**edited 13/01/2021**

Elle's POV

Monday 17th September 2018

 I was walking home after my afternoon class, smiling giddily about the thought of starting my first assignment. Jordan, Carrie and I had chatted in the cafe for what felt like hours and we learned so much about it each other. It was nice to think I was making genuine friends here.

 I opened up the door to my dorm and walked in to see Ace sat on Delilah's bed, flicking through my art sketchbook. "What the heck?" I grunted as I walked in, snatching the black book from his hands. "Did nobody teach you how to be a decent - wait, no - normal human being?"

 Ace looked up at me with a smirk. "Nice to see you too Elle," he said breezily. "You can draw, you know that?" He asked.

 "Well I am an Art Major, genius," I put my book back onto my shelf and then turned to face him. "Why are you in here? Delilah isn't here and I don't think she will be all night, she's with Maya," I explained as I placed my bag at the end of my bed.

 "I know. She gave me a key because my roommate asked me to get out of the apartment for a while," he explained and then placed his hands behind his head so he could rest, probably just doing it to annoy me.

 "You have a roommate? I thought you lived alone," I said blandly, grabbing some leggings and an oversized shirt from my wardrobe.

 "Did I say roommate? I mean my deadbeat brother," he added and then looked away, obviously wanting me to drop it and stop asking about why his brother was in his apartment. "You okay if I stay here then?"

 "Do you care?" I asked and he shook his head with an amused smile on his face. "I guess you have to stay if you have nowhere else to go, but I need to get changed and then call my boyfriend so please keep it down."

 He nodded and turned the TV on, turning the volume on quite high to deliberately annoy me. "Are you six? Seriously Ace?" I huffed and then crossed my arms over my chest. "Turn around so I can get changed," I demanded.

 He scoffed. "It's not like I wanna see anything under those clothes anyway," I rolled my eyes at his bluntness but didn't move to start taking anything off as I noticed he wasn't turning away. "I won't look, Elle."

 I huffed and turned away from him so I could peel my dress off of my body, I quickly replaced it with the leggings and the top. I threw my clothes into the hamper and then sat cross-legged on my bed, pressing on Carson's name on FaceTime. After a couple of rings, he answered and his face popped up on screen. "Hi baby!" He smiled when he saw my face. Ace made gagging noises from the other side of the room and I shot him a glare.

 "Hey Car," I smiled back.

 "Why is it so loud in your room?" he asked and I rolled my eyes, looking at Ace.

 "My roommates' idiot friend is here, he's playing the TV loud to annoy me," I explained with a fake smile on my face. "You see he has the brain of a seven year old."

 Carson let out a laugh. "Sounds fun, how were your classes today?"

 "Oh my God amazing, I love my professors and my first assignment in Fine Art is to-"

 "Hey wait a second, babe," Carson cut me off and I sighed, nodding. He looked away from the camera and spoke to the person in the room before looking back at me. "Hey babe, I'm going for burgers with the guys. We'll speak later yeah?" He asked and I nodded, giving him a smile so he knew it was fine.

 "That's fine, we can talk tomorrow or something," I said and he paused.

 "Not tomorrow baby, I'm busy all afternoon after my morning lecture. Maybe sometime at the weekend?" He asked and I was forced to nod even though it was only Monday, were we only going to talk once a week? I didn't want to seem like a crazy girlfriend so I simply said it was fine. "I love you, bye!" He said and then the line went dead.

 "Well that guy fucking su-ucks," Ace said, emphasising the word 'sucks'.

 "He's actually really sweet," I snapped, feeling protective of my boyfriend.

 Ace nodded. "Seems it, always super busy with the boys and can't make any time for his girl. How romantic that he might fit you in this weekend, for what? A ten minute call and that's it," he snorted.

 "And what would you know about romance? All you do is sleep with girls and never call them back," I shouted angrily.

 He shrugged. "I know quite a bit about romance and relationships, and that's why I don't do them. Especially long distance ones. It's all about commitments and putting this one person before anything else and it's just exhausting, I'd rather get the fun bits and let the girls know that they aren't shit to me. I don't care when their birthday is, or what their mom's name is, I don't even care what their name is," he admitted. "It's just easier, you can't disappoint anyone."

 "That, Ace, is just sad. If you never even try then you'll just be alone forever," I reminded him.

 "I won't be alone, I'll have a new girl every night to warm my bed without ever having to buy a poxy bunch of flowers or a shitty birthday card," he smirked and placed a cigarette between his lips, raising his lighter to light it up.

 "Don't light that in here," I said calmly but inside I wanted to snatch it out of his mouth and tear it up whilst lecturing him on what that was doing to his body.

 He looked at me from the side of his eye to see how serious I was and when he saw my expression he took the cigarette from his lips. "Seriously? What if I open the window?"

 "No. I don't like cigarettes, the smell of them or what they can do to my health," I gritted my teeth as I spoke the words. He rolled his eyes but packed the stick of death away anyway.

 "Don't take it out on me just 'cos you're boyfriend is a douche," Ace sung and then returned his attention to the TV show he was watching - Friends to be more specific.

 "You're a douche," I muttered under my breath.

 He smirked. "I, unlike your boyfriend, actually kinda want to know what your first assignment is though, by the way," Ace said as he glanced in my direction. "I looked at your sketches in that book, they're pretty decent."

 I looked at him in confusion, moments ago we were at each others throats and now he cares how my studies are going? "Um... Thanks. Our first assignment is to use colours to express emotions," I explained and pulled the small canvas I had chosen out of my bag. "I'm going to do a black silhouette of a little girl with an umbrella up, and brightly coloured rain coming down but not hitting her," I said. It had a lot of meaning to me, meaning I'd never admit but I liked the thought of it.

 "Can I see it when you're done?" He asked and I looked at him in surprise, nodding slowly.

 "If you want I guess," I shrugged it off like it was nothing.

 "Maybe I should get you to design one of my tattoos one day," he smirked and I chuckled.

 "I'd draw a penis on you or something," I said without thinking and he shot his gaze over to me before he began howling in laughter, clutching onto the bed for support.

 "I never thought those words would come from your mouth, Princess!" He wheezed and I blushed a crimson colour. Fuck him.