Re: The Story Begins Here: NYU School Campus

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth grinned. "Wish I'd done that. You look a lot better without 'em, Lassie."

***

Evelyn bought a coffee and a sugar doughnut, and then headed back to Seth.

It occurred to her that Nova wasn't housetrained, most lkely. Whatever, it was Jake's job.

Evelyn reached Seth's table again. Halfway there, she paused, deciding she didn't want to face James again. She swallowed and approached, carefully lifting Nova off the table and nodding at Lola, she carried the dog over to a further table, placing him on the surface and the doughnut in front of him.

***

Oriana glanced at the redheaded girl as she walked to a nearby table. She frowned. "That suits me just fine. I'm stuck with her until our lease ends."

***

Evelyn checked her watch. And nearly fell out of her seat. Twelve-thirty? Where was that no-good, psychotic, ruthless jerk? He'd said twelve.

Evelyn had a momentary thought that Jake might just be standing her and Nova up. If he was, she would not hesitate to knock his pretty even teeth out.

Evelyn pulled out her phone and grabbed Nova with one arm. She marched over to Seth again. "I've lost Jake's number," she lied. She'd never seen reason to get any contact infor on Jake.

Seth flipped thorugh his own cell's contact list and showed her his dorm-mate's number. Evelyn punched it into her cell and saved it. Then she typed in the "anonymous" code to block her number from Jake's ID and dialled him.

[Guest]

Lola raised an eyebrow up at Seth, "What better without my glasses or my contacts, by the way your eyebrows look hideous, then again there is no one to blame except yourself for that."

Lola said looking back down at her homework, writing notes into her notebook.

***

James overheard Evelyn talking to Seth and piped up, "I'm sure he didn't lose yours, he probably packed his bags and is long gone. I don't think any stable person could handle being with you, that kid must either be insane, or you've probably drugged him."

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn glanced back at James, automatically stiffening at his voice. She almost countered out of instinct, but managed to hold herself back. She bit her bottom lip, walking back to her table with a squirming puppy in her arms, as she redailled Jake's number again, this time leaving out the hiding keys.

"Pick up, you flea-bitten, neanderthal," she muttered under her breath, setting Nova down on the grass at her feet and handing him the last of his doughnut.

***

Seth touched his eyebrows, cringing. "Ah, man....well hey, it's a new fashion trend, Lassie." He smirked, a dimple visible in his left cheek.

[Guest]

"One of course you will never pull off." Lola commented, reaching over and flicking him in the forehead.

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth grinned and caught her hand before she could pull back, holding onto it. "Are you kidding me? I scored a number on the subway home, babe."

***
[[interception from SBucks]]

"I figured you couldn't wait to call me." Jake said answering the phone.

Evelyn almost dropped the phone. Had Jake inhaled too many coffee fumes? Or maybe...he hadn't recognized her number.

Evelyn's devilish smile returned as she lowered her voice, to a soft purr, rolling her r's. She was half-French. Half the people on her maternal side of the family spoke accented French.

"Jaquob?" she said huskily, not sounding like herself at all. A snigger almost escaped her lips but she clamped a hand over her mouth. This must be what those phone sex ladies sounded like. "I bel-eeve I was giv-un this nombre."

[Guest]

Lola picked up her other hand and dug her nail into the back of Seth's wrist, "Probably a number to an exterminator."

***

Jake raised his eyebrows not really expecting to hear a girl with a French accent on the other line, he was sure the blond girl didn't have one unless, she was leaving that out for them to find out Jake decided to contribute, "Ah habla usted francés? Eso es muy caliente."

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth winced and shook her hand off, letting go quickly. He massaged his skin. "Damn, you're a right Lassie, you know that? I was being friendly." He winked not-so-discretely at her.

***

Evelyn blanked. "Pardon, monsieur? I am so-ree, but I don't parle Espanol."

[Guest]

"Mosquitoes are friendly, you Seth are not. You're a disease." Lola stated taking her hand back as she began tapping her nails on her books, giving up on her homework, because with the former blond menace around nothing ever got done.

***

"You free tonight, I'd love to make you understand Español." Jake smirked.

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth rolled his eyes and waved a careless hand as if to ward off Lola's words. He glanced up as the black-haired girl by James got to her feet.

"I'll see you around." She aimed this at James but she flashed Seth a smile just the same. He nodded back at her even though he still didn't know her name.

Well, whatever.

"So," Seth turned to James, leaning an elbow on the table to support his chin, "um, you've met Jake, I presume?"

***

Evelyn's jaw dropped. She was certain her ears were decieving her.

He's such a horny pig, an accent hooks him. Her lips threatened to release laughter again. She swallowed it back, musing. Jake was a nuisance. A heartless one at that.

And very James in his cold disregard for the fairer sex.

Evelyn ran her tongue over her bottom lip, grabbed Nova as he attempted to skydive off the table, and purred, "Je voudrais beaucoup. I like that. Vai-ree much. But you don't know mon nom."

Nova tried to lick her face, leaning over the edge of the table, and landed with a muffled yip on her lap. Evelyn shushed him silently with one hand stroking his head and praying Jake hadn't heard.

