Ginny Green found herself in a rather peculiar situation after waking up that Saturday morning. She was in bed. Together with Persephone Campbell. The infamous campus princess — both naked. Well, she's still wearing her undies on, but still — naked.
Ginny wracked her brain to recall what happened that Friday night. She was invited to a party and got drunk along the way.
Her Chinese best friend, Ning Natalie Porter, advised that she needed to lose her mind a little bit because she was beating herself up with tons of school stuff. She did what she was told, and then, all of a sudden, she couldn't remember what happened right after.
She's not going to be shocked if someone says that she made a bloody fool of herself at that party, considering she's such a blubbering mess when she's drunk. She was hoping she didn't get herself into a big mess with anyone.
Much to her dismay, 'unfortunate' was her middle name.
She was now facing the person she'd never expected to encounter. Blue eyes locked with hers, looking at her knowingly, keenly, and deciphering.
"You're not planning to run away and pretend this didn't happen, are you?"
In every accidental one-night stand, of course, that thought is not an option anymore. Embrace each other at night like long-time lovers, and in the morning, shrug off every memory like it never happened. That's always been the case.
And of course, that was Ginny's initial plan after assessing the situation. But looking at Persephone threatening, yet smiling face, she knows well how screwed up she was.
Let's just laugh first. Ginny let out an awkward and forced laugh, trying to hide her previous intention.
"N-no, I wasn't… thinking that at all..."
"Good." Persephone smiled, satisfied with her answer. She gingerly moves closer to Ginny, wrapping both of her arms around her waist.
Ginny can't seem to utter a single word. Seeing a naked Persephone in front of her was... was... was — she doesn't even have any words how to describe it.
"Look at you, all shy and red. How adorable," she kisses her temple, "Not to mention, you were so… rough last night," she chuckles teasingly.
Rough? Ginny doesn't like the sound of that. She'd never imagined herself as the 'rough' kind of person in bed. As the innocent kind of gal she'd always portrayed herself to be, it sounds so wrong in so many aspects. She can't even remember what happened last night. Might as well being rough. Whatever that means. It was her first time doing such a thing with someone, yet she can't recall anything!!
"You must be hungry. Stay here. I'll make some breakfast."
Persephone got out of bed wearing only her knickers. Ginny covered her eyes immediately in hopes of not ogling at the latter's breast. Seeing a topless Persephone Campbell was already enough to give her some spicy nightmares at night.
Persephone saw the cute gesture, chuckled, and then proceeded to grab a tee from the cupboard.
"You can look now." She teases, and continues chuckling.
Ginny was still covering her eyes, waiting for Persephone to get out of the room. She was too embarrassed, utterly dumbfounded, (having a crisis maybe), to meet her eyes.
Everything was still sinking in. She can't believe she slept with Persephone! The infamous campus Princess-It Girl-Everyone's crush, Persephone Campbell!
Then she heard the door being opened and then closed, signalling that Persephone had already gone out.
Ginny, think! You dolt! She cusses, forcing her brain to come up with an idea to get out of this situation.
She hurriedly, yet softly, tiptoed to grab her clothes that were resting on the sofa. She blushed when she saw herself with just her undergarments in the mirror.
I gotta get out of here — fast, she mentally remarked.
She went out of the room, careful not to make any sound. She saw the latter on the kitchen counter, beating some eggs while humming.
Some people might fall in love with a barefaced Persephone making breakfast while wearing only a tee and her knickers. It feels utterly domestic, and it's such a sight to behold. But Ginny is different from those people.
It might be rude to leave without saying goodbye. But Ginny knows that she shouldn't get involved with Persephone. Goodbyes are not necessary for a one-time thing. And this, right now, is only a one-time thing. Once she gets out of here, everything will be forgotten. Oblivion is a curse.
Luckily, she found her way out of Persephone's dorm room. It was fortunate that no one saw her. She couldn't believe that the latter lives alone in that big of an arse place, while Natalie and her have to share the bathroom with five more people. How unfair.
She tries to take in where the bloody hell she was, and it seems like she's on the other side of the campus. She ran back to their college dorm at speed. She wonders and curses why they have classes on weekends, it's supposed to be a rest day.
She shouldn't have listened to Natalie. Nothing good comes out of her mouth.
Never trust a redhead, she mutters to no one.
Speaking of the devil, she hasn't texted her yet. Ginny opens her phone and sees a bunch of texts and missed class from her so-called, redheaded, best friend. She sighs, bracing herself for what's coming.
