Chance Encounter

## Content Information

Arsling walked the hall of Carter Hall, heading towards the lounge to just relax by herself for a little bit, her scarf wrapped tight and her sunglasses practically glued to her eyes, ever since her encounter she was slightly worried about heading out her room without anyone, this was just something she needed to do for her own good, after all everybody needs a little alone time

However, it seemed Arsling wasn’t the only one with that idea, as sitting in one of the comfier lounge chairs with a cup of tea on the nearby desk was Laura.

Noticing Arsling, she closed the thick book she was reading, presumably for class as it looked very science-y and Laura looked like she wanted any excuse to pause it. “Oh, hey Arsling. Are you doing ok? Like with the sunglasses indoors and stuff, got a hangover or something?”

Arsling almost jumped, she hadn’t expected another soul to be in the lounge afterall “ehh yeah, eyes are killing me but everything else is alright though i guessed...you’re Laura right?” Arsling sat across from Laura crossing her legs as she smiled at this relative stranger

“Yeah, that’s me. Little Laura le Fanu.” She gave Arsling a reassuring smile. “Didn’t take you for a party animal by the way? You were drinking enough to give you a hangover on a weekday?”

“Oh i'm not but i got with a friend of mine and got as drunk as humanly possible” Arsling says lying, although its fair of Arsling to assume telling Laura that it was because their eye colour was now supernatural in nature would probably be a conversation killer

“Damn ok.” Laura giggled, falling for the lie. “Well, just remember to drink loads of water, oh, and eat plenty of fatty salty foods. Always helps with hangovers. At least for me.”

Laura sipped from her tea, before deciding on another conversation topic that didn’t revolve around how much hangovers suck. “So, did anything fun on your spring break?”

*“Fuck”* was Arslings immedate internal reaction “well i celebrated Saint Patricks day but other than that it was quite stressful if im honest” Arsling says trying her best to skirt around the fact that she got turned into a fucking werewolf

“Ah St. Paddy’s Day, nice. But oof, that sounds rough. What happened?”

Arsling thought for a few seconds “well my best friend fell out with my girlfriend , because my girlfriend…” Arsling panicked internally “bought me a dog?” she doesn’t sound that convinced in what she said, Arsling is an awful liar

Laura however, as she was none the wiser to the truth, mistook the questioning pitch in Arsling’s voice as simply incredulity of her girlfriend’s decision. “And I get the feeling that maybe you didn’t want a dog? Like can we even have pets at the dorm?”

*“Ah fantastic, she’s an idiot...or i’ve become a better liar, for her sake i hope it’s the second one”* Arsling thought to herself “yeah not much of a dog person, well, some people have called me a bitch so i guess i am” Arsling joked “yeah i don’t think Carter allows pets anyway, so first thing that happens, girlfriend brings around this tiny dog, and it doesn’t like me, first thing it did was jump out of her arms and bite my neck, i’m lucky it didn’t bite deeper”

Laura winced. “Jeez, that doesn’t sound good yeah. I can understand why your best friend would be miffed about that.”

“Yeah, girlfriend loves the little shit though and is trying to get it used to me by bringing it to my window” this was certainly a weird way to vent her feelings but atleast it was working, she did feel better talking about it in this really dumb mundane way, if only the actial situaltion she was in was actually mundane.

“Your girlfriend really wants you to accept that dog, huh?” Laura asked, sipping more of her tea, enraptured by what she was assuming was just random goss.

“Yeah, not a fan of the little twerp if i’m honest but she keeps pushing it” Arsling says adjusts herself in her chair

“Can’t you just tell her no? It’s clearly something that is affecting your relationship, and the relationship between the both of you and your best friend.”

Arslings face momentarily scrunched and her hidden eyes widened slightly “well...ughhh, it was a gift from her mam?” *“Arsling, you’re a fuckin idiot”* she thought to herself beliving to have stretched the lie to breaking point

Miraculously however, Laura bought the lie, and simply nodded. “Ah yes, *‘in-laws’*” she said, using air quotes around the last part. “That does explain it. But hey, you can’t just let her mom’s wishes dictate your life, you know. You have a say too, right?”

