Soon enough, it came time for me to return to university. I made sure that my holdall was packed full of winter clothes, including sweatshirts, jeans and even snow boots. I didn't know whether it would snow again any time soon, but I did live in Cambridge, and I knew that the weather could be unpredictable during the winter months.
I knew that I could be particularly sensitive to the cold, so I made sure to have plenty of layers with me.
My bag also had a lot of containers of hot chocolate in it, for good measure, and marshmallows too, of course.
After spending a proportion of the morning working on my assignment a little more, and making use of the books that Violet had handed me, I decided it was about time I left my room to see what the others were doing.
Once out in the hallway though, I realised that none of them were presently there.
I supposed that was one of the things about university, though, people could often be incredibly busy. As much as I missed Lily, I figured that she was probably getting on with some work in the library currently, and that I would see her soon.
Sooner, rather than later, it seemed, for the door to the dormitories app opened and Lily stepped inside. She started to move her hands together in an attempt to warm herself up, and I simply stepped forward to take her hands in mine, finding them incredibly cold to the touch upon doing so.
I didn't mind it, of course.
Lily's cheeks became rosier, but I knew it wasn't just from the cold outside.
She soon smitked as she caught my gaze.
"Now, what's a beautiful girl like you doing out in the hallway here?" she asked me with confidence. Lily had always been good at this she flirting thing. Come to think of it, she may have been doing that for a while. I just hadn't noticed it, being the somewhat clueless person that I could be at times.
Now, it was my turn to blush.
I felt the corner of my cherry-glossed lips twitch up a little.
"Just looking for you," I stated.
Lily's grey eyes seemed to twinkle a little, when I told her that.
"Well, you found me," she said, as she entwined our fingers together and winked at me.
"It certainly seems that I did," I replied, with a smile.
Before I could say another word, the door opened to the halls once again, causing a gentle breeze to go through Lily's hair for a moment, and gently ruffled my curls, too.
We both turned to find that Ulric was stood there, his hair a little windswept from the weather.
"Hey, you two," he said, with a kind smile.
There was something that was always just so warm about Ulric, and he was truly authentic, too.
I hadn't known whether the two of us would become friends or not, when I had first met him. However, I was thankful that we were, now.
"Hey Ulric," Lily greeted him.
"Hi," I chimed in, too, with a smile.
"I have been studying all morning. Thought I would come and see you guys," Ulric stated, with a glint of amusement evident in his eyes.
I met Lily's gaze, then, as though to query whether she had told him. She gave a subtle shake of her head, one which thankfully only I noticed.
We hadn't told the others just yet. Apart from Winona and X, of course, who Lily and I had spoken with when we had returned in the New Year.
"Good on you for studying, Ulric. I still feel partially hungover from the New year," she stated.
I just smirked in response to that statement.
I wished that Lily and I had been able to spend the day together, but I also knew that she had seemed to have had a good time, from her social media posts.
"Well you do tend to drink a lot, sister," Lance stated, as he wandered inside the dorms to meet us.
"How did you even know what I was talking about?" Lily asked him.
"Your voice is sort of loud. It tends to reverberate," he stated.
Lily narrowed her eyes at him, while Lance just smirked in his amusement.
"How are you today?" he asked her.
Lily just smiled towards me.
"I'm good. Apart from his hangover. You?" she asked him.
"Also good," Lance replied.
His eyes moved to me then.
"Hey Selina," he greeted me, and I returned the gesture.
Then his eyes started to look between Lily and I. I just motioned my hand through my hair, a little self-consciously. I didn't think that Lily had yet told her father about me, or the rest of her family, for that matter.
Of course, I wanted to give her plenty of time so that she was ready to do so. I knew that it would not be the easiest of things to do, given that her father apparently didn't have a history of being the most accepting individual.
I knew that I would make sure she was okay regardless. We had an incredibly supportive friend group and Lily never had to be alone.
As we stood there for a moment, just chattering away about how our Christmasses and New Year's had been, Winona entered the hall.
Lily wanted to go and get some breakfast, so I told her I would catch up with her later.
She smiled warmly, before waving her farewell to me, and then walked away with Lance and Ulric.
"It's so cold out there! I thought that I might become a human ice cube," Winona joked, as she pulled her lilac button-up coat a little tighter around her, "I need to write more of my essay," she said, wandering down the hall towards the warmth of the kitchen.
I followed suit.
"Do you want me to help you out with it?" I asked her, as she began to take out her new laptop.
Winona's parents were quite wealthy, apparently, as were many of my friendship group. I was always curious to see what the latest gizmos they would get were.
She took off her coat, and rested it on the radiator for a moment, so that it could dry off.
I let my eyes glance outside of the window for a moment, and noticed that it was raining again.
"I'm all good, Sel," she stated,
"I mean...technically I can't write the essay for you, but I can give you pointers if you would like," I assured her.
She seemed to smile at that.
"Thank you, Selina," she told me.
I just nodded, and then let her get on with her assignment in the quiet of the kitchen, as I headed back out into the hall.
Once there, I soon caught the bouncy blonde curls of Yasmin in the distance, and she walked towards me with a wide grin on her face, revealing her pearly teeth.
"Hi Selina!" she greeted me kindly.
"Hey Yas," I replied.
Yasmin had been very happy recently, and I supposed that none other than Lance Everett had something to do with it.
The two of them were exclusive now, and as much as Zara hadn't been that thrilled by it at first, she eventually was ultimately supportive.
Then again, she had been spending much more of her time with Winona. So, I supposed that took her mind off it.
"Have you seen Winona?" she inquired.
"Yeah, she just headed into the kitchen to focus on her assignment," I stated.
"Ah, coolies," Yasmin said, "I was just wondering whether you wanted to go and get breakfast-"
"Yes," I agreed.
She smiled warmly.
"Awesome! Let's go," she said.
We walked pretty briskly back to the cafe, given that it had been raining pretty heavily all day.
Once we arrived, we went to get some lattes and donuts, and then headed over to the table where Xena was sitting.
"Hey Xena," I greeted them in a friendly fashion.
They smiled back at me.
"Hola, Selina," they said, "Seriously, so many people kept walking over here and sitting with me. I suppose that's what I should get used to since joining the LGBT society, but it sure does get busy. Anyway, how are you both?"
"I'm well," I said.
"Me too! I miss Lance, though," Yasmin stated.
"Hey, I'm sure he'll be able to hang out later," X suggested.
"Yeah!" I said.
We sipped on our beverages for a short while, and soon enough, Zara entered the cafe shop, and walked over to the both of us.
"Hey girls," she said, "And non-binary pal," she added, for X, who smiled towards her appreciatively.
Zara then sat down next to us.
"Has anyone seen Winona today?" she inquired.
"Yeah, she's studying," I explained.
Well, in actuality she was writing her assignment, but given that the due date was today and she had worked so incredibly hard on it, I thought that it might be a good thing to prevent her from being asked tonnes of questions about it.
"Okay, cool," Zara said, as she settled in to the lively cafe shop atmosphere, and we sat there for a while until the clouds cleared up overhead.