"Can y'all leave me alone?" Lourdes Brown looked at her best friends Nala and Aaliyah who were currently pestering her to go to a bar with them in College Park.

"Come on Lou! It's a Friday night and you're sitting here doing work for your classes. The semester just started, why can't this wait until tomorrow?" Aaliyah begged, doing her famous puppy eyes.

"I can't find my fake and it's 9 at night, why don't y'all just go on your own?" Lourdes asked them, raising an eyebrow while going back to looking at her laptop screen.

She was currently catching up on some work for her Women's Studies class since her professor had assigned the class some reading to do and she didn't feel like waiting until the last minute to do it. She chose to take Women's Studies as a last-minute class, expecting it to be an easy A to raise her GPA but instead was met with an old-fashioned and hardheaded professor who didn't believe in letting students relax for the first week of classes.

"Your fake is right here babe, nice try," Nala smirked at her while holding her fake ID in her manicured hands, "Gianna will be here in 30 minutes so you better be ready by then." She threatened while stepping out of her room to take a call.

Lourdes sighed and closed her laptop, rubbing her temples. All she wanted was to stay in tonight, binge watch episodes of Law and Order: SVU while simultaneously stuffing her face with all the snacks she packed away in the refrigerator. She raised her eyebrow at Aaliyah who was still sitting on her bed, scrolling through Twitter.

"Aren't you going to get ready? Nala said Gianna is going to be here soon." She asked her while grabbing her things to take a shower in the apartment's bathroom. The girls had moved in during the summer going into sophomore year after getting tired of the limited amount of freedom they had in dorms and figured splitting the cost of rent 3 ways wouldn't be too much of a struggle.

Lourdes worked at a small, Black Owned diner a couple of minutes away from the apartment and about 20 minutes away from campus. Without much help from her family with bills and college tuition, she worked at the diner during the evenings on weekdays and at a small kiosk in the mall on Sunday mornings. Nala and Aaliyah both had campus jobs during the weekdays and Gianna didn't need to work since her parents were pretty well off and sent her money repeatedly during the week.

"I just need to change since I already did my makeup, now shoo and go shower," Aaliyah practically shoved her into the bathroom and slammed the door in her face. Lourdes rolled her eyes at her antics before beginning to strip and turn on the hot water.

Lourdes studied her naked body in the mirror, wishing her stretch marks would disappear, and made a mental note to purchase coconut oil, since she overheard Gianna telling Nala it got rid of cellulite and stretch marks.

Lourdes was what society would call 'thick'. She had a large bust and derriere but still maintained a tiny waist. While she indulged in many terrible eating habits, she was able to occasionally go to the gym to work it off even though genetics seemed to do the rest for her. At the age of 15, she was already a C cup and had what Nala liked to call a "bubble butt".

Nala and Lourdes had been friends since the 6th grade when a very cruel whiteboy in Lourdes's class relentlessly teased her for her dark skin and 4a hair, Nala was the first person in the class to call him out for it while simultaneously making fun of his haircut and lack of lips. From then on Lourdes and Nala were inseparable until they met Aaliyah when she transferred from a neighboring middle school and were all placed in the same homeroom for the rest of the year.

Nala was more of the rude and unapologetically blunt of the friend group while Aaliyah was the soft-spoken, shy, and sweet one. Nala stood at 5'6 with a thin frame with many tattoos and piercings scattered across her tan body, while Aaliyah wouldn't dare poke any sort of needle through her skin. At the height of  5'3 Aaliyah was the least intimidating person in the group. The dark skin beauty had been asked many times to model by random people on the street and although her friends constantly encouraged her to accept their offers, she always turned them down claiming it was 'too far out of her comfort zone'.

Lourdes grabbed her phone, shuffled her "Chill" playlist, and stepped in the steaming shower, appreciating Giveon's smooth voice as her phone played one of her current favorite songs, "The Beach". She sang along to the lyrics while lathering her body in a sugar scrub and rinsing it out.

15 minutes and 3 songs later, she stepped out and paused SZA singing Good Days. Grabbing her phone and towel, she made her way back to her bedroom while humming some lyrics. As she set her things down on her bed she saw she was getting an incoming call from Gianna and answered it.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver, balancing her phone with her shoulder while applying cocoa butter lotion on her legs.

"Can you come open the door? Nala and Aaliyah aren't answering their phones and I've been standing out here for like 5 minutes." Gianna complained,

"Yeah I'll be out in a sec," she replied and hung up. She finished putting the cocoa butter on her leg and rewrapped her towel around herself. She walked to the front door and opened the door to reveal the model she considered her friend.

Gianna Rose Adams stood at 5'5 with a pear frame that had boys longing for her as she walked around with a certain aura of confidence. Her loose curls were pulled back into a slick bun and her hazel eyes assessed Lourdes while she stood at the entryway of the apartment. The girls met Gianna during freshman orientation at UMD and all of them took a liking to her, except for Nala who didn't really like meeting new people. Gianna came off as boujee to most people since she wore lots of diamond jewelry and her expensive fashion taste tended to rub people the wrong way, assuming she was a stuck up rich girl even though she was far from it. Her parents raised her to stay humble, even though they grew up in Georgetown, DC which was where the wealthier side of the DMV resided.

"Why are you not dressed? I told Nala when I'd be here, did she tell you? Everything I tell that girl really goes in one ear and out the other." Gianna rolled her eyes, taking a seat on their couch and turning on the TV. "Nala! Aaliyah! Where the hell are y'all at? I literally texted Nala to be ready like 30 minutes ago so what's the holdup?" She yelled through the apartment and glaring at their bedroom door.

