❝Sometimes an artist needs to step out of their comfort zone to get in the zone. ❞
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Aurelia gathers the papers from her second class, putting them neatly in her folder before pushing it in her tote bag. As expected, the first week of classes were only syllabus reviews. She wasn't expecting much, but going over the same copy and paste documents for the academic classes was exhausting. The last class for, which wasn't until another two hours, was her art class with a popular artist teaching the class. Specifically someone she has been following since she started high school and admired.
"Hey," someone calls out to her as she walks out of the room. "You're Aurelia right?"
Aurelia tilts her head, she has no idea who this person is, but they somehow knew her name. What is even more odd to her, is the man kind of looked a lot like Aiden, but he had longer hair with a lot of tattoos and piercings.
"Uh, yes?"
The male smiles politely. "I'm Adrian, I saw you at the orientation event last week at the tattoo tent."
Aurelia makes an 'o' shape with her mouth as she continues to walk with the male right beside her. That explains how he knows her based on appearance, but that doesn't explain how he knows her name. That alarmed her a bit.
"I know this is weird," he laughs awkwardly and stops walking to dig in his bag for something. "I'm an art major as well."
She watches him closely as he fishes for something in his bag. It has given her a few seconds to look him over. His dark brown hair really suited his face, especially with the grunge aesthetic he has going on for him. Even if he's Aiden's brother or twin, he is the complete opposite of him. Just from the little interaction, his personality is far better than Aiden's. Once he finds what he was looking for, he pulls the list out and looks it over before handing it to her.
"Sunny, the head of our department gave us, the seniors, a task to welcome all the freshmen as an assignment." He chuckles as he switches bags and pulls a cute little rainbow bag. "I have to give out these welcome bags to every freshman."
Aurelia couldn't help but laugh before smiling widely. "This is cute. Did you make it?"
He shrugs his shoulders and nods. "Most of it from the dollar store, and it's not too much stuff."
She smiles and pulls a pen out of her bag and signs her name for him.
"Here you go," she hands him the paper back. "Thank you for the welcome bag."
Adrian puts the paper back and shakes his head. "No problem-"
"Yo! Adrian!"
Aurelia's smile slightly fades as Aiden, Jackie, and Tony walk up to them. They haven't talked to each other since the party, which was two days ago. Jackie had spoken to her when they were at the dorm, but it wasn't to have a full conversation. It was only if she was asking her about when she'll turn in to sleep or when she won't be coming home. She wasn't sure if her showing up to the party made her upset with her, or just seeing her beside Aiden that night bothered her a lot. She honestly didn't know, but things are kind of tense.
"I see you found my twin," Aiden grins, squeezing his brother close, but Adrian pushes him away. "I know he's not as hot as me but... you know we are identical."
Adrian rolls his eyes and stares at Aurelia. "I'll see you around."
Everyone watches Adrian walk away, making Aurelia wonder about their story, but she would rather hear it from him than his brother and his friends.
"I fucking hate him." Aiden mumbles before wrapping his arm around Jackie. "He thinks he's all high and mighty because he's Elijah's bitch."
Aurellia couldn't believe her ears. It's like whenever she's around them, they bring their negativity along with them. She looks at her bag and smiles before turning on her heel to walk away from them, but she could hear running behind her.
"Hey, Ariel, wait!" Genesis calls out, making Aurelia sigh mentally before turning around to face her.
"Aurelia." She corrects her, making Genesis tilt her head from confusion before nodding.
"Right, anyway," she crosses her arms after pushing her hair over her shoulder. "Since when did you know Andrew? His video at the party, with him and Sean dancing in front of you is becoming a hot topic on campus."
"I don't know him," she tells her truthfully. "I just happened to be standing next to him before he started dancing."
Genesis tilts her head and sighs. "Andrew isn't the type of guy you happen to just stand next to."
Aurelia is mentally rolling her eyes at this girl. The way people talk about this man, putting him on this godly level is overwhelming enough, but her trying to belittle her because she didn't get a chance to talk to him, is even more overwhelming. On top of everything else, she gets name wrong all the time.
"Well, I guess when you see him, you can ask him yourself." Aurelia lingers there for no more than three seconds before turning away from her to walk to the nearest cafe that's close to the main campus.
She wants to text her best friends, and look at the gift bag Adrian took the time to put together for all the freshmen in the same department. As she waits at the bus stop, she puts her headphones on and plays some music as she waits for the bus. She could call a lyft, but the money her parents transfer into her account is only for emergencies.
