Fabian's POV

We walked up the steps and I started to walk up to the door. I looked behind me to see Nina staring at the House in awe.

"Nina. Nina. NINA!" She looked up at me. "Are you coming?"

She looked at the house one more time and started taking the steps, two at a time. When she got to the top step, she tripped and fell into my arms. We looked at each other and blushed. I helped her up and handed her her suitcase.

"Ready to meet everyone?" She looked at me nervously and nodded. I knocked on the door and heard running footsteps.

"I'll get it Trudy!" yelled Amber. Amber opened the door and looked at me before yelling "Fabes!" She gave me a huge hug and started to talk to me when she noticed Nina.

"Fabes, who's this?" By this point, we were all in the hallway near the staircase and Jerome and Alfie were there as well.

"Amber, is everyone else here?"

"Yeah, you two were the last ones to show. Why?"

Nina said, "So I only have to introduce myself once."

"Ohhhh." I swear Amber can be such a blond sometimes, but you've gotta love her.

"Mara, Mick, Patricia, get down here! Fabian's here and so is the new girl!"

Trudy came out of the kitchen and stood in the doorway, waiting for everyone else to introduce themselves before introducing herself to Nina.

Two pairs of steps came running down the stairs and before I knew it, I was being hugged by Patricia and Mara.
"FABES!" they yelled.

Nina stood next to me, awkwardly may I add, and shifted her weight from side to side, obviously ready to get introductions over with.
I untangled myself from Mara and Patricia's hug and yelled for Mick.

"Mick! Are you going to come say hi to your roommate and the new girl?"

All of a sudden a soccer ball came flying through the hallway, followed by a large crash. Trudy sighed.

"Mick! Come say hi to Fabian and the new girl and then come help me clean your mess up." Mick walked into the hallway. Now the whole gang was here. I looked at Nina and waited to see if she wanted me to introduce her to them, or to have herself introduce her.

She looked at me expectantly and I figured she wanted me to introduce her to everyone.

"Everyone, this is Nina." They all looked at me like I had two heads. "We met at the train station and took the same cab here."
They no longer looked confused, but now looked curious. I started introducing Nina to everyone. I started on the left and worked my way down.

I pointed at Mara, "Nina, that's Mara. Mara, this is Nina." They shook hands and nodded at each other. I moved onto the next person.
I pointed at Patricia, "Nina, Patricia. Patricia, Nina." They nodded at each other and I moved to the next person.
I pointed at Amber, "Nina, Amber. Amber, Nina" Nina went to shake Amber's hand when Amber just gave her a giant hug.

"We are going to be best friends! I can't wait for you to be my roomie! As soon as we're done here I'll take you up to our room and then I'll take you for a tour around the house and then around campus and-"

"Actually Amber, I was going to show Nina around." I said.

"Oh, okay then. I still can't wait for you to be my roomie!" She smiled at Nina and then I quickly pointed at everyone else so we would be back in time for dinner.

"Now, we have Mick, Alfie, and Jerome." They all waved at Nina and Nina waved back. "Then, hiding in the back, is our housemother, Trudy." Trudy walked up to Nina and gave her a hug.

"Hello, dearie. I assume Fabian has told you about my cooking." I nodded. "On weekdays, we have breakfast at 7, and on weekends it's fend for yourself unless you wake up before 9. Lunch on the weekends is whenever you want, and dinner is always at 6:30."

"Okay, thanks." She gave Nina a squeeze and handed her over to me.

"Come on Nina, I'll take you up to our room." Amber grabbed Nina's hand and pulled Nina up the stairs. I went to Mick and I's bedroom and started to unpack. When I found my cell phone, I texted Amber and told her to bring Nina down to my room when she was ready. She texted back with a winking face and said okay.

I heard the door open and I didn't bother looking back, thinking it was Nina and Amber. All of a sudden I was on my bed being attacked by Mick.
"So you like the new girl, do you mate?"

"I don't like her! I barely met her!"

"Well from what we saw in the hallway, for you barely meeting her, you two sure know how to read each other."
Mick went to his bed and kept on glaring at me.

"Admit it mate, you like Nina."

"Fine, I will admit it. I like her a little. I've only known her for about an hour but I feel like I've known her for years. She trusted me enough to tell me something I don't even know if you guys will find out."

"Ha! I knew it!"


Nina's POV

I was standing outside his door, getting ready to knock. I almost knocked when I heard Fabian's roommate talking. Mick was his name?

"So you like the new girl, do you mate?"

"I don't like her! I just barely met her!" My heart sunk a little when I heard that. I had to admit, Fabian's charm had me falling for him, fast.

"Well from what we saw in the hallway, for you barely meeting her, you two sure know how to read each other." I heard footsteps and the creaking of a mattress.

"Admit it mate, you like Nina."

"Fine, I will admit it. I like her a little. I've only known her for about an hour but I feel like I've known her for years. She trusted me enough to tell me something I don't even know if you guys will find out." I felt like I was in Cloud Nine. He liked me. He really liked me!

