "I have an idea!"
The other girl's eyes are sparkling, and I'm wary all at once. "Whatever it is—-"
"Let's temporarily forget everything and grab a drink in town!"
"—-the answer is no."
But Nia doesn't even seem to hear me as she quickly curls an arm around mine and pulls me to my feet. "It's going to be fun," she promises.
I look at her sourly. "It's not."
And yet somehow, I still end up joining Nia in the backseat as we take a cab to town.
"You'll like this place," my roommate promises.
"No," I say dourly. "I won't."
"Stop being such a sourpuss," Nia scolds, "and just enjoy yourself."
Nia pays our cab driver when we reach the so-called hottest club in town, and I can't help but tug repeatedly at the hem of my dress as soon as we step out. The dress Nia insists on lending me is a classic LBD, but it's also too damn short I feel like I've already half of my ass exposed...while the other half is just waiting to reveal itself as soon as I trip on Nia's four-inch heels.
The crowd inside is wild, the music upbeat, and it takes a bit of shouting before one of the staff finally understands our request for a private table. A couple of guys tries hitting on us as soon as we're seated, but Nia easily gets rid of them with just a few choice words.
One of the servers comes back to us with the bucket of bottled beer that Nia's ordered, and I eye her suspiciously as she expertly uncaps the first two. "Are you planning to get me drunk?"
My roommate flashes a sheepish smile. "Obviously."
"Nia!"
"I just feel guilty, okay?" Nia's tone is defensive. "I've always wanted to talk to you about your case, but there never seemed to be a right time, but now that I did, I feel bad for making you relive that part of your life all over again."
"I'm the one who should be feeling guilty," I admit with a grimace. "Everything you brought up made perfect sense, and considering my biological parents' death are fated, I should've been the first one to at least consider the possibility of divine involvement. If I had, then maybe I could've spared my parents from everything they've suffered because of me."
"I'm sorry, Hales." She looks at me hesitantly. "Are you planning to do anything?"
"Should I plan to do anything? The divine's involved."
"But don't you want to clear your name—-"
"Not if it means causing my parents to suffer all over again," I say shortly.
"I didn't consider that," Nia confesses. "I guess...wait. What about your god? Can't you ask—-" Nia's voice trails off when she notices me flinching. "What is it?"
"We're...not on good terms anymore."
Her eyes widen. "But it's only been days, right? How did you two fall out so quickly?"
I make myself shrug, saying tonelessly, "It just happened, I guess."
"I can't believe he's been the reason you've been moping the entire week."
"I've not been moping—-"
Nia thrusts a bottle towards me, and when my fingers involuntarily wrap around its glass body, the other girl flashes a smile at my direction. "Cheers!" She clicks her bottle with mine, and I watch in amazement as Nia chugs down an impressive amount of alcohol on her first swig.
Once done, the other girl gestures to my bottle, saying, "Your turn."
I cautiously take a sip...and promptly cough and choke on it.
Nia rolls her eyes. "Stop being such a baby—-"
"It's not my fault it tastes awful—-"
"Give it another try," the other girl urges.
And so it goes until Nia does end up having her way, and three bottles have done its job in effectively loosening my tongue and freeing my mind from any worries and concerns.
"My god no longer wants me," I hear myself confess sadly, and a voice inside my head orders me right away to shut up.
And I would have listened to it except...
There's also this louder voice telling me to just do what I want.
So of course I listen to the latter, and when Nia lets out a gasp, I bob my head in emphatic assent. "I last saw him in a dream, and then poof!" I make my fingers curl and uncurl in a childish gesture of magic. "He's gone."
"What about the professor?" Nia asks. "Don't you like him, too?"
"The professor's beautiful," I acknowledge seriously, "but I always knew from the start I can't trust him."