October had just started, and the entire campus was abuzz. Every year, the school held a fall festival on the Friday before Thanksgiving, which still took pce on the second Monday of October. The Fall Festival was one of the rgest events put on by the ICKLE, with booths all across campus showcasing the different programs that the college offered and bringing in local producers to show off what was avaible locally.

  Eli was busy as he tried to finish packing for the weekend when Amy walked in.

  “Hey, I know that you are almost done packing your bags but Rachel and I were wondering if you wanted to stay with us for Thanksgiving weekend at her pace?”

  Eli looked over at Amy with hesitation. “Are you sure? I know how close you and Rachel are I wouldn’t want to impose myself like that. Besides I would have to ask my father.”

  “Eli, you are not imposing on us if we are offering you the chance to come. We are asking you because we want you there. As for your father, why? He clearly doesn’t care about you that much, that’s pretty clear to see from how you’ve described your family over time.”

  “Family is important. Everyone has to be there for the holidays. Father doesn’t like it when people can’t make it.”

  “Come on, it will be a ton of fun. I promise”

  “Alright, I’ll try.” Eli could only sigh as he pulled out his phone, knowing full well this wasn’t going to go well.

  Ring ring, Ring ring

  “Hello, Rivers residence Austin speaking.” as his father picked up the phone, Eli set it to speaker, the regur speaker had died the previous week.

  “Hello Father.”

  “Ah boy, I was was wondering when you would call. Are you finished packing?”

  “Well you see… There’s this girl… Amy and she invited me to stay the weekend with her and her fri”

  Eli couldn’t finish his sentence before his father’s voice boomed out of the speaker. “Absolutely not. You will be home this weekend.”

  “But Father.”

  “Listen here boy, I have had enough trouble with your sister already. You are going to be here this weekend. Now finish packing, you will be ready to leave when we arrive this evening.”

  Amy watched from the side as Eli’s eyes seemed to gze over as he responded, “Yes, father.” Then he started packing his bags rapidly, his movements seeming janky and awkward. Amy tried to get his attention during this time, but nothing worked. No matter how she poked and prodded, Eli continued his task like a zombie.

  Eli had finished packing his things within 10 minutes of the phone call when he finally seemed to snap out of it.

  “Alright Eli, what the hell was that?”

  “What was what?”

  “What just happened, you were like a zombie after your father talked to you. I have been trying to get your attention for the st 10 minutes.”

  Eli looked over at Amy with confusion. “Sorry I must have not noticed.”

  “Eli this is far more than just not noticing, it’s like you were a robot on a mission. I’m really concerned Eli, are you alright?”

  Eli waved his hand as he picked up his bags and moved them beside the door. “Nah, I'm fine. It’s probably nothing.”

  “Alright then. Are you going to atleast come with me and Rachel to explore the festival today?”

  Eli looked over at Amy, clearly nervous. “I don’t know, I’m not really good with crowds.”

  Amy walked up to Eli before pcing a hand on his shoulder. “Trust me Eli, everything is going to go fine. You have me and Rachel there with you.”

  Eli stood there wringing his hands for a moment. “Okay, if it’s with you and Rachel then I should be fine.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Amy said with a smile as she pulled out her phone and texted Rachel.

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  It didn’t take long for Rachel to swing by before they were off to the festival. It was just before noon when the three of them arrived, so they decided to stop by the food stalls first to get something to eat before exploring the campus.

  There were dozens of stalls with all sorts of themes, foods, and items that they were selling. Amy wandered over to a shawarma stand to get the three of them wraps, promising that it was going to be amazing. Eli had noticed a smaller stand off to the side. It looked like it was woven from tree limbs and decorated with flowers and apples. The smell coming from the stand was absolutely divine. The sign on the front of the stall read “Shared Roots Apples.”

  “Yep that’s us.”

  Eli turned around to see a short woman, just a bit shorter than him, with olive-coloured skin that was textured like tree bark. Small flowers were growing in her hair and adorning her clothes. Eli could only blush at reading the sign out loud. “Sorry about that miss.”

  “Oh think nothing of it dear. Tricia’s the name, this here venture was started by me and my girlfriend, Becky, about 5 years ago.”

  Eli perked up at hearing this. “Oh and what inspired you to go into selling apples. Orchards take a long time to grow, even with the help of a druid.”

  Tricia smiled as she rubbed the back of her head. “Well you see. Me and my girlfriend had an apple tree that we grew together. After I became a dryad and merged with the tree, it started sprouting so many apples that we didn’t know what to do with them. We had an agreement with the city for her to have her own little grove in the backyard but the apple tree grew until it was truly massive. Once I became a part of the tree it just wouldn’t stop growing, after a while the tree was overhanging the neighbouring properties so we started to pay them to collect the apples and we started to sell them at the local farmers markets. Until some puffed up science guys started making a fuss that is. Turns out my apples are a new species of apple. While the science guys wanted to name them something stupid I put my foot down. Ain’t no way in hell somebodies going to be naming my apples but me.”