Aurelia knows how well off she is, but she doesn't plan on relying on her parents for too long. She has been looking at the jobs available on campus and ones near campus to pay for things that she wants at the moment. Once the bus pulls up, she uses her phone to pay digitally and stands in the front until the bus stops right in front of the cafe she wants to go to. It wasn't the one Jackie took her to, it was one she had been considering sending an application to since it's a bus trip away and they are hiring for the night shifts. Since she has all afternoon classes, working late wouldn't be a problem for her.
As she walks in, the line to the front counter is long. Aurelia listens to her music, looking over the cafe menu above the counter. She didn't want anything sweet, so she planned on having the unsweetened peach tea with salt bread. When she looked around at the cafe, she could see that everyone was sitting and chatting, some had to be from her college. Once the line moves, she takes a step forward.
"Couldn't we have a lunch break at a restaurant or something? Why did we come here?" she hears someone complains a tab bit louder than her music.
Aurelia smoothly looks over her shoulder to see a group of five walk into the cafe. They all had the same style, but all five were very different.
One had a green buzz cut, his features strong and attractive, making him look intimidating but she could tell by his smile he was far from it. Beside him was a girl around his height, her arms tatted up and two piercings in one ear. As the line moves, she turns around for a moment. She wants to wait a few seconds before observing the group further. After ten seconds passed, she turned around slightly again, getting a good glimpse of a pretty natural ginger, with brown smooth skin, and the guy next to her, the one complaining, was a lot different from everyone else, but his style was the same. Grunge. Based on his appearance, Aurelia could tell he had albinism.
Although they all seem like an interesting bunch, amongst the five, only one of them was familiar.
Elijah.
The attractive blond who she seems to be running into a lot lately—By chance, of course.
"We can't leave Justin and Amaya alone for too long," the blond, Elijah, says as he scrolls through his phone. "Besides, it seems like Adrian is going to be late, so why not buy everyone something."
"Did we all need to come then- ouch, Grace what the fuck?"
"You're causing a scene," Grace warns, nodding in Aurelia's direction. "See, even the pretty girl can't enjoy her music because of your loudness."
Aurelia wanted to turn her head, but what would be the point? They already caught her staring. Elijah raises his head slowly, frowning lines between his thick dark eyebrows as he glances around for the girl his friend is talking about. The moment they make eye contact those frown lines from before disappear and his lips that were in a straight line slowly curl into a big smile.
"That she is," Elijah utters deeply as he walks in front of everyone and takes a few steps towards her. "Hi again, Aurelia."
She slowly pulls her headphones off and smiles a bit before nodding.
"Elijah, remember?" He asks just as the guy, who was complaining before, steps up right behind him.
"I thought all your groupies knew your name." He snickers, causing Grace to yank him away from Elijah.
Groupies?
The generalization bother her, and that word in itself made her want to turn around and-
"Ignore him," Elijah sighs. "He associates every person I talk to as a groupie. I just wish he would knock that shit off."
Aurelia nods a bit again before she turns around a little to take another step forward since the line is moving.
"Anyway," he takes a small step to the right, so he could stand facing her. "I see that we ran into each other again, how about we make small talk and get to know one another, yeah?"
"What for?" She questions, tilting her head before taking a small glance at him.
He grins, his mole just above his top lip moving upwards with his pearly teeth on display. His blond hair is in a half up and half down style, making him a lot more attractive than she honestly remembers.
"Ah, so she does speak. Hear I thought you were keeping that pretty voice of yours to yourself."
Thump.
Aurelia shyly adverts her gaze elsewhere, causing the male to grin before the woman from before stepping in between them.
"Stop flirting with everyone you see."
"I'm just being nice, Grace." he chuckles quietly. "Besides, it doesn't seem like she minds me flirting just a bit, right?
The attention made her panic a bit, causing her to quickly step to the counter, since it was her turn to order.
After ordering what she wants, she takes her receipt with her order number on it and quickly finds an open table to sit at. Aurelia sits her things down and turns her attention outside the window, not wanting to make eye contact with the man. Just when she thought she got away, a few seconds after ordering, the man takes a seat in front of her, making her swallow down air.
"I have a strong feeling that you're avoiding me," Elijah says, raising his eyebrow while folding his hand out on the table. "Do you not wish to talk to me?"
Aurelia awkwardly avoids his eyes looking down at her phone as if she's changing the song. "I just... don't know you?"
"Then let's start over," he suggests calmly, not in a pushy way. "I'm Elijah and you are?"
She looks up from her phone, and in that brief moment, the moment their eyes gaze into each other for three seconds, Aurelia holds her breath until she looks away again. She places the bag she got from Adrian on the table and clears her throat.
