Chapter 4

Arya Stark POV

We're a couple weeks into the school year, and Gendry has been driving me home every day after school that we have tech. Sometimes I hang out with HP after school if I don't have tech and I have to wait for Sansa, but I honestly prefer hanging out with Gendry because sometimes he'll let me smoke a couple hits from his cigarette.

"I want to pull over and smoke before we head back," Gendry says as we get in his car to drive me home from tech. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah, I figured you'd want to," I say. "Can I have a whole cigarette this time instead of just a couple hits?"

Gendry pauses and just looks at me. "Sure," he says. "But I hate that I got you into this habit, it's really not good."

We drive over to a hidden park area by a creek. We sit on some rocks and he takes out his cigarettes, lighting his and then mine.

"How do you even get cigarettes?" I ask him.

"I have a fake," he says. "But sometimes I don't even get carded, people think I'm 21 most of the time." I believe it, he's pretty ripped. I could confuse him for being 21.

"You're 18, right?" I ask him.

"Yep," he says. "Just turned 18 last week."

"How does it feel?"

"Not that different, honestly," he says. "I want to go to trade school after I graduate instead of regular college. That seems like it'll be more my speed."

"Trade school for what?"

"I'm not sure yet," he says. "Either welding or blacksmithing, those both sound interesting to me."

"Those seem like things you'd be good at." We smoke for a little bit and there's a pause of silence.

"How's Sansa?" He asks me. "Is she doing okay now that the school year has started?"

"I think she's doing good," I say. "She's been getting really close to your cousin, Myrcella."

"That's good," Gendry says. "Myrcella's such a sweet girl, I can see them getting along. I just hope Sansa steers clear of my other cousin, Myrcella's brother."

"Why?"

"He's a jerk and a brat," he says. "We all thought he'd eventually grow out of that attitude, but he hasn't. It's because my aunt and uncle baby him so much. He never faces any consequences for the way he treats people."

"Damn, that sounds rough," I say. I'm not really sure what else I can say, Gendry's never really opened up to me about his family like this. "I'm sorry, I really hope Myrcella and Sansa stay friends. She seems super sweet."

"She is, she and her sister Shireen are some of the nicest relatives I have."

There's a pause as we keep smoking. "Are you ready to go?" He asks me. I nod and we start to head back to my place.

When I get to my room, Sansa is already there doing homework. "What is that smell?" She asks, wrinkling her nose. I just look at her and pause, I didn't think the smell would be that obvious.

"Gendry and I smoked a little bit," I say. "You can tell?"

"Yeah, it's really obvious. Dad is going to rip you a new one if he smells that."

"Can I use some of your perfume?" I ask her.

"Sure," she says. "But you know you really shouldn't smoke. If you're going to smoke something, smoke weed."

"Gendry smokes cigarettes, we aren't going to smoke weed immediately after school."

Sansa chuckles and gets me some of her perfume. She sprays me a couple times and sniffs close to me.

"That'll have to do," she says. "Just change your clothes and hang out up here for a while. You should be fine."

I appreciate her help, even though she doesn't approve of what I'm doing. That's what sisters are for.

Jon Snow Stark POV

I'm going to an actual party with Pyp tonight. It's my first real college party, so I'm excited. I just wish Sam was here, we always said we'd do this stuff together. I know he has a lot on his plate, but I still miss him. I especially wish he was here since Dany isn't here and we don't even get to talk to each other as much.

"Do you know the people hosting the party?" I ask Pyp as we're walking to the party. It's being hosted at a Co-op just outside of campus.

"I know a couple of the guys that live in the co-op," Pyp says. "We went to high school together."

"Oh, cool," I say. "Why didn't you decide to move there?"

"We weren't that close, and it's not really my jam. It's basically a fraternity, just less douchey. I wanted the dorm experience."

We get to the party, and it's pretty hectic. People are drinking and it smells a lot like weed. I'm not wanting to get too smashed, but I'll probably have a drink or two.

"Do you want to smoke?" Pyp asks me. "I know a guy that probably has some that we can trust, you never know what's being traded around at these parties."

"I think I'll just have a beer to start with," I say. "Maybe later, though."

I follow Pyp to where some beer is, and he gets us two cups. A couple of guys walk up to Pyp and say hi to him they have two girls with them.

