Home to souls

Chapter 1

Aria was known for the parties she hosted. The music blaring until 4am, plastic cup filled to the brim with an unknown alcoholic concoction, that same alcoholic concoction spilled on the floor, it was all part of the life she was allowed to live for the next two years or so. And if anyone had the nerve to say any different, well, she'll worry about them then. Standing on the top floor of her mansion she surveyed the scene below her-it was chaos, but chaos to Aria was beautiful. Skipping down the staircase, Aria broke into singsong, "Liiiizzzzzzaaaa, wherrrrre are youuuu girllll?"

Liza was waiting for her mildly intoxicated, yet jubilant friend, at the bottom of the staircase. Liza knew better than to let Aria run wild with these parties, but there was no way of stopping Aria. When Aria wanted to host a party, that could potentially end in the fire services having to be called, Aria hosted a party. After all, it was Aria's place so who was she to interfere, but that doesn't mean she couldn't help act as a buffer if anything were to happen. "You seem overly happy, tell me again what's in this drink", Liza held out her plastic cup with a greyish liquid in it towards her friend.  Aria's face beamed with joy, "It's a secret. Are you going to drink that?" They both knew Liza didn't drink, but had the alcohol in her hand more for show than anything else. "No, and neither are you," Liza stated before walking towards the living room which had been transformed into a dancefloor.  Aria followed, bopping her head to the bang of the music. The music was the loudest here, but that wasn't what annoyed Liza the most- what annoyed Liza the most was the mass of people crowded in this one room rubbing who knows what against each other. However, if you were like Aria, you knew the best part about parties was letting your body get lost in the music. A slow grin met Aria's face as   she grabbed Liza's hand and pulled her to the dance floor, "Dance with me, mi amigo."

The girls swayed to the music for an hour before  a pair of muscular arms wrapped around Aria's waist, and a light peck met Aria's cheeks, causing Aria to break out into a grin. "Jaxon!" Liza squealed and moved to give  him a quick hug, "We've missed you! You haven't come around here for ages." Jaxon gave her his usual carefree smile, causing his dimples to appear, "Awwwwwww, has little Lizzy missed me," he said  while trying to pinch her cheeks "I hope you're not falling for me too, I know I'm too hot to handle but you girls need to learn to keep your hands of this," as expected, this comment earned him a slap to the  chest from Aria, and an eye roll from Liza, causing him to break out into a  full-fledged grin. "Anyways, I'm going to leave you two love birds alone. I need to find Val,  have you guys seen her?" It was Liza's turn to grin now, as she watched their cheeks transform to the colour of beetroot at the mention of the term 'love birds'. She chose not to mention anything else about the couple's relationship and turned to leave, taking the couple's silence as a reply to her question.

After deciding she'd done enough 'socialising' for the day, Liza headed to the kitchen to get her stash of cookies. She wasn't a party girl at all, but Aria and the girls were exactly that, so who was she to stop them from having a little fun. The  black marbled kitchen was extravagant for a group of girls who didn't even know how to cook, but the shiny cupboards proved extremely helpful when you needed to lock away triple chocolate chip cookies from thieving party-goers. This part of the night had to be properly executed; unlock cupboard, snatch cookies,  lock cupboard quickly, look around to make sure no one noticed.  After mentally congratulating herself on her victory with the cookies,she walked up the staircase and into her bedroom, where she locked herself inside and collapsed on the bed.

Her best friend might have been her complete opposite when it came to socialising, but Aria was kind-hearted and generous. They had met last year when both the girls had entered the university to study Biology, and had clicked straight away. At 5ft 2", Aria was like a minuscule jumping jack, filled with energy and ready to burst. Her red curly hair and curvy figure had all the boys drooling, but Aria never seemed to notice. She only cared for those close to her, and somehow, Liza had ended up in that circle.

She bit into a cookie while humming to the tune of the music from downstairs. She hoped Aria and Jaxon had a great time tonight. Aria had introduced him as a family friend, but it was obvious that they were more than just 'friends', yet neither of them seemed to be in a hurry to make things official. Liza thought they were perfect for each other though, and as slow as the relationship seemed to be progressing, she was beyond ecstatic for her friend.

Aria had moved into this house last year, and when the girls were looking for an apartment, she had insisted that they move in with her since she had seven bedrooms spare. So, at the beginning of September, Liza, Georgia, Val and Kate had moved in. Liza had got the bedroom opposite Aria's and to the left of Georgia's, whilst Val and Kate had taken the room on the next floor up. Many would think having five hormonal teenage girls in the same house to be a bad idea, but the girls had gelled together perfectly from the beginning and were more like sisters than friends.

The 6am alarm was brutal.To anyone else the tune of birds singing for Liza to wake up may have sounded poetic, but to Liza the tune only signalled the start of another damn day. "Stupid alarm"she groaned as she got up and stretched. Unlike her roommates, she didn't possess the ability to sleep through an alarm, and the thought of being late to class made her sick. After a quick shower in her en-suite bathroom, she walked out of her bedroom to assess the situation. "Music's stopped. Well, that's always a good sign. Now I just have to wake up the others," she sent a quick prayer to all the Gods, to give her the strength to deal with four hangover girls, and began her day.

Waking up the girls had taken an hour, and the worst part was none of them were even done yet for breakfast. "If they've gone back to bed,I swear I'm gonna kill'em," Liza grumbled as she tried to make pancakes. Everyone knew she was a bad cook, so much so that the girls had banned her from cooking, but that didn't stop her. "You're cooking again" Georgia groaned, "why does the world hate me?" "Hey, I'm trying to help you guys out by making you breakfast!" Liza defended herself. Georgia buried her hands in her blonde hair as she yawned, "move, I'm making breakfast." Liza huffed before moving to put out plates on the counter.

Soon all the girls were wondering around the kitchen eating, tweeting and moaning about their hangovers. "I'm never drinking again," this was exactly what Val said every time she had a hangover. The girls did have classes today, but none of them were in a rush to go anywhere. Liza was sitting at the counter listening to music whilst going over her timetable for today-one lecture, and one laboratory session. Today wasn't too bad, she would probably go to the library after lesson to pick up a few books and head straight back home-the girls would have to do a major clean up session tonight.

"Was Jaxon here last night?" Kate couldn't help herself anymore, she wanted to know the details, and she wanted to know now. Realising it was time to tease Aria on her relationship, Liza pulled out her headphones as she responded, "Yeah he was. Did he stay the night?" Aria huffed in annoyance, "Of course not, why would he stay the night?" Aria had her head buried in her arms. Teasing Aria at this point in time when her head was killing her would've not been the best thing to do, but the girls didn't care-as her friends they felt obliged to annoy her at times like this. "I dunno, why would he stay? Maybe he'd stay to help with that headache? Maybe he'd stay to have breakfast with us? Or, maybe, he'd stay to explore your bedroom? You take your pick," Val's comments weren't helping Aria at all. "Shut up," Aria mumbled as she got of her chair, "I'm going to bed, I don't feel very well." "That'll be the drinks," Liza smugly gathered her belongings, as the girls groaned at the mention of the drinks from yesterday.