“ jesus, zoe, you only listen to what you want to hear, ” melody spat, flabbergasted how zoe missed the clear sarcastic tone in her past words. with a deep breath melody counted to ten and looked back at her friend, the last thing she wanted or needed was to lose her temper at zoe on their first day back. “ they might be hotter, but most of them have god complexes which makes them unattractive. go with humans, at least you will get to see guys without their shirts, ” mel entertained zoe’s idea with a supportive smile - as a way of apologizing to her friend - and fighting the urge to roll her eyes again.

confused by melody’s outburst, she asked, “what do you mean? i am listening to you!” eyeing the girl’s reaction, zoe frowned, “was it something i said? you’re not mad, are you?” she could never tell with mel sometimes. her mind was already racing to think of which expensive apology gift to get her friend. because, of course, that would fix everything. “thanks mel! what would i do without you?” smiling, she reached out to give her friend a big hug. “so what about you? i’m sure there are enough hotties in humans for the both of us!”

           “i don’t know but you seem a little too passionate for you to still be talking about two people you don’t know,” he shrugged.  “plus, you don’t even like political figures.” his hands still dug into his pants pockets as he took a step closer to the smaller brunette. “if you have something you want to say…just say it.” he told her, a     perfect case     of banks pushing someone when what he really wanted was for things to die down but something in him just doesn’t quite allow for it - call it his ego or a destructive trait, perhaps. 

scoffing, she cried out in disbelief, “you don’t know that!” but he was right and she hated that he was right, which was all the more reason to act like he was wrong. “i love political figures, okay? i tweet about them like, all the time! so you’re wrong.” as he took a step towards her, she instinctively crossed her arms, but made no move to keep the distance. narrowing her eyes at him, she shot back instead, “do you have something to say?”

“got soccer practice today.” the sentence was to the point. what was really the problem with boys like titus? they act like they really like you, say and do what you want to hear and feel then once you’ve fallen hard ( melted onto the floor ) that’s when they lose interest. if it wasn’t for that titus would possibly be a dream boyfriend without a doubt. with her arms around his shoulders, the jock caressed his cheek over hers before softly nuzzling nose into the side of her neck to exhale a sweet breath. “i’ll give you half my day unless you can convince me to spend it all on you.” voice drenched in charm, hands sliding intimately over her lower back. “who else would i be talking about..”

“nooo, can’t you skip it?” pouting, she put on her best puppy dog eyes. entitled rich girls like zoe were rarely denied what they wanted, and maybe that was why she was always drawn to guys like titus. the more unavailable he made himself to her, the more she pined after him. and just when she thought she was moving on, they always knew the perfect thing to do or say to pull her back in. it was a continuous cycle that has only ever ended in heartbreak for her, but will she ever learn? well... “babe, some things you just can’t rush. like this amazing workout that i know...” her voiced trailed off, her lips hovering just a breath away from a certain spot on his neck. pulling away just the slightest, she shrugged nonchalantly, “unless you don’t think you can handle it...”

“oh–you think i’m cute ??” a cheeky grin follows after his words, of course that’s what he chose to latch onto. “uhh–” he pulls out a crumbled flyer from his pocket, unfolding it to retrieve the name. “my friend forced me to join cosmology with her – so guess i’m apart of that.”

“of course, babe. you are the cutest of them all,” she smiled, leaning up to plant a light peck on his cheek. maybe she enjoyed seeing the effect she had on him a little too much. but then again, she treated all of her friends with this sort affection. you know, minus the occasional hooking up. but what was the harm in that? grabbing hold of felix’s arm, she leaned in to take a closer look at the crumbled flyer in his hand. “she must be pretty cute for you to join some club about makeup with her,” she teased playfully. “obviously not as cute as me though, right?”

          a short nod followed by banks rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced around at their surroundings. “are you still talking about the obamas here?” his voice was much lower than hers which was purposeful, hoping he could somehow get her to come down in octave subconsciously. banks wasn’t much of an arguer to begin with but the addition of prying eyes made him all the more unlikely to match zoe’s energy in this moment.

did she care if she was causing a scene? no. did she care if others might overhear their conversation? no. if anything, seeing banks beginning to look uncomfortable being here made her feel all the more smug. good. he deserves it. why should she be the only one to feel like an awful human being over what happened? tilting her head innocently, she answered his question with another question, “who else could i possibly be talking about, banks?”

a  soft  ,  melodic  giggle  escapes  dulce’s  lips  as  her  holographic  acrylics  tap  away  on  a  cracked  iphone  8  plus  screen  .  she’d  been  sending  dick  pics  of  one  of  her  exes  to  some  girl  she’d  been  catfishing  on  tinder  out  of  boredom  .  she  clicks  the  lock  button  on  her  phone  and  drops  her  arm  as  she  walked  through  the  quad  .  for  a  moment  she  believes  it  might  actually  be  a  good  day  ,  but  it’s  not  long  before  the  click  of  her  heeled  boots  come  to  a  halt  ,  her  previously  bright  smile  faltering  quickly  .  eyes  roll  at  the  sight  in  front  of  her  .  “  god  ,  it  is  waaay  to  early  for  ,  “  her  nose  crinkles  as  if  she  smelled  something  sour  and  waves  her  acrylics  in  the  air  at  the  person  in  front  of  her  .  “  whatever  this  is .  “

“dulce, look!” strolling up to her friend, zoe held up a mason jar that contained some... mysterious greeny-brown concoction. opening the jar, she held it out to the girl. “one of the hippie kids sold it to me. it’s like, some kind of green juice laced with weed. and apparently, it’s super good for your... zen, or whatever.” taking a whiff of the contents in the jar herself, she couldn’t help but mirror the same look on dulce’s face. “they said it was a gwyneth paltrow recipe.”

“uhh, the business one?” tone disinterested, eyes focused on the notebook in her hands. “what, that’s gonna be.. a bunch of dudes.. who want to… wear suits, and.. talk about money and.. corporations. yeah. that’s pretty fucking sexy, no?” 

making a face at the girl’s description of ‘the business one’, zoe disagreed. “now that you put it like that, it sounds like, super boring.” she hadn’t thought of it like that. “what do you think about the other one? the whatever for um... humans?”

            the small uptick of a smirk dropped as her giggle came to a halt. slipping his hands into his pants pockets once she retrieved her pen from his hand. “i was a joke, zo” his voice laced with an        apologetic and yet deflated tone      . his brow perked up slightly at her comment. “they’ve been together for years…i’m sure he’s lied to her once or twice.” his gaze drifting away slightly, mentally questioning why he’d chosen now to approach zoe. 

“it’s zoe,” correcting him. jerks who made her cry don’t get to call her zo. of course he would think that. rolling her eyes, she scoffed, “ya? i’m sure he didn’t completely cut her out after like some coward, when he was the one who fucked up and made her feel like shit.” for someone who didn’t know much about politics or the obamas, she was sounding particularly riled up...