**Sang**

I'm standing in a field of Chrysler Imperial Roses, but the nine that surround me in a circle somehow feel different than the others, more important somehow. As I walk towards the closest one, the sky turns dark, thunder crackles, and lightning strikes in the distance. I have to save the nine, I don't know why, but there's a need to make sure they are safe. I continue towards the closest one, just as the lightning strikes the field, setting the flowers on fire. I try to gather them quickly but to no avail, they are dying and I can't save them. I'm suddenly surrounded in a vortex of flames, threatening to take me with them. The oxygen is pulled from my lungs, and I crumble. I lay there, dying with my nine.

I wake up gasping for air, tears streaming down my face. It was just a dream, I'm still alive, but what of the nine?

"Another nightmare?" Kayli asks, "You haven't had one in a while."

"Yes, I'm sorry I woke you." I say solemnly.

"It's ok, do you want to talk about it?" she asks.

"No," I look at the clock and see that it's just past seven, "go back to sleep. I'm gonna go for a run."

"I'm here if you need me." She tells me as she rolls back into her covers.

I get up from my bed and go into my closet to change. I pull on a pair of black running shorts and a red tank top. Grabbing my keys from my desk I make my way out the dorm and into the forest. The best thing about our campus is that it's in the middle of a forest, every corner of the campus has a path leading into it for anyone who needs it. Thankfully, one of those corners just happens to be behind my dorm room so I'm out here a lot.

I start my run trying to push away the dream, after a while it works, and then thoughts of the night before plague my head. How could I have been so stupid! I stop to rest at the bottom of a large oak tree, wallowing in my foolishness. If I was paying attention to anything by my own self-pity I would have heard him, unfortunately I didn't notice him until he was right next to me.

"Hey, are you ok?" asks a deep voice. I look up startled and notice a boy with reddish brown hair and striking blue eyes. He's tall with fair skin and broad shoulders, and arms rippling with muscles. "Why are you crying?" he asks, "A girl as cute as you should never be crying."

His kind words make me blush as I wipe my eyes free of tears.

"Are you alright? Let me help you." He says offering his hand.

"Thank you for your concern but I'm fine." I say as I stand on my own. I brush myself off and say, "I should head back..."

"Are you sure? At least let me walk you back to your dorm." He says as he gets closer.

I instinctively take a step back and say, "No, that's alright. I'm sorry to have interrupted your run, thank you though."

"No interruption at all." He says, "I was just heading back actually. We can walk together, if you don't mind."

"Um... sure, I guess. If you're sure." I say shyly.

"Let's go then." He says with a slight smile.

The walk back to the dorm is quiet, he leaves me to my thoughts and for that I'm grateful. I can't help feeling that if I say something I'll mess up again like I did last night. At this moment I curse my parents yet again for keeping me locked away, not knowing how to interact with other people like a normal person is becoming a huge burden. Maybe coming to college was a bad idea, but I couldn't stay with them another day. If I had, I wouldn't have met Kayli, or any of these boys who have shown me such kindness. I wish I was normal.

Lost in my musing I fail to realize that we've made it to my dorm.

"This is me," I say to him, "Thank you for walking back with me."

"Not a problem, this is actually my dorm too. Mind if I walk you to your room? Just to make sure you get in ok. I'm not a stalker I promise." He says with a laugh, he has a nice laugh, his smile is beautiful, much like his eyes. They draw you in, making you never want to leave.

"Yea, sure." I say with a slight smile.

With that we head into the building and up the stairs, through the twisted hallways to my room.

"Thank you." I say again.

"Not a problem," he says, "I'm Nathan by the way."

"Sang." I say with a smile.

"Well, it was nice to meet you Sang, if you ever need a running partner I'm in 315." He says while pointing down the hall. How is it I've never seen him before?

"Nice meeting you too Nathan, thanks for...this." I say while waving my hand around, indicating everything.

"Anytime." He says, and walks down the hall.

I open my door and find Kayli sitting on her bed in a towel.

"Hey, who were you talking to?" She asks me.