When the girls moved in, they weren't aware that the apartment was a 2 bedroom instead of a 3 bedroom, so to be fair they drew from a hat to see who would have to share a bedroom and who would get their own. Needless to say, Lourdes ended up drawing the longest straw meaning Nala and Aaliyah had to share the master bedroom. Nala wasn't very happy that she had to share a room with Aaliyah and even though their lease was up, none of the girls felt like moving just because of the room situation.

Aaliyah was the first one to emerge from their room and smiled sheepishly when she saw Gianna glaring at her from the couch. "It's not my fault! Nala made me do her makeup because she was texting Nico and she said couldn't multitask." She raised her hands in a surrendering motion and took a seat next to Gianna on the couch. Nala came out a moment later glaring at her phone and stopped when she felt eyes on her.

"The fuck are y'all looking at? Can we just hurry up and go?" She snapped and took a seat on one of the armchairs next to where Lourdes was standing.

"What has you in such a pissy mood?" Gianna questioned her while raising her eyebrows.

"Nico is just being stupid, he said he might not come tonight cause there's something wrong with Rashir." she scowled and crossed her arms.

Nico Perez was Nala's boyfriend and what the girls liked to call, her soulmate. He was 6'1 and covered in tattoos like her but unlike Nala, he was a huge softie. He made the girls laugh whenever he came over, was very respectful, and tried to compliment Lourdes often when he could since Nala had confided in him that her best friend had been struggling with her self esteem lately. The girls thought he was hilarious and were happy to befriend him since it was obvious he loved Nala. She had this wall built up that he effortlessly saw through and even though she didn't like to say it out loud, Nala loved him even more than he loved her. He was incredibly accepting when Nala wanted to start using she/they pronouns and made sure to call her both since he knew some people tended to overuse she/her pronouns with Nala and it made her upset.

Nico was also a part of the 3 greek gods that attended UMD which consisted of Rashir Martin and Mateo Chávez. Rashir Martin stood at 6'3, the tallest of the group, and was captain of the UMD basketball team. The gorgeous man had a head of curly hair, a full beard, and ear piercings which had the female population at UMD clenching their thighs every time they managed to catch sight of him. He was known for sleeping around with multiple women, sometimes at once. Despite his reputation as a womanizer, he was also a very closed-off individual. The only people that were close to him were Nico and Mateo and they didn't let anyone into their friend group. Rashir was also known for his anger issues, on and off of the court. There had been many incidents during games when the opposing team made offensive comments, resulting in him punching someone and starting fights on multiple occasions.

Mateo Chávez was a very closed off person, a part of the friend group. The man was very mysterious and the only thing people knew about him was that he was incredibly well off and his parents donated tons of money to the school every year. He tended to keep to himself but was known for sleeping around like his best friend. All 3 of the friends were seniors and the reason UMD had gone to the championships for the past 3 years.

Lourdes didn't see the hype about the group. She found them attractive, but she didn't understand the need some girls felt to throw themselves at them. She had Rashir in one of her classes last year and he always seemed to show up hungover, or just not show up at all. She also was annoyed at the fact that many teachers tended to excuse them from assignments or give them special treatment, just because they were good basketball players.

"Girl you need to quit messing with that boy, you know it's probably important if he canceled," Gianna shrugged her off and went back to watching whatever was on TV. Lourdes silently agreed with Gianna and turned around to go back to her room so she could finish getting ready. Apparently, the girls were going to go to the popular bar near campus because they served drinks half off on Friday nights. She went to her closet to decide what to wear.

After rummaging through some drawers, she was able to find a black, rhinestone chain lace-up top and she decided to pair it with a white micro mini skirt and white square toe heels. She threw the outfit on and brushed through her 20-inch body wave wig and applied some lashes, lip gloss, and highlight. After adding some gold jewelry to the outfit, she grabbed her pepper spray, charger, extra lip gloss, and some cash to stuff into her purse.

As she walked back into the living room her friend halted their conversations to look at her and gas her up, "Bitch! Where has this shirt been? I'm borrowing it next time we go out." Gianna shook her head at her as she complimented Lourdes.

"Okay, can we go now? I'm ready to get drunk and ignore Nico all night." Nala asked as Gianna was asking where Lourdes got her shoes from.

"You really need to cut my man some slack, I give him props for being able to tame you," Gianna said. Nala sucked her teeth and muttered a "Whatever" while going to get her shoes.

"Are we taking your car, Gigi?" Aaliyah asked. Gianna drove a white BMW M3 with a blinged-out steering wheel and pink seats. Lourdes thought it was a bit much but Gianna insisted it was necessary.

"I'm not supposed to be drinking tonight," she said making air quotes "But I know I'm going to end up taking a shot or two, so we can just take an uber, y'all can stay at my house tonight if you want." She said while getting an uber on her phone. Gianna lived in a house closer to campus that her parents paid for her to rent, the girls sometimes stayed over when they were too drunk to go home or when they were hanging out and just didn't feel like driving back to their apartment.

Lourdes trailed behind them to lock the apartment door, when she caught up to them Aaliyah turned to her and said "You're gonna enjoy yourself tonight, just relax." She smiled at her and opened the car door.

If only it were that easy, Lourdes thought to herself.

lourdes outfit:

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