ABEL TESFAYE
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"So, what's your story Abel?"
He blew smoke out of his mouth, shrugging as his eyes settled on Iris. They had gotten comfortable standing or sitting at the Alpha frat house. Landon had long gone went inside, which left everyone but Camari and Kingsley outside until he was finished.
Evan had a blunt to light and a bit of snacks to share. So while the ladies ate half of the snacks, Abel, Evan, and Steven passed the blunt back and forth between them.
"I don't have one." He mumbled, holding the blunt out to Coiline. She smiled softly and shook her head.
"Oh, come on pretty boy!" Nailee slapped her thigh. "Surely there's something to tell!"
"Y'all ask too many questions." Evan shook his head.
"Seems like you're jealous too," Nailee teased. "You're not the only pretty boy in the group, so you're upset about the attention not being on you?"
Evan laughed. "I'm not worried! Unlike Lucky." Iris playfully rolled her eyes. "All I'm saying is, you guys are too nosey. Look at him!" Iris and Nailee glanced at Abel, who stood there trying not to laugh a bit. "He's clearly chillin', and is not trying to talk. So let him be."
Iris and Nailee stared at Evan for a few seconds before waving him off. "Anyway," Nailee rolled her eyes. "I hear an accent in your voice" Abel took the blunt again. "Canadian? Or Australian?"
"He's definitely not Australian," Coiline snickered beside him.
"And how would you know? He talks to you?"
"Um, duh!" She smacked her lips. "I gave him a tour around campus, remember?"
"Whatever." Nailee settled her eyes back on Abel. "So? Which one?"
"Canadian," Abel gently scratched his eyes. The smoke from the joint was starting to irritate them.
"Wow. So what the hell are you doing all the way in the South?"
He shrugged. "Fresh start, I guess."
Nailee hummed.
"You know Canada has the shittiest school system," Steven chirped from beside Aura. They sat closely together with textbooks sprawled out on their laps. Abel noticed that she wasn't much of a talker as well. "If I lived there, I'd move too."
"Is that true?" Coiline asked. Abel could feel her eyes on him. He nodded. "That's fucked up."
He couldn't help but chuckle. "It is."
"Oop, I see what Lucky was bitchin' about," Iris laid her head against her fist. "I smell an entanglement coming soon."
Coiline rolled her eyes. "It's not like that! Stop being so messy!"
"We're watching you." Nailee smirked.
Abel quickly darted his eyes towards Aura. It was almost as if he wanted to see if she was listening. She was, but she didn't too much care about the bickering. That was what her friends were good at.
No one seemed to notice his eyes on her but Iris. She followed his sights and smirked a little, deciding not to call him out on it. She could tell that he was kind of interested in her. He could be.
The group continued chatting, trying to make Abel more comfortable and open to talking to them. Iris and Nailee kept him laughing with their jokes. Evan kept him faded with the blunts. Steven kept him informed about what went on around campus. Coiline kept stealing glances at him — he pretended not to see her. And lastly, Aura kept quiet the entire time unless anyone asked her a question. She kept her eyes on her textbook for the most part, and when she was finished, she kept her eyes on her phone screen. Abel noticed she would smile or smirk a bit whenever a joke was told, and when someone acknowledged him she would look up and pay attention.
About two hours later, Landon walked out of the frat house running his hand through his slightly curly tresses. Steven, Iris, and Evan had dispersed for their next class. Aura talked on her phone. Nailee had stood up to greet Landon. And Coiline was typing on her phone.
"How was it?" Nailee asked, walking down the rest of the stairs with Landon.
"It was cool." He kissed her cheek. "Y'all really waited on me," he started to laugh. "I told y'all not to."
"I thought about leaving." Coiline playfully remarked.
He scoffed, gently pushing her shoulder. "Whatever. I see y'all didn't scare him away yet." He pointed his thumb towards Abel. Abel looked at him comically.
"Nope," Coiline popped the 'P'. "He's stuck with us."
"You better run while you can," Landon laughed holding onto Nailee by her waist. "These three nuts, especially Coi, will eat you the fuck alive."
Abel chuckled as Coiline slapped Landon's shoulder. "Fuck out of here, Lucky!"
