The weekend easily flew by, and soon it was Monday morning with four classes lined up for the day. Sebastian had continued to reach out to me, and I finally responded saying I needed some time before even trying to speak to him. Luckily—but weirdly—enough my parents haven't reached out which means they either don't know, or they do and they just assume we'll get back together. I haven't heard from Cayden, although I don't know what I expected, I mean we didn't exactly exchange numbers or anything. I guess I expected her to ask Sebastian for my number for some random excuse maybe... like if she wanted to check up on me or something. No that sounds weird, she definitely wouldn't do something like that.

"All I see you in is that sweatshirt," Jade jokes as she sips her coffee.

I stiffen slightly, but I quickly recover as I continue my walk into the open kitchen with the morning sunlight beaming in through all the big windows. I hum to myself as I purposefully ignore what Jade said, given that this sweatshirt is Cayden's and I somehow found myself wearing it again last night. Even after washing it in my lavender detergent, the sweatshirt was still coated in Cayden's spiced cologne.

"Good morning," Jaci greets with a smile as she enters the kitchen.

I smile as I continue preparing my tea, "Good morning,"

Jade rises from the table with her empty coffee mug, "Is there anything interesting going on this weekend?" she asks.

I shrug as Jaci nods, "Bryan said there's this new club opening up on Friday night," she informs us.

Jade smiles, "Perfect, we definitely have to go," she declares.

I nod as I grab my warm mug and begin exiting the kitchen, "I'm going to go get ready, if I don't see you before I leave then I hope you guys have a good day,"

"Aw such a sweetheart thinking about us Vi Vi," Jade joked with a playful smile, "And I hope your day is good too,"

Jaci smiles, "See you later Vina," she calls out as I begin making my way down the long hall and up the shiny black stairs.

I get dressed in a cropped light grey waffle knit long-sleeve shirt with matching leggings and black Ugg slippers that slide over my white Nike socks. I pull my long chocolate brown hair into a high ponytail with some stray hairs pulled out and decide not to put on any makeup. Once I finish my tea and feel ready for the day, I exit the warm brownstone into the cool New York air.

My classes manage to whip past me along with the entire day, and soon enough I'm back home getting changed for the gym. Mentally I'm already tapped out for the day due to Cayden taking up all the space in my chaotic head. I find myself replaying everything that happened that night and the next morning, wishing I would've been more thankful for the moments spent with her. I also find myself wondering if I did something wrong or perhaps read everything wrong with her since she hasn't tried reaching out.

I shake the same repetitive thoughts from my head, as I slide on my black Nike leggings with a cropped tight black athletic long-sleeve shirt with thumb holes that easily displays my toned stomach. I keep my hair in the same ponytail and keep my Nike socks on except I change my Uggs out for black Nike sneakers. I walk down the stairs of the quiet house since Jaci and Jade have yet to make it home, and head into the kitchen to grab a water bottle before exiting the brownstone. I contemplated ordering an Uber but decided otherwise since I was in the mood to run—mostly to let out all this anxious behavior caused by a confusing Cayden.

I run down the semi-busy streets of SoHo toward my gym with my R&B music playing, which happened to mostly play Drake. He always knows what to say when you're confused about your feelings or about someone else's actions, and listening to his music undoubtedly fueled my run. When I arrived at my gym, I felt my energy skyrocket—desperate to get the rest of this built-up anxiousness out of my system.

I unintentionally stayed in the gym for close to two hours before feeling satisfied. I felt lighter and happier, but mostly I felt in need of a long hot shower to help my tense muscles recover. Or maybe one of Cayden's phenomenal back massages, which easily makes me wonder how our dynamic would be if we were a couple. Would I head over to her place after a workout and shower with her? Would she have joined in on my workout? Would we have massaged each other with a comforting oil until we ended up on top of each other, gliding our hands into various curves of soft skin?

A quiet gasp escapes my lips when I bump into a rather hard chest forcing my feet to freeze under me as I stand in the shiny modern gym lobby.

"Woah," I hear a deep voice say causing my face to grow hot with embarrassment.

I purse my lips awkwardly when I look up at the stranger, he has darker skin with black curly hair and big brown eyes. He's in a black long-sleeve athletic half zip with army green joggers and grey Nike running shoes.

"I'm so sorry," I apologize.

The man tilts his head, "You're in my psych two hundred class,"

I blink a few times knowing I don't exactly pay attention to anyone in my class, let alone talk to them.

