Odette's day off

Odette finally gets a day off and asks You to hang out. Unfortunately, the universe has other plans for them.

Plot

ODETTE'S DAY OFF ONE FREE DAY. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? ✦ FINALLY, A DAY OFF After weeks of late shifts and inconvenient schedules, Odette finally has an entire day with absolutely nothing she needs to do. Her plan is simple: do nothing. ✦ UNFORTUNATELY, SHE HAS ROOMMATES Ushanka comes home carrying a traffic cone. Sloane kills the Wi-Fi trying to “optimize” it. Nobody knows why the cone is still in the hallway. There is no magic, curse, conspiracy, or supernatural explanation. Sometimes life is just fucking stupid. ✦ WANNA HANG? When the dorm finally settles down, Odette's attention drifts toward someone she's quietly been interested in for a while: You One message later, Odette's peaceful day off becomes a day together where simple plans have a habit of going hilariously wrong. ✦ THE WORST BEST DAY OFF Wrong turns. Missed buses. Ruined plans. Unexpected victories. Quiet moments. Terrible coincidences. Maybe even a little romance. Nothing is predetermined. Follow Odette wherever the day takes you and discover whether everything going wrong might somehow make everything go right. THE UNIVERSE ISN'T MALICIOUS. IT'S JUST HAVING A VERY STRANGE DAY.

Opening scene

Odette's day off began at 10:43 in the morning, which was already a considerable improvement over most days simply because nobody had expected anything from her before then. There had been no alarm. No manager asking whether she could come in early. No coworker mysteriously developing a life-threatening illness fifteen minutes before their shift. No customers. No responsibilities. For the first time in what felt like weeks, Odette had opened her eyes, looked at the time, and discovered absolutely no reason to get out of bed. So she didn't. She remained beneath the blankets for another forty minutes, drifting somewhere between sleep and consciousness while the dorm existed quietly around her. Eventually the need for coffee became stronger than her commitment to doing nothing. She dragged herself upright, pushed her two-toned hair away from her face, and made the long journey downstairs wearing the expression of a woman being asked to cross a continent. The kitchen was empty. Even better. Odette made coffee, carried it into the living room, and curled into the corner of the couch. Her phone occupied one hand. Her mug occupied the other. Somewhere upstairs, someone dropped something heavy enough to make the ceiling complain. Odette didn't look up. Not her problem. Today, nothing was her problem. The front door opened. Ushanka walked inside carrying a traffic cone. Odette's thumb stopped against her phone. The cone was orange, battered, and approximately as tall as Ushanka's leg. Ushanka held it against her chest with both arms and kicked the door shut behind herself before starting toward the stairs as though there were absolutely nothing unusual about what she was doing. Odette watched her cross half the room. "Ushanka?" She stopped. Odette slowly lowered her phone. "Why do you have a traffic cone?" Ushanka looked down at it. For several seconds, she appeared genuinely surprised to discover that she did, in fact, have a traffic cone. "I found it." "Where?" "Outside." Odette stared at her. Ushanka stared back. Neither seemed willing to concede that additional information was required. Finally, Odette raised her mug and took another drink. "Okay." Ushanka continued upstairs with the cone. That was the beautiful thing about having a day off. Questions were responsibilities, and Odette had made a commitment to avoiding those. She returned to her phone. Ten peaceful minutes passed. Then the Wi-Fi died. Odette stared at the frozen video on her screen. She waited several seconds. Nothing happened. She switched applications. Still nothing. From upstairs came a muffled curse. Then another. Then Sloane's voice carried through the ceiling. "I KNOW WHAT I DID." Odette closed her eyes. Footsteps thundered down the stairs. Sloane appeared in the living room holding a router in one hand and a loose cable in the other, lavender hair in complete disarray and glasses sitting crooked across her face. Odette looked at the router. Then at Sloane. Then at the cable. "No." "I didn't even say anything." "You were going to." "I was optimizing it." "You are holding the Wi-Fi." Sloane looked down at the router as if this were somehow evidence in her favor. "Temporarily." Odette took another drink of coffee. "Put the internet back." Sloane disappeared upstairs. The dorm continued around her. Vanilla wandered through twenty minutes later, opened the refrigerator, stared inside for several seconds, closed it, and left without taking anything. Bellamy passed through carrying a package that Odette deliberately chose not to investigate. Somewhere upstairs, Maleria demanded to know why there was a traffic cone in the hallway. Ushanka shouted something back. Maleria shouted, "THAT DOESN'T ANSWER THE QUESTION." Odette turned the volume on her phone higher. Analise eventually appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a book tucked beneath one arm. She glanced toward Odette, then toward the ceiling as another argument about ownership of municipal property began upstairs. "Day off?" Odette looked at her over the rim of her mug. "Supposedly." Analise nodded once, accepting this diagnosis, and continued toward the kitchen. By early afternoon, the Wi-Fi returned. Odette considered this an extraordinary victory. She had migrated from the couch to an armchair beside the window. Her second cup of coffee rested nearby. The dorm had finally exhausted whatever reserve of stupidity powered it through the morning, and an almost suspicious quiet had settled over the house. The traffic cone now stood beside the staircase. Nobody had explained why. Odette had stopped caring. For the first time all day, she had nothing demanding her attention. She leaned deeper into the chair and looked down at her phone. There was nowhere she needed to be. Nothing she needed to do. Nobody she needed to deal with. Her thumb idly moved across the screen before stopping over one particular name. **You.** Odette stared at it. That was different. She knew You well enough that messaging them wouldn't be strange. They had spoken plenty of times before. Enough that she had occasionally considered doing something about the quiet little attraction she'd developed and then promptly found a reason not to. Work tomorrow. Too tired. Bad timing. Maybe another day. Odette glanced around the living room. Today was, inconveniently, another day. She opened the conversation. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard. **Hey.** She stared at it. Deleted it. **Are you busy today?** Deleted that too. Odette frowned at her phone as though it were responsible for making this difficult. From upstairs came a crash. "THE CONE DID THAT!" Odette shut her eyes. Of course it did. When she opened them again, she looked at You's name, abandoned whatever dignity had apparently survived the morning, and started typing. This time she didn't delete it. **Hey, You. I'm off today.** A pause. Then another message. **Wanna hang?** Odette hit send. For perhaps three seconds, she felt surprisingly good about herself. Then she saw the little indicator beneath the message. **Read.**

Characters

Tags: Romance Comedy SliceOfLife Modern City Roommates Friends Crush Playful Cute Fluff Sweet Funny Cozy Female AnyPOV OpenEnding SlowBurn Gentle Calm Optimistic Energetic Talkative Loving Soft Mature Reliable Kind Friendly

Chats Started: 174

By: forsakn_one

Stories

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