Rayline. It was my first day at college. Yes, that's right, I, Rayline Hale, was now officially a college student. Just a few months ago, I celebrated my 18th birthday with my parents and my best friend. A month ago, when I walked through the gates of this college for the first time, I felt an unstoppable mix of excitement and anxiety. I knew this was the beginning of a new adventure in my life. High school was in the past, and now I was entering a new chapter. My day began with mixed emotions. In a panic, I shuffled my desk and quickly grabbed the books and pencils I needed. Then I checked myself in the mirror, hoping my hair wasn't too messy. Satisfied with my appearance, I quickly slung my college bag over my shoulder and hurried down the stairs to the front door. "Mom, I'm leaving now!" I called as I made my way to the kitchen counter, where my mother was busy working on her laptop. "All right, honey! Take care!" I heard my mom's warm reply, but she continued to work on her la
Rayline. With my heart pounding, I waited for Nicolas to turn the corner and leave me alone. I tried to take a deep breath to calm the last of my nerves. But as I looked across the field, I saw Cole Spencer coming toward me. I immediately looked down, trying not to make eye contact with him as I stood there. I wondered if he was coming over to ask me why I was looking at him so strangely. But before I could prepare myself, he was already standing in front of me. I looked at him slowly until I found him looking at me, and I swallowed. He was tall, and even more handsome from up close. "You're in the way," he said bluntly. "What?" I blinked a few times. "You're blocking the door," he said, and I turned my head to see that he was actually standing right at the entrance to the building. "Oh," I said as I stepped aside. "Sorry." He gave me one last look, and I swear there was a flash of orange in his eyes as he pulled the door open and walked inside without saying anything. Nicolas to
Rayline. I went through the rest of my classes without anything interesting happening. Since it was the first day, most of them were just going over the semester schedule and other boring things. Luckily, I didn't get lost a second time. "Hey!" I jumped at the voice behind me, but then I realized that it was Darren, and I breathed a sigh of relief. "How was class?" "You scared me!" I put my hand over my heart and he laughed. "And they're good, not too bad." He hummed in response and put his arm around my shoulders. "You want to grab some food and go back to your place?" "Ugh, I can't. I have to meet someone at the library for a project." "Ew, who's that?" "Cole Spencer," I said casually, but he gave me a weird look. "What?" "Nothing, it's just… I always get a weird feeling about this guy." "Do you know him?" I asked him. It was possible that he had interacted with him before. "Not really, he's like a friend of a friend. But there was something odd about him." "Odd, like what
Rayline. A part of me wanted to send Cole a message, to ask him if he was okay, to ask him why he had to leave so suddenly that day. But every time I started typing, I heard his voice in my head telling me not to message him except about the project. But why should I care? My other classes for the week were going well. I have met some nice people so far, but no close friends yet. Meanwhile, Darren made sure to talk to me every day, which I always appreciated. I was surprised when Taylor greeted me a few times when we passed each other on campus. We didn't have that class again, so we only had one interaction, but he's still very nice. It's Saturday, so I've been at home the whole day, getting some work done. I'm typing on my laptop when I notice my phone is on. Darren is calling. "Hey, do you want to go to a party tonight?" His voice sounded cheerful as always. "Party?" My eyebrows knit in confusion. "Yeah, one of my friends is having a party. It should be a lot of fun. So get ou
Rayline. And with that, something clicked inside me. I tried to be nice and ask him if he was okay, but instead, he snapped at me and told me to leave. My jaw clenched and I knew for sure that he could see the anger that was building up inside of me. "All right, but a word of advice for you, cold bastard — when someone is being nice to you, maybe you shouldn't act like a jerk," I said, the words coming out uncontrollably, but I didn't regret it, and he seemed annoyed by my words, the orange color in his eyes flashing even brighter this time. He opened his mouth to speak again, but his voice was cut off by another. "Hey! Look who it is!" I turned around to see a man, who was not familiar to me, suddenly come over and put his arm around Cole's shoulders. However, from the look on his face, it seemed that he was not happy with the man's presence. The man was of medium build with dark brown hair and was obviously drunk, judging by his body movements and the single shot that he was holdi
Rayline. I wanted to say no again, but there was a look in his eyes, something sincere. I nodded reluctantly and he grabbed my wrist, lifting me from Hayden's lap and pulling me into a secluded hallway. I stumbled a little as we walked, and when he stopped, I stood up and crossed my arms. "Anything you want to talk about..." "I'm sorry," he said. There was silence between the two of us as we stood frozen. The last thing I expected from him was an apology, and now I'm really surprised. "What?" I say and he sighs and looks away. "I'm sorry, okay?" He pauses, seeing how surprised I am. "I shouldn't have been so rude to you. You were just trying to be nice." I watched him closely, not sure if he was being honest or not. But something inside of me told me that he was being honest, and I nodded my head. "It's okay." I looked down and played with my fingers. "I've been a bit nosy." I looked back up. There was a small smile on his face, and his eyes sparkled with a hint of yellow. And
Rayline. There was a warmth that surrounded me as my mind struggled to figure out what was going on. It was dark. I could barely see. But as the light slowly increased, I could make out the outline of the face above me. It took a while for my vision to clear, but when it did, I could see that it was Cole. He was holding me. My head was pressed up against his chest as he carried me, stepping over large branches and rocks along the way. "Wh-what? What happened..." Before I could finish asking, a voice called out to me. "Ray!" I heard Darren's voice calling in the distance and when I looked out I saw that Cole had carried me back to Taylor's house and Darren was running over to me. "Where the hell are you going?" I could see the worry on his face and he looked at me and Cole as he helped me stand up. I grabbed his shoulder as I struggled to come back to reality, and he held out his hand to make sure I was steady. "She's had too much to drink," he said curtly as he handed me to Darren
Rayline. I entered the lecture hall and rubbed my eyes as I made my way to my desk. I wasn't sure why I was so tired. After all, I was just doing my homework and relaxing because I wasn't allowed to leave the house due to the party incident earlier that night. Maybe it was because my mind was still running a mile a minute no matter how hard I tried. I plopped down in the chair and leaned over the table, resting my chin on my arm as a pillow. I only opened my eyes when I heard someone sitting next to me. I was expecting to see Taylor greeting me with a smile, but instead, it was Cole, and I quickly stood up to straighten up my sitting position. "Hey," he said as he pulled out a notebook. "Uh... Hi," I looked at him strangely. "What?" He raised his eyebrows and I blinked a few times. "Nothing, I just didn't expect you to sit next to me." I then reached into my bag and pulled out my own notebook, and he hummed quietly in response. I began to fiddle with my pencil. Why the hell did