Chapter 3: Not Her

After the incident Alessia stayed in her dorm, studying for the finals. We all also tried to survive the finals, we were on a diet of liquid energy drinks, coffee, and tears. Getting through the finals was a tough one. I remember in the middle of one, Jennifer was gone for an entire day, Rayn called me after checking the library, apparently that day Jennifer never checked in. Rayn has always been a concerned soul, for all of us. However, when it goes to Jennifer, he loses it like a madman without senses. It was quite interesting how these two fell for each other. On the first day of high school, Rayn saw Jennifer picking a fight with a girl. He disliked her bold attitude and assumed she was a bully. Then one day he went to the school terrace and noticed Jennifer screaming at a girl, that girl shaking and out of words. He instantly picked a fight with Jennifer accusing her of being a bully.

"What is the matter with you? Why do you have to be a bully, just because you're beautiful doesn't give you the right to treat others like trash!" Rayn opposes confusing Jennifer.

"What?" Jennifer exclaimed in confusion "Mind your own business. You know nothing…" Jennifer put her hand on the girl's shoulder, but Rayn interrupted and pushed Jennifer against the wall, holding her still. "Are you out of your mind, let go of me!" Jennifer's eyes meet Rayn's. They said both their hearts beat stumbled and skipped a few at the moment.

"That's enough to let the poor girl go." Jennifer looked at the girl who started to sprint to the roof rail.

"No, she'll jump." Rayn was flabbergasted to witness the girl attempting to cross the rail and jump off. He let Jennifer go and rushed to the girl. In the nick of the time, they both reached the girl and saved her. Quite scary but they made it sound romantic somehow. With time Rayn got to know her, it might be a tough way regardless it was Jennifer's way to save people, that girl was a drug addict and Jennifer tried her best to raise awareness or from time to time drag students out of the addiction. She was highly empathetic and intense in her ways. Rayn fell for every single quality of her, how much she cares, how much she hopes, and so did Jennifer. Rayn carrying a kind heart was visible but what was more visible was how he cared about the little things like her small cactarium in the schoolyard was destroyed by the mistaken unloading of a food truck. Rayn saved one of the cacti from there, kept it in care till it was in some sort of decent condition to give it back to her. They told us the cactus story more than the times we wanted to hear, but every time I did, I felt a weird assurance that love is not a stereotype.

Jennifer didn't pick up any calls all day, it was 8 at night when Rayn jumped the gun and decided to call the police. Alessia then mentioned that we checked everywhere apart from the apartment 07. We all thought to ourselves that there might be a possibility she went there. We all took Dream's car to the apartment.

"We all have our keys right, Rayn don't you have yours?" Alessia asked Rayn, he checked on him and tried to recall where he put it. For Jenni and Rayn there was only one single key they shared for going to the apartment, as only four keys were allocated to us according to the rooms. Rayn always kept that key on him as he had to go back and forth for the apartment renovation. By this time, I was also certain that Jenni was at the apartment alone. The thought of which made me uneasy. I glanced over to Alessia who was more uncomfortable with the idea of Jennifer being there alone. I could read Alessia like a book, maybe because I observed her more than I did to anyone else. We reached the apartment, my watch saying eight o' twenty. We went in a hurry finding Jennifer sitting in one of the rooms studying with iPod music to her years. She was a bit shocked to find us there, all of us were wheezing, and panting, and Rayn, relieved to find her safe, went ahead to embrace her in his arms.

Jennifer looked out of the window when we asked why she didn't inform us that she will be here for the entire day. She was as shocked as we were, looking out the window she realized the day had slipped before she could remember.

"I came here to not feel the pressure of the finals. The library to the dorm rooms made me a bit stuffy. I came for a quick review of these papers." She said innocently. I took the papers off her hand and it did seem like a few torn-up pages from an old workbook. Something to be solved within an hour or two. "I thought it's been a few hours, I don't have a clock in here, and where is my phone?!" She looked around, finding it on the ground under the bed. She made a guilty face as she checked so many voicemails. She couldn't contemplate that the entire day went by without her notice. Rayn at that moment was angry about her carelessness and Dream was on the same team. Whereas Alessia and I thought to ourselves that Jennifer was innocent on her end, her memory only remembers a few hours. Seems like the world outside the apartment was on a different clock than inside.

"I am so sorry guys, I should've told anyone of you, especially you." She looked at Rayn. "I am sorry I took the keys thinking it won't be a big deal. I am really sorry." He didn't think anything more than Jennifer being okay and with him. He again held on to her.

Moving forward to the last paper, we were at a skanky bar, getting wasted as it was a tradition after every term.

"Our college sucky dorm life is over, we got an apartment, now we can live like kings and queens, cheers!" Dream said and we cheered with our pines. Alessia looked hesitant, she pulled off a fake smile, which I hated to the depth of me. I liked the real her and the real smile that comes along with it. It had been a while since I saw it. I didn't have the guts to tell her how I felt, how I missed her old small heartwarming smile. As she went out to get some fresh air, I followed to make sure she was okay.

She stood in the cold, when I put my coat over her shoulders, I had a lot of strong drinks making my body burn up from the inside. I stood next to her in silence.

"What do you think about the apartment?" Alessia broke the silence by being blunt, she is very intuitive and can deduce what was going on in my mind as well. I stammered like a clueless nub, I didn't know what to tell her, thousands of reasons to tell her what I honestly feel, and thousands not to. "I know, I am held back as well, something feels… weird."

"So, what do you think we should do?"

"Let's tell them, we tell each other everything, when it comes to us there is no need for a filter." Her eyes sparkled back at me. I knew that she was unerring, we all got off each other's back but my mind wanted to be practical. She went in, I followed the upcoming conversation was something I was not looking forward to.

Dream looked like she was on the top of her clouds, while Jenni and Rayn were in the bliss of time as well, singing along to the band. Alessia got all their attention toward, bringing Dream to a modest sober level to make herself heard. Quickly, she figured out the bar was not the ideal place to have a conversation like this. I proposed the idea to get out of there, as we all were under influence, we took a wagon to which we thought would be our dorm but Dream called shotgun and told the driver to take us to apartment 07. Jennifer and Rayn also tuned in to the idea. It was honestly the last place Alessia and I wanted to be.

We all settled in the living room, pretty buzzed but for some reason, I felt sobered up. That deep at night without any permission I didn't like the idea at all.

"Can we talk?" Alessia determined that she will stir the topic anyhow.

"What's it?" Jennifer asked in a sweet tone.

"We should give more thought about taking this apartment. I know we already invested a lot in it, doesn't mean we have to put everything in. We can still look for a place, it's not too late." Alessia's words left everyone in shock. Jenni and I exchanged eye contact, and slightly nodded to her, making my intentions clear out as well. They all took their time to think over the matter, and no way in practicality matched it; however, we always take everyone's opinion to great importance.

At that moment Dream said "It is too late", and the way she spoke didn't sound at all like her. "We finally found our home, this place is perfect, we can't afford to even think of looking for some other place."

"Dream listen…"

"No, you listen just because you had a little stomach ache and a split migraine, does not justify us thinking of leaving this place, are you insane!" The look in her eyes was different, as it was almost pushing Alessia against the walls. I knew at the moment that nothing that was happening was natural but again, Dream was valid. "Tomorrow we leave the dorms, decide by then what to do. You better come here." Dream said and left the apartment in furry.

"Guys we also think she's right, we only got this place," Rayn said and took Jennifer with him. All left and we were alone in there.

"Are you okay?" I asked Alessia "Don't take it to heart, it's not like her, she's just…"

"Yeah you are right, it was not her." Alessia was out of breath, thinking deeply to herself.