“Wish i had more of a say than i do, mams a control freak and they’ve got my girlfriend wrapped around her finger, also not a fan of cat people, probably why she sent the dog if i'm honest” Arsling scratched behind her ears *“my god i could tell her the moon was triangular and she’d at least consider it, oh well, at least she’s nice”*

Laura shook her head in sympathy. “So what are you going to do? Just learn to live with the little shit of a dog?”

“Yeah, maybe i can try to train it to act like a cat” Arsling smirks mentally applying the idea to her situation, “*i mean, werecats are probably a thing”* she thinks to herself, picturing this image of a majestic cat warrior

“Yeah, good luck, I would like to see that.” Laura giggled. “No but seriously, Arsling, getting a dog is a big responsibility. Wow, sounded a bit like my dad then, but you know what I mean. You have to adapt your life around it, have to take it out for walks, have to feed it, have to make sure it’s stimulated and everything. Especially if it’s enough of a troublemaker to be biting you.”

“Yeah, unfortunately there's just nowhere to send it, and if i’m honest i’d probably end up feeling bad, i don’t know i'm bad at turning down gifts, have been since i was a little kid” Arsling says, that wasn’t entirely a lie, although hard to really consider being forced to change species a gift

“Guess you got yourself a dog then.” Laura said, trying to look as sympathetic as possible. “You know, my mom’s a vet, so if you need any tips or anything...”

“Oh eh i’ll keep it in mind if it gets ill or somethin” Arsling mentally pictures Didi in fluffy mode ill and taking them to Laura, she’ll have to add that to mental checklist of things that would be fucking hillarious if it happend

Laura nodded. “Alright. But yeah, if you ever need any help with your furry friend, I may not be a trained vet, but I do know some stuff, you can always ask me for help.” She said, giving a wink and some finger-guns.

Arsling returned the finger guns “so how was your spring break? Better than mine i hope” Arsling lent back in her chair, honestly how could it get worse than what she went threw...unless Laura has been turned into a vampire that would definitely be a worst state of affairs

“Oh yeah, it was pretty awesome. We went on a roadtrip to see a meteor-shower on the beach. I went with Rhys, Sebastian, Dorothy, and Joseph, and we just drove around to various parks and places before camping at the beach. Very fun. Except for the part where Rhys and Joseph got attacked by a mama bear.”

“Wait y’all got attacked by a bear?!” Arsling says in shock, her eyebrows rising above the frames of her sunglasses “fuckin hell were they alright?” Arsling only knew Rhys in passing and knew nobody else the story effected, well except Laura ofcourse

“Yeah! I know right! We were in this national park and just walking around, me, Rhys, and Joseph, when suddenly there was a bear. And then Rhys told us to run, and I did, obviously, and only when I had gotten back to the car did I notice: neither of them followed! Can you believe it?” Laura shook her head. “Honestly incredible that Sebastian managed to get to them and scare it away before anything worse happened. Got some nasty scraps, but you know, they were alive.” Laura said, knowing full well that Rhys was very much not alive, but you can’t just out your friends to other people about their condition of unlife.

“And so, yeah, we helped patch them, had a first aid kit thankfully, and yeah.” Laura continued, not revealing the other part of how she helped Rhys get better.

“Fuckin hell, did Rhys and Joesph fighting the bloody thing? Like i’ve met Rhys he's not the most intimidating of lads is he?” Arsling enquiries thinking about her, even with her new powers and very well defined abs probably not doing that well against a bear.

“Yeah no, he’s a very sweet boy. Perhaps just a little too timid for his own good. But considering it was a bear, he did pretty alright.”

“Holy shit, i’ll have to buy him a drink next time i see him, that's pretty impressive, you happen to know his preferred alcohol of choice?” Arsling says making that mental note, hopefully she’ll remember it, afterall she probably won't see him for a while.

“Hmm,” Laura hummed, “I don’t know what specifically, but you know, I think he’d appreciate a Bloody Mary.” She said, smiling at her own joke.

“I’ll make note of it, i’ll say it three times in the mirror to make sure i remember” Arsling says grinning at her own ‘wit’