  As Tricia took a pause to break for air, a dy stepped out from behind the stand. “Oh you’ve done it now. It was a long affair and took way too long before the Democratic Union of Druids stepped in and put a stop to the whole thing. Seems that the situation was big enough that they caught word of it and stepped in. Afterwards Tricia got her wish and got to name the apples.”

  “My apples,” Tricia cut in.

  “Sorry, she got to name her apples. So that’s how we ended up with Dryad’s Delight apples.” The dy wrapped her arms around Tricia,

  “Oh, I almost forgot. I’m Becky, by the way.” She leaned down and kissed Tricia’s lips. “So what brings you our way anyway?”

  Eli was looking away in embarrassment from the affection the two were sharing before he perked up at the question. “Oh that’s easy. The smell, I could smell from almost across the market grounds. It smells simply divine.”

  The two women shared a gnce and smiled before turning back to Eli. “Well isn’t that just wonderful” Becky pulled a card out of her pocket before she handed it to Eli. “Here’s our card, call us if you ever have any questions.”

  Eli took the card awkwardly. “Alright? Thank you though.” Eli didn’t understand what was going on at the moment, but he admired the two women for being able to have such a clearly loving retionship. If only he could have something simir. But they were lesbians, so obviously he couldn’t have exactly what they had, though he kind of wished he was a lesbian because they clearly had such a deep retionship with one another. Eli stopped before turning away from the couple and returning to the others, his face glowing. God, why was he thinking such weird and embarrassing things? Especially in public right now.

  Once Eli had finally made it back to Rachel and Amy, the two looked at him for a moment before Amy leaned close to Eli, asking, “Where were you?”

  “Oh… um… sorry for running of like that. There was this apple stand that I could smell from all the way over here and I just had to check it out.”

  A smile bloomed on Rachel’s face as Amy fished a twenty-dolr bill out of her wallet before passing it to Rachel. “Oh, you could smell it from here could you? Was it perhaps Shared Roots Apples?”

  Eli looked over to Rachel, confusion on his face. “Yes, how did you know?”

  Rachel was still smiling as she replied, “They are a regur at the fall festival and have been for the st few years. The booth tends to attract a certain kind of people because of the smell. Did they offer you a five coloured apple by any chance?”

  “What do you mean Rachel? Five coloured apple?” Eli turned to Amy with a look of confusion “Do you know what she is talking about Amy.”

  “Eggs, the smell attracts Eggs.” Amy said with a sigh

  Eli could only look back and forth between the two of them, more confused than ever. “What do you mean it attracts Eggs? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  The smile left Rachel’s face as she turned to look at Eli. “Eli, remember that list of resources I sent you weeks ago?”

  “Yeah, what about it.”

  “Did you ever read any of it?”

  Eli could only look away in shame as he mumbled. “imsorry”

  Amy took a step closer “Why?”

  “I don’t know, everytime I went to sit down and look through that stuff, I got this weird feeling. Like I wasn’t supposed to look at that stuff. I would only ever get a few sentences in before I would find myself looking at anything else. I quickly gave up on it. I figured that if it was important that it would come up.”

  Rachel could only sigh as she looked over to Amy before looking back at Eli. “it’s fine Eli, let’s just focus on finishing up lunch and enjoying the rest of the festival.”

  Both Eli and Amy nodded in agreement.

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  The trio spent the rest of the day exploring the campus, visiting various stalls with different themes.

  The department created a massive art instaltion featuring works of art from throughout the school's history and pieces from school alumni. The pieces ranged in shape and size and level of mundanity. There were fantastic portraits of ndscapes from around the world and moving portraits that repeated a scene on loop like a video but were done with paint and some magic.

  Some of the art instaltions were interactive in nature such as one that Eli wandered into. It was a maze made up of mirrors. Each one seemed to distort how he looked in odd ways. Eli made it into the entrance before seeing the first reflection of himself being this tall muscur man posing like a bodybuilder. The image deeply disturbed Eli. It was wrong in all sorts of ways. Eli immediately turned around and left. The attendant tried to give him fck for doing so. Citing that it was all part of the experience and that he should wait till the end but Eli had had enough from the first mirror and went to sit on a nearby bench to calm down.

  Eli watched as people walked into the tent and exited in a variety of different moods afterwards, though most were happy except for one guy who made his way into the tent. He looked like a regur enough dude, wearing jeans and an oversized hoodie that he seemed determined to hide in. It stood out to Eli because the hoody was a distinct shade of green. It reminded Eli of pictures he had seen of coniferous forests. Eli watched as the guy disappeared into the tent but never came back out. Eli sat there for ten minutes, but the guy never emerged. The only thing Eli noticed was that a girl came out ter crying while wearing a skirt that was the same distinct green as the guy's hoody, but he never saw her enter the tent in the first pce.

