Chapter 2

My alarm rings at exactly 0700hrs and right on cue, Roxy barges into our room. How in the world does she manage to wake up so damn early, because she is already fully dressed and has her backpack hanging on one of her shoulders. I shut my eyes for another second.

"Wakey! Wakey! Sleepy heads, the sun is up and so am I, so why not get your asses up?" she orders as she pulls the comforter off of me and I groan. She then tries to push Maeve from her bed to the floor but apparently, Maeve doesn't budge. She tries pushing her again, no movement at all. I remain in my position adjusting my pillow underneath my head and watch Roxy.

"Maeve! Maeve!... Is she dead?... Oh yeah, I forgot that's how she sleeps. Kyrah, wake up already. Why do I have to endure this every single new semester? Waking you guys up is like trying to force a sloth to run. Effortless!" she walks across the room and grabs a bottle of water and when I catch on to what she's about to do, I leave the bed. She heads over to Maeve's bed and pours the entire two litre bottle of water on her. Maeve freaks out and jumps up from her bed and falls on the floor.

"Jeez! Roxy, so much for a good morning, you could have just called my name for Pete's sake," Maeve mumbles while rubbing her sleepy eyes and wiping off the water on her face.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Roxy stares at her in disbelief. "Not only did I shout your name, but I even tried pushing you off your bed, twice, with no success. So I had to pour water on you and you think I didn't make an effort of waking you up? Unbelievable. You sleep like a corpse! Get to the shower both of you, we've got some scavenging to do." She rubs her palms together as if planning on something evil.

Scavenging? Sometimes I don't get what Roxy talks about.

"What do you mean scavenging?" I ask as I get ready to go to the bathroom.

"I mean sightseeing!" she says as she lifts both her arms and stares blankly at the corner of the room as if trying to picture something and continues, "Just imagine who we might see today, new guys maybe... Scratch that! Hot, new guys, and you guys are taking this long to wake up? Lazy bones."

"Why are you all energetic this early? Are you high?" Maeve questions while still on the floor.

"No." Roxy replies, not looking at us.

Maeve and I share a look and shake our heads because the energy Roxy has is out of this world. She probably woke up at 0600hrs.

When we're finally done getting ready, we head out to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. Maeve and I do a lot of listening as Roxy talks about one topic to another and no one tries to interrupt her. When I look to my right, I spot Jim, one of the guys I got to be friends with in my first year, on the first day actually. His hair is all unruly but in a nice way and he is in black shorts and a red zip up hoodie. He is carrying his skateboard and Maeve and Roxy notice him too.

Roxy says "Cue 'heeeey! Guys'"

And Jim says the exact words that Roxy predicted seconds ago.

"Heeeey! Guys," Jim says as he gets closer, smiling at us and we laugh.

"Hey Jimbo, nice to see you're still alive, and your skateboard too," she jokes and we all share a laugh. Last year Jim almost got hit by a truck as he was on his skateboard in the middle of a highway. Talk about having crazy guts. This guy does crazy stunts, he's the kind that always picks 'Dare' in a game of Truth or Dare, even though he gets a little shy. He hugs all of us and proceeds to ask.

"Has anybody seen Tyler yet? I heard he got dumped over the holiday," he says.

"Yeah, and he didn't take it easily, so don't bring up the topic when he's here," I tell him.

Maeve points at the entrance and sure enough, Tyler is walking up the stairs towards us. He is in navy blue jeans and a grey long sleeve tshirt. I've always liked his jade eyes, especially when he rolls them, reminds me of one of my funny uncles. Tyler pauses for a minute in the middle of the stairs, arms akimbo as he starts shaking his head and I yell at him.

"What?" I yell.

"I see trouble," he yells back and we all stare at Roxy who is busy pretending that she is not even standing there. Tyler gets to our spot and hugs us ladies warmly, for Jim, he just nods his head and so does Jim.

Boys are weird.

***

As we settle in class before the professor arrives, I spot a couple of new faces and right in the middle of the class, Blake is on his chair chatting away with a blonde haired girl who apparently to me looks like some sort of human doll. Must be all the makeup on her face, I am not sure.

Blake.

Where do I begin? This guy has been my crush since I was a freshman and the saddest thing is that we have never ever spoken, not even a hey or hello. I must be so unlucky. Blake is one of the hottest and most popular guys in campus, plus he plays basketball. Just look at him right there, his lips are moving in the most dreamy way... I can't even find words to describe him. Oh and his blue eyes damn! His eyes are...

"Hey! Earth to Kyrah," Maeve brings me back from my fantasy world at the same time Roxy is waving a hand in front of my face.

"Sorry... I was just..."

