"Danger

You'll never make it out alive,

You know i'm so dramatic and it's quite the habit,

You know I won't let go"

- I'm No Good by New Years Day

Pam liked to pretend that college never happened. She remembered her ambition, and motivation. Her determination to get a college degree, a task that her mother never got to do before she passed.

Pam wanted to redeem herself, in a way. Wanted to prove to her mother, wherever she was, that she had not lived in vain. That her efforts to raise her daughter were worth it. 14 years later, Pam doesn't feel like she made her mom proud. On the contrary, her mother was probably deeply disappointed.

Pam's knees shook as she entered the lecture hall. Geology 101, Pam was a journalism major, however, every major required at least one science credit and Geology seemed like the safe choice. No math, no complicated formulas, just plain rocks. Pam could handle rocks.

Pam scanned the crowd, hoping to find Scott. She had seen him again in passing, as they both bumped into each other while walking down the halls of their dorms. They hadn't spent time together outside of that, but it would've been nice to know one person.

Sighing in defeat, Pam found an empty seat close to the exit, and sat down, taking out her notebook and pen.

She was embarrassed by the trembling in her hand as she wrote her name. Could she be anymore obvious that she had no idea what she was doing?

Unbeknownst to her, across the hall was someone who was also scanning the crowd. Not for a friend, or a kind face, but for someone to "take under her wing" as she liked to call it. Though she knew exactly that she was a manipulator, looking for her next victim.

Helen looked across the classroom until her eyes landed on Pam. Her blonde hair was tied up in a pony-tail. She wore skinny jeans, a hoodie, and converse. Helen rolled her eyes, didn't she know that this wasn't high school anymore? She had to dress the part of a studious college student.

Helen shrugged it off, and went to sit at the empty desk next to her.

This girl is perfect, Helen thought as she smiled and introduced herself.

"Hi! I'm Helen! Nice to meet you!"

Pam's head snapped up in surprise.

"Oh, uh, hi!" she tried mirroring Helen's excitement. "I'm Pam, nice to meet you too," Pam smiled back. Helen smirked, this would be too easy.

"Are you in your first year, too?" Helen leaned in with feigned curiosity.

Pam nodded, "uh, yeah, I'm a journalism major. Just taking this class for a science requirement. What about you?"

Helen couldn't help but think about Chuck. Wasn't journalism his major too? She quickly brushed it aside.

"I'm also in my first year! Don't have a major yet though! Just going through my options."

In fact, Helen didn't even want to go to post-secondary. She hadn't seen a point. She wanted to travel the world! But of course, her parents made her go to college. They were the ones who picked out her class schedule in the first place.

"Oh, cool!" Pam said with forced enthusiasm before turning to her backpack and pulling out her textbook.

Shit, Helen said to herself. I forgot to buy my textbook.

Helen leaned in to say something else to Pam when they were suddenly interrupted by Scott. Helen almost groaned, she never liked Scott, and never understood why Chuck hung around him.

"Hey!" At first, Helen thought that he was talking to her. She was confused, as much as she hated Scott, she was sure that he hated her.

She smiled and was about to respond when she realized that he had been talking to Pam.

"Oh, hey!" The fake excitement that Pam had used with Helen was gone, replaced by genuineness. It was clear that they had met before.

"I didn't know you were in this class!" Scott took his messenger bag off and sat in the seat on the other side of Pam.

"Science requirement."

"Ah," Scott nodded as if that explained everything.

"What about you?"

Scott smiled, a bit too brightly. "I'm a meteorology major. Basically my whole schedule is filled with science and math."

Helen couldn't help herself from scoffing. She actually hadn't realized that it was audible until Scott turned to her and frowned.

"Oh, hey, Helen. Wasn't expecting to see you here."

She could feel anger boil in her chest. She pushed it aside and smiled. "Oh Scott, long time no see! How are you?"

Scott shrugged, "been fine. You?"

Helen clenched her teeth, "i've been great! I spent the summer in Greece. Have you been there?! It's beautiful." Helen knew that Scott had never been to Greece. He hasn't even left the country. His family was too poor. She didn't even know how he could afford to go to school on Kings Head Island when they were in high school.

Pam looked in-between them, "you guys know each other?"

There was something off about her voice, though Helen couldn't quite make out what it was.

Scott shrugged, "we went to high school together. She also dated my best friend."

This made Helen furious. How dare he talk about her relationship so flippantly like that?! They had just broken up! Didn't he know that she was absolutely heartbroken over it?!

Helen was about to tell him off when the lights dimmed, and the professor in front of the room pulled up a powerpoint, comensencing their first year in college.

Chuck decided to skip his first class. He told himself that he didn't need to go. English 125: Reading Shakespeare. He didn't need to go to class to learn about how to read Shakespeare! In fact, he had been casted as Hamlet, in his high school's production, so he was sure he would pass the class without ever showing up.

Despite the confidence, he felt a sinking feeling when he looked at the time on his laptop. The class would be about halfway over, he wondered how Scott's class was going. He couldn't remember what class it was, something about rocks, he thought.

He looked back up at his laptop, his desk sitting right up against his bedroom window, looking out onto the courtyard. Everyone looked so studious. People always had their noses in books, or flipping through flashcards, trying to memorize terms for their classes. Chuck shook his anxiety away. He didn't need to try as hard as all of them. He already knew everything that would help him succeed through college.

In one tab, he browsed through this online dating platform, looking for girls to replace the emptiness that he felt. In the next tab, was Helen's facebook page. Her profile picture was her sunbathing on a boat, floating on the deep blue waters of the Meditterean Sea. He wondered if Helen was the key to his emptiness. How had he felt when she was with him?