"A-Aurelia. My name is Aurelia." She gathers enough courage to look at Elijah, watching him closely as he just stares at her. "What?"
"Your name is beautiful." he compliments. "Hm... is that latin?"
Aurelia slowly nods her head as she looks away from him again. "It's my great grandmother's name, but I don't know much about her."
Elijah hums gently before the girl, Grace, walks up to their table and taps it. "Come on lover boy, leave her alone."
"Grace, please," Elijah groans playfully. "If you keep this act up, I'm going to assume you want me all to yourself."
"You wish, Elijah." She rolls her eyes before looking at Aurelia, who is observing their behavior as they interact with each other.
"You know," she leans down to whisper to Aurelia. "He's pretty but he's a man whore."
Elijah grins and shakes his head. "I can hear you, Gracie, I'm sitting right here."
"That you are." Grace crosses her arms. "Why don't you go over there with the rest of our friends and leave her alone."
The man who was complaining before also walks towards the table, sliding into the spot beside Elijah, forcing him to scoot over before smiling at her. "I'm Abel, the more... hotter and charming guy of this friend group."
"Oh brother..." Grace rolls her eyes again before joining the other friends at the table to the right of her.
"Oh wait a minute," Abel points to the bag. "That looks a lot like the bags Adrian stayed up all night putting together. You must be one of the freshmen from the art department at that school."
Aurelia eyes slowly glances over towards the bag. "I haven't... looked through it yet."
"He didn't do much, but I know he said that it would make it count since this is his last year or something," Abel rants before turning towards Elijah, who had been staring at her this entire time, which made her feel very uncomfortable. "Speaking of that school, I saw a video of Andrew today, it seems like he didn't lose his touch."
As Aurelia looks at Elijah, his facial expression changes again. She was really good at reading people's faces, being a good observer, but she couldn't quite grasp what emotion he was feeling after hearing Abel bring up Andrew. Did he have a problem with Andrew too, just like everyone else did?
"He's not living with you, right?" Abel pushes, clearly not reading the room. "Did you two even-"
"Yo, Abel!" The guy with the green hair, from their circle, speaks up from the other table. "Pipe down. Stop interrogating him."
Abel shrugs. "I was just curious since I saw him on the video."
"Number two ninety?" The person at the counter calls Aurelia's number, causing her to excuse herself softly.
It was good that her number was called, the tension between them all made her really uncomfortable, but not like how Jackie and her friends made her feel the first week she got to the house. The discomfort came from her being in the middle of something she didn't quite understand but everyone else did. Even when she didn't know what was happening, she still understood from their reactions and responses to Abel that it wasn't something that should be talked about out in the open. By the time she got her things, the next number was called, causing Elijah and his friend group to get up and leave.
Aurelia sighs in relief as she watches them walk in her direction as she walks back to the table. She could finally have some alone time before her class. However, as she sits back down at her table, Elijah turns around, pulling his phone out his pocket.
"Can I... get your phone number?" He asks her, making her instantly shake her head.
"No," she turns him down. "I don't just hand out my number... I hope you understand."
Elijah tilted his head, but he didn't look upset, just curious. Was he expecting her to say something else?
"Interesting." He says before putting his phone back into his pocket. "I hope to see you around, Aurelia."
With that, she watches him and his friends leave the cafe together, giving her time to breathe. That was the first time, in a while, that she was able to hold a conversation, kind of, with people other than Cameron and Sabrina. Though she was able to talk to Jackie and her friends, it didn't really feel like how she just felt with these guys, it felt a lot more safer, as if she wasn't being watched and judged for everything she says or does.
It did make her a lot more curious about them though, because this is the second group to talk about Andrew. It made her wonder more about the strange man. She only held a small conversation with him before he started to dance, but since more than one person has brought him up, she wonders what truly happened with him. But of course, like anyone else, she does not know him and doesn't plan on asking him about his personal life. It was silly for her to even be curious.
Aurelia sends a quick check in message to the group chat with Sabrina and Cameron before looking through the bag Adrian has given to her. There were a lot of art supplies, and two bags of gummy bears. She thought it was a good welcome bag. It did make her feel quite welcome, but if Adrian is super nice, she never expected Aiden to be his twin brother. Aiden is the complete opposite, and it was obvious who was the more approachable one out of the twins.
She just hopes she can find a small group of close friends of her own. One she didn't have to over hear drama or get caught in an uncomfortable situation with. She wanted to feel less lonely.
Aurelia takes her tea and begins to drink it slowly after putting her headphones back on and listening to one of her playlist she had made from before.
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