𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓸𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓫𝓻𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓻𝔂 𝓵𝓸𝓸𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓪 𝓵𝓸𝓽 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝓻𝓾𝓷𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝔀𝓪𝔂

I walk along the corridor as I head over to my next class. My mind travels back to the memories that I collected when I was at home.

Home.

I can't believe I still call that place home after everything that happened. I miss being as normal as other people are. I miss my parents and my brother, but then again I wouldn't dare to go back there. I just don't want to feel so detached from my family. But I can't help it, it had to be done.

I am brought out of my thoughts with a powerful smack on my back. I stumble a step or two forward but get back my footing and glare at Jade, my best friend. "Ouch! That hurt ass wipe," I snap at him as I elbow him in the stomach.

"Whatever." He dismisses me with a wave of his hand as he rolls his eyes. "Anyway, where are you going right now?" And just like that his goofy smile is back with that unmatchable level of enthusiasm. His pitch-black hair falls over his forehead messily as his bright green eyes twinkle with excitement. His high cheekbones and dashing looks have girls falling for him left and right, and his long eyelashes make me envious sometimes.

I don't know why boys have better eyelashes than girls. We need them more mom and dad, give better genes!

Overall, he's a pretty good looking boy with muscles bulging out and his tall build. And he knows how good he looks, cocky ass.

And I don't know why he ever became friends with my average ass.

Cue the insecurities.

"Honestly, I can't believe you don't know where I'm going and you've been my friend for like, what, eight years? And you call me your best friend. Shame on you, Jade," I say, shaking my head in mock disappointment. I adjust the books in my hand a little so it doesn't ache too much, but before I know what's happening, Jade takes the books from my hands. I smile at him gratefully, which he completely ignores. I roll my eyes and stuff my numb hands in my coat pockets, the chilly wind whistling as it passes by.

"Oh." Realization seems to dawn on him when he speaks. "I swear to God if you're going to another class, I'm gonna, I'm-" He starts but stops when I speak up.

"You what, huh?" I ask him. "You can't do shit, Jade boy. I need to get to class, I can't be late. You know how serious I am about that."

"C'mon Arabella, you need a break from getting to class on time," Jade groans. "You haven't skipped any of your classes unless you're sick, which, might I add, rarely happens. Let's go have some fun, hangout. You barely get out of that freaking schedule you have."

I sigh and turn towards him. "I am on a full scholarship Jade. I need to make this work." I raise my eyebrows at him. "I have to study well and make my future better. I want my adulthood to be much, much better than my childhood. And can you please keep my name out of your mouth," I hiss at him and he raises his hands in surrender.

"You already are doing great. You're like at the top of every freaking class you take." Jade flails his arms around for exaggeration which causes a lot of students to look at us, but we ignore them. "Plus, I swear you have the whole of your future planned, like graduate at twenty-two, become a journalist for a great magazine. A small quaint little house with your lover and your four kids!" He exclaims.

I scrunch up my nose in distaste. "Where did the lover part come from and four kids? Are you insane?" I question. "I don't even know where you got that from."

"Honestly, judging from the fact that you've been so secretive for the past few months, I won't be surprised if you already have a freaking boyfriend."

"What are you talking about, Jade?" I ask, my tone softening. "I tell you everything. You and Ri are like my only friends here."

"It doesn't feel like it, Ari," he sighs, emphasizing my name. Probably showing that he can remember not to use my real name... "You're getting more and more closed off. It's like you don't even share anything with me. You don't even hang with us now. All you do is the study or talk to Lee and Cass whenever you're free."

I don't say anything for a while to ponder over what Jade has said. I feel like he's right. From the day I told Ri the truth, I've been hiding in a sense. "I'm sorry," I apologize. "How about we go to the party you were talking about tonight?"

"Are you... you?" He asks, surprised. I roll my eyes when he continues. "I can't believe you agreed to go to a party on a school night," he mutters, still in shock.

"Do you want to go or not?"

"Of course I do," he says. "Just let me tell Riona."

"Don't, she's in my next class, I'll tell her," I say, and start walking again. Jade catches up to me and walks me to my next class. I quickly bid him goodbye and take my books from him, entering the room until I notice Riona sitting on one of the seats and waiting for me. I walk over to her and slide in the vacant chair beside her, setting my books on the table in front of me and stuffing my hands back into the pockets of my jeans.

Ugh, the only good outcome after this snowfall will be smashing my enemies face in the snow collected.

Maybe even Jade's. He's been annoying me too much lately.