  After that, Eli wandered around some more. Eli noticed that at some point Rachel had disappeared while Amy had always stayed somewhat nearby, as if keeping an eye on him, which he appreciated greatly. There were a lot of people out here today and while it hadn’t been a problem yet, thankfully, Eli still didn’t like being alone in a rge, crowded pce like this.

  Eli finally stopped wandering around when one statue caught Eli’s eye. It was a rge marble statue of a rge egg with the feet and wings of a chick sticking out of it. The egg was carved in such a way to designate 5 different zones as if to represent a banner, but there was no colour present. Eli thought it was really cute until Amy came running in out of nowhere, grabbed his arm and began to drag him off.

  “Ow, Amy what’s going on? You don’t need to drag me, I can walk on my own.”

  Amy abruptly stopped, allowing Eli to regain his footing. “I'm Sorry. I was just shown something that I'm sure you would love to see and wanted to show it to you.”

  Eli took a moment to fix his dishevelled appearance. “What is it?”

  “Well that would ruin the surprise wouldn’t it?”

  “I guess” Eli could only shrug. “By the way, where’s Rachel?”

  “She’s the one who found it. Well, she heard about it from one of her friends and decided to check it out while you were outside that tent. What was that pce anyway?”

  “I don’t know, it was weird that was for sure. When I walked in there were these mirrors that seemed to distort your image in weird ways. It made me uncomfortable when I walked in so I left before exploring the whole pce.”

  Amy perked up at this. “Oh, do you remember what it was called?”

  “Yeah it was called the ‘House of Trans-formation’ I don’t know why the hyphen was there though.”

  Amy pced her head in her hands and shook it back and forth. She whispered something under her breathe before looking back up at Eli with a look of exasperation. “Alright, come along then. There is something that Rachel wants the both of us to see.” Amy quickly walked away as she shook her head.

  Eli had to call out to Amy as she walked away. She quickly slowed down to match his pace as she guided him through the campus and into the biology building.

  When the biology building came into view, Eli couldn’t help but get excited. He was practically vibrating when they got inside. Amy looked over at him. “What’s got you all excited?”

  “While I am interested to see what Rachel has instore for us, wherever she is. ICKLE’s biggest biology program is built around the study of Xenos and I am just really excited to see some of the exhibits. I didn’t even think that the biology department would get involved.

  Amy let a smile bloom on her face, seeing how excited Eli was. “Oh no, the whole campus is involved. If there is a building dedicated to something, then it has some form of booth or activity to participate in. Even the janitorial staff has a booth this year.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, you would be surprised at some of the new kinds of messes htat have arisen since the advent of Xenos.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Eli and Amy continued to make their way through the halls until they were just about to head up to the second floor before Eli stopped in his tracks. There in the cssroom to his left was his professor from friday csses. She was a mia woman and had a rge intricate diagram dedicated to mia biology projected on the wall as she was talking and gesturing to different parts. Eli couldn't help but walk over to the door and stare. He had always wanted to ask her questions about her biology but knew that it was rude to ask, especially in the middle of css.

  Eli stared into the css with fascination before a hand nded on his shoulder. “Come on Eli, I know you love this stuff but we really shouldn’t keep Rachel waiting.”

  Eli didn’t want to, but he finally managed to tear his gaze away from the cssroom before following Amy up to the second floor.

  When they reached the second floor, Rachel was waiting at the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall. “Finally, what took you guys so long?” Rachel said with a smile on her face.

  “Sorry Eli got distracted. Do you know that teacher from first year who teaches about learning about Xenos?”

  “Maybe? Is it the Lamia woman?”

  “Yep that’s the one. She was doing a presentation on Lamia biology and Eli found it and didn’t want to leave.”

  Eli could only blush in embarrassment. “Sorry, I’ve just always enjoyed learning about this stuff.”

  Rachel turned to look at Eli. “Hey, I was just poking fun. There’s no need for you to apologize, I can understand getting lost in something you will love. That’s why I got Amy to bring you over.”

  “Oh, and what would that be?”

  Rachel only smirked in response. “Nope, you are going to have to wait and see. Amy cover his eyes. Eli, trust me on this. You will love this but it will be way better as a surprise okay.”

  Eli could only sigh in response. “Okay. Just take it slow please, after losing my left eye I get really jumpy when I can’t see.”

  Amy leaned down from behind Eli. “Don’t worry Eli, we will be right here and will take it as slow as you need okay? Do you trust me and Rachel?”

  Eli looked up at Amy. “y-yeah, I trust you guys. Thanks for your help. Sorry that you have to go out of your way for me.”

  “Hey.” Rachel said as she leaned in and grabbed Eli by the chin. “You are not being a problem okay?”