"Who's your friend?" One of the girls asks Pyp.

"This is Jon," he says. "He's my roommate that I was telling you about."

"Are these your friends from high school?" I ask him.

"The guys are," he says. "These are a couple of girls from their friend group."

"We were going to go outside and smoke," one of the guys says to Pyp. "Do you guys want to join us?"

Pyp looks at me and I just shrug and nod. "Sure," he says. "Let's go."

We go outside and sit in a couple chairs. One of the girls sits next to me, and Pyp is on the other side of me.

"So how do you like college so far?" One of the guys asks Pyp.

"Pretty good," he says. "How's the co-op? Should I have joined?"

"It's so fun," one of the guys says. "But you wanted to be basic and live in a dorm."

"I was supposed to move in with my best friend from high school after graduation like we always talked about," I say. "But he and his girlfriend are having a baby."

"Damn," one of the girls says. "That's intense."

"I'm happy for them," I say. "It'll be a lot for them to handle, but I know they're excited."

"Still," the girl says. "I can't imagine having a baby right now."

"Some people are just built different," Pyp says. "I hope it goes well for them."

We talk and smoke for a while, and I end up actually having a pretty good time. This was more fun than I expected, I was worried I wouldn't make many friends in college.

When I get back to our dorm room, I see that I have 2 missed calls from Dany. Shit, I told her I was going to call her tonight. I really didn't mean to forget, and it's too late to call her now since she's probably asleep. I'll call her tomorrow, I hope she isn't too mad at me.

Daenerys Targaryen POV

I called Jon last night, and he didn't pick up. I'm sure he was busy, but I still wish we could've talked. I'll try to catch up with him later. Cersei and I are getting lunch today after class, we could really use some time together to just relax.

"What do you want to go get?" I ask her as we get into my car. "You pick, it's my treat."

"You don't have to do that," she says.

"I want to, we could both use some time to take a break from stressing about school."

She thinks for a bit. "Sushi sounds good," she says. "Want to go to that new sushi place by campus?"

"Sure," I say as I start to drive that way. "That sounds good."

We get to the restaurant and get our food. I want to ask Cersei about how she's doing mentally, but I want to do it casually so she doesn't feel like I'm a therapist.

"So how have you been doing lately?" I ask her, trying to sound casual.

"I'm fine," she says. "Everyone needs to just get off my back, you and Jaime both have been on me so much."

"We just care about you," I say. "It's not a good idea to drink and do drugs on school night when you're trying to balance schoolwork and activities that will move you towards a career."

"You're not my mother, and you're not my career counselor. I know you want to be a good friend, but you guys need to leave me alone."

"You know how bad it is to drink while on Xanax, Cersei. I know you do."

"Name one person who doesn't drink and do drugs while in college," she says. I can tell that she's getting irritated. "Oh right, it's just you and maybe Jon because you guys are buzzkills."

I pause. I really don't like the way she's talking to me, but I know I have to choose my words carefully from this point forward. If I get too harsh with her, she'll just lash out even more.

"Just, promise me you'll tell me if you need help or you're not doing well," I say. "Can you promise me that?"

"Yes," she says. "I promise."

"How's journalism going?" I ask her.

"It's going good," she says. "I'm finally getting more stories, so that'll definitely start taking up more of my time. How about you? How are your classes going?"

"Good," I say. "Just difficult. I'm thinking I want to double major in business and economics."

"That'll be hard," she says. "Do you think you can handle all that?"

"I think so," I reply. "It'll be a lot of work, but I want to make Jon and especially my dad proud. I want to be successful for them."

The rest of our lunch goes pretty well. It's always surprised me how quickly Cersei can switch back and forth from being pissed off to seemingly being in a good mood again. She's always been like that, and it's honestly a little scary. I can't switch my moods like that, even for show. She's always been more calculating than me, I guess that's the difference between her and I.

Sometimes I wonder how much longer our friendship will last, especially with how close we used to be. I don't want to lose her, but at this point I can't even make a guess about the future of our friendship. It seems like we're both just going in different directions, her for the worse and me for the better.

A/N: I'll be updating today and tomorrow since I have so much free time this week. Sorry for bombarding you guys with chapters so close together, I'm just really excited about where this story is going! :)