Core Four Short Stories

Arin meets Luke

Serenity stood in her mirror, making sure she looked okay. Arin sat in their bed, working on some homework. Serenity turned and grabbed her purse that was handing on a hook on the door.

"Alright, I'm headed out to meet Ferbie at the mall. Are you sure you don't want to come?" Serenity asked. She sat on her bed to pull on her shoes.

"Nah, I have some work I need to catch up on." Arin smiled at Serenity before looking at their work again. They bit their lip and looked up. "Actually, if you could grab me a tea from Tim's that would be great. I should have some cash in my wallet." Arin pointed to their bag.

Serenity walked to the bag and pulled out Arin's wallet. She opened the wallet and furrowed her eyebrows. There were more 50 dollar bills than 20s. Serenity counted maybe 400 dollars in just the 50s. Holy shit Arin. Serenity thought, taking the only five in the wallet.

She stood up and tossed the wallet to Arin, who caught it. "You might want to go to the bank soon. Holy shit." Serenity chuckled. "You have to get me whatever part time job you have."

Arin blushed at their stupid mistake. They chuckled nervously and nodded. "I'll see what I can do. It's mostly, uh, tips." They lied and looked back down at their work.

A knock at their door interrupted Serenity as she went to say something. She stepped towards the door and opened it. Standing in the door was one of Serenity's classmates, Luke. Arin looked up and began to blush even brighter than before. Luke's shining brown hair flowed and Arin could have sworn it was waving with wind. How's that even possible? They asked themself. They turned their eye just as Luke glanced at them. Arin placed their hand on their face to try and cool their cheek. Luke smirked and glanced back to Serenity.

"Oh! Hey Luke. What’re you doing here?" Serenity leaned on the door.

"Remember those notes you were supposed to give back to me yesterday?" Luke chuckled. Arin bit their lip and gripped their textbook at the sound of Luke's light laugh.

"Fuck! I knew I forgot something!" Serenity jumped and shuffled to her bag. She glanced at Arin for a split second before doing a double take and noticing Arin's red face. She furrowed her eyebrows and took note of Arin's expression. Not to mention, the way they kept stealing glances at Luke. Serenity smirked and glanced at Luke. "By the way, this is my roommate, Arin. Arin, that's Luke." Serenity introduced the two and continued to look through her bag, with an extreme decrease in speed.

Arin glared at Serenity before looking back at Luke. "Hi." They mumbled out with a weak wave.

Luke grinned and waved back. "Hey." He nodded his head slightly. "Nice eye patch."

"Oh!" Arin had to think about which eye patch they had put on this morning. It was the navy blue one with an embroidered white A. "Thank you. It was a gift from my dad." Arin nervously clenched their shirt in their hands.

Serenity rolled her eyes and pulled out the notebook Luke was talking about. She walked back and handed him the book. "Sorry about not returning them. Won't happen again." Serenity leaned on the door.

"I'm sure it won't." Luke said sarcastically. "See ya." He looked at Arin again. "Hope I see you around." He bit his lip and started walking down the hall.

Serenity closed the door and looked to Arin. She raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Two things. One, nice flirting. Two, He totally digs you!" She giggled.

Arin blushed again and looked down into their work again. "Shut up and no he doesn't."

Serenity laughed. She jumped onto Arin's bed. "He does! And you like him too!" Serenity gasped, "Let me set you up! Oh my gosh you two would be so cute!" Serenity started shaking Arin back and forth.

Arin rolled their eye and pushed Serenity off of them. "No! You don't even know if he likes me. You're guessing." Arin stood up from their bed and walked to their snack drawer.

Serenity sighed. "Fine. But if he does like you, would you go out with him?" She stood up and grabbed her purse again.

Arin bit their lip and gripped the chip bag they were holding. They thought about how a date with Luke might go. He could take my hand and when he notices I'm cold he could give me his jacket. At the end of the night, he could stroke my cheek gently before kissing me. Arin took a relaxing breath. I've never really thought about a relationship before. What would be the harm? "If he was interested. Maybe. I don't know." Arin got back into their bed and opened the chips, munching grumpily.

Serenity bit her lip and nodded. "Awesome. Okay I'm late again so I'll see you later." Serenity left the dorm.
Serenity ran down the hall. She turned the corner for the elevator and sighed in relief when she saw Luke walking into an elevator. Serenity quickly shuffled in and tried to catch her breath.

"Hey Serenity. What are you doing?" Luke questioned pushing the ground floor button.

"Luke," Serenity stood up straight again and smiled brightly. "What do you think of Arin?" 

***

A few days later, Arin walked across campus after their last class of the day. They looked down at their phone, trying to catch a wild Squirtle that popped up on Pokémon Go.

"Arin!" A masculine voice called out, catching Arin's attention.

Arin glanced around before seeing Luke, jogging towards them and waving his arm. Arin widened their eye and blushed lightly. They quickly shoved their phone into their pocket and adjusted their plain black eyepatch.

"Arin, hey!" Luke greeted as he got closer. He stopped in front of Arin and smiled, breathing deeply.

"Hey. What's up?" Arin crossed their arms instinctively.

"I was uh," Luke scratched the back of his head and chuckled nervously. "I was wondering if you would want to maybe go to dinner this Thursday?"

"Oh!" Arin couldn't contain the large smile that appeared on their face. "Hell yeah!" They mentally slapped themself in the face. "I mean uh, yes. Thursday? Yes, I would want to do that." Arin took Luke's arm, pausing for a moment at his surprisingly soft skin. They pulled out a pen from their back pocket and wrote their cellphone number on the inside of Luke's arm.