"Hi," Riona says softly, glancing at me. Her long and wavy brown hair frames her heart-shaped face, and her blue eyes match her hair perfectly. Her expression is lit up with a smile as she waits for me to say something.

"Are you free tonight?" I ask her. She looks puzzled for a second but then a sly smirk slowly forms.

"Are you asking me out, Ari?" She asks, wiggling her eyebrows.

"The fuck, no," I exclaim, my voice raised. She bursts out laughing at my reaction. "What the hell is going on inside your head?"

"Nothing." She grins. "I was just teasing you. Anyways, what were you talking about?"

"Ahh, Jade and I decided that we should go to the party you mentioned tonight. What do you say?"

She freezes, staring at me with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open. I roll my eyes at her. "You can stop being so overdramatic. I swear, being around Jade is rubbing off you the wrong way."

"I just- it's hard to believe that you are the one asking me to go to a party," She says, and I scoff. "But of course I'm in," she replies.

Before we can decide anything further the professor saunters into the room, and we both turn our attention to him as he starts the lecture.

After what seems like forever, we're finally able to walk out of the room, the long, exhausting, and boring lecture coming to an end. I peer over at Riona, who looks about ready to go to her room and fall asleep, but I drag her over to the coffee shop on our campus.

"Stop, woman," She protests, swatting me away as I reach for her hands. "I need to go take my power nap."

"Nope," I say as I continue to take her with me to the shop. "Your power nap will probably go on for like, four hours, and you'll only wake up when we have to get ready for the party. We have a class right now that you said that you can't miss, so all you need is a strong cup of coffee and then we're off."

"I seriously hate telling you to keep up with my schedule and help me reach class on time," She says, and I snicker at her misery. As soon as we walk into the cafe the sharp smell of coffee hits me like a truck, but after a second I get used to it and begin to enjoy the intense aromas around me.

When I die, I need my heaven to have fountains of coffee and chocolate.

I get in line as Riona sits in one of the empty chairs, drumming my fingers on the countertop as I wait for someone to come take my order. After a few minutes, a petite woman turns her attention to me and I order two large hot coffees.

After paying, I slide into the plastic chair across the table in front of Ri. I notice her sober up a little, putting on a serious expression. "So, what are you going to this spring break?" She asks.

"You know I always stay with Jade at the apartment we rent every break. Even the landlord knows that we'll come back every time we're off from school," I say.

"But he's not here this time, and I'm not sure you'll be able to pay that much rent on your own," She says it like it's obvious while I stare at her in confusion.

"What do you mean he's not here?" I ask her.

"Uh, he's going home for the vacation," Riona explains.

"He- WHAT?" I all but shout. She winces and looks around at the students giving us disapproving looks. After apologizing to the studying students, she quietly rests her head on her hand with her elbow, supporting the weight of her head.

"Calm down," She says. "I'm sure he'll tell you sometime later but right now we need to focus on where you're going to be living for the spring break." I don't reply for a few seconds, making meaningless shapes on the cold wood of the table as I bite my lip.

"I'll ask the authorities if they can let me stay here for the holidays," I say, shrugging and still not looking at her. I feel a slight pain in my lip from where I've been biting it for too long, but I just ignore it. I have handled much worse than this.

"You know that they never agree, why would you even try?" She questions.

"It's not like I have another choice or anyone else to go with," I say.

"What am I then? A potato?" She deadpans.

"I mean, you do lo-" I say, finally raising my eyes in amusement to look at her. A smirk grazes my lips as I tease her.

"Don't," she hisses quietly, "Don't complete that sentence."

"We're steering away from the conversation," She says, "What do you think Ari?"

"I don't know," I say, shaking my head and averting my gaze to go back to drawing on the table. "Maybe be homeless for the break, they do say that we should have all experiences in life."

"That is not an experience you want to have, trust me," She says.

"I haven't thought of it yet... to be honest, I've come up with nothing. I'm basically clueless," I mutter, memories flying through my head. I remember the time I ran away, clueless, naive, and gullible. I still may be.

"You can come live with me," She says, her eyes lighting up as she shares her mind-blowing idea, "I'll probably live with my parents or my brother, so you can definitely stay with us. Albert's coming to Uni tomorrow for some work, I'll talk to him."

"Albert, who?" I ask her, taking on a confused expression.

"My brother. Albert Stone. He lives in New York, so it won't be a problem." She shrugs and smiles, sitting back in her chair as if she just solved the hardest problem in the world.

