Love Bites

Chapter One

When Vivian went off to college, her parents only gave her three rules to follow.

"Call us if you need anything." Fair enough, it could be hard to get a job in her first year of college, and her parents definitely had the money to help her out if need be.

Number two, "Whatever happens, we'll always be there for you." As cheesy as it sounded, Vivian appreciated that their love was unconditional, and she knew that she could always return home if things got too hectic at Aventa's Academy of the Arts. After all, home was only an hour away.

And three, "Whatever you do, don't fraternize with the Lavernes." She thought the third rule was a bit ridiculous, but she understood where her parents were coming from. The siblings of the Laverne family had a habit of getting into trouble, whether they threw a big house party when their parents weren't home, or if they snuck into a swimming pool at midnight. Rumours said they tried to rob a bank once, but Vivian figured that it probably wasn't true.

And, of course, the fact that they were a family of vampires didn't help their case either. Sure, there were several laws in place that barred vampires from feeding on humans, and severe punishments if they broke those laws, but there were still a large group of people who were anti-vampire. Vivian's parents were part of that group, and they were vocal about it. When she told them that she wanted to go to Aventa Academy which was well-known for supporting vampires, it had taken a lot of convincing for them to let her go. But only on the condition that she'd message them every night, and that she was always welcome to head back home if she felt uncomfortable.

Her parents had also reminded her to message them as soon as she arrived at her apartment so that they knew that she was alright. So as soon as Vivian unlocked her apartment door and put her bags down, she crashed on the couch and pulled out her phone from her pocket.

I arrived! Dead tired from carrying my luggage, but I'll live :D, she wrote to her family group chat. Her older sister replied instantly with a thumbs up emoji, but her brother and parents hadn't seen the message yet.

She was about to open Instagram when her phone started ringing--almost dropping it flat on her face in shock. Vivian squinted at the screen to see who was calling her, and when she saw the series of smiley emojis on her screen she picked up the call.

"Hey Jade, what's up?" Jade had been her best friend throughout high school, through thick and thin--and they went through their embarrassing One Direction phase together, so they were basically inseparable.

"I miss you," she sang, and Vivian rolled her eyes.

"We've literally been apart for a few hours. And you're coming here soon anyways!"

Vivian could practically hear the pout in Jade's voice as she spoke. "Yeah but still. We'll be seeing each other a lot less than we did in high school, especially since we have different majors. We should go out sometime before school starts, otherwise we might not have the time."

She nodded, even though Jade couldn't see her. "I agree. When you get here tomorrow I can help you unpack, and then we can go to a cafe I saw on the way here, I think it was called AJ's? It looked cute, we should go there."

"Sounds like a plan!"

They spent a while talking before Jade had to leave--more packing to do, Vivian guessed--and so she spent a few more minutes scrolling through social media. There wasn't much to see except for people moving into their apartments or college dorms, and she got bored of that quickly. Vivian didn't have anything scheduled for the next day since she mostly wanted to rest and unpack her things, and eventually visit the campus she'd be studying at. But she was too tired to start unpacking anything so she stood up, stretched, and decided to check out the rest of the apartment.

There had been several residential options--and she wouldn't have minded taking the smaller studio apartments--, but her parents were insistent that she should have an apartment so that she'd have more space to herself. She figured "Why not?", and settled for a larger apartment. At least she'd have a roommate to keep her company this way.

The apartment was still relatively small, but it was a lot bigger than the studio apartment she could've had. A couch sat in front of the small television, the kitchen was equipped with a microwave and oven, and there was a tiny hallway that led to the bathroom and two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms was bigger than the other, so she brought her bags to that room first; the advantage of getting to her apartment before her roommate.

Vivian went back to the kitchen to figure out how everything worked--the kitchen appliances looked to be older models than the ones she had at home, and she wanted to work out how they worked now so that she wouldn't have to deal with it later. She was tinkering with the microwave when she heard the front door open. Must be my roommate, she thought to herself.

She'd spent a lot of time thinking about what her roommate would be like, since the school hadn't revealed anything about her except for her gender--female. Vivian didn't mind not knowing, since it gave her the chance to guess first. Would she be an artsy student who wore bright colours and had dyed hair? Or would she be the type to wear more formal clothes and be more put together, like a businesswoman? The thoughts Vivian had about her roommate vanished when said person walked into the room. Out of all the people she'd been expecting, she wasn't one of them.

A girl with a leather jacket, tanned skin, and curly black hair that barely reached her shoulders walked into the room. As she stepped into their shared apartment, Vivian could see the skinny jeans she was wearing that accentuated her legs, but she was caught off guard by the familiar face of the person. Her roommate rolled her suitcase into the room and closed the door behind her before noticing Vivian in the kitchen, who was still standing by the microwave, stunned to see who just walked in.

"You're--" she started, trailing off when her roommate grinned.

"Nova Laverne, in the flesh," she grinned, showing off her too-sharp canines as she walked over to Vivian and stuck out a hand for her to shake. "I'm sure you've heard a bunch of rumours about me, I can assure you that only about half of them are untrue," she added with a wink.

Now that Nova was closer to her, Vivian could see her beauty from closer quarters. She was gorgeous. Full lips, sharp eyeliner, and a smirk that could make anyone swoon. It took a moment for Vivian's brain to catch up and realise that she had to shake her hand.

"I-I'm Vivian Mayheart," she stuttered as she shook Nova's hand, her cheeks flushed at being caught staring. Nova's smirk only seemed to grow at that.

Nova Laverne was her roommate. The one person her parents wouldn't want her to be around, and now she had her as a roommate. Oddly enough, Vivian felt a smile grow across her face. This year should be interesting, she thought to herself.

Alright so the earlier chapters might be a bit shorter because I'm still getting in the habit of writing regularly, but I'll try to make them longer down the line! If you enjoyed, please leave a vote and comment, I'd really appreciate it and it's always encouraging :D