Alyssa

Don't let their appearance fool you. In the last five years, the sororities and fraternities at U of M have raised over three million dollars for various charities and foundations across the province.

As Alyssa Aria from Alpha Delta Pi puts it, "It's important to be open minded, we're so much more than what you may think.

I'm only halfway through Michael's article, but my heart is already bursting with excitement. This was all everyone in the house was talking about this morning.

I look up from my newspaper when the meeting room's doors finally open and people begin trailing out. A couple of them notice me and wave and stop for short chats. After picking up and dropping off Michael so many times, I've gotten to know the newspaper club pretty well. Most of them are so sweet – Michael could learn a thing or two from them.

Once everyone has left, I head into the room. Michael is at the end of the table, looking at something on his laptop.

"I love it!" I exclaim, plopping the newspaper onto the table.

Michael jolts and quickly looks up at me. "Jesus Christ, Alyssa." His eyes are wide and his palm is pressed against his chest. "Why are you so loud?"

I just laugh and sit down next to him. "Part of me totally thought you were just going to make fun of us."

"Yeah, yeah," he mutters.

I'm not naïve, I know Michael only did this to please the dean. I don't even blame him, I've done plenty of things I didn't want to do for no reason besides trying to please others. Still, he could've just flat out refused to write it, but he didn't. I think I'm finally starting to grow on him.

"Anyways, how was your weekend with Cole?"

Cole texted me some updates, but I was so busy with family festivities that I barely had time to check my phone. I didn't even have my phone on me the whole time – at one point, a group of my little cousins hijacked my phone. By the time I finally tracked them down, they had downloaded a bunch of random games and spent my money on them.

As fun as it all was, I did miss Michael. Even if he's not willing to admit it, I'm sure he missed me too. By this point, we've gotten our routine down to a T. There's barely any arguing anymore. It's just become a regular part of my life – I'd even say I enjoy it. Even though my weekend was jam packed with activities, it still felt like a part of my day was missing.

"He made me go to a bar with him and his friends, then we went to a party," he snorts.

"Really?" I burst out laughing. "Not exactly what I was picturing when I told him to have fun with you, but I guess it's something."

"How uh, how was your weekend?" Michael mumbles, looking back down at his laptop.

I pause suspiciously, but Michael doesn't seem to be setting me up to tease me. There's been something off about him since I came back, but I can't seem to put my finger on it.

"It was fun," I say. "I love holidays."

Having been close with my family all my life, getting together is always enjoyable. I can't imagine life without them around as my support circle. I thought I'd be able to spread their support to Michael. He's constantly trying so hard to be independent, refusing help at even the most ridiculous times. I don't know how I'm supposed to convince him that it's ok to need support. Regardless, he seemed oddly opposed to coming with me, and I still have no idea why.

"That's nice." He clears his throat and looks back up. "Anyways, let's get started on the project."

"Actually, I thought you could come over to my place to work." I give him a hopeful smile.

He hesitates and looks at me suspiciously. "Really? What's wrong with the library?"

"We're watching a movie, we can use the theatre at the sorority house."

-----

I can't believe Michael has never seen Titanic. How do you manage to avoid one of the most iconic movies in history? It's one of the first movies I remember ever watching. In hindsight, I might've watched the movie when I was too young for it. Four year old Alyssa definitely didn't understand what was going on between Rose and Jack in that car.

Once the credits roll and Celine Dion begins to sing, I turn the lights back on. "So?" I ask Michael. "Thoughts?"

He furrows his brows and sits silently for a moment. "There was definitely enough room on that door for both of them," he finally says. "Rose must've had some ulterior motive. 'I'll never let go' my ass."

I give him a shove. What a party pooper. "Shut up, don't ruin my favourite movie."

Michael fumbles through his backpack and takes out a crumpled sheet of paper. "All right, here's the assignment.

He hands it to me and I review the list of project options again. I furrow my brows at the laughable list. It's starting to make sense why so many people consider this course to be a GPA booster. The majority of these prompts are high school leveled.

Michael groans and snatches the list out of my hands. I'm still finding it difficult to get used to him actually being able to properly hold things – with his left hand at least. "I know that look, Alyssa. Please don't pick a hard one, that's defeating the whole point of taking an easy course."