"Ha! I knew it!" I stood there. My hand still up as if I was going to knock when someone came to the door.

"Oh, hey Nina. Fabes is in our room if your looking for him." He smiled at me then I heard laughter coming from another part of the house. I knocked on the door.

"Come in!" I slowly opened the door and poked my head in.

"Hey Fabes, you ready to show me around campus?" He shut the suitcase he had been unpacking and started walking towards me.

"Fabes huh?" He smiled at me. We started walking towards the door. "Trudy! I'm going to show Nina around campus. We'll be back for dinner."

"Okay Fabian dear."

We walked out the door. I noticed Fabian had changed into warmer clothes since I saw him last. As we got walking, I understood why. I started shivering in my t-shirt and shorts. It had been 82 degrees this afternoon and it felt to be about 55 degrees now.

"Are you cold?" I shook my head so he would not hear my teeth chatter. He took off his zip-up hoodie and put it around my shoulders. I started to shrug it off the give it back when he put his hands on my shoulders to stop me. I started to protest and he said, "No, it's alright, I was actually starting to get warm, wear it."

He started walking me towards the library when I noticed something.

"Fabian, what's that scar on your arm? He looked down at his shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"Fabes."

"I got it when my dad hit me with a glass bottle when I was 5. He had been an alcoholic, but he's been sober for 8 years now." From the look he gave me when he told me the story, I could tell I was either one of few people who knew, or the first person he ever told the truth to.

"Well at least he stopped." I put my hand on Fabian's arm. He shrugged away and I knew he didn't want to talk about the subject anymore.

"So how good is Trudy's cooking. I don't know if I should trust your judgment in food but Amber raved about her too so she must not be too bad."
He smiled down at me. I could tell he was happy I changed the subject. "Actually, I think Trudy is cooking one of my favorite meals."

"And what would that be?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs."

"I love spaghetti and meatballs!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! My Gran always made them once a week and whenever I got two or more 100's on my report card, which was usually every report card."

"That's cool."

"Yeah, my Gran and I always had a close relationship. I sometimes wonder if my mom would've been the same way. Teasing me the same way Gran does when I told her about a boy at school that I thought was cute."

We were almost back to the house. Fabian had showed me the library, and the building where all our classes were. He also showed me the gardens near the house, thinking I would like them.

"Thanks for showing me around today Fabian."

"No problem Neens."

"You can call me Neens but I can't call you Fabes?" I bumped into him.

"I never said you couldn't call me Fabes, I was just wondering why you started calling me Fabes."

"Well, everyone else does, so I figured I could too."

We arrived at the house. This time, I only took one step at a time, trying not to fall like last time. Fabian stopped me at the door.

"Do you want me to show you around the house after dinner?"

"Yeah, I would like that. Meet me at my room after dinner."

"Okay."

He opened the door and held it open for me. I walked up the stairs and looked back. I saw Fabian staring after me and when our eyes met, we both blushed. I ran towards my room and when I walked in, I flopped onto my bed.

"So how was your date with Fabian?"

I bolted up. I didn't even know Amber was in here.

"It wasn't a date. All he did was show me around campus. He was trying to be a good friend."

"Well it sure didn't look like you two are just friends. Fabes isn't this nice with the rest of the girls. Well, he's nice to us, he just doesn't flirt with us.
I ran a brush through my hair and ran back down the stairs.

I didn't want to continue this conversation with Amber. Not now anyway.

I went into the living room and grabbed a book that was sitting on the coffee table. I was in the middle of the second chapter when Trudy called us all for dinner. I walked slowly into the dining room, hoping that I was the last one in so I wouldn't sit in anybody else's seat.

I got lucky and was the last one in the dining room. I looked to see who I was sitting next to and my heart both sunk and rose. I was happy to be sitting next to him, just not tonight.

About halfway through dinner, Jerome and Alfie started a food fight. I got a glob of spaghetti to the face and everyone froze. When I threw food back at Jerome, everyone laughed. We had a fairly large food fight until Trudy came in.

"Now what has happened in here!"

"Jerome and Alfie started throwing food at each other and then Jerome got Nina in the face with some spaghetti" said Mara.

"Jerome, Alfie. You're on clean up duty tonight!"

"But Trudy!"

"No buts. Now!" I walked upstairs and took a shower to get the spaghetti out of my hair. When I walked into my room, Amber bombarded me with questions.

"Nina, do you like Fabian?" I looked up from brushing my hair and looked Amber in the eyes.

"No, Fabian's just a friend." My heart sunk, lying to Amber like that, but I didn't want Amber to know. I knew Fabian liked me and if Amber ever found out that we liked each other. Well, I didn't even want to know what happened.

"Come on Neens, you must like Fabian. We all saw how you looked at each other in the hall."

"Fine, so I like Fabian, but you can't tell anyone Ambs. You just can't." She pretended to lock her lips and throw away the key.

Then, we heard a timid knock at the door.


A/N Review! Criticism welcomed. Don't think there will be anymore chapters today because I have writer's block, but you never know.