  “Oaky.” Eli could only squeak in response as he realized how close Rachel and Amy were to him. His face glowed from the blush that spread across his cheeks.

  “Alright then,” Amy said as she slowly reached up and covered Eli’s eyes.

  The walk to the cssroom was short, and while he was initially nervous about not being able to see, having Rachel and Amy there really did help him feel better about the whole ordeal. It was only a few minutes before they came to a complete stop.

  “Are you ready Eli?”

  Eli jumped as he heard Rachel whisper in his ear. “Y-yeah. Let’s do this.”

  “Alright Amy if you would do the honours.”

  At that Amy lifted her hand from in front of Eli’s eye. At first the inrush of light blinded him before he was able to rub his eye, and everything came back into focus. Eli just stood there stunned. He couldn’t believe what he saw. Massive exhibits stretched out across the room with all sorts of moths on dispy. Moths from all over the world were in exhibits, there were interactive programs and other activities. There was even a small stand selling things. Eli quickly wrapped Rachel in a hug before giving Amy one as well.

  “Thank you, thank you so much.” Tears welled in Eli’s eyes before he darted off into the room, almost tripping over the table in the entryway.

  Rachel and Amy looked at each other with a smile before heading into the room after Eli.

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  They must have spent hours in there as Eli went from exhibit to exhibit, looking at all the moths and taking as many pictures as he could, ignoring any of the attendants there as he turned to Amy and Rachel and expined each of the exhibits in detail. The whole time Eli was there, the smile never left his face.

  Rachel and Amy spent the whole time listening as Eli gushed about a clear passion of his, asking pointed questions every now and again. They couldn’t help but smile as they held hands and watched Eli being the most animated they had ever seen him. From how he moved and acted, you would think that his leg had never been injured.

  This whole process sted for two hours before Eli found himself at the little gift shop that had been set up in the room. Eli couldn’t help but look at the giant meter-long silk moth plushy. He wanted it. He wanted it so bad but knew that he could never have it. With a look of disappointment, he turned and walked out of the room as he tried to hide how he felt about the whole situation.

  When the three of them exited the building, Rachel said she needed to do something before she left, leaving Amy and Eli alone.

  Eli looked at Amy. “well, I should probably be getting back to the dorm to grab my bags. The st thing I want my dad to find out is that my roommate is a girl, let alone queer. There is all kinds of hell he would raise over it.”

  Amy looked off into the distance for a moment. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll help you carry all your bags down to the lobby. I hope your weekend with your family isn’t too terrible.”

  “As long as I keep my head down, it should be fine. I will finally get to see my sister again.”

  “Oh yeah, how did things turn out with that girl your sister was seeing?”

  A look of concern fshed across Eli’s face “I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything from her since then. All her social media has gone dead and she isn’t responding to calls and texts. It’s got me really worried.”

  Amy immediately stopped where she was and looked at Eli. “Eli, that is more than cause for concern. That is enough to call the police over, it might even be enough to escate it to one of the search and rescue hero squads.”

  Eli’s eyes seemed to gze slightly for a second before he shook his head. “No, I can’t. That would raise far too much of a fuss for my dad's liking. Besides, he said that he was having trouble with her on the phone earlier, so she probably did something at home, and my father is overreacting.”

  Amy could only look at Eli with concern. “Alright, if you say so. I still think that you should call the cops but you would know your family better than me. Just promise me you will be safe this weekend.”

  “Don’t worry I will.” Eli looked back at Amy as he tried to reassure her.

  Once they had made it back to the dorm, the two of them climbed out of the elevator that had finally been fixed. And headed for their room. Only to see Eli’s dad standing outside their door, staring angrily at his watch. As the two of them got close Eli’s father, Austin, finally looked up from his watch.

  “Boy, you’re te. Are your things packed.”

  “Sorry father, the school was hosting a festival and i was with Amy an”

  “Listen here boy, shut up, open this door and grab your things. Also, who’s this girl?”

  Eli immediately unlocked the door and started grabbing his bags before looking up at his father, who towered over him. “She’s my.”

  “Girlfriend. I am Eli’s girlfriend, Amy. Nice to meet you mister Rivers.”

  Austin looked Amy up and down. Thankfully, she had concealed her appearance before they got off the elevator, so she looked like a human right now. “Decent enough. It seems you are finally learning to be a bit of a man. Alright grab your shit we’re leaving.”

  “But fath.”

  “No buts. Listen here boy, you will grab your thing and head out to the car.”

  With that, Eli managed to lift all of his suitcases before he marched off down the hall.

  Amy could only look on, completely stunned at what she had just seen, before Austin pced his hand on her shoulder. He leaned in close, his eye glowing yellow with a spiral iris. “Alright girl, you will tell me what your retionship with that boy really is.

  TheLilyinBloom5963