019

019

Gaia
"What's the plan again?" I shielded my eyes from the sun's rays peeking out from the residence hall's roof, threatening to blind me in the process. "And are you sure this will work?"

"Relax." Olivia sighed, kicking her feet against a tiny pebble on the floor." You've asked me that question about six times now..."

"I just really don't want to mess this up." I cut her off. “You know.."

"In the last three minutes." She finished, fixing me with a suspecting glare. “Relax. Would I put you up to something that would fail?."

"Fine, fine." I heaved, my hands up in mock surrender. “Why don't we run through the plan one more time? We've got to be thorough."

"If you insist." She drawled, flipping her hair dramatically. “We walk in there." She pointed to the entrance of the residence hall, which was eerily quiet by the way for a perfectly sunny afternoon. Its doors were wide open, like an open invitation to whatever trap it'd laid for us.

I was feeling nervous about sneaking in and I'd never felt that way before. For someone who had done this A million times, I wasn't sure why I was starting to feel skeptical about this one. A teeny tiny part of me felt it had something to do with that asshole Cassian, but I shoved the thoughts way back of my mind.

"Then we find Penny's room, which should be room 108 on the first floor. It's exactly 2:30 which means she's at the library for her club meeting and won't be back till 4:30, which gives us exactly two hours to go through her stuff and find what we're looking for." She let out meticulously, her face mirroring something somewhat serious. “And if we run into Jonah, that's where your skills will come in."

"What skills?" I frown, my face scrunching up to remember Olivia and the tiny detail she just mentioned. “I don't remember you mentioning anything."

"Why do you think I asked you to wear clothes that were two times smaller than your usual size?" She smirked smugly. “Come on, guess."

"I don't know." I sighed in defeat, my hands tugging down the crop top that was definitely two times small. “Just tell me."

My boobs would definitely pop if I didn't get out of this outfit in the next one hour.

"Sometimes I wonder how you switch from exciting to boring in just 0.5 seconds." She shook her head in feigned exasperation. “My sources didn't give me enough info on Jonah, so we may or may not run into him."

"So?" I still didn't understand what I had to do with Jonah. “You'll handle it right?"

"Oh hell no." She shuddered, her blue locks “shaking vehemently. “I definitely can't stand that creep."

"So I can?" I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Olivia, why?"

"Because he likes you." She whisper yelled and I paled immediately. “He's been crushing on you ever since that video started trending, but he doesn't have the balls to do anything about it. Rumour has it, that he's got a shrine just for you...."

"Stop, stop stop talking." I rubbed my hands over each other, attempting to wash off the goosebumps that were forming rapidly. The idea of having someone crushing on me was cute, but not someone like Jonah. I'd heard things, really weird things about the dude. So if we run into him, what do I do?"

"If we run into him, he's probably most definitely not going to let us walk into Penny's room, no matter what we say." She nodded solemnly. “Soooo, you'll have to flirt with him."

"Do you have a death wish or something?" I hissed so loud I was sure the neighbors would have heard me. We were supposed to be quiet so we wouldn't draw unnecessary attention but I didn't care at this point. “How would you even think of something like that?!"

"It's our only option if we run into him." Olivia pouted, looking slightly intimated. “If you don't want to do it then it's fine. We'll just risk not getting the evidence and you won't be Mr. Corvin's TA anymore...."

"Fine." I groaned, dragging my hands along my face. “Fine, I'll do it."

"Easy on the face gurl." Olivia pried my hands away from my face immediately. “You're going to ruin your make, up. And I did not spend three hours on your face just for you to ruin it in a minute."

"You mean what's left of it right?" I smirked, tossing away the fake eyelashes I'd just dragged out from under my eyes. “At this point, we can both say you wasted your time."

"It's useless talking to you." She frowned. “Let's just go."

Our footsteps echoed in the empty hallway of the residence hall. My eyes roamed the light pink walls that were swarmed with notice boards of different sizes and shapes with posters advertising different clubs and other school related stuff. A particular flyer caught my eye; it was particularly for transfer students.

Apparently, the college accepted transfer students from every part of the world. Immediately, my eyes fell on an unsuspecting Olivia, who for some reason was trying to scope out and making weird noises while speaking into her make believe walkie talkie. Olivia was a transfer student all the way from Tokyo and she seemed to be fitting in quite well, which made me wonder if there were other students from other parts of the world.

"Code blood orange!" I skidded to a stop abruptly, almost running into Olivia who was standing as though she's just seen a ghost. “I repeat, code blood orange!"

"What's a code blood orange?" I repeated, oblivious to the being that was walking towards us, his face unreadable. “Kim!?"

"That." She whispered, my eyes following her outstretched finger before landing on the lanky being that now stood in front of us, his arms crossed defensively and jet black eyes glaring at us from behind his glasses. “Oh, hey, Jonah."

