- Gabriella -

I ended up sitting beside Res and Claudia on my other side. "This is Mike. This is Shayla, Vin, and Jason." Res introduced his friends to us. "Woah, I didn't know Res was hiding such a pretty one." The guy with ash blonde highlights beside him said and bumped Res on the shoulder. His name is Mike I think. He looked at me, interest lighting his eyes. "Hey beautiful, I'm Mike. What's your name?" He's joking because I caught the hint of a smile on his lips. Still, I can't help but roll my eyes.

"Gosh ew, Mike. No wonder you don't have a girlfriend." The girl with shoulder-length blonde hair gave Mike a look that said, "Don't you have something else better to say? "Vin you know he was just joking, right?" The other girl, Shayla said. She gave me an apologetic grin.

"Aw man, I'm trying to make friends here guys," Mike says, giving a pout. I can already see that he's probably the joker in the group. Vin just huffed and turned her attention back to her shiny sleek phone once her point was brought across. I recognize it as one of the latest designs on display in the mobile phone shops.

"You can just ignore him." The other guy, Jason gave me a small shy smile. I can see he is the quieter one, with his slightly serious features and no-nonsense attitude. Grinning, Res introduced us to his friends. "She is Gabriella and she is...uh, I'm sorry I don't know your name." Res looked to Claudia. "Claudia. My name is Claudia. Nice to meet you guys." Claudia spoke confidently and only the tremor in her hands gave away her excitement.

"Ahh, so this lovely golden one is Gabriella," Mike said dramatically and gave me a wink. Mike gives off a different vibe than Res, but he's attractive enough with his closely cropped hair, dyed ash blonde at the tips. His black hair roots peek out from underneath, giving him a fresh boyish look. Well, if you're the kind that's into popular guys.

I can sense that this group isn't your average low-key type, but one that's quite popular and who doesn't mind standing out. Especially, how attention-seeking Mike is. Luckily, Vin is too busy with her phone and Shayla picking at her manicured nails to bother glancing at the both of us. I don't think I can stomach any more comments about my appearance. Mike's comments, although bordering on the joking side, is starting to grate on my nerves.

"What's good here?" I asked Mike gesturing at the menu. "Ah, the pasta here is the best I've had so far. And the coffee here tastes great." Mike begins to list the names of the dishes he tasted and which he deems up to his standards. I silently breathed a sigh of relief, hoping none of them noticed my attempt to switch his focus off me.

Surprisingly, Claudia knocked it off with Shayla and Vin pretty well because they all have many common interests. "Actually, I have to admit you look kind of familiar." Vin, the chattier one of the two admitted to Claudia. Giving her the devil's grin, Claudia replied, "I'm sure you've seen me before because I was the one who danced on stage during the Freshmen Welcoming Show." "Oh jeez, now that you mentioned it, I remembered," Shayla said.

"Shayla is a dancer. She belongs to this hip-hop group of people that performs in the hall dance competitions." Res apparently knows what was going on explains to me. "So she remembers your friend because she was impressed by her bravery for being daring enough to go on stage."

"Hi, can I take your orders please?" The waitress, a short curvy girl with skin-tight jeans interrupted as she stood in front of us. She gave Res a once-over and likes what she saw because she started batting her eyelashes at him. I mentally puked.

Res smiled at her and casually placed his arm around Mike. "Two number 5. A cappuccino and a latte please." He ordered for himself and Mike.

"And I will get a number 10 with extra cheese please," Jason ordered, offering the waitress a cold polite smile. I took that as my cue to start ordering. We each took turns to order and soon the waitress had gotten our orders down. She gave one last longing look at Res before sashaying off.

"Woah, what's that?" I blurted, unable to keep my indignance in check. "Nasty shit." Jason agreed. He has a good sense of humor. I decided that among all of Res' friends, Jason seems someone I would like to get to know better. "Oh, that? That's Res life." Mike replied with nonchalance. "This is what you get if you have puppy brown eyes and looks that kill ladies. That's why it's better to look like my standards." Mike seemed really used to the scene and how Res uses him as an excuse to avoid interested... what's the word? Ah yeah, interested parties.

Res looked at me with a knowing look. "Do you get that often too?"

"Hmm... not really, I like to keep my profile low. But I can relate in a sense." I said, understanding what he meant.