The stranger chuckles, "Oh I see, you don't even recognize me," he joked which causes an embarrassing tight-lipped smile to display on my lips, "I'm Griffin," he introduces himself.

"Avina, but everyone calls me Vina," I reply.

Griffin nods, "It's nice to meet you, Vina," he smiled, "I suppose I'll see you in class tomorrow, and I can only hope you don't end up bumping into me again,"

I roll my eyes playfully, "Yeah-yeah go get your workout done," I mock.

Griffin shakes his head with a chuckle before walking off toward the gym locker rooms while I turn on my heel and exit the modern gym. The walk back to my house was brutal considering how sore my body was, but once I made it back, I felt oddly accomplished. I ended up taking a long shower and changing into an oversized black t-shirt with matching black pajama shorts and black ankle socks. I brushed my wet hair out and did my skincare routine before heading downstairs where Jaci was cooking pasta for us while Jade was seated at the dining room table completing some homework.

"Perfect timing, dinner's ready," Jaci smiles as she begins scooping the rigatoni pasta out of the silver pot and into the large white bowls.

Jade closes her mac book, "Good because I'm starving, and I also need an excuse to stop doing school work,"

"And I need an excuse to start doing it," I joke as Jaci brings over all of our warm bowls to the dining room table.

I walk into the kitchen to grab three bottled waters from the fridge before setting them down on the grey wooden table. I slide down onto the long black bench beside Jaci while Jade sits across from us already divulging in her pasta. Both Jade and Jaci give me a grateful nod acknowledging the waters I grabbed for them while I dig into the bowl of warm food.

"It's so good," Jade hums as I take a bite of the red sauce pasta.

"Mm, it is," I hum as I chew the warm food.

Jaci jokingly flips her hair behind her shoulder, "Leave the cooking to me," she jokes which causes Jade to flip her off.

"Is it bad that I'm already ready for the weekend?" Jade asks with a tiresome sigh.

"Is it bad that I'm already ready for this semester to end?" I retort before opening up one of the cold waters.

Jaci chuckles, "Seriously me too,"

"Ugh, I can't wait to go to this new club," Jade murmurs before taking another bite of pasta.

Jaci nods, "Right, and we also have to find a rebound for Vina,"

I tilt my head, "Rebound?"

Jade chuckles, "Well duh, you've made it clear that you're not getting back with Sebastian," she added, "So we figured we'd find you a hookup to help move on,"

The last thing I want to do is move on... unless it's with a certain person.

I shake my head at the idea of being with another guy, or anyone in general who wasn't Cayden. Wait. No, no I should not be thinking that. I mean we just met, and she hasn't even tried to reach back out. Not to mention that she's Sebastian's best friend.

"I... I'm good guys," I hesitantly inform them deciding if I should indulge in a hookup with the opportunity of getting over Cayden, but I know it wouldn't work. Besides, I'd only want to hook up with a woman, and Jaci nor Jade know about me being into women.

It's so weird that I'd be working to get over Cayden rather than my own ex-boyfriend whom I had been with for two years. I guess I just wasn't there with him emotionally unlike Cayden, who seemed to make butterflies dance in my stomach and tingles rise onto my goosebump-covered skin.

Jaci huffs, "Oh c'mon Vina, you need to get back out there!" she tries to hype me up as Jade lightly hits her hand against the table signaling her agreement, "It'll help you get rid of the post-breakup hole that you seemed to fall into,"

I haven't even had enough time to fall into the breakup hole she's referring to, besides it's not like I would anyway—not over Sebastian at least.

I let out an airy laugh, "Guys we literally just broke up last week,"

"Which means you are single and ready to mingle," Jade declared with a confident smirk, "You're officially on the market Vi Vi, which hasn't happened in all of the three years that I've known you—actually correction, you were single for maybe two weeks during freshman year until you met Sebastian,"

Jaci nods, "We can actually go out and have fun now, just us girls," she tries to convince me.

I purse my lips as I try to find a way of getting out of this situation, but there doesn't exactly seem to be an out... unless I make up some reasonable excuse, which would be that I've already moved on, or secured a rebound. I technically have moved on, just with Sebastian's best friend, which is why I can't use that as an excuse for multiple reasons. Although I could make something else up...

"I'm already seeing someone," I murmur as my face grows hot.

What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing???

Jade chokes slightly on her pasta while Jaci turns to me with wide dark eyes.

"Who?" they ask in sync.

I purse my lips, "His name is Griffin,"