1 Just Aaron

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3RD

Its's 9am, an hour after online-school has started. Journey Augustine groggily gets up, checking the time. Her eyes widen in shock as she sees that there's only 30 minutes left of first period! 'My mom said she'll kill me if I miss half my classes again! I'm so glad I woke up when I did. Ugh..' Journey drags her body to the bathroom, trying to freshen up. Her dorm mate, Ava Leary, left her makeup stuff all over the sink. Ava attends face to face. "I swear Ava.. I could KILL you!!" She still loved Ava though, Ava was the only one who wanted to share a dorm with her. Journey grabs all of Ava's stuff and throws it on Ava's bed.

She brushes her teeth, makes a quick toast and tea, and opens her laptop. She tries to rapidly click on the Zoom link, but it literally just zooms in the page. Why is nothing going right? The sound of the teacher rings in her ears. "Oh? Looks like we have a new student. Please introduce yourself." Journey silently curses to herself as she turns on her mic. "Hey, I'm Journey Augustine and i'm 19." Journey silences her mic when her teacher says, "Oh wow. Journey, you were enrolled at the beginning of semester two! You missed two weeks, where were you?" Journey curses again, trying to retain her anger. "I uhm.. Just found out I had this class. I didn't see it on my schedule, I thought it was a free period." She sees some girls laugh, and she starts madly blushing. "That's fine dear, open your textbook to page 347." Journey thanks her and turns off her mic.

Class is ending in a few minutes, so she closes the textbook and looks up at the class. Some girls are doing their makeup while others are deep into their books. The others just have their camera off. Journey's eyes wander to the bottom of the screen, showing a guy in her class. He looks kinda cute with his low cut shirt on and Christmas pajama pants. His sleek-black wet hair glistens by an unknown light. She looks at his name and it reads "Aaron." Just Aaron? Was he a hacker or something? It even says Journeys full name. She shrugs it off and catches herself staring longer than intended. At the end of class, Journey gets a private Zoom message from Aaron.

ZOOM

-Liked what you saw?

Who is this?

-Aaron

Oh

-Answer my question

Uhh no I didn't

-You did stare for a while

I have a class to catch, see you later

-Oh, so you want to see me later?

NO I WAS BEING POLITE

-Sure you were, see you later Princess

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Journey internally gags a little, trying to regain her senses. It amused her and made her feel weird on the inside at the same time. She drags herself through her classes, exhausted. Not even Art was cheering her up. The day finally ended. Journey closes her laptop and grabs her Art bag and mask. She plans to go sit on the bench outside and draw a little.

Right as she's leaving, Ava barges in, on a phone call. "I KNOW! I told Marcie that you weren't coming, but she didn't listen. She told Marcus that you WERE coming, so now he thinks you're standing him up. I KNOW I KNOW, I'll fix it. Bye girl, gotta run." Ava sits her stuff down and turns to Journey. "We need to go shopping." "Uhm, why?" Journey hates shopping with Ava. She always leaves her for M•A•C, or Sephora. "Why not! Please girl? I need some new makeup! You owe me, my contour and blush broke when you threw it on my bed." Ava makes puppy eyes, and Journey couldn't say no. She drops her Art bag and tells Ava she'll be right out.

She brushes up her hair into a cute little ponytail and slaps on her mask. She straightens out her bang and leaves the dorm, Ava only a few feet ahead, when a wall stops her. Not a wall, a person. Well, not a person, Aaron. Just Aaron. "Oh. Hi Aaron." Journey looks down. "Hey!" Journey tries to move around him but he moves back in her way. "Why are you here? How did you find me?" "I asked around. Plus, how many woman dorms can there be on the second floor?" "A lot, and I gotta go." Journey tries to push him, but he's atleast 6ft, and she's 4'10.

She finally looks up to him, and the first thing she sees is his sharp chin. "Uhm.. Did you want something?" "Where are you going?" Aaron looks into her chocolate eyes. "Shopping with my friend." Aaron looks up, and Journey senses a hint of disappointment. "Well, did you want to hang out tomorrow after classes?" "Tomorrow is Saturday." "Oh, right. Can I pick you up at 10am? We can go Christmas shopping!" Journey thinks, she wouldn't mind getting gifts tomorrow. Plus, Aaron seems cool. "Sure. It's a date." Aaron smirks, and she blushes deeply. "I meant it's a... hang out. See you tomorrow."

She almost runs out, and she jumps in the car with Ava. The coldness hits her, and she realizes she forgot a jacket! "Ava, do you have an extra jacket?" "Sure hun, what were you doing? You were gone for a while, and you were right behind me." "Uhm.. I was looking for my mask. Found it!" Journey laughs awkwardly, and buckles herself. Ava looks at her suspiciously, but ignores it.

While shopping, Journey looks around. Like always, Ava abandoned her. She sighs to herself, letting her thoughts wonder. 'I can't wait to see Aaron tomorrow.' She smiles to herself, then thinks for a second. She's sure she's heard that name before! Then, she remembers that one day outside her dorm door.

It was during lunchtime, so Journey was bored. She walked past her door, heading to the kitchen, when she heard some gossip. She usually didn't get involved with that kind of stuff, but she was interested. "..Yeah. I heard his name is Aaron. He's supposed to be this super nerdy guy. No one knows his last name, so he's so mysterious. Apparently, he stays in the men dorms, and he's an online student. Barely anyone is online, and the ones that are don't ever mention an Aaron. I'm face to face, but i might change JUST to see Aaron. Maybe pick on him a little. No one knows who he is, but he's the talk of the school."

Journey thinks back at that time, she disregarded that gossip. But now, it was interesting. 'I knew Aaron seemed off, but he's the talk of the school? And no one knows who he is? Is this the same Aaron that they were talking about? He didn't have his last name on the meeting, so it could be him.' She ended up pondering on this all day, and she took a cab back to her dorm. She steps out of the cab, and as she's walking onto the first floor of the dorms, she sees the men's dorms. Aaron is yelling at this older guy, maybe 40 years old. She tries to ignore them, but the older guy glances over at her and creepily chuckles. Journey quickens her step, getting weird vibes from this guy. Aaron yells at him some more and the older guy leaves the floor. Aaron tries to catch up with Journey, but she blushes and runs up the stairs, closing her dorm door. She's deeply embarrassed.

She looks out the windows and sees that he's gone. She slumps herself on the bed. 'Who was that creepy guy? Why was Aaron with him? He looked drunk and deranged.' Journey cringes to herself. She ends up falling asleep, noticing how exhausted she is.

She wakes up to knocking. "Yes?" "Uhm, it's Aaron." "What are you doing here?" Journey jumps out of bed, brushing her hair and brushing her teeth at the same time. "Our uh- not date!" Journeys eyes widen as she puts on a crop-top with some palazzo's. A little more girlier than her normal get-up, but she had no choice. She's never been on a date- NON DATE! She finally grabs her mask and opens the door. She catches herself smiling as he leads them to his car.