**Nathan**

Walking into the room I share with Victor and Kota I'm lost in a daze of sad green eyes. Her face was just so expressive; you could tell that she wasn't use to any kind of attention from the opposite sex. Which made me even more confused! At first glance you see a pretty girl, but up close she's practically breathtaking. Those big doe eyes just steal your soul.

"Hey Nate!" Kota says from his perch on his bed above mine, "What's got you looking all star-struck?"

I was so lost in my head I didn't realize that after I closed the door I just stood there like an idiot staring at the floor. Even Victor turns from his computer to look at me with a puzzled expression.

"Nothing." I say shaking my head while plopping down on my bed, "just thinking."

"What's got you thinking so hard?" asks Victor.

"Just this girl I met in the woods." I say while laying back.

"Must be some girl if she has you looking like that." Replies Kota while jumping down from his bed to sit next to me.

"Yeah," says Victor, "I don't think I've ever seen you react this way over a girl."

"Yea well she was crying, what could I do." I respond.

"Crying? About what?" asks Kota.

"I don't know; she wouldn't tell me. I didn't want to push, I just met her. Instead I just walked her back to her room. I've never even seen her before today, which is pretty fucking impossible since she lives a few doors down." I tell them.

"Well did you at least get her name? Her number?" asks Victor, "She's gotta be pretty if you walked her back from the woods."

"Yea, it's Sang." I say.

"What? Sang was crying? Why?" ask Victor while he gets up to walk over to me.

"Wait, you know her?" I say while sitting up.

"Yea," Kota confirms, "she's in our Japanese class. Why was she crying?"

"I already told you, she wouldn't tell me. She looks pretty upset though." I say to them.

"It has to be because of last night." Victor says.

"Why would it have anything to do with last night?" I ask confused, "We were all at the party."

"Yea, and she was there." Says Kota.

"She was?" I ask them, "How did I miss her?"

"It wouldn't have been hard really." Says Kota.

"She left soon after we found her." Finishes Victor.

"Well what happened?" I ask.

"I said something that made her uncomfortable, but I can't figure out what it was." Kota tells me with a faraway look on his face. I can tell it's really bugging him; like a puzzle he can't solve.

"I'll find out." Says Victor as he walks to the door, "Which room is she in?" he asks me.

"309." I tell him.

And with that he leaves the room, leaving me and Kota staring at the door after it closed behind him, left to our own thoughts of the mysterious green eyed girl.

**Victor**

On the walk to Sang's room I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to say to her. The only thing I do know is that I need to see if she's alright, and now that I know that she's right down the hall I'm going to do just that. After knocking on her door, I'm greeted not by Sang, but by her roommate Kayli.

"Um... hi. I know you probably don't want to see me after what happened last night, but is Sang here?" I ask her.

"Uh, no, she's in the shower. I'm actually glad you're here though, come in." She tells me.

As I walk into the room, I can immediately tell which side belongs to Sang. It's neat, clean...spotless. Like she doesn't want anyone to know she's been here, like she's trying to be...invisible.

Kayli breaks me out of my thoughts by saying "I actually wanted to apologize for the way I acted last night. Sang explained what happened, and I actually find it pretty funny."

"What did happen?" I asked her.

"I'll let her explain that to you, she should be back soon. Do you know where Marc is?" She asks.

"Um, yea...he should be in his room." I tell her.

"Where's that exactly?"

"210."

"Thanks." With that she starts towards the door, "Make yourself comfortable." She says as she leaves.

Walking over to the bay window, I see a book sitting next to a well-worn pillow. It looks like Sang spends a lot of her time here; I can't exactly see someone like Kayli sitting at a window all day reading. Sang's desk is just as neat as her bed, what little books she does have, other than her textbooks, are stacked up neatly, much like Kota's. I settle myself down in the window seat and notice she has a perfect view of the quad as well as the sky, the trees aren't blocking her view of anything like they do in our room.

While I'm waiting for Sang to return I try going over what I want to say to her, but nothing seems good enough. I still have absolutely no idea what happened to make her leave, and no idea why Nathan found her crying. She seems like she has such a happy disposition, I can't really think of anything else that would've had her out in the forest by herself at eight in the morning. I wonder how long she was out there for; how long was she alone before Nathan found her?