♦
Her best friend, Ning Natalie Porter, is like a fusion of Natalie Portman and Lily Collins, but the Asian version. It also explains the origin of her second name.
Ginny always deemed that the Gods were so unfair when they made Natalie descend from heaven. It's like Aphrodite meets the common folk. Such a head-turner. Wherever she goes, people will break their necks 360° just to get a glimpse of her. Birds chirp, butterflies fly, and flowers bloom wherever she walks. It sounds straight out of a Disney movie. She's not exaggerating.
"She's so gorgeous, she doesn't look real," was quoted by one of the members of her own fan club every time they passed the hallway. It makes Ginny cringe whenever they stare at her best friend with a love-stuck look.
Ginny is, up until now, still wondering if her best friend is aware of this nonsense because she can be utterly dense sometimes. Let's just give her the benefit of the doubt, shall we? She mutters to herself.
Due to this advantage, everybody deemed that she was an angel blessed from heaven. But Ginny knows best that Natalie is the opposite of angels and heaven. Natalie is an absolute devil in disguise. With her perfectly sculptured face, she could fool anyone by just acting innocent.
"Where were you last night? I was so worried, I thought you might have hit your head and passed out or something." She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "Wait — did you get laid last night?"
"No." Ginny immediately blurted out. Natalie looks at her sceptically.
"You did, didn't you?"
Ginny groans in annoyance, realising that she will be stuck with her best friend's never lasting tease.
"Girl, you looked like you just had sex. Don't ever lie to me, Ginny Green. I practically raised you. I know you from head to toe." She points her index finger, up and down, accusingly.
"Bloody hell, Natalie! Can we please not talk about this?"
"Oh, no, no, no. We are definitely going to talk about this right now." The smirk she's giving irks Ginny a lot. "My little virgin Ginny just got laid. What happened to 'I'll never have sex because I'm going to be a nun' motto of yours, huh?"
Ginny was imagining different ways of slapping her best friend in all different directions just to shut her up.
"Who did you shag?! Was he hot?"
Ginny glared at her best friend, trying not to smack the crap out of her — for real this time. Natalie has this uncanny obsession or nosy kind of behaviour about her love life. And she's not going to feed the little devil anything that could spark her interest.
"I'm not telling you anything. We gotta go. We have class."
Natalie hums, uninterested, "All right, just so you know, we're not done here, Ginny Green."
"Can you stop saying my whole name? It's so cringed." She hissed in annoyance. And she knows that Natalie was just doing it to infuriate her more.
"Whatever," she casually replied, smirking more.
In disbelief, Ginny was questioning herself about how she managed to befriend someone like Natalie. Totally uncharacteristic of her.
♦
Ginny spent the rest of the period snoozing. She looks at her best friend on the other side of the room, animatedly chatting with some of their classmates. She sometimes envies how easy it is for Natalie to befriend people. That was a joke, actually.
Ginny never saw herself as the extroverted-people person-kind of girl. She doesn't have the tendency to tolerate any sort of draining human interaction. Those kinds of bullocks are all Natalie's job. As the designated third-party observer with no personal interest whatsoever, she'd rather stare from the distance and watch people embarrass themselves. That, she could say, is very much entertaining to witness. Don't we all agree?
She doesn't have the popularity that Natalie has. Everything she does is pretty average. Just a typical college student thriving to finish her degree, nothing more, nothing less. Well, we could just all say that this isn't just a facade that she created just to get off people's radar. What sort of radar, you ask? Any kind of radar.
Ginny was born into a very wealthy family. It's sort of a secret that she hasn't told anyone except her best friend. She receives a decent amount of allowance from her parents. But she doesn't flounder the money around like a spoiled brat just to annoy unfortunate bystanders. She used to do that before. But she learned her lesson eventually. Also, Past-Ginny is already dead, buried in a coffin of her consciousness. She should have stopped haunting her until now. That biach.
Oh, dear. Did she just curse? She should probably stop watching Mean Girls with Natalie for the hundredth time now. Also, dressing like a sack of potatoes has its benefits. She will know if the people she'll encounter are genuine or not.
Ginny is totally not the main character in any sort of drama that a lot of people want to be in. She doesn't aspire to be one. She'd rather be the one who's outside of the drama and just watch people struggle because of their poor decision making with a bowl of popcorn in hand.
That's why she always lets Natalie take the centre of attention so that she can divert it away from her. This is the only good thing that Natalie could contribute to society, being a talking mascot that saves people like her from any sort of awkward social interaction.
She lets out a yawn, still fighting the urge not to doze off. She averted her gaze from her best friend and classmates and looked outside the window.
