*Grace's POV*
"Well aren't you cheery?" I ask after my sister practically skips into the room. I watch her from my position on my bed and she blushes slightly before beginning in her usual excited, rambly tone, "I met someone; a girl. A really, really attractive girl,"
"Ah, and she didn't try and run away from you?" my tone is teasing and Karma shoots me a glare.
"No, she asked me out for coffee. And she kissed me," Karma responds with an expression that is basically the equivalent of Nelson's HA HA.
"Wait, you kissed her already? You just met her," I'm a little surprised that Karma kissed a virtual stranger without the need for alcohol.
"Relax Gray, it was just kissing. It's not like we are fucking already," Karma replies with a shrug and I make a face.
"Okay eww, I did not need the mental image of my sister fucking someone. Thanks so much for that," My face is scrunched up as I try to exile that particular image and my sister just laughs at me.
"What about you? Did you make any friends?" Karma asks and I'm slightly smug in my response.
"As a matter of fact, I did meet somebody. Two somebodies actually but that's beside the point,"
I try to think about how I can describe Liam but the image of the boy with the glasses and the big brown eyes keeps taking over my mind and kicking Liam to the curb of my thoughts.
"Well done, little sis," Karma tries to ruffle my hair but I duck under her hand and poke her in the side, eliciting a little yelp out of her.
"How many times do we need to have this discussion? You know I'm older," I threaten to poke her again but Karma just pouts at me.
"I'm gonna go take a shower, then we should go get some food; I'm starving," Karma suggests and I wave my hand in a gesture of agreement.
Almost as soon as the bathroom door clicks closed behind Karma my phone goes off, notifying me of a message.
'Hey Little Red, it's Shane. We should totally hangout sometime,'
'How did you get my number, Shane?' I respond back and he takes a little while to respond.
'Um, I have my ways?'
'?'
'Alright, I may have had a friend in Administration bring up your number,'
'Shane! That's like a total invasion of privacy right there,' I'm kind of amused by the thought actually.
'I'm sorry, but I wanted to get to know you, and you didn't give me your number before you ran off,'
'It's fine, in a way I suppose it's kind of flattering. You went through that much trouble just to get my number,'
'Yessiree, I'm nothing if not dedicated. So, what are you doing later?'
'I actually have plans tonight, but maybe we could do lunch tomorrow,'
'Sounds great, text me tomorrow and we'll meet up, XO'
'Sure thing'
Surprisingly enough Karma didn't take forever in the shower; she must have been hungrier that I thought. Once she emerged from the bathroom I squeezed past her and went in for a shower myself, apparently I had once again underestimated Karma.
"Karma, it's this little thing called privacy; we may need to have a chat about it," I called out in both annoyance and amusement as she waltzed into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror a bit before grabbing her toothbrush.
"Grace, relax it's definitely nothing I haven't seen before. Besides, I forgot to brush my teeth, and you know how much I hate bad breath," Karma replies over her shoulder before she indeed began to brush her teeth. I simply rolled my eyes at her before continuing on with my shower and before long I saw her check herself out in the mirror once more and wander out of the bathroom.
Once we were both ready to go Karma led us across the quad towards the corner of campus and we came up to a small cafe that must have some sort of even going on because there were quite a lot of people inside. I'm pretty sure Karma stopped only to take a selfie so I scoffed at her in amusement and stepped through the door before her. Almost as soon as I stepped inside I looked around the room but was pulled into a hug by a random dark skinned girl wearing an apron.
"Karma!" The girl said seconds before wrapping her arms around me and I tensed up, but I understood.
"Not Karma actually," I correct lightly and she pulls back with a confused expression. My sister chose that moment to walk through the door and I watched the girl take in both of us before nodding to herself and pointing at me, "Not Karma."
"Nope," I shook my head in agreement and behind me Karma caught sight of the girl.
"Hey, Jasmine," Karma called and stepped passed me. The girl, presumably Jasmine was once again enthusiastic and pulled Karma into a hug which was returned by my sister.
"Hey there my girl, miss me already?" Jasmine asked once the embrace was over.
"Of course, I couldn't stay away," Karma returns before finally turning her attention to me.
"So I guess you already met sister?" Karma asks and we move over to get out of the doorway.
"Oh yeah, me and 'Not Karma' are well acquainted," Jasmine replies with a smile that seems to be rather contagious.
"Grace," I introduce myself and extend a hand for her to shake.
"Jasmine," she replies while shaking my hand before doing a little bow.
"Now, what can I get you guys?" Jasmine asks once introductions are over and pulls out a pen and order pad.
"Can I get a strawberry milkshake, and do you guys doing fries by any chance?" I ask and Jasmine nods before writing it down and turning to Karma.