I hear the door start to open and stand from my spot, ready to greet her.

"Kayli do you really think it could all just be a misunder-" she stops as she notices me standing in the room. I had a million things running through my mind to say to her, but everything stops when I see that she's in nothing but a fluffy pink towel, using a white towel to dry her hair; which explains why she didn't immediately see me standing here.

Her eyes widen as she asks, "Victor? What are you doing here? Where's Kayli?"

This snaps me out of my comatose state, "Kayli went to go see Marc," I say while taking a step towards her, "she told me I could stay and wait for you. I wanted to apologize for last night, I'm not sure what we did but I am so sorry."

This seems to throw her off as she hesitates and then closes the door.

"I need to get dressed." She says slowly while holding out her hand in a stopping motion, "Wait here..." She then opens a door by her bed, walks inside, and closes the door behind her. From underneath the door I can see a sliver of light which causes me to assume that it's her closet.

I sit back down at the window prepared to wait as long as I need to. Turns out girls don't take as long to get dressed as we think. She soon comes out of her closet wearing a pair of pink cotton shorts, a white tank top, and white ankle socks, while pulling her slightly damp hair into a high ponytail. Effortless beauty, much like a princess, it just comes naturally to her. Her choice of clothing makes me think she's planning on staying inside today; hopefully she'll let me change that.

She sits on her bed while folding her right leg under her and angles her body towards me, looking at me expectantly. I hesitantly get up and go sit by her leaving a few inches of space between us.

"Sang, what happened last night?" I ask her. She gets this really adorable blush and looks away from my eyes.

"I was embarrassed." She whispers.

"About what?" I ask her.

"My childhood...I wasn't a very popular kid growing up. I didn't have any friends...my mother wouldn't let me. I wanted you guys to think I was normal...so when I let it slip that I had enough free time to learn Greek, I panicked. You guys are like the only people I know here besides Kayli and I didn't want to ruin my first chance at possibly having friends. And then the stupid water went down the wrong way and made me choke and spit on Silas." By this point she's getting more animated as she talks and then covers her face with her hands. "I wouldn't be surprised if he never wants to see me again; even I wouldn't want to be my friend after that. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't either."

"Sang we don't care about any of that stuff. We were all really worried when you left, and then Nathan tells us you found you crying-"

"You know Nathan?" She cuts me off.

"Yes, we've all been friends for years." I pause letting her words sink in, "Is that why you were crying? You thought we wouldn't want to be friends with you?" She nods in agreement. "I'm really sorry you felt that way Sang. I can't speak for the others, but I can say that I'd like to be your friend...if you'd let me. And I'm sure Kota and Silas feel the same. We don't care if you had a lot of free time and didn't have any friends. We just want to get to know you better, and be your friend in the process."

She pulls her hands away from her face after my little speech and looks me straight in the eyes with the biggest smile, "I'd like that." God that smile, *sigh* I'd do anything to keep it there.

"Good," I say while giving her a smile of my own, this just makes hers even brighter, "what are you doing tonight?"

"Um... I was just going to do some homework, maybe watch a movie."

"How about you go out with me instead?"

"Like a date?" She asks hesitantly.

"If you're comfortable with that. If not, we can just consider it two friends enjoying each other's company. Friends hang out right?"

"True...ok, friend." She says giving me a small smile. I try not to cringe at the word friend, I'd like to be more than that, but after what she just told me I know I'll have to take my time with her. I don't want to scare her off.

"Great. I'll pick you up at six." I give her a smile and start to head to the door before I hear "Wait!" I turn around with my hand on the doorknob and look back at her.

"Yea Sang?"

"What should I wear?" She's so adorable.

"Just be comfortable, it's not a date so no pressure. Promise." Tonight may not be a date, but I make no promises about next time.

"Ok." She says with a smile, "See you tonight."

**Kayli**

When I knock on Marc's door I'm surprised to see Corey answer; I guess they're roommates.

"Hey Corey, is Marc here?" I ask him.

"Yeah, he should be right back. Come in."