"Don't you know me?" I tease and grab the sheet back. "I like challenging myself! You should too!"

Why strive for good enough when you can strive for excellence? It's what I've always been taught and what I've always aimed for since I was little.

"This one," I say and point to one of the lines.

If your film is based on a true event, compare and contrast the characters, settings, and overall historical accuracy.

"No!" Michael exclaims. "I'm not writing what's basically going to be a whole ass research paper on the Titanic."

I proceed to tune out Michael's whining as we leave the room. My mind is already swirling with ideas and formulating the paper. I've always loved writing papers.

With a little help from Carmen and two other girls, we manage to get Michael and his wheelchair up the stairs. The two of us head to the small study room down the hall.

As we round the corner, we nearly run face first into two girls scurrying down the hall. My heart immediately drops and I feel my body go cold. Even though we all stop before crashing into each other, it's as if I can still physically feel the pain of the impact and hear the oh so familiar sound of crushing metal. I stop so suddenly that Michael is nearly flung out of his chair.

"Oh my gosh, sorry Alyssa!" one of them, Allie, exclaims.

I try to give her an apologetic smile, but my hands squeeze the chair's handlebars so tightly that the textured plastic painfully digs into my palms.

Michael quickly turns and looks at me. Without an ounce of hesitation, he briefly rests his hand over mine and whispers, "You alright?"

"Y-yeah... thanks."

He gives me a small nod before turning back around. My grip loosens as my brain takes a moment to process what just happened. Since when does Michael have a heart?

The girls, Allie and Sabrina, are carrying thick stacks of neon orange flyers. Michael takes one and I read the bold black text over his shoulder.

Alpha Delta Pi's Annual Halloween Bash.

"A party?" Michael asks.

Allie nods excitedly. "Yup! You should come, guests are definitely welcome! It's going to be fun."

"Super fun," Sabrina echoes.

I don't even need to look to know that Michael is rolling his eyes. I try to clear the fogginess in my head and keep my voice as normal sounding as possible. "We'd love to," I say. There's the slightest wobble in my voice but no one seems to notice.

-----

Wooden bookshelves line the walls of the room, making the room smell faintly of oak and ink. Late afternoon light streams in through the skylight, illuminating the room with a warm glow. It's so cozy and peaceful – I can't believe how long it took me to find this room.

I had been complaining to grandpa about having nowhere to study. With so many people living in the house, it's constantly noisy and focusing is impossible. Campus isn't great either, the good tables at the library are always full. He recalled some sort of library at the very back corner of the Alpha Delta Pi house. I poked around and managed to find the door, hidden behind a massive mountain of cardboard boxes.

It doesn't sound like he used it for much studying though. I'm quite sure that he implied mom was... conceived in the room.

Gross.

"You should totally come!" I say once Michael and I have settled at a table in the study room.

Michael doesn't strike me as someone who's been to many parties. It looks like it's up to me to make sure he gets the full college experience.

"Fat chance," he snorts and looks at the flyer again. "And costumes are mandatory? Who the hell decided that?"

"Costumes are fun!" I insist. "Chris and I have already been talking about our costumes. I think it would be so fun to have matching ones."

Grace briefly mentioned the Halloween party last week. According to her, it would be the perfect opportunity for Chris and I to officially announce our relationship to everyone. She insisted we'd have to look intimidating and hot at the same time if we wanted to establish ourselves as the couple of the sororities and fraternities at U of M. The couple that everyone is jealous of and wants to be like – her words, not mine.

Although, there isn't even a relationship to announce. Our relationship isn't official. We've gone on dates, but he hasn't technically asked me out. I tried explaining the situation to Grace, but she seemed to tune me out and continued gushing about how great her idea was. I confided in Carmen the other day, and she encouraged me to just go with the flow until he eventually asks me out.

"What are you dressing up as?" Michael asks.

"You'll have to come to the party to find out."

I was skeptical about the whole costume thing at first. Despite what you may think, I've never been into the stereotypical slutty costumes. All of my costumes have always been wholesome and safe, but the other girls immediately agreed with Grace and encouraged me to do it.

How could I say no to them?

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A/N:

Ok but costumes are actually so fun 🎃

Thanks for reading!