“Not really,” she cocked her head to the side. “Because if you’re actively trying then that means you’re failing. But if you weren’t trying it wouldn’t be the same,” Hannah pointed out to him. “You’re only sticking to your story because you know my dad’s a lawyer and I could sue your ass,” she joked.

Luke stood there for a moment trying to wrap his head around what she was saying. He wasn’t the smartest so sometimes things took a while. “Then call me a failure I guess?” He spoke, scratching the back of his neck and looking over at her with a small shrug. “What? Honestly I forgot he was.. But no I had no idea you were here. I came ‘cause my cousin is here.”

“thanks luke, always wanted a looking partner.” she joked. “i went to the library so maybe i lost it on the walk there or there itself?”

“Then ‘aye, I made dreams come true today.” He chuckled with a smirk. “Then lets head over there. Although you better lead the way.”

Bending down, Rebekah helped the brunette gather up some of the papers that had fallen onto the floor. Her cheeks almost began hurting due to how wide and bright her smile was, and even then she wasn’t able to shake the fact that one of her favorite people was standing in front of her. “Crazy that the two people who don’t do school are at one of the top universities in the country.” Laughing, she stood back up and handed him a few more papers. “Happy is an understatement! Come here!” With that, she pulled the male into a warm hug, squeezing him tightly for a moment before pulling away. “Is this your first day? I have to show you around! What have you seen so far?”

Hearing his cousin speak, he let out a chuckle and nodded his head as he slowly stood up from the ground. “Right? We have to take over the world somehow... This is just the first step.” He teased the red head in front of him before adjusting his guitar case and shoving some of his paper into his pocket. Organizing wasn’t exactly one of Luke’s positive traits. Pulling the female into a warm embrace, he rubbed her back a bit before pressing a friendly kiss to the top of her head. “I’ve been here about a week. Moved in last week but yeah first day of classes... How about we head over to the caf? Or somewhere to get food because I’m starved.”

“I’ll be happy to give you an alphabetised list”, Arden joked. “The image of a tiny seven year old carrying that case is oddly adorable”, she admitted, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “That might be it. What’s your cousins name?”

“Wow you’re really organized aren’t you? That impressive. I’ll keep that in mind.” He chuckled with a smirk on his face. “It is how I got the ladies back then. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that anymore.” Another light laugh left his lips. “Oh right Rebekah Morgan..”

“You know, I loved seeing my family and eating five plates of food so much, that I’m thinking we should do this all over again. How much convincing do you think it would take to get Ollie and Ryan to cook up a feast for a Friendsgiving?”

@monarchstart​

“I’m always down for some free-ish food. Count me in but it might be a little strange ‘cause I don’t know who Ollie is. I have a good idea on who Ryan is though.”

Nikolai: hey, what are you doing tomorrow?

Nikolai: I'm trying to diversify my photography portfolio so I could use a model for a couple of hours

Luke: Just writin' tomorrow.

Arden had gone to the fraternity party with a couple of her sisters, although she had lost sight of them after her fourth or fifth round of drinks. Slightly tipsy by this point and still missing her friends, she tapped the nearest person on the shoulder to capture their attention. “Do you think that guy over there is cute?” Arden asked in a very loud attempt at a whisper, trying – and failing – at discretely pointing out a guy on the opposite side of the room.

@monarchstart​

Luke had just finished playing a set with his band. Sure a small frat party wasn’t their dream venue but anything to get their name out there. After jumping off the small platform, he beelined straight to the drinks. Before he could get there though he felt a tap on his shoulder and he quickly whipped around. Chuckling at the girls question, he shook his head with a smirk. “Askin’ the wrong guy..”

Amber-Jade had been drunk when they first made the wager but she agreed to the terms, largely because she was incredibly confident that she would win. A shocked expression crossed her face when she was officially declared the loser; which was a verdict that she really hadn’t been expecting. “You must have cheated somehow!” Amber-Jade insisted, looking for an excuse or loophole to get out of fulfilling her end of the bet.

Luke didn’t know how he had ended up at a large druken gathering, yet here he was. Hands were shoved into the front of his pockets as he overheard a girl exclaim something about a bet. It caught his attention so he made his way over to the female, raising an eyebrow. “Look man if you cheated.. That ain’t a fair bet.”

