Genevieve Hall is small town girl with a lust for life.
And what better place to live life to it's fullest than Los Angeles?
A fresh start.
Until She finds herself at the same college as Luca Dominique.
Her childhood best friend who happens to be a...
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"Luca? You're so lucky you can afford to pay for the damage you just did." I have to keep reminding myself to keep my cool. One mistake and I'll lose all my confidence and cower back without a run for my money.
"Jennifer?" He runs his hands through his dark brown mass of curls and squints as if I'm not right in front of his face.
"Genevieve."
"Look, I'm gonna talk to some guys to fix your shit up, It just might take a while."
His voice is rich, sort of like how velvet or dark chocolate would sound as a voice. We never really crossed paths in high school and I've only ever seen his videos as snippets on Instagram. Through the screen, you can't really feel the trombone of his voice.
He's wearing black sweatpants and a white hoodie with the hood draped over lazily on his head. His brown hair falls in coily ringlets over his eyebrows and he looks right into my light brown eyes with his dark grey ones. I've never noticed them before. It's like when you shade really hard into paper with lead pencil and it has a sheen glow to it.
But his pretty eyes don't stop me from seeing red. No mild pink maybe because I understand where he's coming from. I mean I'm not a fan of social interactions (specifically the aftermath of them) either but this is just plain disrespect. No apology or remorse.
"How long is a while because I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I don't have a fucking door," I'm calm."Okay, it goes like this. You talk to your guys, they fix my shit up and I'm home in bed by tonight."
He starts to get the feeling that I'm not a problem that's easily fixed and opens the door wider for me to enter.
"Sit," He gestures at a kitchen bar stool like I'm a dog and leaves me there with a few of his idle friends. I stand and lean back on the bench refusing to be treated like a canine. This is when I come to the realisation that almost all of his friends have some sort of object in their hands.
Cameras.
Luca Dominique's social media influencer friends with cameras + Genevieve throwing a tantrum over a door = not fucking good.
I look around trying not to let it show how awkward I actually feel. I mean I could only yell at Luca because I was beyond pissed and besides our mothers were friends around the third grade and we were in the same third, fourth and sixth-grade classes. But if it weren't for the circumstances I would never find my self conversing with Luca Dominique.
He's not from good people, my mother would say.
He's a spoiled rich-boy who has so much time on his hands from not having to work that he starts a youtube channel and of course due to the wonderful and just scale of life, he gets paid more than he ever could doing a minimum wage job like the rest of us.
I'm pulled out of my thoughts when a glass of water is placed between myself and a beautiful woman. I recognise her as Luca's older sister. But she looks different now. Her hair that I remember as similar to her brother's is now straight and dyed a muted blonde that contrasts nicely with her brown skin tone.
"Oh my goodness, Genie, it's been so long. How are you." She's sickeningly enthusiastic.
There's no way she's that happy to see me.
"I've been mostly okay, it's good to see you too..um," I get stuck on her name.
"Marianne. So I've been informed that there's an issue regarding your door-"
"And my phone." I toss the crushed glass and plastic onto the marble kitchen bench for her to really get the gist of the situation. I mean sure it's not the newest model but now I really feel like I'm stranded alone here with no connection back home except for little mister I can't handle my own problems and miss so disgustingly excited to see me that it can't be genuine.
" Yes, and the phone," she absentmindedly toys with one of the corner pieces with the tips of her elegant manicured fingers.
"As Luca's manager, I can fix all of this, trust me. Just not as quickly as you would like. I've just made some calls and the earliest we can get your door fixed is by tomorrow noon-" She's concise and assertive but that doesn't stop me from interrupting.
"What am I supposed to do now? My stuff, my cats.I might as well have some sort of bat signal saying 'Hey, come murder me'."
She stifles a laugh and I can see her serious business-like demeanour breaking away.
"Which is why I have a solution," she pauses for a while and looks around at the many people recording videos and working on their laptops or giggling and gossiping about something in a corner.
"Reece, Julian," Marianne calls out.
At Marianne's signal, a boy with blond hair and another with his tightly coiled black hair in cornrows come around to the kitchen counter. It takes all of me to act unaffected by how incredibly attractive they both are. Especially the boy with the smooth dark skin who I find out is Julian as Marianne addresses him. I recognise them from somewhere. Most likely on my explore page.
"You two owe me from yesterday's bet so I need you to spend the night at Genevieve's apartment and keep guard."
The Guy called Reece takes a seat next to me and looks at me with his California blue eyes as if this is all my fault. I raise an eyebrow at him in question before bringing my attention back to Marianne.
"As for you, I can offer a room to stay in for the night if you're cool with that unless you have somewhere else you can go." Marianne flicks her wrist swiftly to see the time and I almost feel bad for her, stuck fixing Luca's self-incurred problems and dealing with me.
"I could call someone but alas..." I hint at my broken phone. It's a subtle lie. I have nowhere to go. Rubi is probably still on her flight from London so even if I could call her she wouldn't be able to help much.
Someone chuckles quietly from my left. Julian smiles at me amidst his chuckle. He's so..cute? It startles me a little. I expected him to be a macho manly sack of douche like some his company. Maybe it's the way the corners of his eyes wrinkle when he smiles and the deep dimples pressed into his smooth skin.
"Uh hey, I'm Julian." He says this probably to distract from the awkward eye contact.
"I know, I mean I kinda figur- Genevieve, I'm Genevieve."
I stutter just like my uncle Emilio when he has too much drink. I guess it runs in the family because I have a stutter but it rarely comes out and only when I'm speaking french with my dad's side of the family. I guess it's induced by really adorable boys that I have no business being in the same presence with as well.
I facepalm internally and bring my attention back to Marianne and Reece. Reece looks amused but Marianne continues solving the situation.
"Ok, Genevieve, I'll get Luca to order your phone when I'm about to leave, it's the least he can do and you can sleep in my room for tonight, I have places to be. Is that alright with you?
I want to say no. Because it's the truth. But at the same time I know she's being reasonable and this is the easiest solution but it's the inconvenience of it all and how uncomfortable I am with sleeping in someone else's room.
"Yeah, that's great, thanks for all the help and sorry for the trouble." I hope I sound sincere.
Marianne scoffs, "Don't be, it's not your fault, I'm gonna go have a talk with Luca now and see if he's ready to use the 2 shreds of humanity left in his cold heart."
I'm inspired by how easily she trash talks Luca, and all the power she bares.
"Alright babe, let's go get your valuables," Reece says.
"Who the fuck is babe? Like the pig?" I question ahead of them as I open the door.
Julian laughs behind me and something flutters in my chest.
