Chapter Text
“Hey, is she your friend?” a beautiful girl asks Manon and Lara during the acquaintance party of their college.
Manon looks skeptically at the girl, no matter how beautiful she is, while Lara chuckles in amusement because here they go again, a girl asks about the straightest person in their trio, Daniela.
“Yeah,” Lara answers and Manon widens her eyes at her.
“Is she single?”
“No,” Manon answers before Lara can say yes.
The girl frowns a little but she smiles again when she asks, “Well, do you think she’ll be willing to cheat with me?”
Lara laughs at that while Manon glares at the girl, pulling Lara away from the girl and rushing towards Daniela.
“You wouldn’t believe what happened,” Lara tells Daniela immediately.
Daniela raises a brow at Lara and turns to Manon.
“A girl just asked if you’re single,” Lara says, “and when Manon lied that you’re not, she asked if we think you’ll be willing to cheat with her.” She is laughing, finding amusement in that, even though Daniela grimaces at Manon who is also looking at her in disbelief.
“Lara, if she’s a decent person, she wouldn’t have asked that,” Manon tells Lara.
“Or she just likes Daniela too much,” Lara says with both a smirk and a shrug.
“Did you tell her I’m straight?” Daniela asks her friends.
Daniela is not pleased that her block is different from Lara and Manon’s block. It’s bad enough that she’s in a city faraway from home but having her two best friends in a different block is worse.
She does not want to standout and to draw unnecessary attention so she sits in the farthest back row near the window but that becomes futile when the most beautiful person in their block sits beside her and everyone turns to her direction anyway.
“Hi, my name’s Sophia. What’s yours?” Sophia introduces herself, smiling brightly at Daniela.
Daniela looks at her for a long moment before answering, “Daniela.”
“Pretty.”
“Huh?”
Sophia smiles again. “Your name is pretty,” she explains, “and so are you.”
Daniela should not blush but there’s something about getting a compliment from the most perfect face she has seen that turns her cheeks pink anyway. She quickly turns to the window, hiding her flushed face.
Daniela quietly curses when she realizes she has no pen. In her freaking first day of college.
“Do you need a pen?” Sophia asks with a little smile.
“Um, yeah,” Daniela answers, certainly embarrassed of herself. “I’ll return this tomorrow, I promise.”
“No need,” Sophia answers. “Keep it so you’ll think of me every time you use it.”
Daniela stares at her but Sophia is already jotting down notes and she can’t decide if Sophia is joking or if she is flirting.
“Do you think they know this is just the first day of school?” Sophia whispers to Daniela, glancing at the whiteboard which is now entirely covered with different chemicals and formulas.
Daniela finishes what she’s writing before turning to Sophia, not to answer her because she’s too busy trying to keep up with their professor’s lecture, but to ask, “Did you get that last part? Can you sho—“
“Oh, here,” Sophia quickly scoots closer a little, to write down in Daniela’s notes what she missed. When she’s done, she pulled away again and says, “You smell really nice.”
“But I don’t wear perfume.”
“Yeah, I said you smell really nice. You.”
Daniela tells herself to focus on her lecture again. She fails and asks for Sophia’s help two or three times more.
Fortunately, the morning classes end and Daniela looks forward to reunite with Manon and Lara and hopefully regain her sanity. Sophia sitting so close to her, able to lean in or whisper anytime she wants without any warning, is frankly driving her a little insane.
“Hey, are you getting lunch? Can I come?” the girl in question catches Daniela’s arm just as she’s about to run.
It’s rude to say no, Daniela thinks, which is why she is walking out of the classroom with Sophia practically hopping.
“Daniela!” Manon calls her. They’re already waiting for Daniela outside Daniela’s room. Their morning classes finished earlier.
Daniela turns around and sees the change in Manon and Lara’s expression when they see who she is with. She confusedly looks at her friends.
“You’re blockmates?” Lara asks, chuckling.
“Uh, yeah,” Daniela slowly says.
“Why are you with her?” Manon questions Daniela.
Daniela knows Manon doesn’t like Sophia, whatever the reason is. She feels uncomfortable with whatever is going on but before she can say anything, Sophia interjects.
“I didn’t know you’re meeting up with your friends. I don’t want to be intrusive,” Sophia tells Daniela and politely smiles at Lara and Manon (even if Manon is glaring at her). “I’ll see you later, Dani.”
Sophia walks away before Daniela can think of what to say. When Sophia is gone, her friends bombard her with questions.
“Is she supposed to have lunch with us?” Manon asks, sounding betrayed.
“Why does she have a nickname for you already?” Lara asks but she is chuckling.
Daniela should answer their questions but she can only think about if Sophia’s eating lunch alone and why it bothers her.
“She’s the one who asked about you last night,” Lara tells Daniela when they’re already sitting to which Manon glares at her. “What? She deserves to know.”
“What?”
“The hot girl who asked if you’re single,” Lara explains with a shrug.
“Oh.”
Daniela doesn’t know why her stomach is turning. She just had lunch. There’s nothing to get nervous about knowing Sophia likes her since last night and wants her to cheat with her boyfriend. That is, if Daniela actually has a boyfriend.
“Hey,” Sophia greets her with an easy smile five minutes before their first afternoon class starts.
“Hi,” Daniela answers.
“Did you have a good lunch?”
“I’m straight,” Daniela blurts out because the universe just hates her.
Sophia’s eyes widen a little before her face breaks into a small smile. “Your friends must have told you our little conversation last night,” she says. “For the record, no matter how much I like you, I will not mess with your relationship. I have respect for both you and your relationship. I didn’t approach you for any ulterior motives today. I just really wanted to be friends.”
Daniela is still cursing the universe to say anything.
“I will understand if you feel uncomfortable with me now,” Sophia says after a moment, misunderstanding Daniela’s silence. “I should go.”
Somehow, Daniela doesn’t want that. For Sophia to go. She reaches for Sophia’s arm just when the latter is about to stand to sit somewhere else.
“We can be,” Daniela says, meeting Sophia’s eyes, “friends.”
Daniela forgets everything else when Sophia smiles at her again. She’s been questioning a lot of what happened last night, what Sophia said, why she said what she said, but when Sophia smiles at her and sits back down comfortably, it just feels right.