Haven

The first few weeks of University weren't as bad as I secretly thought they would be. Making friends was quite easy, as the study groups William had formed for us, were a great first step. The study group consisted out of six peers.

Haven, Luke, Zephaniah, Abel, Louis and Norah. Norah and I had some nice conversations, we could quite get along. The boys had found each other in no time, except for one of them, who was more on his own.

Ittarah used to be in our group, but William didn't think it would be a good idea to put Ittarah in the same group as her cousin. She hadn't minded, he clearly had.

It made me rather disappointed, as after the first few days, me and Ittarah became friends, the Herschel bag being an important detail to the start of our friendship.

"Here you go," Ittarah gave me a small smile, placing a brand new Herschel bag on the table I was sitting at.

I frowned, an unsure look on my face as I eyed the bag, looking up. "What? Why?"

"Because I can't stand looking at those ink dots for a second longer. The guilt is eating me up from the inside, every time I see your bag. And since it was my fault, I bought you a new one." Tara chuckled nonchalantly, playing with a long strand of her black hair.

I couldn't help but laugh softly, though, I pushed the bag away. "No way, I'm going to take this from you. Do you know how expensive the bag was?" I wondered, staring at her dark brown eyes.

"Yes! And that's exactly why I had to make it up to you. Please, just take it, because I can't return it." She chuckled again, shoving the brand new bag back towards me, slightly raising her eyebrow.

"I really can't do that, Ittarah," I shook my head, nibbling on my bottom lip. "I really don't mind that it happened, I promise!"

Ittarah smiled cheekily, grabbing my bag, which I had placed next to my chair on the floor. "I told you, I can't bear looking at those ink spots, I somehow created. Kinda artistic, eh? My elder cousin, Zayn, would be proud of me. Now, trade."

She held up my bag, carefully removing all of its content and placing it onto the table, trading my bag for the brand new one. "Give this one to me, if that makes you feel any better."

"I don't know what to say," I gulped, sheepishly placing my water bottle, lunchbox and a few textbooks into the brand new bag.

Ittarah shrugged, and sat down beside me, stretching out her hand. "Haven, right? Nice to meet you, my friend."

I smiled widely, shaking her hand. "Haven, indeed. Hi, Ittarah."

"Call me Tara, please. What were you up to?" She wondered, glancing at the notebook I was writing in.

Shrugging, I simply showed her some of my notes. "Just writing down what's due, for next week."

Tara smiled, shaking her head. "You're just like my cousin. He almost makes lists for lists. I should probably take notes, though. No pun intended."

I couldn't help but laugh at that, already liking her, despite her previous behaviour towards her cousin. But then again, I didn't know him, so how could I judge what was right or wrong? I had no right to.

"He does?" I wondered, my eyes searching for the dark haired boy.

Ittarah sighed, her eyes motioning in the direction of Zephaniah. "He's such an anxious person, putting sticky notes upon his wall, writing it down in his notebook and also setting an alarm if he has something important to do or make. Scared he'll forget it. Gosh, he gives me anxiety sometimes."

Staring at the green eyed guy for a while, I noticed he was wearing a beanie again, covering his ears completely and hanging just above his eyes. He was writing something down his notebook as well, quietly observing his peers as he sat at the back of the class, his eyes lingering and staring at a few things for longer than a minute.

"He seems.. calm." I mumbled out, keeping my eyes trained on him. He wiped his fringe away from his eyes and blinked his eyes a little faster as somebody got close to him, dragging him out of his staring gaze.

His cheeks colored rosy, his eyes moving back to his notebook.

Tara smiled at Luke, then moved her attention back to me. "He is calm. He'll never talk," She chuckled, rolling her eyes after that. "Got some issues."

"Like?" I wondered, trying to move my eyes away from him, but, he was still so captivating to look at, so interesting in some ways.

Tara shrugged, glancing at me. "He just struggles with things. I don't care. He gets on my nerves sometimes. Hey, tell me something about yourself? You told me you liked vintage clothes, does that make you like unknown coffee cafe's we can visit?"

I smiled, moving my attention back to her. "Oh, totally! Have you ever heard of The Rooftop Cafe?"

It was after that moment, that Tara and me became friends and we took every opportunity to sit together every class, as long as William didn't force us to sit with our study group. Tara clearly had a thing for Luke, therefore she couldn't stop telling me how jealous she was of me. I wasn't interested in him.

He had this childlike, High School's popular jock attitude that made me want to laugh. I felt as if the young women were the only people at this University that visibly matured while changing schools, and therefore responsibilities.

His blonde curls, chatty and outgoing appearance attracted many girls, I didn't know why. Because clearly, being outgoing didn't work for me to make friends on the first introduction evening.