"And for you, my dear?"
"I'll get a mango smoothie and two crack brownies, hot with whip," Karma responds and Jasmine walks off to get complete our order. Karma leads us to a table that has a view of the door as well as a view of the small stage I didn't notice until now. I guess the event tonight is an Open Mic because we watch a few performances while we wait for our food to arrive.
"What do you think, Gray, you wanna dazzle some people with our talent?" Karma asks with a wicked grin.
"It has been a while, I'm up for it," I reply and think back to the way Jasmine and Karma greeted one another.
"So is Jasmine the girl you met?"
"She is a girl I met, but she's not the girl," Karma replies.
Nodding in understanding I turn back to the stage, the next person up on stage definitely catches my attention as I recognize a pair of increasingly familiar black glasses that are too big for their wearer.
"Hey guys, I'm Oliver, hopefully I don't butcher this song,"
I watch in awe as the boy begins to strum a guitar and sing, his voice making him stand out even more. His voice is confident and powerful able to range out on vocal runs, all the while remaining smooth as he gazes out at the audience and when his eyes meet mine we they lock on and stay that way.
I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it
I'd hoped you'd see my face, and that you'd be reminded
That for me, it isn't over
Never mind, I'll find someone like you
I wish nothing but the best for you too
Don't forget me, I beg
I remember, you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead".
As he finished the song Oliver smiled and he was instantly back to the adorably dorky kid, his smile was huge as everyone cheered and clapped and requested encores. I was just about to excuse myself to go and talk to him but just as I prepared to stand Jasmine appeared with our drinks, shortly followed by our food. Once Jasmine has set everything down I thank her and turn to search for Oliver once again but he has already disappeared into the crowd.
"He was good and totally rocking the glasses," Karma says casually, more focused on devouring the brownie she ordered.
"Yeah, he was," I respond quietly, clearly much more affected by the performance than my sister.
Shaking off my disappointment at not being able to meet to seemingly elusive Oliver, I settle into my chair and dip a fry into my milkshake before popping it into my mouth. After I'm made a solid dent in my fries I decide to try this brownie that Karma seems to want to make sweet love too. Once I take that first bite I suddenly understand, "Oh sweet baby Jesus, I want to marry this brownie,"
"I know right," Karma mumbles in agreement and looks heartbroken when she realizes she ate it all. Because I'm an amazing sister I hesitantly push my plate towards her and she lights up when she realizes I'm going to share with her.
"Oh thank you, you sweet, sweet gift from Satan," Karma says affectionately and takes a giant forkful of brownie. I laugh at my sister's reaction and take another bite before retuning my attention to my milkshake and fries.
We continue to eat in a comfortable silence before Karma points out excitedly, "Ooh, there looks like there is a space open. You wanna go sing?"
"Let's do it," I reply, abandoning my French fry. As we approach the stage we pull up two chairs and I spot a guitar on a stand by the wall that I'm guessing in meant specifically for Open Mic nights.
"Do you want to take the guitar or will I?" Karma asks after I point it out,
"I'll take it, I know how you love focusing on the audience," I respond and she smiles before adjusting the mic and settling down in her seat. Grabbing the guitar from its stand I too sit down in my seat and pluck the strings lightly for a second to get a feel for the guitar.
"Hey everyone, I'm Karma and this is my twin sister Grace but it's okay to refer to me as the pretty one," Karma lowers her voice in a mock whisper for the last part and elicits a laugh from the crowd before she winks at me and continues, "For future reference when we are famous, our stage name is An Ashcroft Thing."
Satisfied with our introduction Karma sweeps her gaze over the audience and when she visibly tenses I follow her line of sight feeling slightly worried. My eyes find a stunning blonde looking directly at my sister and when I look back I see that Karma once again has a huge grin on her face, causing me to relax once again. I start to strum our go to song in a setting like this and Karma starts singing.
Hey guys, like I said I brought the word count up to 2000ish for you all. I've been a bit slack lately and didn't get this update done until now so I'm sorry about that. I actually had the chapter all planned out yesterday but I got a quarter of the way through writing and decided I felt like doing it later, which kind of led onto not doing it at all until now. Anyway, I wanted to make sure that I got Oliver into this story early and I figured I'd have a little fun with it. I'm kind of a sucker for Open Mic scenarios and it helps that so many people on Faking It are wonderfully talented. The song was actually taken from August Road's (Oliver) YouTube channel. He seems like a total sweetheart and he does some pretty awesome covers and has a few original songs as well so you should all go check that out. Oh and don't worry, I'll start up where I left of in the next chapter. Anywho, enjoy. -Zahli