Havens

three

"Aria?!" Val asked.
"Ohh, hi Val!" I screamed stumbling over to her to give her a hug.
"I think you drank a little too much, girlfriend!" she said. "Here, let Max take you back to your room before you do something you'll regret."
"Max? Oh! Max!" I shouted waving at him.
"I thought you weren't a drinker?" He asked picking me up.
"I wasn't, Not until I saw something that I wish I could unsee!" I groaned. Max put me over his shoulder and carried me out of the party as I closed my eyes.
———
"Aria! Wake up!"
"Huh? Cari? What time is it?" I asked.
"It's nine in the morning, I just wanted you to come with me to the cafe for breakfast before ten," Cari replied.
I sat up and instantly held my head. "Ouch, it hurts!"
"Yea, I heard you were drinking a lot yesterday. It wasn't even six o clock before you were passed out in your room!" Cari laughed.
"How was the suites?" I asked.
Cari sighed. "I can tell you that on our way to breakfast! Come on!"
"Give me a second, I need to put on my pajamas!" I shouted.
"Jeez, I already laid them out. They're right next to you! I'll be in the hallway!" Cari said walking towards the door.
"Cari, I'm sorry!" I apologized.
"No worries! Just don't take too long," Cari said closing the door.
I got up from the bed, took off my bathing suit, slipped into my pajamas, grabbed my phone, then walked out of the room and met up with Cari right outside our door.
"Hey! You ready?" She asked.
"Yup... hey! We should see if Nova wants to come down with us!" I suggested.
"He's already down there. He said he'll save us a seat!" Cari said.
"Oh, cool!" I replied.
"Anyways, I talked to Val and she told me about last night..."
I sighed.
"I want you to be completely honest with me, " said Cari.
"Okay. I wish you didn't go to the suite party." I declared. "Dove purposely tried to leave me out and it hurt my feelings that you didn't see that. Actually. I think you did see it. You just chose not to acknowledge it because you wanted to go to the party."
Cari pressed the elevator button. "You're right. I wanted to go to the party. I used to party with them all the time while I was an underclassman but that all stopped last year.  When they invited me to their suite, it reminded me of old times."
The elevator door opened and we both stepped on.
I pressed the ground button . "So, do you see how that could've hurt my feelings. You left me alone just so you can hang out with your old friends. I thought this was going to be our year?"
"I know. It was definitely messed up. But I realized that before I even made the mistake. When I went back to our room to get dressed, I never made it to the suites."
My face lit up. "Really?"
The door opened and we both got off the elevator. "Really."
"Well what about Nova?" I asked.
"He still went to the suites but I didn't stop him because that wasn't my place!" Cari explained as we walked out of the dorm buildings and continued walking across campus.
"Nova, Ash, and Dove came to my room at five to walk me down to the pool party with them." Cari recounted.
"Why'd they leave their own party so early?" I asked.
"It wasn't actually a party. It's was just them." Cari shrugged.
"Oh," I sighed.
"Look! There's the cafe!" Cari said pointing to the building.
I walked in as Cari held the door for me. I walked straight to the buffet and got myself some cereal, a slice of toast and a cup of water.
"Aria!"
I turned my head. It was Nova! He was sitting at a table by the corner. I waved and turned to Cari.
"I'm going over with Nova!" I whispered.
"Okay, meet you over there," Cari replied.
I walked over to Nova and sat right across from him.
"Hey!" He said.
"Hey! Um...h-how was the Suite party?" I stuttered.
"Uh, it was okay. There weren't many people there. Cari didn't even end up going!" Nova said taking a bite out of his toast.
"Yea, I heard," I said taking a scoop of my cereal.
"How was the pool party? I never ran into you?" Nova asked.
I paused. "Oh, um. It was great. I, uh, I left early because I was tired but it was... it was fine."
Nova chuckled.
"What?" I asked letting out a nervous laugh.