"Oh isn't that the latest design inspired by Prince Damien?" Claudia exclaimed, looking a little too eagerly at Vin's phone. "Omg, yes! Finally, someone who sees this baby." Vin cried out looking at Claudia like she has found a friend worthy of befriending. The topic shifted from the awkward atmosphere to the sleek phone Vin held in her hands.

Soon, our food was brought to our table by another waitress, luckily not the previous one.

We had just finished lunch and were walking out of the cafe when Vin squealed excitedly "Oh my gosh, he is coming to our school!"

Claudia catching onto her outburst also squealed, "No way Vin. Are you saying who I'm thinking? Him??" The rest of us looked at each other confusedly. "It's Damien! He is coming to our school for some learning exchange program that his father arranged for him. Quote unquote - 'to broaden his horizons and hang out with kids his age.' " Vin announced excitedly. "Oh oh, and he's coming next week and the Science Department is throwing him a welcome party at the dorms."

"Do you guys all stay in the dorms?" Not missing a beat, Claudia asked Res and his friends. All of them nodded except me. "What Briel? You are missing out so much in life! Never mind, you can stay with me for these few weeks. I'm staying in a two-room apartment and you will be my roomie. Nuh uh, no buts." Claudia shushed me as I opened my mouth to protest.

Um okay... that happened really fast.

I wanted to reject Claudia's offer despite how tempting it seems because firstly I just met this bunch of people. Secondly, I have my doubts about hanging out with the popular clique. Thirdly, the last thing I want to do is to attend whatever this welcome party is because I'm damn sure it is going to be crowded plus the socializing? Nuh uh.

Call me a fun-killer or party pooper. I don't care. But my experiences with the word "parties", they weren't all great. The places I attended, thanks to my high school "friends", set me on edge with all the closed-in spaces and curious nudges.

Nudges meaning the physical kind. The touching was only limited to my arms and rarely my waist, but that was enough to drive me insane with discomfort. The only great point was finding out that I have a high tolerance for alcohol. However, that means my "friends" love challenging me to drinking games just to see me get drunk and then everything ends in a sticky mess.

It seems a little strange that alcohol doesn't get me drunk or maybe their drinks are just spiked with just a little bit and my tolerance isn't your average kind... Whatever it is, I don't wish for the past to repeat itself.

I stared at the group of them chatting animatedly about their plans for the party and thought to myself how the hell did I get roped into this? Even Jason seems to be excited.

So the plan to welcome Prince Damien was set and everyone agreed to turn up that night. Everyone except me, of course. But I couldn't voice my objections in front of them.

***

"Hey Claudia, it's not that I can't be your roomie, but you see erm... I have this medical condition. I need to be near nature. So I doubt I can stay in the dorms, maybe I will stay at home instead." I'm trying my best to convince her that I can't become her roomie so I don't have to find excuses to not turn up.

However, Claudia isn't taking no for an answer.

"Hey, actually I get your insecurities. I really do, you know." She looked at me pointedly, and for a moment I was caught off guard by her sentence.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, taken back by that single sentence.

"All that anti-social crap and cold persona? It's all a form of protection against others. I think you've had some bad encounters with friends or you call em "friends". But you know, not everyone's like that." Claudia shot me a knowing glance as we walked to my History Class.

My eyes widened. "Wait, you know what it feels like?" I asked her. "Did you experience it too?" Apprehension clouded my nerves. Does Claudia find it relatable or was it just an act?

"In a sense." Her eyes darkened as she noted my response. "But I think you had it worse than me. Your walls are so high, they must be a bunch of jerks. Let me guess, terrible party hangouts and superficial interests." I raised my brows in surprise, because her guess just summarized it. "How did you know?" I gaped. She only huffed.

"Gurl I'm not saying that you must come for this welcome party, but I'm saying consider giving this a try okay? Try it for once, have some fun. Then decide whether you like it or not. If you don't like it, you can still leave anytime, I promise." Something blooms in my chest. It was the taste of defeat. The idea of leaving anytime sounded tempting, and instead of me convincing Claudia, she was the one who managed to rope me in.

"Okay. Fine. But as you so kindly pointed out, I will leave once things go south. I mean it." I said seriously, jabbing my fingers for emphasis. She grinned and nodded her approval, waving her hand as she said "See you later. I will bring you around our dorm after class."

Ugh. What have I just gotten myself into?

I'm kind of regretting it already.

But maybe this time for once, it's not the same. Maybe things are not as bad as I thought.