"I'll see y'all later. Gotta class startin'." Landon held up his peace sign, still laughing. He and Nailee began to walk in the other direction.
Coiline rolled her eyes holding her books close to her chest. She gave Abel a subtle smile before asking. "So, do you have any other classes today?"
Abel bit his lip in thought shortly before shaking his head no. He had a total of three classes to which he all shamefully went to. He had the rest of the day off, as well as tomorrow.
"Oh, good" Coiline smiled fully. "Me neither. Aura, what about you?"
Aura had been standing near them with her eyes fixated on her phone. She almost didn't hear Coi talking to her. Her parents had been blowing her phone up nonstop since they were all huddled together, informing their only child about some news going on back home.
"Um," she bit her lip, finishing the rest of her text. When she finally looked up, both Coiline and Abel looked at her patiently. "I have a meeting with student body, but that isn't until another hour or so. Why?"
"Let's hang out for a little!"
"I was... hoping to take a nap until the meeting," Aura laughed a little, touching her curls. "Besides, I don't want to be a third wheel."
Coiline groaned. "Oh my God, you too?"
Aura laughed, walking over to hug her friend. "Sorry!" She briefly looked at Abel. He caught her smile growing which caused him to give her a hint of a smile. How could someone be as beautiful as her, he couldn't understand. "I do have to go, though. Have fun!"
"Fine," Coi pouted. She began to walk away leaving the two to watch her leave. Once she was out of their sight, Coiline turned to Abel shrugging with a light smile. "And then there were two."
He hummed. "Do you wanna smoke?"
"Is that all you have to offer? Weed?"
"... I guess?" Coi laughed at that. She grabbed his hand and started pulling him down the pathway.
"Okay, sure. Let's go smoke."
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AURA DOW
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"Okay, so Dean Edwards wants us to start planning for the math triathlon next month. We're supposed to go against Spelman," one of Aura's fellow student body members, Yannie, informed.
The time couldn't have come quickly for their first meeting of the school year. Aura wished she didn't come, though. Her mind was elsewhere and she hated that she was so distracted. She had been awake since six in the morning and all she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep.
Her morning classes went on with a drag. They did nothing but pile her up with work, work, and more work that was thankfully due at the end of next week. Even still, she didn't want to do either of them.
English was her only easy class today. That was why she adored Professor Hayes so much. She wasn't a difficult teacher. Aside from Abel's semi weird behavior, she enjoyed that class a lot.
Speaking of Abel, Aura found herself wondering about him. He had that kind of energy that would make anyone wonder about him. He was awfully quiet and Aura knew that he had to have been smoking pounds and pounds of weed everyday. She wasn't one to judge but, he must be going through something. She saw it in his eyes and she believed that the eyes of a person never lied.
Aura tried not to pay too much attention to Abel and her friends at the Alpha house, but she couldn't help it. She wanted to in hopes that he would maybe tell it all about himself. She was merely disappointed when he didn't, and decided to be secretive about his life, but she felt some sort of relief seeing him get along with everyone.
Maybe during their college year, Aura would learn more about him if he was willing to.
She didn't notice how spaced out she looked to her fellow committee members until Yannie called out her name in the midst of a sentence.
"Are you okay, Aura? You seem out of it."
Aura quickly blinked and let out a soft sigh. With a little smile, she replied, "I'm fine. What were you saying?"
Yannie wanted to say more but with Aura's dismissive eyes she dropped it for now and plastered a smile of her own on her face.
"I was mentioning that Dean Edwards is also wanting to start planning for homecoming now. I insisted we wait but he figured that it'd be better to start thinking of themes for this year. So, if any of us has an idea, we should write them down today" she picked up her pen, scribbling words on her clipboard. "Haidyn?"
The meeting carried on for the next hour and everyone managed to voice whatever was in their heads for the sake of their school. Aura tried paying attention for the most part, but her mind couldn't help leading her back to Abel. Her recent and constant wondering about him honestly baffled her.
When the meeting was over and everyone dispersed, Yannie tried getting Aura to talk about her absentminded state. She still hadn't budge and instead told her that she was just tired—which was halfway true. Aura really couldn't wait to get back to her dorm and knock out for the rest of the day. The nap she took before the meeting didn't do her any justice.