"Checking Blake out, we know, he's hot, but not that hot, trust me. Speaking of hot guys, look who just popped in" Roxy stares at the front of the class and I follow her line of sight and my eyes land on Scott. Today he is in all black, from the clothes, to the shoes, to his backpack. I wave at him to come and sit next to us and both Jim and Tyler share a "who is this guy?" look.

Scott manages to get a seat right next to Maeve who is busy playing a chess game on her phone.

"Hey, I'm Scott. Kyrah's neighbour," he introduces himself to the group. Tyler and Jim nod at him and he does the same.

Boys.

"So now that we are six of us, how bout we couple up?" Roxy suggests and everyone gives a shocked look.

"What?" Scott questions.

"You heard me... I was going to..." Roxy's words trail off.

"You know what? Just ignore what she's saying for today, she's uhm... Not really herself at the moment," I fake a smile at Scott who shrugs as the professor enters and the class begins.

Few hours later the class ends and Roxy's book is empty... As always. She just practically drags herself to class and sits there, no writing, no participation in class, no nothing. As the rest of the class is heading outside, I can't help but stare at Blake. He just looks so perfect, maybe one day he'll talk to me.

Maybe.

I am snatched away from my day dream by someone's voice which I might say is very annoying to hear. I blink back into reality and infront of me is the doll-like girl, staring at me.

"Excuse me!" she rudely remarks as she pulls her blonde hair to one side and crosses her arms in front of her, batting her eyelids rapidly.

"Uhm... Can I help you?" I tilt my head to the side as I look at her. She's in tight black jeans, an orange crop top and really high heels that make me cringe at the thought of even wearing them.

"Were you just looking at Blake?" she questions rudely.

"What?! Who are you again?" I ask, frowning.

"Sabrina, and you..." she pauses and looks at me for a few seconds and continues "... Are crossing my boundaries. You see that guy you were drooling over a few minutes ago? He's mine! So stick to your lane baby girl and we will not have a problem," she growls.

Whoa!

Is she his girlfriend? Well, actually I really don't know anything about Blake but I am pretty sure he's single. So who is this Sabrina girl anyway because I already don't like her and her shitty attitude. It's not like I was making out with the guy or something, I was just looking, you know, appreciating God's creation.

"Who's that?" Roxy asks with a puzzled expression.

"Just someone you wouldn't want to mess with. Sabrina came last semester after her family moved here and from what I heard, in her former university, she was the popular babe, the rich diva, the one who called the shots, the one who..." Maeve says.

"Okay, we get it," I cut in, "So why is she being so... I don't even know how to explain it, you guys saw it,"

"I think she likes the guy but clearly, she's not dating him and would do anything to keep him by her side," Tyler finally speaks.

Roxy raises her eyebrow and shoots her question to Tyler.

"So how do you know they're not dating, or even sleeping together?"

Tyler crosses his hands infront of his chest and replies "We boys know everything,"

"What do you mean 'everything'?" Scott asks.

"Bro, us guys know every single person who is in a real or fake relationship around campus. Guys in the gents talk about it all the time, or in the locker rooms after gym and sports," he smirks and grabs his books and heads to the door.

So boys do have conversations like these, talking about girls. Who's hot, who's tall and what not. I am kind of surprised.

"So he is not dating?" the question comes out earlier than I expected it to and no one answers. Maeve tries hiding a smile and Roxy shakes her head.

During lunch break I spot Sabrina following Blake. She stops him and tries to kiss him but he pushes her away and on cue Roxy bursts out a terrible laugh, gaining the entire halls attention.

"Did you see that?" she smacks the table bending all the way down laughing hysterically. Out of breath she starts coughing and everyone looks at her.

"What? Can't a girl have a good laugh for once?"

Few seconds later, trouble is walking straight to us like a time bomb waiting to explode. Sabrina looks so livid as she marches to us and tries to slap Roxy who is lucky enough to dodge.

"What the hell, woman!?" Roxy fires, standing up to face Sabrina.

"You and your little group of friends better watch out because I will be keeping an eye on you..." Sabrina threatens, her forefinger pointing at Roxy.

"Ladies please, let's not make a scene, just relax Sabrina or whatever-your-name-is, and we'll be on our way out," Scott informs her. She looks at him from head to toe and smirks and suddenly her tone changes from raged up to soothing. Walking over to Scott she touches his shoulder and winks at him.

"Hey big boy, and what's your name? I haven't seen you around before," she licks her lips.

The look on her face makes me cringe. Is she flirting with Scott?

"I think I've seen enough of her for the day," Maeve excuses herself and walks away.

"Stone... Scott Stone" he sounds bored already and she begins moving her hand all over his biceps.

"I see why you're called Stone. Do you want to hang out some time?" she asks, lust vivid in her eyes.

