Love Bites

Chapter Two

"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.

"Mayheart? As in the lawyer family, right?" Nova asked, and Vivian nodded. Her family had a line of lawyers ever since her great-grandfather started a law firm decades ago, and it'd be fair to say that they were well-known in their county. "I've heard some rumours about you," Nova added, and Vivian raised a brow.

"What rumours?" she asked, trying to ignore the growing panic in her chest. She hadn't done anything troublesome, right? Oh God, what if her parents found out? She'd only been away for a day and people were already talking about her behind her back, what did she do?

Nova shrugged nonchalantly as she started walking around the apartment. "Nothing too serious, just the usual gossip regarding the Mayheart family," she said, and started listing them. "The sister started up a new business, the mom got a new haircut, and the youngest daughter of the Mayhearts broke the family tradition and is studying art instead of law," she continued, gesturing towards Vivian. "Some people think it's odd that you're not continuing the family business to become a lawyer," Nova noted, and this time it was Vivian's turn to shrug.

"Studying law had never really been something I wanted to do," she said. "I can't read a book to save my life, and I feel like studying law would require a ton of reading. And I've always wanted to do something with design, or at least creating." She wrinkled her nose as she considered being a lawyer. "Spending a lifetime arguing with other people doesn't feel like something I'd enjoy, whereas drawing something and seeing it become real feels a lot more accomplishing."

Nova tilted her head to the side in thought. "And your parents were supportive of that?" she asked, and Vivian snorted.

"Not at first, of course. They really wanted me to reconsider, but in the end they figured that I might as well just do something that I enjoy. And if that something would be architecture, then so be it."

Nova smiled at that, and Vivian felt something in her stomach flutter. "So you're studying architecture then? I better see one of your designs in town someday."

"I hope so," Vivian laughed before pressing a few buttons on the microwave, sighing in relief once it finally turned on. Then she hurriedly stopped it before it would explode or something. She glanced over at Nova, who was leaning against the counter while tapping away on her phone. Why not make small talk? she thought to herself. "Hey, Nova?"

She looked up. "Hm?"

"What are your siblings like? I've always wondered what it'd be like to have a full house like yours," she said before she could stop herself. Vivian's parents had three children, which might've seemed like a full house to some people. But since Nova had five siblings, it had to be crazier than the Mayhearts.

"My siblings? Oh man, where do I even start," she said with a laugh, before tapping her chin in thought. "Well, my sister Reena's the oldest and the most responsible, but the moment she left for university she went along with our impulse control." Her smile grew as she recalled the memories. "So this one night my siblings and I put as much metal as we could in a microwave and tried to blow it up," she started, and Vivian giggled.

"Oh my God, what happened? Did anyone get hurt?" she asked, but Nova shook her head with a laugh.

"Nah, we did it in our backyard so that we wouldn't burn the house down. Unfortunately, the microwave didn't really explode, it just overheated and started melting? There were sparks, but it wasn't as extreme as everyone made it out to be. Either way, we still got in a ton of trouble with our parents," she added, making a face. "It didn't stop us from trying the same thing again a few weeks later when our parents were out of town. This time it did sort of explode, thankfully no one got hurt though."

A small smile made its way onto Vivian's face. "Sounds like fun," she said, and Nova nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, it really was. We also have a habit of throwing impromptu parties whenever our parents aren't there for the night, or sneaking out at night just for the heck of it," she added, and Vivian softened as she saw the nostalgic look on Nova's face.

"You all sound really close," she said, and Nova nodded.

"Yeah, we are." Then she scrunched her nose. "It's gonna be weird not living with them for the time being, but you seem like good company anyway," Nova said with a grin and Vivian ignored the heat rising on her cheeks, opting to glance around their shared living room instead.

"It's so empty in here," she mused, and Nova hummed in agreement. Sure, there was furniture in the apartment, but there weren't any decorations or accessories--which made the apartment feel like no one lived there.

"If you've got any free time I'm sure we could go out and buy some things to make this place seem a little less dead," Nova suggested, and Vivian nodded.

"There would probably be a place for us to buy things near here since there are so many students living in the area. We could go to one of those later today."

"Have you got any plans for today?" Nova asked, and Vivian shook her head hesitantly.

"Not really? I planned to visit the campus and see where my classes would be, but I could always do that another day," she said.

"Then I say that we can go to town right now," Nova decided, putting on her jacket that she'd shrugged off earlier.

"N-now?"

"Yeah, why not? There is no time like the present," she said. "We could also look around town, see if there are any noteworthy places we can visit later on in the year. Unless you'd rather rest here," Nova added, giving Vivian an out.

Vivian considered her mom's words. Don't fraternize with the Lavernes, she'd said. Going to town with Nova was an obvious violation of that rule, but then again, they were already roommates. Besides, Nova hadn't done anything that seemed "bad" and Vivian was smart enough to make sure that she wouldn't convince her to do anything stupid.

"Sure, let's go," she agreed in a spark of rebellion, and they left their apartment. This was fine. After all, her parents wouldn't find out if she spent one day with Nova Laverne.

Chapter twoooo is out! I haven't started the next chapter yet, but I'll try and get it out within a week's time. Shouldn't be too hard since the quarantine is keeping me at home :p