“Do people still write letters to each other? I think that’s so personal and cute, even if you live in the same place,” Lupita sighed. @monarchstart​

“I know I would If I had someone to send them too.. Scratch that. Thats how I talk to my ‘ma sometimes. It is basically just like writin’ lyrics. Except it is attached to someone else.”

“We’ll split the responsibility 50/50, that way neither of us needs to feel bad”, Noah assured him. “It seems like a smart decision and Rival Records is a pretty decent place to work”.

“Sounds like a good plan to me. That way no one is to blame either.” The Canadian chuckled at his own words before speaking again. “Yeah.. Figured that I could get some practice in there too. Doesn’t hurt to build a followin’. Or try to.”

“it’s fine. i’m usually pretty on guard. i don’t like surprises so usually notice people a mile away.”

“Whoa really? A mile? Damn you some kind of Spiderman or somethin’?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak you out. I was just worried about the screen shattering because I really don’t have the money to fix it”, Amber-Jade explained. “It’s just a small scratch so it should be okay. Hopefully the damage won’t get any worse, at least until I can pool some tip money to fix it properly”, she assured him. 

“Nah you didn’t really freak me out. Just would’a felt insanely guilty if I would’a damaged anything, including your phone. I know what a pain those are to get fixed or replaced.” The brunette spoke with a friendly smile on his face, trying to explain himself and not make her feel bad. After all he was the one who had run into her. “Let me help...? I’m the one who kinda caused it.”

Hannah couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the song reference. It was unsurprising coming from Luke. She’d been so concerned about her own secrets that she forgot about everything else having to do with him. It was quickly coming back to her now. “Yeah, well, I never said you were smooth to begin with. Being attacked by your guitar is a first though. I’m still not convinced it was a complete mistake.”

Luke chuckled at her words and shrugged his shoulders, just like her words were shrugged off of his small ego. “ ‘Aye maybe I’m not but at least I’m tryin’, thats better than not tryin’ anythin’ at all.” He couldn’t help but smirk over at her then laugh a bit. “You are giving me too much credit. I know I ain’t dumb but I’m certainly not a mastermind.”

“Believe it or not, a hospital trip wasn’t on my to-do list today either”, Lola laughed. “The boss hasn’t really announced it yet, we only started talking about the possibility within the last couple of days. If your band has a demo, I could listen to it and even recommend you to the boss if you guys are any good”, she offered. 

“Then it seems like we are on the same page here. Good for us.” The brunette couldn’t help but grin at the interaction. Some people didn’t understand his sarcasm sometimes. “Oh.. Then maybe I shouldn’t feel as bad. Wait hold up, really? ‘Cause I actually got one. I always keep one around to- well you don’t need to know the details.” Chuckling at his own words, he pulled around his backpack and started to dig around for the disc. He finally found the demo and held it out to her with a huge goofy grin. “Only if you wanna take it. Don’t feel like you gotta.”

“well that would be really helpful then. thanks! i’m lily, by the way.”

“Then consider me your new lookin’ partner. I’m Luke, nice to meet ‘ya.. So where did you go after sittin’ here?”

“Not to change the subject, but anyone ever tell you you’ve got a cute accent?”

“This ol’ thing? Usually I just get asked where the hell I’m from. I got a bit of Canadian in it and Jersey.. Thanks though beauts. First time for everything.”

“Oh there are definitely some shits here. After all, both of my ex-boyfriends have been enrolled at this university at different times”, Arden joked. “That makes it sound like you’ve had a concussion from an acoustic before, which seems like it would be an interesting story”, she said, giving him space to share that story if he chose to. “I’m from Seattle originally, I just moved to California for university”.

“I’ll remember that.. Although there are shits everywhere. Maybe one day you’ll have to point out some of ‘em.” He chuckled as he made a joke about the situation. “Oh I’ve gotten several. I’ve been play since I was about seven so you can only imagine someone that small carrying a huge thing around.” He tried to give her a little detail but also keep some stories for later, he certainly had a lot. “I mean.. I have a cousin that goes here? Maybe we’ve seen each other around before or somethin’ like that.”