"Nothing, you're just... I guess you're just shy?" Nova asked.
I tucked my hair behind my ear. "Is that bad?"
"No! No!" Nova said resting his hand on my arm which was sitting on the table top. "It's cute."
I looked up from my cereal to Nova who gave me this half smirk.
Cute.
"Um, hey! What I miss?" Cari asked sitting next to me.
I quickly moved my hand to my lap. "Nothing!"
"So there's orientation, a campus tour and class sign ups today at noon," Nova said taking another bite from his toast.
"You guys can go but I'm gonna be getting my party on. There's gonna be parties all day and night before classes start up this week. I'll just take whatever classes are left over like every year." Cari explained.
"Don't you want first dibs on the good classes?" I asked.
"It's not like I'll be going to them anyway!" Cari chuckled.
"Aria, did you still want to go to the orientation with me?" Nova asked.
"Yes! I'll still go!" I said smiling at him. He smiled back.
"Cool! We can meet in my room at eleven?" He suggested.
"Meeting in Nova's room? What's going on there?" Dove asked slipping into the seat next to Nova. Ash walked up behind her and pulled a chair from another table and sat on the end of the booth.
"Hey guys!" Ash exclaimed.
Great. Who invited them?
"Oh, hey Dove," Nova said . "Hey Ash," he waved. Ash waved back.
"Hey Nova! Hi Cari!" Dove exclaimed. " ... Aries." She said looking at me.
"It's Aria." I declared.
"Right." She giggled. "So Nova! Do you have plans for today? Ash and I were planning on hitting up a few parties." said Dove.
"That's what I was doing!" Cari chuckled. Dove gave her a fake smile then turned back to Nova.
"I'm actually doing the things that were on the itinerary with Aria. That's why I told her to meet me in my room at eleven-thirty." He said looking over to me.
First it was eleven. Now it was eleven-thirty? Great.
Dove turned towards me. "How was the pool party?"
"The pool party?" I asked.
She nodded.
"I-it was great!" I said.
"That's good! Really good!" Dove said. "So why'd you leave so early?"
I looked at Nova and Cari then let out a nervous laugh. "I, was tired."
"What? Tired of drinking?" She chuckled.
"You can put it that way," I said.
"What?" Nova asked.
"Nothing," I insisted.
"No! I heard this girl here was drinking with a group of guys and ended up having to get carried out!" Dove said laughing and clapping her hands together. "It's good that you decided to sit out on the parties today because you clearly don't know how to control yourself."
"That's not true," Cari exclaimed.
"Yea, you don't know me," I hollered.
"No, I don't. So let's keep it that way!" Dove sassed.
Ash began to laugh.
"Nothings funny." Cari said.
"Really? So why am I laughing?" She asked.
"That's enough," said Nova.
The table went silent.
"So, Nova. Are you sure you don't want to come party with us? There won't be any more big ones for a while!" said Dove.
"I'm, good. Thanks!" Nova said.
Dove looked over at me then stood up. "Okay, then. See you around. You have my number." She said.
"Cari, did you want to come party with us?" Ash asked.
"I'll just go by my—"
"No! Ash, let's go!" Dove hollered storming away.
Ash shrugged her shoulders then ran after Dove.
"I was gonna say no anyways!" Cari muttered rolling her eyes.
"Well, I'm finished with my food. Do you guys want me to take out your trash?" Nova asked standing up. Cari and I handed him our trays. "Thank you!" We said as he walked away.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yea, I'm fine. I'm just gonna go to Val's room. Have fun with Nova!" she said winking at me before she got up and left the cafe.
"Hey, where's Cari going?" Nova asked.
"Val's room," I replied.
"Oh," Nova checked his phone to see the time. "It's ten now, so do you want get dressed and meet me at my room at eleven?"
I smiled, "Yea! Let's go!"
We both left the cafe and made our way back to the dorm buildings. On the way to our room we just talked. It was great.