My ears perked up at the mention of his name. While Olivia was shuddering in fear and probably disgust, I took in his appearance. His black hair was short and clipped tightly that it basically stuck to his skull. Raven black eyes stared at us from the round rims of his glasses that had an uncanny resemblance to the spectacles Harry Potter always donned on his face. His pale skin glowed under the lights and his tiny structure was tucked underneath a grey jacket that could easily hide a dead body if you wanted to. He also had on a black striped shirt with khaki shorts and black sandals to go with it. To be honest, he was bordering on the line between a fashion failed nerd and an undercover drug dealer.

"What are you doing here?" His tiny voice held more power than I'd anticipated, making the hairs on my neck rise immediately. “Last time I checked you don't live here."

"Yeah, we don't." I'd never seen Olivia's this nervous before, to prove how creepy he was. We're here for some work."

"Work?" He raised his eyebrow, his eyes narrowing in on Olivia's creeped out expression. “What work?"

Way to be cool about it Olivia...

"Umm." She drawled sheepishly until she realized I'd been standing there all along. “Mila will tell you."

"Mila?" His eyes widened like that of a child expecting Christmas presents from Santa as he took me in. “I'm sorry I didn't see you there."

"It's fine." I suppressed a shudder, his lingering gaze giving me an unsettling feeling in my stomach. “How are you, Jonah?"

"I'm great now that you're here." He beamed, taking my hand in his, his lean-looking fingers crossed over mine. “What brings you here?"

"Actually." I drawled, fighting back the bile that was building up in my throat. “We were headed to Penny's room..."

"Why?" He cut me off abruptly, his voice dropping lower. “She's not home right now, so maybe you should come back..."

"We can't do that." Olivia spat and I glared at her. She cowered before responding. “I mean, we have to get to her room now..."

"You still haven't answered me." Jonah's eyes were as thin as slits. “Why do you wanna go there if she isn't in ?"

"You see," I cleared my throat. “Penny actually sent us here to help her get something. She's at a meeting at the library so she can't make it right now."

"But I don't think you're friends." His grip on my hands was becoming tighter and tighter. “She certainly hasn't mentioned you before."

"Our friendship is still growing." I tried to pry my hands free from his, but he was surprisingly strong. “She even asked us to get the spare key from you ."

"Lies." He spat and I flinched. “You're lying."

I turned to Olivia again and she gave me “the what exactly are you waiting for look”. Her eyes were literally screaming flirt with him.

Here goes, nothing. It's now or never.

"Oh, Jonah." I grabbed his arm and batted my eyelashes at him. Now I kinda wished I hadn't yanked those fake ones off earlier. "You know I'd never lie to you."

"You, you wouldn't?" He was definitely not expecting my bold gesture. He sputtered nervously, a tinge of pink tainting his cheeks. “Really?"

"Of course not." I pulled him closer, close enough for my exposed cleavage to grab his attention. “I think you're an amazing guy. You're super smart and cool, and to be honest I've been thinking about you a lot lately."

"You..you..you have?" He fiddled with his glasses. I could visibly see his hands tremble and I smirked. “I never thought that'd be possible."

"But it is." I looked him in the eye. “And you know what else, we could hang out, just you and me."

"Holy.." he exclaimed breathlessly. “When do we? How, where?"

"Hold on." My fingers traveled lazily up his chest. “I really need to get to Penny's room first to help her get what she needs for the meeting. Won't you be a darling and give it to me? I promise we'll be quick."

"I dunno." He looked sincerely conflicted. “Penny just hasn't mentioned you before and I just can't let anyone go into anyone's rooms.. "

"I'm anyone now?" I feigned a gasp and his eyes widened at his mistake. I sighed dramatically and turned to my partner in crime. “Come on Olivia, let's go tell Penny he refused."

I shot Olivia a look, and luckily she understood. All that waseft was for our prey to catch the bait. With one small nod, we turned towards the door.

"Wait!" Olivia and I halted in our tracks. “Promise you won't tell anyone I gave you the keys to her room."

" I cross my heart." I hastily drew the cross over my heart. “Right, Olivia?"

"Definitely." She gave an exaggerated thumbs up.

"Here." He dropped an odd looking keychain in my palm. “You have to return it before she gets home."

"You bet." I winked before blowing him a kiss, and already dashing up the stairs to the first floor. “Thanks, Jonah."

"What about our date?" He called out, his cheeks getting redder by the minute.

"I'll call you!" I disappeared up the stairs before he could say anything else.

"And she says she can't flirt." Olivia snickered once we were out of earshot. “You were like a total pro out there."

"Shut up, and don't you dare mention this to anyone." I rolled my eyes. “Now let's find our little angel Penny's room."