Campus Tour

*Violet's POV*

When my alarm goes off the next morning, I look over and see Stella passed out on top of the covers wearing last night’s clothes. I didn’t even hear her come in last night. I stretch and get up and then go over to her bed.

I put my hand on her shoulder and shake her a bit and say, “Stella, it’s time to wake up.”

She groans and says, “I don’t wanna,” into the pillow.

“If you get up now we’ll have time to go to Starbucks on our way,” I bribe. I’m not even sure if she likes coffee but I am in desperate need of one so hopefully she is too.

Her head perks up at this and she says, “Need caffeine,” as she pushes herself up into a seated position.

“When did you come back last night?” I ask her.

“I have literally no clue,” She replies as she makes her way to the mirror. She looks in it and goes, “Dear God, I look like death. Okay I’m gonna go shower,” She says grabbing a robe and her shower caddy and running out of the room.

While she’s gone, I open my closet to decide what I should wear. Out of habit I go for jeans but when I look outside it seems really warm out and I see many people in shorts and tank tops. I check the weather on my phone and decide I’ll definitely be too warm in jeans especially since we’ll be walking a lot.

I pull out a pair of black jean shorts and chew my lip nervously while I contemplate them. I used to never be able to wear short shorts but last summer I bought a few pairs and actually like them. Besides after that dress I wore yesterday, jean shorts and a t-shirt feels pretty safe. I pull them on and then throw a loose light blue t-shirt over my head. I grab my watch and connect it to my wrist. I never go anywhere without a watch; my obsessive need for punctuality prevents it.

I put a layer of BB cream on my face, smoothing out my complexion and then swipe a thin layer of mascara on my eyelashes. Just as I’m putting my things away and dropping my PJs in the hamper, Stella rushes back in. She throws her things on her bed and starts throwing clothes on. She wears a white skirt and a purple off the shoulder t-shirt and then starts piling concealer underneath her eyes.

After a few layers of that, and some eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss she turns to me and says, “Can you tell how hungover I am still?”

“No, you look good,” I say with a small smile.

“Hm, I can’t tell if you’re lying because you’re too nice to tell me the truth or not,” she says narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

“I swear, I’m not lying. You look good Stella.”

“Hm, alright I believe you.” She turns back to the mirror, takes her hair out of the towel and quickly blow dries it while I scroll through my phone. When she finishes, she grabs her bag and I get off the bed and throw my backpack over my shoulders and lace up my white vans. I look over to see Stella putting on some complicated looking strappy sandals.

“Uh, you know we’ll be walking a lot right?”

“So? These are comfortable enough. I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she tells me. I just shrug. They’re her feet, so it’s her choice. We both throw on sunglasses and head out towards Starbucks.

“So, do you wanna talk about what happened with your step-brother last night?”

“There’s not much to talk about. My mom left my dad for his dad, she moved to London to be with them and every time I go back to visit he’s a complete asshole to me. I think he hates me because he hates my mom, but I don’t really know. It’s not like I ever did anything to him. Anyway, apparently they moved to New York this summer.”

“That’s fucked that they didn’t tell you. And can I just say, he may be an asshole but he’s a hot asshole.”

I give her an incredulous look and she says, “What? Come on, don’t tell me you didn’t notice. Any breathing human with functioning eyeballs can see it. Plus he’s got the whole brooding bad boy thing going on.”

I roll my eyes, “Alright, enough about Kane. This is not an early morning, pre-caffeine conversation.”

We make it to Starbucks and stand in line.

“So, what did you get up to last night?” I ask her.

“Well, after you left, I found a few other people from our dorm and there was some flip cup and some tequila and it goes pretty blurry after that. Actually I think I owe our neighbour a thank you. I’m pretty sure she’s the one who dragged my drunk ass home.”

“I must have been passed right out. I did not hear you come in at all. Also Starbucks is on me for helping me move yesterday. And for letting me borrow your dress. And the hair and makeup. And the vodka. Actually you know what lunch after this orientation is on me too.” We both laugh and she says, “Deal.”

We get up to the register and she says, “Good Morning what can I get you?”

“Good Morning, I’ll have a grande iced caramel macchiato and the spinach, feta, egg white wrap,”

“Oh, yes, I’ll have what she’s having,” Stella says. The girl takes our name for the cups and scans my phone to pay.

We get our food and drinks faster than I had planned for and my watch shows that we still have 15 minutes before we have to be at the meeting place for the orientation which means we have 10 minutes to sit and eat. We choose a table outside and eat our wraps. We grab our drinks and then make our way to the meeting spot.

We find the group and as we’re standing there waiting for the group leader to start Stella groans and says, “Ugh, I’ve got a massive headache. Why did I have so much tequila?”

“Here, hold this,” She takes my cup and I take one shoulder strap off my bag and grab the bottle of painkillers I keep in the front pocket. I shake a couple out onto my hand, zip the pocket closed and then take back my coffee and hand her the pills.

“Oh my gosh, you’re a lifesaver. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” I say as she tosses back the pills. The young girl with a clipboard introduces herself and begins by explaining all of the different clubs and activities and then she takes us on a tour around campus.

Once we’re done, I ask Stella, “Alright, where should we eat?”

“Somewhere close, my feet are killing me,” She snaps her head up and says, “Don’t you dare say I told you so.”

I put my hands up in surrender. “I wasn’t going to.”

Stella says she wants something greasy so we go to this little pub in one of the buildings close to us. We get seated at a booth that has a window with a view of a nice courtyard and the waiter brings us some water and tells us he’ll be back in 5 minutes to take our order.

We look at the menu and Stella says, “I’m kinda feeling nachos. You wanna share nachos?”

“Sounds good,” I say with a small smile. She orders the nachos with the chicken for us and while we’re waiting, Stella is telling me all about her family. I learn that she lives with her mom and dad and has a younger sister named Katie. Her Dad is CEO of an investment firm and has been planning for her to go to Harvard since the day she was born. We see a pair of legs standing beside our table and I look up to find Kane looking down at me.

I blink a couple times to make sure I’m not hallucinating. “Hello,” he says. Nope, not hallucinating.

“Hi,” I reply tentatively. Didn’t he tell me to stay away from him? Why is he here?

“How did you find the rest of the party?” If he’s asking, he must not know that I left.

Stella starts, “Oh, she-”

“Enjoyed it. She enjoyed it,” I finish for her and give her a look that I’m hoping sends the right message. I don’t want him to know that he upset me enough to make me leave. That would only make things worse.

“Yeah, we had a great time. You know, played some games, did some drinking,” Stella continues smoothly. Crisis averted. Even though she’s the one talking, his eyes are still on me and suddenly I find my fingernails very interesting.

“Mhm. I’m sure.” I look back up at him through my eyelashes and he’s studying me.

“Do you need something Kane?” I ask him, trying to figure out why he’s standing at our table.

“What, I’m not allowed to say hi to you?”

“You told me to stay away from you yesterday. I guess that only works one way then?” I say back evenly. I don’t know where all this confidence is coming from. Maybe Stella is rubbing off on me already.

“I changed my mind.” Did I just hear that correctly?

“What?”

“I said, I changed my mind. We can’t avoid each other forever,” he says with a shrug as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“Uh, yeah, I guess so,” I say.

“Alright then. See you around,” He says and then walks away. What just happened?

Stella waits until he’s out of earshot and says, “Are you sure he hates you? Because the way he was just looking at you tells me otherwise.”

“I’m sure. He was probably just looking for any signs of weakness to exploit.”

“Whatever you say,” She says with a smirk. I’m thankful when our food arrives and we can focus on eating instead of talking about Kane.