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Selena and Faith walked back to the flat, laughter at the tip of their tongues. "I think an entire lecture hall seeing me trip up and dropping everything out of my bag and spilling my smoothie all over my clothes is humiliating enough without the rest of them bringing it up every second so don't tell them." Selena tugged on the supportive University hoodie she was wearing now so she didn't have to walk around with a red stained shirt. Selena swore she could feel the judgement off everybody she passed because of it - probably labelled her as the girl who would be a teachers pet at high school or someone who went to every sports event just to show low-level patriotism.

"We'll see, depends on how good you can make a cup of coffee for our study session." Faith says laughing again. "I think we are going to need it."

Selena just looks at her, struggling to see whether she was actually serious or not. "Ah, I get it. I get humiliated and I have to make the drinks for us."

"Yes. Did you have another idea in mind?" Selena wanted to suggest the obvious decision but shakes her head with a firm smile.

Faith had the keys at hand to open the flat door but before the key could even enter the lock, it's flung open instantly by the hand of an extremely livid Lucy who doesn't hesitate throwing paper in both of their faces. The laughter died out as their faces fell at the sudden altercation taking place.

"Do you want to fucking explain?" The alcohol on her breath was an indicator she was now Faith's perfect match, a mouth that would need to padlock to contain. A high chance of needing restraints. Although she wasn't drunk, probably not even tipsy enough, she definitely had awoken the beast that hides inside.

Besides, everybody knows the quiet ones are always the ones to watch out for.

"What the hell, Luce. What are you doing?" Faith doesn't look down at the papers to begin with and begins to get angry at her girlfriend while Selena kneels down to look at the black and white photographs burying their feet, each one slightly different from each other by one single frame. She picks a small pile of three images that were of Selena and Faith, holding hands on the steel bench earlier, looking at each other, almost like they were a couple. Anybody could be fooled by the state alone without any context.

"Explain, now!" She repeats more bluntly, yet more anger exuded in their direction. Her hands were clenched, yet hiding in her jumper so try contain herself as much as possible, if it was. The blood in her veins boiling at the slightest of glance towards Selena.

Faith takes a lowered glance and instantly recognises this was from this morning. "This isn't what it looks like Luce. We can ex-"

"Shut up, Selena. I'm talking to my girlfriend."

Lucy went to take a step forward, trying to show off her new found confidence and authority with the lingering intoxication taking place as each second passes. Alcohol did work in mysterious ways. But Faith doesn't allow her to move too much. She placed her hand forward, enough to keep a distance between each of the girls. To keep harmony to a certain point. "Hey, don't talk to her like that. She's done absolutely nothing and she's only trying to help us out like any of our friends here."

"She's going to ruin us, Faith and you know it. You know she isn't just a friend."

"Can you stop talking about me like I'm not just standing here?" Selena says, biting her tongue to avoid anything explicitly worse but none of the girls took notice.

Faith ignores her, not dividing her attention from her angry girlfriend. "By recommending us places to go on a holiday? Do you realise how fucking stupid you sound right now? It's been two days and you are already starting this shit again."

"Again?"Her voice ran weak. Selena looks back at Faith in disbelief.

"Yes, again." Lucy shouts back at Selena. She wanted to get under her skin, intimidate her. Selena was a good bluff which would never give any satisfaction during a heated discussion. "You really would defend her before trying to save our relationship and it shows big time Faith."

"Who even took these photos?" Selena says with a hushed tone.

"Hey, what's with all the shouting out here? Is everything okay?"

"Jason gave me them." Lucy points to a Jason who peers through his door to see what was all the chaos outside his room. His eyes widen as the three red-faced girls look at him, all previewing three different facial expressions.

"You took these photos?" Selena lifts the photos so he could see, half disgusted. Faith hadn't even met the sexy stranger yet she was already repulsed from everything that her judgement was tainted and became full of dividing anger.

"Tell us, dick. Did you take them or not?" Faith shouts.

