Days went by slowly, and everywhere I looked I was handed images and reminders of Rowen. It was impossible to stay away from him in the beginning, and our dramatic end to our relationship didn't make it any easier. Despite the days growing shorter and the leaves beginning to turn their fiery hues, I didn't indulge myself in the normal rivalries of a pumpkin frap or carving pumpkins or fulfilling any of my dark academia dreams.

The hardest part was how sad and desperate he seemed. How every day when I arrived home there were flowers on my bedside table. Roses, baby's breath, lilies, peonies, and more, all in every color of the rainbow. One day he even left magnolias on my bedside, which is undoubtedly hard considering I'm fairly certain the type of magnolias that grow in England aren't the same as the ones in the south in America, and yet- here they were. The smell that was so deeply entangled in my childhood, from spending my days climbing magnolia trees and making fairy houses in them, was now entangled with him. And I hated him for it.

I hated how he can make me still love him. Damn you Rowen- someone needs to tell you you're not heath ledger.

"Nola! It's your turn!" India laughed, nudging me, pulling me out of my trance.

I pulled a card out of the pile of cards for a game called, "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS- the perfect card game for you and your besties,"

"Name a song to describe your current love life," I read and then leaned back and groaned. Of course! Shoulda guessed. I think fate is out to get me.

India leaned back thinking for a moment and then smirked, "Everyday, by Ariana Grande," she wiggled her eyebrows in insinuation. Ivy paled and I made fake gagging faces.

"You're utterly disgusting."

"Oh come on! If you were in my position you'd do the same thing," India defended herself.

"I bet he has you in a lot of positions," I mumbled under my breath.

India rolled her eyes, informing me she had indeed heard me, and then turned to Ivy, "How about you? You and Caspian are... cute?"

Ivy's tanned skinned blushed prettily, "Ermm... It's embarrassing..."

"Go on! There's no way it's worse than India- it's like they're rabbits," I teased.

"Maybe... Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran? He played that for me the other day."

My heart clenched when she said that. Nothing sounded more like Caspian than a cheasily romantic song, like that. Ivy and Caspian were like 13 year olds- I'm not even sure if they have anything more than kiss. On the other hand, India and Matteo decided to "exercise" a lot together.

I would be lying to say I wasn't jealous, but I pushed it away, "Mine shouldn't come as a surprise to any of y'all- probably Love is a Losing Game," I shrugged and shoveled another bite of ice cream into my mouth.

Ivy and India glanced at each other, as if trying to have a silent conversation. I narrowed my eyes at them.

"What?" I demanded, pointing my spoon in their direction accusingly.

"Well.." Ivy started off slowly.

"I would take this with a grain of salt-" India added

"And we still are planning to cut his dick off.."

"But the boys think the story might be different than what we think. That hes been moping about more an unusual and telling the boys that Gemma forced herself on him-"

"Wait, what?" I cut Ivy off.

The two of them nodded in unison, "The boys told us that he broken down in tears, that they didn't believe him but are starting too."

I shook my head in disbelief, "I- don't, can't think about that. Can we just- talk about something else?" My voice was broken and rough as I spoke.

Ivy and India looked at each other again, and a moment of silence passed before India piped up.

"Halloween is coming up- we need to go to talk about what we are going to wear to Caspian's party."

"Do y'all really dress up? Normally I just wear black lipstick and call it a day," I asked, leaning forward in interest.

"Oh yeah totally! The halloween parties are some of the biggest in the whole year- Caspian's especially, generally there's a lot of definitely illegal gambling, amazing drinks and everyone always loves the Karaoke machine. Everyone goes home utterly pissed right before fall break."

"We should totally do a group costume!" Ivy peaked up eagerly.

"How about- lifeguards?"

"Mean girls!"

"Power puff girls!"

"Heathers!"

"Greek Goddesses!"

"Flappers!"

"Cheerleaders!"

"Frat boys!"

"Spice girls!"

"Bratz! Or Barbies!"

"Yeah as I've said before, I can totally pull off a posh spice," India said with a dramatic wink.

"Yo- what if we were the branded boys?" Ivy offered teasingly.

I shook my head, "There's three of us and four of them." We sat in the silence for a moment.

Ivy threaded her finger through a curl of her hair as she thought, "I wonder what Gemma and those girls are going to do..."

India snorted, "Something... basic I don't doubt."

I frowned, "Lets watch Lip sync battle for some inspiration... also because that's the best shit ever I love Chrissy Teigen."

****

Three hours later, we were overwhelmed with ideas. I was laying on the floor popping pieces of popcorn into my mouth cheerfully.

"Have y'all ever seen Wild Child? Cause that's low key the plot of my life," I said.

"Nola, you say that about like every movie, Clueless, 10 things I hate about you, Girls just wanna have fun, White Chicks, Dirty Dancing, Adventures in babysitting, girl, the list goes on and on," Ivy laughed.

"Whatever," I huffed while shoveling more popcorn into my mouth, "I want my life to embody the same vibes as the ones in the white chicks dance off," I glanced down at my watch and cursed, "Shit! Im gonna skedaddle- I am playing at the Rusty nail in 30 minutes," I said while hauling my ass out the door as fast as I could.

I hustled down the stairs of the dorm and out the double doors before hurdling straight into a familiar, stone hard chest.

Shit.