you can hear it in the silence

chapter sixteen

Adare ༉‧₊˚✧.*

After we finish our food at the dining hall, I get up to leave and Wes starts to follow me.

"Why are you following me?" I say back flatly.

He scrunches his face looking unfazed at my comment.

"If you weren't so conceded Wellsy, you would know that my dorm is on the way to yours. I have to go this way."

We continue making our way down the walkway when I take my backpack off of one shoulder to reach around to my zipper to put my portable charger up.

Before I can even realize what is happening, suddenly there's a large arm on the upper part of my body which makes me stumble back a little.

I turn my head back and as soon as I do I see a bike zoom past me, literally an inch away from where I was.

My eyes are wide as I realize that I would have been under that bike if it wasn't for Wes stopping me.

I look up at Wes with a shocked face, who is staring right at me already.

He still has his arm holding me back when he says, "not so mad I followed you now, huh?" He says cockily.

I would roll my eyes or snap something back if I wasn't still thinking about how close that bike was to running me over.

He slowly take this hand off of me and then a minute of so later, we're at the front of his dorm.

As I'm walking over to my dorm, I pull my airpods out and listen to some music.

Folklore, of course.

I'm silently listening to Taylor Swift and stepping on the fallen leaves, gosh I love autumn.

"Hey, Adare?" Someone forms as a question.

I turn my head as I pull out one of my airpods as see Jordan, the kid from one of my classes.

I give him a soft smile. "Hey.." I drift off.

"You're at Briar Hall right?" He asks.

"Oh yeah I'm.." I start, but he cuts me off.
"Hey so, um, I was wondering," he starts.

"One of my friends is having a little gathering this Friday and I was wondering if you maybe wanted to join?"

"Oh I don't really do, um," I drift off, trying to think of what to say.

He pipes up quickly. "It's gonna be really chill, I promise, just a couple of us."

"Oh," I awkwardly laugh while moving my hand to the back of my neck.

"Come on it'll be fun!" He persists. "I'll pick up up at eight okay?"

"Oh, I um," I drift off.

I do not want to go.

"See you then Adare," he says as he turns to walk off.

What just happened?

I turn around, with a very visible confused look on my face.

As I'm walking back to my dorm, replaying that very odd interaction I had with Jordan, I try and figure out if I just agreed to hang out with him?

I really didn't get a choice in the matter.

Actually, it all happened so fast I don't even know what I even said.

I walk into the hall of my dorm and suddenly get pulled away from my thoughts when I see a girl holding a plate of cookies walking up to me.

She gives a soft smile, which I reciprocate, before she starts talking.

"Hey, I'm Ameeriah!" She says softly.
"I'm Adare," I say back with a smile.

She looks down at the plate in her hands and then says, "I know this is so completely and totally weird but I made these cookies for my roommate because we didn't get off on the right foot so I wanted to make her something as a peace offering but turns out that girl doesn't have a good foot and is just a total bitch to me," she says quickly before closing her eyes momentarily and sighing before continuing.

"Anyways, these cookies are gonna go to waste so I was gonna see if you wanted them."

I smile.

"Yeah I'd love them," I emphasize.

"Oh perfect," she says while handing me the plate of cookies.

"I've been meaning to come introduce myself because your the dorm right next to ours but I've been a little busy trying to get my roommate to not hate me but I think that ship has sailed," she says.

I just laugh and she start talking about our classes and the professors we have when we find out we have the same Oceanography class.

"Wait really?" She asks excitedly.
"Yeah, who'd you get paired up with for the Comms project?"

I roll my eyes in response and take in a breathe.
"This guy named Wes."

"Oh shit, not good?" She laughs.
"Literally insufferable."

We laugh talk about her partner for the project and she got a nice girl.

Lucky.

"Oh wait! Now that I'm thinking of it, where you in class yesterday? I had to miss it and didn't get a chance to ask someone for notes yet."

"Oh yeah, they're in my dorm. You can come in," I say while starting to turn to unlock my door.

I give her the notes and she ended up staying over for like three hours.

We talked about everything and our shared anxieties of starting college.

Whenever she finally got up to leave she said, "it was so nice meeting you! We definitely need to plan to go do something once these beginning exams are over!"

"Yeah for sure!" I smile.

And for the first time in a really long time, I actually am looking forward to hanging out with someone.

༉‧₊˚✧.*
thanks for reading!
ameeriah's introduction ahh i love her sm