Scholars | c.s

4

"Are you sure this is the right room Fliss?"
"You said Cole and Khayla didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Then yeah, I'm sure."

Right, first party of Cambridge because last night definitely didn't count, and I know it's not technically a party but they still kind of implied that it was one. Maybe I'm not meant to call a party a party? I'm just not used to these type of things at all.

"Um, Val are you going to knock or what?" Fliss asks the sensible question interrupting my thoughts.
"Okay. Hold on."
She pushes past me and begins hammering on the door.

After impatiently tapping my foot for about a minute the door finally opens releasing a boom of pop music and the smell of strong alcoholic beverages mixed with the overwhelming smell of pizza. Smells like Teen Spirit.

"Fliss?" Cole asks opening the door with an expression of confusion along with amusement.
"Nice to see you too." Fliss sniggers.
"You didn't tell anyone you were coming ba-"
"No time for the heartfelt reunion Colegate, I came for jelly shots." She interrupts barging past.

"Welcome back." He smiles moving to the side of the door frame and allowing her in, I go to follow behind her when Cole put his foot in front of me blocking my access.
"What are you doing?" He looks at me as if he's genuinely puzzled.

Sorry what?

Let's just rewind and make sure I wasn't going crazy. They did invite me right? He definitely did... and then continued to mock me for eating crumpets.

I'm not going crazy.

This is exactly why I never leave my house, awkward situations like this could be easily avoided by just avoiding human contact as a whole.

I feel my cheeks burning as I stutter out, "Um, you invited me.. Earlier. At Breakfast?" I mentally urge him to remember and spare me from any further embarrassment.

"I did? Hold on." He says pausing for thought. "Ohh. Yeah. Crumpets right? Ew." He says moving to the side finally allowing me in and taking a drink from his beer bottle. Well that was weird.

I walk further into their dorm which feels significantly bigger than ours; they were currently accommodating at least 15 of us- pretty much the whole corridor and there was still some room to breath.

Khayla jumps up as she spots me walk in and she leaves her conversation to greet me with a smile. "Hey, you came! Val right?" 
I simply nod and smile.
"Here, let me get you a drink?" she offers steering me towards their bathroom where I find a a bathtub full of all sorts of drinks and alcohol. They're planning to go hardcore tonight.

"Cole didn't give you a hard time at the door did he? He insists on acting as if he's our own personal bodyguard. Tryna protect our dorm with nothing but an ego and muscles. It's quite sad." she says snorting with laughter. If only she knew the half of it. I rifle through the tub, digging for a can of coke and follow her back to the main hubbub of people.

"Boring." Khayla remarks looking down at my choice of drink. "Anyway, as my duty as hostess demands, unfortunately I've got to love you and leave you but there's a lot of people here, it's a great chance for you to mix and get to know everyone."

It seems like all I've been made to do since I got here was mix and socialise. My mum told me I'd find my 'people' at university and I'm starting to wonder where the hell they're hiding.

I look around and find Fliss sitting closely next to that same girl from breakfast. I send her a strained facial expression and she apologises to the girl who looks a little pissed when she sees Fliss standing up and approaching me.