"No he doesn't!" I blurt out and she ignores me.

"We could be really good friends, I can show you around, you know, there is more to life than just sitting around with a group full of dummies you barely know," she smirks at Scott.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! You did not just call us dummies," Roxy moves closer to her balling her fists and Sabrina mockingly looks at her from head to toe, I guess it's something she does alot.

"Here we go, I told you in the morning that I saw trouble, I'm out... Jim let's go," Tyler says. The he and Jim disappear. I notice that all eyes are on us and I can't help but pull Roxy away from trouble. She's enraged and doesn't want to take her eyes off Sabrina. Scott and I step in between them and forcefully drag Roxy away as she is hurling insults at Sabrina.

"You haven't seen the last of me you filthy bitch! Grow some balls and maybe get your face re-created, you're an ugly piece of shit! I'm not afraid of you, you're just a toothless hyena. Punch me, come on!" Roxy fires at Sabrina and the entire hall falls dead silent and as we disappear everyone laughs and I can hear Sabrina cursing at them, telling them to shut up.

"Toothless hyena. Now that, was hilarious," Scott chuckles.

"Not bad Roxy, not bad at all," I comment as I cross my arms in front of me and stand beside Roxy in the elevator, Scott on my left.

"Guess my first day isn't that bad," he shakes his head and chuckles again. "You know what, I actually thought Roxy was going to grab Sabrina's hair and things would end up like a WWE heavy weight championship match."

We all laugh for a couple of minutes and just as the door opens, Blake walks in.

Fuck! No! Not now.

Can this day get any worse?

Roxy moves to the farthest corner and Scott senses and moves next to her, Blake stands next to me on my right. Oh my God, if I don't end up collapsing, I will either grab him and kiss him or run away or have an asthma attack.

The first and last part it is.

I feel like the entire space is congested and suddenly I can't breathe. I try as much as I can to stand straight but the dizziness weighs over me and seconds later, I am on the floor.

So much for a first day at school huh?

Everything gets blurry and the shadows of Scott, Blake and Roxy turn into black.

***

"Miss Kyrah? Kyrah Bailey."

I hear a female voice calling out to me. I open my eyes and stare at my surroundings.

"Where am I?" is all that comes out of my mouth.

"You're at the school clinic, you had an attack a while ago and fainted. I'm doctor Jenny. Your friends are waiting outside, I'll let them know you're awake." she sweetly smiles and leaves the room.

Blake walks in first, looking worried. Why is he worried? I start to panic and I swear I can hear my heart beating so loud.

"Hey... Kyrah are you okay?" he searches my face which I believe clearly displays nothing else but shock.

"How do you know my name?" I completely ignore his question.

"We shared our first class as freshmen, I knew you then but we've never really talked,"

"I know... Oh, I'm feeling better now," I say.

Roxy takes position in front of Blake.

"Great, so now I can scold you. Where the hell did you leave your inhaler and why? Do you know how insane I felt watching you struggle for air in that elevator? I searched your bag and your inhaler wasn't there. Lucky for you Blake carried you here. Always carry your inhaler babe," she releases a deep breath and covers her face with both hands.

Wait what? I was in Blake's arms? I want to scream but I can't.

"I'm sorry guys, I just... It's been months since I had an asthma attack," my apology doesn't make Roxy smile, instead she frowns.

"So that made you think it wasn't going to happen? Next time you forget your inhaler, I will kill you,"

Scott gives me an apologetic look and guides Roxy out of the room as he says, "We'll be outside." And I nod.

"I love you sis!" Roxy shouts from outside.

Blake!

Shit!

He stares at me for a moment and sits on the bed.

"You heard your friend, don't forget your inhaler okay?" he smiles.

God, he looks so delicious! His straight jaw, his blue eyes, his hair... Oh his hair...

"Okay, thanks for carrying... I mean, bringing me here," I whisper.

"No problem. Can I... Have your number?"

Oh my freaking goodness!!

Where's my voice? I can't seem to find words to say so I stare back at him in disbelief.

"Uhm... If it's okay with you that is," he adds.

My subconcious reminds me of Sabrina's words 'he's mine!', but I push them away.

"Sure thing."

I give him my number and he walks out.

The excitement I feel is unexplainable. Scott and Roxy find me smacking the bed multiple times in a row with a huge grin on my face.

"Did he kiss you?" Roxy asks and we both laugh, Scott rolls his eyes.

"No," I swat Roxy's arm, "He asked for my number though."

Eek! I jump out of bed and do a silly dance with Roxy, Scott stands there amused.

"Okay ladies, since we missed our afternoon class, who wants to get icecream?"

"As long as you're paying, let's go" I say while grabbing my bag and we leave.