"How?" I questioned Zayna as I poked my chopsticks through a bag of egg rolls. "How can you possibly stand it?"

She looked up at me from across the coffee table with the Chinese takeaway box in her hand. "Poetry is a beautiful work of art," she explains to me before stuffing her face with some sweet and sour chicken.

I snorted at her words and shook my head at her. "But it's so boring, it's like just say it already. We're dying over here." I express my dislike for poetry. I wasn't the kind of person who had enough patience for that.

"This is coming from the person who enjoys Austen and Dickens," Zayna retorts as she sips on her glass of water. One thing that I found out about her after a few hours of talking was that she did not like coffee. At all. She despised its bitter taste and wasn't afraid to voice it out to me.

"I wouldn't be the person I am today without them," I commented as I put the takeaway box in my hand on the table and crossed my legs on the couch. "You should give it a try," I encouraged her.

She held her arm wide open as she looked around our living room. "It's a shame we don't have a library here," she mocked as I sent her a mischievous grin.

"You poor girl," I tutted as I pointed in the direction of my room. "Take a look from the shelf, I swear you won't regret it."

Zayna puts on a thinking face as she twirls a few strands of long brown hair between her fingers. "If I do this, can I choose dinner tomorrow?"

"You can order food straight from Mexico if you'd like," I agree to her terms as she begins to get up from the armchair she was sitting in.

She stops halfway toward my room and turns to face me. "Can I choose the music too?" I sigh and nod my head at her, knowing that we had pretty similar music taste if you ignored her countless Jazz albums.

"Do you have any suggestions?" I heard her call out from inside my room as I continued to pick on whatever food was left on the table.

"Take my Princess Bride copy!" I yell back at her as I consume yet another egg roll. I heard some shuffling come from the room when I realised what a big mistake I made. My eyes widened and I dropped my chopsticks to the table and dashed toward my room.

I would've fallen face first on the floor if it weren't for my hand grabbing onto the doorknob. I look up to see Zayna flipping through the copy of The Princess Bride that Jess had given me.

She eyed the pages with a frown on her face as she took in all the notes in the margins and the highlighted lines. My head was saying some things but my mouth just wouldn't move. It felt so weird to see someone else besides me look through that book. It was as if someone was looking through all my memories.

Wanting nothing more than to snatch the book out of her hands, I knew I couldn't do that. It would be rude, especially since I suggested that book to her. It was simply an innocent mistake.

Zayna opened her mouth to say something but stopped when she saw the expression on my face. No doubt it was some kind of look that portrayed everything I was feeling in some kind of messed up way.

"I'm sorry," she quickly said once she noticed how intensely I was staring at the book. She thrusted it back into my hands and sent me an apologetic look. "It's just, you told me to take this book and-"

I quickly shake my head at her, cutting her off. "It's fine, really." I assure her. "I just forgot that I brought this copy. My other one is back home." I knew I should've told her that she could still take the book but I just couldn't bring myself to give it to her.

"Someone gave it to you?" Zayna guessed as I merely nodded in response. "Someone special?" Damn, she was good at this.

"You could say that," I downplayed how special Jess was to me. I played with the frayed pages of the book as she continued to speak.

"It was a guy, huh?" She added as I raised an eyebrow, wondering how she got all that so fast. "And I'm guessing he left."

For some reason, I didn't feel weird that she knew all this. It wasn't like what happened with the book. This time, she just knew the plot. But in that book, she would know Jess. His character and his comments and the way he writes. And that didn't sit right with me.

I tilt my head to side questioningly. "How do you know that?"

She shrugs as if it's no big deal that she practically just told me what had been the past two years of my life. "I'm taking a Psychology course," she explains. "I did some reading to get ahead."

I nod my head in understanding as she makes a move to the door. But I stop her before she could get past me. "You can still take a book," I suggest as I gesture to the mini library in my room. Making sure to keep Jess' copy in my hand to exclude it.

