❝In the palette of emotions, anxiety creates the dull hues of the world, creating a intense painting of the blank canvas of the soul.❞
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Aurelia is sitting at her easel, looking at her unfinished artwork. She could hear the giggling and laughter from upstairs, where Jackie, Abby, and Genesis are getting ready to go. She has overheard enough of their conversations to know that this party is supposed to be Aiden's biggest one he has ever thrown for any of his friends. The girls would even joke about him liking the guys in the friend group more than the girls, but knowing them for the past two days, she's sure they weren't joking and those were words branching from their true thoughts and feelings about Aiden.
She doesn't understand why they would want to go out and party together when it's clear they do not like each other as much as they try to lead on. And for whom?
Aurelia's friends, back home when she was in high school, only ever fought over small childish things. Like who's hogging the blanket and who's turn is it to host a sleepover. It was never as serious as who's sleeping with who, and who popped what pill. They were never like that, and despite being Aurelia's best friends, Sabrina and Cameron had other friends besides her; giving her friends time away from each other so they won't get sick of each other earlier on. So when they went out again, it was always safe and fun, never hostile and uncomfortable.
However, her time with Jackie wasn't as she assumed it would be. Even though she preferred the comfort from the student housing, Jackie somehow gave her enough convincing to actually go to this unknown cafe with her. It wasn't a bad idea. The both of them didn't have any time to talk to each other since she moved into the house, and Jackie really didn't help make things easier by creating an uncomfortable space for her by inviting her friends out of nowhere. So this trip was necessary, at least to her.
The cafe visit wasn't a bad one. The light browns and wooden accents were very pretty. The subtle whites and green colors were the pretty shade for that cozy vibe. The place sparked a bit of inspiration in her, but of course, she couldn't get distracted at the moment. That doesn't mean she doesn't plan on coming back, but alone this time.
"Here's a good spot." Jackie took a seat and Aurelia followed.
Just like any normal visit, they sat and chatted over a cup of coffee, well tea for her, since she really didn't like coffee. Aurelia had expected Jackie to spend their time together gossiping about her so-called best friends, but she was surprised. The older woman decided to actually get to know Aurelia. Asking the meaningful and fun questions, rather than the obvious questions. This also meant Aurelia got to know a bit more about Jackie—as well as Aiden.
"We were childhood best friends," Jackie smiled before taking a sip of her iced americano. "But when we got to college, I finally worked up the courage to tell him how I felt."
Aurelia nodded her head, not sure what to say as she sipped her dragon fruit iced tea.
"It's funny because our parents already knew we would get together. My mom and his mom are best friends. They're already visualizing our wedding." Jackie told her with confidence, but now that she knew this information it made her wonder if it's really all sunshine and rainbows with them.
"Well That's not about you though," Aurelia commented, swirling her straw around as she sat there quietly, staring at Jackie's face, but not directly into her eyes. "I mean, it is about your relationship, but Aiden isn't my roommate, you are. Tell me about you."
Jackie looked confused before she shrugged her shoulders. "Not much to say. I'm a theater major but of course, my parents really wanted me to continue my classical music study, but I told them no. I wanted to follow Aiden to this school so I picked my passion. Theater."
Aurelia almost cringed in front of her after hearing that she followed Aiden to a school just because she wanted to be with him. If she would've said something like that to one of her friends, they probably would beat her down until she made sense, but not literally. Going off to college was encouraged by her parents because they wanted her to make her own path and discover herself. It was one of the main reasons why her friends made sure she decided to go off to a different college rather than follow them.
"Aiden is my whole world," Jackie told her before sipping her coffee. "Without him, I think I might go crazy. That's probably why I get so jealous when he talks to any girl."
She was sure that comment was directed at her, but it's not like she's talking to Aiden for a long time. Most of their conversation ends right when it starts. Not to mention that Aiden makes no effort to hide his flirtatious ways, and Jackie didn't care to acknowledge them but only when he's actively trying his hardest to flirt with her. He also seemed very stand-offish with Jackie but that's only when she was around.
After they talked a bit more about Aiden, they made their way back to the dorm because Jackie's friends told her that she needed to hurry back so they could get ready together.
Now as she sits in the living room of the student home, painting away at her canvas, she wonders how long Jackie would be out and if she would bring Aiden back. If so, she needed to make sure she avoided him as much as possible. Jackie made it clear she isn't very fond of girls talking to her boyfriend. It wouldn't be very hard either, because she plans on keeping things one sentence only with the male from now on. Especially after knowing what kind of romance trope he and Jackie are in, she wants no part in that.
"Finally!"
Aurelia flinches slightly at the loud voice of Jackie, causing her to slowly pull her headphone off and turn around to see what's going on. Their eyes only met for a second before Jackie avoids hers all together. It seems like she didn't take her advice about the jacket, now that she has it on, it definitely looks tacky like she feared. So much for her honest opinion. Aurelia looks past her seeing her other best friends, Abby and Genesis dressed in similar neon colors, descend from the stairs.
