Quillink

(Content warning: Some strong language)

Every generation of readers have their own literary masterpiece - that one book that everybody has to read, as if their entire identity depended on it. For Stevie, it was Quillink.

A month into senior year and stuck part-timing as a barista, there wasn't a day that went by where she didn't see a group of freshmen with their eyes glued to a copy of Quillink - their drinks idly sipped between chapters.

She might have been tempted to read it, had it not been what everyone else was doing. If the story of her life was to be her own magnum opus, she couldn't possibly dilute her experience by going with the crowd. But like the latest hit TV show was to the TV folks and the newest blockbuster for movie buffs, among readers, it was the only thing anyone talked about. Students came into the café with Quillink keyrings on their backpacks, people passed the window walking their dogs on Quillink leads, and even Stevie's colleague and fellow student Ness had Quillink stickers all over her locker.

What the heck was all the fuss about? She thought. Stevie had read a few of the author's other works and they'd been... fine. Pedestrian, though alright for passing a few hours. They weren't revolutionary or era-defining like Quillink seemed to be.

And then, as fate would have it, while cleaning tables, she discovered a customer had abandoned their copy at their seat. She rolled her eyes and threw it in the lost-and-found bin atop the counter.

That's how she met Ben.

While busy with the espresso machine - churning out orders for the long line of customers curled around the bagged coffee and thermos displays, Ben cut the queue and casually asked about the book atop the stack of neglected sweaters.

"That's yours? Yeah, you can just take it." She said, barely meeting his gaze.

"Cool, thanks." He remained at the counter, leaning in towards her. "Have you read it yet?"

"Huh? What?" She could barely hear over the sound of the blender mixing up an iced latte.

"I actually host a Quillink reading group, and we're having a meeting tonight if you'd like to come along."

"Oh, uh..." She briefly lifted her head from her latte art. "No thanks, I-" She started the next order. "Not my thing, sorry."

"So you haven't read it then. Don't worry, most nights we just sit around with a few drinks re-reading the first chapter anyway."

That actually sparked her interest. A chill night drinking and reading? Whatever happened to fraternity guys and their obnoxious parties? This one didn't look like the reading type either. She looked him up and down, noting his toned physique and jock energy. A book that got a guy like this into reading? That had to be witchcraft. But a night off did sound good - one last chance to feel young and free again before she had to knuckle down and study.

She didn't actually accept his offer. With too many orders to get through and her head bombarded with noise, she couldn't make up her mind before he needed to leave.

He left the book next to the checkout, and on the top-right corner, he'd placed a sticky note with the words, '1102 Silverpine Avenue, 8pm - Ben.'

***

Stevie wasn't sure how to dress for the occasion. The reading club was at a frat house, but it was still a reading club. She felt sick to her stomach. This had to be the most stupid thing she'd ever done. But walking up the driveway, she breathed a sigh of relief seeing she wouldn't be the only woman there. There were sorority girls too, dressed casually - some even without makeup and already wearing slippers.

She took another glance at the book in her tote bag. It must have been something extraordinary after all. How else could anyone explain any of this?

Stevie felt another weight lifted off her shoulder when she saw Ness waiting at the side door. Her black curls were loosely tied back with a scrunchie, instead of pinned up like they usually were for work.

"Oh hey! You made it!"

"You knew about this club?" Stevie gripped the handle of her bag even tighter.

"I found out about it last week. Wish I'd known sooner though, looks like half of senior year is here."

Stevie looked around. There were crowds in the back yard, bearing drinks and chatting. Some sat around a fire pit, others lounged in deck chairs around the pool, and more hung near to the snack table.

It was all remarkably... mature? Stevie had expected loud music and drunken revelry, but instead it was like a gathering of 40-somethings about to enter a gala (besides the casual dress, obviously).

Ben walked out the patio doors a few moments later, catching the attention of the gathering with a spoon against a glass (yes, he actually had a glass instead of a plastic cup).

"Attention everyone! We're starting soon, so group one, you can come inside!"

"Group one?" Stevie furrowed her brow.

"That's us! Come on!" Ness took her hand and led her back through the side door.

They headed into the main room - usually cleared for parties, but instead set up with couches and plastic folding chairs between them to make up capacity.

"Everyone here?" Ben whipped around, counting heads. His eye met Stevie's. "Hey, you came! Welcome to the club!"

As all attention fell on Stevie, she smirked nervously.

"Stevie's a new reader!"

A few people clapped, grinning. One girl said "lucky" under her breath.

"You can take one of the couches then, it's best to be sitting comfortably when you first start reading."

"Y-Yeah..." Stevie's heart raced as Ness physically led her to a seat. "I'm sorry, I really don't know what's going on here..."

