Chasing Euphoria

Chapter Eleven

Cassie

One week. It had been one week since I had seen Landon. One week since he kissed me. One week since I kissed him back.

Had I spoken to him since? No. But it wasn't a big deal, I mean we didn't have each other's numbers and I wasn't about to ask Elle for it. I had enough of an interrogation from her the morning after when she woke up. She said that she wouldn't mention us even spending time with each other, as far as she was aware, that's all it was.

Little did she know.

I hadn't mentioned anything else to her and I certainly wasn't planning on it. It was a heat of the moment thing and the mesmerising setting was part of the influence. Anyone else surely would have done the same thing.

Classes had already started and not to get too ahead of myself, but it was going well. Elle tried to convince me to take a Spanish extracurricular with her and her friend Cailen from the coffee house because Cailen was Spanish. I was reluctant and she even offered to give me more time off if I did because it would apparently be fun for all of us to do together. I still hadn't met Cailen. In the end, I partially agreed but didn't plan on going to many of the sessions. Perhaps it would give me the opportunity to make the friends that I desperately needed.

As I walked out of the building, I tried my best to keep to myself whilst navigating the busting campus. Since my classes were done, I told Elle I would do a shift at the coffee house and finally meet Cailen.

Sierra had tried to contact me every couple of days with countless apologies which I hadn't responded to. I wasn't ready to forgive it and I was just going to focus on getting through my first semester instead of getting caught up in anything else. She claimed to have cut ties with Liam – but I highly doubted it. If she was telling the truth, it wouldn't last long.

From being around her a lot over the previous months, I knew that she liked to surround herself with as many friends as she possibly could. The unbearable need for her to be relevant and have stories to share about her own life was enough to guarantee that she would still try her luck with Liam. Whatever was going on there would just be another story for her to tell people about (although it was almost guaranteed to be twisted to turn herself into the hero of that story).

I didn't want to be around the next time she did something like that.

To conceal my thoughts, I put in my earphones and hummed along to drown out anything else. I still felt reluctant to buy a car. The distance between the campus, the dorms and the coffee house were all so short that I could get away with walking everywhere. They were the only places I needed to be. I could do without for now.

Once I had made it there, I walked in to see a blue-haired girl with an apron on talking to a customer with a slight attitude. Instead of interrupting to see why, I stood back to listen and observe.

"Listen dude, this is a family-owned business. You don't pay, we don't make money. You either give me the cash or I'll tear your pockets off to get it." She smiles sweetly, the only gentleman looked slightly taken aback.

"You're crazy." Eyes widening, he practically threw the money on the counter and hurried out the door.

Instead of seeming disappointed at losing a future customer, she grinned to herself and put the money in the register. I walked over to her, but as I went to greet her, she got to it first.

"Cassie Pierce, right?" She asked, waiting for me to confirm. "Don't worry, Elle's told me all about you, I've seen some of the photos in your room, I haven't been stalking you. I'm Cailen Caruso."

"Nice to meet you Cailen." I said, then thanked her for letting me have the job.

"It wasn't down to me; it was down to Elle – I'll still accept the credit though."