𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙄𝙇𝙀𝙉𝘾𝙀 𝘽𝙀𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙈
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THE LAST PLACE Paisley Parker expected to be on a Thursday Afternoon was Jordan Li's bed. How did she end up there? Not even she knew why.

Her lack of friends would probably be the easiest explanation. In her entire time at Godolkin University; she barely tried to form sustainable relationships. In the eyes of Paisley Parker, she had the only person she needed— everyone's Golden Boy.

The entirety of her freshman year; she was attached at the hip to Luke Riordan. And when Cate Dunlap came into the picture the following year, students placed bets on how big the blow-up would be but it never came. The trio all held a certain level of adoration for one another and it rarely had to be voiced; they all knew it existed.

Unlike Luke, the two girls did not actively pursue relationships with other students— they were at peace with it being just the three.

Moreover, when it wasn't just the three, it became a group of five; all members were held together and bonded by the glue that was Luke Riordan. He was the reason they all knew each other. Excluding Paisley, Andre Anderson was his best friend since Freshman year, and with Andre came Jordan.

Paisley hardly interacted with Jordan outside of group sessions. There was never much of an opportunity to, not that they would considering it appeared they had nothing in common.

Andre and her spoke a lot more considering that their parents were well acquainted— and well acquainted meaning they were fucking. A conclusion that came from their two offspring after an awkward encounter at a Vought Fundraiser earlier in the year.

So why was she in Jordan's room instead of one of the other three people in her life?

Luke pretty well had a mental breakdown in Paisley's dorm this morning and quickly left afterwards, and all she had received back from him since he stormed out was a vague message about going to see Professor Brink.

Andre and Cate— she was avoiding them both for the same reason. She had her suspicions that something had happened between the two after she saw Andre leaving her other best friend's dorm at four in the morning on a Tuesday night. And she had yet to figure out a way of to bring it up with Cate. For Luke's sake, she hoped she was wrong.

She didn't even know if Jordan would be here when she came knocking on their dorm door. Or what she would do if they weren't. Considering they were here last option as terrible as that sounded.

So why Jordan? Because she had nobody else.

That was how the two ended up on Jordan Li's bed. Jordan laid on their side, back pressed against the wall and Paisley laid next to them on her back. The dorm bed was not fit for two people at all, even in their currently positions and smaller builds, the side of her body pressed flush against Jordan; not that it seemed to bother either party.

Paisley had her eyes closed, seemingly completely relaxed for the first time since she entered the room— the evident doing of the shrooms Jordan had taken from Luke at a party a few days back and pulled out after Paisley had effectively dumped her issues on them.

"You know, maybe it isn't such a bad thing," Jordan voiced, referring to their conversation minutes earlier. Seemingly one Paisley dropped when the effects of the psychedelic took over, she had barely even remembered where she was.

Paisley peaked over at Jordan, who was propped up on their shoulders and eyes scanning her face. "Brink actually used the words not a right fit for you, your extracurricular activities are a distraction," She scoffed, "It's not like all I can do is shoot webs. I have fucking proved I'm good enough."

"Maybe it won't be that bad? You don't even want to be in the Seven," Jordan pointed out before they continued quickly after seeing the look in the girl's eyes, "I mean your blog is your lifeline, why not go bigger? Get on the big screen, knock Tek Knight down a peg and all that shit. Could be a fun way to think about it"

Paisley propped herself up on her elbows and the lightness flooded back on her face at their words. "Did you see me completely wreck Get Stoned? That was Seven worthy. I'm a badass and I know it, screw Brink!" she smiled proudly as she looked over to Jordan who was already staring at her with their own matching grin.

"You know his name is actually Cinderblock, right?" they quipped in amusement.

"That's what he told me after I said I was ready to get boned by Get Stoned."

"Fuck— you didn't."

The girl nodded in confirmation and a snort of laughter escaped from Jordan's lips as they watched Paisley bring her hand up to cover her face and groan in embarrassment. She peaked through her fingers at them, still laughing at her misfortune and could not help herself as she joined in with her own contagious laughter.

"Hey! It couldn't have been that bad if it didn't stop him from going to Poundtown."

Jordan's laughter died off slowly as Paisley reached her fingers to the strand of her that had fallen in front of their face, fingers gently twisted the strand of hair around her index fingers as she watched her own movements. She was no stranger to playing with their hair during late night escapades with the group— but this time, between the glazed overlook in the brown haired girl's dark chocolate eyes and the carefree smile that danced on her lips, something felt different about it. It was just the two of them. Alone. No Luke. No Andre. No Cate.

Someone closed the gap between their faces, maybe Jordan. They were close enough that the tips of their noses skimmed against each other. Subconsciously her eyes fluttered closed at Jordan's proximity and within what felt like seconds lips brushed hesitantly against hers. Her lips parted at the contact, a

"Oh shit, sorry,"

The voice of Tyler Oppenheim filled the room and startled the pair. Paisley jumped back forgetting about the lack of bed behind her and a string of curses fell from her lips as she ungraciously plummeted onto the cold, hard ground.

