I woke up around ten since I didn't have any classes today. Although, I do have my three hour swim practice at two o'clock.

I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for the day in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt. I grabbed my purse, my phone, and my jacket and headed downstairs. I passed Lucas and gave him a quick wave before getting outside where I went to go to the store.

Each Monday, we trade out on who does groceries, and today is my turn. I will do the groceries, unpack them, make myself some lunch, practice music, and then head to swim practice. Every Monday is basically the same. If I don't do the groceries, I do homework or get extra swimming in. Routines become the bane of your existence in college or else it all falls apart.

I pulled the grocery list and a few coupons out of my purse as I walked inside. I got a cart and began my trek.

After making my usual circle around the store and then going through a few aisles for Libby and Tally, I went to check out.

Heading up there, I realized I was missing a few things, and the list was on my phone. I couldn't seem to remember what they were as I dug through my purse, leaning against the shopping cart as I tried desperately to find my missing phone.

With a sigh, I remembered, it was on the charger on the my nightstand. You have got to be kidding me. Who knows what I'm forgetting that could be quite vital for us this week.

The man at the checkout was very talkative, so I just nodded along as he spoke. The only thing I was thinking of was what I could possibly be missing even though I knew it was gone.

The man helped me bring my bags out as I finished putting my wallet away. He handed me a carnival style ticket, and I nodded, not really hearing what he was talking about. I knew that the store gave out coupons by tickets, so I knew that's what it had to be.

I handed him back a few dollars, smiled, nodded in understanding even though I wasn't quite listening (at least I knew he was talking about how he was planning on going to get corndog a later), and he walked away a bit confused with the money in his hand.

I walked hurriedly to get back to the apartment since the bags were really heavy and felt like they were getting heavier by the second.

Almost right outside of the apartment building, someone ran full force into me and made me drop all of my bags. I cringed as I heard the eggs crack, but I tried to get everything else before people kicked my products away.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to do this. I'll pay you back money for the eggs and help you take these to your apartment." A male voice spoke and hurried to help me grab all of my items.

When we finished, he took half of the bags as I grabbed the other half, and I finally looked up at who had caused and helped with my mess.

Big blue eyes was standing right in front of me.

"Ryla, right?" I nodded, and we walked inside.

I made eye contact with Lucas who was behind the counter, and he waved me over.

I turned back to Vega, his piercing eyes glowing as he watched me look back and forth.

"I'll be right back." I pat Vega awkwardly on the bicep and turned to go and talk to Lucas at the front desk.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked leaning against the counter.

"I can do this today, right? She's not sick or something, right?" I laughed.

"You're going to do fine, Lucas. No sweat. If she doesn't show up with the note, I'll text her to come or whatever. I won't be lying if I say I'm there." He nodded, and I could tell that inside, he was majorly reassuring himself that he can do this.

"Alright. Thanks. I'm good. See you tonight." He smiled at me gratefully and went back to whatever he was doing before he snagged me away from heading to my apartment.

"Alright, Vega. Let's go." I led him to the stairs. "I'm on the fourth floor. Hope this is a challenge." By the time we got to the fourth floor, I was a floor ahead of him, and he was still climbing. I leaned against the wall, and when he got up all of the way, I smiled and turned to go to my apartment.

"Now, just set these on the counter, and you can go on your way." He shook his head as we walked in and placed the bags on the counter.

"I'm paying you for the eggs." He pulled out his wallet and handed me a five dollar bill.

"I'm not taking your money."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Why don't we make a deal?" He suggested. I nodded although I already felt like I would lose whatever this was.

"I will make lunch. If I can make you a lunch that you love in 20 minutes, you keep the five dollars. If I cannot make you a lunch that you love in 20 minutes, I keep the five dollars. You have to be honest with me. Lying is not permitted." I laughed and agreed.

"Now, what cabinets can I not look in?" He asked, leaning against the island.

I put my hand on the face of a cabinet next to the pantry while I unloaded the grocery bags. "This one." He nodded and set to work.

Once I finished, I sat down at the kitchen table where I had a text message from coach.

I shut off my phone and looked up to see Vega putting a plate of spaghetti and garlic bread and a glass of pink lemonade in front of me.

He sat across from me and watched as I took a bite. That's when something hit me. "You're a cooking major! This isn't fair!" I exclaimed after swallowing. He burst into laughter and slid the five dollars to me.

"Guess who won." He smiled and started to eat his plate of food.

We ate in silence until the door to the apartment slammed open and shut, and Tally came into the kitchen.

"Ryla." I looked up at her to see her face bright red. She was embarrassed and angry. Oh great, here we go...

"Yeah?" I asked and took a bite of my garlic bread.

"Why have you not told me that Lucas works at the front desk done there?!" She flung her hands out, her voice raising where she said Lucas' name and to the end.

"It didn't come up." I smiled.

"Oh, the many times I talk about him isn't a good time to say that he works downstairs?"

"Did I mention that I'm basically best friends with him and that I have lunch with him every week?" Her jaw dropped.

"What? Why? You- I- What the heck?" Vega had his hand over his mouth as he tried to stifle his laugh, and Tally hadn't seemed to notice him yet.

"Well, his family owns this hotel. Your schedule and his just never cross, until today I guess. He's worked there ever since his sophomore year in high school. He doesn't even know that you exist." The last part slipped out, and my eyes went wide.

"Really?" Her voice went small, and she was back to her normal color, but her fingers that were gripping the counter edge had turned white and almost lost all color.