Ben smiled. "Don't worry, you will. Places people!"

The rest of the group took their seats. Ben dimmed the lights before sitting in his own spot.

"Everyone ready? On the count of three, start reading!"

Stevie scanned the room for exits. This wasn't normal, nothing about this could be good. She copied the others, taking their books out and holding them, as if they'd be competing in some sort of reading race.

"Three... Two... One... Go!"

Pages flipped in a chorus. Eyes became glued to paper, and the room fell deathly silent. Stevie casually opened her book to the first page.

It was a fairly standard opening, much like the author's other works. She drew her eyes across each line, trying to soak in the words, but struggling as one does with the first page.

A few pages in, she got into a rhythm, relaxing into the story and taking her time. She followed the words spilling towards the spine, like rivers of ink drawn into a canyon. And she chased them. The story was hidden there, at the meeting of two pages, deep in the heart of the book.

She felt herself melt in after them, letting the river's course take her to the world beyond the page. The book was gone, the room was gone, and she looked up.

The reading club were not reading. They were dressed in strange clothes straight out of a fantasy, and they were laughing - chattering and joking about their looks and the scenery surrounding them.

"Stevie!" Ness rushed over with a beaming grin, wearing a blue and white garb embellished with jewelled chains, her hair free to bounce around, and gold dots around her eyes.

"Ness?" Stevie looked down at herself. Her clothes were instead green - a long, light skirt and a cropped top, sandals at her feet, and much of the same accessories. "What the hell?"

"Awesome, isn't it? We're in the book, silly! This is why everyone loves it so much."

"What? How..." She felt the summer sun on her skin, and the smell of fruit and incense met her nose.

"Calm down, just relax. Your body is still back in the house, but your mind is here. Your body goes into autopilot."

"None of that makes any sense."

"Don't worry about it. Oh, hold on, the king's about to arrive!"

"King?"

A fanfare played over the chattering, and heads were turned to see... Ben - clothed in black and gold regalia taking to a throne at the end of the courtyard.

"Welcome, my subjects, to the Summer Solstice Celebration!" He waved his arms out wide. "Enjoy yourselves! Drink and be merry!"

Magic shot out of his hands, showering the crowd with harmless sparks. They turned for the banquet table, helping themselves to a veritable feast.

Stevie remained rooted to the spot. Ness placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You okay?"

"Um... I don't know. This is all... Really weird."

"I know, it was strange for me the first time too. Look, we're all the protagonist... Well, except Ben. He figured out that if you focus on another character while reading, you become them instead, so he chose the king."

"Figures."

"Anyway, apart from a few key beats, we choose the story!"

"What?"

"Yeah, it's like an RPG. We can do pretty much whatever we want. And this summer sun thing goes on for the whole first chapter, so it's like the best party ever - if you want it to be."

"And the other chapters? What happens later on in the story?"

Ness went quiet. "... Don't worry about it, we usually stop after the first chapter."

"Ness." Stevie snapped. "What happens?"

She was so focused on Ness, she didn't notice Ben approach. "Typical fantasy stuff. But we don't read that far. We get to the party, hang out, drink as much as we want without passing out, hook up with whoever-" he winked at Ness, "then we stop. We go back to the real world - no hangovers, no consequences."

"And this all happens... in our heads?"

"Yeah, like I said, no consequences."

"... How many times have you done this?"

Ness and Ben shared a look, umming and ahhing for a while. "Well, my friend Kelly got the book at launch, and she told me to read it a few months after."

Ben continued, "yeah, and my last gf bought me a copy for my birthday. That was an awesome night." He grinned.

"See, there's this thing that if someone tells you about it beforehand, it doesn't work, so there's like an unspoken agreement among readers that we don't spoil it for anyone."

Stevie took a deep breath, piecing her fingers against her lip. "So Quillink is a book that lets the reader live inside the story as they read... And you've been using it to repeat the same party over and over for... months?"

"Pretty much. What's wrong with that?"

"Guys... I'm all for disappearing into a good book for a few hours, but you're living out your lives in here."

"So? It's not like we're hurting anybody."

Ness put it a little more convincingly. "You're just not getting it. We can do anything we want here, and we don't have to worry about anything. We can't get alcohol poisoning, we can't die, and we can't get pregnant. We're having the full college experience with none of the downsides. We're not bothering anybody with noise, we're not slowly killing ourselves with vodka, and after we're done, we can all get a good night's sleep and be ready for classes in the morning. It's a win-win."

Stevie rolled her eyes. "I get it, it sounds wonderful in theory. In practice, have any of you actually made it to class on time this term?"

They shared another look.

