Conditional Love

12. Saturday

Alyssa

Just as I'm about to text Hannah, my phone buzzes with a message from her first.

Hannah: I'm by the fireplace at the back

Scanning the café, I spot Hannah at a far table waving at me. As I approach her, I realize someone is sitting in the third chair at the table.

"Oh hello," I greet her as I sit down.

Hannah gives me an eager grin. "Alyssa, this is my friend Sienna!"

"Hey," Sienna says with a small smile.

I don't know how I didn't notice her at first, she drastically stands out. Her long straight hair is half jet black, half platinum blond - split down the middle. Her makeup even matches her hair; black lipstick and white eyeliner.

Her outfit is made up of black, white, and pastel pink pieces. Leather seems to be her favourite material, in addition to some shiny metal accents.

Sienna extends her hand to shake mine. Some of her rings have gems larger than grapes, and others look like straight up weapons. Two of her fingers have some words tattooed onto the sides, but I can't make them out. Michael likes to refer to my nails as wolverine nails, but I'd love to hear what he would call Sienna's.

"So, how do you two know each other?" Sienna asks once we've ordered some cinnamon buns, croissants, and coffee."

"Alyssa and I met in our engineering intro class," Hannah explains, looking over at me with a cheerful smile.

We had such a fun afternoon exploring campus together after class that day and decided that we definitely wanted to hang out again. It took nearly a week to schedule it, however. With my sorority endeavors and keeping up with Michael, I've barely found time for myself, let alone other people.

"Engineer? Really? Never would've guessed," Sienna snickers. "You're not who I picture when somebody says engineer."

I grit my teeth and hide my grimace. "Yeah... I get that a lot," I say, managing to give her a polite smile. "What about you two?"

"We met in our English class," Hannah explains. "I'm taking it as an elective."

I do my best to steer the conversation back towards Sienna whenever it starts to drift. Asking someone questions about themselves has always been my foolproof way of getting people to warm up to me – almost foolproof, at least.

Sienna quickly catches on, however. She attempts to do the same to me, though her intentions seem dubious.

"Are you involved with any clubs or student organizations?" I ask.

"Nope," Sienna simply replies. She rests her chin on her palm and leans towards me. "Hannah mentioned you're a sorority girl, right?"

I can't help but feel suspicious of her intentions, but I nod anyway. "I'm in Alpha Delta Pi."

She gives me an amused grin. "Is it like in the movies, where it's all just pillow fights, makeup, and sex?" she asks, her voice just dripping with sarcasm.

Hannah snorts and nudges her. "Don't be silly! I'm sure it's not ridiculous like that." She suddenly looks at me nervously. "I mean... unless it is. I'm not trying to call sororities ridiculous!" she says apologetically.

"No, we're actual human beings, not fictional movie characters," I respond dryly.

Hannah appears completely oblivious to the tone of the conversation. A warm smile stays spread across her face for most of the afternoon and she takes everyone's words at face value. I have no idea what type of fairytale world she lives in, but she's the epitome of the saying, ignorance is bliss.