He opens the door wider and I step past him taking a look around. Their room is similar to mine and Sang's but with them being on the opposite side of the hall, they have no window. If it wasn't for the central air, I bet it would get really stuffy in here. Their desks are pushed up against opposite sides of the room, leaving space in the middle for a flat screen T.V. that hangs on the wall, along with Marc's coffee making below it. Corey's desk has an assortment of video games and comic books, while Marc's desk is covered in papers which looks like notes about his coffee brands along with something that looks like samples.

"I didn't see you at the party last night. What happened?" he continues.

"We went, but there were a few incidents involving Sang and she couldn't really take the audience anymore." I tell him being vague, "She's not really big on crowds."

"I get it," he tells me, "I'm not really much of a party person either."

No matter how tall and buff Corey might look, to anyone who knows him, he's a sweet little nerdling, computer savvy, SiFi DVD's and all. I think it's cute that people like him still exist in this day and age.

"So what's up computer boy?" I ask him while bouncing on one of the beds. Corey drops down on the other bed and brings a laptop closer to him. I guess I'm on Marc's bed.

"Just trying to get the coding right for this class I'm taking."

"The one with Sang right? Computer Science or whatever?"

"Computer Technology, and yea that's the one. We have to make our own website with the designs and graphics. The coding is pretty simple but I'm having some difficulty deciding on a layout with the spacing parameters we were given."

"Oooooo. Talk nerdy to me." I say while laughing. "I have no idea what you guys are even talking about half the time."

"It's really just simple equations and rudimentary quadratics." He tells me with a smile.

Nope, no idea what he's talking about.

"Oh yea big turn on Cor." I say while rolling my eyes. At this point Marc walks into the room carrying breakfast for him and Corey.

"What's a turn on?" he asks me while giving me a wink, assessing me laid out on his bed; I'm leaning on my elbows with one leg flat and the other bent at the knee with my foot on the bed. "I should probably know if I want to keep you laid out on my bed like that Bambi."

That wink alone with that drool worthy smile can keep me like this all day hot stuff, I think to myself. Corey saves me from my thoughts by answering for me.

"Sorry bro you're out of luck, Kayli likes nerds." He looks up from his laptop to give me a wink and a coy smile.

Wow! Who knew my little nerdling Corey could play coy? I give myself a mental shake to get out of my musings and try and play off how they both managed to get me a little hot.

"Yea Marc didn't you know?" I say with a sassy smile, "Nerds are a total turn on." I look from Marc to Corey and give him a little wink. With that my little nerdling returns and he's in full bloom; he has the biggest blush on his face and goes to avert his eyes. Which in turn causes me and Marc to crack up laughing.

He sets breakfast down on his table and then comes to sit by me on his bed.

"So Bambi, what brings you by our humble abode." Marc asks me.

"I actually wanted to apologize for last night. Leaving soon after I got there was not a part of the 'Distract Marc Weiland' plan" I laugh.

"Think nothing of it Bambi, you were a good distraction while you were there." He tells me.

"Still," I say, "sorry anyway."

"Well if you're really sorry, you could always make it up to me." He says while laying down. I sneak a glance over to Corey and see that he's in his own little world typing away.

I look to Marc and say, "And how's that?"

He turns his head to look at me and says, "Go out with me tonight."

"Deal." I say while getting up, "Although you didn't really need to do all this if you wanted to ask me out." I give him a wink over my shoulder and open the door. "Later my little nerdling," I say to Corey, "Marc, pick me up at six."

And with my farewell I leave the second floor and head back up to my room. I wonder what Sang thought of Victor being in our room after she got out the shower. Sang always gets dressed in our room so I know he saw her in a towel. Oooo what I wouldn't give to have been a fly on that wall.

**Marc**

After Kayli left the room, I have to admit, I was kinda staring dumbly at the door for a little while. Whenever I speak to Kayli there's always this underlying sexual tension, but walking into my room and seeing her laid out on my bed just hiked it up a notch. Instead of just the tension I usually felt, there were these little wriggly sparks in the pit of my stomach. The kind you get when you meet the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. I'm not sure if Kayli felt them, but I'm determined to find out.