Chapter 4

•KAIA•

Amy suddenly linked her arm around mine when we arrived at the party. The flickering flames danced high into the night sky, casting an enchanting glow over the surrounding trees.

The party was already in full swing, with people gathered around the massive bonfire, their laughter, and the beat of the music filling the air.

An infectious energy pulsated through the crowd as people swayed to the music, drinks in hand, their faces illuminated by the warm, golden light of the fire.

It was a scene straight out of a movie, and I couldn't help but feel a thrill of excitement coursing through me as I took it all in.

But what truly took my breath away was the sight of the dark lake shimmering beyond the bonfire. I hadn't noticed it at first, so caught up in the fun happening all around us, but now that I saw it, I couldn't tear my eyes away.

Some people were sitting at the edge of the lake, laughing and talking, adding an extra layer of fun to the already exciting atmosphere.

When Amy told me where the party was being held, I didn't expect it to be right off campus. I thought it would be somewhere else in town but it was a good thing it's only a fifteen-minute walk from where the dorms are.

"I'm going to get us some drinks. Do you want anything else?" Amy asked with excitement dancing in her eyes.

"Just the drinks, please. No alcohol for me." She smirked before walking away.

The only reason why I asked for no alcohol was because I never trusted myself around it these days. I've had my fair share of crazy drunk episodes in high school so I wasn't going to repeat those same shenanigans here.

Being a lightweight is a complete nightmare, to be honest.

I waited by the side while taking in the scene in front of me. My hands were deeply buried in the pockets of my jacket. Amy had helped pick out an outfit for me tonight.

Tight skinny jeans, a cute white tank top, plus a denim jacket and black ankle boots. In all fairness, I look pretty cute tonight with just a casual outfit.

Casual was more my style. Whereas Amy got the complete opposite. She went all out tonight in getting ready where her outfit turned out to be a cute red mini dress with spaghetti straps and high-heeled boots plus a black leather jacket.

She looked way too hot to be at a normal bonfire party.

Five minutes later, she returned with two red solo cups in her hands. Hers was filled with alcohol, mine was filled with coke.

Ten minutes after standing around, she turned to me with a bored look on her face.

"This party sucks, there's not a single hot guy anywhere."

I chuckled and glanced around.

"What do you mean? There are so many cute guys around. Just look."

She rolled her eyes but glanced anyway.

"Yeah, but they're all your type of cute. Not my type of cute."

"What's wrong with my type of cute?" I asked in confusion.

"They have a cute face but none of them are interesting enough."

I playfully rolled my eyes and sipped my Coke quietly.

"I'll make some rounds and I'll come back if I find someone." She stated out loud. "If I return empty-handed, we're leaving."

I shook my head in amusement and watched her strut away towards the crowd. I didn't mind being left alone at the party, in less than five minutes, she would return with a hot guy by her side.

And we're never going to be leaving this party. Not after they finished flirting or making out by the trees till one of them gets bored and in this case, it will always be her.

•ADRIAN•

"Ahh, shit." Nate and Conrad both shot me confused glances before looking around to find out what I was staring at.

But it wasn't exactly a thing. It was more like, someone.

"What?" Conrad asked while still trying to figure out who I was looking at.

I sipped my drink and sighed.

"The girl from the tutoring thing is here too," I informed them and Nate frowned at me.

"Which one?"

"The first one that was a complete disaster."

"Ahh, that one," Conrad confirmed. "Is that her right there?" He pointed towards the spot where Kaia was standing.

She also had a drink in her hand and was talking to another girl standing by her side.

Probably another freshman. I don't know.

"Yep, that's the one," I answered Conrad and he turned to me with a smirk.

"Going to be one hell of an awkward night for you buddy."

"I kinda feel bad though," I admitted out loud. "I should go and at least apologize right?"

They immediately shared a glance before looking at me with grins on their faces.

"Aight. Good luck with that." Nate said.

I shrugged my shoulders while finishing my drink before making my way towards her. I was barely three feet away when she suddenly looked up and saw me coming towards her and her eyes immediately narrowed.

"Oh, great. You again." She mumbled out loud and her friend started looking between us with confusion.

"Hi." I greeted them with a smile.

"I'm gonna go. I'll see you at class tomorrow." Her friend started to say and Kaia smiled warmly at her while nodding.

Then, she looked at me again with an annoyed expression on her face.

"What do you want?"

"Look, I just came to apologize for what happened this afternoon. It honestly wasn't my intention to ruin our first tutoring session together. So, I'm sorry about that."

Her slowly softened and she quickly folded her arms together.

"Okay. Thanks."

"No problem," I replied smoothly and my brain began to buzz due to the alcohol effect.

"But to be honest, the other two students I had to tutor after you did not have the same problem with me. Maybe if you had just stayed around for a little bit, we would've had a great time."

A scowl suddenly appeared on her face and I was thrown off guard.

"If I had just stayed around?" She repeated with disbelief. "You were the one who was in a hurry to leave because you didn't want to miss your hockey practice."

"I took out another extra hour and a half to finish that tutoring gig for you guys and had to miss hockey practice today," I argued defensively and she scoffed.

"So, you're saying it's my fault now that I decided to walk out on you?"

I shrugged while narrowing my eyes at her.

"You left before the hour was up and requested to get another student to tutor you. So if you're not going to pass the class, then it's all on you."

She took a threatening step towards me and I almost laughed at how intimidating she tried to make me feel when her height barely reached my chest.

I was 6 foot tall, she's probably 5 foot 4 and it's like looking down at an angry kid who's about to throw a tantrum.

"The only reason why I left, was because you made it seem like I was wasting your entire time while being there."

I smirked down at her and took a step forward and she quickly backed away.

Aw, shy much?

"The other two girls never had any complaints."

"Probably because they thought your rudeness was attractive so they decided to let it slide and just stay."

I raised my brows in surprise while smiling and she gave me a quick once over before glaring into my eyes.

"Well besides, that's what happens with you all the time, right? You already know that you're good-looking enough so you probably used that as an advantage to get away with anything, including your rudeness and arrogance, which you think that no women would be offended by it because your ego feeds you with the illusion that ninety percent of the female population in Ivywood wants you to get in their pants. Correct?"

I burst out laughing and she glared harder at me.

"Wow, you're a terrible judge of character," I said to her face and she rolled her eyes at me.

"At least I'm not an asshole."

"All assholes know when to become an asshole sometimes, and believe me, I wasn't trying to be one during our session this afternoon."

She released her arms to hang freely by her side and slightly squinted her eyes at me.

"I'm convinced you didn't come here to apologize but to tell me that I just lost a great opportunity of having you as my tutor and I shall dwell on the fact that it's really my fault and not yours."

I smiled and slowly shook my head.

"No, really, I just came to apologize that's all."

She scoffed and gave me a sarcastic look.

"Yeah well, once you've learned how to make a proper apology, I'd prefer it if you would just email it next time. There's something called 'Trash' there, where I think your next stupid apology belongs."

I watched in amusement as she turned around and started walking away and I couldn't help but laugh quietly to myself.

Well that was....interesting

I've had a couple of arguments with girls in the past but that was only because I forgot to call them back or they found out they'd been dumped.

But that was the most interesting argument with a girl I've had so far. Arguing about something that matters that she wanted to burn me with her eyes.

It's intriguing and refreshing.

It makes me want to bump into her now and then on campus and argue about something else where she'll end up saying to my face, that she wishes I was dead.

I kinda want that to happen. That's more my type of fun.