Jackie stands in front of the tall mirror just off the side of the stairs. She looks over her appearance, adjusting the jacket a bit and swirling some of the curls that have already fallen. Judging from the frown growing on Jackie's face, Aurelia's sure it took her a while to do the style with the curling iron. "Ugh, why is it so hard to maintain curly hair."
"When you have straight hair," Genesis comments, pushing her auburn hair around, adjusting her wavy hair. "Curls won't stay, but if it's natural a little styling will make it look twice as pretty. Right, Ariel."
Aurelia wasn't sure who she was talking to, but when she turned to look at her, that confirmed things. "Aurelia. Not Airel."
"That doesn't even remotely sound the same, dumbass." Abby says to Genesis making her shrug her shoulder, but Jackie quickly shoulder bumps her.
Genesis rolls her eyes and smiles fakely. "Sorry Aurelia, I didn't mean to get your name wrong."
Aurelia could tell she is being fake, but she just nods her head and puts her headphones back on. Since she has been nosey since she got here, she didn't bother turning music on, but she did resume on her unfinished canvas.
"I look so good," She could hear Jackie tell herself.
"Yes, I'm sure Aiden would be the only man to turn his eyes." Genesis rolls her eyes.
Jackie sighs. "He's the only pair of eyes that I want on me. Unlike someone."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Genesis scoffs.
Jackie laughs this time. "We all know you're wearing this tight neon yellow two piece to get all the guys attention. No wonder you pulled it from the shelf."
"Is it so fucking wrong that I want to look sexy?" Aurelia could tell from the tone of her voice that things are getting serious.
"You can look sexy, but we all know you just do this for attention."
Genesis tone gets higher. " Well at least I get attention, your man barely shows you attention. Especially when a pretty girl that's just his type comes along-"
"Would you two shut up! Let's just take a picture and go." Abby shouts, causing Aurelia to put her paintbrush down and pull her headphone off. She stands up from her seat and looks at the girls, nervous that they might be frowning or close to throwing a punch, but of course, like a one and off switch they weren't doing that at all.
Abby's demand triggered all the girls to pull on fake smiles, posing in the mirror together. It's honestly unbelievable but they made it look like they actually like each other. Aurelia just walks to the kitchen, putting the kettle on the stove, to make some tea. She could see where she was standing in the kitchen that the trio was cuddling up to each other, as if they weren't just at each other's throats a few seconds ago.
"Okay one video, let's just say happy birthday Tony." Genesis says, causing Aurelia to shake her head slightly, leaning against the counter, crossing her arms.
"One, two, three-!"
The three say happy birthday to Tony all together before breaking away from each other. Jackie looks upset, resulting in her turning away from Genesis. Abby is the only one smiling while her two friends just look in the opposite direction from each other.
"Can you two just stop this shit and move on?" Abby complains, putting her phone in her bag. "You both are attention whores. There. Now let's go, Aiden is literally outside waiting for us."
Aurelia could feel herself take a deep breath as she sees the trio walk towards the front door. Once they are gone, she just sighs out loud. The home is finally quiet and now she can have the rest of the night to herself. The kettle begins to whistle, making her turn the fire off and take one of her mugs, the ones she made, down from the cupboard. Aurelia also grabs the lemon, chamomile honey box tea down and puts one packet in her mug. She pours the hot water in the cup and carefully puts the kettle down.
Aurelia is a paranoid and nervous person generally, and she could tell when something doesn't feel right. After that big spat between Genesis and Jackie, she's sure Genesis was referring to her. Sure, she could be overthinking it, which is a big problem she tends to have, but it just didn't make any sense for her to say that with her in the room.
Trying to shake the thought out of her head, she picks her mug up from the small area of the counter, and walks over to the couch where her laptop is sitting on the accent table just a few inches away from the couch. Aurelia sips her tea carefully as she sits down, of course it was good, but even with the peace and quiet she feels uncomfortable. Has she really grown to the loudness of the house already? She sighs and puts her mug down before pulling her phone from the front part of her overalls. She calls Cameron and waits for him to answer. After the first ring, he picks up.
"Hey," he answers tiredly. "What's up, Aurelia?"
The guilt washes over her. "Did I wake you up? I'm sorry."
Her best friend laughs deeply. "Don't worry about it, I need to get up anyway. So, what's up?"
Although she still feels bad, she really needs to talk to someone, especially after everything she has learned from Jackie and her friends. These are things that she wants to share with her best friends.
"I feel so uncomfortable." She tells him honestly. "I'm trying to stick it out until after the first month of classes start, but I don't know if I can handle being around them."
"Woah..." His voice was laced with concerns, completely pulling the tiredness from his tone. "Slow down, Relia. Deep breath, like we practiced before."
Aurelia calms down, taking deep breaths like he taught her the night before he was off to his dream school. She remembers staying up all night, trying to prepare herself for his departure. That wasn't a good idea. It caused her to have the worst panic attack in her life. Aurelia wasn't ready to let another one of her best friends go.