"Fuck." Jordan's head popped over the edge of the bed as they peered down at the girl, lips turned downwards into a predominant frown, but a hint of amusement evident in their eyes.

"Uh- sorry again?" Tyler breathed out, eyes trained on the girl who had narrowed her eyes at him once she recovered from the fall.

"You know most people just use the door," sarcasm dripped from Paisley's voice as she addressed the intruder.

"What are you doing here?" Jordan questioned, their eyes flickering towards Tyler.

"You texted me to come earlier because you wanted t—" he answered, stopping the rest of his sentence at the hard glare Jordan gave. His eyes flickered to the girl who managed to collect herself of the ground then back to Jordan.

"I didn't get a message,"

"I sent it like an hour ago but you've clearly been busy," he smirked, the two both sharing looks between them as if they were talking with their eyes. Paisley furrowed her eyebrows at the exchange, remaining quiet.

"You should leave," Jordan responded, eyes glued to the boy.

"I can leave," Tyler voiced in sync with Jordan.

Paisley's eyes flickered between the two, shuffling on her feet awkwardly. "Uh– actually I have to go," she shuttered hastily.

Both their heads snapped in the direction of the flustered girl; one wore a smug look, the other just confused. "I have to feed my sea monkeys and stuff so," she trailed off and backed up towards the dorm door. She muttered a quickly goodbye before rushing out the door.

Tyler and Jordan shared a look, both mouthing to each other, "Sea Monkeys?"

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     THE SOUND OF her fist knocking against the door echoed through the hallway.

Four hours fifteen minutes; that was how long Paisley Parker had spent with Jordan Li, not that she was counting. The sun had given its final goodbye for the day without her and the light of the moon had greeted her happily when she left their room. To say she was conflicted about what had just happened was an understatement.

Her mind was in a constant turmoil between her future at God U, Luke's breakdown and now, Jordan. Not a single moment of silence. Her thoughts had fully taken control and were screaming at one another.

I hope Luke is doing better. Of course he isn't, he thinks Sam is still alive and talking to him.

Why was I about to let Jordan Li kiss me? Yes.

Wait.. did I want them to kiss me? Did you? You ran out of there like you wished you were A-train.

She snapped out of her thoughts as the door opened, her eyes meeting Cate Dunlap's blue hues that held traces of redness as she managed to pull together a soft smile.

"Hey. Where have you been? I thought we were going to hang out today," Cate greeted with a smile of her own. She pulled open the door wider and stepped aside, allowing for Paisley to enter into the room.

Paisley's eyes fitted around the room before they landed on a sleeping Luke, a wave of relief rushed over her body.

"I'm sorry, I just had a lot going on and just needed to clear my head after this morning," she answered. She walked over to Luke's sleeping figure and examined him for any signs of discomfort or was it harm? He looked peaceful compared to how she had seen him earlier. "Is he feeling better?"

"Uh yeah, I think he just needed sleep," Cate responded, a gloved hand pushing her hair behind her ear. "What happened this morning?" she questioned as she looked towards the girl whose expression became worrisome at the question.

"He came to my dorm at five in the morning completely distraught about Sam and kept mumbling about a forest," she said as her own hand reached out to stroke the hair off the boy's face out of habit. "I've never seen him like that, Cate. I just, I couldn't even get through to him. He ended up storming off, telling me that he had to go to the woods and when I tried to message– call him all he responded with was Brink."

A sigh escaped the blonde haired girl behind her as she moved closer towards the dark haired girl, "He's better now, Pais. It was just the nightmares again. You know how much they put him on edge," she whispered.

"This was different, Cate."

"Paisley, he will be okay," Cate promised.

Unnoticed to the other girl who was distracted trying to ease her own thoughts, Cate's bare hand rested against the skin of the girl's shoulder. Paisley nodded slowly and forced herself back to reality, her eyes drifted off Luke to the her other best friend.

"You look tired, you should try to get some sleep," Cate told her, hand gently squeezing her shoulder.

"Yeah, I should try to sleep," she agreed as she felt a sudden onset of exhaustion move through her body. Her hand reaching up to clutch her head slightly as a dull migraine like pain shot through it.

"Go back to your dorm and get some rest," the blonde whispered, moving her hand to the girl's cheek with a gentle smile. "Sleep and when you wake up don't worry about today, forgot all of it ever happened. In fact today, you spent the whole day studying for our media test in your dorm with your phone off and fell asleep early because you had to be on your A-game for the test," she continued. "Don't forget to set your alarm when you get back. You should head back now, it's getting late."

"It's late, I should head back," Paisley repeated.

And for the first time that day, the turmoil was over and she finally had silence.

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&&. note
i wrote this on my phone while on the train because this is the first thursday without gen v and it's kinda sad so i have no idea if this is trash

this is kinda in introduction pre season 1 to set the scene and happened months prior to the first episode

do people prefer first person or third? because i am used to third but i've noticed a lot of books becoming first person

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