Along came Avery

1 . l o s t a n d f o u n d

I'm so lost.

If there's one thing I'll never understand, is a university willingly having a ceremony where both students and lecturers can drink, eat and 'vibe'. Okay, maybe I understand that. What I truly don't understand is the need for alcohol at this ceremony. It's almost as if it's legal to begin with. They know that students would be driving back home, so driving under the influence provided by a school is already something quite irresponsible. Borderline illegal, but that's me overthinking.

But then again, I'm surrounded by people who seem to not care. Not even a damn or an inch.

"Everybody, raise your glasses!" David yells at the group over the music. Each one of us, all six of us, raise our transparent plastic cups with dark liquid substances to the headlights in this hall. "Cheers to this friend group, and another successful past semester! This semester, we getting straight eighties with understandable seventies and sixties. Cheers!"

"Cheers!" We all cry out before bumping cups with one another. Simultaneously, we all down the drink in one go before laughing and giggling about. The Fernandez twins high-five each other, something they do way too frequently.

Maybe alcohol at school isn't so bad. I barely drink but free drinks are free drinks, after all.

Amber, my dorm mate and quickly growing best friend taps my arm to gain my attention and nudges her head. "Come with me to the bathroom?" I nod, allowing myself to be pulled away from the group and out the hall to the uni restrooms.

Many students are lingering around the school, and of course since it's after dark; I can imagine the amount who are around corners smoking heaven knows what. It's not as loud as it is inside the hall, but it sure seems like the outside of a club.

I can't confirm, I've never been to one. But I've seen enough in movies to know what's up.

"Girl." Amber grins at me as she pulls me into one stall, locking us both inside as the other gossip girls outside stand by the mirror, fixing their makeup, hair and perfume. "I got to tell you something."

By all means, my eyes remain locked with her baby blue ones as she lifts up her gold dress and pulls down what I can presume, based on what I can see, is a thong. I lean against the door and cross my arms over my chest. "Spill."

"A little birdie. Told me. Qailah. Likes one of the Fernandez twins."

"You're lying!" I cover my mouth as she grins and nods, grabbing tissue to wipe herself. "Wait, which one?"

"Nathan. She likes Nathan, and let me tell you something else." Now Amber stands up and pulls down her dress, leaning over to flush. "Nathaniel likes... you."

Gobsmacked, I shake my head furiously, having my short braids beat against my neck. "That's... no—"

"Yes, Zee. He does. He even said he was planning to ask you out tonight."

I follow her like a lost puppy as we exit the stall and head towards an open space by the mirror. I stand besides her, gazing at her shining eyes as she grins my way before washing her hands. Amber is beautiful, I won't even lie. Great shape, very fit, golden features that I know people would crawl over fire just to have. She's perfect. She won't say it openly but I know she thinks it once a while.

"He can't!"

"I mean, if he doesn't, then you'll have more time to prepare. I shouldn't even be telling you this, you know. So you have to—" She closes the tap and wiggles her hands to remove some access water; "pretend you didn't know a thing. You didn't hear this and you especially didn't hear this from me. I just thought I'd give you a heads up."