[Guest]

"Yeah I met him last night, with Luke, and I ran into them outside of 7/11." James told Seth, "I can't say much about him, he didn't say much about him he barely said anything."

Lola looked over at James, "You're talking about Jake right? The guy is a chatterbox, or at least he talks a lot to me."

James shrugged, " I wasn't exactly planning on being his best friend."

***


"Tell me your name first gorgeous." Jake asked flirtatiously

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth glanced at Lola and then back at James. He felt somewhat bad for this guy but hell, Jake was his friend.

"Well, if it's any consolation, that girl probably didn't know what hit her when she met him. Jake's a serious ladies' man. And very good at it."

***

Evelyn pursed her lips. She fished around in her head. Ashlee had mentioned once, some really cute baby names for some dumb conversation they'd been having. Typical Ashlee had suggested exotic names. Evelyn smirked and returned to her phone call.

"Genevieve," she replied in a sultry tone, making the name sound like an innuendo. She felt like pinching herself but her laughter was threatening to explode.

She was definitely coming clean with Ashlee or Alexis on this one. Else she'd die of a broken rib trying to hold her laughter in.

"I cannot make it ce soir," she continued seductively. "I 'ave previous commitments."

She had her internship shift in a couple hours, after all. Evelyn twirled a strand of bronze hair around her finger and found herself glancing back at the other table. Seth and James were talking. For some reason, this caused an unpleasant knot in her stomach. Was Seth - that moron - spilling all?

Nova jumped from her lap and she made soft clucking noises to get him to stay near her, forgetting to cover the mouthpiece.

[Guest]

"Trust me, I know what you mean. Like I said earlier if your friend knows what's good for him he should run while he can. It started off with me thinking I could get Ev to sleep with me, and it turned into this whole complicated shit. If he thinks he's going to get with her he isn't. No one can, not even the nice guys like my friend Luke." James told Seth.

***

Jake heard the name it really sounded exotic, "How about I call you after work and we rendezvous, Genevieve?" Jake asked seductively.

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth raised an eyebrow, somewhat alarmed. French Red came with that much baggage? Stupid Jake had to get himself into complications on his first day of school, didn't he?

Seth pursed his lips, unsure what to say. He cleared his throat. "Well, I'm sure Jake will rise to that challenge." He grimaced at Lola.

***

Evelyn choked and Nova cast her an anxious glance. THe dog was becoming very attached to her. Compared to how Jake treated animals, it was no surprise to her.

She wondered if Nova would even want to leave her side by the time Jake the Dumb-schmuck came home.

Evelyn bit her lower lip till it reddened, thinking out her whimsical plan. She didn't honestly mind Jake as much as she let on. He could be decent sometimes. And his looks more than helped. But it was his complete lack of caring that pissed her off.

That and she was convinced he was in denial about being bipolar or schizo. No guy could have mood swings that fast. Well, most of them...

Evelyn realized she'd been keeping Jake hanging because she was -inexplicably - staring at James ' shoulders the whole time she'd been musing. She pulled her eyes off the bakc of his head, rubbing her forehead. She was probably tired. And Jake had dumped his dog on her.

Either that, or she was a perfectly straight teenage girl and James was, even from behind, eye-candy. She wrote it off as that and returned to her conversation, keeping her eyes off him and on Nova, who was now tugging on her boots playfully.

"I shall be free apres huit - eight PM," she said to Jake.

[Guest]

James nodded looking over turning his gaze to look at Evelyn, his eyes watched her as she talked on the phone to Jake he assumed, because he had tuned out after she asked for his number. He watched as the dog Nova she had so kindly named it, played at her boots, while her hair fell down to her shoulders around her, he noticed that she had changed somewhat over the summer.

Her hair was no longer, the long hair he used to pull at whenever she made him mad, and even though she looked sick he still thought she was pretty--despite what he said earlier to Seth and them, he didn't realize that he had been staring at her, although now that he knew he couldn't stop, he was determined now to get her to even as so glance at him.

***

Jake grinned, "Alright then, see you then." He said hanging up the phone, feeling slightly better about how the day was turning out, he decided he had wasted enough time and thought maybe it was time he put Kelsey out of the misery of having to do customer service.

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth stretched lazily, glancing at his watch. Almost two-ish.

He caught sight of the guy, James, out of the corner of his eye. He might be having what Seth would call a stare-down with French Red - but French Red was busy with Jake's dog and presumably talking to Jake on the phone.

Seth's eyes widened. She'd been on the phone with Jake a good half hour or more, and she'd been smiling and laughing the whole time. What the...?

So he knew Jake had the whole exotic foreigner charm, but he'd honestly thought Evelyn's own French thing would cancel that out. From what it looked like, Evelyn was enjoying talking to him.

Seth felt a flicker of doubt. What if Jake made up that shit about faking it? No, he wouldn't. Jake was not the commitment type.

"Lola?" Seth said abruptly, not caring if James heard. "Has Jake ever...liked anyone? Like, really." He didn't knwo Jake that well in highschool, until their senior year, so anything before that would escape him.

