I'm standing outside in the cold, holding an umbrella that turns inside out in the wind every couple minutes. I severely regret buying this cheap one, and make a mental note to order a nicer one tonight.

The doors to the building I'm waiting outside of finally open, and a wave of people come out. I spot the familiar platinum blonde hair. "We're finally done!" Leena says as she shuffles through all of the people to get to me. It's been a rough week, but I've finally finished my first term at university. Luckily Leena and I finished on the same day, only an hour apart.

"Let's celebrate," I grin, "dinner?"

Leena drives, the gloomy rain has gotten heavier and noisily taps the windshield, while the wipers can barely keep up. I learned pretty quickly after moving here that the amount of rain in this city is ridiculous. "So how have things been?" she asks, "I'm really sorry we haven't had much time to hang out this term."

"No no don't worry about that," I reassure her. She's planning to apply for one of the most competitive engineering programs at the university next year, so she's been studying really hard. I didn't want to disrupt her with my problems. "It's been kind of rough these past few weeks." She knows the general gist of what's been going on. I was an idiot and didn't listen to her when she told me to stay away from Jason from the beginning.

"Is this about Chad?" she asks warily.

"Well..sort of.." I say awkwardly, knowing how she's about to react.

She looks at me suspiciously as we reach a red light. "I really hope this isn't about Jason. You told me you would stop talking to him after the office incident over a month ago!" She scolds me.

I give her a sheepish look.

She rolls her eyes. "Jesus christ. What happened this time?"

"After I got home from Chad's, Jason called. He could tell I was crying, and then came over to comfort me," I choose not to clarify what I mean by 'comfort' but she sees through it anyways.

"And by comfort you mean..?"

"Ok ok we slept together," I admit.

"Katie for god's sake," she groans, "he took advantage of you while you were vulnerable."

I'd never thought about it like that. I don't want to believe that's what happened. I'm not that stupid...right?

"He was nice this time though. He seemed to care about me. It wasn't like Halloween where he left," I say defensively, "and then the morning after he asked me to be his date for the ASA Christmas dinner." I don't know whether I'm trying to convince her or myself.

She frowns. "I thought you told me you were going because the team invited you."

"Well...yes, it got complicated," I admit, "later that day I went to his office and caught him having sex at his desk."

"Oh my god. Unbelievable." Her expression is a mix of disgust and disbelief.

"After I left was when Ray and Lincoln invited me."

She pauses for a bit. "And that was your last interaction with Jason...right?"

"Yes."

"Alright. So, you'll see him at the dinner, and then no more, right?" She does not look like she's asking, more so ordering me.

"Yes, I'll be done with him," I state.

"You better be, or I will give you absolute hell for it," she mutters, flames flashing in her eyes.

__________________

We sit in the restaurant, we normally don't go to places this nice but we decided today is a special occasion. Luckily we're here at a weird time of day so we don't have to wait long for a table. "So what do Lincoln and Ray think about it?" she asks.

"They actually have no idea about anything that's happened between us. They don't even know I have a thing for him," I reply, "they've been best friends for 11 years Leena, I don't want to interfere with their friendship."

She sighs, "I guess based on what you've told me, it sounds like they already know he's a womanizer anyways. Not that that's ok either."

"Let's talk about something els-" before I can finish my sentence, I notice the front doors of the restaurant open, and in comes Lincoln, Ray, and Jason.

Leena subtly turns to see what I'm staring at. I guess she recognizes them from the pictures I've shown her. She chuckles a little.

"Speak of the damn devil."

Thank god we're finally done with finals. Only one more term left before we graduate. As we wait for the host to approach us, a girl sitting in the center of the restaurant catches my eye. She has wavy blonde hair, stunning blue eyes, and a slender body. I'm considering going over there to talk to her, until I realize she's sitting across from Katie, and they're both staring at us.

"Hey isn't that Katie?" Ray asks, "should we ask her if she wants to join us?"

"Sure, Jason and I will get the table first," Lincoln says, as we follow the host to a table.

I guess Ray managed to convince them. Katie and her friend approach us, and slide into the booth. I end up sitting in between Lincoln and Katie's friend.

"Hey I'm Jason," I introduce myself, giving her the smile I give to attractive girls when I first meet them.

She frowns a bit. "Leena." What's her problem?

Turns out she's a childhood friend of Katie's. I like her, it's been a while since I've met a 'hard to get' type. Katie doesn't seem too uncomfortable around me, I guess she really doesn't remember our call last week.

"Looking forward to dinner next week Katie?" Lincoln asks.

"Yeah for sure, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again," she responds happily.

"Same for them," I smile, "I swear they were ready to start a petition for you." Everyone has really missed her.

Katie smiles shyly.

"It was pretty insane last year," Ray chuckles, "we rented a yacht and ended up partying all night. El presidente here wanted something tame this year."

I roll my eyes. "Hey I'm trying to be responsible with our budgeting ok? Remember how much money the club spent for that last year?" Honestly things got so crazy I don't even remember most of the night.

"Alright fair enough," he laughs, "what are your plans for Christmas Leena?"

"I'm flying home at the end of this week. Going to spend the holidays with my family," she says.

I find myself studying Leena. She's attractive that's for sure, but there's also something familiar about her.

"Hey Leena, have we met before? You seem really familiar," I ask.

She looks uncomfortable. "I don't think so."

"Are you sure? I feel like I recognize you from somewhere," I say again. Maybe we met at a party or something.

She makes eye contact with me this time. "No."

I don't know why she seems so defensive about this. "Really? I-"

"Fine. We met at Katie's birthday when you came instead of Lincoln," she snaps.

The table goes awkwardly tense and quiet.

Whoops.

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Everyone needs a Leena in their life, a friend who'll get mad at you when you do something stupid lol

Thank you for reading! :)