He didn't acknowledge the photos at all. Not a single glance. All he was concentrating on was Selena, who couldn't even look him in the eye. "No. No I didn't. I came back from a run and there was just an envelope on the floor with a door number on so I just passed them on. I didn't even know what was inside"

Selena looks blankly at Jason, who looked surprisingly hurt by the small accusation thrown his way while Faith and Lucy looked ready to be on opposite sides of a boxing ring.

"Lucy, let's just do this more privately, okay? We don't need an audience for this." Faith says before rushing away with Lucy close by, not even staring at any other direction but at Faiths.

Selena watches them both until they vanish into Lucy's room and the sound of the door lock clicks. Selena knew they'd be fine in roughly 10 minutes, just like every single argument they had. But still couldn't believe she was the reason why.

Selena looks at a hopeless Jason as she begins to tidy up the scattered paper, analysing each one with a glance. Jason kneels down to her level and helps her too, in complete silence. Selena looks up to him and simply sighs to herself, feeling instant defeat before looking back down in case he noticed. "Look, I'm sorry for straight up accusing you."

"I heard pretty much everything going on so I wouldn't of blamed you. It did sound a little odd." He lifts a soft smile. "Lucy sort of filled me in when she knocked on my door after I gave her the envelope accusing me of the same, she looked like she had been crying."

"Oh." Selena says blankly. She now stands straight, taking the photos Jason had assisted with and just straighten them all in a quick pile. "Was she okay? What did she say?"

"Nothing worth mentioning really." Jason pulls his shoulders up to shrug. Although he held back on one or two truths. They weren't his to tell and he couldn't bare the thought of round two. "But I do think she's a little jealous of you."

"Jealous? Of me?" She was shocked by that.

Jason sighs as he begins to lean on the wall right beside his unlocked door. He looked at Selena sadly, knowing she probably wouldn't like what he was going to say. "She didn't mention anything specific, she didn't even show me the photos but she said something about you two have secrets and Faith will never open them up to her."

"Good." Selena spits out suddenly. It was sudden enough that Jason's soft expression was wiped off completely by confused and small ounces of annoyance. Selena's fire was ignited again, Jason's words the kerosene. "Everybody has secrets and those secrets are specifically between my best friend and myself and I couldn't care if they are dating. It's none of her business."

Jason sighed. "I don't know what kind of secrets they are but you must see some kind of perspective on it. I think if you were her position, you'd feel the same."

Selena just looks blankly at Jason now, who seemingly had everything figured out from what was probably a 5 minute talk from an overreacting Lucy and snooping through the door just a second ago. He stood there, confident enough to speak on issues he didn't understand with people he just met. It was a bold move, but possibly a stupid one.

"Look, I haven't got time to be lectured at by a guy who I barely know about this shit and I have a lot to study so I'm sorry Jason." Selena needed to contain what she was feeling because she knew she'd snap if one word was misspoken or a tone was even the slightest off. She knew it was in best interest to walk away and reface it later with an apology from either one of them.

A long, hard working day and this chaos once you want it all to settle down was not needed. Jason didn't argue back, he nods his head once and descends into his room.

••••

Selena ties up the nearly overflowing rubbish bag from the kitchen bin and begins to carry it out before she descends on her late night jog.

Night time was her favourite time to do exercise. The lack of people giving you judgemental stares even when you tried to concentrate on your breathing techniques and the beat to your workout playlist. It was also a way to distress and since no one else in the flat was on good terms with Selena right now, it was the last place she wanted to be.

All she knew was by the sounds coming from Faith's room, the happy couple had brushed over their issues and were once again happy. . . For now anyway.

Once she was out into the cold of the night, she grunts quietly as she tosses the bag into a large bin hiding away to not tarnish the brand new architectural design on the buildings.

She plugs in her headphones and begins her to plan out a route to the music of The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy. She kept a track of the running app she installed on her phone to ensure she was gone for long enough time to avoid the music back at the flat. She remained on well lit streets for her own personal security; she rarely went off course to run around unlit parks or through darkened alleys. She kept perfectly in time with the beats of the songs, a brisk jog for now until she could build herself up for those long runs she hadn't done in months. The only exercise she actually loved and would regularly enforced.