"See, you don't even know. Because you think there's no consequences, you're missing the one staring you in the face. This is an addiction. Time is still passing in the real world and you're spending the day here with your heads buried in the sand. You're using escapism to abandon reality."

"Don't be such a killjoy. We're not doing anything illegal, so what's the problem?" Ness sneered.

"I get it. Reality sucks. You want to live your lives without any of the bad stuff, but then what are you living for? Are you going to spend the rest of your lives here simulating reality, or are you going to get out there and actually start having some real experiences?"

"What's the difference?" Ben began with a stoic expression. "Like you said, reality sucks. College stinks, we're all in shit part-time jobs with crap wages, like we'll be the rest of our lives. You've seen the world we live in. Things out there are only going to get worse. We won't get the suburban picket-fence lives we were promised, we'll be stuck in cheap apartments working forty or more hours a week with half our wage going to paying back our student loans, slaving away under billion-dollar corporations while breaking our backs every day for the bare minimum."

Stevie was surprised.

"Yeah, I know. You looked at me and thought I was some idiot jock? I'm not stupid, Stevie, none of us are - we all know what we're in for. We'll never be happy out there. But we are in here. In here, we're all the heroes in our own story. We can do what we want, say what we want, love who we want, and there's no one to tell us we can't." He pointed to someone in the crowd. "See Dylan over there? When he came out, his dad beat him. But there's none of that in here, he can go off with whoever he wants, and there's no homophobic shitheads telling him no. Molly there in the corner? Her parents still deadname her. Greg's mom's ex took everything - he only got into college because he got a scholarship. Tony's dad's a drunk, Carla's uncle just got deported, Meg's still paying off her little sister's heart surgery, Laurie's mom is constantly on at her about her weight. And the rest of us... we're scared, and stressed - because of college, because of what's happening in the world right now. We need this. In here, we're free. We play out the narrative we want to live, and it helps us face the world every day. There's nothing wrong with that, right?"

Stevie said nothing for a while, looking around at how happy everyone appeared to be. She noticed couples splitting off and heading to other rooms, while most drank and ate like it was the end of the world, or like nothing else mattered.

"So you'd rather live out your days here than try and fix the real world?"

"Fix it? We can't fix it. What power do we have? We're just kids. The real world sucks, and there's nothing we can do to change it, so why bother?"

She really wanted to argue, but she could see the bags under his eyes now that she looked more closely. Of course he preferred it here. In Quillink, he was king. Back in the real world, he must have felt so small (not that people like him would ever admit it).

Stevie remained curious about the rest of the book, but she could see why they preferred it here. It was only chapter one - the start of their story. They had their entire lives ahead of them - the promise of potential, the hope that whatever bad stuff there was remained out of reach, instead of making up their whole reality. And it hurt a little to think that none of the people around her actually wanted to live in reality. How they all had a shared experience of everything being equally terrible. They'd all realised this - it was likely how they'd become so mature all at once. Out there, they'd had to age beyond their years. In here, they could be themselves. They could be kids. They could live and thrive and not have to worry about everything, like what had been sold to them in movies.

Yet Stevie could see the shadow behind it. It was still an addiction. The real world would never get any better. Some would rather spend their entire lives in chapter one than face whatever lay out there.

"So what are you thinking, Stevie? You want to give this world a try, or go back to reality?" Ness asked, as Ben had already walked off to join the banquet.

"How long have we got here?"

"The story progresses when the king makes a toast. It's about an hour in the real world."

"And we can't stay longer than that?"

"Well, there are other groups outside still. Not everyone would fit in the room, so we take it in turns."

She thought for a while, then decided. "Alright, I'll try. But the next time we do this, I want to see more of the story. I want to carry on to chapter two."

Ness's brow arched. "You sure? It's a little depressing, you know. Diplomatic tensions, magical warfare and stuff like that. The party scene is the best part."

"I know, I'm sure. I've got time off all this weekend."

"Well, no one here will want to come with you, you know that, right? You'll have to read on your own."

She shrugged. "I figured. I'll finish the book, then we'll talk Monday. Sound good?"

"Yeah, I won't stop you. Now come on, we should grab a drink before everything's gone."

***

Stevie missed her classes on Monday, coming into work ten minutes late and sleepily slipping her apron on at her locker. The café was quiet so Ness came back to meet her, noting her reddened cheeks and threaded eyes. She'd been crying for hours.

"You okay?" Ness asked, placing a more gentle hand on her arm.

Stevie rubbed her eyes. "Yeah..."

"What did you think?"

She sniffed. "It might be the best book I've ever read... but..."

"But?"

"... Is Ben hosting another reading party tonight?"