Vanilla.

Scorpio.

Mariah's POV

"I don't know what the big deal is, Lucas! Just try and understand where I'm coming from!" I was woken up by the loud voice of my best friend, Jess. After reading the letter, I stressed myself out to sleep with the fact that I would never be able to look Scorpio in the eye ever again. "Grrr!" Jess walked into the room looking like a rabid dog and plopped onto my bed.

"What's wrong?" I sat up and started stroking her hair. My best friend needed someone right now. "Is it Lucas?"

Jess has been my best friend for the longest time ever. Since we were in pre-school, we were inseparable. We did everything together, even though we are polar opposites. While I was more of a goody-two-shoes, Jess was the definition of badass. She's done everything first. Drank first, smoked first, kissed first, lost her virginity first. I haven't done anything. Nope. My mother raised me to know that if I ever did anything I wasn't supposed to, she would beat my ass.

Now, Jess and I were part of a trio. The third person was Jess's boyfriend, Lucas. Oh, Lucas. Lucas was the first boy I ever loved. Back in my teen years, I followed the boy around like a lovesick puppy but I never showed my true feelings. That backfired for me because the very next year, Jess and Lucas got together and have been dating ever since. 5. Freaking. Years. But I got over it. There were many other boys to keep me company.

Anyway, back to Jess. "Yes. Look... this isn't the way I wanted to tell you but I'm moving."

"What?" I was caught off guard. "Why are you doing that?"

"I got a scholarship in Wales and I've gotta take it." She was crying. "You know I have to take it." I do know. Jess hadn't come from the best place. Her mother struggled to make ends meet because her rich father left them to fend for themselves. A scholarship was a once in a lifetime opportunity for her.

"I know."

"And I've gotta break up with Lucas."

Okay, is it bad that there's a deep, dark part of me that got happy, right now? "Oh."

She started ranting at me, getting off the bed. "He doesn't understand, Mariah. He doesn't. He's blaming me for breaking his heart. How could he?!"

"When are you leaving?" I asked in a soft voice.

Why did she look so guilty? "This weekend. Saturday night."

I gasped at this information. The one person other than my Mom who had been here for me all my life was now leaving. "What?"

"I'm sorry, Mariah. But I have to." She said.

"I'm gonna miss you but... okay."

"Let's just enjoy the rest of the time I've got left here, yeah?" She gave a hopeful smile.

I returned one back and got up to go shower. "Yeah. I'm gonna go shower now."

"That's a good idea. I stink too."

Since our university thought we were so comfortable with each other, we had to shower in a public bathroom. Yeah, I know. At least it was classy. All the fancy shmancy stuff made up for your gonads almost being in plain sight. It's a good thing the boys' side was separated from the girls' side by a wall, although a few immature ones tried to sneak a peek into our section. Why the board of the Uni thought having a unisex establishment was a good idea, I don't know? But not a lot of lines have been overstepped, making the arrangement somewhat peaceful. Other than the sleepless nights I had from the banging of the walls. I wonder what it is, really.

We went to the showers to find that the shower curtains had been taken out. Huh? "Now, how are we supposed to shower?" Jess voiced my thoughts with one hand on her hip.

"I think the boys did it. As a prank. They're so stupid." Katalina, a Latino housemate, informed us. It made sense. "But it's not that bad. Just make sure only your ass is visible to the entire bathroom." She smiled and winked at me as she departed. I can't say that I wasn't flattered by that wink. Katalina was an open lesbian and I only could imagine how much courage it takes to walk tall as she did in such a prejudiced world.

"Better make the best of it." Jess broke me out of my thoughts as she entered a cubicle. "Try not to put my ass to shame." She laughed as she turned on her shower.

I pouted as I stepped into the cubicle to the left of hers. "It's not that big." I mumbled as I started scrubbing. This is so awkward. Luckily, it was only Jess and I here after Katalina left, otherwise I would've been mortified to death right now.

For some reason, I take really long showers so by the time Jess got done in 5 minutes, I was still lathering the soap on my body. "Come on, Mariah. You take so long." She complained.

Well, it's not my fault I like to be thoroughly clean. "Calm yourself. You can see that I'm rinsing myself off." And I was. As I wrapped my towel around me, I heard sniggering. Deep, manly sniggering. Oh, no. "Jess?" I asked worried.

"Hey! Get out of here, you rats! Disgusting pigs!" Shouting, she stormed to the door, shutting it closed in the faces of the immature boys that had watched us shower. "Ugh!"

