Let It Burn

Chapter 1

Vanessa

"Mum I'm going to be fine" I roll my eyes at my mothers constant nagging, head phones in, huge box in  one hand and dragging along my suitcase with the other as I look for my room in the overcrowded dormitory corridors "You have moved across the globe, Vanessa, to a place you have never been before. I cannot simply just drive there to see you anymore" my mother sighs. Leaving London to do forensic psychology in UCLA, I have worked my ass off to achieve this. From getting the right grades to acquiring a scholarship; I have spent years of my life trying to get here "I know how you feel about this distance, but this has been my life's dream. I deserve to be here, mum, this is where I need to be and you have to understand that" I say finally finding my door number '107B', I unlock the door

"And what about Jonathan?"

"Mum Jonathan and I have been broken up for three months now, he made it pretty clear that it was either him or my future. I will never pick a man over that"

I push the door open to reveal a red head with super bouncy hair adjusting her tank top, she turns to look at me pinning me in place with her striking green eyes. I smile at her and hers is as friendly as I have ever seen clashing with the rest of the sharpness on her face "Hey" she says walking over to me and pulling me in an unsolicited hug "hi" I reply hugging her back

"Listen, uh mum, I'll talk to later"

"Okay sweetie, I love you"

"I love you too"

I hang up the phone turning my attention to the girl in front of me "I am Scarlett, you just be Vanessa" Scarlett introduces herself and I nod "yeah, that's me. Nice to meet you" I reply "you are gorgeous by the way though I did expect you to be a brunette, is your hair natural?" She asks, I look at my icy blonde hair "yeah actually. Everyone said I would just grow out of it but I never did" I reply "that's awesome, listen I have to go but I really want to get to know you better. There's a welcome party later on, my older brother used to come here and he said they throw this every year. Would you like to come with me?" Scarlett asks "yes, absolutely. I could use a drink" I chuckle and she smiles "awesome, I'll be back later. Bye Nessa"

And she's out the door before I can even reply, I laugh to myself at this really weird fucking interaction but honestly happy to be here. I take this time to look around the room, beds on either sides of the room, two dressers, two tables, two wardrobes and a bathroom with a sink and a toilet. Fuck sake the showers are communal, I visibly cringe at the thought of having to share the showers with every single girl in this place. Scarlett has picked the bed on the right leaving the one directly under the window to me, I walk over and look out of the window. The second floor view is pretty good, overlooking the carpark and the huge steps where most students sit down for lunch, on the far end across the road there's a park with a lake also crowded with students with UCLA shirts branding us from the rest of the world.

My eyes freeze on a man sitting on his motorbike, clad in all black, leather jacket glistening on the sun and even though he's wearing a helmet I swear it's like he is staring right at me. An unsettling feeling rises in my chest, is he really staring at me?

What the fuck

My phone rings loudly scaring the shit out of me, I jump for my phone and turn back around to look out of the window as I answer the phone "hello?"

But he's gone as if he never even existed

"Hey it's Jonathan, I saw you posting that you've arrived?"

I sigh in relief closing my eyes for a split second, what the hell was I expecting? The creepy biker to be breathing on the other side of the call

"Hey Jonathan, yeah, I was just getting settled"

"How are you feeling?"

"Great actually, it's exactly what I had imagined so far"

"That's uh, that's great. I'm happy for you" Jonathan lies so obviously that I'm surprised he even tried

"I had to do this for myself Jonathan"

"That I do know"

I sigh

"It's not that I stopped having feelings for you, you were always so perfect to me. It's just not-"

"- I'm just not as important as UCLA"

"I'm sorry"

"Yeah me too, I'm glad you're good"

Jonathan hangs up before I can't say anything else, I put my phone down shaking my head. Jonathan and I dated for three years before breaking up three months ago over this same situation, I made it very clear that this was always my end goal but he convinced himself that he was more important to me than my ultimate dream and I just couldn't give that up so easily. Jonathan and I were perfect together, I think there must've been only five fights in our whole relationship. And in all honestly it was feeling quite bored, everything was just so constant and the same shit over and over again. It was nice but there just wasn't any spark between us. I shake my head not wanting to dive into that again, so I just dive headfirst into unpacking all of my things trying to get as much done before Scarlett returns

By the time she walks into the room, a small curly hair girl with beautiful dark skin hanging off her arm, I am done "Nessa, this is Zola. She is also a freshman. I have known her since we were fourteen" Scarlett says and I smile at Zola who's practically shrank into Scarlett out of sheer shyness "nice to meet you Zola, are you coming to the party as well tonight?" I ask offering a hand, Zola takes my hand in hers with a smile "I don't see that I have another choice" she chuckles "so what exactly is the dress code for frat parties? England has a completely different style" I say, Scarlett gives me a smile one can only describe as mischievous "May I look through your things?" She asks and I laugh but motion towards my side of the room

I separate my toiletries, sliders and an oversized shirt and shorts to wear back from the communal showers at the end of the hall while Scarlett insisted on choosing something for me to wear. The showers are better than I had anticipated, larger and definitely cleaner. I have a quick shower and rush back to my dorm to get dressed, the girls are already ready in their mini dresses and heels just waiting for me now

I put in the black body-con dress Scarlett picked out for me, tie my straight hair in an half up half down with a small bow at the back and my curtain bangs falling nicely around my face, I settle for simple makeup; cat eye making my Sapphire blue eyes pop, no base because I love my freckled cheeks and darkish red lipstick. Scarlett watches me excitedly the entire time, when I'm done I give her a curtsy and she laughs. We get an Uber to the party

Scarlett doesn't waste a single second, the moment the Uber parks she's dragging both me and Zola out of the car and right into the loud ass party filled with drunk students dancing, laughing and kissing up against any surface they can. Scarlett finds us the drinks table and makes a poisonous mix of several different liquors, I raise an eyebrow at her "I call it the Death Mix. One of these will get you nice and buzzed. Zola doesn't drink, she is the mother hen, she will not let you go off and fuck and ugly guy in the bathroom" Scarlett explains before taking a deep breath and chugging down the Death Mix, I shrug and follow suit. The mix burning all the way down my throat and into my stomach making me gag and genuinely have to purse my lips so I don't throw up. I shudder "I hate that, it's disgusting" I cringe "but you'll be drunk a lot faster" she winks at me, Zola laughs at us

Once again Scarlett has a grip on both Zola and I before dragging us deeper into the crowd to dance, that's exactly what we do

We drink, we dance until we physically cannot handle it anymore and laugh until we're holding out stomachs

We stumble out of the party with the rest of the drunk students and in the distance I see him again

That same man clad in all black, facing me sitting on top of that black massive fucking ass motorbike. I frown looking in his direction, my heart hammering in my chest, sight hazy from all the alcohol I drank and that feeling settling in my gut once again

Who are you?