5th Floor Common Room, Saturday Morning

[sampippy]

"What?! It's not even Valentine's day for like another two weeks!"

That sound, up in the fifth floor common room? That was the sound of Xanthippe Voorhees scrolling through her Snapchat and her insta feed and suddenly seeing basically nothing from her friends in New York except, like, cute couple photos and gross PDA videos. A ton of them. Like a

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[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo couldn't spend all day in her room feeling sick to her stomach. Especially since that seemed to be a recurring thing. A late breakfast was the easiest thing to keep down for her these days, so she forced herself to head for the common room to scrounge something up.

"Hey, Xanthippe," she said, trying to muster up a smile for her roommate when she spotted her. But it lacked Ringo's usual level of energy.

[sampippy]

Xanthippe, being the terribly self-centered person that she was, did not notice. Yet, anyway. Too busy frowning hard at her phone. Like she was offended by it.

"Yeah, hi," she said, without looking up. Who even was this guy Simone was apparently hooking up with now?

[soniaroadsqueen]

It was actually kind of a relief that Xanthippe didn't comment on Ringo's attitude. Maybe she'd also refrain from commenting on how badly Ringo had been sleeping this week.

"Anything interesting to eat?"

[sampippy]

"What?"

Yes, Xanthippe, people outside your phone existed. Especially ones who'd last spoken to you mere actual seconds ago.

"Oh. There's like, cereal or whatever."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Cool, thanks." Ringo's smile didn't get any more believable as she walked over and grabbed a box of cereal pretty much at random.

She glanced over at Xanthippe, trying to think of something polite to say or ask, but drew a blank.

[sampippy]

That was okay. Xanthippe continued to be a garbage person.

After a moment, she exclaimed, at her phone, "Oh my God that is too. Much.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo's head whipped around from where she was pouring milk on her cereal. "What? Huh? I thought it was a normal amount of milk?"

To be fair, Ringo didn't eat a lot of cereal, so she could have gotten it wrong.

[sampippy]

Considering the mess Xan had made earlier, she would've had no room to judge.

"Huh? No." That was a 'no' of the 'don't be absurd' variety, obviously. "My friend Natalia is posing with two guys and tagging it baes. Since when does she even know two guys?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo blinked. "Natalia? I don't think I know her."

Because, of course, she assumed that Xan was talking about someone on the island.

[sampippy]

The joke was on Ringo! Xanthippe had even fewer friends on the island than she did off it!

Wait, no, the joke was still on Xanthippe, there. Poor Xan.

"Well duh, she's in New York," she said. "Where poly is apparently now a thing?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh."

Ringo blinked.

"Um, poly?" The concept was one she was familiar with, but the term was an unfamiliar one.

And, clearly, Xanthippe was super-invested in teaching Ringo English.

[sampippy]

Sure.

"You know, like... Dating more than one person." Honestly, she only got that muc out just to have context for her venting. "And it's like so unfair because when I was still in New York, Natalia was like barely dating anyone."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh." That Ringo understood. "So I guess, um, good for her, right? Especially if she hadn't had any luck before?"

Something to celebrate, right, Xan?