The OASIS

That night I sent a message to Ben to meet at one of the college's coffee shops. Around six pm, I suggested to the girls to grab some coffee with me and they agreed so we went there. While on the way there, Lea suggested if she should compose a song with us and we agreed to it because it was a very good idea.

After we sat down at the coffee shop, we ordered our coffee with some snacks. Five minutes later, Ben came inside. Rica was the first to squeal in excitement before we all turned to look at who it was. They were all excited to see him but didn't have the courage to talk to him. I just raised my hands and signaled him to come over. The girls were all shocked with my bold step as they awkwardly tried to pull my hands down. Ben stood there smiling before he walked to us and I could see he was very excited.

" It's been a while, Nicky," said Ben.

" Yeah, almost a year and a half," I replied while offering him a seat.

" Wait, so do you guys know each other?" exclaimed Lea .

" Yes, for almost three years," Ben replied.

" And you didn't tell us,"Rica said, obviously dumbfounded.

" But you were the ones who didn't ask, right?" I questioned back with a little laugh.

" But that's not a reason Nicky, we are friends damn it we are even more like sisters" said Vicky almost snapping.

" It's alright, I am really sorry. Today's expenses are on me, are you guys cool with it?" I said with an apologetic smile.

" That's better," said Rica with a giggle.

" So he is the one who called last week right?" asked Vicky and I nodded.

All this while that we were chattering ,Mia was quiet. I noticed her stealing glances at Ben from time to time but I laughed it off but after a while I saw Ben doing the same. After spending almost two hours at the coffee shop , we went back to the dormitory after saying goodbye to Ben . It turned out Ben was in our class so he automatically sat beside us but that didn't sit well with others like his fangirls and the campus Belle as he was the campus heartthrob.

Many girls including some boys opened up a fanbase for him. They supported him in every activity he did and he became the most popular person on campus.

Ben was not only popular among the students but amongst almost all the teaching and non teaching staff. He was almost perfect as he knew how to do almost everything like playing the piano, guitar, cello, drums, basketball, badminton and even swimming.

As we were in the drama team he also chose it. This made other students start spreading rumors about him and the campus Belle on the school forum saying they were in a relationship and that they looked good together just because he joined the drama team and she was also part of the team although we are seen with him almost Every Time. Truthfully the campus Belle , whose real name is Lydia is a rich yet beautiful and intelligent girl of no average class. She is also very talented too but I really didn't think much about her as I felt something was off about her.

This time the school organized a drama session as part of the school's assessment . We auditioned for the roles we wanted to play. I auditioned for the main director and got it. Ben for the prince ,Mia the videographer and Vicky and Rica as supporting characters and Lydia as Snow white and many other slots. During the two weeks rehearsal , Lydia kept on clinging to Ben which obviously annoyed us but Mia was the most annoyed. Mia was obviously the best of the best in videography on the whole campus as she was very passionate about it.

Finally it was the day of the assessment. Many other teams performed and were very good. The music team performed and behold our sweet Lea was more like an angel. She composed and wrote the song for the team and we were really proud of her. When it was time to speak, she gave a shout-out to the four of us and since she shined on the stage and was very beautiful , she got a lot of fans who named us THE OASIS .

This came when the drama team finished their performance which wowed the audience and the four of us were good with our roles in contribution to the play. The reason behind the name OASIS is a result of it being rare for a group of friends to be so good at something that complements each other very well. But they didn't know this name would prove the next biggest thing and of course we also didn't know.

After the assessment we became really popular and besides we were always seen with the campus heartthrob. All this time, I could notice some changes between Mia and Ben. Although they behaved like normal friends , I could see the way they looked at each other and it wasn't only me but also the other three girls. Due to the success we had in making the drama assessment, the drama team decided to hold a small banquet to celebrate.

The celebration was scheduled for the next Saturday evening at the poolside. Three days before the banquet, we tried to set Mia and Ben up to have some private time for themselves and so we discussed in our group chat to meet at our favorite coffee shop at four pm that day. When it was time we didn't show up and so only Mia and Ben showed up and so we told them something came up and so we couldn't make it there and so Mia should bring us some coffee when she was coming back. That night Ben escorted Mia back at the dormitory and we could see they were very happy together even though nothing changed much.