••••

Sweat. Breathless. Thirsty. The three words that defined Selena's state after jogging around for an hour. She could feel every single motion in her body right now, the blood coursing wildly and the veins burning. A success in her book.

Wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of the wrist, Selena walks into the kitchen area to see everyone, including Jason laughing and drinking. A deja vu in a sense. He seemed comfortable now as the other girls slobbered over the handsome guy.

She ignores them though, one glance was enough and probably too many. She doesn't take out her earphones and goes directly to the fridge to find the chilled bottle of water her body needed to refuel and regenerate to normal state although she could feel the stares. She also grabbed a pack of raspberries from the fridge and slowly began to munch on them as she drank.

"Selena?" She feels a cold tap on her shoulder and Selena is startled by Lucy, standing beside her closely. The strangest part was the genuine smile across her face that freaked her out for a second.

She pulls out one earphone, letting it dangle down her sports bra and turns to her slightly, leaning on the side and one hand still buried in deep for raspberries. "Yes?"

"I wouldn't blame you if you don't want to hear this but I was out of line earlier and I just wanted to say I'm sorry. My behaviour was totally unacceptable and I shouldn't of never taken it out on you."

"It's fine." The truth was, Selena didn't care. She didn't know whether it was for the apology or the situation. It was complex but her mind just wanted to be elsewhere from drama and finishing off the entire contents of the raspberries.

"No it's not. I'm just going to be deadly honest here and say I am intimidated by you."

"W-what?" She shakes her head at first as if those words were morphed from a completely different sentence. It didn't make sense in her head.

"When I first met Faith, I knew I liked her more than a friend. I wanted to do something about it but she always talked highly of you, her best friend, and I felt like I couldn't compete with that, even when she insisted there was no romantic connection, you know?" Lucy looks down for a second as she pauses. Her struggle breath shown she was trying to get the words out to say what she truly felt. It was hard. Telling the brutal truth will always be more of a challenge than lying. "And when we finally started dating officially- I-I can't describe it. But sometimes, even now, I feel like I'm always going to be second best to you."

"Luce, Faith loves you, more than anything." She stops hunting for the perfect raspberry and stand directly in front of her, placing one hand on the side of her arm, wanting to physically shake sense into her. "And only you. It's okay to be insecure sometimes, I get it but I'd never want to come between you two and cause trouble in your relationship."

"I know, I know." She smiles. "I have lost partners before because of best friends in the past, it's just I don't want to go through that pain again, especially not with Faith. Just the thought of losing her makes me want to punch the wall or something."

"And you won't. I promise you that."

"Those photo's I-

"They meant nothing Luce. They do look odd and honestly, I would of probably ripped my hair out if I were you, but it's nothing more than two best friends."

"Faith explained once I calmed down. I-I really am sorry Selena and I hope we can just forget about this."

"Of course we can." Selena wasn't confrontational and this was just a petty argument over a misunderstanding. She pulls Lucy in a tight hug, which she accepts and they both smile at both sides. Selena looked up to see Faith watching them, content with how it was going. Faith excitedly lifted her thumb up in the air indicating she was loving what she was witnessing.

"I'm letting go, god you are really sweaty." Lucy laughs as she pulls away. "We are getting to know Jason better so grab a drink and sit down with us."

Lucy skips away happily to perch back on Faith's lap. Selena felt inclined to say no but she grabbed herself a glass from her cupboard, filled it with small amounts of wine from the already opened bottle on the side and sat down beside the happy couple.

"Where did you grow up?" Olivia was leaning against the table, hand firmly on the palm of her hand with full of flirt and explicit scenarios flourishing in her little head even with no intentions of ever physically going through with them.

"I was born in Canada but we moved when I just turned one year old. My father was a journalist and a travel photographer so we moved quite often. I never really settled in one place too long to call it home." Jason didn't look upset and he wasn't to be honest.

"That must of been awful." Char speaks her mind. "What about schools and making friends? That must of been hell"

"I met good people but never called them my friends. I was home schooled so I was always surrounded by my parents which can be incredibly lonely."

The girls smother him, awing in every direction but Selena just watched them, feeling high levels of sympathy still.

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