Complete. He had everything to be successful. Good grades, handsome face, money, and the perfect girlfriend. When she decided to break up with him, all that shattered. His father really loved Helen, and had even talked about them getting married after college. Her leaving him was just a crack in his perfect foundation. How was he ever going to get a flawless picture back?

He continued to scroll through the seemingly endless pictures of girls, and through the pictures of him and Helen that Helen still had up. Occasionally, flipping to his own folder on his laptop that had pictures of Helen that she wouldn't let him post. Most were of her looking goofy, or disheveled, like the ones of them camping. He also found the nudes that they had taken together, and even a video when Helen insisted they film themselves being intimate.

Chuck felt a throb in his crotch, and quickly excited that video and slammed his laptop shut. He really needed to get over her.

A gust of wind blew through his window, making him look up and into the courtyard. He paused. He saw a girl.

She was ordinary, nothing special about her, but he couldn't help and stare when the wind blew the hair that escaped her ponytail across her face.

She smiled up at someone, her pink lips moved to speak, and there was something about her expression that made her the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

Without thinking too much, he got up from his chair, and ran outside before she could walk away.

He spotted her, she was still in the same position, smiling and talking. Chuck didn't pay attention to the person she was talking to. She wouldn't be talking to him much longer as he planned to swoop in, and introduce himself.

But as he practically ran towards her, he froze, realizing that she was talking to Scott. Scott!

Was this the girl he was talking about? He felt something flare up in his chest, and continued to move forward.

"Hey!" He shouted, out of breath. "Hey! Scott!" He practically weezed.

Scott looked behind him with his eyebrows furrowed, but then smiled when he saw his friend.

"Hey, Chuck! How was class?"

Chuck walked up to them, ignoring his question, trying not to seem like he could barely breathe.

"Hi, I'm Chuck," He held his hand out to Pam, who took it.

She smiled, looking slightly amused, "Hi, I'm Pam."

Scott chuckled nervously, "uh, Pam, this is my best friend, Chuck. He is also my roommate…"

Chuck wrinkled his eyebrows at the way that Scott said roommate almost as if it was a bad word.

He quickly brushed it off though. "I haven't seen you around, are you a first year?"

She smiled up at him, she had slight dimples. He felt his face grow warm.

She nodded, "yeah, i'm a journalism major-"

"Oh my god! Me too! What a coincidence!"

Her face lit up, "that's awesome! We're in the same class then!"

Chuck paused, trying to make sure the expression on his face didn't falter. "Uhh..yeah?!"

"Yeah! There's only one first year journalism class and it's for the journalism students only. On Tuesday evenings, right?"

Chuck racked his brain but he honestly couldn't remember. He hadn't been paying that much attention to his schedule. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Haha, yeah!"

Pam rolled her eyes, "kinda sucks that it's a three hour long class though."

Holy shit, he thought. "Well, it won't suck so much if there's beautiful girls like you to

look at."

Pam's cheeks went pink, and she wrapped a strand of her hair around her ear.

Nice, Chuck thought. I still got it.

Scott cleared his throat, "well, I'll see you around, Pam. Think about the party on Friday!"

"Party? Friday?" Chuck asked, suddenly desperate for information.

Scott turned to his friend, a weird smile on his face. "Oh yeah, there's a party happening here on campus, I just heard about it, and I just invited Pam to it."

Chuck suddenly recognized the expression on his friend's face. It was the same expression he wore when they got caught with a duffle bag full of vodka at summer camp. The camp counsellor had pulled them both aside, and Chuck was revealing too much information. Scott had turned to him, and gave him a look that Chuck could only interrperate as shut-the-fuck-up.

Chuck turned back to Pam and smiled. "You should definitely go to that party! Scott and I would both love to see you there!"

Chuck felt Scott shift beside him.

Pam looked at both of them and smiled. "I-uh-I guess I can swing by. I'll ask my roommate if she wants to come with me."

"Great!" Scott and Chuck said in unison.

"Alright, well, I'll see you guys later! Bye, Scott! Nice to meet you, Chuck!"

Chuck stood, his feet glued to the ground, staring at Pam walking away.

He felt his heart flutter.

Who is this girl? His thoughts were interrupted by Scott shoving him hard on his shoulder.

"Dude! What the fuck was that?!"

Chuck stumbled, but quickly regained his balance.

"What are you talking about?" He wiped his shoulders off.

Scott rolled his eyes, "don't play dumb, I saw what you were doing, i'm sure everyone else did too!"

Chuck ran a hand through his hair, and shrugged, playing dumb. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

He turned around, and started walking back towards the dorms.

Scott followed, "oh, shut the fuck up! I saw her first! She likes me! So back off!"

Chuck paused, and turned to his friend. His skin red, whether from the sun or from anger, Chuck couldn't really tell.

He shrugged again, and lifted his hands. "Alright, alright. I'll back off."

Scott's shoulders relaxed. "Thank you! I just, I really like this girl."

Chuck turned back around, walking into the building. "Uh, huh."

"I'm serious. And I think she likes me too. Just, do this one thing for me, stay away from her. Let me shoot my shot."

Chuck nodded, and shot his friend a smile. "You have nothing to worry about! I'll keep my hands to myself!"

Scott wrinkled his eyebrows, "weird metaphor to use here but okay."

They walked into their dorm in silence, Chuck letting his friend think that he had a shot with Pam. But if Chuck was honest with himself, he wasn't going to leave that girl alone.

Chuck already decided that Pam was his.