"Really?" She asked me for confirmation as she looked to the books I had on the small shelf.

I move to stand next to her, her height making me feel small. "The Kerouac and Brontë sisters are good."

"I'll take you up on that," she says before grabbing Desolation Angles from the shelf and heading out the door. Not before saying a quick thanks. Once she had left, I took the book in my hands and carefully placed it under my pillow before I headed out the door.

~~~

"You have got to be kidding me," I groaned out as I faced the person on the other side of the door.

Benjamin Barclay stood there with his stupid crooked nose. He wore a casual pair of jeans and a t-shirt that made him look funny to me since I only ever saw him in a suit and blazer back in Washington.

"Oh no," he said in the same disgusted tone I had used. He stared down at me as I crossed my arms over my Nickleback t-shirt.

Leaning against the door, I shake my head at him. "What on earth are you doing here?" I questioned. "Yale didn't let you in?"

He let out a fake laugh, "Could say the same about you."

"None of your business," I retort as I glare at him heatedly. "I actually don't care whether you got into Yale or not. I just wanna know what you're doing at my door."

"Well I'm not here for you if that's what your narcissistic self is wondering," he remarks as I roll my eyes at him. "I'm here for my girlfriend."

"Your what?" I ask, not believing the words that were coming out of his mouth.

He ignored me and peers inside the dorm from over my shoulders. "I think I've got the wrong room," he mutters to himself.

I nod my head in agreement, eager to get him as far away from me as possible. "Yeah, she's provably in the room up there in your head," I comment. "Most people call it their imagination."

Benjamin was about to argue back when Zayna came out of her room, dressed and ready to go for our first day of classes. She was fixing her hijab on her head when she saw Benjamin.

I had opened my mouth to tell her that I was getting him out of here when she ran past me and jumped straight into Benjamin's open arms. I just kind of stared in shock as I watched the two. No way that Benjamin got a girl like Zayna. I averted my eyes once they started getting a bit more intimate.

"Cassie," I hear Zayna call my name, dragging back my gaze to the two. "I see you've met my boyfriend," she says sweetly as she looks up at Benjamin who had his arms around her.

When I saw the way he looked at her I got my answer of why he didn't go to Yale. It was unnerving for me to see him be so happy around another person. I only saw him either mad or annoyed, which to be fair is probably how I looked around him.

"Yup," I grimaced as I answered Zayna. "We go way back, don't we Benny boy?"

With a glare my way, he answers. "Sadly, yes."
Zayna watches our passive aggressive interaction with a frown.

"Is this the one from Washington?" She asked Benjamin as she looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm the flesh," I answered for him. I took it that he must've told her about our fun little time in Washington.

Zayna shakes her head at the realisation and smacked Benjamin upside the head, which earned a groan from him and a laugh from me.
"You said she was a bitch!" She accuses Benjamin as I stared at him wide eyed. "She's noting like that!"

"You called me a bitch?"

"You called me a jackass," he retorted as I scoffed at him.

Zayna moved to stand between us, with a pointed look to each of us. "No fighting," she said in a tone that reminded me vaguely of my mother. She looked to Benjamin first for confirmation. "Got it?"

He just rolled his eyes at her but immediately froze when she took a small step toward him threateningly. She pointed her finger in his face, daring him. "No fighting," he repeated.

Satisfied with his answer, she turned on her heel to face me. I quickly put my hands up in defence, "No fighting."

"Great!" Zayna quickly changed moods as she smiled at the two of us. "Let's get to class. We can walk you Cassie, the law building isn't to far from our hall." She grabs her bag that laid on the kitchen counter before joining Benjamin outside the door.

"You guys go first," I wave my hand to the two. "I still gotta pack my stuff." I point my thumb behind me at my bedroom where I knew that I still had my book bag half packed.

"Alright," Zayna said with a small smile. "See ya!" She closes the door behind her and I let my fake smile drop. I guess New York really was where you meet new people.