Hmm, peaceful…
As she was about to zone out, something interesting caught her eye. Two familiar women are having a conversation at the gazebo near their department building, but it doesn't look like they were just having a simple talk. She doesn't want to assume things, but there seems to be something going on between the two.
Hm, what do we have here? A lover's quarrel?
Ginny's nosy personality is showing. Seemingly, subtly, observing the two from afar. She doesn't know the girls, so she calls the brunette one Ashley and the black-haired one Jenny. Both have been the centre of Ginny's entertainment for weeks now.
The concept of romance in real life bores her, but only if she's the one experiencing it. She doesn't mind when others are obsessed with it. Let people get their daily dose of sappy romances, as Natalie had remarked. Ginny doesn't beg to differ. Except for her, that is, romance doesn't fancy her as much as she desires it.
She has a vague idea of what romance should feel like based on the countless romantic movies and novels she has watched and read. It should be warm, thrilling, and it should make you do some irrational things. It sounds mental and utterly rubbish, she might say.
As much as she'd tried rationalising the concept of romance, it all ended up a failure. That's why she was never interested in starting a relationship with anyone. It's mundane and bothersome.
As much as she doesn't fancy such a thing for herself, ironically, she likes watching other people's love stories unfold. It's sort of like a simple hobby she developed back in high school and ended up continuing for entertainment purposes. It's rather fun to watch two strangers fall in love with one another rather than imagine herself in such a situation.
She sees herself as a narrator in a novel. A viewer who was solemnly focused on the story of two young lovers blossomed. Each story is like a movie portrayed in real life. They're innocent, simple, and yet excitingly cliche in some way.
Ugh, what am I saying? She mutters to no one. It seems like Natalie's sappy personality is rubbing off on her.
And this is an example of one of those days. She watches Ashley and Jenny having a quarrel in the middle of the gazebo, perfectly unaware that probably the whole school isn't watching their drama unfold.
Oh, here comes the drama.
Ashley tried to reach out for the latter, but Jenny averted the touch. Ginny flinches.
Ouch. That must've hurt.
It's like she's watching a scene from a movie, but it's reality. She looks like a creep doing this, but it was just too entertaining to ignore.
Jenny walks away from Ashley. A disappointed look plastered on her face. Ginny just shook her head in disappointment at Ashley for not following her.
She was still a bit focused on the two when a loud voice snapped her back to reality.
"What?" She faces her best friend.
"Ginny, I've been calling your name for God knows how long now." She has her hands on her waist. Natalie looks annoyed. "I'm so hungry, if you're not gonna move your butt, I'm gonna eat the gummies you've been hiding from me in your locker."
Ginny gasped in disbelief. The audacity. How dare Natalie threaten her. Not her gummies. Such a glutton.
As they're walking along the hallway leading to the cafeteria, Natalie starts to annoy her yet again.
"You've been zoning out lately. Are you in the middle of a post-sex phase?"
"A 'what' now?"
She grinned mischievously, "You haven't told me who's the lucky lad. So tell me, who is it?" She wiggled her brows.
Ginny just groans in sheer annoyance. Natalie will never stop pestering her until she says everything.
"It's not a guy," she blurted out.
Natalie went silent for a while then continued, "So… let me get this straight — you're not straight?" She asked in utter disbelief. Ginny snickered, having fun looking at her reaction.
"You never told me you like girls! I'm your best friend, Ginny!"
"Can you chill for a second? I'm neither gay nor straight. I dislike putting labels on my preferences and sexuality, alright?"
Ginny never really talks about her sexual orientation to anyone. It's sort of a burden and doesn't seem to be that much of an issue.
She did try though. She tried to have a relationship with a guy before but it didn't last for a week because it wasn't the kind of relationship that she expected.
She has mentioned once to Natalie about her lack of romance (except for the part about her sexual preference,) after that, the girl was so obsessed with throwing every lad she came across for the reason that she doesn't want Ginny to die without finding her potential lover. She extremely regrets telling Natalie about that.
"Oh, blimey! But still, I'm your best friend!" She sulked, "And you should've told me that. Now that I think about it, I feel like a fool setting you up with those blokes!"
"Well, your taste in men is immaculate, I'll give you that."
"Of course, though it doesn't really give me the emotional support since you never liked any of them."
"Stop sulking, goodness. I can't just date someone that I'm not fond of."
"You've never been fond of anyone, Ginny. I never saw you get smitten. It's always the opposite around. I feel bad for those people who fell for your charm."