I muttered a let's go to her and we walked back to our room, slightly embarrassed. I put some music on from the stereo to fill the silence as we got ready. Humming to the music, I picked out my outfit for today and skipped across the room.

"You're such a good girl." Hmm? Jess came up to me and started touching my clothes. "Look at this? So innocent."

I didn't see anything wrong with my outfit. An off-shoulder floral summer dress paired with a jean jacket and some white sandals to match. My braids were in a half-up, half-down ponytail and I had on a white lace choker to complete my look. "What do you mean? My outfit is fine. It suits me." I smiled.

"Damn, right, it suits you. It makes you look like a goody-two-shoes candy striper." Huh? "Look. Now that I'm leaving, you're going to need to keep our reputation where it is."

"I don't. Under...stand." Trailing off, I squinted my eyes at her in a dumbfounded way. Not taking her nonsense, I put on my black rimmed Marc Jacobs glasses with gold lining and got my black book bag. "Let's go." And I started towards the door.

Least to say, I was shocked when Jess pulled me back by my book bag and sat me on a chair. "Where are your contacts? Because we are not having this." I took off my glasses and put on my contacts. "You see, we are seen as the good one and the bad one by the rest of the school. Because I'm leaving, you're going to have to mesh those together to create the perfect balance. Starting now." She got her makeup bag and opened it.

"What are you doing?" She got out this dark lipstick out and I widened my eyes a bit. "No way!"

"Yes way! Stay put." She pulled on my braid as I started fidgeting. Ow. "Yes. This is perfect." After lining my lips with what she called Nightmoth by MAC, she layered my lips with another MAC product I forgot the name of. All I know, is that it looked so purple it was almost black. "Where are your nose rings?"

Ugh. Those dreaded things. I got the piercings on my nose in my Senior year as a graduation thing that Jess convinced me to do. It was so painful. What was worse was that I got one on my nostril and one at my septum. You know that cartilage between your nostrils. Yeah, that was hell. "Here." I handed them to her from my desk and she took her time picking one out.

Her eyes lit up as she held the chosen one up. "Aha! This one." No! It was the septum one. I had bought one that looked like Rihanna's and now I'm regretting it. I tried not to flinch as Jess put it on me and bit my tongue from saying something to her. "Now, you look like a mixture. Leggo." What?

Looking at myself in the mirror, I was shocked to say that I actually didn't look that different. Just a bit darker in my presence. I left the room to catch up with Jess and locked it before leaving the building.

We went to Milky Lane for some waffles for breakfast and spoke about random topics. Mainly about the waffle flavors here at Milky Lane. She got Banana and Cream with a vanilla milkshake while I got Bar One with ice cream and hazelnuts and a Bar One milkshake topped with cream . I like Bar One.

"Hey, why did Scorpio come to our room last night?"

I think I choked on my waffle. "What?! What for?!"

"I don't know. He was looking for you but you were asleep." She smirked at me. "Are you hiding something from me? Are you and Mr Bad Boy doing the dirty behind my back?" I flicked the serviette at her when she wiggled her eyebrows.

"No!" I shrank. "You know me better than that. No s*x before marriage. And I'm not hiding anything. I don't know why Scorpio was looking for me." Really, why was he looking for me?

"Oh, yeah. Sure." She scoffed. "Just make sure not to get anything other than your bed wet."

I gasped at my best friend's dirty mouth. "Jessica Marlow! Take that back!" She hated when I used her full name.

"I wouldn't blame you. He fine as f***!" She shouted.

"Who's fine as f***?" A deep voice sounded behind me, making me jump up in my seat. My startled nature resulted in my knocking my drink over but the day was saved when a tanned hand grabbed hold of the big glass before a lot more spilled. He placed it back on a clean spot on the table while he called for someone to clean up the mess. I looked up at him before deciding that eye contact wasn't for me so I grabbed my drink and started sipping hard on the straw. "Hey! I didn't know you had a nose ring! Who would've thought?" He looked—stared at me again and bit his lip. "That's sexy as f***."

I choked on my milkshake and a bit dripped down the side of my chin. How could he say something so crass? Oh, gosh. He took his thumb, wiping the milkshake off my chin and then... and then... he put his own thumb in his mouth and sucked it. While looking at me. It's perfectly rational to be hyperventilating on this situation, right?

He only smiled at me before walking off.