Evelyn's POV:
Isla had invited Mia, Skye, and me to a games night that André was hosting with two of his best friends. Mia was obviously excited about going, but when I asked Skye, it took a little persuasion from both of us to persuade her to come. Because almost everyone had previously been, Isla decided that we would have the games night in our apartment.
I'm glad Isla is trying to expand her social circle; her most recent words were, "I've got a job, a home, a best friend for a sister, and a potential husband; any friend at this point is a bonus."
When I arrived home from college, Isla had practically barked a list of instructions at me, which were basically all chores I needed to complete to make sure the house was 'presentable' for our guests. I've never seen my sister act like this before; she must really be eager to impress André's friends, which I think is pretty sweet.
The start of this college week sucked but after talking to Skye and Mia on Thursday, I now felt a lot better and realised that Raven had probably acted on a drunk desire that night and realised what she had done trying to establish some distance between the two of us. Which I now understood and respected, obviously it slightly hurt, but I wouldn't bother to let her see that.
We were back to giving each other pleasant smiles today, with me cracking the occasional joke during class, which earned a few laughs from the entire class. Avoiding the Saturday situation is proving to be more difficult than I had anticipated; trying to concentrate on anything other than the beautiful brown-haired goddess throughout class is proving to be challenging.
- Troubled Trio -
Eve - Hey, are you almost here?
Skye - I'm running late. Be there in about 10.
Mia - I'm outside, I think you both might want to brace yourselves.
Skye - What, why?
Eve - Urm, Mia?
Skye - You can't just leave us like that!
Mia - Just wait until the door opens, Eve.
Mia - Wait until you get here, Skye.
Skye - Major side eye dude!
I ended the conversation there, and just as I was about to ask Isla to go open the door, someone knocked. André and his two friends had agreed to meet up with Isla at 7:30 p.m., and I told Mia and Skye to aim for the same time. Isla leapt to her feet and hurried to the door, almost tripping on her slippers next to the couch, causing me to stifle a laugh, but she styled it out with a low "shut up" directed at me.
I watched as she opened the door and hugged André, covering my view of the other guests; however, I did notice a small hand waving at me from behind André, which I recognised as Mia.
When Isla put her hand in André's and ushered the other three in, I swear my jaw would've hit the floor and my eyes would've popped out of my head if it had been possible. Beside Mia, no other than Raven and Eliza are standing there. What. The. Fuck. What are the chances? I now understand Mia's text message. Strangely they both looked rather calm, as if they had known this was going to happen.
I took a deep breath as they all approached the sofa and stopped before sitting down for introductions. Raven's soft voice spoke first, greeting my sister with a warm smile. "Hey, you must be Isla, it's so nice to meet you. André has told us many things." Raven gave me a small smile as she acknowledged me making my cheeks flush slightly.
Isla smiled and extended her hand to shake hands. "I hope all is well with you, and it's a pleasure to meet you. You must be Raven?" Raven smiled and nodded to Isla. "That's me, and this is Eliza. When you first meet her, she is a bit passive, but after she warms up to you, she becomes a big softie." Eliza gave her a jab in the side as a result of this. Raven glared her way before turning and smiling again. Eliza cleared her throat before reaching her hand over to shake Isla's "Yes, Hi. I'm Eliza."
Isla then turned to me expecting me to introduce myself "Um, actually Isla, this is Miss O'conner, my Catering teacher," I spoke hesitantly with an awkward laugh. "We also met Eliza in a restaurant with her recently." I watched as Raven properly fixed her gaze onto me this time as I spoke about how we knew each other, I saw her eyes lowering down my body and taking her sweet time to roam my assets, she looked up again meeting my eyes only to give me a small predatory smirk. My breath caught slightly in response to her open boldness especially after Saturday.
I had already told Isla that I had a minor crush on my teacher, and she had said it was adorable, so she sent me a smirk before smiling back at them, "That's cool, I suppose we're just missing Skye, please make yourselves comfortable, I'll grab some snacks while we wait."
"Don't worry sis, I'll grab the snacks you've done enough rushing around for tonight." Isla flushed at my comment deciding to simply nod and drag André along with her to sit on one of the sofas, he let out a rather startled 'oomph' while complying and sitting down with her.
Isla then smirked at me to which I raised my eyebrow at her, "why don't you give her a hand, Raven?" I could've sworn I heard Mia snort in the background as my eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
My gaze then moved towards Raven to find her already looking at me with an amused smile on her face, "I'll happily give her a hand, after you darling." My heart fluttered slightly at the pet name, but I complied nonetheless leading her into the kitchen area.