***

Evelyn smiled to herself as she ended the call. That devil inside her danced in excitement. So she was a good-girl, most of the time. But she'd also been the girl deemed "delinquent" for trashing her stepmom's car.

The hair rose on the back of her neck. It was familiar and she knew even without that chill that ran up her spine that James' clear blue eyes were focused on her.

She'd felt it too many times before. And she was determined not to let it dazzle her as it always did. So she kept her gaze on Nova, and her smile on her face as she picked up the dog and her backpack.

"Now what?" she wondered out loud. She had to go to work. And she couldn't bring Nova with her.

Evelyn groaned, thinking she'd have to call up Jake. But she didn't think his shift ended. And she was kind of fond og Nova, didn't want to leave him with somebody she didn't know.

Lola. Lola would help.

Evelyn steeled her nerves as she headed in the direction of James' table. She steered clear of his side and paused by Lola. "Um, hey Lola. You think you could watch Jake's dog for a couple hours? I have to go into work and that jer- um, clueless boy," she amended, remembering she couldn't call Jake what she wanted in front of James, "left him with me. I'll come get Nova from you as soon as I'm done."

"Nova?" Seth exclaimed, a smirk breaking out over his face. Evelyn tried to not flip him off again.

[Guest]

Before Lola could respond to Seth's question, she looked up at Evelyn who was holding the puppy which she had obviously named Nova, and knowing her friend like she did she knew he would hate it, "Yeah sure, that's fine I can watch him."

James sat in silence, he caught how Evelyn really tried to avoid him, now that they knew they were both here, she was really going through the effort of trying even more so to avoid him.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn flashed Lola a smile and waved as she walked off. Her phone buzzed that email notification. She pulled it out and checked her Facebook automatically.

Instinctively, she glanced back at James. He'd read her message to Jake? When?

He had his phone in his hand. No duh. Evelyn turned away, walking as she hesitantly replied.

***

Seth pulled a face at Lola. "Nova? Jake's going to..." he glanced at James, "Never mind. Oh, are you going to that new zoo exhibit opening in Central Park Friday?"

[Guest]

James opened his mouth to respond and Lola answered, "Aw why, your real family waiting for you to return Seth?"

James emitted his first laugh today, he had to admit this Lola girl was sharp, he had heard her nail Seth a few times, and he figured she was cool.

He shook his head, "I didn't hear about it, so who knows maybe I might go, you?"

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth grinned at James. "I'm sneaking in. It's a lot more fun to experience the animals at close range. You should try it."

***

Evelyn almost tripped off the curb and into the busy Manhattan streets because James was driving her temper up. That smug bastard. He just wouldn't let the whole boyfriend thing go. Was it so hard to believe she was capable of having a beau? Was her personality that much of a turn off?

Because, Evelyn hated admitting, it was. The only reason guys approached her was because of her appearance. Once she opened her mouth, none of them stuck around.

Jake included.

He was only stuck with her out of circumstances. Otherwise she was sure he'd be running to some mindless bimbo.

And Jake's temper was not helping. Evelyn frowned to herself. She still had a moment left before work. And her work was past the Starbucks she figured Jake probably worked at, the closest one in Greenwich.

She caught the subway to it, deciding she'd go piss off her charming boyfriend because she was too frustrated with James to blow off steam on him.

[[Evelyn to Starbucks. xD]]

[Guest]

James arched an eyebrow, he thought about it, "Close range huh, you said you're going Friday right?"

James figured he could use an adrenaline rush sort of thing, to keep his mind off of Evelyn who he was harassing on Facebook, which he could feel his phone buzzing from her responding.

Lola shook her head and looked down at the dog who only tilted its head, "Oh no boy, I sense the hatching's of a very stupid plan coming up." Nova licked Lola's hand, and she pet the dog, she really felt bad for Nova, stuck around such dysfunctional people.

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth frowned at Lola for a second and then glanced at James. "Cool. Um," he pulled out his cell and slid it across the table to James, "punch in your digits." He got up, taking his phone back when James had done so.

"I'll text you or something on Thursday so you cna figure otu how we do this," he said. He smirked. "We have our methods."

He saluted James with two fingers, grabbed his bag, ignored Lola - she'd probably bite him if he tried anything remotely nice - and headed toward his class.

[JulietsCurse]

(from freshmen dorms)

Alexis marched past the fountain over to the closest bench, flopping onto it and pulling her legs up against her chest with a sniffle and quiet crying noises that came up muffled from her face being buried in her knees practically.

[Tiger-Lily]

Brett ambled toward the girl seated by the fountain. He paused and then patted the girl's shoulder. "Alexis?" His face was curious and pleased.

[JulietsCurse]

Alexis practically jumped out of her skin with a slight frightened squeal, but it was slightly broken and choked up. She jerked her head up to look at the man whom patted her shoulder and felt her stomach knot up even more. Brett- the dangerous stalker... that's all she needed right now, at 8 o clock, out by herself.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Hey, don't be alarmed," Brett said smiling wider at her as he sat down. "Just me. You met me at the Frosh party. Brett."

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