When Sabrina left, Aurelia cried for days, not leaving her room and only coming out when Cameron wanted to make her feel better. Even when she left, she still had Cameron to lean on and cry to. He was what kept her from losing it. When it was his turn to leave, it unfortunately ended with her panicking in his bedroom during their last sleepover. Cameron was so scared that night, until he quickly realized what was happening, resulting in him helping her through her panic attack, and teaching her different breathing techniques. They helped her a lot after that day, and after he left.
"I want to give Jackie a chance," She tells him slowly, enunciating her words. "But, for some reason wherever she's around her friends, her behavior shifts and it's weird energy between us and her friends."
Cameron sighs. "So she's fake?"
"It appears that way," she comments. "Like she seems so genuine when she asked me to go to the cafe with her, but when her friends are present her personality does a three sixty. Even today it seems like they were trying to check me? Or drag me into their toxic friend group."
"Aurelia, my best advice is to talk to the head of housing. Let them know you are uncomfortable so you can just move into a dorm room." He suggests before the sound of running water fills her ear. "Truefully they sound really fake, but personally I'd ignore them or keep myself so busy that I only have to see their face in the morning. I just hate burdening people. However, that shouldn't matter for you, you should definitely talk to the head of student housing or talk to Jackie and let her know how you feel. Even if she is fake, you can at least tell the head of student housing that you tried to reason if the situation doesn't get better."
It was a good suggestion, but maybe she should talk to Jackie, and this time lay it on her as thick as possible.
"I have to get ready for student hall, it's a bit late for you right? I'm three hours ahead, right? It's like seven right?"
"Seven is not late!" Aurelia laughs before drinking her tea since it cools down a bit. "But okay, I'll text you in the morning, hopefully Sabrina can call me later tomorrow. I think I'm just going to shower after I get my official schedule for Monday."
"Alright love, sleep well, talk to you tomorrow! Also consider what I said, don't just allow yourself to be uncomfortable." Cameron tells her before they end the call.
After talking to Cameron, Aurelia felt a bit better about how to approach things. She was going to talk to Jackei tomorrow, letting her know how things are going to be, and compromise with her so she doesn't feel uncomfortable anymore. As she walks to the kitchen to clean up everything, she can suddenly hear music playing out of nowhere. As she dries her hands, she walks back to the living area, looking around for the source of the music. Once she walks towards the stairs, the music gets louder, but it wasn't coming from upstairs.
Aurelia looks at the accent table just beside the full body mirror and sees that it's a phone sitting behind the fake plant. She carefully picks the phone up and sees the caller ID. When she sees Aiden's name with a heart beside it. She didn't want to be nosey, and she was just going to leave it alone, but if it's Aiden, then maybe he could return the phone to the person it belongs to. It couldn't be Abby's phone, she saw her walk out with it, and it can't be Genesis' phone because it has a heart beside Aiden's name, so it leaves one person.
Jackie.
Answering the phone, she presses the phone to her ear. "Hell-"
"Genesis! Where did you go? I thought you said that Andrew was coming? Are you fucking him or something? Was my dick not enough for you tonight?" Aiden aggressively answers the phone, not allowing her to even speak, but unfortunately she ends up hearing things that she clearly wasn't supposed to hear.
"O-Oh...uh.." Aurelia takes a deep breath. "I guess Genesis left her phone here?"
She closes her eyes, smacking herself on the forehead for even deciding to answer the phone.
"Aurelia?" Aiden's tone is clearly full of shock, even with the loud music blasting on his end, there wasn't any hiding that specific sound. "Shit... uh.."
"Just... When you see Genesis, let her know she left her phone." She tells him, hanging up the phone, putting back where it was internally cursing at herself before walking up the stairs after gathering her laptop and phone.
She knew she would have to come back down because she needs to clean up the paint and other things downstairs, but she had to calm herself down from what she just heard and done just because she wanted to be nice. Genesis and Aiden are sleeping together and Jackie doesn't know about it? She just brought more of their bull crap onto herself.
"Why did you answer the stupid phone..." She mumbles to herself as she put her laptop on the charger before sitting in her chair at her desk.
After a few minutes, her phone ringtone fills the empty room, making her groan before answering it. "Hello?"
"Hey," Aiden's voice fills her ear, making her cringe a bit. "I know I said somethings... but don't take that seriously and don't tell Jackie... please."
"Aiden..."
"Look, how about you come down, have a few drinks and have fun? That way you can give Genesis her phone back and we can forget all about this." He speaks over her, trying to ignore the obvious concerns hidden in her voice. "Just for tonight, and I promise I'll talk to Jackie so you won't have to worry about keeping anything a secret. Okay?"
Aurelia nibbles at the skin of her thumb trying not to have a panic attack over the phone. "I just don't want to get mixed up in all of this. I don't even want to show up, so please, don't call me. Thank you."
She hangs up and blocks Aiden's number. It was the right decision for herself, and she was going to talk to the head of student housing to get a new roommate, or even a dorm room of her own. She doesn't even know if she could look Jackie in the face after hearing just a sentence of secrets from a three second phone call.
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