"Yeah, I am sorry, Tally. I shouldn't have said that though." She frowned, and of course, she now noticed Vega.

"Wait-" I cut her off.

"Vega, this is Tally. Tally, this is Vega." Tally waved and smiled before disappearing.

"That was interesting." I finished my food and put my dishes in the sink.

It's Tally's night to do them. Even before she moved in, she spent almost every night here, so she had her duties too.

"Well, I have to go to swim practice early, so you should go now." He chuckled.

"I guess so." He waved goodbye winked, and walked out before Tally came bouncing out from her room with a high-pitched squeal.

"Oh. Em! GEE! What was that? Is he-" She grabbed my left hand and then frowned when she saw nothing.

I laughed at her. "He ran into me and then helped me with some stuff and paid me back. Now, I have to go to swim practice early. See you later." I ran into my room and got my swim bag before hurrying outside and heading toward the Marta stop.

~

I showered after a long and hard swim practice that the boys basketball team was forced to watch due to their inability to respect their coach and sport at the same time. I really love it when other sports are made to respect us...

When I finally got home, I changed into something warm and was going to get a thermos of hot chocolate when I ran into Libby.

"Hey. Where are you going?" She handed me a letter before rushing back to her room. It was the mysterious letter from Lucas. I smiled and set it on the counter before pouring half milk and half water into a mug and heating it.

I took my full thermos and grabbed my camera before hurrying out of the house to beat Libby. When I arrived at the gazebo that had a small moat around it, the sun had set.

I went around and lit the torches before settling in the bushes, right out of sight. I could barely see the outline of Lucas sitting in the gondola.

I heard footsteps, and I held my camera up, clicking the button that made every camera in the area that was hooked to mine start filming as Libby came into view. I followed her path, staying in the shadows as she walked across the bridge that hung over the moat and stepped foot into the dark gazebo.

I barely saw Lucas' outline as he stood up and held out a hand to take her's.

"Join me on the gondola." She carefully stepped on, and Lucas helped her sit down carefully before starting to push them off into the middle of the beautiful moat.

I followed their path and watched their movements. He struck a match and lit the torches on each end of the gondola. Libby gasped as her eyes landed on his when he sat down.

He smiled and pulled a small box from his pocket. It was simple with a green turtle on top.

"Libby, for the sake of Proposal Week, will you marry me?" He opened the box to show a ring made of carnival tickets, a place that Libby had always loved to go to.

"Yes." She smiled and hugged him tightly before he put the ring on her finger.

"The tickets will be redeemable in March and April." She laughed while Lucas just smirked, still holding her hands lightly.

"Come on. You need to meet the photographer." I clicked off all of the cameras and stepped out of the shadows as Lucas walked all the way around, blowing out the torches and collecting them.

He met me with Libby under the light post. As he dropped the small cameras in my palm, I grinned at the two of them.

"Thanks, Lucas."

Libby's jaw slacked, and I just giggled. I slipped all of the cameras in my purse.

"And Libby, I stole those torches from your closet." I held out my hand, full of torches that still had grey whisps of spoke escaping them.

Lucas's mouth fell open while Libby just laughed it off and took the torches.

"We really need to make it back to the apartment, and Lucas said he would help us make dinner tonight. Tally won't be here because she has classes." They nodded, but Lucas looked a bit baffled. He shut it away as we headed toward the

hotel.

"Excuse me?" I looked around and came face to face with Missy Franklin, an Olympic swimmer. Her hand was falling from its place where she tapped on my shoulder.

"Do you want me to take a picture of the three of you? You seem like a very lively group of friends." My mouth just opened slightly before I could speak.

"Missy Franklin?" I gasped.

She smiled. "I thought you looked like a swimmer. I would love to take a picture, too." I handed her my phone, and she took a picture of the three of us, as in Libby, Lucas, and me. For some reason, she also took a picture with her phone before handing her phone to Libby and asking for her to take a picture of the two of us.

Libby took one with my phone before we stood apart a bit.

"I would love to see you practice some day this week. Could I have your number so you could text me your schedule later tonight?" I nodded, and we swapped phone numbers.

We parted ways. When we got to the hotel and into our apartment, we started to make dinner for ourselves.

"I can't believe that happened." I finally spoke as we worked on dinner.

"It definitely did." Libby just laughed.

~

Later that night, we were lying around the living room, just Lucas, Libby, and me. I had already texted Missy my schedule, but my phone dinged yet again.

I picked it up and glanced to see I was tagged in a tweet by Missy Franklin.

I screamed and drop my phone, but Lucas caught it before it hit the floor and unlocked it.

"He knows your password, too?" Right before the words came out of Libby's mouth, the door clicked open, and Tally came walking inside, her back pack falling onto the back of the couch.

"Why is-" She stopped talking, and I looked up to see Tally staring down at Lucas who's sitting next to me, looking at the pictures that Missy had put up on Twitter.

"Oh, I see. You don't tell me that you're basically best friends with my crush, and then, the three of you spend a night out together while I'm gone. What has happened to us? Well, I guess it's not stealing if you got caught, but you weren't careful enough." She picked up her bag again and disappeared into her new room, shutting the door behind her.

I looked over at Libby whose jaw was slack, and I glanced over at the shut door, noting as her music started to play very loudly from the other side.

Lucas sat up and handed me my locked phone.

"I'm just going to go. I'll see you tomorrow and hopefully you guys can sort this out." Lucas left quietly.

"This is bad." Libby muttered. "She references to Aladdin when she's mad..." She trailed off and we locked eyes.

"So bad, so mad." I muttered.