Ha, as if dude, the joke's on you. I'm never going back to a family home, not this soon at least.

"Albert Stone?" I ask, "The businessman Albert Stone?" After I've finished my inner roasting I look at her, my eyes widening.

"Yeah." She nods like it's no big deal. "Anyway, so it's final, right? You're coming with me."

Hun, you're like a gazillion times richer than I'll ever be.

"No. I'm not," I retort, frowning and staring at her.

"What! Why?" She asks, sitting up straighter.

"I don't want to intrude," I say it as if it's obvious.

Because it was obvious, duh!

"You're not intruding, Albert always has friends over. He wouldn't mind my friend," She says. She waves her hand, dismissing me like I'm her servant, and I roll my eyes.

"Still a no," I say, slowly shaking my head, "I don't know your brother and he doesn't know me. It'll be weird staying at his house."

"Okay," She replies, stopping to think for a few minutes about another dumb idea, "How about my parents' house? You've met them."

Ugh, girl stop thinking. I can't get close to anyone right now.

"I barely know them Riona. I can't just drop in out of nowhere demanding that they keep me in their house," I respond softly.

"They won't mind Arabella," She exclaims, but I shush her. "Ari. Whatever, they won't care that they haven't met you, Ari, please. I really don't want you to be alone."

"Can we leave it there Riona? I really don't want to talk about it." We fall into a comfortable silence, the steady drone of the heater and the soft chatter in the cafe filling our ears. The strong smell of coffee wafts through my nose, calming me down a little as I look out of a window until I hear someone call my name. I turn around to see the owner of the shop looking at me with an agitated expression.

"I've been calling you for like ten minutes. Come get your order, it's ready." The plump man stares at me, his lips turned downward in a frown as I stand up and get our order. I thank him, and together Riona and I head out of the cafe. I push the cafe door open, the harsh winter wind fighting against me. I wrap my coat tighter around me as I sip on my coffee.

"How about my house?" She asks, suddenly making me choke on my coffee. I cough violently as I feel the hot coffee at the back of my throat mistakenly make its way into the wrong pipe.

Bruh, can you stop with these ideas already.

And you have a house to yourself! You're still eighteen. Here I can barely keep a roof over my head.

"What?" I ask her once I've calmed myself down.

"I have a penthouse, here in New York. It's under my name so technically you're living at my house and not my parent's or brother's." She says, excited. I close my eyes and send a silent prayer above.

Dear Lord and heavens above, give me the strength to deal with the stupidness of a stupid, idiot teenager. I'll forever be in your debt. Amen.

"I don't-"

"Come on Ari, this is your best bet. I know the whole refusing thing is just because you don't want to trust a lot of people and I understand that. But there'll be no one there except me. Please, Ari, I know you have no other option. And I'm definitely not letting you live on the street and knowing you, you won't even live in a motel or anything," She says, suddenly growing serious, a change from her usual bubbly self. Her eyebrows scrunch together as frown lines appear on her forehead.

I mean, she's not wrong.

Did I just agree to something with Riona Stone? I'm turning into a stupid, idiot teenager. Someone save me from this deathly illness before it overtakes me.

"Only if I can pay some kind of rent," I say after a bit of thinking.

"What? No, nope, not happening." She says shaking her head while continuing to walk across the campus.

"Then, I'm not coming," I declare, hoping that I sound somewhat stubborn.

"Okay, how about you pay for the groceries and all that?" She tries to negotiate, and I narrow my eyes but eventually nod.

"At last. I'm so happy!" She smiles widely and she hugs me. I awkwardly wrap my arms around her and softly pat her back.

Too much social interaction for one day.

"Not for long though, we still have to get to class, which you probably won't like," I say, pulling away. With a smile on my face, we start walking to our next class, and she groans as I drag her to her doom.

***

Hello everyone! *eeeek* It's here. I'm so happy with the rewritten version and I hope that you like it as well.

Writing this chapter was so much fun! Also, it's Ari's outfit up at the starting of the chapter. Spoiler, someone is appearing in the next chapter.

I'm so excited for the next chapter.
I would love to know your thoughts on this chapter and I would love to know more about you as well. So, let me introduce myself!

I'm Avyanna. I love reading and writing. I write mostly in the romance genre and I love adding little sweet moments that'll make you fall in love with my characters.

So, I guess that's enough of my ranting. I'll stop her. And if you did like the chapter, please don't forget to vote and comment!

PS. This chapter was edited by radiantbubble go follow her and show her some love 'cause she's an angel!!