We were currently seated outside on the grass of our University's own park. Which was actually meant more for the students that lived on campus, so they would have a 'get- away' place from the building, but was used by more students as we had a free hour.

The guys were discussing something about the first Philosophy lecture we had had, their voices loud as they all tried to prove their point. Norah and I were quietly discussing things, writing each other's thoughts in our notebooks. Only one person was being quiet, as usual, it was Zephaniah.

I wanted to include him, but I didn't really know how to, as he seemed to be fine sitting near us, but not completely including himself into the group. His legs were resting criss cross on the grass, his head bowed down as he read some book, his pink lips parted lightly in concentration.

Sometimes he frowned, sometimes he huffed, pushing the book aside, but getting back to it after seconds. He seemed frustrated, sometimes upset- like he didn't get what was written in the book.

Sometimes he looked up, his eyes blinking fast as he glanced at the boys, his gaze eventually falling on the birds that were chirping high above us, upon the trees they were resting in. He would stare at them for quite some time, a calm expression would be visible on his face.

I had briefly wondered what was going through his mind, then told myself it wasn't relevant, and I had things to do.

Moving my attention back to my notebook, I wrote a few philosophical questions down, as that was our 'homework', due with the next lecture.

"What are you writing down?" Norah wondered, stabbing her black, plastic fork into the fruit we had bought in the canteen.

Chewing on my own piece of kiwi, I simply showed her my notebook, shrugging. "I really don't know if these questions are right. What do you think?"

"If a child somehow survived and grew up in the wilderness without any human contact, how 'human' would they be without the influence of society and culture?" Norah read out loud, her expression turning into an amazed one. "This is good, Haven. I mean, they could watch Tarzan, but how realistic is that?"

"Not so much," I chuckled, brushing my finger over my written questions. "I don't think they'll be as human as we are, do you?"

Norah shook her head, raking her fingers through her dark blonde hair. "I don't think so, either. I mean, first of all, they never learned the language, which-" She stopped, frowning, then smiled. "Wait! I've got my question now. What if a child never learned and heard a language. Would it be able to think?"

"Wow, now that's a good one." I smiled, watching her as she scribbled it down into her notebook.

"Thank you, Haven. I owe you a little something. My homework is done." She grinned, popping a strawberry into her mouth.

"Not at all," I waved her off, but smiled happily. "You came up with it. And so am I." Stuffing my notebook into my bag, I reached for a piece of watermelon, simply enjoying the lightly warm day and the time off.

Suddenly, the boys stood up, and walked over to us. "We're going for some quick errands. Party at Friday night. Wanna tag along?" Abel questioned, his dark eyes seeming friendly.

"Uhm, no, thank you. Not into parties and running errands." I sheepishly smiled at them, knowing William wanted the study groups to become close, but they weren't really the type of friends I'd spend time with. Nothing personal, not at all, but if you weren't 'attracted' to it in that way, it simply wouldn't happen.

Norah shook her head as well, pointing at the fruit. "Got something to finish with Haven. I might come on Friday, though. I'll think about it." She said simply, waving them off.

"Your loss," Luke gave us a look, and I felt like rolling my eyes, but stayed mature and simply shrugged at him.

They left us, and Zephaniah, alone. I frowned, glancing at him again. The guys hadn't even bothered to ask him, but he did look at them as they walked away. I wondered if it had upset him, because it was rather harsh.

Glancing at Norah, I couldn't stop myself anymore and stood up, walking over to the quiet, raven haired guy. "Hey, uhm.." My voice already trailed off, as I didn't really know what to say.

Zephaniah looked up, his fringe almost covering his green eyes that almost shone so brightly due to the sun that was shining into them, making him squint. "Hi," He said so quietly, his eyes averting to the ground after one brief second of eye contact.

"Do you.. want any fruit?" I brought out awkwardly, trying to make a conversation but failing due to being at loss for words, not really knowing why.

He was quiet for a while, then looked up again, though his eyes lingered at the sky, instead of my face. "No, thank you." He said politely.

"Are you sure? You might think fruit coming out of a plastic box is gross, but the watermelon is pretty awesome!" I tried, trying to make eye contact, but he wouldn't make any.

His lips curled up, only so lightly, but he didn't reply after that, his cheeks tinting a light shade of pink. He simply packed his bag and stood up not much later, fiddling with his fingers as he stared at the grass, swallowing and cheeks still pink as he was searching for words. "I'm going to- to the library." He simply said, turning around and walking away.

And although I was disappointed that he didn't want to sit with us, I couldn't help but smile a little. He was shy, he was reserved, and that made him mysterious.

~~~

Did you.. did you see that? Zeph learned how to say no :')

So, uhm.. opinions?

What do you think of Haven?

Tara?

Luke?

Opinions on this book in general? Let me know..