Game Theory × NH

033 | arsenic

× Mercury

Three hours I had to ride in that bus. Three hours of obnoxious boys. Three hours of having to deal with my butt falling asleep. Three hours of holding in my pee because there was no way in hell I was going to use the bathrooms in the back.

It was almost ten in the evening when I saw the sign that said that there was only thirty miles left before we reached Doncaster. My butt and my bladder were thankful for that.

I looked across the bus and saw Niall multiple seats in front of me, leaning over to talk to William.

Niall had officially moved out of his dorm and to a new one in a completely new Hall. At least that's what Jace told me, because of course Niall wasn't speaking to me. And I was okay with that. I didn't know which House he was staying at; I just knew it wasn't the Aspen House.

He just felt like a whole other planet away, which was probably for the best. I would rather he feel alien to me than familiar.

Right then, Niall looked over at me and our eyes locked. I counted four solid beats before he looked away and engrossed himself into William's story once again. That was the longest contact we had in a week.

My mind was as jumbled up as the seats we were all sitting on. The multicolored chairs with blues, yellows, and reds looked like they belonged in the 80s and they were giving me a headache.

"So how's Jamie?" Jace asked from the seat across from me.

I blinked slowly and looked over at him. I was leaning up against the wall of the bus with my legs over the unoccupied seat beside me. I smiled when I registered what he had said. "Like you don't know. It's not like you don't text her every other day."

"I don't," Jace told me as he sat up in his seat with a smug smirk. "It's more like every day."

"Your phone bill must be massive to text internationally like that," I said.

Jace laughed. "I'm sure it would be. Jamie and I use an app that's free to text globally. We're college students; we have other things to use our money on."

"So have you asked her out yet?"

Jace looked at me, sadness in his eyes. "That's a little hard to do since she's kind of on the other side of the world."

Suddenly I felt stupid. Sometimes I forgot that my friends weren't with me, like I could walk over to UCLA and knock on Jamie's door, or Emily's. Like I could go to Macey for clothing advice and have her shake her head at my closet and just give me one of her dresses to save the time.

But Jace was right. They were across the world.

"Didn't you have a date a few days ago?" Jace asked, like the thought had just come to him. "I thought I heard Dylan mention it. How did that go?"

"Shitty," I told him honestly. The taste in my mouth suddenly went sour with the thought of Eli playing me the way he did at Club 606. "Apparently he already has a girlfriend. Remind me to never trust guitarists with good hair and a forward personality."

Jace laughed but didn't ask me to elaborate, which I was thankful. I wasn't sure if I wanted to admit to kissing a stranger just to get back at Eli.

"I'll remember that for next time," Jace grinned.

I saw Matt get out of his seat from the front of the bus and walk back to us, rubbing his palm against the back of his neck nervously. I hadn't talked to Matt since I saw him in the kitchen making out with another dude, so I already had an idea what he was over here for.