Chapter Text
“Yeah well as long as you actually stay for the whole party I know I’ll have fun. No hiding in your room this time, huh?” Julia laughed as she leaned against the post of the pay phone.
“No promises, but I’ll do my best since it’s for your birthday,” came the response through the receiver.
Julia smiled as she fingered the phone cord. The weather at Brakebills had just started to turn and the most lovely breeze was rolling through campus. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the frame.
“That’s all I can ask for Q. I’m so excited to see you next month. Miss you, love you.”
“Miss you, love you too, Jules,” Quentin responded softly.
When Julia opened her eyes she saw Eliot and Margo walking together, hand in hand, in her direction. She smiled towards them and gave a small wave as they acknowledged her.
“I wish I didn’t have to but I gotta run, Q. Classes call and all that.”
“Go kick some Ivy League ass. Hey, good luck on your exam tomorrow!” Quentin responded.
“Thanks. I’ll let you know how it goes. And I definitely will call before I see you next month,” she responded with a smile. Eliot and Margo had reached her and were standing a little more closely than she normally would have been comfortable with had it been anyone else while she was on the phone. But Eliot and Margo abided by their own rules of social decorum and she had given up on fighting it. Margo stared at her with big doe eyes while leaning her head on Eliot’s shoulder, their hands still clasped. Eliot looked bored, as usual.
“Sounds great, Jules. Talk to you soon.”
“Talk soon,” she responded before putting the phone on the receiver.
“You know next time if you want to take the phone and talk to my friends you can, it would be easier than creeping by and trying to listen in while I’m on the phone with them,” she smirked as she turned around and started to stroll towards the main campus building. She didn’t have to turn around to know that Eliot and Margo were following her.
“And what on Earth would we have to talk about with a Muggle?” Eliot scoffed from behind.
“How pointless and mundane their lives are?” Margo responded.
“Life is pointless and mundane, Bambi. Why would I need to be reminded by someone whose life is even more pointless and mundane than mine?”
Julia rolled her eyes. “Just because someone isn’t a Magician doesn’t mean their life is pointless and mundane, no matter how monotonous and predictable yours is, Waugh.” Julia countered with no heat. In the short three months Julia had been at Brakebills and known Eliot and Margo, she learned just how cynical they could be (particularly Eliot) and knew they only meant about 28% of the things they said.
Julia glanced at her watch out of habit, not really taking in the time it read. She always forgot how the wards of the campus affected analog clocks and reading time this way wasn’t exactly reliable. She glanced at the sundial over the entrance of the main campus building, noting that she had a good twenty minutes before they needed to be at their next class. She parked herself on a bench they were about to pass, and Eliot and Margo followed in kind. Margo swung her legs over Eliot’s lap and rested her head on his shoulder, his arm across the bench behind her.
“It is pretty impressive that you keep in touch with your Muggle friends from home. I don’t think I even know of anyone else who goes or went here that does that,” Margo observed. Julie saw that Eliot was about to speak, more than likely to interject a quip about how no one else on campus was as boring as Julia so they wouldn’t need to seek out even more boring companionship (again), so she beat him to it.
“Quentin is my best friend. I don’t see why me going here should end our friendship. It is a little difficult, lying to him, but it’s for the best. I rather tell him white lies and work harder to keep in touch than lose him completely. He’s worth it,” she stated easily.
“Him and the ex,” Eliot drawled, turning his head to Margo and raising his eyebrows.
“Hey, James and I wouldn’t have broken up if it weren’t for this magical wrench in my plans. He’s a great guy. I can only lie so much, it would have been impossible to maintain a real relationship with him while I was here. It was totally amicable. He’s already seeing someone else too, I just found out. Anyway, him and Quentin are actually throwing me a birthday party at their apartment next month. No one here has stepped up to the birthday party plate yet. They are obviously better friends,” she grinned, nudging Eliot gently on the shoulder.
Eliot’s expression immediately changed from mildly imperious to extremely eager.
“I will explore my fascination with your ex-lover and the boy that is in love with you throwing you a birthday party at a later time. Take us with you. Margo and I. We need to accompany you to this party,” Eliot said, tuning fully towards Julia and seemingly forgetting Margo’s physical existence as she protested being unceremoniously heaved from his body.
Julia laughed out loud. “Why the hell would you want to come? You were literally just telling me how boring “Muggles” are – which by the way you really need to stop borrowing Harry Potter terms. Why would you want to go to a party with a bunch of non-Magicians?”
Eliot took Julia’s hands in his and she looked at him skeptically.
“Julia. I don’t care about your boring Muggle friends. And we can use the word Muggle. JK is a Magician, she sold out and wrote those books based on the Brakebills equivalent in the UK. Muggle has always been a Magician word. Regardl-”
“JK Rowling is a Magician for real?!” Julia squealed.
“That is not the most pressing matter at the moment!” Eliot chided. He began again as he saw Julia attempting to protest. “Regardless, it is not your boring friends we care about. You are going to a house party in the city. There will be no one from Brakebills there. Do you know how bored I am with seeing the same 200 faces every day? Except for Bambi, of course,” He finished with a kiss to her temple.
“Hey,” Julia whined before Eliot leaned over to kiss her temple too.
“You’re still new and shiny, Knowledge Girl. I’m not bored of you yet either,” he promised. He settled back into the bench and Margo reclaimed her position, draping over him.
Another Knowledge student walked by and gave a little wave to Julia. She smiled in return and turned back to her companions on the bench.
“You can go to the city any time you want. I just don’t get why you want to go to this one house party.”
“It’s the quintessential grad-student experience. House party in a house that’s not directly on a college campus. Absolutely knowing with 110% certainty that we are the smartest people in the room. The promise of a one-night-stand that we don’t have to see very day, multiple times a day. A free place to crash. The possibilities of cocktail crafting with the finest beverages New York City has to offer,” Eliot finished, looking dreamily into the clouds.
“I think it is going to be a lot of red solo cups and bottom shelf liquor. James and Q are legit grad students. They are broke. It’s not going to be super fancy,” Julia said carefully.
“Sounds like a challenge, El,” Margo grinned, nudging him.
“Crafting the perfect cocktail in a completely Muggle setting with bargain basement stock. My Everest,” Eliot nodded.
“Please let us come, Julia. I haven’t been to the city in forever, and Eliot hasn’t left campus since he started here,” Margo pouted, then stuttered as Eliot shot her a look.
“Well I mean he’s left, but ya know… Anyway, please Julia. It would be really fun. We promise to be good. You’ll be able to show off your super hot and smart Yale friends, we will help back up your story, EL and I will find some cute new boy to sleep with, so really everyone wins.”
Julia huffed. It would be nice to introduce Q and James to her new friends, linking her two worlds in a way that she didn’t think possible before. And it might make things easier, in the long run, having people that would help back up her story, help with easing the pretense of a world she had to pretend she was living in.
She glanced over at Eliot and Margo, cheeks touching and both staring at her with pleading eyes and hopeful smiles.
“Fine!” she laughed. “Just stop looking so creepy!”
Eliot and Margo kissed each other chastely on the lips.
“We are going to tear up the big city, Bambi,” Eliot grinned, forehead resting against hers.
“You won’t regret this Julia. Going back home with me and Eliot on your arms is going to make you look so cool for once,” Margo beamed, hugging Eliot.
“You are the worst friends ever,” Julia replied, getting up and walking towards the main building to head to her class.
“But super hot and fun and you love being around us!” Eliot called after her with Margo giggling into his neck.