She bid Yannie a final goodbye, giving her a smile of reassurance before finally leaving the room, and soon the building. Walking along the pathway, she waved to people nearby and took a look at her phone seeing new messages from her friends.
They were all waiting for her by the gym finally wanting to do something off campus and while she wanted to refuse, she couldn't reject them. Aura knew she'd miss out on the fun they had if she stayed home again, and she practically promised that she would go out with them this time after not being able to go to the frat house party.
Coiline was the leading conductor this time. She wanted all of them to show Abel what Atlanta had to offer and she figured an evening out together would be perfect. She also mentioned wanting to take him to the art museum downtown during the weekend, because she recently learned that he was into art.
She sent her friends one last message letting them know that she was nearby before she finished walking the pathway to the gym building. As soon as she entered she couldn't miss her crowd of friends sitting at the bleachers with Abel sitting in the center. It seemed like their attention was purely on him and the phone he cradled in his hands—he seemed to have been showing them something.
Coiline was the only one who felt Aura's presence. She smiled up at her best friend, reaching her arms out for a hug to which Aura returned gracefully.
"Thank you for noticing me," she laughed. "How long have you guys been up here?"
"Just a few minutes," Coi replied. "Abel was just showing us some of his favorite art pieces."
Aura nodded. She now noticed how closely seated she was to Abel. Her friends loved to tease each other and there was never a dull moment where Coiline wasn't the main target, but what if their recent puns turned out to be true?
She sat down next to them quietly checking her phone once more. It took a full five minutes for everyone else to acknowledge that she was there, and that it was time to start getting ready to go.
"You should've said you were here, knucklehead." Lucky lightly punched her shoulder, then ruffled her tight curls.
Aura frowned swatting his hands away. "My presence should have been enough."
"Smart ass."
"How was the meeting?"
"The same as all the others. Dean Edwards wants us to start brainstorming for homecoming early this year so, I'll be spending all my time doing that."
"Ugh," Nailee rolled her eyes. "Why so dang early? Now I have to go dress shopping."
"I hope you matchin' my fly baby girl," Lucky gently kissed her cheek.
She blushed making him laugh against her skin. Everyone else stood up finally stretching and getting ready to leave.
Stevie wrapped his arm around Aura's shoulder and she knew he was about to ask her for something. He always was.
"What do you want, Steven?"
"Just a little help for this paper I have to write." He cheesed. "And I know you're one of the smartest girls in the school, so—"
"I thought I was the smartest?" Kingsley appeared next to Camari, holding a blunt in her hand.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess." Stevie playfully dismissed her. "Anyway, say you'll help? You don't want me to fail do you?"
Aura chuckled and shook her head while Kingsley hesitantly greeted Abel. She noticed her friend was almost never around when he was. Maybe she was serious about not being too fond of him, but so far Abel has been cool with majority of the group. There was a chance that she was just talking nonsense.
After accepting Stevie's offer and asking about the days when he needed to work on it, everyone began to head towards the entrance of the campus grounds. Camari, Evan, and Aura were the only ones who owned cars so everyone had to split and decide who they would be riding with.
"You know I'm shotgun in my baby's car," Iris cooed, kissing Evan's cheek.
"I'm riding with Mari," Lucky declared, tugging Nailee's hand not giving her a chance to decide. "At least him and Coi knows how to not have sex in front of everyone."
They all laughed as Iris shot him a sour glare. "We don't want your corny ass riding with us anyway!"
"I'll ride with them," Kingsley giggled. "To make sure we don't crash."
Evan smacked his lips.
"I guess that leaves me and Abel to ride with Aura," Stevie cheesed. "I'll try not to sing too loud."
"Trust me, there won't be any music to sing to." Aura smiled gently elbowing his side. "Come on."
With that, everyone got in their respective rides. Stevie took the front seat while Abel quietly sat in the back. He was so silent that Aura thought she forgotten him. She checked her mirror slyly seeing that his face was buried in his phone on his lap, oblivious to her observing.
Camari honked the horn of his car pulling up beside Aura. "We only have about three hours before curfew. Coi found this wack ass museum just off the highway so y'all will be following us."
She laughed and nodded as Coiline slapped his shoulder, telling him not to be rude. "Lead the way Mari."
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