Like the Red Rose blooms in the Oxford Garden

Chapter 5: No proof, one touch. But you felt enough

"How is it already time for exams?" Marlee groaned and rolled over on her bed holding a laptop in the air. "We literally just got here!"

"You know the Michaelmas always goes quickly." Ariana rolled her eyes at her from her desk where she was working on something on her tablet.

"You are the one to speak," Marlee shot her back. Nina was sitting on her own bed reading a book that she had found in the library and observing the girls on the side. "You barely even have exams."

"If by not having exams you mean that I don't need to go sit in the auditorium for three hours to answer questions, then you'd be right," Ariana continued, "But I have like ten different projects I need to complete, so you can call that an exam week. I still need to talk to Oliver about the collab assignment."

"Why are you even working with Oliver? You two never agree on anything."

"He is still our friend. Easier to work with." Ariana just shrugged. During these past few months, Nina had been able to observe Gastón's friend group —that she was part of now too— and the dynamic was very interesting. There was no inter-group dating or even interest in it, which was rare in co-ed friend groups. Marlee had told her that she and Jacob had grown up together and everyone had expected them to start dating when they hit the high school years, but then neither of them ended up being straight, and the rest was history. Ariana and Oliver bickered from time to time when it came to their different point of views, but there was never even a hint of a spark or something like that between them. Then there was herself and Gastón... Nina didn't really know what that was ...they were friends and no one else even knew that they had history,

"How did we end up being friends with a bunch of guys?" Marlee slammed her laptop shut.

"I don't know," Ariana rolled her eyes. "At least we're not outnumbered two to one anymore. Right?"

"What?" Nina saw from the corner of her eye that Ariana had turned her head towards her.

"How do you like our guys?"

"They are nice." Nina tried to say nonchalantly. It was true, James, Oliver and Jacob were nice. Gastón on the other hand... well, there were a million different ways she could describe him.

"They are harmless, but idiots." Marlee laughed. "No wonder they still don't have girlfriends."

"Uhm, about that," what Marlee had said had reminded her of something Nina had been wondering about for a while but always forgot to ask. "When I met everyone, you said something about everyone not needing to be single... I honestly didn't get that."

"Oh, that's just a joke we have with Gastón." Ariana laughed. "He hates it."

"But what did it mean?"

"It is only about how James, Oliver and Jacob try to fix him up with dates, but he is having none of it."

"Why?" Nina blurted out without thinking.

"Why are you so curious?" Marlee asked her with a suspicious tone, "Are you interested in Gastón?"

"No," Nina said quickly before her face could give anything away. "I was just asking because I want to get the full picture."

"You sure?" Ariana joined in, "Because you two do seem to talk a lot. You get along super well, at least it looks like it."

That was true, they did. They hang out in a group a lot, but Gastón always seemed to make an extra effort to speak to her. He was always asking if she needed help with something or knew where everything was. Nina often caught him up on everything that had happened in Buenos Aires during the past year and sometimes they even ended up gossiping about Luna and Matteo. Talking to him was so natural and she had missed him so much. More they talked and spent time together, more she just realized how much he meant to her... Almost like nothing had had ever happened and her feelings for him were as deep as ever.