Once we entered the kitchen I started pulling random things out of the cupboards and placing them on the island to try and distract myself from the brown haired beauty in my presence, partly because I was trying not to fumble over my words and embarrass myself while looking into her eyes.
I purposely bent over slowly to grab a few bowls from the bottom cupboard to put the snacks in, I heard Raven make a slight 'mhm' noise and shift on her feet behind me making me smirk slightly before I stood back up and placed them alongside the assortment of crisps, popcorn and biscuits.
I heard her clear her throat which made me look up at her, she was leaning on the island with her arms crossed while facing me, she bit her lip ever so slowly and then released it making a certain something throb.
She then stepped towards me, closing the small space that there was between us. Placing one hand on the counter behind me and using the other to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, she looked at me tenderly and spoke softly, "You're so fucking beautiful, angel."
If I could describe the colour of my face right now I would say it was that of a tomato, Raven smiled at this making me look away slightly out of embarrassment. She then used her thumb and forefinger to lift up my chin, redirecting my gaze back onto hers, "There's no need to be embarrassed, darling."
The door bell suddenly rang, breaking the tension between us up. I hesitantly put my hands on Ravens shoulders and moved myself away to the side, purposely brushing the front of our bodies into each-other, offering her a shy smile before speaking, "I'll get the door, please could you take this out to the others." After receiving a curt nod, I practically jogged to the door while hearing an amused chuckle behind me and almost what sounded like the word "brat" being muttered.
When I got to the door and opened it, I was greeted with the sight of a panting Skye, "Hey, sorry I'm late. I swear I always try to be on time, but it never works. Wait, why are you so red?" I laughed at the first half of her statement but then cleared my throat and decided to change the subject.
"Raven and Eliza are André's two mystery friends!" I said lowering my voice down to a hushed whisper. Her face paled slightly before turning a light shade of red. "W-what?" she exclaimed. "You mean like here?Now?" She began fixing her strawberry blonde curls and checking her outfit. I dragged her into the apartment by her arm and shut the door.
We heard Mia shout at us "Hurry! We're all waiting." I walked us over to the sofas, not giving either of us much of a chance to run away. Skye stood there, slightly wide-eyed, before clearing her throat and saying, "u-um hi, I already know most of you guys." She then turned to André "Hello, my name is Skye, it's a pleasure to meet you." He acknowledged her with a smile and a small wave.
She then looked at the only 2 available seats, one being next to Raven and the other next to Eliza. Eliza smirked slightly at Skye's flushed appearance, saying, "Take a seat here, little Skye, I promise I don't bite." The way she said it, as well as the feline smirk she gave Skye, suggested otherwise. We all heard Skye mutter a low "holy shit" before she hesitantly took her seat.
This left me to be the last person standing before I decided to just bite the bullet and take the last remaining seat available, Raven offering me a polite smile as I made myself comfortable next to her.
Isla rubbed her hands together and then clapped, "Right, now everyone's here, let's begin." She then narrowed her eyes at us all, saying, "You better have brought your a-games for tonight, as there's no mercy." We all laughed softly before nodding and agreeing. Isla smiled, seeming satisfied with our responses.
We had agreed to begin with a simple game of Uno, followed by a few traditional card games. Mia had won Uno, which she clearly liked as she let out a loud squeal that made us all cringe before laying her final red 2 on the table. Raven had won the first 2 games of go fish - she appeared to know exactly what card everyone had and ended up with most of the books.
We had also managed to play cluedo, charades, a few rounds of Yahtzee, and Pictionary after everyone had properly settled into the evening. Isla, being the competitive person she was, won the majority of the solo games, with surprisingly, Eliza close behind.
Overall, it was a lot of fun before everyone had decided to stop and call it a night. A few people had suggested that another games night should be hosted, maybe even every Friday. The way we had played together seemed like we all had known each other for a while, we all, almost instantly clicked and went straight into the games, I believe the competitive push helped us all relax as well.
Eliza had even given us all a few genuine laughs and smiles at times, though her focus had remained solely on Skye and Raven's on me. I found myself blushing and trying to look away every time she caught me or I caught sight of her burning gaze roaming across my body.
All I can hope for is that Raven isn't just stringing me along and playing with my feelings, I don't know if I could take it if it was the case.
A//N So, everyone has finally met in one room. I keep switching between Miss O'conner/Raven. Oh well.