They grabbed their own trays and started putting food on them. Before Ginny could even say her response, someone beat her to it.
"I like your hair." Says the person ahead of them.
Right. Ginny forgot that her best friend was part of the "popular kids." She cringed on the poor guy's attempt to flirt with Natalie.
"Oh, I haven't washed it for three days, but thanks!"
But her best friend can be oblivious with stuff. And by oblivious that means — everything-that-associates-with-the-opposite-sex-trying-to-flirt-with-her-oblivious.
Ginny snorts at Natalie's response, fighting not to let her laughter out. The guy just looks at her weirdly, then shakes his head disapprovingly, and walks away. Ginny cracks up.
"Why are you laughing?"
Ginny rubs the tears that come out of her eyes.
"You, my friend, are such a gem that needs to be protected."
"Well, I'm flattered you think of me like that, though I don't need protection, Ginny."
Ginny just rolled her eyes. Absolutely, oblivious indeed. They sat on vacant seats in the cafeteria and started munching on their food.
"And don't dare change the subject," Natalie pointed the chicken sandwich she was munching at her, "who's that woman?"
"That — came out like — you're accusing me of cheating."
"Well, perhaps I am. We've been living with each other for years now. We cook each other's food and do the laundry together. We're practically married, subconsciously. The only thing that separates us from that matter is the fact that we're best friends and I see you as a sister."
Ginny rolled her eyes yet again. She came to accept that Natalie will never stop blabbering about this matter, so the only way to shut her up is to tell everything.
But before she could mutter her replies, she caught a glimpse of Persephone, entering the cafeteria with her friends.
Oh, son of a biscuit, she mentally curses.
She ducked her head low and tried to hide every part of her body by using Natalie as a human shield.
What am I doing? She mutters to herself.
Ginny realised how silly she was. Persephone will never approach her in front of a bunch of people, so there's nothing to be worried about. But that thought soon vanished when Persephone locked eyes with her. Ginny immediately averted her gaze.
"Ginny, are you listening to me?" She was having problems concentrating on what nonsense Natalie was blabbering about because when she looked at Persephone again, the latter smiled.
Crap. Don't look, Ginny! She internally panics.
And her panic soon grew when Persephone started to walk towards them, smiling brightly.
"Ginny!" She faced a totally not pleased Natalie.
"I gotta go." She blurted out in a hurry. Starring back and forth between her best friend and Persephone, who is now just one table away from them.
"What? No, you're not going anywhere, young lady—"
"We'll talk later."
And just like that, Ginny ran away from her best friend, ran away from Persephone, whose smile faltered after she went out of the place.
♦
Ginny snapped out of the book she was reading. After the almost interaction with Persephone in the cafeteria, she went to the library to hide. She doesn't understand why she was hiding. But she's definitely sure she doesn't want to meet Persephone ever again.
Ginny lost track of time. The only thing that disturbed her peaceful reading was the constant murmuring of people around her.
"I can't believe she's Persephone's girlfriend…"
It was uttered in a hushed tone but it was enough for her to hear. Everything was in a blur, only those words remain in Ginny's mind like a broken record.
She snaps her head immediately to those bothersome murmurs. Some almost averted their eyes but some looked at her with disgust and malice.
Completely baffled by the situation, Ginny packed her bag and went out of the library. She doesn't know what's going on, but she has a bad feeling about it.
Her peace was immediately cut short when she felt someone smack her shoulder harshly, she almost stumbled by the force. She was so ready to curse the culprit, but she swallowed her words when she saw an angry-looking Natalie glaring at her.
"Why didn't you tell me you were dating Persephone Campbell?"
"What? What nonsense are you blabbering about?" Ginny was extremely baffled.
"It's all over Insta, Ginny, look."
Natalie showed her a picture of Persephone hugging someone. The face of the latter was blocked from the camera, but that doesn't stop Ginny's imagination that both were spooning on the bed. What made her eyes bulge in shock was the caption — "Taken by Ginny Green<3"
Ginny was too shocked to even utter a word. Persephone posted the picture on her Instagram account that has almost a hundred thousand followers, which mostly consist of people from their school, which then explains the glares she received earlier.
Due to her shock, she began hiccuping nonstop. This always triggers when she's anxious, or in the middle of a very stressful situation.
"Are you okay?" Natalie felt her best friend's anxiousness, "D-Did you know about this?" Ginny continued hiccuping and just looked at Natalie blankly.
"I'm so sorry," She rubs Ginny's back to ease out what she's feeling. "Let's get you home now."